All of those years I spent researching the forbidden forms of dark magic, I always wondered if it would be for nothing in the end. I knew that what I was doing was illegal, that I would get in trouble if someone found out, but as long as the healing magic I had created could be used to save people I didn't mind. But what if I never get the chance to teach it to other people? What if nobody wants me to use it on them? Flesh shaping has a really bad reputation, after all. Most people wouldn't even imagine that it can be used to heal.

It would be easy to say that people are just prejudiced against dark magic and that they need to be more open-minded. However, that prejudice didn't come from nowhere. The truth is that there have been so many mages using flesh shaping irresponsibly, hurting people with it, that everyone now assumes that this is the only thing it can be used for.

The point I'm trying to make is that it should be understandable for me to be upset when I see an imbecile bumbling with some basic flesh shaping he clearly doesn't even understand to torment innocent people. The way he looked at me when I reversed his alterations makes me think that he didn't even know that such a thing was possible, which says a lot of how little he can control his own magic.

"P-please... let go..."

He's having a lot of trouble speaking. Grabbing an old man by the neck is probably making me look bad... I got angry and grabbed him without thinking, but with my strength, it would be easy to crush his neck accidentally. I guess it's a good thing that I have a lot of self-control.

"You have yet to answer my question. Are you the one who did all of that?"

"Yes. But I have a good explanation! Please take a look at this."

The orc hands me a small black cube.

"What is this supposed to... ?"

The cube begins to glow red, and the next instant it explodes into flames. A column of fire spins around me, this thing is probably even stronger than a dragon's breath.

"Yes! Burn! BURN!"

"I'm not going to burn just because you tell me to."

When he sees me emerge from the fire completely unharmed, the orc once again makes that 'this is impossible' face of his. My 'heat void' spell allowed me to take a bath in lava when I was in the infernal caverns; this fire was not hot enough to hurt me. But it did singe my clothes a bit in a few places...

I get closer and stare down at him. "That was not a good explanation."

"How... What are you? What do you want?"

"I'm a dark mage, just like you, but not quite as incompetent. And I want to punish you for using dark magic to hurt innocent people."

"What are you talking about? Are you trying to say that you don't hurt innocents too? How many people did you have to experiment on to reach that level of skill with flesh shaping?"

"I didn't experiment on people, I used meat I bought from the butcher."

"Wha..." Again with the shocked face, it's starting to get old. "Don't be ridiculous, there's no way to learn flesh shaping by practicing on meat!"

"I already told you, I'm not as incompetent as you."

The only thing I needed to practice was how to control the flesh shaping spells themselves, everything else I learned from anatomy books. Can this guy not read? Is that the problem?

"My dark magic is rank ten! I'm as much of a master as anyone can be! And I'm telling you that morality and compassion are nothing more than shackles holding you back. A dark mage can only gain true power by exploiting the weak! You are not..."

*Crack*

Uh, I think I broke something. I can heal him, but now he's unconscious.

This is bad, I actually lost my patience and punched him in the chest. I need to put more effort to maintain my cool, otherwise, I could kill someone by accident...

And now I just remember that there are other people here.
Rax is crying and hugging his sister. Actually, it's not just him, many of the elves are crying and hugging each other as well. I suppose that they just went through a very traumatic experience, getting your body twisted like that must be scary. Yes, I've decided that that's the reason why they are acting this way.

"Xania, can you help me gather the demons around here? I want to place a curse on them so that they cannot cause more trouble, and I don't want the other elves to kill them when they come back."

"Yes... of course."

"Uh? I was expecting you to tell me that I'm too forgiving and that I should kill this guy or something like that."

"Ah, no... I think that you've convinced me, we should be kind and forgiving with our enemies. That's a very admirable trait of yours! Really!"

"Oh... well, good."

I wonder what changed her mind so suddenly, but I'm glad that she finally understands.

I'm finally done distributing the curses to the demons and all of the elves have returned to the village. They are whispering to each other while taking glances at me, which seems a bit rude.

"It seems like I have to thank you for saving our village." The elder finally decides to say something.

"Does that make it more difficult for you to tell me to leave?"

"I don't want to be ungrateful, if there's any reward you want just tell me. But we still must follow the rules."

"All I want is for you all to take what happened today into consideration. Your life of seclusion in this forest has made you stagnant and weak. And today you would have paid a very heavy price if I didn't happen to be here; against your rules, I might add. You need to allow the dark trees to stay, and if anyone wants to leave the forest for a time, you should let them."

He stops to think for a moment. "Some of the villagers wanted to talk to you... Will you try to tempt them to make them leave?"

"Of course I will. If you don't like it, try to convince them to stay instead of forcing them."

The elves that want to talk to me are mostly quite young. They seem to be afraid of me, and it takes a few seconds for one of them to gather the courage to speak.

"A-are you really a dark elf?"

What kind of question is that!?

"I'm an elf with a dark attribute if that's what you're asking."

"If you're an elf, how did you become so strong?"

"I'm not strong, you're weak."

"And those demons were weak too? You beat them quite easily..."

"Alright, I admit that I'm a bit strong. But that does not change the fact that you're weak. I checked your levels before and the strongest is that elder at level 104, nobody else is even above 70. If you didn't have those trees helping you, you would be completely helpless."

"But we do have the trees, so it's fine, no?"

How can I convince them to leave? Let's go ahead with my plan, 'shame and berate them until they leave'. It's time for mean Luna to make one of her rare appearances.

"Let me tell you about your reputation outside the forest." I hesitate for a moment. "People say that you are weak and that the only reason why nobody has taken over your forest is that nobody cares enough about you to do it. Also, since you never go outside, you are seen as cowards. Calling someone an 'elfling' is a common insult that means weak and cowardly. Every merchant that gets the chance to trade with you always manages to rip you off, which also gave you a reputation for being dumb. But above everything else, everyone agrees that you are extremely boring."

Did they buy it? Perhaps I went too far.

"A-are we really that bad... ?"

I think that it's working! Let's keep going.

"You cannot even build your houses right, they would collapse if the trees were not holding them. Do any of you even have a unique talent or even a hobby? All of your lives until now have been worthless."

"Worthless?"

Some of them are going red in the face. Are they feeling embarrassed? But they seem strangely happy... weird.

I poke the young man in front of me on the stomach and he falls on his butt making a pained expression.

"You cannot even take a light poke? You guys are lucky that I'm a nice person, or else I could do whatever I wanted with you."

"Whatever you wanted? Like what?" Another elf asks eagerly for some reason.

"I don't know... Like making you my servants? Or hurting you for fun?"

Many of the guys and a few girls are blushing and I can hear them breathing heavily. This is reminding me of something, or perhaps someone... and for some reason, I find it disgusting, but seeing me look at them with disgust gives them an awkward smile. I think that something is wrong with them.

"If we end up leaving the forest, will you help us become stronger?"

"Maybe, if you can prove to me that you are not completely worthless."

And again, that seems to make them happy. What is going on here?

That's when I notice Xania behind me, with her hand holding her forehead. "Do you really not realize what you're doing?"

"Eh? What do I not realize that I'm doing?"

"Nevermind."

She's not going to tell me. I know that my social skills are bad, but I cannot fix them if nobody tells me what I'm doing wrong!

forli

How have you been? I've been here writing, and breathing, and... I don't really have anything interesting for the author notes, I'm sorry.