Damn Reincarnation

n abolished during his previous life, even back then there were an abundant amount of illegal slaves.

“…The leg…,” Kristina muttered in concern.

“It was amputated a long time ago.
They must have cut it off themself,” Eugene said as he glanced down at the elf’s left leg.

The surface of the stump looked like it had been roughly abraded, and blood kept flowing from it.
It looked like their cheap prosthetic leg had dug into their flesh.

“Could they have escaped from a slave trader?” Kristina speculated.

“We’ll find out as soon as we wake them up,” Eugene answered.

Although the elf’s circumstances were pitiable, their coincidental meeting could be considered a stroke of luck for Eugene.
Eugene grabbed the elf by the shoulders and lightly shook them a few times.

“Cough!” Before even opening their eyes, the elf let out a cough and vomited out some water.

Then, they moaned as they tried to twist their body free from Eugene’s hold.

“You shouldn’t move around so much,” Eugene warned them.

They may have given the elf some emergency treatment, but even when putting it generously, the elf couldn’t be described as being in good health.
Bruises covered their entire body and the number of fractures….
These injuries didn’t appear to be from an assault.
They were probably sustained by falling into the water from a great height.

“…Kyaaah!” the elf screamed, when they realized what kind of situation they were in.

“I probably should have started by telling them not to scream,” Eugene muttered to himself as he let go of the elf's body.

The elf, who had been switching between looking at Eugene and Kristina from the moment they opened their eyes, started to crawl away from them backwards.

The elf stammered.
“Y-y-you two, who are you? Tribals?”

“Even though we’ve done all we can to save you, it seems like you don’t feel the need to hold back with your rudeness,” Eugene wryly observed.

“I-I’m sorry.
So sorry.” The elf panickedly apologized.

Although Eugene had only been complaining half-heartedly, the elf immediately started begging for forgiveness while knocking their head on the ground.

After blatantly observing this sight, Kristina glanced at Eugene.

“It seems like your face and behavior have frightened them, Sir Eugene,” Kristina teased.

“What about my face?” Eugene asked defensively.
“It might not be as good as an elf’s, but it’s good enough that I don’t feel ashamed taking it with me wherever I go.”

“…Ahaha!” Kristina burst out into laughter.

Without lifting their bowed head, the elf clasped their hands and rubbed their palms together[2] as they said, “Yes, yes.
The lord’s face is truly impressive.
It’s so amazing that no elf can even think of comparing to you.
Th-the madam is also extremely beautiful.”

“…Madam?” Eugene repeated in confusion.

“I-I’m sorry.
S-so sorry.” The elf apologized once more.
“I meant the young lady, the young lady is truly beautiful.”

“What’s wrong with them? Could their brain be a bit damaged as well,” Eugene muttered to himself as he furrowed his brow.

At this, the elf stopped rubbing their hands together and started banging their head against the ground as they said, “Ye-yes.
That’s right.
Brain damage.
M-my head isn’t that good.
So please, f-forgive me if I’m being foolish or fail to obey your orders….”

“You try to calm them down a bit,” Eugene said as he immediately stepped back behind Kristina.

At this, Kristina just pointed at the basket packed full of wet laundry with a smile, then she turned to the elf and said, “I’ve heard that your race is beautiful, and you seem to be living proof of that.
My name is Kristina.
I am a priest who worships the God of Light.
The man over there drying the clothes is my servant and bodyguard, so please don’t be too afraid of him.”

What the hell did she mean, servant? As Eguene grumbled to himself, he summoned up a spirit of the wind.
The spirit began to dry the wet clothes.

Kristina continued to placate the elf.
“We have no intentions of intimidating or harming you.
Instead, we would actually like to protect you from any misfortune you might be in.”

The elf hesitated.
“A-are you really…?

“Yes, of course it’s the truth.
After all, it’s only natural that the duty of a priest is to help and rescue those in trouble.
And if there was a Hero in this world, he too certainly wouldn’t hesitate to do what is just and right.” As Kristina said this, she gave Eugene a glance.

She had purposefully raised her voice so that he could hear her.
Eugene just snorted as he casually folded the dried-out clothes.

“…M-my name is… Narissa.” The elf eventually introduced herself.

Then, she started to tell them such a tragic tale that it would bring tears to any listeners.

To put it simply, Narissa was a runaway slave.
Her owner, a wealthy merchant in the Kiehl Empire, had bought Narissa on the black market ten years ago.

“And how old are you now?” Kristina asked gently.

Narissa resplied, “I’m a hundred and thirty….”

“If we convert that to human years, that means you’re just thirteen,” Eugene muttered.

“Human years? What do you mean by that?” Kristina asked as she turned to Eugene with a perplexed expression.

Eugene explained, “The lifespan of an elf roughly extends to a thousand years.
Normal humans can live somewhere up to a hundred years if they can manage a long life without any disease, so if you convert an elf lifespan into a human lifespan, every hundred years for them counts as ten years for us.”

“What kind of foolish nonsense is that….” Kristina shook her head as she muttered this.

The logic behind his claim seemed so absurd that it wasn’t even funny, but Narissa just clapped her hands in agreement with a servile smile as she said, “Y-yes.
In elf years I might be a hundred and thirty years old, but in human years, I’m only thirteen….”

Eugene continued his interrogation, “So where is your hometown? Were you born in Samar?”

“…My hometown is in Kiehl Empire’s Mount Odon,” Narissa admitted.

“Are there elves living there as well?” Eugene asked in surprise.

“Not… not any more.” After saying this, Narissa’s head sunk low, unable to find any more words.

Eugene and Kristina could figure out what had happened without even asking.
It was rare for an elf to have been living in hiding deep within the mountains, but it wasn’t rare for such an elf who lived in hiding to be captured and enslaved by a slaver.

Kristina sighed.
“Haaah….
How pitiful….”

After a long time, Kristina finally showed the appearance of a real Saint.
She spread her arms and embraced Narissa, stroking her trembling back.

“It must have been so painful for you,” Kristina murmured sympathetically.
“You had to cut off your own ankle just to escape, and then you came all the way to this forest….”

Eugene stepped past Kristina as she continued to comfort Narissa.
Still stroking Narissa’s back, she glanced at Eugene, but didn’t say anything.
She just nodded at him, causing Eugene to grin.

Elves were a strong race.

Unlike humans, they possessed an affinity with all spirits, and could sense mana even without any specific training.
Their muscles were also far more flexible and durable than a human’s.

Hunters were always well-informed about the races that they hunted, and only went hunting after making thorough preparations.

This was the same for the tribespeople who lived in this forest.
They were born as hunters, and raised as hunters.
An ordinary human being might not have been able to survive jumping from a tall cliff and landing in the river below.
From such a height, landing on water was no different from landing on rock.

If it was a human, they would have died, but an elf wouldn’t have.

It wasn’t just because their bodies were stronger.
Having an affinity to spirits literally meant being loved by those spirits.
The main reason why elves could run so fast was that the spirits dispersed throughout the wind pushed them from behind.
That also applied to this kind of fall — the wind and the river water would have protected the elf’s body.

Knowing that, the slavers hadn’t stopped their pursuit of the elf.

“So you’re from the Garung Tribe.” Eugene greeted the hunters from where he was sitting, on a large rock.

It had been a month since they had first entered the rainforest.
They hadn’t just been wandering around during all that time.
They had also encountered a few merchants who were traversing the forest, and they had even met a few of the natives who belonged to different tribes.

They weren’t very pleasant meetings.
The merchants mocked Kristina’s cover as a missionary, and the natives had tried to enslave the two foreigners who were traveling alone without an escort.

All of them had immediately paid the price for acting like idiots.
Through this process, Eugene had heard about the various tribes who lived in this forest.

The deeper you went into the forest, the more savage and ferocious the natives became, especially in their ostracization of outsiders.
The Garung were an example of one such tribe.
They captured all foreigners and made them their tribe’s slaves.

If the foreigner they caught was a wealthy merchant or a noble who had come for a luxurious tour, they had a chance of being handed back over once the tribe received a large enough ransom.
But even then, that was only if those who were captured got lucky.
If they weren’t lucky they would just be killed and eaten.
Some of the native tribes practiced cannibalism, and the Garung were one such tribe.

“Outsider,” spoke one of the natives riding on the backs of their large wolves.

He had pulled up the mask on his face, making it obvious that he was staring at Eugene.
The native’s face was covered in scars and tattoos.

“What.
You.
Doing.
Here?” the native demanded.

Unlike his vicious appearance, it seemed that he could speak the common language, but he enunciated the words slowly and in a slightly slurred manner.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Eugene replied.
“I’m just sitting here and resting.”

The native continued his curt questioning.
“A noble? From where?”

“Who wants to know?” Eugene returned the question impudently.

“This smell,” the native said with a frown as he sniffed the air.

Eugene chuckled and picked up a corner of his cloak to examine it.

“Does it really give off such a smell? There’s no reason why it should,” Eugene argued.
“I’m on the tidy side, so I wash my body every day.”

“It smells of elf,” the native growled.

“Do I look like an elf?” Eugene asked mockingly.

“Outsider,” the native said as it slipped his mask back down from where it had been propped up.
“Garung's prey.
Have you stolen it?”

“What kind of prey comes with an owner? It’s whoever catches it first that becomes its owner,” Eugene said with a shrug as he dropped the corner of his cloak.

The giant wolves charged at him.

1.
Gender-neutral ‘they’ as the gender of the elf is yet unknown ☜

2.
This is a gesture often seen in Korean historical dramas where a subordinate is kneeling down in front of their master and pleading sincerely.
It has its roots in shamanistic prayer, and shares similarities with the Western practice of holding your hands together in prayer. ☜