Chapter 170: Laila’s Great Adventure III
It had been two years since Laila began living in the hidden elven village.
Four years had passed since she’d met Aldo.
Even after all that time, her feelings for him hadn’t faded in the slightest.
If anything, they had only grown stronger with every passing day.
She wanted to return to Aldo as soon as possible.
But she’d promised Ashera that she would obtain two more rejuvenation elixirs—three, if she could manage it.
Every night, before going to sleep, Laila wrote down her feelings for Aldo in a notebook.
It was the only way she could keep those feelings from overflowing.
During her two years in the village, Laila had become able to speak Elvish.
The village elder had actually been able to speak the human language from the beginning. He’d only pretended otherwise because he was wary of her.
Once he began to trust her, he taught her Elvish.
As Laila learned more about the elves, however, she began to notice something strange.
The elves all looked young.
And yet the village elder looked to be around fifty.
There had also been an elf who died of old age during Laila’s stay. That elf had looked no older than someone in their late twenties.
There were other oddities as well.
Elves were said to live for centuries, yet there were a great many births in the village.
If their lifespans truly were that long, the village should have been overflowing with elves by now.
That led Laila to a hypothesis.
The elves were using the “rejuvenation elixir.”
Perhaps their true lifespans were no different from those of humans.
The village elder might deliberately refrain from using the elixir so that he would look dignified enough for his position.
And perhaps the claim that rejuvenation elixirs were rare was merely a political fiction created to protect the secret of the elven race.
When Laila looked into the village’s family lines, her suspicions only deepened.
There were generally only three generations alive at once—four at the very most.
Even those fourth-generation elves who looked young moved like people around fifty years old.
She was now convinced.
The rejuvenation elixir was the secret of the elves’ longevity.
For a moment, she considered offering to keep that secret in exchange for the elixirs she needed.
But the elves had a much simpler option.
They could simply kill her.
One day, the village elder summoned Laila.
“Leave this village.”
The abrupt declaration stunned her.
The elder then told her that a rejuvenation elixir had been stolen from a cemetery in an eastern settlement two years earlier.
The culprit had been a human woman.
Laila immediately understood.
He knew what she had come for.
The elder said that he owed her a debt for saving his grandchild from goblins.
Allowing her to leave was the greatest concession he could make.
If she remained any longer, he would no longer be able to restrain the village’s young men.
Laila thanked him.
She had failed to obtain the elixirs, but there was nothing more she could do.
She prepared to leave the village.
Before she could, however, several elven men entered the room.
“She knows our secret.”
Their expressions were grim.
They explained why the rejuvenation elixir had been created.
Long ago, when the elves had nearly been destroyed by humans, they had needed even their elderly to fight.
The elixir had been created so that old elves could regain youthful bodies and return to battle.
Anyone who learned that secret could never be allowed to leave.
The men demanded that Laila either be imprisoned for the rest of her life or be killed on the spot.
The village elder let out a long sigh.
Then he ordered them to confine her.
“I’m sorry.”
His quiet apology was the last thing Laila heard before she was taken away.
The cell she was placed in was surprisingly comfortable.
A mat had been laid over the floor, and she had been given a blanket. There was even a private toilet.
But around her neck was a magic tool known as a “Mana-Eating Collar.”
It was deliberately designed to be inefficient.
It continuously consumed its wearer’s mana and wasted it as light, causing the collar to glow faintly at all times.
Her remaining mana was kept below ten percent.
Her thoughts grew hazy.
She was constantly sleepy, and her body felt unbearably heavy.
For an ordinary person, it was a form of torture that would break them within a week.
Laila endured it through sheer force of will.
A male elf watched her from the darkness beyond the bars.
Laila would have been a beautiful woman if only she were a little younger.
Knowing the elves’ secret did not always mean lifelong imprisonment.
There was one way for an outsider to regain their freedom.
If Laila married an elf, she would become one of them.
Then she would be permitted to leave—and would even be given a rejuvenation elixir.
One of the elves responsible for her confinement had become obsessed with her.
“Marry me. If you do, you can leave this place.”
“Who would ever marry someone like you…? Get out…”
The man smiled.
“I’ll come back after you’ve broken.”
Once he had gone, Laila closed her eyes.
If she could no longer endure this, she would rather die.
She couldn’t imagine taking any man other than Aldo as her husband.
She wanted to see him.
With that thought, she lost consciousness.
About two weeks passed.
A tiny ventilation opening near the ceiling was her only indication of whether it was day or night.
No one was coming to save her.
Again and again, she considered choosing death.
Each time, her desire to see Aldo stopped her.
The village had grown noisy since the previous day.
Laila had once been a squad leader in the magic corps.
She forced her muddled mind to focus and listened.
She could hear shouting and the sounds of battle.
All the voices belonged to elves.
Mixed among them was the occasional beating of wings and a strange buzzing sound.
Her food ration had been cut in half.
A boy named Listea brought her meal.
He was the child Laila had saved, and the reason she had been allowed to remain in the village in the first place.
“Auntie Laila, here’s your food.”
After learning Elvish, Laila had discovered that he had been calling her “Auntie” all along.
Normally, she would have punched him once for that.
But she had grown rather attached to the boy.
“Listea… What’s happening outside?”
“Insects are attacking the village.”
“Insects?”
“Some are small, but others are bigger than grown-ups. The children are hiding in the shelter.”
“Has anyone been hurt?”
“Several adults were killed.”
“Do you know why they’re attacking?”
Listea shook his head.
“When do they appear?”
“Mostly around midday. They don’t come at night.”
“I see… If anything else happens, tell me.”
“All right, Auntie Laila.”
Laila forced herself to smile.
If she could see the insects for herself, she might be able to determine what they were.
But in her current condition, that was impossible.
It was only the middle of June.
The season when insects became most active had barely begun.
She had a very bad feeling about this.
Her mana-depleted mind slipped once more into unconsciousness.
If only she could meet Aldo, even in her dreams.
Ever the maiden, Laila.