This Kind of Hero Chapter 51

Going to the Market!

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While the Holy Light Elf Queen and the elders had a meeting about life and ideals, Xu Jun wasn’t idle either. He was busy telling Daeniste about the lifestyle and customs of the Holy Light Elves. Coincidentally, his timing was quite appropriate.

According to Ellie, the Holy Light Elves were about to encounter their greatest disaster yet, but the common Holy Light Elf remained ignorant. It just so happened to be that the Holy Light Elves were opening up their spring market. Unlike the human cities, where markets opened daily, the Elves who lived leisurely, or rather, slow-paced lives, only opened their markets four times each year, one for each season. Since the Holy Light Elves normally did not need to eat or drink, they lacked a solid concept of materialism and were basically self-sufficient. Most of their market was based upon bartering, so it wasn’t so much a market as it was a national festival.

“The Holy Light Elves’ spring market has quite the history!” Xu Jun smiled and thought of the spring market’s origins while disseminating his knowledge to Daeniste and the others.

A long time ago, the Holy Light Elves only had the summer and winter markets. Their population back then was even smaller than it was now. Most people believed that the spring and winter markets were opened because of the population increase leading to a subsequent rise in the demand for goods. However, the truth was that it related back to the Moonlight Elves.

That was twenty thousand years ago.

On a map of the Continent of God’s Blessing, the Sacred Highlands wasn’t very large. Using units familiar to Xu Jun, the Sacred Highlands occupied approximately sixty to seventy thousand square kilometers. It was much smaller than the Golden Flag Empire and even compared to Snow Blade Kingdom, which had lost a lot of land, it was still smaller by a bit.

To the west of the Sacred Highland was the Jadeite Forest, the dwelling place of the Moonlight Elves. Although one revered the light and the other worshipped the Moon God, which were somewhat related, these two elven races had terrible relations. Just twenty thousand years ago, a “War of the Disgraced” had even erupted between them, most likely due to some depraved Moonlight Elf smuggling out illusory moonflowers. This flower was used in alchemy, but at the same time it was also a powerful hallucinogen. The dragon’s nobles and some demons used them to wade through life in a drunken stupor, constantly pursuing pleasure. At the time, humans were still enslaved by the dragons. Twenty thousand years later, the dragons have retreated back to their second line of defense. The purchasers of the illusory moonflower were now human nobles along with some alchemists and pharmacists. The use of the flower. . . was not much different from before.

No matter if they were dragons or humans, neither had improved.

The Holy Light Elves’ spring market was a byproduct of the “War of the Disgraced.”

For the longest time, the Moonlight Elves strictly controlled the illusory moonflower trade. Officially, they stated that any person caught using illusory moonflowers to create psychedelic drugs would be executed regardless of race, but such a law was hard to enforce. Furthermore, such a business had a low investment, but yielded a high profit; the Moonlight Elves had only announced this to improve their image. Twenty thousand years prior, the Continent of God’s Blessing was much darker than it was now with the various races having even worse relations. For the Moonlight Elves, as long as none of their own used this thing. . . why would others abusing these drugs concern them?

Other races knew of their schemes, but none spoke out. Only the Holy Light Elves, who had never looked kindly upon the Moonlight Elves, stood out and said, “Some races are truly capable, wanting to earn gold, yet also wanting reputation. Having already become a toad, they still want to be covered in beautiful skin. Truly admirable.”

This was what the Holy Light Elf King of the time had said during the continental summit. One can easily imagine how arrogant and provocative his statement was. Even the Colossal Dragon King was dumbfounded; he later left a line in his autobiography, “We had always thought that we were the manliest of men in the world, but who could’ve known that the Holy Light Elf King was even more manly than us.”¹

However, upon hearing this, the Moonlight Elves exploded with anger! After many years of border disputes with the Holy Light Elves, their ire had long been built up. Now that the Holy Light Elves were sending over a fuse, of course they would accept it!

Xu Jun exuberantly explained to Daeniste the matters of long ago. Talking up to this point, he brandished his fists twice, “Fight! Since we are at odds, we fight!”

As he sat in the tree house, Daeniste. . . looked towards Nar, who was guarding the door. His heart was filled with worry. Xu Jun, have you forgotten that we’re still in the ancient den of the Holy Light Elves?!

You. . . are you not afraid a mob of Holy Light Elves won’t just suddenly appear and beat you to death?!

Nar–you must guard the door well!

However, Nar’s measly human body wasn’t very useful. As he guarded the door, he saw two suspicious heads popping out from the window across. Truthfully, if Daeniste had not known that plant monsters also had heads, he would have wondered what this tree spirit and deathly fig tree were up to. The tree spirit’s voice was still hollow, and leaves cascaded down with every movement of its rapidly balding head. The deathly fig, however, was more lively, wriggling a vine in through the window, “Xu Jun, are you telling a story? Manqi wants to listen too! Manqi wants to listen too!”

Daeniste: “. . . .”

Xu Jun, without a worry in the world, continued speaking. The history he spoke of was quite interesting and vastly differed from the history books. Even Demon King Rozenke listened with rapt attention. Humanity’s history books had also recorded this “War of the Disgraced,” but as for what that disgrace was, and what actually happened, no one knew. After all, the humans of that era were still a subjugated race and couldn’t even brush up against the matters of the people in power. Furthermore, they didn’t dare offend the exalted Moonlight Elves and Holy Light Elves; all they could do was jot down something vague.

Twenty thousand years ago, Demon King Rozenke was still in a deep sleep and so obviously knew nothing about the situation. After reincarnating as Prince Ryan, he also never had the opportunity to read the unofficial annals or listen to the rumors. Thus, all he could do was listen to Xu Jun speak.

Xu Jun thought for a bit, “In short, the Holy Light Elf King had only targeted the Moonlight Elves and was too hard-handed with his words. The Moonlight Elves, unwilling to suffer this humiliation, used it as a reason to launch an assault on the Sacred Highlands. The two races thus began an all-out war.”

If it was just because of this, things would still be alright: all it would’ve been was two grand, elite, upper-class races fighting a war for their reputation. The problem was that both races uncovered traitors after a thorough investigation. There were Moonlight Elves and Holy Light Elves that were skulking about, working together to sell materials common to the two races, but rare elsewhere, to the outside.

Additionally, these traitors held high positions, with a few of them being the ones who shouted the loudest before the war.

For a while, this scene was quite embarrassing.

If it were the current human kingdoms, most likely they would just grit their teeth and deal with it internally. After all, it wouldn’t look good for them if they made too great a commotion and the matter got out. However, neither of the elven races were willing to grit their teeth and endure this suffering. It is said that those elven criminals were named as “Disgraced” and were sentenced to death. Apparently, their souls were directly shattered.

Afterwards, the two races fought even harder. _(:зゝ∠)_

Both sides claimed the other sides’ elves were the main perpetrators, neither willing to bear responsibility. This war was also called the “War of the Disgraced,” and was subsequently recorded into the Continent of God’s Blessing’s annals.

“What does any of this have to do with the spring market. . . ?”

“Oh, that’s because twenty thousand years ago, the War of the Disgraced began during the spring. During the months of April and March, countless living beings revive and become busy with reproduction. It was only because the two races didn’t have anything to do, that they had the energy to kick up such a large fuss.” Xu Jun clapped his hands. “Later, the war ended, but it left behind the custom of a spring market. If you were to ask a young Holy Light Elf now, they probably won’t know of the market’s origins.” 

“Besides these idle, pain-in-the-neck races, who else would make this kind of thing.”

Xu Jun was quite interested in this kind of history. He loved reading about historical events, like the War of the Disgraced, that were interesting from start to finish. Back when Gale Dad released the history books for this game, Continent of God’s Blessing, he had purchased them. However, Xu Jun had already forgotten most of what he had read. He only remembered two things quite clearly: this war and that the Human Emperor of that generation possessed two attributes.

After finishing his story, he brought Daeniste, Nar, and the Prince Ryan within his body to explore the Holy Light Elves’ spring market. Perhaps, though, because he had discovered that although Xu Jun, this fellow, was quite popular, his ability to court disaster was also first-class, Daeniste firmly requested to browse around with just Nar. As Xu Jun watched Daeniste and Nar’s departing backs, he felt like he was being abandoned. _(:зゝ∠)_

“What the hell. The story I was telling was clearly amazing, ” Xu Jun complained to Prince Ryan.

Demon King Rozenke once again pondered a certain question: how was this Brave able to live this long without being beaten to death yet?!

However, Xu Jun had already shifted his attention towards the numerous stalls. Although most of the things and materials were quite ordinary to him, there were a few interesting trinkets.

“Elder brother, is this dagger made from the bones of a thunder wolf?” He stopped besides a Holy Light Elf’s shop.

The stall owner was a young, male Holy Light Elf, appearing quite confused as to why a human had appeared here. He even glanced a few times towards the patrolling elven guards, only to discover that these guards were also turning a blind eye to this human.

A nearby, similarly young, Holy Light Elf sister glanced at him, “This is Xu Jun, Brave Xu Jun.”

He still couldn’t remember if such a character existed.

This young, Holy Light Elf sister hunted out a picture book with a practiced motion, “In these past two years, you’ve gone out to experience the world so you don’t know that Xu Jun is the friend of us Holy Light Elves. Look, I even have his storybook.”

Xu Jun: “…”

The Holy Light Elf brother, just back from two years in the outside world, said on one hand, “what are the current elves thinking, actually writing a story about humans,” yet on the other hand, couldn’t resist but to cast aside his stall and go over to take a look. Xu Jun’s mouth twitched. Never could he have imagined that he would have fans and a fandom! Holy Light Elves, your race will be finished sooner or later!

Still, ehehe, let’s just thicken our skin and listen to the story.

He feigned indifference and continued to play around with the thunder beast dagger as he listened to the Holy Light Elf sister’s lively chatter, “Brave Xu Jun is a powerful and handsome human. Although he has a human’s body, the Spirit Beast Elder suspects that he is of Holy Light Elf descent. He once defeated a Colossal Frost Dragon in the lands of extreme cold. . .”

“In the Mechanical Ruins, he saved the entire race of Red-nosed Gnomes, and he had bravely resisted the demon’s assault on humans. . .”

Sigh, this baby’s too powerful! Looking at his achievements one by one, he hadn’t realized, but with all of them added together, he discovered that he had accomplished quite a lot!

The Brave’s heart buzzed with joy, “The Holy Light Elves are not bad at all!”

Rozenke reminded him, “Usually these kinds of stories come with a ‘but.”

As expected , the young, male Holy Light Elf expressed, unconvinced, “It’s impossible for a human to be that strong.”

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Translator’s Niche:

[1] Tried using the royal ‘we’ this time around, let me know if it’s too confusing and I’ll replace it with something else. ⏎