Illegal entry

Elf "Village"

When Eliz calmed down from the unexpected sight of the Elf Metropolis, she decided to wait for Fraril. Originally, she had thought they would just go. How hard would it be for Fraril to find them in the village? This big city was something else entirely. While Eliz believed that Fraril would still be able to find them, he probably wouldn't be happy.

So they moved off to the side, near the waterfall that cascaded down the mountains and turned into a river that flowed through the entire town. They had a good view of the passage where Fraril would come from, and so did the city, which was bustling with life. There was no one around them. Not many humans or elves seemed to come through the passage, or it would surely be guarded, so they remained alone and unnoticed.

Eliz shook her head as she watched the tower-like buildings, wondering how the elves had moved through so many floors, or even through the entire city that seemed huge. She didn't see anything that looked like chariots, so were they using mana?

As far as Eliz knew, High Elves were mostly Enhanced Mages; using mana was second nature to them, and it would be very rare to see a High Elf that didn't know how to use mana. It would be dangerous for humanity if the Elves' birth rate wasn't low and they weren't relatively peaceful. Though looking at so many Elves in one place, Eliz had her doubts about the low birth rate.

Splash splash splash.

Eliz looked behind her at the river when she heard a sudden splash through the water. She blinked her eyes and turned towards the river where a creature had appeared.

It actually looked like a man, but a strange one. He was blue, with large animal ears on the sides of his head, a slightly flattened nose, drops of water constantly running down his cheeks that made it look like he was crying, his pupils and the whites of his eyes were green, his hair was a degree lighter blue than his skin, and rivulets of water were constantly flowing around him. He was wearing some sort of vest decorated with wet leaves, which were also tangled in his hair, and he was looking at it.

When the blue man noticed that Eliz was watching him, he began to playfully wink at her and make obscene gestures. Eliz watched him with a straight face, but in her mind she was thinking, "What the hell is that again?"

The blue man moved a little closer, but as he did so, something flew up and through his head, which burst and exploded in a shower of water like a popped water balloon. But it wasn't something that killed the creature; in fact, a new head began to form out of the water, but it too was quickly shot down.

Eliz looked beside her where Alobela had appeared. In her hand, she held a handful of pebbles, which she placed between her index finger and thumb. Her thumb then glowed with blue mana, and she flicked the stone, which flew away like a shot projectile that made a hole in the blue man's body.

Her face was as calm as ever, but her green eyes reflected feelings of outrage and annoyance. "Go away, you filthy thing. Take your lascivious gaze off the young lady!" She shouted at the creature, firing another rock at it.

The creature man backed away from the shore and corrected its body with the water, looking annoyed and raising both middle fingers at Alobela before dissolving into the river like foam. "Hmpf!" Alobela let out a low snort and looked at Eliz, who was watching all this with mild amusement.

"My lady. You must stay away from the Water Elementals. They are known for their seditious practices, but refusal to take responsibility. Not to mention their lack of common sense. When they like someone a lot, they want them to stay with them and can't realize that other creatures will drown underwater," Alobela warned her.

Eliz looked at the river again. Was that a Water Elemental? No, that was impossible. She'd read a little about them in the novel, and according to the author's description, they were simply pools of water that formed into suites of different creatures but had no solid form. Eliz shook her head. The further they got from the main scenario, the more things changed and diverged from the original script. "Hm. I see, Alobela. But he seemed friendly enough," Eliz objected.

Alobela frowned a little. "My lady, he obviously wanted to mate."

"Oh... Oohhh.... Eww." Eliz thought he was just messing with her and displaying himself a little. After Eliz shook off the indecent thoughts, she looked at Alobela again. "Do you know things about elementals, Alobela?"

Alobela nodded and tossed the rest of the stones as well, casually, to where the water elemental had disappeared earlier, and turned to face Eliz. "I've seen a few on missions. Water elementals in the rivers and ponds, earth elementals in the mountains and forests, and wind elementals on the plains. They were relatively harmless; they didn't intentionally hurt anyone, but they defended themselves if they were attacked. The fact that they were here was not unexpected. The High Elves have always gotten along well with the creatures of nature. They were free creatures, and it was said that those who followed the elementals were loved by nature."

Eliz nodded as she listened. Loved by nature, eh? Judging by the water elemental's behavior and Alobela's explanation, so it might as well be a literal concept. Eliz turned away and pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at that.

Then it wasn't long before the air at the passage shimmered, and Fraril appeared. Actually, rather, he was piecing together. Eliz had witnessed his appearance and was a little concerned. It only took about a second, and it was very quick, but Eliz could have sworn she saw the skeleton appear first, then the flesh, and then the rest.

Eliz quickly stood up and walked over to Fraril, who emerged from the portals perfectly fine and unfazed.

As Eliz walked over to him, she gave him a quick once-over as she checked to make sure everything was in place. Fraril turned his head towards her in confusion. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Eliz shook her head. "Nothing," she replied, looking at the portal again. Did that mean they all appeared the same way? She didn't feel anything.

Had her body literally been deconstructed and then reconstructed? That didn't strike Eliz as magic, but as some sort of high-tech technology, but the portal still looked like a rock covered in climbing plants. She couldn't figure anything out, but she found that she didn't really want to go through the portal again.

"Now that we're all here, let's go," she announced, and everyone started to get up to leave.

*****

They headed towards the streets, but apparently, no one was actually walking towards the portal; there wasn't a single living soul on the path they were walking on. The path led downwards and connected to a cobbled road where a few elves were walking.

As the elves began to notice them, many stopped, looking at them in surprise, and some began to whisper. Eliz had a feeling that this was not a good sign. As they walked on, ignoring the surprised elves, Eliz noticed that this was indeed a city of elves.

She hadn't seen any representatives of the other races yet, and that was probably why they were so conspicuous. Their group had representation of several races: humans, hybrids, wolf race, cat race, bear race. So they must have looked like some kind of *collection of curiosities in this place.

The Boulder team, despite being in a city full of elves, spread out around Eliz as Alarr wasn't entirely comfortable with the staring, so he decided to treat this place as enemy territory for now.

Eliz didn't share that sentiment, but she let him do what he thought was best and turned to Fraril instead. "Did you find out anything?" she asked him.

"What do you think?" asked Fraril, who had been walking calmly a short distance away but moved closer to her as Eliz began to speak to him.

"Draikini. You stayed behind because of him, didn't you? Did you find out anything?" Eliz wondered about the information the old wolf had surely tricked out of the muscular elf.

Fraril smiled. "A little, yes."

"Then tell me," she urged him to speak.

"That will cost you, lady," Fraril gave a short laugh.

Eliz sighed. "Is the information worth it, at least?"

Fraril thought before answering. "No."

Eliz hadn't expected that answer; she looked curiously at Fraril's calm face and nodded. "Good. Then take it as if I hadn't said anything." Eliz took his word for it that the information he had wasn't worth buying. Fraril seemed reliable and trustworthy so far when it came to business. She knew he was pursuing some agenda of his own, but she honestly didn't care. As long as he was working with her and not against her.

Fraril smiled. "Naturally."

As they approached the first buildings, more and more elves appeared. Eliz eyed them hesitantly, not realizing until now how similar all the elves were. There weren't too many variations of hair colors; shades of blonde, white hair, a light brown here and there, and she caught a glimpse or two of shades of blue and green. The facial features were clear, handsome, and youthful.

Those who looked a little older no longer had youthful features but rather mature ones, but there was still a lack of any unevenness. All the elves also shared height, the smallest being around 180cm to the tallest who could be 2 meters or a little more.

Eliz was a little embarrassed by this because the more she saw of them, the less different they were in her eyes. They all seemed the same to her. But Eliz knew that wasn't true. It wasn't that they all looked the same, but rather that she wasn't used to recognizing the subtle details and differences in the faces of another race. Probably if she spent more time with them, she'd start to see those differences.

Alarr frowned as he noticed the commotion in front of them. The elves were moving out of the way to make way for two elves. They looked different from the others, at least when it came to clothing. These two elves wore flashy-looking armor with horned tiaras, both carried swords at their waists, and had stern expressions on their faces.

They were a man and a woman. The man was a little taller with blonde hair, the woman had white, almost grey hair; their armor was silver with golden decorations that were probably more to show their status than for actual defense.

Alarr stopped their group. "Trouble is coming," he announced. It was easy to guess that it was trouble, as both elven guards looked serious.

He heard Eliz sigh behind him. "Of course. Because every time we get in somewhere it would be too easy if there weren't problems." Alarr had to agree with her statement.

The elves moved away from their group, some continuing to walk, but the majority stopping to watch while a pair of guards stood before them.

"Strangers. You are in High Elf territory. You are required to identify yourselves," said the male guard. "Please show us your residence permits," the female guard added.

Alarr didn't answer but looked next to him where Eliz appeared with a completely annoyed expression. Eliz rubbed her temple and let out a long sigh. "Esteemed guards. We have no permits. We passed through the portal when we passed the Forest Guardian trial" she announced to them.

The guards both frowned even more. "If that's the case, you should have been handed permits to enter anyway. Although hardly anyone passes through here anymore, the Forest Guardian and Hermit should have taken care of this. Since none of you have a pass, we'll have to treat you as illegal trespassers," the male guard announced and reached for his sword, as did the elven woman. Eliz's group tensed up, and they too began to touch their weapons. Eliz held up a hand to calm them down.

She remained calm but mentally cursed Broccoli and vowed to really roast her next time. "Please, it must just be a mistake. We really did go through the portal the Forest Guardian opened for us. But maybe, since it's not that often, he forgot that detail." Eliz didn't want to get in trouble right away, and she didn't want to get into a fight with the local authority.

Before they could discuss further, someone interrupted their meeting.

"'Respected guardians! It's them! It's them!" someone shouted, and everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice. Actually, there were two of them. Another man and a woman, but these were wearing cloth clothes. The woman wore a green flowing dress, her hair was white and tied back in a braided ponytail. Her eyes were green, and her face was soft and girlish, almost doll-like. The man next to her had eyes as green as hers, and his long white hair was the same, combed back and had tasteful braids along his ears. Unlike the woman next to him, he wore white clothes with green trim.

Eliz looked them over and had a feeling they might be related, but then again, that could very well have been an illusion on her part considering how similar all the elves seemed to her so far.

"What do you mean, citizen?" asked the male guard, turning to the woman who had called earlier.

The white-haired elf pointed at Eliz and her group. "We reported it this morning. It's the bullies who made us bring them to town!"

Eliz and her group bulged their eyes at the man in surprise. What the hell was he talking about?

The white-haired elf nodded and pointed at them as well. "Yes! It's them! They threatened to kill us and..." She covered her body with her hands in embarrassment and averted her eyes while showing the most fake expression of misery. "Worse things..." The young man beside her put his hand on her shoulder in a protective gesture and looked at Eliza's group with an accusing look.

The elves around her began to look angry, and indignant shouts were heard. Eliz looked at the guards who had already drawn their swords and were glaring at them. "Wait! Wait! That's not true! We've never seen them in our lives! We barely got here!" Eliz tried to put the matter to rest, but she could tell by the expressions on the elves' faces that it was useless. Why would they believe strangers when they had the testimony of two elves right here? Their people? But Eliz was confused. What was going on?

Eliz gritted her teeth. "What the hell kind of shitty, nonsensical plot is this?"

*A collection of curiosities is a collection of interesting objects or rarities. The most typical example of a is the so-called freak shows prevalent in 16th to 19th century England and the United States. In terms of human anomalies exhibited, for example, people with various kinds of physical disabilities, Siamese twins, and so on.