Chapter 152 – Alice's Confusing Behavior

The next morning, the activities the school arranged proceeded as planned.
However, Alice had opted out of the activities and spent the entire morning sleeping comfortably in her room.
She had spent a long time talking to God yesterday.
They had even played a few console games from Earth afterward.
So, she was in dire need to catch up on sleep.

Similar to Alice, many other students had also opted out of participating in the activities.
Most of these students were nobles from Class Group A.
While the Elven Forest's entrance fee was an exorbitant expenditure for the average commoner, it was only a minor expenditure for nobles.
So, most of the nobles attending the March Academy had already visited the Elven Forest before and no longer found the place interesting.

However, it was a different story for the students from Class Group B and Class Group C.
Most of them were still brimming with interest toward the Elven Forest, so they were more than willing to take part in the activities the school arranged.
Hence, students like Alice, who had opted out from these activities, were rare cases among Class Group B and Class Group C.

Of course, with Alice's current status, none of the teachers would say anything even if she chose not to participate in the school's activities.
They simply assumed that the princess had visited the Elven Forest in the past.

After sleeping until noon, Alice opened her eyes and saw Lalu, who had already returned from the school activities, coming out of the bathroom.
Currently, Lalu was drying her hair while looking at the door worriedly.

“What's wrong, Lalu?”

In reality, Alice could more or less guess what had happened when she saw Lalu's expression.
However, to avoid suspicion, she still chose to ask Lalu the obvious after jumping out of bed.

“Something seems to have happened… The entire village is under martial law right now.
Moreover, the elders have communicated with our teachers, telling them that we might have to stay a little longer in the village.”

Judging by Lalu's expression, Alice guessed that the loli elf wasn't aware of the exact details of the situation.
The elven council must not have told the March Academy why they wanted the academy to extend its school trip.

The council's decision also made sense.
After all, this was a matter between the demons and the elves.
There was no need to involve humans in this matter.
If humans got involved, it might create diplomatic problems between the elves and the humans.
The elves weren't fools.
Unless absolutely necessary, they definitely wouldn't take the initiative to get the human realm involved in this dispute.

Meanwhile, because Lalu was unaware that the demons were currently surrounding the Elven Forest, she couldn't help but worry about why the elders would suddenly put the village under martial law.
Though, she wasn't overly worried because she felt that the reason might simply be that some wild beast tribe was attacking the village.

Compared to Lalu, the other March Academy students weren't worried or frightened by this situation.
Instead, they simply discussed the elves' situation curiously, wholly ignorant of the fact that the demons had already surrounded them.
One example of these students would be Zauna.
She behaved calmly as normal as she played with her phone at the coffee table.
She wasn't showing any signs of anxiety because of the elves' sudden martial law.

However, Alice felt that this wasn't a bad situation.
After all, she had never intended for the demons to attack the elven village.
She was merely having the demons keep the elves on high alert for a few days and prevent anyone from leaving the Elven Forest.
If the March Academy's students remained ignorant, the village could avoid unnecessary panic.

The elves, on the other hand, might have to remain afraid for a few days.
For this, Alice could only apologize to the elves from the bottom of her heart.
If it wasn't because of all the spies she had encountered, she wouldn't have been so worried about revealing her Hero identity to others.
On the bright side, Alice had already secured the rights to the Fruit of God for the elves, so this could be considered a sort of compensation to the elves.

After getting dressed, Alice walked up to the balcony and looked outside.
Then, she noticed that the situation outside was just like Lalu described.
The elves walking on the streets outside all wore stern expressions on their faces, making it seem like a storm was coming.

It seems I should finish learning those taboos as quickly as possible.
With Abel's help, I should be able to shorten my learning period.

Alice felt that her improved talent for studying must've affected her attitude toward studying.
After all, when she thought about learning more taboos, a sense of yearning and delight filled her body.
Before transmigrating to this world, she had never been so motivated to study before.

“By the way, do you remember what I told you about the fruit that grows on top of the Tree of Nature, Alice?” Lalu suddenly asked after walking up to the balcony as well.
“I'm talking about the fruit that disappears and leaves beside a Seed of Nature after getting plucked.”

Alice froze a little upon hearing Lalu's question.
Then, she asked, “I do.
What about it?”

“Didn't the academy organize a climbing activity to the Tree of Nature's top this morning? Although I wasn't interested in it, I followed the tour and noticed a very strange phenomenon,” Lalu said as she looked at Alice.
Then, in a whisper, she said, “There are five fruits growing on top of the Tree of Nature right now.
Meanwhile, according to previous estimates, these fruits should take at least another 40 years to ripen.
However, when we climbed to the top today, we found that the fruits were growing abnormally fast.”

“Oh? How fast?”

Realization dawned upon Alice.
This should be the result of the Loli Goddess removing the flavor concentration cycle from the Fruit of God's growth cycle.
As a result, the growth cycle had shortened drastically, and they managed to achieve rapid growth in just one night.

“I'm acquainted with the tour guide, so I asked her about it.
She told me that if the fruits continue growing at this rate, they should ripen in a few days,” Lalu said with a hint of joy on her face.
“This means that in a few days, the village will have a new batch of Seeds of Nature.
If that's true, you shouldn't have any problems getting the Seed of Nature you asked for before.”

“Is that so?” Alice smiled.
In reality, though, she didn't really need the elves to give her a Seed of Nature anymore.

…

“We can give you four Seeds of Nature if you really want them.”

At the edge of the Elven Forest, the Elven Patriarch Elway stood facing the demon army with a confident expression.
Evidently, he had also learned about the situation surrounding the Tree of Nature's fruits.

“However, you'll have to wait a few days.
We can give you four Seeds of Nature in a few more days.
Also… We'll also need you to sign a peace agreement to ensure that the demons will not attack the elves for no reason.”

The person responsible for handling negotiations on the demon's side this time was Davis, Alice's acquaintance and Flaman's close aide.
Originally, he had intended on dragging this situation out following Alice's instructions.
However, he didn't think that the elven patriarch, who had still been negotiating with him tentatively this morning, would suddenly agree to his demand for four Seeds of Nature a few hours later.
Moreover, the elven patriarch looked very confident when he agreed to this absurd demand.

This situation put Davis in an awkward situation.
After all, he remembered Alice saying that the elves absolutely could not produce four Seeds of Nature.
So, what was with this situation?