LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 84
Chapter 84: If Someone Asks About the Future of Elves, Raise Your Head and Look at the Soy Meat 1
“Puhuhuhu….”
Olgania, who was watching Shia’s broadcast on a computer made of Polythia wood, couldn’t help but smile faintly.
“Is watching broadcasts fun?”
“Yes, would you like to watch with me, Elder Entamia?”
“I’ll pass. It doesn’t really appeal to me.”
While sipping the sweet tea Entamia offered, Olgania smiled at the broadcast screen.
[This happened again?! Kyahhhh!! I’m going crazy, for real!]
– kekekekeke
– Who keeps writing ‘Meat Fairy’ kekeke
– These insane people are so persistent kekeke
– That’s already the third time it popped up
– So, are you going to do it or not kekeke
– If you used points, you have to do it
[…I don’t know who it is, but if I catch them, I won’t let it slide.]
By human standards, Shia appeared like a woman in her early 20s, but to the elves, with her toned body filled with lean muscles, her powerful thighs, and a motherly aura, she looked a bit older.
Seeing Shia imitate a magical girl and the Meat Fairy, striking a cute pose with a “Kiratt★,” gave the impression that an aging mother was wearing a girlish pink uniform and embarrassing herself.
The fascinating part was that, even though Shia looked ridiculous and funny, it strangely suited her.
‘Shia imitating the Meat Fairy is unexpectedly cute. Hehe.’
At first glance, Shia’s broadcast might seem like a simple show full of absurdity, shame, confusion, and embarrassment.
In fact, adhering to this concept, Shia acted like a clown, in a way that made it hard to tell whether she was serious or joking, drawing not only viewers but also the eyes of the elves in the Great Forest.
However, Shia’s goal wasn’t just to relieve loneliness or stir up attention.
Though it appeared like a concept broadcast filled with absurdity, Shia’s true objective was to filter out the impurities lurking within the Great Forest.
More precisely, she was searching for Chaos Ants disguised as elves.
Initially, Shia requested the Elder Council for an inquisition, but the elves were not very welcoming of Shia’s presence, as she was an outsider.
Moreover, the Elders didn’t want to escalate matters and hastily concluded that the only Chaos Ant specimen found was the one the Lotus Knights discovered.
If the Elders had held an inquisition as Shia requested, she wouldn’t have had to visit every house like this, but she remained persistent, visiting elves’ homes for over five days without resting.
If Olgania hadn’t been tipped off by Shia beforehand, she too would have dismissed it as just another absurd visit by the Antics Saintess.
‘And she’s healing every elf she meets.’
The viewers laughed at Shia’s absurd acts and her face, which seemed to want to die from embarrassment, but Shia quietly performed miracles, healing the elves’ illnesses without drawing attention.
As Shia continued her tireless visits, the fact that she was visiting every house began to spread among the elves.
Naturally, the elves disliked and rejected her.
Whether there was a reason or not, it didn’t matter.
Shia was an outsider, and for that reason alone, she was ostracized by all the elves of the Great Forest.
But curiously, the elves’ perception of Shia, whom they initially saw as a vile and detestable outsider, gradually began to change.
Rumors first spread about how Shia had healed someone’s illness.
Gerard started talking as if he was a fanatic, saying Shia had healed his mother, even going so far as to claim that she was a saint guided by the burning World Tree.
On the first day, most elves dismissed it as nonsense.
But the next day.
And the day after that.
As time passed, more and more elves stopped seeing Shia as a despicable outsider.
Some elf women even giggled, saying she was cute, as they watched her bash her head into a tree while letting out a shy “Kkaang!”
The number of people healed by Shia also steadily increased.
“She came to our house, struck a weird pose, and said she was a Meat Fairy.”
“Puhuhu, and after that, her face turned red as a beet from embarrassment. It was funny.”
“At first, of course, I was cautious, but thinking about it, outsiders are just like us.”
“Well, it wasn’t Shia, the outsider, who touched our Mother World Tree.”
Simply put, Shia had broken down the boundary between her and the elves through somewhat extreme methods.
Though her broadcast seemed like it crossed the line, Shia had a strange way of not actually crossing it.
She didn’t offend anyone, and if she felt she had accidentally crossed the line, Shia would bow her head and apologize, offering her miracle of Great Healing, gradually winning over the elves.
In the end, even those who didn’t know Shia started losing their hostility toward her, the outsider.
‘Could it be… did Shia plan all of this?’
[This…this…you wicked Soy Meat Demon! Meat Hero Shia will defeat yo….]
[Oh, it’s lunchtime. Would you like to stay and eat?]
[Sure….]
-kekekekekekekeke
-kekekekeke
-kekekeke heuuung…Mama…
– Look at how smoothly she ignored him kekeke
-Look at the host’s face kekeke
-He’s going to cry kekekekekeke
-kekekekeke
-Hmm?
-Is she crying?
[Shut up, you damn brats…]
No way.
Watching Shia nibbling on a perfectly grilled piece of soy meat, her eyes welling up with tears, made it hard to believe she had planned all of this.
However, aside from that, Olgania felt incredibly grateful to Shia, as well as a bit guilty.
Olgania didn’t have that much power among the elves.
Given the situation, Shia should have been formally commissioned, and the Elder Council should have supported her in what was clearly a serious matter, but Shia was helping Olgania with significant restrictions, merely as her guest.
If only Olgania had been a bit smarter.
If only she had succeeded in persuading the other Elders.
Then Shia wouldn’t have had to go without sleep, visiting each elf one by one.
Although Shia was an extraordinary entity as the Saintess of the Dead and didn’t show signs of fatigue, the reality was that no one other than Shia could pull off the impossible task of tirelessly visiting elves to identify the Chaos Ants in disguise.
On the third day, when Shia was once again meeting with other elves, Olgania had caught her and asked:
“Shia, why are you helping me so much, both physically and emotionally? I can’t pay you that much. If it’s money you’re after, catching a dungeon and streaming would be much more lucrative.”
Despite hearing such words, Shia responded to Olgania with her characteristic innocent smile, seemingly without a single thought in her head.
“Does a person need a reason to help another?”
“……!”
“As the Saintess of the Dead, is it strange for me to say that? If you really need a reason, just think of it like this: The Antics Saintess simply wanted to help her adorable dead fans.”
How could anyone not like her after hearing such words?
Olgania smiled without even realizing it.
“Olgania, would you like some more?”
“Oh, yes. It’s delicious. I’d love some.”
Now that I think about it, when did Elder Entamia come to my house?
Well, the tea was good, so does it really matter?
It’s not strange for Elder Entamia to visit my house.
It’s perfectly natural.
‘I think… I can tell Shia…’
○○○○
One day, two days, three days, four days, five days…
And on the sixth day.
A week had passed.
“Heuu, broadcast over….”
-clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap-
-Good job
-kekekekeke
-That was hilarious, for real kekeke
-Host, do the Meat Fairy pose one more time for an encore
-kekekekeke
“Shut up! I did that seven times just yesterday!”
[‘LeafFritterForSale’ has donated 10,000 won!]
– Meat Fairy, please take this and do a Kiratt★ for me!
“Damn★”
-?
-??
-That’s a bit different?
-What’s going on kekeke
[‘KawaiiHorned’ has donated 100,000 won!]
-Is this enough?
“Kiratt★”
With her holy power, Shia drew a dark star in the air, struck a cute pose, and winked before collapsing right there.
Anyone who claimed the Saintess of the Dead, Shia, didn’t give good reactions to donations would likely disappear after today.
“Ah, I’m not doing it anymore. Seriously, I’m done…”
Of course, the drone camera hadn’t been running continuously for a whole week.
To charge the drone, it had to be left in a sunny spot during the day, and Shia had only streamed when her viewers on Switch were most active.
Shia had not slept a single wink and had visited every elf in the Great Forest at least once.
She met with the watchmen, the sentries, and the knights of the Lotus Lake, staying up all night talking with them, and during the day, she knocked on doors and entered their homes.
Naturally, there were times she was refused.
Some even kicked her out before she could step inside, calling her a despicable outsider.
Fortunately, while the elves detested outsiders, they didn’t resort to violence, likely because Shia was a guest of Olgania, the last child of the World Tree.
But even so, Shia never gave up.
With her persistent personality, she continued to confront the elves head-on, engaging in dialogue with them regardless of their hostility.
She healed the sick and reasoned with those who opposed her.
She searched for the stench of malevolence and the rotten presence for a whole week.
By the end of that week, the hostility of the elves had nearly vanished.
Some even laughed at her antics as if watching a clown.
“Outsider, aren’t you doing the Meat Fairy today?”
“…Ugh, no, I’m not!”
“Hahaha, come over later for some soy meat! There’s a rumor that the outsider loves soy meat.”
Shia forced a smile and waved at the elf, swallowing the words, “It’s not that I like soy meat, it’s just that it’s the only thing to eat!”
The taste of soy meat?
It was like a bland version of canned ham, with all the salt and sweetness removed.
It wasn’t something you couldn’t eat.
In fact, being made from soy grown by the elves themselves, it was far superior to the soy meat Shia was familiar with, tasting much fresher.
However, in the end, soy meat was still just soy meat.
In a forest filled with vegetarians and vegans, soy meat was the closest thing to what suited Shia’s taste buds. Since she had been accepting and eating it everywhere she went, the elves mistakenly believed she had developed a strong liking for soy meat.
Shia also treated the mysterious disease spreading among the elves.
The faint sense of hostility had gradually faded.
Incidentally, the disease spreading among the elves was caused by someone contaminating the water source.
Whether the Chaos Ant disguised as an elf had vomited formic acid or pheromones into the water, Shia didn’t know.
What mattered was that she had managed to meet every elf in the Great Forest and heal their ailments, while also finding the impurities she was initially after.
However, there was a problem.
‘…There are quite a lot of them.’
The number of impurities disguised as elves was far greater than Shia had expected.
There were 30,000 elves in the Great Forest, and of those, at least 1,000 were confirmed to be impurities, as Shia suspected.
Among them, there were those who had fully integrated into the lives of elves, taking on their professions, eating their food, and following their culture.
It was as if they didn’t even know they were ants.
‘And then there were people I hadn’t even considered… who turned out to be ants.’
Shia’s original plan was to eliminate the impurities the moment she found them.
She had no qualms about smashing the skulls of those she discovered, as she had done with the disguised Chaos Ant found by the Lotus Knights, or even secretly roasting them over a campfire for a meal.
She had even considered changing the stream title to “Chaos Ant Basacle Shell Direct Grill” while grilling them.
‘But with so many, it’s meaningless…’
Shia identified the scent of malevolence whenever she encountered an elf.
And through conversations, she could discern truth from lies.
However, Shia realized that almost all of the disguised elves seemed to genuinely believe they were living as elves.
‘Come to think of it, soldier ants don’t have a sense of self.’
The soldier ants of Chaos Ants were like terminals, machines, or tools for carrying out the orders of the queen, without any self-awareness or intellect.
Had they lacked self-awareness from the start, it might have been fine.
They wouldn’t have felt loss as loss, or emotions as emotions.
But by disguising themselves as elves, the soldier ants had gained intellect and a sense of self.
Would these ants, disguised as elves, want to return to being Chaos Ants?
‘On the contrary, these beings are likely content with their lives as elves. They’ve forgotten they were ever ants and are living as elves. It might not even matter to leave them be.’
The disguised elves had blended seamlessly with the elves in every small detail.
The longer they spent disguised, the more their bodies became like those of elves. And there were almost none, if any at all, who were aware they were Chaos Ants.
I’m not trying to argue that cancer cells are life.
However, if those cancer cells had fully transformed into other cells and had become one with the body, the situation might be different.
Should ants that have obtained an elf identity still be considered ants?
Or should they be called elves?
“Well, it’s pointless to worry about it.”
The conclusion was already clear.
Impurities would be dealt with accordingly.