The rains seems to have stopped, at least for now, so I decided to go outside to greet the elves and ask them what exactly they want from me.

Also, for some reason, Irvan is here in his dragon form.

"Mistress! I came back!"

"Oh, good."

Did he leave?

"I told him to watch over the elves during their trip," Arana says to me in a low voice. "this is the first time they've left their forest and the demon wasteland is full of strong monsters, so I wanted to be safe. But I told him that it was your order, so act as if you knew about it."

"Ah, well done Ara."

There's a total of 12 elves here, 8 males and 4 females. That's less than the amount that seemed interested at first, I suppose that leaving the only place you've ever known is not an easy thing to do.

It's probably more difficult the longer someone has lived there. That's probably why most of these guys are young even for human standards. Except for a man and a woman on the back, those two seem to be much older than the others and are separate from the main group.

Still, I have no idea how I'm able to tell their ages. An elf grows up at the same rate as a human at first, then maintains their youth for most of their life and only starts looking old near the end. Also, if they stay in the forest following all its laws, they can maintain the same appearance for centuries. So there's no way to tell the age of an elf just by looking at them, I wonder if I have some instinct for it since I'm an elf too.

"You are all soaked. Were you walking in the open under the rain?"

"Ah, we didn't know that walking under the rain would make us wet. Things really are different outside the forest."

One of the elves said something strange... Is it because the trees of the magic forest always protect them even from the rain?
It seems like living in a weird place for a long time has made them weird.

"Anyway, you need to go inside and change clothes. You're going to catch a cold."

"What's a cold?"

Uh... Is it possible that these guys have even less common sense than me? Or maybe it's just that all elves are idiots and cannot catch colds.

"Mistress, one more thing. The elves told me to bring this to you."

Irvan shows me an old orc tied with ropes, the same one who tried to take over the forest. He seems to be trying to avoid making eye contact with me.

"And what am I supposed to do with him?"

"I don't know. They just told me that they had no idea of what to do with him."

And they thought that I would?

"Eh... Just lock him in the dungeon for now."

"Right away!"

Arana was somehow able to provide a change of clothes for everyone. Most of the elves seemed excited by the idea of wearing a style of clothing that they had never tried before, but that older couple refused to change.

They seem really nervous as they approach me, and I can see something small moving just behind them.

"Excuse me. We would like to talk with you."

"Do you need- Ah!"

I saw her! There's a very small girl hiding behind them! I guess that she must be their daughter, she doesn't even look two years old. Also, I'm sure that her hair was black, don't tell me that she is...

"It's about our daughter, Mona. As you can see she... cannot stay in the forest." So she does have a dark attribute. "Since you seem to be in a similar situation to her... We thought that you might be able to help her."

The little girl is so scared of me that she even has tears in her eyes, well, that's the reaction I always get from children. That said, the woman's reaction is not much different, she also looks like she's about to cry.

"What exactly do you want from me?"

"Those kids were talking about becoming your servants... If you have enough influence to have servants, then you should be able to provide a place for her to stay, right?"

"That's not entirely correct... But yes! I promise that I would do my best to find a place for all three of you."

"That's not..." The woman then turns to talk to her daughter. "Hey, Mona, why don't you go play over there?"

The little girl nods and goes running to the other elves. She still stops a couple of times to look at me with a worried expression... I'm just never going to get along with children, am I?

"The only one who needs a place to stay is Mona. We... we will return to the forest."

"What?"

I must have heard that wrong... right?

"There's no choice. We are not allowed to leave the forest."

"So you're going to... Abandon your daughter?"

"There's nothing else we can do!"

"There are other elves here that decided to leave just to see what the outside world was like! And you're telling me that you won't do it even to stay with your daughter?!"

"They cannot leave either! They... they just can't! And we cannot leave..."

The man then steps forward.

"Look, we love Mona, we really do. But there's nothing that can be done. Dark elves need to leave, and all others must stay, that is the law of the forest."

"A law that you care about more than you care about your daughter, it seems."

I'm such an idiot, I should have known that this is what was going on from the first moment I saw them. This... this is really happening again...

"We have two other children! We cannot leave them behind!"

"Then bring them here too! I promise that I will do anything in my power to give all of you comfortable lives. I... I'm going to be the queen of the demon wasteland, you and your children will be under my protection!"

"We cannot take our children away from the forest, and we cannot leave either... I'm sorry."

Even as I keep offering my help they insist that leaving the forest is impossible... And if I think about it, it's obvious why they are acting this way.

These people have probably been living in that forest for centuries. But saying that they are centuries old would be misleading. People become wiser with age because of all the different things that they experience, but what happens when every day is the same as all the others? Instead of learning new things, everything they think they know will just get reinforced in their minds.

Most people would think that a parent who abandons their child is an awful person. But these elves would be considered awful people by their peers if they didn't do it. That is the law of the forest, and after such a long time, it is unquestionable for them.

"Please, don't do this. Don't abandon... your daughter. I beg you."

"You are mistaken if you think that we are doing this because we want to."

So this is really going to happen again. Is there nothing I can do?

What if... What if I forced them to stay with her? I've already made other people do as I told them before by intimidating them... But this is different. Stopping someone from killing someone else is not the same as making them change their entire way of life.

However, if I don't... Will that girl have to endure the same solitude I had to go through?

"Please, excuse me one moment."

...

What should I do? It's easy to be a 'good person' when it's clear what the right thing to do is. If someone is to get killed it's obvious that I should save them, if someone has an injury or a disease I just have to heal them. This, however, is not that simple... Being strong doesn't mean that I have the right to impose my morals on other people, but I also cannot let that girl suffer. I know full well what being abandoned feels like.

If they only stay together because I'm threatening them, what kind of family would that even be? Can someone be forced to be happy?

And what about the next time I face a situation like this? After I've already used my power to get my way once, the next time will probably be easier... I'm afraid that I might start walking on a very dangerous path.

"Ara, what should I do?" So I decided to ask Arana for advice, as I always do when I have no idea of what to do.

"Fist of all. I want you to know that solving this issue is not your responsibility. Did you even consider the option of telling them that you won't help?"

"I didn't... I don't think that I can ignore this Ara. Not when I see someone in the same situation I was in."

"You really resent your parents for leaving you alone, don't you?"

"I've already told you many times that I don't care. I'm glad that I got to live outside of one of those forests. That said... Every time I saw how everyone I met seemed to be afraid of me, I kept thinking that at the very least, no matter how scary I am, there should have been SOME people who were fine with me. At the very least, my family should have been fine with me... But I didn't have one."

Arana lets out a sigh.

"Well, let me ask you this. If you accept to find a place for that girl, what are you planning to do?"

"Clearly I cannot take care of her myself. Especially not when she's so afraid of me... But I can ask those other elves to do it. They know her, after all, and they did say that they want to be my servants, so they should listen to me."

"You realize that you won't be able to do that if you go back to traveling, right? And you cannot stay here without becoming the queen, not when all the demons think that you have conquered this place. The same is true if you want to force those two to stay with her. This means that, if you accept this responsibility, you will be forced to become the queen of the demon wasteland."

It seems like Arana was serious about not deceiving me anymore. She could have just kept quiet about this and let me trap myself.

"That's fine, to be honest, I was probably going to end up accepting in the end anyway."

"In that case, the answer is obvious. You might be able to intimidate people sometimes to stop them from doing something bad, but we both know that you are incapable of becoming a tyrant that tells other people how to live their lives. And don't worry, we will make sure that the girl is properly taken care of, she's not going to be alone."

"You're right... Thank you."

I did try to convince them one last time, I even got to my knees and begged them, but it was no use.

In the end, I got a bit angry and told them to never show themselves around here again. If they don't want to raise their daughter they have no right to call themselves their parents or be a part of her life. I hope that I didn't seem too unreasonable...

"Huh... bucket number 4 ended up overflowing."

When I return to my room, I find exactly the scene I had been fearing. But after everything that has happened I don't care anymore, I need to get some sleep.

...

...

No, I actually still care. I should have more important things in my mind, but I seem to be incapable of ignoring this. There's really something wrong with me...

And now that I think about it. If I'm so bothered by imperfections, instead of the buckets I should be more worried about all the holes and cracks in the walls and ceiling!

...

Great, now I won't be able to stop thinking about it... Uh, I'll go back to it tomorrow, I really need some sleep. I just accepted the role of queen of darkness, and I still don't really know what that means...

forli

So, I didn't want to say this because I don't like talking about my personal life on the internet. But since you might be wondering why there have been so few chapters recently, I decided that I should let you all know that I'm actually in my last year of college at the moment. It's being a bit more difficult than I expected and as I result, I don't have the time and especially not the energy to write more.

So yeah, I just wanted you to know that I've not lost interest in this story. The reason I'm not writing more these days is that I just can't.