Building a World Class Empire in another World

The elf stared at Aric, her eyes cold and ready to kill, but then her eyes went to his ears. There was a look of realization before another of confusion.

"What are you?" she asked. She had already strung her bow, ready to fire again.

"Please don't shoot, please. My name is Aric, I am a half-elf," he said, his hands raised to show he was not hostile.

"A half-elf?" she asked, her expression changing into an uncertain one. "What would make a prideful elf have a child with a human?"

"Well, I think my father was a horny bastard, and the nearest thing was my mum, a human," Aric said.

"Your story doesn't make a lot of—" (rumble) Her stomach cried out in hunger so loud that Aric heard. He raised a brow and spoke, "Are you hungry?"

She looked at him, refusing to answer, her bow still stretched out.

"If you are, I could make you something to eat? But you have to promise not to shoot me," Aric said.

"I don't think you are in the position to—" (rumble) Her stomach cried out again. She let out a tired sigh and dropped her bow, she considered the fact that Aric couid be dangerous, but her stomach won

"Fine," she said and dropped down from the tree. Now that he could see her better, Aric had to say she was extremely stunning. She was even more beautiful than when he saw her in the tree.

She walked carefully toward him, her guard still up.

Aric got up and picked a stump of wood that remained. He placed it on the ground for her. She sat down, her eyes still on Aric.

Aric didn't bother, though. He quickly got to work, preparing the second fish like he did for the first. He cooked as fast as he could, and in less than twenty minutes, the fish was done.

[Cooking Skill 1 → Cooking Skill 2]

His cooking skill leveled up, meaning he had a rebirth percent efficiency when cooking now. He carefully placed the fish onto a plate and brought it to her.

She looked at the food, still skeptical about Aric's intention, but her stomach wanted food, and the sweet scent that she got from the food didn't allow her to reject it. She immediately dug into the fish.

She tore out a big piece and ate. Immediately, her eyes lit up in excitement. She began rushing through the fish but still savored every bite.

In a few minutes, she completely finished eating. While she had been eating, Aric had boiled some water and allowed it to cool a little. He handed it to her to drink.

She gulped the water down and let out a satisfied sigh. Her normal expressionless face vanished, and there was a smile on her face.

"Now that you have eaten, how about you introduce yourself?" Aric said.

When she heard that, her smile went away. She looked at Aric with an expressionless face. "My name is Ariel. I am a dark elf," she said.

"A dark elf?"

From his memories, he had heard of dark elves, and they didn't get along well with elves, but he had never seen any of them, and he didn't know anything about them.

"Why do you look shocked?" she asked.

"Because I've never met a dark elf before. I don't even know what they look like. I thought they would be, like, you know, dark." Aric said some racist bullshit that he cooked up at the moment.

"That's stupid," she responded, then let out a sigh. "Dark elves are elves that tap into the element of chaos from birth.

"Elves are born with the natural gift of creation. It's the reason they see themselves as the apex lifeform. But among these elves, a small population is in tune with chaos.

"Those are dark elves. It can be passed to you if your parents are both dark elves or if one is. Mine was the latter. My mother was a dark elf, and my father was an elf.

"They gave birth to twins—one an elf and the other a dark elf."

She stopped there, not going into her story more than that.

Aric noticed she didn't want to say anything more, so he respected her wish and changed the topic a bit.

"Well, dark elf or elf, I can't really see the difference, so I don't care. All I see is the beautiful elf sitting here," he said with an innocent smile.

It was not until a few seconds later that he realized what he had just said. He looked up in a panic. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean it that way," he yelled, scared that she would take it the wrong way as him hitting on her. But to his shock, she had a smile on her face.

"Huh?" Aric asked, confused.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to let my smile weird you out. But to elves, dark elves are seen as foul creatures. The only elf I ever met that admired dark elves was my father. He was the only one who ever called me beautiful.

"So when I heard you say that, it made me happy. Thank you," she said.

Aric was taken aback, but he didn't want to sit there and let the situation get awkward. "You're welcome," he responded and got up. "You are beautiful, so it only makes sense someone tells you every now and then," he said and walked away, returning to take a look at what he was building.

He didn't pay attention to Ariel and kept thinking about what he should continue with for the house.

"You didn't tell me about yourself and why you are here in this dangerous forest," Ariel suddenly popped up behind him and asked. His ghost nearly leaped out of his body.

"Don't ninja around like that," he said, holding his chest.

"Well, tell me," she asked, ignoring what he just said.

"Well, it's really a simple story. My father never wanted me, and when he got the opportunity, he banished me.

"Since then, I've been traveling, but no one wanted me—not humans and not elves—so I came to this forest," he said.

"I feel like you heavily downplayed that story," she responded.