A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 66: Spirits of the Forest

Chapter 66: Spirits of the Forest

Despite the First Princess pleading to Elaina to mentor her, Elaina denies it completely and advises the First Princess that she only needs real experience.

"Don’t tell me...everything you have shown so far against me is just something you did all by yourself?" Tabatha shakes her head in confusion.

"Well, that is literally what I did. I don’t even have any talents in regards to using the sword so it is even unlikely for me to receive training from someone. This is all the experience I got when dealing with monsters. Without these skills that I developed along the way, I would have died in the forest without even being able to become a farmer standing in front of you today."

Elaina is not lying. Back when she was still a stubborn teenager without being the wife of the emperor, she was tomboyish and quite adventurous. She even remembers the time when her hair was not that long and short enough for her to be mistaken as the younger brother of Troy.

Back then, Elaina was sent to her grandfather’s mansion to have a vacation for 4 years as her parents were busy with their business and they wanted Elaina to have someone who would guide her while she was growing as her grandmother was also there.

But the mistake is that her parents would not expect that the grandparents themselves would help train Elaina to become independent and strong. During her time with her grandparents, her grandparents asked her if she wanted to become a noble lady, to which then Elaina responded that she wanted to become a warrior able to destroy monsters with ease.

Due to this remark, Elaina is given a task by her grandparents to scale the dark forest and reach the end of it where they will be waiting for her. Then she was given by her grandfather the sword she is currently wielding till today. Dropped in the forest, she is forced to live her life with a constant threat on her life. She struggled at first and there were close calls as well but she managed to live. She keeps on repeating the mantra "What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger" and continues to move.

She was slow in her progress but Elaina persevered, continued to move, adapted to the lifestyle in the forest, improvised, and used whatever means to survive and became strong for her to develop efficient ways to fight. In three years, she arrived at the mansion of her grandparents which is currently at the very end of the forest then she was given a celebration for her survival and successful time of scaling the forest all by herself.

Her parents didn’t know about this incident and neither she nor her grandparents told Elaina’s parents about what happened so Elaina treated it as a very important lesson in life.

"The way I fight is due to personal experience. Perhaps if you also have extensive fights with nature and monsters, maybe you will be able to perform like me."

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Despite Elaina declining the First Princess’s teaching her about it, she does not give up easily. Because she is free and has nothing much to do aside from some paperwork, she decides that she will stay in the town and visit Princess Margaux regularly while also having the intention of convincing Elaina to teach her.

After the first princess has recovered, she and the prince left with the guards with the first princess going to start living nearby in the future. As for Princess Margaux, she remained.

Bidding goodbye to her siblings, the farm returned to its normal quiet time. Elaina shook her head a bit before she looked at Julia.

"Well, things seem to have calmed down. Let’s prepare to start preparing to forage in the forest once again. With the food reserves we have right now, I don’t think it is going to be enough for us to last. In just a few days."

Julia nodded and headed inside to prepare for everything once more.

"I will join as well. With my help, you can find your targets easily. I can also help in foraging as well. I will do my part in helping as well. I don’t want to just remain as a freeloader."

"But aren’t you the princess? Shouldn’t you want to not go into this kind of specific work since it is very hard?" Elaina asked.

"Hehe, I may not be as tough as my sister but I do get her way of thinking that being a princess doesn’t mean I need to abuse my privilege. We should learn how to live our life to the fullest without a single regret."

Elaina smiled hearing that.

"Well, with your ability, we can get a good haul of meat that way. Let’s get you prepared then. You have clothes that are comfortable moving around?"

"Yeah!"

The two girls continued talking as they went inside the house to start preparing for the next task.

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With all the preparations done, Elaina, Julia, and Princess Margaux departed to their destination. That’s also the time Princess Margaux fully saw Shardu who started to guard the entrance of the house once more like last time. It seems it liked the way it is becoming a guard whenever Elaina and everyone else are not at home and Elaina is happy as well. Like always, she promised to reward it once they returned.

And just like what Princess Margaux promised, she fulfilled her role and aided them in finding their prey to hunt. It’s also not always deer or boar, but some wolves are spotted as well which became sustenance.

"Well, with all of our haul for today, I think it is fair for us to go back now since we already had enough to last long before we needed to hunt again," Elaina said as she stuffed the last remaining meat into the inventory.

Princess Margaux nodded in response but Julia was currently staring into space with a puzzled look on her face. Elaina immediately noticed this and tapped her a few times before she broke off from her trance.

"Hey, you okay?" Elaina frowned.

"Oh, sorry about that Sis..." Julia shook her head as she held her head like she felt something was wrong.

"Everything okay? You look like you are in pain," Elaina tried to determine whether she was hurt or something. Even Princess Margaux is looking at her with worry.

"Don’t worry, Sis. I am fine. But for some reason, I can’t shake the feeling that something is amiss around here."

"Something amiss?" Elaina frowned.

"Yeah. I can’t describe it but the closest description I can say is that I felt like something or someone was currently here with us. It’s not humans or monsters either, it is something else."

"Can’t say I feel it..." Princess Margaux tilted her head.

"Me either. You sure you are not sick, Julia?"

"No, sis. Perhaps it is understandable for you not to detect this Sis since you don’t have magic but Princess Margaux should have detected this since she has the power of nature and druid. It seems to be a power of the forest I am sensing."

As she said those words, several fireflies started appearing around the forest and a strong wind blew all over the place. The surroundings started to develop some fog as well that started to get thicker as the second passed by.

"Stick together and don’t let anyone go from your sight. Don’t run and stay where you are so that we won’t get lost," Elaina said as she readied her sword.

Then, the god suddenly messages Elaina while they are in a tense situation.

"[Elaina, don’t engage in a fight and just defend yourself instead of actively fighting.]"

"What is going on? Is this perhaps your work?" Elaina asked the god.

"[Of course not. I may be capable of doing this but why would I do that to you and your companions? No, someone else is in there and it seems the girl named Julia noticed it beforehand as well].

"Just what is happening?" Elaina frowned.

But the god didn’t answer and instead, the harvest goddess appeared before them. Julia and Princess Margaux were startled but Elaina didn’t get surprised as she knows the Harvest Goddess.

"[Spirits of the forests, do not harm these people. If you all think that they are trespassing in your territory, just let them be as they didn’t intend to cross paths or even reach your area of territory.]"

Elaina frowned. "Harvest Goddess, who are you talking to?"

The Harvest Goddess gestured for them to be quiet as the fog that covered the area slowly disappeared. As for the fireflies, they remained floating, making the area they were in look mysterious.

The Harvest Goddess then turned around to them. "Don’t worry now, you guys are fine. It seems that you lot just trespassed on the area of the forest where the Spirits of the forests are currently present and stay. Don’t worry about it and if they continue to do this, I will personally stop them from doing so. After all, this is part of my duty as the goddess of this land."