"Shall we say thanks before we eat?" Nell asked with a large smile, her hands already clasped together.
"To who? Satan or something?" I snickered, although I already knew who she was about to thank. It made me sick to my stomach and I held no effort in trying to display such grotesque expressions about her sudden actions.
"No… To Mother Nature of course, or what? Still haven't come around?" She asked, her expression uncaring of what I wanted to do. "Whatever… I'll just say my thanks by myself."
Clearly, she said it in her head as nothing came from her mouth, but as she squeezed her eyes shut and thanked Mother Nature, I asked her one more question. "Hey, have you ever been to the overworld?"
Slowly, her eyes opened. They shifted around, taking in all of the information around her. Soon, they slid back onto me, and with a light green glow beneath her eyes, she responded bluntly with a clear and concise, "No." This made me laugh.
"Well, that explains everything then…"
"W-What? Do you come from the overworld?" She stretched over the table with her eyes nearly popping out of her skull. From the depths of her soul, her already erratic breathing began to quiver even harder. "Come on, tell me!"
"Yes I do."
"T-Tell me about the overworld. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to know what happens on the overworld. Are the trees really as bright and as green as they say? Does it smell like flowers all day long? Does the tall grass not try to eat you?"
"I'll only answer your questions if…" I smiled, causing the woman to back down into her chair and nervously bite her fingernail as I built up tension. "...if you tell me where the demon lord resides. Also, I would like to know if there are any places with skill books around here. If there aren't then, then tell me if there are any good libraries around."
"Th-That's so unfair," She complained, but ultimately, my unwavering attitude instantly crushed those thoughts.
"So, do we have a deal?"
"Fine, but only because you're the prized pupil of the Boss…. Okay, well, the Boss doesn't reside in this canopy. He's a relatively silent and quiet person and leaves most of the management and ruling to his subjects like me. Unlike the other demon lords, Sir Mammon doesn't have large cities, but instead large towns within his kingdoms, so the easiest way to access such things is by building an underground network that leads to the trunks of each town."
"Huh? Why not just use the overstretching canopies."
"As I said, he's a quiet person. You could call him an introvert so he holes himself in the ground where he trains in peace and has access to that underground network whenever danger strikes," Nell explained, taking a bite out of her eggs, only to realize the measly portion was now gone.
"What? Eggs are hella expensive here. I didn't feel like spending all of my saved-up allowance on food."
"*sigh*... Anyways, the skill book and library part… well, I guess this is a good time to tell you, but you'll have to go to school here. Sir Mammon told me to inform you yesterday but to be honest I completely forgot."
"School? Why? I'm practically a grown-ass man now, so why do I have to go back to school? I'm way past that. Lemme fight on the front lines between dark elves and tall man-eating grass… or something like that."
Nell lightly chuckled before leaning forward with a large smirk. "I'm gonna be honest, the school is a royal kind of school. That's right, we have royal dark elves here and since you're the student of Sir Mammon, you get exclusive access to it."
"Then what about you?"
"Oh, I'm not of royalty," Her eyes turned downwards before lifting up and landing on the jagged white tattoos all over my body. "And, even if you weren't his student I doubt you would have trouble getting accepted."
"I'm not very fond of my tattoos, so I hope you don't get jealous. Down here they may great, but on the overworld… I guess I better fulfill my side of the deal," I smiled, uplifting the girl's spirits as her mood quickly switched and she leaned even closer in. "So, the vegetation. Yes, the trees are bright and green and the floral smell is specific to the Elven Forest where normal Elves reside."
"But we are normal elves. Dark Elves at least. They're a completely different race, so you shouldn't compare yourself to people who aren't even related to you."
"Mhm… Anyways, the man-eating grass doesn't exist. I don't know you obtained such a myth but that's a complete lie. Also, I guess I should tell you about the state of dark elves on the overworld right?" The girl nodded. "Yeah, so… hmmm… how do I explain this-"
"It's tough, right? Maybe you all were wiped out? Maybe you all were oppressed by every single other race because of this tainted mana or whatever…" Nell could instantly infer from all of my previous actions. She may have been petty and a bit childish, but there was no doubt she was a scheming and intelligent woman.
"Almost all of us were wiped out. Just me and a few other meager survivors who either died on our escape or died in the real world. I'm sure I'm one of the last dark elves from my forest… as of course there are other forests, but that's like saying somebody from one country and another country are of the same nationality despite having similar genes and appearances."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that…"
"It was even worse in the real world. It wasn't just elves that beat and mentally tore me down, but every other race. No matter how they looked or felt about me, they still abused and kicked me down. I was THE enemy of the entire continent."
