Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 596

Side Story. 3

“…Is the title ‘El’?”

“Yeah, that’s right. The main character’s name is El.”

It was quite a coincidental title. At that moment, not only Trowel but everyone else had the same thought. Lamias, noticing their thoughts, quickly shook his head.

“No, the author wrote it. I didn’t get involved.”

“You said the author is also a spiritist?”

“That’s right, a water spiritist. So, she filled it with her own fantasies. You’ll probably chuckle when you read it. The main character, a spiritist, disguises himself as a priest, infiltrates the royal family, uncovers dangerous conspiracies, and saves the world.”

El’s expression suddenly turned blank. With a disbelieving look, he blinked and quickly lowered his gaze, opening the book. His eyes, slowly reading, began to moisten little by little.

“E, Elquines?!”

“Godfather?”

“El, what’s wrong!”

The flustered group fussed over him, worried. Trowel also watched El quietly. After looking at the first few pages, El flipped to the last page of the book. He checked the author’s signature at the very bottom and became even more choked up.

“The author’s pen name is… Forget-Me-Not?”

“Huh? Oh, right. She said it’s her favorite flower, so she named her pen name after it.”

“Could this person’s real name have been Ransi?”

“Wow, how did you know that?”

Lamias’ eyes widened. El, swallowing his breath, finally began to tear up.

“Was she someone you knew?”

Trowel, who had been watching quietly, asked. El quickly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and nodded, smiling. Only then did everyone exclaim. It seemed that Lamias wasn’t the only one with lingering subconscious memories.

“Ransi worked at the Sepion Duchy. What a strange connection. Did she immigrate to the Empire?”

“Yeah, my successor was also a water spiritist. I formed a special unit focused on spiritists, and she came looking for me after hearing the rumors.”

“You mean Davian?”

“Huh, you know that guy too?”

“I know Davian’s friend, Chris, even better.”

“Chris? Lakin Chris? The guild master of the Dawn Guild, one of the three major guilds on the continent?”

“Wow, the guild has grown that much. I was a founding member of that hunter guild. I first met Lamias as a member of the guild.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, really. Haha, it feels so strange to talk about these things. But it’s nice that there are no restrictions here.”

El didn’t usually mention those stories. I thought it was because it was hard for him to remember, but I realized it might have become a habit due to the restrictions he had. Trowel looked at his slightly awkward but relieved smile with a feeling of sorrow. Everyone else had similar expressions.

“Speaking of which, Lamias.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“I actually had a lot of things I wanted to ask Lamias. About Davian and Chris too. I’m so curious about how they’ve been living. Can you tell me what you remember?”

Lamias, seeing his earnest face, let out a short groan as if he had been caught off guard. He swallowed hard and then grabbed El’s hands with a meaningful expression.

“Just give me the order, my cute Elquines. I can do anything for you.”

He would be much more likable if he didn’t do things like that. Trowel clicked his tongue quietly at the atmosphere that had collapsed in an instant, as if the heartwarming moment had never happened. At the same time as El recoiled in disgust, Sibelius and Asmodel subdued him and slammed him to the ground. “Let go of me! I’m Elquines’ contractor! Why are you interfering when I’m trying to connect with my spirit king!” His screams echoed, but everyone ignored him.

“I can’t let my guard down. Lapis wasn’t even this bad.”

“Godfather, can we throw this away?”

Following Sibelius, who was dumbfounded, Asmodel smiled brightly and asked. Even El, who usually took care of his contractors, didn’t bother to take his side. Trowel once again foresaw Lamias’ future.

“Throw him as far away as possible. Put up some barriers around the area so he can’t come back.”

“Okay! I’ll be right back!”

“Ah, no! Let go of me! Elquines! Elquines!”

Lamias, being dragged away, quickly exited. Meanwhile, Sibelius rummaged through the storage and took out salt, scattering it in front of the door. In magic, scattering salt was an act of warding off evil spirits. Trowel, who felt sorry for the situation, added a word of intervention.

“El, just ask Perdes about that. He works in the underworld, so he should be able to check the records of souls’ past lives.”

“Ah, I should. Thanks for telling me a good way, Trowel.”

“You’re welcome.”

Of course, he felt sorry not for Lamias being dragged away, but for El not being able to hear the story properly because of the dragon who didn’t understand the situation and acted foolishly. Soon, Sibelius, dusting off his hands, came in and asked Trowel.

“Would you like some tea? I got some good tea leaves.”

“Are you talking to me?”

“Who else would I be talking to? Even a spirit king can enjoy tea.”

“…Okay.”

As he nodded, Sibelius hummed a tune and put the kettle on the stove. Watching him, seemingly not thinking about how he looked, Trowel suddenly recalled the thought he had before coming here. He had confirmed his appearance, casually mixed in human society, and thought that he had become quite mild. But it seemed that he wasn’t the only one who had become mild.

With a somewhat awkward feeling, he turned his head and El, who had met his eyes, smiled playfully. Trowel couldn’t help but smile too. The land that had gone through severe cold was full of frozen scars, but even so, flowers bloomed. It was a peaceful time.

* * *

Exclusive Interview with the Popular Author ‘Forget-Me-Not’!

This year could be said to be the year of this person.

A book published as a hobby spread through word of mouth and recorded an astonishing 300,000 copies sold in just three months after its publication. The current sales volume is a whopping ten million copies. The printing house is operating day and night due to the daily flood of orders, but it still can’t keep up with the volume.

She simultaneously won the Author of the Year Award, the Reader’s Choice Popular Author Award, and the Promising New Writer Award, and also received the prestigious Seik Award, which is given to individuals who have enhanced the reputation of the Empire. She has dozens of lectures scheduled. She is so busy with interview requests pouring in from all directions that she is even cutting down on her sleeping time. This is the story of the adventure novelist Forget-Me-Not.

Her real name is Ransi Laktear. The reason why Forget-Me-Not is her pen name is simply because it is her favorite flower. She is a major new talent who has pleasantly shocked the Empire by interestingly unraveling the story of a unique esper [person with psychic abilities] called a spiritist, and is praised for opening a new horizon in the genre. It was recently revealed that she herself is a spiritist, which became a hot topic. Today, we meet the popular author Forget-Me-Not, who has risen to the ranks of prominent writers since her debut.

Hello, Forget-Me-Not. Thank you for agreeing to this interview despite your busy schedule. Please give a brief introduction to our readers.

Hello, I am Forget-Me-Not, the author of the novel . I am happy to meet you like this.

This year has been amazing, so much so that it can be described as Forget-Me-Not’s year. The novel ‘El’, which tells the story of the water spiritist El, has received great love for its fantastic and rich imagination. Do you realize its popularity?

Actually, I’m still just dazed. Thank you for your great love.

Recently, you revealed that you are also a water spiritist, which has become a hot topic. Was that the reason you conceived the novel? I’m curious if there are any of your experiences in it.

I don’t think I can say that there was no influence at all. But there are no experiences of my own at all. In the first place, the main character El is a contractor of the Spirit King. I’m a lower-level spiritist, so I can’t do what El does even if I want to (laughs). In fact, I’m not sure if it’s even possible even if you’re a real contractor of the Spirit King.

So you’re saying it’s almost fiction.

Yes, that’s right. Even if it’s not, I’ve heard that there are many people who ask if it’s possible like the content of the novel, so the spiritists are having a lot of trouble. I would like to take this opportunity to say this. The situations that appear in El are fictional and almost impossible in reality. Please keep in mind that El is a novel.

It’s a pity that it’s fiction, but they were really great stories. How did you come up with the content?

Everyone doesn’t believe me when I say this, but El was actually a story I saw in a dream. A very beautiful water spiritist came out in my dream, and it was so vivid that I couldn’t realize it was a dream for a while even after I woke up. The novel El is based on that story. I added a few interesting settings with the advice of an acquaintance, but most of it was what I saw in my dream.

A story you saw in a dream, it feels even more special. Thanks to you, we were able to come across such an interesting novel, so we should thank the spiritist in the dream.

I am also grateful. In fact, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I had such a dream. I said earlier that it was all fiction, but maybe I came across the story of a spiritist in another world. Somewhere, El may really be a real person.

That would be really wonderful. Just thinking about it makes me very happy. It was an answer worthy of a writer who guided the people of the Empire into a beautiful world of fantasy this year. Thank you for your interview.

Later, I found out that Lamias had faked his death immediately after retiring and ended his life as the Duke of Sepion. It was around the time Davian was in his thirties. Since then, he had not gone out into human society for hundreds of years and had not received any related news. Of course, he had no knowledge of their later years. I wondered why he was making such a grand statement asking for orders, but it was because he had to find out for himself.

Of course, there was no particular gain. That era was right after Minerva was betrayed, so all the dragons who had been out in human society were returning home. It was an era when they were disgusted with humans, so who would have been interested in how anyone lived? Lamias, who was discouraged, brought a newspaper instead. It was a newspaper containing the full interview with Ransi, which he had collected just before he retired. After that, he read the contents that he had already read several times again. After reading carefully to the last paragraph, a long breath flowed out involuntarily.

‘Somewhere, El may really be a real person.’

He carefully stroked one sentence that was particularly noticeable with his finger. Lapis said it was all just a dream, but his relationship with them was as special as his relationship with his modern acquaintances. He thought it was already an ended world, but this one word left by Ransi seemed to be connecting their world and my world. Just a little further away, living in their own worlds.

“El, it’s warm yuja [citron] tea.”

“Ah, thank you.”

The cup that Sibelius handed me had a sweet scent. When I took a sip, a warm energy spread through my body.

“It’s delicious. I think fruits are more delicious now.”

“Isn’t it? Civilization was more advanced 4,000 years ago, but research on varieties of vegetables and fruits is more active now. I also baked cookies, would you like to eat them? They’re warm and delicious right now.”

“Ah, I want to eat them!”

When I answered quickly, Sibelius smiled as if he knew it. Looking at the color of the cookies, which were baked deliciously at a glance, I suddenly remembered the days when I learned to cook for survival after breaking up with him. I was getting confident, so I tried baking cookies, but I burned them all and failed miserably. It was a strange cookie that was burnt on the outside but still had batter on the inside.

After that, I decided to just buy pastries if possible and never looked back. But none of the bakeries’ were more delicious than the ones Sibelius made. I always missed them, and now I was touched by the fact that I could eat the cookies he made anytime. Although other problems had arisen.

“But Sibelius, I think three of these will be my limit.”

“It’s okay. We can tell Asmodel to eat the rest, so don’t overdo it.”

“Yeah, sorry. Haa, when I was human, it was so nice to be able to eat as much as I wanted. This is a problem with the spirit’s body. I feel like I’ve overeaten even if I eat a little. To think I have to be satisfied with just one or two of these delicious things.”

I could use the method of decomposing and eliminating it as soon as I put it in my mouth like Ifrit did sometime ago, but I didn’t want to do that. It was too wasteful to get rid of something that was made with care like that. Sibelius, who was looking at me pitifully as I grumbled, turned his gaze to the newspaper on the table.

“Are you reading that again?”

“Ah, yeah. It doesn’t feel real every time I see it.”

“Well, I was quite surprised too.”

It wasn’t just the memories that had disappeared about me in those days. The articles and related documents that covered me at the time were all erased. So, it was even more unbelievable that traces remained in this way.

“It’s kind of amazing. The fact that I’m still connected even though I don’t remember. I wonder what I would have been like if it had been the other way around.”

“Of course, El would be the same. I’m proof of that. We became friends even though we met without knowing anything.”

“Haha, does that work like that?”

“Of course. When you reached out to me and asked me to be friends, I was sure you were the real El. I was really grateful that you kept your promise even though you didn’t have any memories. Even though I didn’t recognize you properly.”

I remembered Sibelius that day. It was after he realized that everything was a prank by Kanos. I couldn’t just leave him alone when I saw him looking lost with a blank face, so I approached him. I reached out to him and asked him to be friends, but he suddenly started dropping tears, which made me flustered. I couldn’t understand why he kept apologizing, but I thought it was because he was still confused.

“You clearly said it. That we would be friends even if I couldn’t recognize you. You definitely said that…”

I didn’t realize it because it was something I didn’t take seriously at the time, but when I thought about it, I really did say that. It was the night before Sibelius left a note and left.