The elf's voice was as cold and clear as spring water striking jade, carrying with it a natural authority.
The newcomer was a human male. His clothes were plain, his face handsome, and his bearing as mild as a scholar's.
Yet in her eyes, he had no aura at all—no fluctuation of energy, nothing. He looked like the most ordinary of mortals.
And it was precisely this "ordinariness" that, here of all places, felt eerie… and terrifying.
His eyes were fathomless, calm as the eternal night sky, reflecting both the elf's wariness and the hideous rift yawning behind her.
Leo Grey cast a glance at the unsettling surroundings, his gaze lingering briefly on the writhing space fissure.
Then he turned to the elven woman beside it, her natural aura and flawless beauty forming a living painting.
It was a beauty beyond description.
Truly, the legends were right—elves were born of beauty itself.
"This place…" Leo said casually, as if remarking on the weather,
"…hardly suits your presence, my lady. Like a rose planted in rot."
Elarielle's sense of danger surged to its peak.
The glow on her bowstring flared brighter, locking tightly onto Leo.
In the lilting cadence of ancient elvish—beautiful as poetry, yet laced with killing frost—she spoke:
"This is the rift of the deep-sea void, source of all evil. State your purpose at once, human, or suffer the merciless wrath of nature!"
"Relax, my lady. Allow me to introduce myself—Leo Grey!"
"…Mayor of Dalton Town."
He waved a hand lightly, as though greeting an old friend.
"I mean no harm. I merely wish to discuss a deal with you."
"A… deal?"
Elarielle's emerald eyes chilled further, her expression filled with frosty doubt.
"I have severed all ties with the outside world. There is no deal to be made."
"It's like this…"
Leo sighed softly, sounding almost helpless.
"I have a daughter. She's a good girl, but as the mayor, I've been too busy with the town's growth. Without her mother around, I've had little time to guide her properly…"
Elarielle: "…?"
She almost lost her composure.
Sir, do you even realize where you are standing right now?
The way you talk, I'd think we were strolling through a marketplace!
"So," Leo continued, spreading his hands as if it were the most natural thing in the world,
"I'd like to hire you to be her mentor for a time—until she can stand on her own."
Elarielle blinked, stunned. For an instant she wondered if her long life had finally driven her to hallucinations… maybe the man before her wasn't even real?
Or perhaps this was the trickery of some psychic hive-creature?
But no—her checks found no tampering. Everything was normal.
Which could only mean the abnormality was this man.
At last she spoke coldly.
"…Elarielle. That is my name. As you see, Lord Leo, I am bound to maintaining the seal on this rift. I cannot leave it unattended."
Her expression was calm. Whatever intentions this human had, they were irrelevant—nothing could outweigh the rift before her. And she saw no need to provoke him further.
"…Elarielle?!"
Leo's pupils contracted, his gaze sharpening with recognition.
That name—in the annals of the Aresia Continent ten thousand years ago—had shone brighter than all others!
Ten millennia past, the world was remade by fire and war. Countless races and geniuses rose amidst chaos.
But none more so than Elarielle, Queen of the Sun Elves.
She had led her people into prominence, singlehandedly quelling wars that had raged for thousands of years. She had saved untold lives from fire and ruin.
In history, she was remembered as the sole sun of that age—
The Star-Watcher, Elarielle!
She was the maintainer and the creator of world order, praised by races and beings beyond counting. Even now, ten thousand years later, her deeds lived on in bardic song.
Leo had never imagined he would encounter such a living legend here.
"It was said… after stabilizing the world's order, Elarielle departed for distant stars."
A flicker of surprise passed across her face.
She hadn't expected that even after ten thousand years, the world would still remember her.
She turned with a faint, bitter smile toward the monstrous rift.
"…The wars of that age didn't just slaughter countless lives. The unrestrained use of forbidden power tore this planet's spatial walls apart. Greedy things caught the scent and tried to come through."
"For a world so wounded, their arrival would have been destruction itself."
Respect glimmered in Leo's eyes.
So this was the truth behind the dreaded Infinity Ocean: a secret greater than the world itself, and within it, a living legend.
"My respects, Lady Elarielle."
He bowed deeply, his formality impeccable.
Elarielle inclined her head, her gaze calm, even tinged with self-mockery.
"What the world never knew was this: that upheaval began with elves who sought to dominate all.
Everything I did… was but penance to the Mother Earth."
Leo was struck speechless.
He had never imagined the war's origin to be so.
No wonder she had willingly stood watch here for ten thousand years.
"Penance to the Mother Earth, then…"
Leo's eyes shifted to the rift, exuding its noxious aura.
"Lady Elarielle, ten millennia have passed. The world outside has changed. You should see it again."
"This thing is an eyesore. Allow me to clear it away—as a down payment for hiring you. What do you say?"
C-clear it away?
Shock flickered across Elarielle's flawless face.
The calamity source that threatened the entire world—spoken of as though it were merely a hedge needing pruning from a garden?
"Do you even understand what this is?" she demanded coldly.
"This rift connects to a hive of void-born insects. Beyond it lies endless greed and destruc—"
Her words broke off.
Because she saw the man simply raise his right hand.
Toward the rift that even an Eternal Magus could scarcely endure, he made a casual grasping motion.
No chant. No surge of energy. No signs in the heavens or the earth.
It was like an artist casually brushing away an ink blot from a canvas.
Pop—
A sound like a bubble bursting.
The rift—devourer of life, the abyss that had demanded an Eternal Magus's vigil for ten thousand years—vanished before her eyes.
Leo swept his hand as if dusting away a stain.
Twisted space smoothed to mirror clarity. The maddening howls and murderous aura ceased at once.
The crushing waters began to flow back, filling the void. Only the corroded, misshapen rocks bore witness that a horror had ever been here at all.
Silence.
Profound, absolute silence.
Elarielle's emerald eyes widened to their limits, filled only with shock and blank disbelief.
The void rift she had guarded for ten thousand years… gone?
And this man—he had done it with nothing more than a simple gesture.
Even a god descending could not have done more.