Leave a comment

Wine, you see, is aged in barrels. During that aging process, the alcohol evaporates and disappears, which they call the “angel’s share.” Roughly 1-3% evaporates each year, so if you age it for 10 years, you lose around 10-30%. Those angels must be quite the tipplers.

Incidentally, other than grape wine, elves also produced and enjoyed fruit wine made from apples, pears, prunes (and basically every fruit you think you can make wine from), and, quite unusually, mead as well. At the end of the day, elves were as fond of alcohol as dwarves were, but if I were to mention that, they would likely take offense and be touchy about it.

Moreover, it seems that wine is best enjoyed when it reaches its peak aging period, but for any excess or processed food that can’t be consumed right away — due to the reliance on nature for their forest harvests, there can be variations from year to year, but with the aid of spirit magic, the elves don’t experience extreme crop failures as they usually have a substantial surplus every year — they apply long-term preservation magic and store them in ice chambers crafted with the help of earth and water spirits.

Led by Uranus, with Pryui and Ashimi following us, we were shown a glimpse of one such chamber, created utilizing the Thousand-Year Tree’s hollow. Inside, there was enough wine to inebriate a legion of angels for at least a hundred years.

“Well, it would be a waste to let them collect dust. There shouldn’t be a problem releasing them into the market.”
“Of course, I will try to drive the price as high as possible.”

I firmly asserted to Uranus — but,

“Hah! You beans are quick to bring that up. Your ‘Gold’ is filthy and unnecessary for us elves.” Ashimi dismissively chuckled. While Pryui didn’t say anything, she was visibly agreeing with him.

Well, it would indeed be deplorable to hand coins to elves, considering they were allergic to metal. (Speaking of which, different countries issued different brands of coin, but they were all alloy metal made with alchemy. While each country had its own unique proportion, elves couldn’t touch their coin unless it was made of pure silver or pure gold.)

“It doesn’t have to be money. The drinking vessels and tablewares from yesterday’s banquet, I reckon, are purchased from outside the village, yes? Much like that, the exchange can take the form of things that aren’t self-sustained within the village. For example, spices from the South. And, above all, isn’t it essential for the village to thrive through mutual understanding?”

“We can live just fine without you beans. Our village has been practically self-sustained for a long time, and we can always substitute tableware and spices with what we have here.”
“Well, I’ve no intention of condemning shut-ins, but it’s fun to go out and play around once in a while, you know? The world is vast. There’s no reason to focus on humans; there are lots of other races you can meet and discoveries to make.”

While Ashimi spat out his displeasure and turned away sullenly, Pryui, on the other hand, had a look of admiration in her eyes and was fully engaged in my conversation.

“Indeed, if you confine yourself to a small village, there are things you won’t see, and your values can become skewed,” commented Uranus with a wry smile. In response, the gaze of everyone present shifted toward Ashimi, who still held strong prejudices against the human race. Startled, Ashimi flinched and let out sounds of discomfort, as if he couldn’t bear the pressure, before turning his gaze in a different direction.

“Still, it’s surprising how understanding you are, Elder Uranus. Frankly speaking, I expected the negotiation to be more challenging.”
“Well, I’ve always had a knack for escaping from the confines of our village and wandering around wherever I pleased,” Uranus chuckled and shrugged.

Despite being the Fairy King, Uranus was surprisingly free-spirited. Their easygoing nature was unthinkable for royalty in the human world. However, this flexibility certainly contributed to the smooth progress of the conversation, making it hard to predict what would come next.

Speaking of which… for some reason, I felt like the elves had become much more approachable after spending the night here. Emotionally, I mean, not formally.

It must have been the banquet. We were having a good time socializing and meeting eye-to-eye, no-holds-barred. That must be what brought us closer. However, when I found myself waking up this morning on the podium where the musicians had been playing, with my dress disheveled and a bottle of wine hugged between my thighs and arms, I really thought that I had messed up big time…

Incidentally, there were also elf men and women around me who had apparently knocked themselves out with all the alcohol and were snoring so loudly and unbecomingly, it ruined any illusion of nobility and elegance I had of the fairyfolk, but… Well, let’s call it mutual destruction and leave it at that.

Only the elder of the village, Uranus, who looked refreshed in the morning, greeted me after they drained their cup in a single gulp.

“Good morning, Jill. Quite the night we’ve had, don’t you say?”

How did you know that joke?!!
Or did we actually do the you-know-what last night?!

“…Good morning. Umm,” anxiety riddling my heart, I tried to squeeze out my question, but Uranus flatly defused it.

“I’m joking. You cut loose quite a lot last night, but you sure know how to party.”

For someone who looks so harmless, they sure have a nice personality. In case you didn’t catch it, yes, that is sarcasm.

Ignoring my disapproving glare, Uranus continued with a poker face:

“Would you like a drink? It’s fresh morning dew filtered from the Millennium Tree we just collected this morning. It will help you relax.”

They poured the contents from the glass bottle into a new cup and offered it to me.

“…Thank you very much.” I quickly adjusted my attire —having a magical dress sure is convenient; it doesn’t even crease—,composed myself and gratefully accepted the cup. I downed the cold morning dew in one gulp.

“So, what’s the plan today? There isn’t much to see here, but I can show you around if you want to tour the village.”
“Touring the village sounds lovely, but if possible, I’d like to get into the ‘details’ that we failed to discuss yesterday. Also, there is one thing I would like to ask you to do.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”

Uranus seemed interested, so I told them of my purpose for coming to the north in the first place. The elder of the elves listened closely and, once I was done, they slapped their knee and broke into a smile.