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n“That’s not possible,” my grandma smiled, her radiant glow uplifting the heavy morale of all the survivors wading through the knee-deep water. “Royal Elves are selfish beings. They may follow the will of Mother Nature, but they also follow their own beastly instincts. No order from Mother Nature would be so vile and cruel.”

nFor what seemed to be days, we escaped through the dark forest. Many dungeons leaking various monsters attempted to attack us, but my grandma stayed strong. Out of all the elderly, she was the only one capable of fighting. Some children were of course competent in the art of daggers… but compared to my grandmother’s magic, they were but mere bugs.

n“Huff… huff… huff… my grandson… my prince…” Grandma heaved through a massive laceration cutting across her torso. “You must take the survivors to safety. You must keep them safe with your wind magic. You are a gifted individual… and loved by all… so you must take them. I will die here, but you will not. Leave, towards the west. You must escape further… you’re almost there…”

n“M-Mother Nature has forsaken us. We will not be able to escape her grasp. She has sent her underlings to clear us from this world,” I cried as the life in her eyes faded. But just before she couldn’t speak any longer, a few words slipped from those bloodied lips of hers.

n“When Mother Nature dines with her creations, will we not be there?”

n…

nAs I opened my eyes, the last remaining bits of my dream fading from my mind, I turned over on my bed and looked at Nell sleeping peacefully on the floor. She was cuddled up with a few pillows and a heavy blanket, so I guess she was sleeping better than me.

nGetting up from my head wasn’t very hard since all of my pillows and blankets were stolen, but as I turned over to step on the floor, I had to be careful of the peaceful dark elf.

nShe was beautiful. No doubt about it. She was as beautiful as one humanoid being could ever be. But, I felt no attraction towards her. I could appreciate her slender and tender body and I could whoo over her hair that was almost as good as mine… but that personality of hers was the only thing stopping me from ever developing feelings.

n“What?” She asked, sensing my gaze as I took quick glances at her while I changed into some more nimble clothing.

n“You remind me of somebody I respect.” 𝒪𝗏𝓵xt.𝚌𝗈𝕞

n“And who might that be?” She yawned, slowly rubbing her eyes and keeping her gaze away from me as I continued to change. Of course, once I finished, she turned towards me, and for but a moment, a flashing image grazed over that mature face of hers.

nI smiled, leaving the woman hanging. She attempted to question me more but it was all shot down instantly as I made some breakfast. Yesterday we did a bit of grocery shopping so for our first meal of the day we had… salad… and one pink egg.

n“Why the hell are eggs so expensive here?” I groaned, whisking up the egg and preparing it for a simple scramble.

n“I’ll tell you if you tell me who I might resemble,” Nell bumped her eyebrows up and down, attempting to seduce me with that stupid expression of hers. “Come on, I won’t stop asking until you tell me.”

n“There’s no reason for you to know and I doubt you even know who she is.”

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n“Come on just tell me…”

n“No.”

n“Come on man~”

n“No.”

n“Seriously, is it really that non-important that you can’t tell me?”

n“It’s important to me, but not to you,” I sighed, pouring the beaten eggs into the pan heated up by a glowing red rock serving as some kind of stove. It wasn’t that bad and practically replicated the usage of a stove… and it was the same for air conditioning and bathing and even some of the buildings down here. It was so primitive yet so streamlined with these rocks called elemental stones.

nFire Stones obviously created heat, serving as stoves, a box of them would be an oven, and sometimes even a heater if you were strange enough. Especially when this place was just so **ing hot all the time. I mean, I’ve mostly gotten used to it. We all do, but it’s not something we exactly enjoy spending time in.

nWind Stones for air conditioning or more like fans since there aren’t ice stones to cool you down. Water Stones of course created moisture and with enough, you can create streams of water to bathe or shower in. And finally, Earth Stones… a strange name, but they were useful for building, especially in developed cities like the capital Satan rules over.

n“Alright, and that’s all done. Can you set the salad in each bowl while I divide this flimsy amount of protein evenly?” I asked Nell, but she was already on it, finished with everything I just asked. So, I quickly divided the egg and placed it on two separate small plates before sitting down.

n“Shall we say thanks before we eat?” Nell asked with a large smile, her hands already clasped together.

n“To who? Satan or something?” I snickered, although I already knew who she was about to thank. It made me sick to my stomach and I held no effort in trying to display such grotesque expressions about her sudden actions.

n“No… To Mother Nature of course, or what? Still haven’t come around?” She asked, her expression uncaring of what I wanted to do. “Whatever… I’ll just say my thanks by myself.”

nClearly, she said it in her head as nothing came from her mouth, but as she squeezed her eyes shut and thanked Mother Nature, I asked her one more question. “Hey, have you ever been to the overworld?”

nSlowly, her eyes opened. They shifted around, taking in all of the information around her. Soon, they slid back onto me, and with a light green glow beneath her eyes, she responded bluntly with a clear and concise, “No.” This made me laugh.

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