Episode 80 — The Return of the Photobombing Mage

“...And that was when Master Bartos turned to my father—yes, that stubborn Durand—and declared, ‘Do not think pride alone can save a forest. True pride is proven when one is willing to crawl through the mud to deliver results!’ Oh, Master Zect, the sight of Master Bartos’s back in that moment... it was as if a legendary hero had descended upon us!”

The air in the living room felt like it had physically risen several degrees from the sheer heat of Elishua’s enthusiasm. Leaning forward from the edge of the sofa and gesturing wildly, she seemed less like a mage and more like a traveling bard in the middle of a performance.

(The energy on-site must have been unreal. Bartos was probably really fired up about forcing his old colleague to face reality. ...Though, that line was definitely a quote from some story he read.)

I synced the massive amount of data she’d brought back to my terminal, nodding at appropriate intervals. As usual, Elishua’s reports were thirty percent fact and seventy percent dramatic embellishment. The signal-to-noise ratio was so bad that extracting the actual progress felt like debugging a corrupted log file.

“And then, my father fell to his knees, ashamed of his own ignorance. He looked at me and said, ‘The master you have chosen truly seems to grasp the logic of the world.’ How about that, Master Zect? I was quite proud!”

“Yeah, good for you. So, what happened to the actual ant network after that?”

“I am telling you! That was when the real work began. The young elves worked together as one to protect the cords we laid, and now the Forest of Elun is the most orderly forest in the world!”

I projected the synchronized image data onto the large monitor. Bartos had been the one handling the camera this time.

The screen displayed a series of impressive results.

Hemp cords were stretched taut from branch to branch among the giant trees, without a single sag. Along those lines, the reddish-brown ants—once loathed as ‘unclean’—marched in perfect formation, fast and efficient.

In another photo, groups of elves gathered beneath the lines, quietly observing the ants’ work and performing a small cultural rite—an old forest tradition of showing respect to diligent creatures.

(The infrastructure adoption rate is way beyond expectations. It’s practically evolved into a stable ecosystem. To think that forest, once a hotbed of bugs, has become such a clean execution environment. ...Well, Bartos’s ‘evidence photos’ are flawless, too.)

Every photo was well-composed, and more importantly, every single one featured Elishua striking a pose somewhere in the frame. Her constant photobombing was a powerful, if annoying, testament to the fact that the case was closed. I looked at the monitor and finally let out a long, internal sigh of relief.

“Well, I’m glad things worked out. ...By the way, let me ask you something.”

I switched the image on the monitor to the one where the elves were treating the ants as ‘Forest Guardians.’

“What exactly are elves as a group? I mean, watching your father and the elders, it occurred to me—you guys are fragile. You’re so obsessed with pride and spirits that you're way too vulnerable to external pressure.”

Elishua sat back on the sofa, the heat finally cooling from her expression as she straightened her posture.

“...I suppose so. To the outside world, we are seen as a mysterious race that communes with spirits and guards the woods. But in reality, we are just a group of people with slightly longer ears who happen to enjoy the forest air.”

“Your lifespans aren't that different from ours either, right?”

“No. A hundred years at most. No different from the humans of this country. We just mature a bit slower and reach adulthood later. ...Perhaps that is why we are so obsessed with ‘unchanging things.’”

Elishua turned her gaze toward the Felsen cityscape outside the window.

“Humans know they have short lives, so they build cities, write laws, and pass things on to the next generation. But elves... we wish for the forest to remain the same forever. My father, the elders... they risked their lives not to save the forest, but to ‘keep the forest from changing.’ They truly believed that was their pride. ...That is why they were so easily eroded by an unseen threat.”

(Legacy system administrators refusing updates until the whole thing collapses. Yeah, that tracks. Reforming the mindset of the management layer is always the hardest part of any rollout.)

“But things changed this time. The cord paths you introduced, Master Zect... they weren’t just a countermeasure against insects. They broke our rigid assumptions.”

“I just suggested the lowest-cost solution available.”

“Regardless, Master Zect, the village is sending crates of the finest Elun Pods as a token of gratitude. And my father insists, ‘I must invite Master Zect to the village and offer him the highest hospitality.’”

“Politely—and firmly—decline. I’ve just entered a fatally busy period. It’s my critical off-season.”

(Give me a break. Next they’ll be asking me to build a registry system to manage the ants. Once the system is live, the field team can handle the maintenance themselves.)

“Mrrp. (Cowardly as always. Still, that long-eared girl seems grateful, so I’d say you passed this time.)”

Tama curled up on my lap, narrowing her eyes contentedly. I looked back down at my phone and started scrolling through a catalog of rewards I could redeem with my accumulated points.

“Anyway, Elishua. Now that the report is done, go help Gustav. He looked like he was about to suffer a server crash, buried under a mountain of petitions from the other races.”

“Oh my, is that so? Then I, the ‘Sage Who Saved the Forest,’ shall go lend him my wisdom!”

With a dramatic flourish, Elishua stood up and swept out of the living room like a whirlwind.

Finally, total silence.

I glanced once more at the monitor—at the orderly forest Bartos had captured and the photobombing mage within it—then let out a quiet breath of relief.

—Now then.

Since the world has been optimized just a little bit more, I’ll get back to my own supreme form of debugging.

I’m taking a nap.

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.