“Yes, yes! Little girl… your new Human technology is truly amazing!”
Ya Ke laughed and patted Lian’s shoulder.
He could not have agreed more, which was a far cry from the cold treatment Lian had expected to receive.
“Eh…”
“Wait for me… Sister!”
“No way! Run faster… and hold on tight! Don’t drop my Lady Iyue!”
As Lian stood there in surprise, two little girls ran past the group while shouting at each other.
The two girls did not have the pointed ears of an Elf; they were clearly Humans.
The younger child held a doll shaped like an archer that made a clack-clack sound as its arms moved.
Lian recognized it immediately as a clockwork toy modeled after a member of the Brave’s Party, the kind she had seen in the markets of the Northland.
The toy happened to be the image of Iyue.
As the children ran past her, Iyue watched them with a gaze of extreme tenderness, as if reminiscing about something.
“Are those children from the village?” she asked Ya Ke.
“Yes, they are the children of the Humans who came to work in the village… I really can’t do anything about those brats.”
Ya Ke smiled as he watched them go.
At that moment, the hypocrisy in his eyes vanished completely, replaced only by the indulgence and doting nature one had for the younger generation.
Noticing this, Lian and Iyue smiled at the same time and exchanged a look.
“That’s good.”
“Yeah… our journey and everything we did was worth it.”
Iyue had wandered the Empire for so many years, and what she had seen and learned was far beyond what she knew during her days of seclusion.
‘If even Lian can see these villagers are hiding something, how could I not see it with my extra ten years of experience?’
What these people were hiding was likely related to the massive changes in the village and her own home.
However, no matter how much it changed, this village was where she had grown up.
Before Lian came to find her, she had lived in this village with these people for several hundred years.
If they could coexist peacefully with different races they once viewed as enemies, surely they wouldn’t do anything bad to a fellow villager like her?
Looking at Iyue’s relieved smile, Lian couldn’t help but think along those lines.
“…This is quite nice.”
Just as Lian thought, Iyue’s heart had indeed lightened significantly.
This was because it wasn’t the first time she had seen such changes.
In recent years, as she traveled the Empire, she had visited countless places.
Whether it was remote frontier towns living off agriculture or formerly closed, peaceful villages—the Industrial Wave always brought changes that played out according to a similar script.
Forests would be cut down for fuel, and once-muddy, uneven roads would be leveled and paved with stones or bricks.
Tools and weapons were constantly updated, old professions vanished, and new ones appeared.
After all these years, her understanding of all this had shifted from initial rejection to acceptance.
She felt deeply that the era was changing and moving forward, so she had to change and move forward as well.
While searching for a Relic in the Eastern Great Sand Sea, she had changed into her current outfit, which she considered dashing and light.
She had taken her own longbow, which was a Relic, to the Northland to give to the Sage.
In exchange, she received the handgun at her waist named [Silver Moon] and its matching bullets from her friend, Meliya.
She also knew that change did not always bring benefits.
The moment she discovered her hometown and neighbors were no longer the same as they used to be, she did feel a deep sense of loss and confusion.
Fortunately, what she saw now told her that the benefits of this change outweighed the drawbacks.
‘At least it seems that way for now…’
Iyue intended to learn a bit more.
“Did the Humans help build these new houses for everyone in the village? And I see that everyone has been cutting down the woods…”
“No, no! We built most of them ourselves, though the Humans did teach us many techniques,” Ya Ke replied quickly.
However, his gaze began to wander again.
“As for cutting the trees… that was a requirement from the Lord Master of the Nereve Family. You know our village has always been their Duchy.”
“Oh~”
Lian finally understood why Iyue wanted to hide her identity.
If they knew she was a member of the Nereve Family, these villagers probably wouldn’t treat her with such an easygoing attitude.
“Exactly. Besides, everyone in the village agreed to it.”
As she thought this, the others nodded in unison.
“Then… is my family’s woodland still okay?” Iyue asked. “When I left, the Village Chief promised he would look after it for me.”
“Ah, about that…”
As soon as she spoke, the expressions of several villagers froze for a moment.
“As for the specifics… the Village Chief knows better,” someone piped up hurriedly.
“It’s better to let the Village Chief tell you himself when you see him.”
The Village Chief’s residence was located in the center of the village, a building larger and more luxurious than the others.
It had a spacious Court, with the fence and outer walls painted in various light colors.
Two well-crafted metal lamps were even installed in front of the main gate.
Pushing open the gate and entering the courtyard, an elderly Elf, Ya Ke’s son, and several elders Iyue knew well were already waiting there.
Upon seeing Iyue, the elderly Elf—the Village Chief—rubbed his aged, blurry eyes to confirm her appearance.
“…I… Ilya…”
After a long while, he finally called out Iyue’s village name in a trembling voice, as if he had seen a ghost.
“It’s me, Village Chief,” Iyue nodded. “It is good to see you in such high spirits.”
“Oh, oh…”
The Village Chief’s expression changed several times in a few breaths before he finally squeezed out a complicated smile.
Then, his gaze fell on Lian, who was standing beside Iyue.
“And this is…?”
“She is my family,” Iyue replied briefly, offering no further explanation as it wasn’t necessary.
“Family…? Then she is your…”
“Don’t worry about that for now,” she said, cutting off the pleasantries.
The villagers’ reaction when she asked about her woodland had already made her sense that something was wrong.
She asked directly, “Village Chief, what happened to my family’s woodland?”
The air in the Court suddenly stagnated.
The Village Chief’s smile slowly stiffened. He avoided Iyue’s gaze and raised a hand to his forehead, his tone becoming hesitant.
“Well… Ilya, you know… during the Great War, you left with a Human soldier…”
“And you were gone for so long without returning… we thought you were dead… so we…”
The Village Chief continued with difficulty, “We sold your family’s woodland.”
“SOLD IT TO WHOM?!”
Iyue let out a roar. The Village Chief jumped in fright and didn’t dare hide it any longer.
“To… to that Human Company in the village! You arrived just in time; they are going to cut down that forest today…”
“If you go now, you might be able to catch—”
Before he could finish, Iyue slammed the door and stormed out.
“I… ILYA!”
Lian almost slipped up and used her other name.
She gave the surrounding villagers a fierce glare before turning to chase after Iyue.