It’s been an hour since Astrid left and I’m still lying here unable to move. Usually when I’m hurt or a foreign substance is in my body it responds to my scan but according to the scan nothing is wrong with me…or maybe the technique Astrid used is too powerful to be detected by me.

“Oh, here you are.”

At long last Maria arrived. I was really worried that I would have to spend the night here which would not have been a problem if I could move but Astrid just had to do that to me.

“Hey, what took you so long?”

Oh, I can speak normally now, that’s nice, at least I know that I’m recovering.

“Was she here?”

“Yes, she left an hour ago but she did manage paralyze me before she left and now I can’t move.”

“I see. As you probably have guessed I was the only one who actually listened to you. The other teachers suggested that we search the school building first. After spending half an hour searching the school they decided to stop. It’s not like we got that much in return for keeping her here so there was no reason to go out of our way to search for her.”

In other words nobody cares is whether she escapes or not as long as no student or teacher is hurt. Their decision wasn’t wrong and I’m actually glad that no one showed up. I don’t know why but I think that if anyone but me would have found Astrid they would have died.

“Since you can’t move I will carry you.”

Maria gave me a piggy-back ride. This situation feels wrong, not because she is carrying me but because I have the body of an adult which makes this look wrong. I know that one way or another I kind of deserved this but really now, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

“You know, every time you get too close to her you end up like this.”

Judging by the way she was laughing that was supposed to be a joke. Well, the only two times when there were no bars between me and Astrid I end up paralyzed or worse. At least Maria is laughing.

The rest of the way was quite quiet except the occasional snicker from Maria. Usually the man gives the girl a piggy-back ride not the other way around.

I was wondering why there was no sound coming from the school building; everybody either went to sleep or left. The hole was covered with a cloth as a temporary solution.

Maria took me to her room to rest. Despite telling her that I was fine she checked me for injuries. As I expected I was fine. Usually I know when I’m wounded, in my battle mode I am somehow aware of all the wounds I have but despite that I couldn’t find anything wrong with me. Oh well, what’s done is done, for now I must focus on getting better.

As soon as she finished her check up I went to sleep. My body heals more easily when I’m asleep so I will just go to sleep and hope that after I woke up I will get better.

When I woke up my body returned to normal…more or less. My body was still a little numb and every time I tried to move it felt like someone was sticking needles in me, it wasn’t painful, just strange.

Now that I can confirmed that I can move I want to see how long I was out. Judging by the date shown on the watch today is a Sunday which means I slept a full day again. Whatever Astrid did to me was very potent.

“Oh, it’s about time you got up.”

Maria came into my room with plate. In the plate was some bread, meat and a glass of water. What I found strange is that she was wearing her casual clothes instead of her working clothes; she wears the casual clothes only during school breaks. I will have to ask her later but now there’s something else I’m concerned about.

“What’s the situation?”

Maria put the plate on the desk and sat next to me on the bed.

“The headmistress decided to give everyone a break, a one week break. All the other teachers left and so did the students…Well; the elf didn’t since there was nobody capable of escorting her.”

I see; Sya is still in the premises; I guess that taking her back to Fantasie will take longer than a week. Well, now that we don’t have any classes I can focus on my archery and elven language lessons.

“That was the right choice.”

After a few minutes of stretching I was able to move without any problems. I ate the food that Maria brought and went outside.

I found Sya in the courtyard looking at where the hole was. Since the other students were away she decided to wear the clothes made of leaves. This time the leaves formed a T-shirt and a pair of pants. Well, it’s better than the clothes she mimicked when she arrived.

“Alex, are you all right, did you get hurt; is she really gone?”

Every time I see her I think that she is a little too lively for an elf. Despite being 100 years old she behaves like a kid.

“I’m fine, I didn’t get hurt, just paralyzed and yes, she is gone.”

“I see.”

I don’t understand why she looks so sad; she only met her once, that’s not enough time to form a bond.

“What’s with that face, why are you so sad?”

“You liked each other and yet she had to go, it’s sad, being away from the one you love.”

Oh, that was her problem; she thought that we were in love with each other. From an outsider’s point of view it may look like this but that’s not the truth. Maria loves me like a sister loves her little brother and Astrid liked spending time with me because I was more open minded than most people and because she found somebody could tease without any restraint.

“You are wrong. We are friends, just friends. I know that it doesn’t sound right but that’s the truth: I don’t love her and she doesn’t love me.”

Sya expression became even grimmer than before. I know full well what she wants to say but even she knows that she’s not right.

“It’s all right.” I told her with a pat on the head.

Sya wanted to know what happened to Astrid after the explosion so I told her about Astrid’s true form, the wings and that she paralyzed me. I was sure to keep the fact that we kissed a secret; I don’t want her getting the wrong idea again.

The rest of the day passed without any incidents, just the usual language and archery classes.

The next day I decided to ask Sya about Fantasie It was evening, the perfect time for some stories. Since there was no one present the courtyard seemed like a good spot. Sya is an elf so asking her about her continent seems like I good idea.

“I’m sorry but I don’t know much about Fantasie, I’ve never been there.”

“Huh?”

Her response was unexpected. If she hasn’t been to her own continent where did she live for all these years?

“Where did you live before coming here?”

“On this continent in a place called [Film Woods]. You remember what happened to my mother right? Well, as a result despite being royalty she was exiled and forced to leave her home. 200 years ago a group of elves created a community on this continent; one of these elves was my father. My father decided to take my mother to the Film Woods hoping that I will be accepted there.”

I asked Liliana about Sya, her mother was raped while she was pregnant. When we first met Liliana told me that her mother got pregnant after she was raped. After hearing that it was hard for me to believe that her transformation had anything to do with the demon. Neither Liliana nor Maria had any idea about how such a thing could be possible but considering that demons are fundamentally different from the other races I shouldn’t be shocked by something like that, maybe it was because of the magic the demon possessed.

She looked angry but at the same time there was also a look of determination on her face. If I were to guess I would say that she wishes to be accepted.

“As you can guess, I was viewed as a monster and treated like one. In that village lived a noble who somehow knew about me. It was because of him and his son that I couldn’t live peacefully. That kid was an heir like me and while we should have been treated the same I was labelled a monster and treated worse than a demon.”

“Is this the reason you came to this school, to prove yourself?”

“That’s part of the reason. If I can graduate and establish a peaceful relationship with the humans I will be able to prove that I’m better than that kid.”

Well, she resents that elf for what he did to her, that much is clear. Hmm…Sya is capable of graduating if she continues attending these remaining four years but the other part is a little…Hmmm, isn’t there a way to help her?

“OH, I got it!”

“Wha,What?”

I guess that I scared her when I raised my voice. In my previous life I had a habit of speaking in a low voice so when I raised my voice earlier I scared her.

“You know Jaden, right?”

“Of course, it’s only natural to remember your friends…especially if you have only a few.”

“Yeah, his father is one of the best merchants in Sonne, I can ask Jaden to help you.”

“I didn’t know that. If his father is that well-known there is a chance for me to form some kind of trade agreement with him.”

“Well, you said that you lived with your parents, I want to know more about it.”

“The village, if I can call it that, is near the border between the continents and is supervised by humans. Most of the people who live there are hunters, keeping the monsters away from other human villages.”

“Well, that’s that. Tell me about your life there.”

“I lived there with my mother and my father. My father struggled to make my life in the village easier. He did everything he could to stop the transformation or eliminate it. His last attempt to cure me was a holy elixir. In theory a holy elixir can purify the body of the one who drank it. I drank it when I was ten years old but the transformations didn’t stop. The elixir was genuine and yet it didn’t work. When my father saw that the elixir didn’t work he gave up on curing me and raised me as I was. Despite my appearance he raised me like a normal royal elf.”

A holy elixir is a purification potion that is supposedly made using the blood of angels capable of purifying anything…or so the book said. Even in this world there are books that are complete bullshit and cannot be trusted.

Personally I doubt that her transformation is a transformation, I think it was more like a mutation, and I’m not talking about the fun ones.

“How about your mother?”

“My mother was shocked by my appearance, until the last moment she believed that I will look like a normal high elf, you can image her reaction when she saw that I was transforming. She tried, I won’t deny that, but she couldn’t see me as her daughter, she saw me just like another child that needed somebody to take care of her.”

Usually it’s the other way around, the mother keeps the child but the father hates her or maybe I’m thinking about the wrong genre. Since elves are so prideful I didn’t expect the mother to be the one who abandons her child. Well, at least she had a father who actually took care of her, that’s what it counts.”

“I’m a little afraid by the answer but I will ask anyway: how did the others treat you?”

“Despite being part of the royalty the townspeople treated me like I was a monster. For almost forty years I wasn’t allowed to leave the house, I was stuck in my room with nothing but some books and a potted flower. With nothing to do I used the flower to train my Nature Magic and thanks to that I’m able to control the leaf transformations, at least my magic is better than that guy’s.”

“So you using leaves as clothes is an advanced type of magic?”

“Yes! Only a few elves are skilled enough to do something like this. It takes a huge amount of control to maintain it; if I want I can control the trees here and crush the buildings.”

“Well, Nature Magic aside, your archery is also very good.”

“My archery is lacking. You saw how much one empowered arrow tires me; a normal elf has no problem firing ten of them. Experienced monster hunters can fire almost 100 without getting tired.”

“So, that boy, how good is it?”

“What do you think?”

That was a rhetorical question and by that tone of voice she used I would say that he is quite talented and it seems that elves don’t actually care about magic as long as your archery skills are good. I’ve seen good students struggling with easy spells like fireballs. I guess that having powerful magic doesn’t really help if you die before you can use it.

“Your magic is better than his; you just need to work on your archery.”

“It’s not that easy, archery is hard; not everybody is like you, improving your skills so fast.”

“That’s a part of who I am. If you really want to get stronger I will help you.”

The main difference between us is experience. She may have lived for 100 years but if she has not been exposed to any danger she doesn’t know how to fight and that hinders her skills. If I get the opportunity to go hunting for monsters I will take her with me as a marksman…but seeing how this place was never attacked by monsters the chance of us going hunting is slim.

“How do you intend to help me?”

“Well, how many monsters have you killed?”

She looked at me and after some time of thinking she answered.

“None, this is the first time I left my village.”

“How about that boy?”

“He took part in many hunting expeditions. From what I heard he killed almost twenty goblins by himself.”

That’s really pitiful! I’m surprised by how weak that elf is. I killed almost fifty goblins since I came to this world. Kraft told me a story about how he killed a goblin den when he was eight years old. He says that he killed at least one hundred goblins that day.

“Why are you smiling?”

I didn’t notice that I was grinning. The thought that Sya gives so much credit to such a weakling is funny. Just thinking that her rival is a guy who despite being talented has such a low kill count is quite amusing. I bet that he is the kind of kid that makes fun of her for having scales every time he can.

“I was just thinking that you may be giving too much credit to a weak guy.”

Weak or not it doesn’t matter. Sya’s first priority is to get stronger than him and then outsmart him. Well, I guess that helping her might be fun after all.