I Became a 10,000-year-old Elf

“Someone’s coming. They seem to have business with us, so respond well.”

“Huh? With us?”

I informed Lina about the approaching person. Surprised, Lina opened her eyes wide and stared in the direction I pointed out.

“Despite appearances, you’re quite skilled.”

At that, the other person hesitated for a moment, then revealed themselves as if they hadn’t expected Lina to notice their approach. In reality, Lina hadn’t even known they were there until they showed themselves.

The identity of the person who revealed themselves was a middle-aged human male in adventurer’s attire, with a sword at his waist as his weapon.

“Who are you?”

Lina asked warily about his identity. He shrugged, but it’s natural to be cautious when a stranger approaches. This place is practically lawless, and conflicts between adventurers and resulting crimes are not insignificant problems.

“Don’t misunderstand. I first saw you at the guild building, but I didn’t expect you two to actually come this far. I followed because I was worried something might happen to you.”

“Is that really… eek!?”

As he spoke with a smile, Lina tried to believe him, her eyes wide. Exasperated, I lightly grabbed her tail from behind, and Lina came to her senses.

“It’s hard to believe.”

“Understandable. That’s exactly how you should react.”

When Lina maintained her guard after my warning, he nodded. I wasn’t sure what his real purpose was, but it seemed he had no intention of attacking us for now.

“My name is Patrick. I really came to warn you. There are quite a few low-quality individuals among adventurers. Those who commit crimes in secret intimidate easy targets in gloomy places like this and do terrible things. Some of those guys have targeted you.”

He pointed at us, his face turning serious.

“If you want to protect the little lady next to you too, you’d better be careful. It would be good to gather more companions or prepare better.”

He advised kindly. Judging by his serious attitude, it seemed sincere, but honestly, I just thought he was being nosy.

“What should we do?”

Lina whispered, glancing at me. I snorted and just told her there was no need to worry.

“It seems you had quite an enjoyable day.”

“It wasn’t bad. I gained quite a bit too.”

That night, after returning to the mansion and taking a satisfying bath in hot water, I faced Ethan. As I restored the artifact he had brought, we naturally started talking about what had happened today.

“You’re someone with some power in this city, right?”

“T-that can’t be. I’m just an executive…”

“Look into an adventurer for me. A human male named Patrick, with short red hair.”

Thinking about it, there was no reason not to use his power as an executive of an underworld organization. He instinctively seemed to sense something and tried to deny it, but it was a futile resistance.

“What exactly happened?”

“I don’t know. Some strange guys warned us even though we didn’t do anything.”

“Ah, I see. There are such guys among adventurers too. Those connected to ‘this side’.”

Finally giving up, he sighed and asked for the reason, so I told him about what happened today. As soon as he heard it, he nodded, saying he understood roughly what was going on.

“If they’re connected to our organization, I might be able to stop them, but if they’re from the adventurer side, maybe not. I’ll look into this Patrick guy for now.”

“That’s impressive. You really do everything I ask.”

“…”

I genuinely marveled at his response, which seemed not particularly difficult. He frowned upon hearing my admiration.

It seems he doesn’t like being treated like a pocket that spits out anything when poked and prodded. But since it’s his duty, he has no right to refuse.

“I hope you won’t be uncomfortable with what I’m saying out of concern. It’s good to do adventurer activities for fun, but it’s better not to get involved with troublesome guys unnecessarily. You never know what those underworld guys who use any means necessary might do.”

However, before returning to his room, he gave me one warning. Though he spoke indirectly, he meant to be careful on my own because it would be difficult to clean up if I caused trouble.

‘He’s not wrong.’

I didn’t deny his words. After all, the reason Ethan can be my personal magic wand is because he has that power.

But it seemed Ethan should probably do better himself first.

‘One guy, no, two guys?’

“—!”

He tells me not to cause trouble, but he himself has unidentified intruders entering the house.

As befitting an executive of an underworld organization, he seems to have taken thorough precautions to prepare for killers from hostile organizations, but it seems useless if the opponent is of the same level.

Lying on the bed in the dark room to sleep, I smirked at the earth spirit that appeared before me.

“Can’t you sleep?”

“Just in case, Lina, you hide.”

Lina, who carefully cleaned my long ears as part of our nightly routine before bed, was surprised when I pushed her arm away and got up, unlike usual.

‘Let’s call this a service.’

They seem to have business with Ethan, but Ethan is my magic wand. I can’t just sit by and watch him get damaged because I’d suffer losses too.

‘One’s already down.’

After launching my body through the window and landing softly on the ground I had made cushy, I smelled the pungent scent of blood with my sensitive nose.

Ethan was using his subordinates as mansion guards, so it’s clear that one of them had been taken down by the intruders.

I hurried my steps, intending to deal with them before the servants or Ethan were targeted. As long as they were standing on the ground, they couldn’t escape my tracking anyway.

‘Yes, I see you too.’

As I turned the corner while suppressing my presence, I saw the guys who had stealthily assassinated a guard and were trying to infiltrate the main building. They were a pair with black masks covering their faces.

These were exactly the enemies the earth spirit had alerted me to.

“…!?”

One of them noticed me watching them and stumbled, seemingly greatly surprised. Seeing the similar reaction from the other companion, it was clear they hadn’t come knowing about me.

“An, an elf?!”

“Looks like we need to have a chat.”

Their reaction was wondering why an elf was here. They were so surprised that they didn’t immediately run away or rush at me, but not wanting to talk to them in such a normal state, I pointed my hand and moved the power of the earth.

An efficient capture technique of instantly turning the ground into mud, sinking them, and then solidifying it to bury them alive.

“Waaagh!?”

One of them instantly sank up to their thighs in the ground, but surprisingly, the other jumped from their spot as soon as the ground shook, avoiding my attack.

“W-what the hell?!”

The guy reflexively rushed to grab me. Judging by how he just rushed in without knowing what was happening, he seemed quite aggressive.

But what I could do wasn’t limited to making the ground sink. When I suddenly pulled up the ground the guy was about to step on, he unknowingly leaped high into the air, flailing his arms and legs.

No matter how excellent one’s martial arts skills, they’re meaningless in midair without a foothold.

“Urgh…”

I made the point where the guy was falling into mud, and as soon as he fell, I hardened the ground, subduing the enemy in a ridiculous posture with only his face and parts of his limbs protruding from the ground.

‘This is good.’

“—!”

I could feel my proficiency increasing much more efficiently than when fighting magical beasts. It seemed to be because they were stronger than magical beasts.

The earth spirit also seemed excited, perhaps enjoying such an intense battle.

“What’s going on here!?”

“What else? I cleaned up the mess you made. They’re tough guys. They wouldn’t talk even after I crushed them until all the bones in their bodies broke.”

It was when I was stomping on the faces of the guys buried in the ground, demanding to know where they came from, that Ethan rushed out with weapons along with the mansion people.

Clicking my tongue, I turned around before the others Ethan brought could see me.

“Thank you. I’ll tell you the results separately.”

Ethan nodded as if leaving the aftermath to me.

With his mansion invaded and even his subordinate killed, there’s no way he’d handle this carelessly. As the mansion became noisy, I returned to my room and smiled at Lina, who was trembling in fear.

“Nothing happened.”

“I saw through the window and told the master.”

“…It’s a trivial matter. Considering what Ethan does, it’s not strange for things like this to happen. If you’re scared, want to sleep together?”

I flopped down on the bed. Seeing that Lina seemed uneasy, I jokingly patted the space next to me.

It was a joke I could only make because I had such a harmless appearance.