Vol 4: Chapter 42
「W-When I got up and went outside, I looked down and was surprised by the height…」
I managed to rescue Asha in time. She was on all fours back inside the hut as if trying to cling to solid ground, while breathing heavily.
She apparently dozed off while I carried her up here last night. And because it was pitch black, she didn’t know where we were heading.
My decision to let her sleep in for a while longer had the opposite effect.
「It’s great that nothing bad happened. That child should also join us for breakfas–」
Knock-san, who approached from behind, stopped mid-sentence with his mouth wide-open.
Asha took off her cloak and hood when she went to bed last night. In other words, she was wearing the same culotte skirt and long boots as when she first came to this world.
However, what Knock-san was fixated on was her face. Her race.
「H-Hi-Hi-High elf…」
He pointed at Asha, with a trembling finger.
「HIGH ELFFFFFFFFFFF!」
Knock-san shouted from the pit of his stomach. My and Asha’s hair stood on end because of that. The branches and dry leaves used for the roof and bed of the hut were blown away.
My ears were ringing, but I immediately stood in front of Asha with a dagger in my left hand, and my right hand ready to invoke magic at any moment.
I had a feeling something like this might happen. Dark elves and Elves should be closely related species, after all. I don’t know the history of this world, but there might have been trouble between the two races in the past.
(Should I carry Asha and jump down to the ground?)
I looked down at the ropes stretched around like a safety net. The rope at the lowest point was about 10 meters above ground. So, if I jump down there and use that rope to kill the momentum of the fall, I should be able to get down to the ground unscathed using【Wind Magic】and【Fire Magic】.
「HAHAH!!」
As Knock-san regained his composure, he prostrated on the floor all of a sudden.
「I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I–」
Is he a broken record?
「I n-never expected a High Elf to c-come to a p-place like t-this. P-P-P-P-P-P-P-」
Is he a broken record, after all?
「P-P-Please f-forgive me for the rudeness I have shown so far.」
Knock-san was prostrating on a branch. No matter how thick the branch was, the width of the branch was about 40 cm at most.
Since he was prostrating, he was slowly losing balance.
「I shall bring our chieftain here right away. No, our chieftain’s residence is far better.」
His body began to tilt over to the side of the branch.
「By all means, I humbly request that your esteemed personage use that residence from now onnnNNNNNNNNN!?」
「Knock-san!?」
He fell off the branch.
From a frog-like posture before the fall, he fell like a frog after being run over by a car.
He fell on the rope at the bottom which I was aiming for. He bounced off the rope and crashed onto the ground. A cloud of dust kicked up.
A few seconds later, I heard a noise from the ground.
「I-Is he dead?」
When Asha and I fearfully came out of the hut to check on him,
「What is all the noise here!?」
The dark elf woman from the cafeteria came over.
「HIGH ELFFFFFFFFFFF!」
She, too, pointed at Asha and shouted. And she prostrated with tremendous speed.
「I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I–」
While also sounding like a broken record, she fell off the branch in the same fashion as Knock-san. She got caught on the same rope at the bottom, and fell beside Knock-san, kicking up a cloud of dust.
「Oi, what’s all the fuss about this early in the morning?!」
「Guest-san, what did you do?」
「Where the hell is Knock–」
Three dark elves came.
「「「HIGH ELFFFFFFFFFFF!」」」
With the same momentum, the three prostrated on the ground.
「I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I–」
「I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I–」
「Ko-Ko-Ko-Ko-Ko-Ko–」
Hey, third guy! Why are you sounding like a chicken instead—wait, that’s not important!
「W-Wait, you guys! Get up! Don’t fall!」
I finally regained my rationality from the shock of what just happened.
However, I couldn’t make it in time. They fell while prostrating down on the branch.
**
After that, I had Asha put on her cloak and hood to overcome the five additional Dark Elves who came to check out what happened.
「I will explain the situation, so please guide us to your chieftain. And also please help Knock-san and the others!」I said.
The residence where the chieftain lived was the tree beside ours. So we used two ropes to cross over to that tree. Basically, we had to walk on one rope while the other was to hold on to for balance.
Asha was afraid to walk on a tightrope, so she climbed on my back again.
…If this was Non-san, the sensations on my back would probably feel like a side benefit, but Asha’s growth is modest, so…
Well, anyhow, the chieftain’s mansion was a slightly larger hut.
The wall was covered with a cloth dyed with a lot of primary colors, probably as a substitute for wallpaper. There was a chair in an elevated position, but in front of it, an elderly dark elf man was sitting upright on the floor. Though I say elderly, he was terribly macho. The muscles on his legs were tight even in a simple sitting posture.
「These are the guests, chieftain.」
And somehow, Knock-san was already there. The woman from the kitchen and the three additional dark elves who fell were also there.
Everyone was covered in dust, but I was relieved that there were no external wounds.
「I-I see you’re safe, Knock-san…」
「It’s because of my training.」he said with a smile, but there was one dead leaf stuck on his hair.
「I heard that the other guest over there is so noble a personage that Knock here cannot even say it out loud.」
As the chieftain said so, I took off Asha’s hood.
Their eyes almost popped out of their sockets when they saw her. The chieftain’s residence was surrounded by tranquil stillness.
And I heard multiple noises from outside the residence. …Hey, don’t peep inside and start falling off the tree.
