BXBX NOVEL Chapter 587: Why an Island?
Chapter 587: Why an Island?
Eguchi Ren: Sorry for being late (sweats)
Gumihou: No problem, we are ecstatic to have you with us~~
After the High Elves left the village, I continued my preparations for the pork Katsu while making the marinating sauce for Karaage.
I was almost done with the prep work when the High Elves returned.
“We have returned with the Cockatrices!” Jorgen announced as he reached into his [Item Box], pulled out four huge birds and stacked them on top of each other.
“… that’s pretty big…” I said faintly, were these really Cockatrices? Are they some kind of mutant type? They were at least twice as large as the ones I know.
“Ah~ that’s right, the Cockatrices on this island are pretty big.”
“It’s not just the Cockatrice, other monsters are large too~ Fufun~ Ah, this reminds me of the time we first landed on this island.”
“That’s right, we were very surprised by the size of the monsters we saw on this island,” said another female High Elf.
I guess that just means more meat per kill for these super-efficient hunters, so, a good thing?
Wait…
Am I supposed to dismantle these Cockatrices?
I guess it’s not impossible, since I had already dismantled them before, but these were bigger. Not to mention, there were four of them! Someone else should do it, right?
Let’s just get someone else to do it. They wanted to eat Karaage, right? so, let them do the dismantling.
I coughed and said, “So, um, about the dismantling…”
Luckily, the High Elf next to Jorgen took the hint and said, “Jorgen, you idiot~ how could you just hand over the dead birds like that?”
Somehow, this ended up with Jorgen being heckled by the rest of the High Elves. Eventually, the three couples (grrr) carried the four Cockatrices away on their shoulders.
“Do not worry, human. We shall take care of the dismantling now,” said the tallest High Elf.
The regular Cockatrice was already large enough to my eye, but these birds were too huge. However, the High Elves carried the birds away without much trouble. Even the female High Elves were shockingly strong.
[1] Since I was done with most of my work, I had nothing better to do and followed the High Elves as they made their way towards a shack that was basically a roof with no walls. There were knives and a workbench, so I guess this was where they did their dismantling?
With practised hands, they tied up the Cockatrice by the legs and strung them up on hooks. After that, they cut the necks of the Cockatrices to drain their blood.
Once all the blood was drained, the High Elves plucked and collected the feathers with practised skill.
Everything was done quickly and efficiently.
“Wow,” I said admiringly. “You guys are really fast and skilled.”
“It’s something we do quite often.”
[2] “Since we live in pretty remote areas, it’s good to know how to do everything on our own.”
“That’s right.”
[2] “Hehe, I am the best at dismantling,” someone boasted.
“That’s because you used to make money dismantling monsters for humans.”
“Eh? You used to work in human towns?” I said, surprised because my impression of Elves, [2] High Elves especially, usually leaned towards living away from human beings and communing with nature.
“Ah, well, that’s…”
What followed was… quite an unexpected story.
First, the introduction.
There was Jorgen and his wife Adele who had light brown hair and eyes like purple amethyst.
Then, there’s Verde, who was the tallest among them with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, and his wife Selma with light blonde hair and pale pink eyes. Verde was the one who claimed to be good at dismantling.
The third couple consisted of Radomir, with the stockiest build, he has ash-grey hair and light blue eyes while his wife, Laura, has platinum hair and dark green eyes.
Everyone has super long hair that reaches down to their waist. Each of them, needless to say, was needlessly beautiful.
According to them, none of them were born on this island, but had somehow ended up living here for the majority of their lives.
They all came from the ‘mainland’, probably Leonhardt from the details I got from them, and came to this island about 300 years ago.
At that time, there was intense war between the human nations and, for some reason, humans also began to intrude deep into the forest to capture the magically talented and strikingly beautiful High Elves. Most likely with the intention to enslave them for the war effort or as gifts or bribes of some sort.
Fortunately, most humans just gave up before they could breach too far into the forest or were otherwise killed by monsters and magical beasts. Even so, some kingdoms actually shelled out money to hire Adventurers to try and capture High Elves.
Well, considering how even Fer and Grandpa Gon actually paused to think before attacking the High Elves, I could imagine just how powerful they could possibly be. If humans managed to enslave a few of these High Elves, surely they could turn the tide of war?
Well, anyway, to make a long story short, High Elves moved away from their original homes to this island. In fact, about 60 High Elves moved here.
Even so, the High Elves did not stay on this island permanently. In fact, after a hundred years, some of the High Elves started leaving one by one. The reason for this was…
“Human towns have all kinds of different things to enjoy and explore,” said Laura.
Jorgen added, “Especially now, with so many regular Elves having assimilated into the human cities, no one would blink an eye at our appearance since we look like regular Elves.
“Yeah, and if we get tired of the human world, we could just return to the forest for a bit.”
I should also point out that ‘a bit’ was about a decade to these High Elves. Also, these High Elves were about 600 years old.
“I became such an expert in dismantling that a guild even hired me as part of their dismantling team,” said Verde proudly.
[3] Well, well, to think that these High Elves ran away from humans for safety, they inevitably returned to human cities because of… boredom.
Wow…
“Anyway, with so many leaving the island, there are only the six of us here in the end.”
“I- I see…” I said faintly, wondering what that strong reaction from Jorgen was when he first saw me. Was the prejudice due to me being human, or because of my familiars…
“Anyway, we have been talking about returning to the mainland soon.”
“It’s been 10 years since someone brought it up…”
“It would be nice to be in a city full of people again…”
[1] While they chatted together, the first Cockatrice was taken apart and I seized the opportunity to grab the meat and loudly declare, “Well, I’ll get started on these first!” and ran off to cut the chick- I mean, the Cockatrice meat into bite-size pieces and knead the marinade in.
[2] While I was busy working on that, Jorgen suddenly asked, “Now that I think of it, why did you come to this island, Mukouda?”
[4] “Me? Haha… why don’t you ask them?” I pointed at Fer and Grandpa Gon, who were busy trying to snooze while the rest of us worked. Humph.
Eventually, the story about the Green Dragon was brought up and…
“Ahh, so you’re after the Green Dragon? Hmm, I guess with your familiars…”
The other High Elves also started poking their noses into my business.
“You’re hunting the Green Dragon?” said Verde.
“If only we had a few more people with us, we could have taken it down,” said Radomir with a frustrated expression.
“While it’s not impossible for the six of us to take down the Green Dragon, it could be quite dangerous,” said Adela.
“Indeed, I want to try hunting one of everything if I could,” said Selma.
“Also, dragon meat is delicious!” said Laura.
“You have eaten dragon meat before?” asked Fer.
“Yes, well, it’s rare especially since they are so powerful. However, we are not High Elves for nothing,” said Adela.
The rest nodded in agreement. [3]
“How about the dismantling?” Fer asked a little urgently.
Grandpa Gon also perked up to hear their answer.
“Well, I’ve done it twice now,” said Verde.
With that, Fer and Grandpa Gon grinned at each other.
On the side, I continue with my Karaage, already resigned to what would happen next.
Whatever, let’s just focus on my cooking for now.
[Gumihou: It became a little draggy towards the end. I think Eguchi-san was trying to build suspense, but the line between draggy and suspense is rather thin…]
[1] Added details, because it was lacking.
[2] The original was ‘We have to do everything ourselves since we live in a place like this’ indicated that ‘they had to’, but considering that these are not just elves but high elves, surely living away from civilisation is something normal? Why the emphasis on the lack of civilisation? Reworded the text to make it more ‘a practical skill’ rather than ‘acquire because we have to’
[3] Reduce repetitions
[4] It’s shocking to me why Mukouda would even willingly talk about the Green Dragon instead of passing on the baton to his familiars