Volume 4, Chapter 14 – This Unreasonable World

A world of darkness.

For Seles, who from the moment she was born came into being in this Underground World that was forever shrouded in darkness, her very birth was, in fact, a kind of sin.

An elf born from an unclean, fallen ancient tree was an unclean existence from the very start. Her fate would be cursed, and her whole life would be spent living amid betrayal and schemes.

And she was such an existence.

A filthy, evil world… from the moment Seles was born, she was filled with despair toward this world.

Cold.

Violence.

Sin.

Corruption.

“So-called Dark Elves are those who will forever walk with darkness, never to see the light.”

This was the final curse upon Dark Elves, and also the life that Seles was destined to live.

However… was a life like this, just a life like this, really alright?

The young Seles refused to believe in the Dark Elves’ fate. When the other Dark Elves chose to cast themselves into the dark, Seles chose instead to try to seek out the light, to embrace the light.

Despair and such ought not to be forcibly branded onto her. Her own life absolutely must not bow its head to this inexplicable curse of despair.

Naive little Seles, holding a faith that yearned for the light more devout than that of a Paladin, stepped onto a path leading away from darkness.

Just like that, this weak Dark Elf who wanted to embrace the light became a misfit among the Dark Elves.

And once she became a misfit, she naturally had to be treated differently. This was something she had to endure as an outsider, shunned by the group.

So…

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From an unknown day onward, the Dark Elf who longed for the light somehow became an existence that Dark Elves, and even Cavemen, could easily bully and humiliate.

However…

The Dark Elf who carried light in her heart still yearned for a warmth completely different from the chill of the Underground World.

She believed that the world was not only darkness. She secretly fantasized that there were also beautiful existences in this world that could bring people warmth.

But… was the world really like that?

Day after day of bullying.

Not only did her body suffer wounds, but the heart of this weak Dark Elf kept being hurt again and again.

It hurts so much…

It hurts so much…

It hurts so much…

Whether it was her heart or her body, every moment, it throbbed faintly with pain.

However… Even so… the girl would still foolishly believe that one day she would be saved by the light, that the light would take her out of this endless darkness and heal the countless wounds she already had.

The young Seles believed that.

Then one day, this frail Dark Elf suddenly heard a piece of news.

“Not far from the Mohayda underground city, there is actually a gate that leads to the Surface World.”

The Surface World…

Even while she was being insulted and humiliated, when the young elf girl heard this news, she felt as if she had seized a ray of light called hope.

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The elf girl who had never seen the Surface World before began to long to go to the Surface World. Seles, who had never seen the sun, inexplicably gave rise to a strong wish to see sunlight.

Driven by this wish that already sounded particularly humble just from hearing it… the girl set off all alone, leaving the underground city behind and stepping onto a journey to search for that gate which led to the Surface World.

At that time, Seles was very weak.

So weak that Cavemen could do whatever they liked to her. So weak that she could not resist any existence that held ill will toward her. So weak that on the road to finding that gate, she became extremely frail under the harsh environment.

“Am I… sick?”

Her forehead was burning, and in Seles’s vision, all the things around her that had once seemed perfectly normal began to twist into bizarre shapes.

Her feeble breathing grew heavier, and as something went wrong with her body, the world began spinning without stopping.

“So… I will not see the light, even if I die?”

The young Seles did not understand much of anything, but from the state of her body, she more or less understood one fact.

She… was already at her limit.

Her heart was still beating, yet even she could no longer feel that faint thudding.

She still had consciousness, but it was as if she could no longer move her own body to take even a single step forward.

However… if things were to end like this, could she really accept it?

Seles clearly had not yet seen the light, had not yet experienced the warm scenery of the Surface World… if she were to die such an unwilling death, could she really accept that?

Even if… even if it were just one glance…

If it were possible, please let her see it properly… the warmth of this world.

For no reason at all, the girl’s consciousness suddenly cleared.

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Her body felt lighter, and her heartbeat grew strong.

It was as if a ball of fire had ignited in her heart. She did not know what that was, but the young Seles understood that right now was her last chance to search for that gate…

Her will became firm in a way it had never been, and the darkness in her vision was clearer than it had ever been.

As she took one step after another, moving forward, within the girl’s thoughts there was only one very straightforward idea left.

“Find that gate.”

“Definitely… I definitely have to find that gate.”

Her footsteps never stopped, and her gaze never wavered.

As she slowly walked forward through the dark for who knew how long, in the very end, Seles finally found that legendary gate said to lead to the Surface World.

“If I push it open, will I be able to see the sun?”

The weak Dark Elf timidly pushed the gate, and in those pitch-black, lifeless eyes of hers, one could faintly see a glimmer of light called hope.

The girl, full of expectation… pushed the gate open.

However….

What entered the girl’s vision… was not at all the world with a sun that she had imagined…

It was

Snow…

Snow, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The entire Surface World was covered by rolling black clouds, and endless snowflakes were gently, silently drifting down.

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Cold.

At this moment, the world beyond the gate was unimaginably cold.

It was clearly a world much brighter than the Underground World, yet it did not contain the warmth she had dreamed of at all.

On the contrary… it was an even deeper cold than the Underground World, and that whole field of dead, ashen white…

The biting wind howled as it blew.

And from the eyes of this Dark Elf girl, eyes that no longer held any light, tears slowly began to slide down, strand by strand.

“What is this… what is this… if it is such a world… if it is such a world…”

There was no salvation from light, as she had dreamed.

There was no warmth that could heal people’s hearts, as she had dreamed.

Instead… there was a chill that pierced straight into her heart.

This world was just this unreasonable, and the reality was exactly like this. So Dark Elves were destined never to receive salvation.

The young elf girl…

This Dark Elf who wanted to embrace warmth.

That heart of hers which had seemed as if it would never be stained by darkness…

Finally…

Changed.