The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

"Reward?"

Shien stopped moving.

It couldn't be helped.

"… It can't be something like the reward is yourself, right?"

Those words were only lightly murmured, but on the quiet path, it was unusually clear.

"Eh?" Melika was stunned for a moment before replying in a panic, "N-No. It's not like that!"

It looks like this elven girl was quite clear what he meant by that.

"Then, what did you mean exactly?"

Shien turned back around, showing an interested expression.

"Um…" Melika seemed to be feeling rather awkward under Shien's gaze. After hesitating for a while, she finally pointed to the woods nearby and spoke quietly, "Can you follow me over there?"

When he heard that, Shien ended up overreacting a little.

"The woods?"

Instantly, Shien felt like a few hundred CGs flashed through his mind.

Melika, who didn't know that Shien's reasoning was close to collapsing, started walking toward the direction of the woods. At the same time though, her gaze still kept wandering over to where Markray was.

"Can we really just leave him here alone like this?"

Melika seemed to still be somewhat worried.

"Of course." Shien rolled his eyes at her, "Don't mind him anymore. Besides, he's someone who had and is still trying to harm you, so why are you even worried about someone like that?"

Rather, if this was a book with some OP protagonist, when someone like that appeared, they were generally canon fodder who solely appeared to be crushed by the protagonist. They'd be minor characters designed to give the protagonist a chance to show off and earn the love of beautiful girls. Generally, they wouldn't live past 10 chapters. All Shien did was teach this particular one a lesson. Compared to similar protagonists, he was already being exceptionally kind there.

Of course, that was also because Shien's relationship with Melika wasn't all that great. They couldn't even be called friends, only acquaintances that happen to be members in the same party. A temporary party member at that. Plus, Melika wasn't like Vivian and Diere who cared for Shien, so Shien only taught Markray a lesson out of being unable to stomach his behavior.

If the person that Markary had targeted was Shien's lover or wife though…

Instantly, another few hundred CGs flashed through Shien's mind. Only this time, those CG weren't ones with a pinkish aura, but bloody red.

"Gah… !"

Markray who was still hung from the tree reacted. Perhaps he was being tortured in a nightmare, or maybe he felt a strange chill, but he unconsciously shuddered and let out an unclear scream.

Although Melika did have some worries about Markray's condition, but whether it was because she remembered this particular incident or the previous time she was pestered by Markray, in the end, she just lowered her head and left without a word into the bushes.

Shien followed without particularly hurrying.

That place was left with just Markray hanging alone. He swung slightly with a slightly hypnotic motion.

…

On the other side, Shien had followed Melika into the woods.

However, not long after they entered the woods, Melika had stopped and knelt down onto the ground.

No, with that particular pose, although one can call it kneeling, she in fact had both knees on the ground. She looked like a little animal, with her hands on the ground holding her up.

"…"

Shien who was walking behind her froze right there. As he looked at Melika who suddenly got down on all fours, with that cute and alluring peach pointed in his direction, his face started to twitch.

What is this?

Is this an invitation?

It's an invitation, right?

It's an invitation!

As expected, it really is something like that! The reward is herself, right!?

No no no. This is already beyond that. Is it really find to go with that kind of position starting out?

Just as Shien was having a hard time keeping himself under control, a strange phenomenon was happening over with Melika.

"————Oh faeries, answer me————"

With a dreamy incantation, Melika started releasing magic power from her hands into the ground.

It was a very gentle, warm, and refreshing flow of magic power. With it, in the area around where Melika's hands were, a number of flowers started growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This is?"

Shien was stunned.

Right away, Shien remembered.

"I seem to have read about something like this in a book."

It was a chronicle about the elven race.

According to it, among the many mortal races, elves were not only a noble and magical race with outstanding beauty, their own compatibility with magic was also immensely high. Thus, they were greatly admired and respected by the other races.

Due to their great magical talents, elves were basically all natural born mages. They could use all kinds of magic, and their own magic power were also far greater than the other races, to the point where they could match even the demons. Thus, elves were one of the races particularly beloved by the gods, and most of them could get the blessing of a high class god. The elven royalty have also birthed several existences who have gained the blessing from one of the three great goddesses, and quite a few of them have also fought alongside the Heroes from other worlds. Thus was born many stories and legends about such things.

Since those elves were born from nature, their compatibility with nature was also extremely high. Thus, their magic power has a certain quality to it that no other races do.

And that was that their magic power contained a high density of life energy. It could even affect the nearby environment to stimulate and speed up the growth of plants.

At this moment, Melika seems to be doing something like that.

"Please wait a moment."

Not long after, Melika stopped, turned around, and showed Shien a smile.

It must be said, that smile was really not good. Seriously not good.

That scene of a pure and beautiful elf girl siting in a field of flowers turning to show a smile. Besides not good, how else could Shien describe it?

Melika who didn't notice any of that started picking a number of flowers along with the stem. Then, with practiced motions, she started binding them together.

As he watched, Shien soon understood what Melika was trying to do.

"Are you making a flower crown for me?"

Shien asked her.

"Y-yes." Melika nodded and murmured, "Although it's my first time doing it, I'm quite clear on how to do it."

That was because it was something that any elf could do.

Since elves were close to nature and are a kind and conservative race, when someone of another race had gained their recognition, they would use their own magic power to grow flowers infused with magic power, make them into a flower crown, and then gift them as a sign of their appreciation or closeness.

Those flower crowns had magic power constantly circulating though them, so they wouldn't wilt or change even after 10 or 20 years.

Having a flower crown like that basically meant that the holder had gained the trust or thanks of an elf. In the mortal world, it was quite a status symbol.

In human kingdoms, there were even nobility would would spend enormous amounts of gold to collect elven the flower crowns. That just showed how great the meanings of those flower crowns were.

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