NOVEL WEB Chapter 6
Pulled outside against her will by the man’s arm, Eleina’s eyes began to regain their vitality for some reason.
Because he had gotten angry on her behalf.
At least she thought he would see her as a person.
Despite the word “forced” being meaningless, she obediently followed him.
Yet, her suspicions remained unshaken.
At first, she doubted if he was just saying nice things to get her to follow him.
Eleina suspected the man, and it didn’t take long for him to notice.
She wondered when he might suddenly change.
Perhaps he just wore a calculated smile and goodwill like everyone else.
She couldn’t hide her suspicions and resentment.
However, Eleina still followed the man.
There was nowhere else for her to be.
There were no places she should rightfully belong to, no hometown, nothing existed anymore.
Only the memories of the forest, disregard, and the twisted roots of dark intentions were left.
*
Eleina suspected the man.
‘… Yum.’
No, she had suspected him.
She doubted him until she felt the warm aromatics of a savory soup envelop her palate.
Shivering in the cold, she doubted him until she felt his warm hold on her trembling hands.
She doubted him until she saw his warm motherly smile and felt the small kindness he had shown her.
But those doubts shattered far too easily.
Like dust swept away in the mix of air above the ground.
Eleina no longer suspected him.
For the first time, everything he did for her without asking for anything in return felt incredibly warm and comforting.
He freed Eleina from her chains, offered her food, and gifted her a warm place to sleep.
A love she had never received even from her parents, a kindness never experienced from others; the poor elf who had to live shackled for her life.
In her moment of darkness, the man became her savior.
*
In truth, what Keyal did for her was nothing extraordinary. He had ample resources and rescued her out of pity.
He treated her like an ordinary person, even though she saw herself as a slave.
It really was nothing special. He fed her, helped her bathe, and let her sleep.
Seeing her shiver in the cold, he held her hands a couple of times.
That was all it was.
That was all it was, yet Eleina, the young elf, accepted it as a hand of salvation.
To the elf who wished to abandon everything, it was a divine calling, the pillar that kept her spirit steady, and the man Keyal himself became Eleina’s very life.
The broken elf wished for just two things.
Keyal… even if she were to be abandoned, she yearned to be someone useful to her master until the end.
And she wanted to strive towards that goal.
*
The elf realized that he was the leader of the New Hero Guild.
…She meticulously noted every single detail of his daily routine—sleeping, eating, using the bathroom, bathing, lying down, resting her head on a pillow, and covering herself with a blanket.
She tolerated no gaps.
What time he fell asleep, what time he ate, how many little bites he took…
How many times he curled, turned, and squirmed while falling asleep and waking up under the covers…
How many times he breathed in a day, how many times he exhaled…
How many times, how many times, how many times, how many times, how many times, how many times, how many times, how many times…
Eleina recorded everything in detail.
She vowed she would do anything for him.
She resolved she could be anything for him.
Thus, she vaguely deduced that as the head of the New Hero Guild, he was recruiting heroes.
Eleina, the daughter of the Elf Tribe Leader, could never erase the evidence of her being born and living until now as the daughter of the tribe leader, despite her tarnished past.
Once, she had a desire to tear off her own ears, but not now.
Each time she walked through the market, the glances directed at her and her master, seeing him as a remarkable person just like everyone else, and their whispers made her ears perk up, feeling her heart race uncontrollably.
In contrast, she felt anxious and restless whenever he returned.
Having lived as an elf, her ability to use elemental magic was unchanged from past to present.
Moreover, her elemental magic was on a different level from ordinary elves, being a high elf, the daughter of the tribe leader.
Eleina was aware of that, but she found it hard to speak up, so she confessed she wanted to be a hero.
His warm smile from their first meeting, as he patted her head, melted her away.
*
A whole year passed.
To an elf who had lived for a long time, it felt incredibly short, but for Eleina, the events of this past year were far more significant than the meaningless decades that had gone by before.
After all, the past year was the first time she had done something worthwhile.
Eleina recalled those challenging days when she had strived for her master.
She diligently trained her elemental magic and honed her combat skills to provide help for him.
Though it was tough and exhausting, she stood up again.
For that one person in this world, if she could prove useful and needed by him, she could endure anything.
She had to prove her worth.
To stay by his side, she needed to raise her value and grow to the point where it could be measured.
As long as she could be by her master’s side, even if he saw her as a tool like a disgusting piece of trash, she wouldn’t care.
He, who had pulled her from the pitch-black darkness, had become her deity, the entity she had to serve, worship, and praise.
He was her salvation, the driving force that made her able to do anything.
It ran deeper than pure affection and thicker than love itself.
If he wanted, she could be a friend.
If he wanted, she could be a parent or a child.
If he wanted, she could joyfully become a lover or a wife.
If he wanted, she could be a paradise that would embrace everything about him.
Her overwhelming devotion to him, more viscous and sticky than love, elevated Eleina the high elf’s worth.
To ensure he wouldn’t abandon her.
Even if she were to be discarded, that was okay.
As long as he remembered her as an insignificant being in his memories, that was enough.
She thought that was how it was.
But Eleina found herself once again succumbing to an insatiable greed.
She tried her best to be by his side.
She accepted everything about him. However, because she loved him beyond all that, she buried feelings deep in her heart—emotions she must never let her holy master sense.
The love she had for him, rooted in her being so frail and filthy, would crush her if he noticed.
She prayed, kneeling in her place, she clasped her hands in prayer. Closing her eyes, she looked up to the sky.
It wasn’t merely to beg some deity.
It was an apology to herself for falling in love with the god she had, knowing it to be an impossible and forbidden love.
It was praying to her master.
‘Oh… oh my master… Please forgive me for having such disgusting thoughts regarding someone as great as you… And understand me… Please don’t hate me for having no choice but to love you… I don’t care if you treat me harshly, slap me, or step on me… Just let me stay by your side… I hope I can have even a tiny chance to be loved by you, that you look at me with at least a fraction of the fervent love I have for you… Oh, my sweet master… My kind and compassionate master… Even with the tattoos of demonic energy on your body, you wear a calm smile… Please forgive me… And love me bit by bit, little by little…’
With tears in her eyes, she knelt like a sinner.
Did the sky listen to her humble plea?
*
…She was, the elf was, abandoned by the master she adored.
In an instant, her master vanished, with no traces of magic or any remnants left behind.
It felt as if everything had been erased and completely severed,
‘Oh… ah… Master…?’
The elf’s pupils trembled violently.
There was no sign of her master anywhere. No traces remained of the half-beast Keyal Kralin.
There was no longer any reason for her to live.