The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Chapter 517: Melika’s Childhood Friend

Elven Homeland, outside the tree house.

When Shien, Lucy, Lasha, Lilith, and Millu emerged from the tree house and descended the vine bridge, someone was already waiting for them.

“Mr. Shien! Everyone!”

Melika, as if she had been waiting for a long time, ran towards them with shining eyes.

“Melika?”

Shien blinked and smiled.

“You’re here?”

Lucy also looked at the elf girl, smiling warmly.

“Miss Melika.”

Lasha greeted Melika.

“Hmm?”

Lilith tilted her head, either surprised by Melika’s sudden appearance or just remembering her.

As for Millu, she looked curiously at this unfamiliar elf girl.

Melika, seemingly not noticing Millu, ran up to them, then apologized, her face full of guilt.

“I’m… I’m sorry, everyone, for leaving you behind.”

Melika seemed apologetic for not being with them yesterday.

They didn’t mind.

“You haven’t been back for a long time. You must have wanted to catch up with your friends.” Shien looked at Melika, a playful smile on his face. “You look much better than yesterday. You must be in a good mood, right?”

Shien’s words made Melika blush and lower her head shyly, speechless.

Indeed, Melika’s complexion had improved considerably.

Melika didn’t know why, but she felt much better after returning to the Elven Homeland, and even her magic power, which had been increasing, seemed to be growing at a faster rate.

Perhaps returning home had truly improved her spirits.

This was a good thing.

Melika didn’t feel anything was wrong, and her demeanor was less restrained and shy than usual.

“Where’s Princess Airi?”

Melika looked around, not seeing Airi, but noticing a strange little girl staring at her curiously, holding Lasha’s hand.

“Airi is still sleeping in the tree house. You know, that girl loves to sleep.” Shien explained, then patted Millu’s shoulder. “This is a newcomer, sort of related to Airi. There was supposed to be another one, but she didn’t come. I’ll introduce you later.”

Melika said, seemingly understanding, “Related to Princess Airi…?”.

Clearly, Melika hadn’t connected her to Airi’s Demon Lord sisters.

“Millu! My name is Millu!”

Millu raised her hand and introduced herself energetically to Melika.

“O-okay! Miss Millu!”

Melika hurriedly bowed, still polite despite being less shy and reserved.

Lucy then spoke.

“Are you alone?” Lucy asked casually, smiling. “I thought you would bring your friends along.”

This made Melika hesitate.

“I… I also wanted to introduce my childhood friend to everyone…” Melika glanced at Shien cautiously, then whispered, “But she didn’t want to come after hearing that there are men from other races here…”

Shien was speechless.

Another elf with gender discrimination.

This place was truly unfriendly to men.

“I-I’ll definitely introduce her to everyone next time!” Melika said hurriedly, “Jenom is a very good person, bolder and more capable than me. Everyone in the village says she’ll be the next genius to join the Elven Corps. She has always taken care of and protected me since we were young. She’s just not very familiar with everyone yet, so she’s a little hesitant. After I persuade her for a few days, she will definitely agree to meet everyone!”

Melika spoke highly of her childhood friend.

Just like yesterday when she was speaking up for Shien.

This showed that Melika valued this elven friend named Jenom.

Shien became curious.

“So, your childhood friend should be more outstanding than you, right?” Shien asked, “Then why did you leave the Elven Homeland to travel, while she didn’t?”

Shien had heard this from Carol.

It was said that Melika and her childhood friend were very close.

They had both gone through their reincarnation cycle as fairies and transformed into elves around the same time, returning to the Elven Homeland and joining the Elven Race together.

Therefore, these two elven girls had been inseparable since childhood, like sisters.

Carol also mentioned that Melika and her childhood friend had received their magic enlightenment from her together, starting to learn and practice magic at the same time.

They were the same age and had been best friends for over a hundred years, their relationship much closer than that of ordinary elves.

However, two years ago, these two childhood friends took different paths.

Jenom, following in the footsteps of her seniors in the Elven Corps, diligently trained in the Elven Homeland, hoping to join them.

Melika, however, suddenly decided to leave the village and travel, to broaden her horizons and gain experience.

But according to Melika, Jenom was much more outgoing than her.

Under such circumstances, why was it the more timid and shy Melika who went out to travel, while Jenom stayed in the village to train?

“This…”

Melika hesitated.

Seeing this, Lucy nudged Shien’s side with her elbow.

Shien winced and glanced at Lucy, exasperated.

He knew that this princess was blaming him for not being able to control his mouth, for not considering whether he had touched upon a sensitive topic and put Melika in a difficult position.

This lazy princess, for some reason, suddenly seemed to care about Melika.

Shien could only shrug helplessly.

“I was just casually asking. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Shien said to Melika.

Melika shook her head.

“Actually, it’s not something I can’t talk about…” Melika said, a bit hesitant, “The reason I wanted to leave the village and travel was simply because I felt that if I didn’t, I might never be able to compare to Jenom.”

This wasn’t difficult to understand.

“Since we transformed into elves, we’ve always been together, doing the same things every day, living the same life, even our magic training was exactly the same, almost no difference at all.”

Under such circumstances, they did the same things, but achieved different results.

“Jenom was the first to learn magic.”

“Jenom was the first to level up.”

“Jenom was the first to learn intermediate magic.”

“Even the first one to successfully subjugate the monsters outside the village and be noticed by the Elven Corps was Jenom.”

Melika gripped her staff, her tone not resentful, but still a bit dejected.

“We were always doing the same things, but Jenom was always one step ahead of me, making me wonder if I was simply inferior to her.”

It wasn’t jealousy or unwillingness, just a bit of self-doubt.

But it was this slight doubt that ultimately made Melika decide to take a different path.

“If I continued training like Jenom, I would probably never catch up to her.”

“And once Jenom joined the Elven Corps, she would receive better training and guidance, and I would truly never be able to catch up.”

“I didn’t want to be left behind by Jenom.”

“Therefore, I mustered my courage and decided to leave the village, travel, and train hard.”

Melika murmured unconsciously,

“I wonder if I’ve caught up to Jenom now.”

Melika clearly wasn’t confident about this.

And since they had just reunited yesterday, both of them were too happy to notice this.

Only now did Melika seem to recall her original intention for leaving the village, feeling a bit nervous and apprehensive.

Her appearance made people feel a little sympathetic.

Lucy stepped forward and gently hugged Melika.

“It’s okay, you’ve definitely caught up to her.”

Lucy comforted her softly.

“Th-thank you, Princess Lucy…”

Melika was a bit shy, either because she had revealed her innermost thoughts, or because of Lucy’s intimate gesture.

At the same time, Melika secretly glanced at Shien, seemingly caring about his opinion on this matter.

Shien understood.

Therefore, he said without hesitation,

“I also think you’ve caught up to her now, even surpassed her.”

Shien gave her the highest praise.

“Surpassed?” Melika didn’t seem to have considered this possibility and said quickly, “No way, Jenom is so talented and outstanding. It’s already good enough if I can catch up to her.”

It seemed Melika’s evaluation of her childhood friend, Jenom, was much higher than her own.

“Is she that talented?”

Shien wondered.

He didn’t know how capable Jenom was.

But he didn’t think the current Melika was inferior to her.

Just Melika’s rapidly increasing magic power over the past few months was something Jenom couldn’t possibly match.

That was a growth rate that even Airi noticed, and the Elven Queen was surprised by.

Of course, just having outstanding magic power didn’t mean Melika was stronger than Jenom.

But both of them were magicians.

Since they were both magicians, the one with stronger magic power definitely had an advantage.

Therefore, Shien believed that the current Melika was definitely no less than her childhood friend.