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Hegni was an incompetent king.
More precisely, he was a dark elf whose only talent was fighting.
In the age of gods, dark elves were rare. In the distant ancient times, when monsters were pouring out of the giant hole and spreading across the land, the dark elves had fought to protect their race’s sacred peaks, the Alv Mountains. They were overrun by the countless grotesque beasts, causing their population to shrink dramatically. Meanwhile, the white elves, the lineage considered normal elves in current times, had been led down the Alv Mountains by their high elf at the time who had chosen not to sacrifice them to fight the monsters.
The dark elves cursed the white elves as cowards and disgraces and hoped to one day revive their dark tribe. They dreamed of the day the dark high elf, whose lineage was said to have continued, would rise up and lead them again. And for the sake of that dream, the dark elves—or rather a specific hardheaded group of dark elves who had holed up in a forest—were desperate to take out the white elves in the forest whose tribe was flourishing. Even though they were all still elves, despite the differences in magic and magical ability and skin color.
Hegni was not a high elf, but he was nonetheless chosen as the warrior king of the dark elves’ capital. He was not good at dealing with other people. More to the point, he was scared of his fellow elves, who tried to force concepts like pride and self-respect on him in the name of some duty. He was a more sensitive and easily hurt elf by nature. All things being equal, he would have been tragically bullied by his fellow elves.
Fortunately, though—or perhaps unfortunately for him—he had a talent for battle. To an unimaginable degree, the arrows and magic of elves famed as the marksmen of the forest were useless against him. The white elves who faced him cowered while the dark elves who had him on their side were filled with delight.
And because of that, he was exploited.
His clan spent all their time warring with the nation of white elves that lived in the same forest as them. And whenever hostilities broke anew, Hegni was always forced to stand at the head of a host, leading the warriors into battle. If he did not manage to strike down enough enemies, they would hurl abuse at him. And he knew that in the village, there was no end to the sniping at him behind his back. Before he realized it, and rather fittingly considering his personality, Hegni started to feel that the gaze of others was the most terrifying thing in the world.
In the remote, far-off frontiers of the continent, there was a giant lake, and in the middle of it was a forested island of fairies: Heodenings. Unbeknownst to and closed off from the rest of the world, it contained two states, one of dark elves and one of white elves. Isolated from its surroundings, it was a place of continuous battle. The end result of fanatical self-obsession.
Hegni, who did not know where he was in what should have been a wide world, started to think of the mysterious giant forest where the sacred tree and every other tree covered the sky as a graveyard.
And at the same time, he started to despise himself for being so small and so foolish, for being unable to change anything.
And in the end, Hegni started to love the darkness, where he could not be seen by anyone other than himself. The darkness was his one true friend. Kneeling down at the roots of a big tree and letting his worn-down body be embraced by the darkness became a daily routine for him.
And one day, when he was exhausted after a particularly fierce battle, after abandoning himself to the darkness, in a dream or a hallucination, he met a certain witch.
“You’ve worn down your body and even your soul so much, and yet you don’t try to change anything?”
Hegni hugged his knees tightly, looking away as he answered the witch’s question.
“I can’t change anything, because my determination is weak and I’m trash. I’m scared of all the eyes looking at me in disappointment and blame. I’m scared of being laughed at. I’m embarrassed to keep living. That’s why, at the very least…I want to fight and die with my trusted sword.”
There was a being who had caught Hegni’s interest. The other king, who led the white elves he fought.
Unlike him, that king was handsome and gallant. He had golden hair and a sharp, piercing gaze. The difference between him and Hegni, who was an incompetent king, was like the difference between heaven and earth. The title of king had caused Hegni all sorts of pain, but that white elf who constantly strove to be a proper king was dazzling to him. It made him envious and jealous. Hegni, who was consumed by a sense of inferiority, wanted to win against that man. Even if it meant trading blows, he wanted to run him through with his sword.
After all the fighting that was the only thing left that he wanted.
“I see. Then I shall set you free. Once I do, maybe you’ll be able to achieve your dream.”
He felt like the witch smiled after she said that. But when Hegni looked up, she was no longer anywhere to be found. He decided that she must have been an illusion he had seen in his exhaustion.
The battle between the fairies that was the pinnacle of unsightliness intensified dramatically after that day. The arrogant pride of the fairies that was on display for all to see demonstrated their true repulsiveness.
—It was probably inevitable that they would be destroyed by the goddess who so valued beauty.
Hedin was a young, wise king.
But at the same time, he was a white elf who was an embodiment of the fairies’ tendency to look down on everything other than themselves. He appeared intellectual, but his true nature was far more severe.
When enraged, his features warped unattractively, and he would slaughter those who defied him like a merciless tyrant.
Hedin was hailed as the brilliant king of the white elves.
Of course he was not actually a high elf. Hedin understood better than anyone that his title was just the royal fantasies of provincial elves living deep in the woods. But even if it just extended their foolish make-believe longer, once he had been anointed king, he fully understood that if he did not fulfill his duties, his incompetent people would die.
Because Hedin considered himself competent, he did not try to escape his duties as king. Running away would be the same as lowering himself to the level of those trifling fools he most despised. His pride would not allow that.
At present, the source of his concerns, or rather his annoyances, was the dark elves continuing to attack his city. They were true barbarians who lived in the same forest but could think of nothing more than eradicating their own fellow elves. Judging the conflict with them to be the most inefficient use of resources, he restrained the other white elves and sent out a peace envoy. However, the dark elves were single-minded in their response: “We shall reclaim our Hildr.”
In the long history of these two elf tribes fighting each other, there had been a single period where they negotiated a temporary nonaggression pact. As proof of their commitment, the dark elves had handed over the holy woman Hildr, a miraculous healer. And Hedin was descended from her.
Even though terms like white and dark are thrown around, to begin with elves were all the same race. Their children’s skin color was mixed. And since the dark elf lineage only entered the pool once, it naturally weakened, meaning Hedin had naturally inherited the traits of white elves most strongly. Hedin was Hildr’s descendant and thus would forever have her blood. What the dark elves were demanding was nothing more and nothing less than to wring every last drop of blood out of him.
—Fools.
Hedin spat back in response. And the negotiations fell apart.
He was fed up with the daily battles. Those puppets of pride and duty seemed to take more joy in fighting one another than they did with dwarves who were supposed to be their natural enemy. They truly never bored of fighting. Because he was the king, Hedin took command in terrific fashion, and wielding the powerful magic that was his birthright, he annihilated the dark elves. He became a symbol of terror to the dark elves while being a powerful leader for the white elves.
While that never-ending battle was raging, ironically, Hedin’s talent as well as that of the other king on the dark elves’ side continued to grow. They became preeminent powers, despite being trapped in their narrow world. If someone from outside their world saw them, they would not believe that neither of them had received Falna. Their strengths became such that before they knew it, they could no longer be contained by the world that they were trapped in.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
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