When Toma woke up, he realised that he was tied in ropes
very tightly, and the elf that almost killed him sat cross-
legged in front of him, watching him like a cat watches a
wounded bird. Toma forced himself to breathe.
In. Out. Don't show fear.
The elf was wearing a white ruffle top with a brown midi
skirt. On her waist was a beautiful silver accessory that was
wrapping around her waist. Her blue hair till her shoulders
fluttered in the air, and her red eyes shot like daggers
through Toma's heart.
Her eyes were full of bloodlust and her twinkling silver
earrings with red crystals added to her beauty.
The beauty was not a single trait in her. She was an archer
that never missed her target.
She wasn't just an archer.
She felt like someone who never missed.
The instant Toma opened his eyes, all the elves in the elf
village became alerted and pointed their weapons at him as
if he were a potential threat to their lives.
"Oh, so you are awake?" said the blue-haired elf.
"Who are you all? Why am I tied up? I'm not a hostage or
anything. Let me go home. I'm here by mistake. My dog is
waiting for me," said Toma, proving his innocence.
"What is a dog? Don't you dare fool me, Mister. What is your
IKO? Answer me or die."
"IKO? What is IKO?" questioned Toma.
Everyone in the camp started whispering among themselves
about how he was trying to act so dumb that he didn't know
what IKO was. They also wondered what the dog creature he
was talking about was.
"Do you think I'm that dumb? Are you trying to fool me?
Who, in this world, doesn't know what IKO is?"
"I don't know what IKO is. And I would like to know what it
is, and first of all, I wanna ask you, why do you have such
long ears?"
"You stupid! I'm an elf, and that's why I have long ears.
Don't you even know that much? IKO determines how
powerful you are," said the elf.
"Tap your right wrist and tell me the number it shows,"
commanded the elf with a cold death stare.
So, Toma, with zero hope, thinking it was just a dream and
nothing would happen if he tapped on his wrist, in
order to stay alive, at that moment tapped on his right wrist
twice.
A magnificent blue light shone out of his right wrist, striking
his green eyes. A white light in it showed the number 86.
"86! It's 86!"
On knowing that Toma couldn't cause any damage to them,
they decided to further interrogate him and check if he was
worthy of being freed.
"What does this number mean? Can you explain what you
are saying? Where am I? Who are you?" pleaded Toma.
"You are in Alfaborp right now. This is the village of elves.
The people with an IKO of more than 1000 are called–"
The elf hesitated for a moment.
"–'heroes.' It doesn't matter if they are helping someone or
killing someone. They are given this status by the
government. And we suspect you are one of them."
"WHAT?! I didn't even know what IKO was till recently, and
you suspect I am here to kill you. Sorry, but I don't know
what is going on right now, and let me go back to the earth I
used to live in. This is not a joke." Toma said this in order to
make a joke that they were still on earth.
"EARTH?! What is that? A place where you are from? I have
never heard of it!" exclaimed the blue-haired elf.
"WAIT, WHAT?! I mean the planet EARTH we all live on.
This is not an isekai world. Let me go– Seriously?"
IS THIS AN ISEKAI WORLD???
Saying so, Toma pulled his cheek in order to wake up if it
was a dream, but he didn't wake up, and suddenly he
realised what was going on. He started to pick up the
threads.
"What are you saying? Are you going mad? I don't know
about 'earth,' but the planet where you are right now is El'
Valerith, my friend."
"I think I know what is going on. Let me introduce myself. I
am Toma Itsuki, who is surprisingly not from this world.
May I know your name? And what exactly are you talking
about?" said Toma calmly.
All the elves started whispering among themselves, looking
at a boy with messy burnt sienna hair and green eyes who
was trying to prove himself innocent. That's when the chief
of the community entered the camp, and everyone stood up
in order to welcome him.
The whispering stopped first. Then the elves stepped back,
one by one, creating a path. An old elf walked through it like
he owned the air itself. His ginger beard reached his chest. A
golden tooth caught the firelight.
He looked at Toma and came near him.
"Silence everyone. No talking."
The old elf silenced the other elves and then turned to Toma.
"I am Julliber Shatner, the head of this village. Nice to meet
you. Sorry for the bad hospitality by my people. I would like
to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."
"Yes, please, but I have a lot more questions than you have,
mister."
"No worries. First of all, you are not here to harm us, right?"
"No, not in a thousand years. I would hurt someone without
any reason."
Listening to this, the chief took a piece of paper in his hand
and made Toma say the exact words he said earlier. The
paper turned blue. The old man nodded. But the elves
around them didn't lower their weapon.
"Untie him. The paper doesn't lie."
No one hesitated.
Toma looked at his wrists, red.
"You must be thinking what happened, right?" said the old
man calmly. "Well, that's a technique that has been through
generations in our tribe. The person is to swear something
to this Welcra paper. If the paper turns blue, then they are
telling the truth. But if the paper turns red, then they are
lying."
"Don't worry, we'll cause you no more harm," continued the
old man. "You just have to say whatever you said earlier to
this paper, and then we will decide what to do with you
further on."
Toma swore on the Welcra paper about everything, and the
paper turned blue. Toma was also confused with what was
going on with him. That's when the old man turned towards
his people.
"You people probably know about a man who once also said
quite the same things as this boy here. The story of Dramata
Aretary is known all around the world. But when it
happened and how much of it is true, we know nothing
about that. But this boy, here, is obviously not lying. He
swore allegiance to the Welcra paper, and now there is no
way he can harm us. So please, treat this boy–"
"Troll, Troll, Troll–" A blonde elf came rushing into the
camp, jostling his way through the crowd.
Everyone in the camp started to panic and started rushing
towards the south. Someone held Toma's hand and advised
him to start running in the same direction as other elves.
Toma looked to his side and saw the blue-haired elf
grabbing his hand and asking him to run away, but Toma
was not able to move his feet as if someone were compelling
him to stay there, and even Toma's soul was not willing to
leave the place.
Just when Toma came to his senses and decided to move.
A giant monster covered in dirt with a large club in his hand
appeared in front of Toma. He was smashing the houses and
raiding their food.
The troll looked at Toma and suddenly jerked back as if
Toma had pushed him back.
The elf with blue hair with a bow and arrow appeared in
front of Toma and yelled at him to run away from there but
Toma stayed there as if he were not willing to leave the
place. The elf girl shot an arrow that pierced right through
the troll's right eye, and the troll started to wither in pain.
The troll fell on the floor as if he were unconscious by that
attack. So the elf girl let down her guard and started to yell
at Toma for being so careless and not running away earlier.
She was complaining about what would have happened if
she had not been there and how Toma's wounds would have
gotten even worse.
That's when the troll stood up and plucked up the arrow
from his eye and swung his club at her.
Toma moved without thinking twice.
He pushed the elf aside.
And then-
A burst of red light erupted from his body, piercing straight
through the monster.
Silence followed.
The troll collapsed.
The elf girl looked at Toma and was surprised at what
happened right in front of her eyes.
"How did you do that? That was impressive!" Still her eyes
were cold blooded yet she felt amazed. "You are not a hero
but you can become one if you train hard. Just don't become
the corrupted one." Saying so, the elf girl praised him by
patting on his back.
"I don't know how I did that." Toma stared at her, fascinated
by the sudden glitter in her eyes. They were wide and bright,
literally shining like stars. "What is it that's making you look
so incredibly amazed?"
"By the way, what's your name?"
"I am Eldiea Waltins. Nice to meet you, Toma. You saved my
life. Thank you so much," answered the blue-haired elf.
"Nice to meet you too, Eldiea. It was you who saved my life,
not me. Thanks. Would you not mind if I ask you
something?"
"Ask whatever you want." She replied calmly.
It was the first time since Toma came into the camp and saw
Eldiea being calm; otherwise, what he saw earlier was way
worse than he could think of.
"Can you teach me how to control and use my IKO?" asked
Toma.
"I would be glad to do so. Teaching a human IKO is
something I can never even dream of. Humans are so rare in
this area," answered Eldiea without any hesitation.
Toma and Eldiea started walking towards the evacuation
site where the other elves rushed when the troll appeared.
Toma had a thousand questions in his mind. He wanted to
ask her everything about this world and everything that he
could possibly think of.
"By the way, why was that troll attacking the village?" asked
Toma and started the conversation off smooth.
"The troll was pissed off because once our ancestors
accidentally stole his favourite club, thinking that was just a
piece of wood and could be used for fire. So they burned it
up. From that time on, he has been attacking us non-stop in
order to get his revenge."
"He had been attacking your village for such a small matter,
seriously? What a strange world it is!" exclaimed Toma.
"I know, right. And worst of all is the person who is working
in shadows and wants to kill all elves in the village. I don't
know what his grudge against the elves is. And you know
what? I think he is a hero–"
"Talking of that, I want you to look at your IKO again
because probably it must have gone up because you
committed a good deed and helped me. The IKO rises
whenever someone commits a good deed, hones their skill,
fight a strong opponent, the risk to do that task is also taken
into account."
Toma again tapped his right wrist twice and saw that his
IKO had gone up and become 127.
"That's a huge margin by which you just jumped. From 86 to
127, this is seriously a huge jump for an amateur like you. I
am really impressed by the progress you made."
Eldiea looked at Toma with starry red eyes and then looked
at his bracelet.
"Your bracelet is so beautiful. It is glowing like a star, just
like me. Where did you get that? Can I have it?" pleaded
Eldiea like a child who was yearning for an emerald bracelet
that was shining in the moonlight.
"Sorry, but I can't give it to you. It's important to me. By the
way, I have something to ask you."
"Yeah, sure."
"Can you see that? That crack? In the violet sky?"
"The crack? I think you are talking about the rift. There is a
legend that a person is born every 100 years who is able to
see and communicate with the rift. But I don't know how
much of it is true–"
She continued, "The people who have seen the rift had said
that it looks like a crack opening to another world in the
violet sky that comes after every 6 months. But no one has
ever gone through that crack. I don't even know if this
legend is true or not."
"Well, that's enough. Is there anyone who has ever met a
person who has seen the rift?"
"I don't know about that; maybe the chief can tell you
something about that. By the way, your training begins
tomorrow at 8 am. Meet me at the grounds of Rulphend.
Either way, I'm gonna pick you up tomorrow. I have
something else to tell you–"
Just as she was about to finish her sentence, they reached
the shelter where everyone was waiting for them. Eldiea
rushed in the shelter and alerted everyone.
"Everyone, your attention, please." All the elves looked at
her. She continued, "I, myself, have tested that this human is
no threat to us. This human named Toma has just saved my
life by killing a troll using his IKO. So please don't have any
questions and feel free around him."
After announcing this, she went inside a room and sent the
blonde elf that previously informed others about the troll.
The elf came up to Toma and told him that he was a doctor
and treated his wounds.
On the occasion that they had defeated the troll and gotten a
new partner, a banquet took place in Alfaborp, and everyone
toasted to the victory over the troll and enjoyed the night.
Toma also got so invested in the fun that he forgot about
everything else.
The last moment he remembered was the chief rushing
inside a dungeon and bringing back a wooden box with gold
decorations and a green-coloured cloth. The memories of
what happened after that in his mind got blurred.