kscans

Chapter 142 - Driven by Passion

"Well, let's put the elf business aside for a moment. You two, what do you think?"

Prompted by the chairman, the Arima brothers began to observe the elf, murmuring, "Let's see." It was likely because, in many ways, they couldn't see this as somebody else's problem. For a pair of brothers who were usually so frivolous, they were being quite serious.

(What a strange thing.)

The worlds may be different, but here was a race with the same name and the same features. On top of that, in this world, they were one of the classic archetypes in fiction. If I gave it some serious thought, I felt like I might just stumble upon some grand mystery or truth of the universe...

(Frankly, I couldn't care less.)

I'm not a scholar or a researcher. All I need is for elves to be slender, beautiful women and girls. I have no intention of asking for anything more.

"Mao."

"Yeah. She's different."

"We don't even know if this one is called an elf... but she's a different creature from the race with similar features that was in our world."

"If I may, could you please tell me your reasoning?"

"There are some similarities, like the pure power similar to the unique magic of the elves we know, the length of her ears, and her excellent looks."

"But there's one point that is decisively different."

"And that is?"

"This one has small breasts."

"Wait, the elves in your world are all curvy and stacked!?"

"Yup. All the women are va, va, voom."

...That's ridiculous... Elves are supposed to have slender figures...

"And for the record, all the men are beefy."

"You're kidding me..."

"They don't use bows or anything, they mainly fight with magic and their fists."

"...I see."

If that was the case, then their reaction earlier made perfect sense.

"Um, you know how elves have a herbivorous image?"

"Not that they actually eat grass, just the image, you know, the image."

"I get it, I get it."

"But the elves in our world are more carnivorous."

"A lot of them are battle junkies, and they have this culture where after winning a fight to the death, they squeeze the opponent's corpse and shower in their blood."

"There was also a trend of making accessories out of the skulls of strong enemies."

"They also have a developed culture of eating raw meat, like what you guys call yukhoe, horse sashimi, or raw liver."

"That sounds less like an elf and more like some kind of barbarian tribe."

That's terrifying.

"But when it comes to romance, they're as timid as elementary schoolers."

So you're not carnivorous in that department.

"Um, if we could stop the elf discussion there."

"Our bad, our bad. But hey, do we even need to be here anymore?"

"Hold on, Yuichi. This girl may be from a different place, but she's still from another world, right? Shouldn't we give her at least a little support?"

"You... Spoken like a true brother, you said something good for once. You're right."

It's pretty funny that the one saying something good is a former demon king... hmm?
Pikuri, the elf-chan's eyelids twitched.
Did she wake up because we were chattering away near her bed?
Frankly, I didn't really need to be here either.
From my light probing, she seemed to be quite strong, but she didn't seem to have any hidden cards, so even if she went on a rampage, the Arima brothers could probably handle her just fine.

"＊∇……〓, §∃∨……"

Oh, well, it seems there was one thing.
It sounded like a translation spell was already active in the room, but I still couldn't understand her.

"Satou-san."

"You got it."

I deployed the conceptual barrier BABEL, which I once developed to communicate with the Arima brothers.
These kinds of conceptual spells have a way of forcing things into place, and BABEL is no exception.
Before the Tower of Babel was destroyed, all languages were one.
Which means, if Babel were still standing, all languages would be identical... something like that.
Of course, I wasn't actually building a tower.

"H, humans...!?"

It seemed to have worked.
But that aside, her reaction upon seeing us was something else.
Is this it? The classic trope where fictional elves look down on huma,

"Haha! Humans! It's humans! So, it worked! I've 'made it'!!"

"Huh!?"

The elf-chan sat up in bed and threw her arms around me.
We couldn't hide our confusion as she happily rubbed her cheek against my stomach, suri suri.
Besides,

"...Made it?"

It wasn't impossible to guess from her words so far.
In her world, humans once existed but were now gone. Or perhaps they were beings from fairy tales.
There was no doubt she had been trying to reach a place where humans existed. The problem was that place.
Was it a place in her world where humans were said to be? Or did she seek humans in another world?
If it was the latter...

"Hey lady, you..."

"Hmm? Ah, yes, I suppose this is another world from my perspective? Of course, I understand that."

Is she serious...

"That said, it was a gamble whether you truly existed, and whether I could reach you even if you did. A chance like searching for a single jewel dropped in a desert. But... I won! I won the gamble!!"

As the elf-chan let out a triumphant laugh, fuwahahahaha, we all took a step back.
Leaping between worlds on the off chance that something so uncertain might exist... she had to be insane.

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself. I am Setsuko. I'm from a race called elves, though I don't know if they exist in this world..."

"Setsuko!?"

"?"

"Ah, please excuse me... I didn't mean to make fun of you or anything."

There were a lot of things that bothered me... but that wasn't the issue right now. There were more important things I had to ask.

"I'm Satou. Satou Hideo. Well, I'm a human."

"I know that much. Satou, Satou, what a fine name."

Could you please stop rubbing your cheek on my stomach? Who is this person?

"That's my family name... but whatever. I'll call you Setsuko-chan, okay? Setsuko-chan, why did you go so far as to cross worlds for humans?"

Just because her reaction was friendly didn't mean she was safe.
There were plenty of people in this world who did crazy things without any malice... like Kawasaki.

"Yes. You see, in my world, 'humans' are a race said to have been destroyed long ago. They are depicted in murals in ancient ruins and recorded in old documents, but... to be honest, their very existence was doubted."

So they were like beings from a fairy tale.

"I was born into a family of archaeologists."

From a young age, her parents would tell her bedtime stories about the romance of ancient times.
And because of that, Setsuko-chan herself decided to pursue a path in archaeology.

"My field of expertise is... you can probably guess, can't you?"

"Humans."

"Yes. Of all the stories I was told as a child, humans were what captivated my heart the most."

"But why another world? Even if humans existed in another world, there's no guarantee they would be the same as the humans from Setsuko-chan's world, right?"

"There's a theory among scholars who believe it's not a fairy tale but the truth. That they weren't destroyed, but rather journeyed to another world."

Or that humans were beings who came from another world and perished because they couldn't adapt.
It was because of theories like that that Setsuko-chan saw an opportunity in another world.
...I was questioning her sanity more and more. The existence of humans was like a fairy tale to begin with, and so were other worlds.
Combining one fairy tale with another... she mentioned a jewel in a desert, but the odds had to be way lower than that.

"After all my searching, that was the only possibility left. In that case, I had to do it."

Even if it meant a journey from which she could never return.
As she spoke, an extraordinary obsession dwelled in Setsuko-chan's eyes.
...From the look of it, this was a one-way trip.

"I should tell you, there's no way to travel between worlds in this world."

Well, if it was just a one-way trip, I might be able to manage something, but I couldn't guarantee she'd end up in the world she wanted...

"What, it's no problem. I stole several national treasures in order to cross worlds. If I went back, I'd just be executed."

You stole national treasures!? You're a criminal!

"Besides, if I could reach a world with humans, I intended to live there anyway."

Why was she so obsessed with humans?
As Setsuko-chan rubbed her cheek against me even more fiercely, as if overwhelmed with emotion, I was truly, deeply put off.

"Hah... This is divine... The short ears, the plain looks that far exceed my imagination..."

Hey, who are you calling plain-looking. You want to die?

"...It's the best."

My murderous intent vanished in an instant. Why?
Because in her eyes, I saw the simmering, blazing flames of lust.
Wait, hold on a second. Then what? The reason she crossed worlds in search of humans was,

"...A fetish?"

I'm sure we were all looking at her as if she were some unknowable monster.