I Didn’t Even Want to Live, But God Forced Me to Reincarnate!

A pair of elves stood before me; their beauty was just like the other elves I’ve seen ever since I entered the kingdom of elves. Well, all elves were youthful and beautiful, but there were several outstanding elves among them. However, this pair was considered ordinary among the elves, I guess.
What I noticed first was how the woman’s pair of eyes were like Eneida’s—yellow just like the sun. But none of their hair was light green, just like Eneida’s.
Anyway, they were surely Eneida’s parents. And I was glad to see they looked to be doing well.
There was no sign of them being exiled or shunned, based on their physical appearances and their house’s condition.
“Who are you people? What do you want?”
The pair had guarded looks on their faces, clearly our presence wasn’t welcome.
I was confused since our arrival here was welcomed with great fanfare, so why would they ask that…?
Well, come to think of it…
It didn’t seem like all villagers went out to join the merry.
Maiara took out a token that identified herself as a representative of the royal and the pair looked to be taken aback and… they became warier?!
“We are Eneida’s friends…,” I said, just in case they misunderstood and thought that we were here to judge them for what happened to Eneida.
The two of them quickly looked at me when I began to speak, and when my sentence was barely finished, they quickly became agitated.
“We don’t have anything to do about what happened to her!”
“We don’t have anything to do with her!”
The two of them quickly said.
We were taken aback hearing their words.
“But Eneida is your daughter, isn’t she?” Carbuncle asked.
“What daughter?” The woman that was supposed to be Eneida’s mother said with an irritated face.
“Our daughter has died,” her husband stated.
“We just interacted with your daughter not too long ago, though?” Clavis said.
“What? Our daughter has drawn her last breath a few years ago after that unfortunate incident,” The man said.
“Yes, but your eldest daughter survived and is now in a very bad predicament—” The irritated Ein couldn’t finish his sentence as he was quickly interrupted.
“That monster isn’t our daughter!” The woman became hysterical.
“Look, I know you’re frightened by her curse. But you must think of her. She’s the one who suffers the most because of the cu—” Carbuncle started to get pissed off and said before her words were quickly cut off.
“We only have one daughter. And she’s gone,” The man said without any hesitation.
“I see you’re talking about
huh? She’s not our daughter anymore the moment she’s declared as the saintess… But then again, she is no saintess. She is just a monster who killed my baby!” The woman said.
“What?!” Carbuncle was agitated.
“Your daughter was killed by the landslide, not by your other daught—Eneida,” Ein said with a cold expression.
“Lies! She’s clearly a malicious monster who’s jealous of her younger sister! She’s jealous of her because we love her sister more than her! But what can we do? She’s already been living her life gaining the love and respect from everyone here. Even if we’re the ones who birthed her, we had to pay respect to her! Of course, we’d love her adorable younger sister more, for we can care and love her as a daughter!” The woman snapped like a mad person.
“That one… that one asked my baby to play with her and after that, she’s in a critical condition! As if it’s not enough, when we
that monster to save our baby with her special power, she let her baby sister die instead of saving her!!” The woman gritted her teeth and planted her fingers to her skin in her fury.
“…”
My mind went blank and my eyes turned blurry.
It was too much for me to take in.
It went beyond my wildest imagination.
Eneida was no monster.
She was a kind, innocent girl who suffered a horrible fate.
I wonder if Eneida knew what her parents thought of her… Aah, I guess she must have known.
For she had never really mentioned her parents or even said that she wanted to meet her parents…
Even when she knew we’d be going to her hometown, she didn’t try to inquire about her parents or give us any message to pass to her parents.
We were too taken aback to react when Eneida’s parents slammed the door.
“No wonder the high priest Eliandruel’s expression turned funny when we brought up meeting Eneida’s parents,” Ein broke the silence.
“They have refused our request to meet them before… I thought it was due to their grief, but I see. That’s how it is…,” Maiara muttered.
“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like we will gain any information here, then. Based on what they said, Eneida hasn’t really spent her time at her home. Our chance is better if we’re in the temple,” Ein said.
“I swear, other races—”
Carbuncle was about to rant about other races and compare them with the dragonkin again, so I quickly covered her mouth.
“Let’s go investigate the place of the incident, then?” Maiara asked.
“Right, we haven’t gone and checked it ourselves due to the festivities of the welcome,” Clavis said as if he just remembered.
I was expecting us to stop by the temple or the chief’s house to ask for direction or for anyone to escort us, but unexpectedly, Maiara pulled a magical map and led us directly to the place of the incident.
“Maiara, have you been here before?” I asked.
“Why, yes,” Maiara nodded.
“To investigate Eneida’s case?” I asked again.
“Hmmm… No. It’s been so long I forgot…,” Maiara smiled bitterly.
“It’s fine! But then, you know the place of the incident?” I asked again.
“The royal investigation bureau lent this magical map to us. There’s a marker for the place of the incident, and we will arrive there as long as we follow the map,” Maiara said as she glanced towards the floating map.
We passed through the forest at the hill.
During our journey to the indicated place, we encountered several children who were running around, playing.
At a place slightly further from the village, there was an intimidating danger line that separated us from a slope that clearly had the remnants of a landslide happening quite some time ago.
“This must be the place…,” Clavis muttered as he stepped forward, over the danger line, and quickly examined stuff around the area.
“Be careful… Ralph…,” I said, feeling anxious as I saw Clavis crossing over the obvious danger line.
“Don’t worry, I don’t feel like there will be another landslide,” Clavis just said.
“Oh, you can tell that?” Maiara asked in her genuine curiosity.
“Well, I’ve got pretty sharp instinct here, unlike my
here, right?” Clavis said as he quickly grabbed Ein who was just right behind him, and put his hand over Ein’s shoulder, clearly portraying a pair of brothers… Only that Ein and Clavis’ smiles were too stiff and harbored a bit of… anger towards each other?
“That’s pretty amazing,” Maiara said.
Carbuncle also followed the two boys to enter the site of incident as she started to look around seriously.
Previously, she had a carefree attitude and she seemed to think of this as a vacation.
Perhaps Eneida’s parents infuriated her so much that she was more motivated to help the poor girl?
I felt the same way, but to think that they’d ignore the danger line and go straight away…
The ones not crossing over the line yet were just me and Maiara.
Maiara seemed to sense my hesitation and anxiety, for she quickly said, “Worry not. Even if another landslide were to occur, I am confident enough in my power to shield all of us from the danger.”
I guess I now understood what the teachers meant by ‘the freeze response that could activate in front of danger’.
We were looking around for quite some time, Clavis and Carbuncle even went as far as digging things up.
Maiara was alarmed when the two began to dig around the area, but she just sighed and didn’t stop it.
“It’s been a long time already and they haven’t been able to find any new clue. Maybe that’s why they didn’t bother guarding this place anymore. And maybe that’s why Maiara just let the two of them mess the site of incident up,” Ein whispered to me.
Despite Clavis’ sharper sense as a wolf beastman—or werebeast, even—…
Despite Ein’s photographic memory and strong analytical mind…
Despite the fact that Carbuncle’s a dragon…
Despite the fact that Maiara had lived for a long time and with numerous experiences…
And despite my trying to use my skills as well as consulting Fenrir as we were looking around…
Despite all our efforts combined, we still weren’t able to find anything odd or unsettling about the place. Not even a faint trace of magic or curse could be felt.
The moment we realized that it was useless to search around this area anymore, all of us sighed in unison.
“Shall we head back to the temple?” Maiara asked.
“I’m quite exhausted, yeah, I guess…,” I said.
“Crossing out this area, our best bet in finding any new information is the temple where Eneida has been living in for all her life,” Ein stated.
“Not like there’s anywhere else left for us to look around, though,” Clavis said to Ein, seemingly about to pick fight with Ein.
The two boys locked eyes and there seemed to be spark around them…
Not a spark in
sense, but a battle spark!!
[Side Quest: Solve Eneida’s Case – Next Step: Investigate the Temple!]
Yep, I just tried to think of this as a side quest in a game so I won’t feel as anxious, but still…
Perhaps out of concern to Eneida, I wasn’t able to calm down, still…
For my heart desperately asked for any clue that could help the poor girl that was called as a monster by her own parents…