Vol. 1 Epilogue: Tonight's News

***The Palace of the Wind Elves, Alfheim…***

Although situated in another world, magic brought inter-connectivity between the land of the elves, Alfheim, and the world of humans, Earth. As such, the elves were updated with everything that happens with the countries of humans.

In the palace of the king of wind elves, he had his servants install a television set. It was actually a diplomatic gift from the country of Japan, and the Japanese ambassador took the liberty of adding a cable and net streaming service, so that the wind elves could also enjoy human shows.

“Something’s going on with Earth nowadays,” the King of the Wind Elves told his family on the dinner table one time. “My envoys tell me that humans are getting ‘crazy’ about this television trend they call ‘Korean Wave.’”

The queen’s eyes widened when she heard a strange phrase. “What is it, my dearest husband?”

“Basically, those are television shows that come from a human country called ‘South Korea,’” the king explained. “Apparently, their shows are so good, that their actors and actresses are household names in Earth.”

“Oh, interesting! So, when do we get the same shows? I’d like to watch it!”

“No worries, my beloved queen. The Japanese ambassador assured me that our television is updated. All we need to do is to log in to our InterNetFlicks account to watch those shows.”

“I see…that’s nice,” the queen then turned towards an empty seat at their dinner table. “Is that why Kukichiyo is not here?”

“Hmm…yes, I did call her to come. I guess she is so engrossed at these Korean shows, huh?”

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Two floors from the dining hall were the private rooms of the royal children, among them the princess of the Wind Elves, Lady Kukichiyo. Compared to the bedrooms of her siblings, which were adorned with earthy, nature-based trinkets and patterns, Kukichiyo’s was a room of hot pink and black. On her door was a sign with the ‘radiation’ symbol, though one with drawn flowers.

And inside…

“Boring…”

Drowning in the sound of max volume speakers, Kukichiyo scrolled down on the video shorts of her social media. Her dark fishnet stockings, short black skirts bordered with frills, and loose ‘SteelMaidin’ shirt contrasted sharply against the pink—and frilly—interior of her bedroom. But she liked that style, anyway.

“Boring…how can these humans create such cringe content?”

Kukichiyo swore to herself that one more stupid video, and she would drop browsing. So, she scrolled one more time…

“On tonight’s news, an adventurers’ party was rescued by Lady Henrietta earlier today in Bacoor City. Police reports say that the adventurers took on a quest to explore a new dungeon that has opened up in Barangay Salinas. However, as the exploration progressed, the adventurers belatedly realized it was a shifting dungeon, thus they ended up nearly trapped for hours. Lady Henrietta, the former team leader of the famous OyasumiSe7en, led the successful rescue operation that saved the trapped adventurers.”

“Wait, what?”

The elf princess sat on her bed as she paused the video and replayed it. Around halfway into the report, she paused it again. While it was not entirely clear, as it was a low-resolution video of the news, Kukichiyo couldn’t mistake the man that appeared a few distances behind Temaire.

“Yukie?!” she blurted out. “She finally found Yukie?”

The princess took a screenshot, and then, with the editing tools of her phone camera, created a closer picture. Then, she compared the face of the man to the other pictures she had.

“Oh my…so she really found him!” a pleasant feeling slowly filled her chest, that eventually encompassed her entire body. She let herself fall on her bed, while giggling and kissing the photo on her phone. “Yukie! Yukie!”

Then, with a flick of her finger, she dispelled the magic that covered the other ‘layer’ of her room…where thousands of Yuuki’s pictures in different angles and from the days when they were still together in OyasumiSe7en were pasted along with pink frilly bedsheets and curtains, and black punky trinkets.