The Sinful Saint

"Taro, why were we stuck with patrol duty~?"

"Just be quiet Jara, bear with it. It was decided by the elders since we were attacked not too long ago and are lacking manpower."

"Aren't you miss rational~? Ahhhhh, this is so annoying~."

"..."

Jara is an elf with a boyish beauty despite being a girl. Her blonde hair is cut short, she has an unrefined way of talking reminiscent of human males, and was well muscled with chiseled abs and toned body. The only regal part about her are her purple eyes, which shimmer like the abyssal night sky.

In contrast to Jara, Taro is a refined and dignified elf. The main reason for this is her noble background. She was born and raised as a noble of the elves and was always conscientious of how she spoke and acted. She has long blonde hair and clear blue eyes like a cloudless summer day sky.

The one who didn't speak all the while is named Beyra. Unlike her elven brethren, she has silver hair, like the light flowing from the night's second moon and red eyes like bloodstone. Many of the elves in the village are wary of her appearance and some believe she's cursed. Due to this it's led to her having a closed off personality even to those who mean well to her.

"Neeeeh~ Beyra? What do you think? Don't you think this is unfair?? Right? Why do we have to patrol why the boys are goofing off? I wanna goof off too~."

"..."

"Tch. F.u.c.k.i.n.g mute. At least acknowledge when someone's taking to you, you cursed bastard."

Beyra didn't even hear Jara's cursing. She was focused solely on patrolling and wasn't interested in conversing with people not taking their duty seriously. That's right. Despite being an outcast, Beyra loved the elven village and took her job seriously, unlike Jara.

Taro didn't scold Jara for her harsh language towards Beyra. Although she didn't agree with Jara's behavior, she understood where it was coming from. Anyway...

"Let's focus on patrolling instead of having pointless quarreling."

"Whatever~."

"..."

Walking through the forest, there were no creatures that they'd normally find. Taro was on guard at the unusual situation; the other two were the same.

"... It's so quiet. What's going on?" Jara whispered to Taro, breaking the eerie silence.

"I don't know, but be careful. We don't know what could be lurking out here. If there is anything we can't handle, we immediately retreat back to the village. Understood?"

Jara nodded while Beyra stayed silent.

"I get what you're saying. It feels like it's coming from further down the path. I can sense something," replied Taro.

"..." Beyra just intently stared in the direction of the path.

They walked forward along the path, getting closer to the uneasy feeling coming from further ahead on the path.

When they were a couple meters along the path, the bushes in front of them started rustling. They instantly became tense. Taro took out her bow, Jara her axe, and Beyra her twin swords.

They stared intently at the shuddering leaves on the bushes, waiting for the creature to reveal itself.

Suddenly! A forest rabbit pops out...

"Phew~ That really scared me~. I thought some horrible beast would spring out from the bushes." Jara was the first one to talk, losing tension.

Taro followed up, "It was just a rabbit, but we should still be vigilant. There might still be predators waiting for us."

"Creature?" It was Beyra's voice.

There was a tall man with hawk-like, green-brown eyes, messy charcoal grey hair and slightly golden skin. He was wearing leather armor that looked like it had been sitting out in the rain for a week. His hands were up in the air, but he was so tall that it felt intimidating. The most shocking thing though, his ears were rounded! This man didn't look like an elf. To be honest, every feature about him was the antithesis of elven attributes.

The man attempted to speak to them, "C̶͇̊ͅa̸̝͐n̷̛̩͐ ̸͖͈͒̀y̶̯͂o̷̩͆̓ű̸͙̳ ̶̙̄u̵̦͖̒n̷̩͝d̸̖̥̽̕e̸̗̓r̸̨̤͠ṣ̵͐͝t̵̂ͅa̷̦̚ń̴̫ḍ̶̯̃̚ ̵̬̰͋̈́m̴͖͝ë̶͓̖?̵͍̺͑̊"

The sound was so discordant to the elves ears that they felt like it was scratching at their eardrums, it was almost painful!

"Urgh..! What was that? A sonic attack?"

"No, I think he, or it was trying to communicate with us. Does this creature not speak the common language?"

"..."

The creature sighed as he realized they didn't understand him. Slowly, he squated down and started to drawn in the dirt. He drew some symbols that looked like language and drew an arrow towards himself. It seemed that it was his name.

Realizing that this creature was intelligent enough to write and speak, the elves looked at each other in agreement. They decided wordlessly to take him back to the village for the elders to deal with him.

The main reason they decided against killing him was because he was the first creature capable of intelligent conversation they'd encountered, aside from mythical creatures, like dragons.

"Awww~ I don't want to get near him. What if he suddenly lashes out? Beyra should do it. She doesn't care anyway."

"Hey! That's too much! I know you hold those beliefs, but this could be a potentially dangerous situation and you're the most physically capable one among us."

"Tch. Beyra is quite capable too, right? I bet she could overpower me with that accursed strength. "

"..."

In the end, Beyra approached the man wordlessly. The man seeing her coming closer looked alert. He didn't know what was happening. Why would this girl suddenly approach him holding two swords without saying a word.

"..."

Beyra stood before him and signaled for him to follow them. He seemed relieved when he saw this, sighing letting go of the tension.

The four of them walked through of the silent forest, not speaking a word adding to the silence. All the while, Taro and Jara kept glancing at the creature, as if to say 'we're watching you, don't try anything funny.'

They walked through the forest for around a half hour until the foliage began to thin out and the ground began to clear out into an open grassy area.

"Taro! Where the hell did you find that person? He looks ragged and sickly."

The elf that shouted this was the guard patrolling the walls that surrounded the elven village. His name was Jera, Jara's older brother. Like Jara, he was a muscle head with a masculine appearance uncommon among elves. To be honest he looked like a blonde human, but with pointy ears and violet purple eyes like the sunset.

"We found him in the forest. He doesn't seem to speak the common language, but he does seem to know some language and doesn't seem hostile. We're going to take him to the elders to see what we should do with him."

"Hmm. I see. Well if you say he's harmless then it must be true, gahaha!" Jera let off a stereotypical muscle head laugh as the four entered through the gates taller than pine trees.

"What is that? It's so tall. But he looks similar to us."

"I don't know. Maybe it's some new creature that that forest produced."

"But to think it'd make something so similar to us."

As the four walked through town, people muttered as they stared at the man in the middle of the three girls. They were all curious about his identity and if this was a new creature produced by the forest.

As the four walked through town, they headed toward the middle where a massive tree resided. The tree was so massive that if you craned your neck all the way back you wouldn't be able to see the top. This was what the elves called the World Tree. The special thing about it is that it has an ego and can converse with other beings. The World Tree was where the elders resided and where the man's fate would be determined.

"Weird creature." Beyra spoke as the man was filled with excitement.