The environment while living in the forest of the World Tree was not as bad as I thought.

Apparently, the race of elves has a strong sense of vigilance and tribalism, so at first, there was a tendency to feel very uncomfortable with me as an outsider.

After living with the elves for about a week, they began to open up to me little by little.

It was also great that senior Xian took care of various things so that I, an outsider, would not feel uncomfortable staying.

The fact that I rented an empty tree house to use during my stay, shared vegetables and eggs grown in senior Xian’s field, and so on.

Perhaps because of the sense of responsibility that invited me to the forest of the world tree, it was noticeable that he cared about me more than usual.

The reason they invited me in the first place was because they wanted to increase my magical power sensitivity, but in addition to that, I was receiving various conveniences.

At least, I was also doing my own thing in order not to tarnish senior Xian’s honor.

“At that moment, the black flames of Glacia attacked the hero, and the hero of hope was immersed in the flames.”

It was this imitation of the minstrel that started including those things.

As an outsider, the only way to interest the elves who have spent their entire lives in the forest was to talk about the outside world that they might be curious about.

Various experiences and stories I heard while traveling in my previous life were quite helpful.

Even if I just told the story of the adventures my friends and I went through during our demon subjugation days, we would have been able to recite a new story every day for at least a year.

“So the hero was able to defeat the black dragon Glacia and save the village.”

As the story ended, I heard the sound of five or six elves lightly clapping their hands.

Acting as a bard with his back to the World Tree in the town square has become a fairly regular event now, a week later.

No matter how qualified he was to visit, he was Xian-senpai’s invited guest, and the reason was to train his magic power sensitivity in the magic flower garden.

If an outsider was confined to a field of flowers, day and night, claiming to actually increase his magic power, he would surely be disliked.

In the first place, the purpose I saw was not the training of mana sensitivity.

I might do it later if I get a chance, but the reason I followed Xian’s suggestion was to solve something more important than that.

To do so, it was most important not to look bad on the residents, and that is why I acted as a storyteller even for a short period of time.

No matter how vigilant a person may be, some degree of trust will bloom in the person who makes him happy.

As a bonus, this spot in the town square was the best for a secret investigation.

“Today’s story will end here.”

With the sound of applause ending the story, the elves who had been concentrating on my story began to stand up one by one.

Some leave immediately to do their own thing without regret, and some look forward to tomorrow with a little regretful impression.

Even though it was a story that started slowly after lunch, time passed quite a bit and before I knew it, a red sunset flowed in even in this deep forest.

It was time for me to return home in time for dinner.

As for meals, most of them are roasted vegetables, pan-fried vegetables, or pot-boiled vegetables.

Recalling the meager meal she ate at Cherry Fields Orphanage half a year ago, she was thankful that she could eat as much fiber as she wanted.

While thinking about that, I was contemplating whether to bake paprika or boil corn soup today.

“You seem to have been busy today too, Junior Conrad.”

Senior Xian appeared before I knew it and came up to me and greeted me for dinner.

“I am busy. It’s what I want to do.”

“lie. The truth is, you probably want to spend all day practicing your magical power sensitivity without worrying about what other people are staring at.”

“I don’t have that mindset at all.”

If there’s one bad habit I developed after returning from the future to the past, it’s always calculating the opportunity cost of almost everything.

Even now, he was temporarily becoming a storyteller in order to gain the trust of the elves.

If he had trained in the magic flower field for the same amount of time, how much more he could have grown his magic sensitivity.

It was also an instinct that I couldn’t help but have such thoughts running through my head.

Of course, I wouldn’t do such an irresponsible act, thinking only of my own convenience, even for the sake of senior Xian, who brought me here.

“Even if that’s the case, how will people look at me if I practice in the flower garden all day long and eat only the meals that senior Xian brings me?”

“I thought junior Konrad wasn’t conscious of such things, but he seems to be concerned.”

“It doesn’t matter how they view me, but the way other elves look at Xian-senpai won’t be a little strange.”

“… me?”

“’The chief elder’s daughter threw away her noble elven lineage and pride and hung out with a human man.’ If such rumors spread, senior Xian would be in trouble too, right?”

A narrower and more closed place than the academy was the elf village in the forest of the World Tree.

Once a strange rumor spread, it would not be easy to rectify.

“Hey, I’ll be back after a month or two, so it doesn’t matter if strange rumors spread or not, but Xian-senpai’s hometown is this world tree forest.

My evaluation will affect Xian’s evaluation as well, but at least I shouldn’t show him sitting around doing nothing.”

“… Then, as soon as I arrived in the forest, I was acting as a storyteller every day because of my reputation?”

“I can see that half of it.”

I haven’t been able to tell her about the other half yet.

In any case, the reason for building a good impression with the residents was, of course, senior Xian.

“Wait a minute.”

“Senior Xian?”

“… Wait a little, wait a little.”

No matter what mistake I made, Xian suddenly turned his head away and reached out to block my movement to examine her face.

Then, for a moment, as if to catch his breath, he fluttered back, then immediately turned his face back toward me.

“Enough now.”

“What’s wrong? What did I say wrong?”

“No, it’s not like that. It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it.”

I couldn’t help but stop worrying about it, but I nodded my head to mean that I knew it.

“By the way, what did you come for? Are you here to advise me to train properly because I feel like I’m wasting my time in a strange way without properly training my magic power sensitivity?”

“I hope so. I want to tell you this today.”

Xian took something out of the basket he brought with him and put it on my hand.

The snowman-shaped bag, piled up in wide leaves and tied with plant stems, made it possible to guess what was inside without even looking at the leaves.

“It’s an egg.”

“yes.”

“Are you giving it to me?”

“Today Dad is not eating at home because of the elders meeting. But I have to consume eggs every day, so I’m going to give it to Junior Conrad.”

“Then I will be grateful.”

It was a valuable source of protein that could be obtained from the forest, so there was no reason to refuse it.

You can eat a little more luxuriously than usual for dinner tonight.

“I just keep receiving from senior Xian.”

“Konrad is my guest, so of course I have to take care of it.

If you need anything else, tell me more. I will save you whatever you can.”

I was about to say that I was getting enough help until now, but after hearing Xian’s words, a spontaneous thought came to my mind.

“Then can you get someone to eat dinner with you tonight?”

“… uh?”

“Senior Xian’s father… I heard that Elder Aldor is also eating outside today.

I was wondering if you could have dinner with me if Xian doesn’t have other dinner plans.”

“… … .”

“I can’t help it if you’re busy.”

“no. I also wanted to have a meal with junior Konrad after a long time.”

Fortunately, as if what I brought out was not a nuisance proposal, Xian nodded and agreed to my proposal.

As a token of appreciation, I served her a dish I made myself.

Although the meal menu was the usual boiled and fried vegetables and eggs.

It was the end of a day that felt much more satisfying just sharing a meal with someone.

* * *

three days after that.

Today, as usual, it was time to talk in front of the elves, so after lunch, I went to the forest plaza.

Over the past 10 days, I have built trust in the elves, albeit weakly, and the investigations around the world tree for three or four hours every day have all been completed.

Now, there was no better time than now to carry out the purpose of visiting the forest of the world tree.

As I approached the rock platform in the forest plaza, some elves had already come before me and waited for me to come.

It seems that the story of the outside world was quite interesting than I thought.

And among the guests who came to hear the story, there was one special person who was different from usual.

“Hello, Senior Xian.”

I greeted the green-haired elf sitting in the front row of the audience.

“Yes, Junior Conrad.”

“Did you come to listen to me too?”

“yes. I don’t have anything to do this afternoon, so I came to hear what your juniors are talking about.”

“Don’t expect too much.”

Because the story I’m going to tell you today will be rather shocking and tragic rather than an exciting adventure or a pleasant story.

After saying that in my heart to senior Xian, I moved to the top of the rock platform.

I made eye contact with her sitting in the front row of the stage and immediately started acting as today’s bard.

“Once upon a time, there was a huge tree that embraced everyone with benevolent shade.”

As I opened my mouth on stage and started to speak, the other elves began to gather near the podium one by one.

“The gigantic tree, called the mother tree by everyone, always gave heartfelt advice to her children who approached her.

To some, it gave advice on how to live life, to others, advice on how to achieve love, and to others, guidance on the path to their dreams.”

The audience for the performance, which started with ten people, increased little by little, and the empty audience seats were gradually filling the empty seats.

When I said spectator seats, I was just talking about empty seats on the field.

“However, the mother tree, which shared love and wisdom with everyone, suddenly, at some point, stopped saying anything.

Since they had been relying on the advice of the Mother Tree for almost all their problems, they soon began to fall into quite a bit of confusion.”

After talking up to this point, I started to hear a little bit of a buzz among the elves.

“People have different questions. Why did my mother suddenly disappear?

Did they hide their feelings because they relied too much on their mother’s words? Do you want to live on your own without relying on your mother’s words?

There were many hypotheses, but no one really knew the answer. Until the day comes when everyone knows the truth.”

The buzz among the crowd gradually grew louder, and a few elves began to appear who understood what I was talking about.

“On the 100th year since the mother tree lost the word, a great vibration suddenly resounded in the forest as if an earthquake had occurred.

As soon as everyone felt uneasy and walked out of the house, they could only see the unbelievable sight unfolding before their eyes.”

As the story neared its end, I felt that everyone’s eyes were on me.

“What they witnessed was a mother tree of the past, corrupted by dark magic from a hundred years ago, and now completely rotted down to its roots.”

It was the point at which the preparations for the magic he had memorized separately in his head were almost finished, leaving only use.

Someone opened their mouth and made an expression of accusation against me, but I had no intention of asking what I had to do by coming all the way here.

“Like right now.”

I activated the explosion magic I had memorized on the ‘Mother Tree’, the symbol of the world tree behind my back.

‘Koo-gu-gu-gu-gung!!!’

At first glance, the huge world tree, which seemed to be several tens of meters tall, fell to the other side of the plaza where the elves gathered due to the impact of the explosion magic.

As the giant world tree leaned toward the ground, several other nearby trees fell as sacrifices as well.

Finally, with a roar and a pit of dirt, the stem touched the ground.

““ ““ “… … .”””””

The elves’ jaws dropped at the absurd sight unfolding in front of them, and I just silently watched as the World Tree collapsed to the ground.

In the place where the tree originally stood, only the stump of a tree several meters in diameter remained.

“Since you’ve heard what I just said, I think you know, but right now, your world tree is more than half rotten inside due to dark magic.

Elves, for not finding out that their mothers were rotting until now, will have to grow the tree that will become the world tree of the next generation from scratch.”

Some of the elves looked devastated as if they couldn’t believe it, and some of them vomited their voices and rage at me.

I even felt the arrows of dozens of armed elves pointed at me.

I started by destroying the World Tree because I needed it.

Probably, it will be difficult to get over safely.