Naphthalese immediately stopped Nell and Carlotta, who were about to bow to her, as she walked up to the two, accompanied by three elven soldiers who appeared to be her bodyguards.
"It has been a long time, my friends. I wonder how many of my troops can fight as well as you two can. Won't you come over to my kingdom instead?"
"Thank you for the invitation. But we have sworn our allegiance to this country."
"We are truly honored that Her Majesty the Queen has invited us. However, Nell is right, we are loyal to our country. I hope you understand."
"Is that so? I am sorry to hear that. Well, I guess, I'll just have to put up with what we have."
They knew that they were both joking at each other, so they exchanged a light smile as they said those words.
Nell and Carlotta had a history of going to the Elven village and helping the Elves in a major way during the previous war.
Nell, in particular, had fought a one-on-one battle with an enemy general and had healed the severely wounded Naphthalese – or, more correctly, had given up one of her many bottles of potions that had been given by the overprotective Yuki. Moreover, the affection of the elves for her was quite great.
The incident had raised the elves' favorability toward humans, in no small measure because of her.
"You all should look at these two in their match and be encouraged."
[Ye, yes!]
Actually, Queen Naphthalese was the most powerful among her current group of elves, and she was just as powerful as Nell and Carlotta, making it almost pointless for her guards to be with her. Since the three elven soldiers were weaker than the Queen.
There was no doubt that they were elite soldiers, and they were competent enough…but they themselves understood the difference in power, and so they overflowed with a wry smile.
"O hero, is that Demon King still alive and well?"
"Yes, he is still the same, living and doing what he likes every day. Just the other day, he said, 'Watch this, meadow. I'm going to turn you into a wilderness!' and so on, and he was building forests and rivers."
"…I see. I don't know if I'd call him the same as before, but I'm glad to see that he's doing well."
"…He seems to be doing some grandiose things, does he always do that?"
"Yes, he loves to build things. He makes weapons and stuff, but he also builds houses, gardens, grows trees, makes playgrounds for the kids, he creates just about anything that enters his mind."
Carlotta and Naphthalese smiled at the sight of Nell smiling so happily as she talked about her husband.
Nell asked, "Do you need something from him? I can contact him about it…"
"Yes, well, there are a few things I would certainly like to discuss. However, it is still in the planning stages, and I am not sure if I can spare a lot of time to talk to him as well as discuss it with other kings."
Naphthalese continued, "I'm thinking of holding a big festival with the other races."
"Oh, jeez, this is so terrible, so terrible I say! It was the last one!"
"Ow, ow, ow, I'm sorry, I'm sorry already! But you didn't eat it, so I thought you were full!"
"I just left it here for a minute! To enjoy it! I was looking forward to it! I wanted to savor it!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but it's just a piece of dorayaki and just because I took it, you're giving me a hard time!"
"What? You think it was nothing? How dare you take away someone's delight! You're a wicked man! Evil! You're evil!"
"Yes, I am the evil one, Yuki, the Demon Lord! Hahahaha, I'm sorry, my wife Leficios!"
And as we were arguing like that, Lyuu spoke up in exasperation, "You're twice as annoying as the rest of us!"
"Moo, you two, that's enough! Here, Lefi, you can have mine."
"Muh…! Are you okay with that?"
"I'm so full, I was just thinking about what to do with it."
"Lyuu…! You are a great member of the family! I may not be the next to give away the pastries, but I'll give you something back in spirit!"
"In spirit?"
"You shut your mouth! You wicked husband!"
"Yes, yes, I'm the evil one…"
"Don't say it twice, you already said so!"
The little girls smiled happily at the sight of us.
"You're always so serious when it comes to sweets, onee-chan!"
"Onee-chan, you love sweets, right~?"
"…Layla's sweets are so delicious, it can't be helped."
"Let me tell you a good thing, girls. Even adults enjoy what they like! To enrich your life, you should always enjoy your favorite foods and hobbies."
Layla spoke next to Lefi, who appeared to boast in vain.
"Fufufu, it's worth making because you all enjoy eating it~"
"But even so, I wonder how far Layla's skill will grow. Even with just one Dorayaki, it's already driving us to the limit."
"It is certainly on another level. Layla could be a pastry chef."
"Pastry chef…! What a wonderful name. Well, Layla. Pastry is a very deep subject, and I am sure it will satisfy your curiosity. What do you say, do you feel motivated?"
"Don't put any pressure on Layla."
While we were taking out time to relax like this, the communication ball glowed.
Whenever this activated something usually happened, so regardless of who it was from, I often treated it as an important message, so I immediately put magic power into it and activated it.
[Ah, it's connected. Onii-San, can you hear me?]
It was Nell.
"Oh, I can hear you, Nell, what's up?"
[It's not an emergency or anything like that, so everything's fine. If you have time, can you come to the royal capital?]
"Yes, sure. Is it urgent?"
"I'd be glad if you could come as soon as possible, but not right now."
"Okay, then, I'll come over there tomorrow morning. Is that okay?"
[Tomorrow will be fine. Thanks.]
"Nn, was it the King who wanted to see me?]
[The King probably wants to see you as well, but it was Naphthalese-sama who came to our country that wants to talk about something with you.]
Naphthalese was the Queen of the Elves, if I remember correctly.
So, maybe there had been some progress in the interaction between other races?