CHAPTER 63: ELF

After arguing with the goddess, Gara intended to close his eyes and rest. Until he suddenly remembered something different and rather striking from Fian’s status panel earlier.

The system’s evaluation had changed!

Ugh, arguing with Goddess really messes with my head. I’ve become forgetful and totally careless.

He smacked his own forehead.

Gara shifted his gaze back to the heart icon floating above Fian’s head, a translucent blue panel popped up once again.

* * *

[FREYA’S EVALUATION]

Elves have extremely low fertility, but their offspring are always exceptional. The union of elf and druid produces children of superior potential. Given the druid’s high fertility rate, birthing more than one elf child is highly probable.

Highly recommended as a children’s father!

* * *

That category—[Freya’s Evaluation]—probably appeared after the first time the goddess Freya managed to speak directly to him.

But back then, Gara hadn’t checked anyone’s status panel.

After all, the only person he’d encountered was Madha, and he’d seen his status plenty of times before.

Children’s father? Goddess, do you like Fian that much?

"The goddess holds no bias," the voice replied flatly.

Gara rolled his eyes. Yeah, right. As if he could believe that.

He remembered asking Wina once about the other races in this world.

Elves, just like druids, could sense the scent of their kind. But if what Fian had said was true—about Gara smelling like a tree—then elves could probably recognize other races’ scents too.

Similar to druids, elves had natural advantages in forested environments. But unlike druids, they no longer lived deep within the woods.

At the heart of their homeland stood the Tree of the Sacred. Each type of elf on the continent had only one such tree. They built their lives around it, as if their very existence depended on it, much like druids with their Tree of Life.

But there was a key difference: the Tree of Life served as the heart of the forest, allowing druids to simply relocate to another woodland and guard a new one. The Tree of the Sacred, however, was irreplaceable. There was only one across the entire continent.

Thus, since a thick mist had blanketed their ancestral lands, the elves had stopped settling in any one place. They lived scattered and nomadic.

With no permanent home, the elves had broken into smaller groups, drifting through uninhabited regions or living on the fringes of other races’ territories. The few who wanted a stable life usually became envoys or representatives in other territories.

Gara could only guess something tragic had happened to Fian’s group, which led to him becoming a slave.

He couldn’t help but look at the young elf’s face with sympathy.

...

Wina’s herb field hadn’t been tended since the fire a few days ago.

Today, she and Gara were on their way to the village chief’s house to request an herb farmer’s certificate. With it, they could buy seeds and start planting.

As they left the house, the young man kept glancing sideways at the middle-aged woman walking beside him.

Strange. His mother rarely took him anywhere unless it involved watering the herb field. Usually, he had to beg just to go outside.

Wina cleared her throat, as if she’d noticed his looks. "Mom wants to be honest with you. About Captain Tristan."

Her son blinked.

"Wait, Mom... do you have a special relationship with Captain Tristan?"

Well, it wouldn’t be that surprising. Wina was still young, and technically, she had never had a husband, or a child. If Captain Tristan liked her, it wouldn’t be—

"Captain Tristan was your biological father’s most trusted right-hand."

That stopped his thoughts cold.

"One of my biological father’s... right-hand?"

Wina nodded, then explained that she had met Tristan two months ago, during her first visit to Falopo Town in sixteen years.

"He recognized me immediately while I was waiting for a carriage near the city gates."

Tristan had been one of Gara’s father’s most loyal vassal. They’d fought side-by-side against mist monsters on the frontlines and navigated the treacherous world of noble politics together.

Ever since Gara’s father passed away, Tristan had been tirelessly searching for his boss’ son. Eventually, he tracked down a member of their old team, the one who had been tasked with protecting the baby.

The man revealed that he had taken Wina and baby Gara to a village near Falopo Town.

The team split up after that. Some went to rescue Vita, others continued the search for Gara.

But when the squad assigned to save Vita was completely wiped out, all efforts shifted to retrieving her. After all, their commander had ordered them to protect his wife with their lives.

Unfortunately, the druids were prepared. They summoned all their strength, even calling upon several Guardians of Tree of Life. Facing them was no easy battle.

Tristan was among the few who survived that desperate clash. Before escaping, he found Vita. She pleaded with him not to fight anymore.

Instead, she entrusted him with a different mission: to protect Gara.

After Vita’s death, people expected Tristan—the second son of Marquess Cakra—to return to the borderlands and rise as a great general, standing alongside his father and older brother. Especially now that Gara’s father was gone.

But the young man defied expectations. He chose to live quietly as the captain of the town guard in a modest place, Falopo Town.

Few understood his decision, and most had long forgotten the once-famous warrior who vanished into obscurity.

But among the nobility of Raksa County—and across every territory under its jurisdiction—no one dared to cross Tristan.

Rumor had it, Marquess Cakra still hoped his second son would return, especially after the firstborn sustained a grave injury during the resistance of mist monster’s attack.

"All this time, he’s been protecting us in secret," Wina said quietly. "Making sure no druid ever gets close, waiting for me to leave the village so he could explain everything.

Maybe if he’d known your face, he would’ve approached you first when you visited town for the Awakening Ceremony."

"He’s truly devoted," was all Gara could say.

...