A lonely elf chapter 2

I was a grown woman in my previous life, but my current self is an over five-hundredish-year old half elf, at some point I stopped keeping track of how old this body got so I can’t be sure.

If I could have any wish granted, I’d like to return to my old world. Or at the very least meet at least one person from there. Unfortunately, I have had no luck finding others.

Sigh.

About three hundred or so years after my reincarnation, I became a teacher at a decent little magical academy for witches in this world.

One of my students—Blake Everlyne suffers from what I believe to be a magic deficiency. Normally I would encourage such a student to give up on any dreams of becoming a witch, and find a new path, and at first that is what I advised her, but Blake Everlyne insisted on pursuing her ambitions.

And so, against my better judgment I brought her to the only place I knew of that could treat her condition. The elven kingdom of Eridu. Unfortunately, Eridu happens to be located in a desert halfway across the world and home to monsters.

It was a dangerous journey I very nearly got us both killed getting here.

Was I the kind of person to risk her life for others?

Any diligent teacher would make sure to do her best to help her students—unfortunately I am no such person.

I care about my students yes, but only to the bare minimum degree. If any of them were to die I would not cry or mourn them. In fact, I have out lived every human I have ever taught, but their deaths mean nothing to me. The people of this world are all strangers to me. No perhaps it is more accurate to say I am the stranger intruding upon this world.

So why go out of my way for one student? The real reason for helping Blake Everlyne, the selfish reason is simply because I think she might be a reincarnated like me.

What would she think if she knew my reasons? The girl sitting across me— currently reading an elven spell book—Blake.

“Teacher! Teacher! Can you tell me what this word means?!”

“Calling me twice won’t make me respond twice as fast.”

Though mentally troubled, Blake Everlyne was also brilliant.

She was lying on the bed in my room reading a spell book a guard lent her.

When asked how she obtained the book she simply replied "I asked."

Usually, elves were very secretive with knowledge concerning magic, and even more so with humans, so how on earth did she convince a royal guard to lend her what is essentially top-secret material?

As a half-elf, I know firsthand the extent of their human hatred.

“Teacher! Teacher! What does this part mean?”

Yet she managed to befriend a good number of the guards.

“TEACHER! TEACHER!”

Does she ever listen to a word I say? “In the human language this would be a bridge between souls…I believe.”

Blake Everlyne. The unfavoured daughter of the king of Ukeviel. I’d gone through the pasts of all my students, and hers was the worst of them, not that I cared.

I suppose the reason I decided to help her was because she reminded me of my old world; her personality held the same familiarity I remembered from home. Even though I knew her being a reincarnated like me was nearly impossible, I selfishly used that reasoning to justify favoring her.

“Everlyne.”

“What’s up Teach?”

"Would you happen to be a reincarnated from earth?" I asked.

Everlyne replied promptly and with utter confusion. “uhth? What’s that?”

“You see, it’s the place where I’m from. It’s my home. It’s another world separate from this one.”

“So you’re a reincarnated?”.

I nodded at Everlyne. “That’s correct. And the only reason I’m even helping you is because I suspected you might be the same. Quite selfish am I not?”

I could do nothing but grin at that.

“…”

The odds of her believing me weren’t that good, and say she did then what? It accomplished nothing. It was a pointless question.

“I believe you Teach!” she huffed.

“Is that so? Well are you from earth?”

To be perfectly I honest I don’t even know why I’m going out of my way to tell her this. It is incredibly out of character for me to show this much emotion.

“Do you want me to be from Uth?” she asked.

Huh? I suppose if it were a question of want or not, I would indeed want her to be from earth, but there’s no way.

“I’m from Uth!” she said with a beaming smile. “J-just hearing the name invokes a strong feeling in me!”

“H-huh?”

“Do you know what a car is? Do you know that the world isn’t flat?” I asked, while still expecting her not to know.

“E-eh?”

She did not know.

She wasn’t from earth.

Even if I wanted it to be true, I knew it was impossible.

Everlyne panicked. “Of course, I can’t prove anything to you. But I want you to believe me! I really am from Uth! We’re in this together…”

“I see.” I was far from convinced.

“D-don’t get the wrong idea! I’m not just saying that so that you feel less alone, or anything! W-with reincarnation a soul travels in between worlds. The procedure is risky. It’s very possible to lose memories of your old self and…uh.”

Everlyne was a very knowledgeable student. And the few records of reincarnation that do exist sometimes record loss of memory.

Was she spouting out facts she read in a book?

Or was she really from earth?

Either one could be true.

Which do I choose to believe. 

Absolute nonsense though it may seem. Humans intrinsically choose for themselves what to believe in. And naturally being the selfish person that I am I chose the most convenient truth. 

But even that truth wasn't impossible...

 So maybe. Just maybe she really was from home.

“Thank you very much.”