Paradise?

In a Rank 11 world in the endless space, a wood elf woman was gracefully jumping from tree to tree.

She was Bertha, a Rank 11 knight!

After Rank 10, being a mage or a knight didn't have much of an effect. Wars were fought using complete laws or universal laws, and one's ability to wield their laws was key, irrespective of being a mage or a knight.

Knights had stronger physical bodies and were generally more resistant to attacks, but other than that, the differences were far smaller than the similarities.

Bertha had been stuck in the heaven world for many years, affected by the influence of light energy.

Eventually, she moved out, and the effects of the light elements wore off. However, even without the influence of light energy, her love for her husband, Millan, and her two children remained unwavering.

Unwilling to stay in the heaven world any longer, she created her own world, where her family now lived as immortals, all at Rank 11.

Over a billion years had passed, yet Bertha's beliefs about wood elves remained unchanged. She was committed to preserving her culture and continued to walk around naked. This remarkable consistency in her character endured despite the passage of time.

Bertha's new world was designed as a paradise for wood elves, filled with trees and devoid of anything she considered unnatural.

No one was allowed to develop or cut down trees or mine anything.

While she permitted humans to live in her world, they had to abide by her rules. She wasn't speciesist towards humans, given her husband was human, but they were restricted from exploiting animals for clothes, cutting down trees, or hunting for meat.

By law, everyone had to be a nudist, naturist, and vegan, aligning with the overwhelming majority of wood elves' vision of paradise.

At Milan's insistence, she made some exceptions to the nudist part and allowed clothes if it was to protect the body against elements, such as being cut by a forest but disallowing it for any other purpose.

In her world, which she named "nature paradise," Bertha's words were the supreme law, with no room for democracy or elections.

...

Two people were talking in a treehouse while sitting on wooden chairs. No one can cut down trees, but it is still possible to use trees that fall naturally.

One was Bertha, and the other was Milan.

"The gray fog, Milan! Rachel said not to worry about it, but how can we just ignore it? We should move to a safe Rank 13 world! Rachel already registered our name for entry!" said Bertha. She has been worried for a while about being unable to protect her family if the gray fog hits them.

The news of the disaster around Mount Sect and Clocks Academy has spread, causing panic among nearby forces. Bertha's world is quite close to that area, and she has been very worried since that day.

Milan, now sporting a tiny mustache, nodded. "Bertha, I understand your worry, but Rachel said that we should not be worried; I trust her words." Milan also became Rachel's host a long time ago.

"But, my greeny, our safety must come first. Even if there is a tiny possibility, we must act on it!" Bertha said.

'My Greeny' is like honey for Wood Elves; this is usually what they call their loved ones. Wood Elves do not even eat honey, as Bertha has declared it a nonvegetarian food, so it would be weird if they called their loved ones something they cannot even eat, like honey.

Milan nodded with reluctance and agreed.

He likes living here, but safety still comes first; even though he trusts Rachel, it is worth it to move to a safer world if it can ease Bertha, his Greeny's mind.

...

Nature's paradise has six continents, and humans' living spaces are mostly on the southern continent, although they also inhabit the northern, central, and northwestern continents.

In the western and northeastern continents, however, only wood elves live, with barely any humans.

Bertha didn't restrict where humans could live, and their habitats turned out this way because the southern continent was generally more suitable for them.

In the southern continent, 40% of the entire population consists of humans, while the other 60% are either humans or halves.

Genetic rules Bertha set disallowed the dilution of species; if two people of different species or two halves have children together, the children would be one of three: 1) a pure human, 2) a pure elf, or 3) a half. Humans and elves would never combine into one species because Bertha set up the genetic rules that way.

Bright City has the highest human concentration, with a staggering 5 million humans constituting more than 80% of the city's population.

It's called a city, but it isn't like any human city in any sense of the word. First of all, because no one is allowed to cut down trees, very few wooden houses exist.

Most people gather tree leaves and naturally fallen scattered wood pieces to create primary houses. Fortunately, the southern continent is warm, so heating is not an issue.

Nobody dares to disrespect Bertha's rules; she sends her incarnation occasionally to inspect, and those who harm trees don't have a good ending.

Nobody is allowed to melt iron, so the people here use stone knives; basically, all kitchen equipment is made of stones, which Bertha allows.

Most humans wear clothes, as human culture is different from wood elves, but according to Bertha's decrees, wearing clothes is an unfavored and unnatural act and can only be done to shield against elements; she sometimes sends her avatars to inspect whether humans wear clothes in accordance to her rules or not.

According to past precedent, wearing clothes outside the home is allowed, but inside one's house, one may not wear clothes.

The 'clothes' are just made of leaves and cover only the most essential parts. Many humans, after so long, stopped wearing anything, but most still do, not only because of their culture but also because clothes really provide protection in the wild.

Because they were not allowed to cut down trees, Bright City is basically in the middle of a massive forest, and clothes can truly help.

Wood elves are custom-made to live in forests. They can climb trees and run in trees better than on land. They have excellent eyesight in the dark and can evade all dangers quite easily. They do not need clothes for protection because they can avoid any dangers in the forest. Wearing clothes for a species like wood elves would only obstruct their movement ability on trees.

It is entirely different for humans, as humans are much heavier, less flexible, and more suited for living on the ground, so wearing clothes would benefit them immensely.

The Bright City was built in the middle of the forest, and humans were only allowed to make houses in places that were naturally vacant; as always, they couldn't cut down trees to clear space for their houses.

...

Ruby was enjoying her latest invention in a house built with a bit of wood and plant leaves.

She was a chef.

Because of Bertha's decrees, humans couldn't eat any meat, but there was a problem: Elves could live only on plants, but humans needed protein. Technically, humans could also live exclusively on plants, but not just any plant; careful considerations were needed to provide all the necessary materials to the body.

Ruby was a chef, and her job was to test different foods, tailor-making them to be both delicious and provide enough nutrients for humans to survive.

"Hmm, it's too tasteless! I should add a bit of Salt flower," she thought. The salt flower was a vegetarian replacement for salt.

Technically, salt was not prohibited, but Bertha only allowed salt stones and prohibited extracting salt from water, considering it unnatural. For that reason, the price of salt was so high that most people used salt flowers, which were much cheaper.

After a while, there was a knock at the door.

Ruby looked over vigilantly, took a look, and found a letter had been sent to her 'house.' Inside was a location and time written in the main language of the world: 'Tomorrow, two hours before sunrise.'

Looking around, Ruby sighed with relief when she saw that nobody had noticed.

Carefully tearing the paper, which was essentially a leaf from the 'paper tree,' she went back to her food tasting as if nothing had happened.

...

The next day, exactly at the time written in the letter, Ruby went to the specified location.

There, she found a bag under a big rock. Opening it, she saw a dark red powder—it was meat powder!

Seeing it, Ruby sweated coldly. As a chef, she wanted to produce the best tastes, but with only plants, her options were limited. So, she had recently been looking to get meat from smugglers.

Meat smugglers were a scary bunch that hunted animals and sold their meat; they were basically a mafia and were said to be brutal with anyone who dared to leak their information.

Ruby contacted them because one of her cousin's friends was friends with one of the meat smugglers.

With shaky hands, she closed the bag and hurried back to her house. Soon, she reached her house and sighed with relief.

With 30 kilograms of meat powder, if she was careful, she could last at least a few months.

Because of the great dangers of selling meat in its raw form, meat smugglers used unique methods to dry and then grind it. that was why it was meat powder and not raw meat.

Not able to wait any longer, she went to the stove, which was fueled by broken pieces of wood and leaves from the forest, and started cooking. Most people did not have stoves, but as a chef, she did have one.

After cooking a vegetarian meal, she added 30 grams of meat powder to it and then tasted it.

"Delicious!" she felt like flying. In her childhood, she once ate a piece of meat and liked it very much. From then on, she had not dared to look for it until a few weeks ago when she decided to use her connections to buy meat powder.

"I can sell it and make a fortune!" she smiled. She not only sells diet advice but also sells food directly; if people taste her food, they will definitely love it and are willing to pay a premium.

"Just have to be careful about the anti-power unit!" she frowned.

Being caught with the powder basically ends one's life. And the mayor recently is going hard after powder smugglers. A few have recently been caught and lost their heads to make an example!

Bertha is ruthless with those who harm nature and gives death sentences, encouraging mayors and governors to do the same.

In her youth, Bertha was quite soft, but eventually, when she saw innocent animals dying to greedy humans, she got increasingly ruthless with those who hunted animals. Nowadays, she kills anyone who does it.

Powder smuggling is both a dangerous and very profitable business.

"I should craft a formula that can completely mask the taste of the meat, just to be safe. The anti-power unit has expert food tasters who can detect the meat taste, so she has to be extremely careful.

After thinking about all of this, she started taking out various vegan materials to find a way to perfectly mask the taste. It is a challenge because she must mask the meat while not ruining the taste too much.