"…"
"Phew…"
He sighed in relief as it seemed like no one was hitting or beating or out for vengeance at him at the moment. It was like playing Russian Roulette whenever he had to transfer into a new world. Would he die right then or later?
Anyway, he was just glad to open his eyes to a peaceful sight. His eyes dashed around with amazement and interest, looking at the earthy decor of the room. This was a tree house, more precisely, a house inside of a tree.
The tree was hollow with a wooden door to connect the outdoor and the interior with two little round windows at the sides. The inside was simple with only a wooden bed, a closet, a small round table with one chair, and a lot of weapons.
There was a spiral staircase in the middle which lead to the second floor that was full of scrolls and more weapons from axes, crossbows, swords, and many more. There was also a small balcony to make this treehouse less stuffy.
"…Cute! Even if it's kinda crude, still livable. It seems like this body usually cooked outside." He noticed a fireplace with grilled fish through the round window near the door. Moving his eyes up a little, there were similar houses made from gigantic trees just like his place.
It was morning when he opened his eyes to this world, and people in those cute houses started to get up to get to work. They walked out of the house and greeted their neighbors familiarly with bright faces. The chattering was lively and friendly despite the early morning.
'Are they all morning people?'
Their clothes were in earthy colors, green, brown, white,… like one with nature. Some wore skirt-length shirts and some just wore simple white shirts with brown pants.
One of his eyebrows raised as he looked at the distinctive features of the people walking around. First of all, their appearances were beautiful and very Western with their high nose bridge and deep set of eyes. Second, their hair and eye colors really varied from person to person. Third, their ears were long and pointy at the tip!
"E-elf? Whoa! This is my first time to be an elf!" He immediately grabbed his ears to feel the shapes. To his satisfaction, it was indeed pointy and he really became an elf.
He did travel to the Western worlds a couple of times. But he mainly played as the evil duke, a useless prince, and even a peasant that would offend the main leads somehow. Well, he always stayed near humans and rarely had the chance to meet other mythical beings like dragons, elves, vampires, etc.
Before opening the door, he decided to check the plot first to at least know his name.
This elf was named Aeson Caiqen. Surprisingly, he turned nineteen this year but his height was a bit... missing.
"Is it deliberate? Ever since I met him, I kept getting into these small bodies..." With how his lover tampered with the system, he felt like it was a big possibility...
However, despite his small stature, his agility and physical strength were no joke. Aeson was actually an elf assassin in this peaceful elf village! It was all due to this village containing a very special being, special to all elves and nature, the World Tree. Therefore, the elves here needed to have high combat ability to protect the World Tree by dividing themselves into different classes and groups.
His duty was mainly to collect information about the outside world and if it would affect the well-being of the creatures in the forest. He only attacked the intruders in silence if they dared poach the World Tree.
Aeson was actually an orphaned elf, who was kidnapped by poachers from another Elf village when he was five. Then, he was rescued by the elves of the World Tree village. Feeling grateful, he always worked hard on any tasks they asked to repay his debt.
"Aw... And he just had to meet the female lead." The new Aeson sighed at the pathetic death of this little elf.
This world was a reverse harem with four big fish swimming around the female lead. The female lead was actually a novel reader, who transmigrated into a very little background character called Lucile Roth in the Aether Empire. The original Luciel Roth, daughter of count Roth, was deemed to be the most beautiful woman on the continent but met a pitiful fate by dying at the hands of her husband. Her husband suffered from paranoia and inferiority whenever people directed their gaze at Luciel Roth.
So the transmigrated female lead wanted to escape that engagement by finding the male lead of the story, stealing the spot of the true female lead. She offered a contractual marriage to the Duke of North, Angus Barrera, knowing that he originally wanted a wife to shut his vassals up.
The true female lead was a runaway saint of the neighboring country. After snatching her position, the saint's whereabouts were unknown.
The current Luciel Roth was a fan of the strong and aloof Angus Barrera. However, contrary to her expectation, she was not treated the same as the true female lead. The Duke was distant and rarely interacted with her at the beginning, treating this relationship as required in the contract. Luciel Roth felt neglected because even though the servants were polite, they were not loyal to her like the saint.
"... Maybe she felt lonely in this new world? Should I give her a benefit of the doubt?" Aeson tried to empathize with her because he too was in the same situation. However, her living condition was thousands of times better than his when he first transmigrated. Ah... he still remembered his first world but not the world that he originally came from.
Anyway, she snuck out to explore the town that she had no chance to explore before her marriage. Then there was a suspicious person she stumbled upon on the night street. Feeling curious and fearless, she decided to follow them.
"Another one that likes to sneak out of their house... Is she stupid or brave for following them without having any combat skills?" Aeson frowned at this transmigrator that seemed to think that she was invincible in the world of a novel.
That was when she met another fish, the slave that the true female lead helped escape from the slave ring. Remembering that this slave was a powerful character that helped protected the true female lead in any circumstances, she bought the slave and named him Gaius just like in the novel. After being brought home, she cared for him by giving him new clothes and food, even teaching him to read and write. Gaius began to worship her as his master.
This world also had magic and it could be determined through the magic tower in the capital. The original Luciel Roth had very little information in the book so she wanted to try and see her powers. So, she traveled to the capital with several guards and Gaius with her. During this journey, their relationship improved after a bandit attack, and how Luciel treated him with care.
Finally arriving at the destination, it was the third big fish, the next candidate for the Master of the magic tower. Alfred Finch was a free spirit, not caring much about responsibility but with his immense magic power and large mana pool, he was undoubtedly the most powerful wizard on the whole continent.
To Luciel's disappointment, she had no talent in magic. But Alfred, who was overseeing the test after hearing about her beauty, noticed some other powers within her. It intrigued his playful and curious nature so he approached her to inquire about that power.
Luciel then learned that she had some kind of power generated from nature, not mana. Then they became friends in a cat and dog relationship, the girl was serious and studious while the other was carefree.
After having such a fruitful encounter, she had to go back to the North, promising to write to Alfred. But on her way back, she was kidnapped! The Duke was a powerful man with many enemies. Due to his lone wolf nature, he never held anyone dear to his heart so he had almost no weakness. After the news of him taking in a wife, the enemies deemed her as their target.
Waking up in a strange carriage, she panicked but decided to use her limited power of nature to burn the robe tying her and ran out of the kidnapper's campsite. She ran into the forest to meet the last big fish.
"Oh... This big fish is someone Aeson knew." Aeson rubbed his chins with his fingers, showing an expression of interest.
The elf king, Kiirion Aebanuse, was in a critical situation after stopping the World Tree poachers' ambush by lighting the forest on fire. In the original story, the elf king only appeared briefly to contact the saint. He was the king of all elves, capable of controlling nature to a certain extent, and the person who saved Aeson. He usually wore an expressionless face making him have a holy image combined with the elf beauty. One glance of his could take a person's soul away.
Luciel looked at his state and tried to find herbs to heal him for three days and three nights. It made him grateful for her help. He invited her back to his village and treated her as a special guest as a thank you. He even let her go into the World Tree territory and stayed in his treehouse. A bird was sent to the Duke of North to inform him of her situation.
Luciel thanked them for their hospitality and left with the Duke's escort. Kiirion often times sent her some jewels through birds and contacted her with his natural powers.
Unbeknownst to anyone, a World Tree fruit was in her possession.
"The reason for the little elf's demise, the selfish heroine." Aeson sighed at the ignorance of the transmigrated girl who thought she did no wrong. To be honest, this Luciel seemed to treat everything as fiction with no consequences for her own action.
She tried to see if this powerful fruit would help her expand her nature power but it was of no use. She even confided in the third fish, Alfred, but there was nothing he could find to help her power. So, instead of giving it back to the elf village, she gifted it to Alfred, making him astonished at her generosity and his interest in her change in a different way.
What about Angus? After her kidnap, he increased the protection around her and observed her more closely than before, but he did not get close for fear of people thinking she was important to him. With this, he got to learn about her better and slowly opened his heart.
Angus was actually investigating the disappearance of the people in the slums throughout the Empire. With Luciel's free nature and her sneaking out tendency, she also stumbled upon the reason for the disappearances. It was the Demon King cult, who wanted to sacrifice people to revive him back to life.
One of the cult's leaders spotted Luciel and her powers, it was extremely nutritious for the Demon King. They targeted her from then on where she had to be in many close-to-death situations with the fish school saving her from time to time.
In the end, they managed to eradicate the cult and built a memorial for the victims. Luciel and Angus's relationship improved and they turned out to be a truly loving couple.
Oh, and what about Aeson? He was sent to ask about her involvement with the World Tree fruit since she was one of the few humans to have seen the World Tree. Not wanting to soil her good relationship with the Kiirion, she screamed for help, telling the fish that he was an assassin sent by the Demon King cult. This was also her chance to prove how strong and brave she had become by using her powers to slash his throat so he could not speak.
Alfred was proud of her growing power, he helped her get rid of Aeson because he did not want to sully the pure beauty with anyone's blood. Aeson died a pathetic death and Luciel had no remorse for a background character.
"... What if one of them is my husband... At this point in time, they have all met Luciel and had an interest in her... Hmph! If he dared bat his eyes on another woman, this life and the next we will never meet again!!" Just imagining it made Aeson's blood boil. His face was flushed red with his cheeks puffed up. His fist was also clenched as he looked at the machete hanging on the wall.
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"Brrr... Suddenly I have goosebumps." A person looked up and shuddered for unknown reasons. They rubbed their bumpy skin and felt a dread upcoming to their head. A sense of loss appeared out of nowhere.
"Sir? Are you alright?" Another person standing on the other side of the desk asked with worry.
"... I'm fine, continue your work." The person waved the other away, trying to shake off this uneasy feeling.