This is about what happened after we entered the third part.
The town of Polka, at the northern edge of Trot Kingdom, is experiencing a short summer.
Flocks of sheep have arrived on the green grassland, and the shepherds take a moment to rest at the sacred spring while marveling at the changing face of this town.
“Welcome… Oh, Jeanne-san. Do you need something today?”
“I’m going to practice sewing and make a child’s skirt. Something that looks good but is reasonably priced.”
“Practice sewing… I always thought Jeanne-san was so skilled that she could sew clothes.”
“I’ve done some patchwork before, but making clothes from scratch is still new to me. So, when Granny Vera offered to teach me, I decided to give it a try.”
“Oh, the midwife… But a skirt? Not for Peter-kun?”
“For Elenia. Besides, once I’ve figured out how to sew, there’s more demand for women’s clothes around Andy.”
“Are you planning to make clothes for all the adults too…? Are you going to become a tailor instead of a blacksmith?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead. But it’s never too late to improve my skills. Thanks to Selen and Apple taking turns watching the kids, I have plenty of time. I’ll use it to hone my craft.”
“Sigh… I can’t afford to slack off either.”
As Jeanne and Oregano chatted amiably while inspecting the stock, a passing shepherd stared at them in shock.
”…Well… Seeing an elf and a dwarf chatting so friendly in a human town is quite the sight.”
“Oh, welcome! How about this waterproof cloak to prepare for the sudden rain? It’s a bit pricey, but it’s made of high-quality fabric woven in the northern forest. Light, soft, and incredibly water-resistant. It won’t soak through even in heavy downpours. And it doesn’t get stuffy. We also have hats made from the same material.”
“Oh, um… Well, I’ve heard that elf crafts are getting easier to find lately, but… Are you really sure it’s okay to sell something like this to me?”
“We supply the major merchants like Silphide and others separately. …This isn’t an elf-run shop or anything. It’s just a regular human-owned store here in town. I’m just a hired clerk. If you’re willing to pay, I won’t discriminate against your preferences♪”
“I see… Still, it’s surprising how friendly you are even with dwarves.”
“Jeanne-san is like family to me.”
“Family…?”
The shepherd made a face as if to say, “I don’t get it.”
That’s how it usually is. Elves and dwarves are meant to look down on each other.
Just being friendly with dwarves is rare enough. But for her to casually call them “family”… it’s like pointing at an apple and calling it a fish.
“That’s how it is in the world. Especially Trot, who tends to judge other races with prejudice.”
“Nn~, it’s a shame, isn’t it…? It’s better for everyone to live together in harmony, and if individuals could understand each other deeply, we wouldn’t need to bring the tension between races into it.”
“Well, I can’t really say much either. If it weren’t for Sister Lila and Andy taking me out, I wouldn’t have been able to see elves in a different light.”
“If you think about it, if Master hadn’t stepped up in the forest, we’d probably be…”
“You can really tell just how great Andy is, huh?”
Among the female slaves, they often have conversations like this to reaffirm Andy’s greatness.
I don’t know how much he understands himself, but there are many who’ve had their lives completely changed by him—environmentally and personally.
Especially when it comes to the Elves starting to look outward—it could never have happened without Andy’s intervention. That event, like a crack in an eternal cloudy sky, is a feat worthy of being called world-changing, no matter what he himself thinks about it.
For the elves, getting closer to someone like that feels like stepping into a myth, and no matter how much they talk about his greatness, their pride never fades. Hearing about him from others only deepens their admiration for him.
Though it might seem like self-indulgent behavior, sharing it strengthens their bond.
And because of that, their awareness has started to diverge quite significantly from that of the residents of Polka, visitors, and even Andy himself. But the label of “female slave,” which was never meant to be understood by others, allows this divergence to grow wider and deeper without causing any real problems.
Thanks to that, in Polka, the more time passes without Andy being around, the more girls are drawn to him, losing their resistance to even unconventional behaviors… Some might say it’s a “progression in the training of female slaves,” which is hard to understand but seems to be happening.
Now, over at the Baron’s mansion.
”…………”
”…Hey… Selen? Um… you’ve been acting kinda weird lately, haven’t you?”
”…………Hmm…”
As Apple soothed Peter, she couldn’t help but notice Selen’s strange gaze as she soothed Elenia.
Recently, Selen had been staring at Apple with a serious expression… or rather, observing her. She’d been doing it more and more often.
Apple had known Selen for a long time. She was well aware that Selen was an honest person at heart.
Selen didn’t have the skills or the charm to deceive people, nor did she use them in everyday life.
She avoided unpleasant people and spoke her mind directly. She completely dismissed anyone who wasn’t part of her inner circle… or rather, she made quick decisions about whether someone was worth her time. Being half-elf and having been oppressed and underestimated, she had learned to discern which people and situations were worth dealing with.
She cut through the small talk and skipped over anything that lacked substance.
It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to behave—indeed, she could handle any etiquette situation if necessary—but she completely ignored it unless it was necessary.
So, the fact that Selen had been staring at Apple meant there was probably some special meaning behind it. It couldn’t just be idle curiosity.
But Apple couldn’t think of anything.
As usual, Peter was happily sucking on Apple’s nipple, but it couldn’t be his fault. It had only been a few days since Selen started looking at Apple with this expression.
However, Selen remained silent.
It was unusual for Selen to take such an ambiguous stance. Apple grew uneasy, wondering if there might be something… serious that she wasn’t saying.
While Selen herself was nursing Elenia and mumbling indistinctly, “Mmm…” she eventually averted her gaze and spoke in a whisper-like tone.
“Apple… back when you were doing those naughty things with Andy-san… didn’t you do it in all sorts of places?”
“Uh? Y-yeah… I guess… I did, maybe?”
Confused by the sudden turn in the conversation, Apple answered ambiguously.
“You did it outside the hunter’s hut, behind the hot spring, in the thick bushes of the forest… Thinking about it now, I wonder why you didn’t get caught. You might’ve been seen sucking on Andy-san’s thing by passersby.”
“But back then, Selen was already healed, so she used magic to hide us…”
”…………”
“Selen?”
Selen turned her gaze back to Apple.
And then, after a while…
”…Apple. …You’ve gotten your memories back, haven’t you? Why are you pretending not to know?”
”!!”
Apple froze. Peter, held in her arms, pressed his face against her chest and let out a strange sound.
Flustered, she realized and loosened her grip, but thankfully, Peter didn’t seem about to cry… no, rather, he looked as if a revelation had struck him, nodding and slowly pressing his face back against her, letting out the same strange sound.
“What are you doing, Peter-kun?”
“Apple. …Don’t lie. When did you… get your memories back?”
”…………”
Apple let out a small sigh.
”…It’s not that long ago. It was while I was adventuring with Andy-san in the Kingdom of Karlwin… mmm, no, even before that, I’ve been feeling this… weird sensation. Like I’m about to remember something, but I can’t quite grasp it, and then it fades away.”
”…Was that in Karlwin?”
”…Yeah.”
Apple nodded slightly.
“There was a time when everyone seemed ready to give up, and I had to act like Andy-san. I tried to cheer everyone up by imitating Andy-san… But while I was trying to remember what Andy-san had said at that moment, I focused so hard on it that… suddenly, I could also recall Andy-san as a child.”
”…Why didn’t you say anything about that?”
“I wasn’t sure. Whether it was a real memory or just some kind of delusion… I’d already heard the general gist from Selen, and I thought maybe I’d fabricated it with that knowledge… I mean, I wondered.”
But Apple continued. She smiled wryly as Peter pressed his face against her breast, trying to fully savor the new sensation, and gently stroked his head.
“Over time, things started to become clearer… Memories I’d never heard before, connections between events… all that came back to me. I kept wondering why. I didn’t know Andy-san, and I knew my memories were gone, but still, Andy-san said he wanted me… I became someone new, and I started to like Andy-san again. So it was resolved, so why is this coming up now?”
”…It must be…”
Selen tried to give an interpretation.
It must be that Apple, deep down, hadn’t truly come to love Andy.
Since Selen said she wanted to live that way, Apple had no choice but to follow her lead, become a female slave alongside her… and live like that. In reality, Apple didn’t have any other options.
Becoming a female slave was partly because the remnants of her feelings for Andy reacted, but it was also just a matter of making up her mind.
Once, Apple had made that decision. This time, she was simply reaffirming it.
Andy’s childhood was honestly not a particularly great one. Even so, if you depend on it and imagine the future, a happy scene comes to mind. A rootless half-elf has plenty of happiness.
It was through recognizing and accepting this once again that the female slave contract came about… and what drove Apple to work tirelessly in service.
However, when Apple accompanied him on his journey to the extreme, worked hard to be useful, and truly acknowledged his strength and virtues… I think it must have finally connected with the memories she had felt, but could never fully grasp, as if they were dreams torn apart.
But when Selen tried to explain it, she stopped herself.
It would be awkward. Having someone explain in a knowing tone why she loves him.
“…If you tell Andy-san about this, I think he’ll value you even more than he does now.”
“…It’s just that it feels like I’ve become two people. There’s the new feeling of liking Andy-san, and there’s the old attachment I had for him… both are strong, but they don’t quite fit together. …Even though I’m in love with the same person, these two ‘likes’—one with a different reason—are living independently, side by side… Do you understand that?”
“…Sorry, it might be hard to explain.”
I can imagine it, but it’s hard to empathize. Feeling two, similar yet disconnected emotions for the same person.
Apple had been carrying this secretly within herself.
“…Selen, you understand that, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure… I just felt like there was a bit of a change in her demeanor since she came back. Whether it’s because of the amazing journey they went on, or something else… I couldn’t tell, and I’ve been stuck in this confusion for a while now.”
“If it’s different from what you expected, what were you going to do?”
”…I just wanted to know who she really was.”
Selen let out a wry smile.
Was this also part of the half-elf’s tendency to be lonely?
She hadn’t been planning to do anything to her best friend. She just wanted to understand why she had changed.
Only now did it occur to her that she had made her uneasy, and she patted her own head, still so far behind.
”…It’d be nice if you could talk about it with Andy-san someday.”
”…Yeah. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not.”
“It’ll definitely be a good thing.”
The two of them, still holding the baby, smiled gently at each other, as if forgiving their doubts and lies.