24 The Elves

Barithea, a land of magic and fantasy bullshit, your everyday isekai destination; this is where Kara and Aerys have gone.

A frail-looking woman and an owl had just exited from a portal and entered a forest while constantly looking around, scanning their surroundings. "Oh, the air smells sweet, and the mana in this world is top-notch!" This planet, after all, barely had pollution compared to Earth.

"Master, Barithea is a developed magical world. You can't compare it to Earth; Earth is new to mana, after all," Aerys commented, to which Kara nodded in acknowledgment.

"Do you know where we are?" she asked while scanning kilometers of land with mana like a radar. "All I have sensed is an endless forest. Do you think we'll encounter elves here?" with all the trees, one would think so.

"Answering Master, it seems we are in the Royal Woods. If you noticed, these trees are uniquely tall and thick; this is where the elves live." His words got a nod out of Kara; she first thought that it was natural for this world, but perhaps it wasn't.

"Royal Woods? Who came up with that? Anyway, let's see if we can find some elves or a random traveler. I doubt your memories can serve as reliable info anymore since decades have already passed." Indeed, decades have already passed if Aerys were to compare his knowledge of Barithea.

Kara began strengthening her senses, trying to cover his expanse of greenery. And soon enough, she caught a massive group of people's life signatures.

But before they made their way, Kara hid the portal from magical senses and physical view. "Let's go! They're relatively far from us, and I want to stretch my wings," as she said this, she unfurled her magnificent sets of wings, and out came her halo.

*Woosh~*

"Ah, that's better," and the two made their way. Within minutes, they reached the life signatures that Kara sensed. "Hoo~ Maybe I'm destined to be an isekai protagonist after all?" Kara mused as she looked at a lot of armored Knights hauling elves into cages.

Every isekai protagonist will always encounter scums just as they enter the world and save the damsels with their cheats; as for Kara, she's the cheat itself.

'But why are uniformed Knights putting the elves into cages? Is slavery open practice!?' Kara thought and was observing the happenings down below.

However, contrary to what Aerys thought, Kara didn't move a muscle. "Aren't you going to intervene?" he wondered since Kara was saying words about being a protagonist.

"I will, but when you got summoned to this world, who was under the Demon King?" Kara asked, and this sends Aerys thinking, "Anything with a horn, well, those were the things I burnt to ashes, at least."

'I see, in simple terms, Aerys didn't go into detail about what he was killing,' Kara concluded to herself. "We'll follow where they plan to go. With this massive haul, they must be going to a rather large city."

"But first, [Sleep]" and almost immediately, every person she sensed fell unconscious. The duo made their way to the ground; they were observing from the skies previously.

Kara quickly went to work, teleporting every elf to her and laying their bodies on the ground. "They are indeed beautiful. Skyrim's elves are rather alien-looking."

Surprisingly, Kara didn't daze over their beauty, or maybe she was immune due to looking in the mirror. "Master, during my time here, slavery wasn't apparent. Only the demons got enslaved."

'Hm, there's got to be more to that Demon King story. Probably giving the public a false image of what demons are? Then, after a bit of time, humans painted demons as a threat? Possible.' But Kara nodded to Aerys's statement.

There's a reason why Humans eventually always come out on top, even if they are one of the weakest races to live. They breed like rabbits, cunning as foxes, and they are an intellectual race as well.

Leaving it for now, Kara made puppet clones for every elf that got caught. Then ordered them to enter the cages once again. Those puppets are lifeless, so they don't contain any personality, merely puppets on a string.

Kara then faced the unconscious elves and snapped her fingers, waking them. Unsurprisingly, they woke up confused, but a single clap from Kara got their attention quickly.

*Clap!*

"Tell me, who can represent you all?" Kara asked with the help of her auto-translation magic, helpful always. However, their later actions stunned Kara.

*Thud!*

All the elves, in one swell movement, dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves. Actions were that of a believer thanking and praying to God.

"We thank our Savior! We are here to serve!" they shouted out loud. [Aerys, why are they prostrating as if I'm a God?] she mentally communicated.

[Master, the elves of this world are like this. Once you save them from death, they act as if they are yours to command, and slavery is far worse than death.]

"Sigh... Before any of that, who can represent all of you?" Kara asked, but she eyed a few, considering they had high magical energy. And long after, the strongest one stood up.

"I have been leading them so far, in which case, plants me into this spot. My name is Think Nilaven.

These elves are the survivors of the recent attack that swept across our forest. We have been on the run for weeks on end, but today, we collapsed."

The one who took the leading role was a busty Elven woman. She has long, wavy blonde hair, and her eyes have purple irises with pink pupils. She has a pink ribbon that keeps a small portion of her hair in a plait and a large bust.

Her clothes consisted of a white, rather revealing dress that showed her midriff and barely covered her chest and legs and golden armbands with a long strip of white fabric that acted as her sleeves. She wore brown sandals with a ballet-like wrap that went past her ankles and simple, blue bracelets.

She also wore a headpiece made by four different-colored jewels - two blue, two pink - and hair accessories shaped like white flowers.

[AN: She's from NGNL but isn't the actual person.]

"Is there a war going on between the elves and humans?" gathering of information was a top priority, and in no way would Kara choose a side without having clear judgment.

Think, kneeled in front of Kara, "Miss. Savior, I think it would be best to read my memories to ensure the truth from our side," Kara was 'somewhat' moved by her actions.

Reading memories was a dangerous act for the one getting read. Think of it as brain surgery; being forceful would implode the brain with the mana transmitted.

When Kara began diving into the memories of Think, it was considerably easy since the person was willing. Kara even made sure that these memories didn't get tampered with magic; she'd be able to sense it anyway.

After the procedure, Kara had the complete picture from the side of the elves. From the memories, elves are a peaceful race that secludes themselves in their forest and discipline themselves in the way of magic.

However, due to the growing population of humans, humans are now fighting for more land. There were talks between the two races. However, it was merely a formality for the human countries.

It means humans were already leaning towards war and were only easing their image with the said talks. Eventually, the 'talks' failed on the Elven side since they could not avoid conflict.

"Considering how you guys are on the run, does this mean the elves have lost?" Kara's words were daggers to their ears, even though Kara was merely asking.

With a heavy heart, Think nodded. "W-we are on the losing side; us elves have been in peace for countless decades already. And we have low birth rates compared to the other races," anger and hatred were evident in her tone.

"The people present here are of the same Noble Family that takes care of the World Tree, The Nirvalen Family," this got Kara's ear to twitch. 'World Tree? Oh my, oh my, an actual World Tree!'

"I-I see. However, why are you telling me this? For all you know, I could kill all of you right here right now or even sell you for myself," Kara's words sent shivers down their spine.

"Us elves can sense the nature of people's souls, and you have one that is incredibly powerful and without malice. Which is why we readily trusted you."

Aerys, who heard this, nodded in agreement. Even though his Master likes to experiment on gate monsters and sometimes humans, she never involves the innocent, which he favors.

"And what has happened to the World Tree? Since you are the Family that cares for it, I assume something must have happened to it," and yet again, the elves felt even more shame when the World Tree got mentioned.

If something did happen to the World Tree, Kara would get pissed! Dangling a massive treat in front of her face, but only to say that something happened to it.

"T-The World Tree will die," Think's words were angering Kara, but hoped that there would be a twist. "It will die because we escaped with its core. However, this core can turn into the next World Tree once planted."

Think then proceeds to bring out a door-sized sphere that glowed green, and it was oozing with pure mana. Kara eyeing it was just ready to slice it and maybe even taste it, but she held herself strong.

'Phew, this is a bonus then! I get to witness the planting and growing of a World Tree!' If the elves heard what Kara was thinking, perhaps they would vomit blood.

"Tell me, do you elves live inside of the World Tree!?" Aerys, who heard this, shook his head. His Master has always had an inkling for knowledge, after all.

"U-Um, yes?" Think answered but was noticeably confused with the question since it wasn't so important. Kara nodded and drooled in excitement, 'With this Tree, my dream library would come TRUE! HAHAHAHA!'

However, there was a sudden flash of worry in Kara's eyes. "Oi! Oi! Tell me! Are the humans ransacking your knowledge!? Are they taking all the books inside of your library!?"

With this barrage of questions, Think got overwhelmed. "A-Answering, I presume so? We could only escape with the necessities and fill our storage rings with food and clothes."

Making snap decisions, Kara paralyzed every sleeping Knight's respiratory organs, effectively killing them. "Aerys, change of plan, protect them! I have to save those books! They could have already burnt them with their idiotic minds!"

Flugel's, by nature, are a proud race and tend to look down on any lower race than them. Including humans, Kara thinks of them as barbaric, except for her family members, of course!

Without waiting for a reply, Kara zoomed off and headed for their supposed World Tree, and also treated as the capital city. Kara already had a general map of the world after she read Think's mind. It helped to navigate.

'HOLD ON BOOKS! MAMA'S HERE!'

Eventually, all eyes turned towards the supposed 'Owl'; but the said owl only hooted at them.

"Hoo~"

'May Mother Nature bless us for choosing to follow this Angel!' Think prayed hard and sincerely.

.

.

.

.

.

(CHEERS!)

Kara: *Sees people burning* Oh no! Anyway...

Kara: *Sees books burning* HEAVENLY SMITE!