Why must the devil be Defeated?
Chapter 556 - 517 Merica’s childhood friend

Chapter 556: 517 Merica’s childhood friend

Elf Country, outside the treehouse.

When Shane, Princess Luoqi, Lasha, Lilith, and Milu, a group of five, exited the treehouse and walked along the bridge made of vines to reach the ground, there was already someone waiting for them here.

"Mr. Shane! Everyone!"

Merica seemed to have been waiting here for a long time. As soon as she saw the group, her eyes lit up, and she hurried over.

"Merica?"

Shane blinked and smiled.

"You’ve come?"

Princess Luoqi also looked at the elf girl and smiled warmly.

"Miss Merica."

Lasha greeted Merica.

"Um?"

Lilith tilted her head, either surprised by Merica’s sudden appearance or only now remembering someone like Merica.

As for Milu, she was outright confused, curiously looking at this unfamiliar elf girl.

Merica seemed not to notice Milu. After jogging up to the group, she finally spoke with a face full of apology.

"I’m... I’m sorry, everyone, for leaving you behind."

Merica appeared genuinely sorry for not having accompanied the group the day before.

The group didn’t really mind.

"You haven’t been back in a while, right? You must have wanted to catch up and greet your acquaintances," Shane observed Merica with a smile that was not quite a smile, "Your complexion seems much better than yesterday; you must be feeling pretty good, huh?"

Shane’s words made Merica blush, lower her head, and become too shy to speak.

In fact, Merica’s complexion had indeed improved significantly, making it obvious that she was in a great state.

Merica didn’t know why, but she always felt better returning to Elf Country. Consequently, the speed of her increasing Magic Power had also accelerated quite a bit.

Perhaps, returning to her homeland had indeed improved Merica’s spirit, qi, and energy.

This was a good thing.

Anyway, Merica didn’t feel anything was amiss and was less reserved and shy than usual.

"Lady Ai?"

Merica looked around the group, not seeing Ai Yi but spotting a curious little girl being held by Lasha.

"Ai Yi is still asleep in the treehouse. You know that girl sleeps like it’s her job," Shane explained with a wry grin while patting Milu on the shoulder, "This is the newcomer, related to Ai Yi. There was another, but she didn’t come; I’ll introduce her later."

Hearing this, Merica somewhat understood: "A relative of Lady Ai...?"

Clearly, Merica did not think of Ai Yi’s Demon sisters.

"Milu! My name!"

Milu would not bring up those details, cheerfully introducing herself with a raised hand.

"Oh... Alright! Miss Milu!"

Merica quickly bowed her head in greeting, less reserved and shy but still as polite as before.

Then, Princess Luoqi also spoke up.

"Are you alone?" Princess Luoqi asked softly with a smile, "I thought you would bring your friends along."

This statement seemed to make Merica stammer a bit.

"I... I actually wanted to introduce everyone to my childhood friend..." Merica cautiously glanced at Shane and spoke in a low voice, "But she heard there were men from an alien race here and didn’t want to come..."

Shane was speechless.

Great, another elf girl with gender biases.

This place really isn’t friendly to us.

"Next time for sure I’ll introduce you all!" Merica hastily said, "Genom is really nice, braver and more capable than me. Everyone in the clan says she’s a genius who will be the next to join the Elf Corps. She’s looked after and protected me since we were young. She’s just a bit wary because she doesn’t know you all yet. Give me a few days to persuade her, and she’ll definitely agree to meet everyone!"

Merica earnestly spoke well of her childhood friend.

Her manner was very similar to how she had spoken about Shane the day before.

From this, it was clear that Merica valued her elf friend named Genom greatly.

Shane was now curious.

"From what you say, your childhood friend should be more outstanding than you, right?" Shane continued, "Then why is it that you left Elf Country to gain experience, and she did not?"

Shane had heard this incidentally from Carol.

It was said that Genom and Merica had a very close relationship.

The two had almost simultaneously endured the Fairy’s Rebirth Period and almost concurrently successfully transformed into elves—they were virtually brought back to Elf Country one after the other and joined the Elf Clan.

Thus, the relationship between the two elf girls seemed very good; they were inseparable from childhood.

Carol had mentioned that initially, Merica and her friend had both received magic initiation from her. They started learning magic and practicing together.

Both were the same age and had been close friends for over a hundred years, their relationship was far above the average members of the Elf Clan.

However, two years ago, this pair of childhood friends who had been together for a century ended up on different paths.

Genom was following the footsteps of the elders in the Elf Corps, striving to join them by practicing diligently within Elf Country.

Merica, on the other hand, had suddenly decided to leave the village to gain experience outside, to widen her knowledge and experience.

According to Merica, in terms of temperament, the elf girl named Genom was much more outgoing than she was.

In such a case, how could it be that the more nervous and shy Merica went out to gain experience, while the elf girl named Genom stayed in the village and dedicated herself to closed-door training?

"This..."

Merica was at a loss for words.

Seeing this, Princess Luoqi couldn’t help but elbow Shane in the side.

Shane twitched the corner of his mouth and helplessly glared at Princess Luoqi.

He knew that the princess was blaming him for not being able to keep his mouth shut, for not considering whether he was touching on a sensitive topic and making someone uncomfortable.

This Slacking Princess, for some reason, seemed to have suddenly taken a keen interest in Merica.

Shane could only shrug helplessly.

"I was just asking casually, you don’t have to answer."

Shane gave Merica a smile.

This made Merica shake her head.

"Actually, it’s not something I can’t talk about..." Merica, finding it difficult to start, said, "The reason I wanted to leave the village and gain experience outside is that I felt if I didn’t, I might never surpass Genom."

It wasn’t something too difficult to comprehend.

"Since our rebirth as elves, we have always been together, doing the same things, living the same life, even practicing magic in exactly the same way; there was hardly any difference."

In such a case, the two doing the same thing, yet achieving different results.

"The first to learn magic was Genom."

"The first to level up was Genom."

"The first to master intermediate magic was Genom."

"Even the first to vanquish the demons outside the village, attracting the attention of the Elf Corps, was Genom."

Merica gripped her magic wand, with no resentment in her tone, yet there was a hint of dejection.

"Even though I’ve always been doing the same things, Genom has always been ahead of me, which made me wonder if I was inferior to Genom."

It wasn’t jealousy or dissatisfaction but just a bit of doubt.

Yet, it was this slight doubt that, in the end, made Merica decide to take a different path.

"If I continued to train like Genom, I would probably never catch up."

"And once Genom joined the Elf Corps, she would receive better training, better cultivation; then I might never catch up to her."

"I didn’t want to be left behind by Genom."

"So, I gathered my courage and decided to leave the village to train and strive hard outside."

As she spoke, Merica unconsciously murmured.

"I wonder if I have caught up with Genom now?"

Clearly, Merica wasn’t very confident about this matter.

And since they had just reunited yesterday, both were wrapped in the joy of the reunion and naturally didn’t notice this.

It was only now that Merica seemed to recall her original intention of leaving the village and couldn’t help feeling a bit anxious.

Yet her demeanor was somewhat pitiable.

Princess Luoqi stepped forward and gently hugged Merica.

"It’s okay, you must have caught up with her by now."

Princess Luoqi consoled in a soft voice.

"Thank... thank you, Princess Luoqi..."

Merica was somewhat shy, not knowing whether it was because she had revealed her innermost difficult sentiments, or because of Princess Luoqi’s rather intimate gesture.

At the same time, Merica stealthily glanced at Shane, seemingly very concerned about how Shane would view this matter.

Shane got the message.

Thus, he unequivocally said,

"I believe that you have indeed caught up with her by now, and perhaps even surpassed her."

Shane gave the highest evaluation.

"Surpassed?" Merica, who hadn’t considered this possibility, hastily said, "That’s not possible; Genom is so incredible, so talented, it would already be great if I could catch up to her."

It seemed that Merica held a much higher opinion of her childhood friend named Genom than of herself.

"That talented?"

Shane muttered to himself.

He didn’t know just how incredible the one named Genova was.

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

Not to mention anything else, just considering the insane growth of Merica’s magic power in the past few months, her counterpart definitely couldn’t keep up.

That was the magic power growth that even Lady Ai glanced at sideways, and even the Elf Queen was amazed by.

Of course, merely having increased magic power didn’t prove that Merica was stronger than the other.

But since the two of them were both mages?

Since both were mages, the one with stronger magic power definitely had the advantage.

Therefore, Shane believed that the current Merica definitely wouldn’t be inferior to her childhood friend.