(EP-290.1) Depression #3

290 – Fairy’s Depression #3

Srrrk, srrrk.

Stella took off her boots.

Her white legs and bare feet were now brightly illuminated by the crackling fire. As an active elf, her legs were slim and toned.

Srrrk, srrrk.

Her ten toes wiggled. It was a simple action, but still felt oddly peculiar. Then Stella spoke up.

“Taking off your shoes helps regulate body temperature.”

“Yes, I actually knew that.”

“Liar. What did you think I was going to take off? You’re a naughty little kid, aren’t you~? Mufufufu.”

“……”

I felt annoyed.

To be honest, just as Stella said, I had imagined that she was going to slip off her jacket instead.

Even though I pretended not to care, I secretly had some expectations. But having my hopes and curiosity trampled like this made me feel as frustrated as someone who just buttoned their shirt wrong.

So, I decided to throw a comment at Stella.

“It smells with your shoes off.”

“W-What!?”

Stella trembled as if deeply embarrassed by my words.

I didn’t know if it was because she was drunk, but her small, white face turned as red as a tomato, and it felt like she would burst if I poked her with a needle.

“… Elves don’t smell! Don’t you even know that, Theo-kun? Ha, really.”

… Wait, was that true?

I sniffed the air.

Although my sharpest sense was hearing, my ability to smell wasn’t too bad either.

Though, all I could smell was the scent of alcohol, the leftover stew, and the smoke of the burning bonfire.

The only thing that could be called a human scent was the slight smell of sweat from my body.

“You really don’t have any scent?”

“Yes! Elves don’t smell! You could have known that if you read the first chapter of the Introduction to Fairy Science. Theo-kun, you’re getting an F with this performance!”

… I was suddenly getting an F?

It was possible not to know some things, though…

I’d been treating her nicely recently, but now she was lowering my grade like this!?

“Are you making things up because I don’t know much about elves? Who doesn’t have a scent?”

“Elves don’t! We’ve lived as hunters since ancient times, so we evolved to not give off any scent. Smelly elves couldn’t hunt and starved to death!”

Was it something like natural selection? If a hunter’s body gave off a strong scent, deer or rabbits would likely catch the scent in the wind and run away.

In the end, only the elves with less body odor could successfully hunt, get married, and have children.

It made sense.

Though the logic was sound, I still found it hard to fully believe. So, I slowly approached Stella while sniffing the air.

Stella pushed me away with her hand.

“What… what are you doing!?”

“Checking if you really don’t have a scent.”

“Hmph, fine, sniff all you want… See if you find anything!”

“Hmm.”

After letting out a quiet hum, I moved closer to Stella’s neck, chest, and lower areas. Aside from a faint whiff of alcohol, there wasn’t any hint of body smell—it was completely odorless.

Sniff sniff.

However, when my nose got too close to her thigh, Stella finally seemed to lose her patience and pushed my face away with her foot.

“You… you little…! How far do you think you can go just because I’m letting you off?! Get away…!”

“Hieek…!”

But just as Stella had said, she was completely odorless.

It was eye-opening, for sure.

* * *

After a bit of commotion, Stella and I shared a brief moment of silence.

It wasn’t awkward or anything, we just didn’t talk because we each had something to do.

「I’m heading back tomorrow morning, so let the others know.」

I told Marmar via telepathic communication, informing her of my current location and situation. After hearing me out, Marmar responded.

「Got it! But Professor Balan and Lady Draco are in a really bad mood!」

My heart sank.

Of course, they wouldn’t be on good terms.

I should be mediating between the two, but since I was currently away, it would be natural for problems to arise.

I needed to return as quickly as possible tomorrow morning.

「Then, Marmar, see you tomorrow.」

「Yeah! Tomorrow they’re running carriages and gondolas on the wall! There are very few opportunities to go up the Great Wall, so don’t be late….」

Ttuk-.

That was the end of my conversation with Marmar.

After using telepathic communication a few times, I’d realized that conversations often ended abruptly like this.

Was it because of the limits of human concentration?

Then again, it was probably more of a problem on Marmar’s end than mine.

After finishing the call, I turned to Stella, who was sharpening wood with her dagger.

“They say we’re going to Great Wall Clarice tomorrow. We’ll be taking the gondola up to the top.”

“Hmm, Clarice….”

Unlike Marmar, who had been excited, Stella seemed rather indifferent. It wasn’t that she had no interest, but rather that she was too absorbed in whatever she was working on.

What was she doing?

I suddenly became curious about what Stella was up to.

Now that I thought about it, Stella Von Bellhawk, like Mirna, Elga, and Aira, was one of my targets of revenge.

However, unlike the other three young ladies I had a grasp on, my understanding of Stella was still a mystery. Since she was focused right now, maybe it was a good time to check her status?

Srrk.

I looked at Stella and activated my all-purpose tool, 《Farsight》.

Name: Stella Von Bellhawk lv. 44

Job: Fairy lv. 10

Hunter Lv. 10

Adventurer Lv. 10

Educator Lv. 4

Trainer Lv. 10

Talents: 《Agility》 《Dexterity》 《???》

Inclination: Neutral

A member of a great family who can make a crying child stop just with their reputation

Extremely moody, with significant differences between her good and bad moods.

[Locked]

[Locked]

… Four level 10 jobs? That was amazing! Still, her level was lower than mine. It was probably because the relatively low level Educator job had lowered her average.

Edit by: faker