Elven Empire, Lunaria
"ARGHHHH!!"
A young man bolted up from his bed.
His eyes widened as he blankly stared at his surroundings
"Where am I? Didn't I die?"
His memories were fragmented:
A rainy day,
A dark street,
A sudden pain,
A hospital,
Deafening noise, erupting into chaos.
Then even more memroies flooded his brain.
He transmigrated to a place called the Valin continent. The original owner of his new body was an orphaned Elf who had survived the Beastmen Wars and had been adopted by an old Elf.
The original owner's name was Alto, which sounds similar to his own name; Falko. (I will refer to him as Falko)
In this world, the Elven Empire was established by various elven races and has already persisted for several millennia.
He was currently in the northern most part of the Elven Empire, in Moon Elf territory, directly bordering the Beastmen.
Moon Elves were one of the major races in the empire.
Just as the Wood Elves worshiped The Goddess of nature and the Sun Elves worshipped the Sun God, the Moon Elves worshiped Ellistaree, who goverend the night, the moon, and the dreams of her people. Thus she was known as the Moon Goddess.
Unlike the other deities who demanded prayers from their followers, the Moon Goddess allowed her followers to enter the dreamscape, allowing them to show their devotion by simply sleeping.
Falko pondered, and he managed to get a glimps of his predecessor's experiences with the Dreamscape.
"Holy shit, isn't this exactly the fully immersive VR-Online Game experience I've always dreamt of?"
But, there was a huge issue. Due to the lack of imagination and cultural limitaions, the individual dream worlds were formulaic and predictable, making them extremely boring.
At least, that's how Falko perceived them.
Things like defeating Beastmen to save a village, rescuing a princess and becoming a king, going on a grand adventure to become a lengend, or simply adaptations of a wandering bard's telltales.
Basically all text-based, choice-driven RPG games withno world-building, no open exploration, just a fixed set of endings.
In summary: utterly boring!
Falko stroked his chin, his mind already probing all the possibilites.
"Should I give these stagnant idio... these rigid elves a taste of something truly exciting?"
Though elves had a really long lives, most Moon Elves living for up top 500 years for example, it was precisely this longevity, combined with the existence of magic and miracles, that seems to have robbed the elves of their creativity and imagination.
This empire has already existed for ten thousand years, yet technological progress remained limited. Currently, it was roughly in an age of magical steam technology.
The only thing worth noting was that the elven population in this world was far larger than one would assume.
After all, with ten thousand years of peace, even though elves weren't known for their fertility, their numbers had grown to staggering levels. The Moon Elf population alone exceeded a whopping fifty million.
While the massive population base brought prosperity to the empire, it also made resources scarce.
One apple eaten by one person versus ten people, it couldn't possibly be comparable.
So unlike the carefree, elegant, and noble elves from myths or films in his previous life, busy work had become the main theme throughout the long lives of the empire's elves.
After all, elves need to eat too. Without work, they wouldn't be able to just survive on air.
As he pondered about, the sound of a door opening echoed, and a lovely figure entered the room.
Golden hair tied back at her shoulders, violet eyes, two strands of bangs half-covering, adorable long elven ears, a clean oval face currently filled with worry.
A tall and voluptuous figure, wearing standard-issue leather armor.
Her beautiful eyes gazed into the room, and upon seeing Falko already awake, her previously worried eyes immediately lit up.
"Alto... You're awake!!"
Her voice cracked with emotion as she walked to his side, placing her hands over his forehead to check his condition.
Then she pulled him into her arms and held him tightly.
"Thank goodness!"
"Cough, cough, easy, easy, Aisha! I can't breathe!"
As the original body's older sister, Aisha was five years older than him. She too was an orphan adopted by the old elf, but the he had already died long ago, leaving the siblings in each other's care.
It could be said that since childhood, she had been both, sister and mother, caring for Alto.
Five years ago, Aisha had made it into Lunaria's ranger Corps with her exceptionnal talent.
As for him, the freshly grown up Alto got into a fight over his childhood sweetheart and got beaten half to death.
He probably died right after returning home, which is how Falko ended up transmigrating here.
Compared to Aisha, the Alto was practically useless.
Even as a child, when danger arose, he would always hide behind his sister.
Just like now, upon receiving news that Alto was injured and unconscious, Aisha had quickly returned home to care for him.
"What exactly happened? I heard you got into a fight over that little tea girl."
Indeed, that was exactly what had happened. Alto had a childhood sweetheart.
Mia.
A Wood Elf, no less. Apparently her ancestors had fled as refugees and settled down in Lunaria.
Though they'd grown up together, Childhood Innnocence and sweet word are one thing, and reality an other. And today, Alto had faced reality head on.
On one side, he, an utterly ordinary orphan from the lower district. On the other, the son of a merchant guild owner with several shops in the city. How could he possibly compete?
And so, with his romantic illusions shattered, Alto had gone alone to demand an explanation, only to be beaten by a group of underlings and was thrown out. The heartless look in his beloved's eyes tore his heart to shreds.
Having suffered both, physical and emotional damage, he simply died, filled with resentment.
"Well yeah, but let bygones be bygones. No need to bring it up anymore. I won't pursue her anymore!"
"Really?"
Aisha looked at him with mild surprise.
After all, the old Alto used to mention Mia constantly and couldn't stand hearing anyone say a bad word about her.
She'd seen through that woman long ago, she was a cunning and scheming woman, but young people in love never listen to reason! There was nothing she could do.
Perhaps this incident would actually be good for her little brother.
"After going through all this, I've completely figured things out. Sorry for making you worry, Aisha," Falko said slowly.
"As long as you've come to your senses, that's good. I've already spoken to Uncle Willie at the magic potion shop. Just rest at home for the next few days."
"Oh! That's right."
She rummaged in her clothes and pulled out a coin purse.
"This is my salary from last month. Use it sparingly."
Falko's eyes widened as more memories surfaced.
Hard times build character and maturity. With no parents, the siblings had faced this cold world from a young age, so they learned a job early on.
A few years ago, when Alto was barely more than a child, he'd become an apprentice at a magic potion shop.
But that meager wage was never enough for someone desperately trying to please their childhood sweetheart, so most of the time he'd relied on his sister's support.