"Stop, Ger!" Caelu rushed over and placed herself between her tribe members and the soldiers. "Lord Tesa himself has sanctioned them!"

"That's outlandish, Caelu! Tesa, approving of humans?" the elf with purple hair named Ger growled, raising his spear. "He despises what the humans did to us and the earth."

Caelu unsheated her dagger, which was returned to her the day prior. "You may not like the truth, but it is as I say. If you dare touch them, you will face his wrath and mine. We're friends, Ger, but Tesa approved of them."

Specialist Smith came in between the elf and Caelu, leaving the rifle by her side. "If you hurt Caelu, you will face a severe punishment."

"You can hit first," Sergeant Wells taunted. "But you're not going to like our response."

"I doubt you could hit me with those weapons of yours," the purple-haired elf scoffed.

"You don't need to doubt, 'cause you'll be on your ass anyways."

"See? These outsiders don't respect us, and they are aggressive even when invited to our home. Their presence of itself is a mockery to all that we live for!"

"Put down your weapons," Captain Moore said, pushing down the barrel of Sergeant Wells' rifle. "We're guests here. Let's behave a bit, even if we might find some of them… disagreeable."

That earned a dismissive scoff from the unknown elf, but the human soldiers settled down unhappily. Sergeant Wells kicked a mound of dirt near him, his red hair flaring through the air like prickling flames. "You'll see us around a lot more, so get used to it."

"Sergeant."

"Whatever. They're lucky they have a god on their side."

As if Tesa heard their bickering, the ground below them rumbled, causing the elves to jump. Captain Moore noted that their verticals were… impressive, to say the least.

The elves seemingly understood the meaning behind the shake and walked past them without further incident. The purple-haired elf glared at the group before heading towards the entrance, his ears rustling consistently. Captain Moore frowned and spoke up once they reached the outskirts of the village. "Are they all going to be like this?"

"Many will be," Caelu admitted. "Though, I hope they will change their mind after learning more about your people. None of them have experience with outsiders… except the Grand Elder."

"Will we ever get to see him?"

"He's a bit reclusive and enjoys reading in seclusion… so it's highly improbable. However, if he says anything, Elder Septen will inform us."

"What are the chances that he's NEE…" Sergeant Wells wondered out loud.

Captain Moore cleared his throat. "Sergeant. No. Especially not here."

"Wasn't going actually to say it. Besides, they can't understand us."

"Until they learn English or get access to a MicroTranslate."

"I believe what Sergeant Wells meant to say was NEET…" Specialist Smith interjected.

"... Specialist, please mute yourself for the time being," Captain Moore said.

"Is that a direct order?"

"No, but it's not good to call a foreign leader that word."

"Sergeant Wells was the one who referred to him as such…"

"Regardless."

"Acknowledged, sir."

The elves looked at the humans curiously, but Lieutenant Li chuckled. "I assume it's possible though, no? Should we hook up a computer in his room to double-check?"

"A computer?" Caelu asked. "Is it possible to bring some here? I truly enjoyed using them. Those "videos" and "games" were…"

"We can discuss it in the future. For now, we'll need to get used to your tribe first," Captain Moore said.

He looked around to see the older elves avoiding his group like the plague, making an effort to sidestep off the road and around them. In contrast, a few younger elves around Chiu's age wandered around them curiously. Captain Moore waved at the children with an easy smile. "Heya."

One of the kids jumped and hurried away, though two remained behind and watched the captain with bated breaths. Chiu ran up to them and grinned. "Modiu, Pallu!"

"Chiu!" the small boy with dirt brown hair named Modiu said. "What are you doing with…them?"

"We met them in the forest!"

"Above?"

"Yep! All sorts of cool stuff happened."

As Chiu went on a rant about his experiences in the lands above, the boy who had run away a few moments prior ran back towards the group. Compared to the other boys, this one was a tad younger and smaller, with locks of purple hair. He saw Captain Moore and shuddered before tumbling onto the earth in a heap. As he cried in a heap on the ground, the captain ran up to him and helped him onto his feet. "Careful little one."

"Mommy said you were monsters…" the boy sniffled.

"No monsters here, kid. I'm a human. See? Just like you, but with shorter ears," Captain Moore assured, pulling his ears. He rummaged through his pack and pulled out a Snickers bar. "Do you like sweet things?"

"Yeah!"

"I think you'll like this candy then. Try it. It's called "chocolate" in our world."

"Chocolate," the boy repeated, taking the candy and trying to eat it with wrappers and all. He spat out a piece of plastic and glared at the officer. "That's not tasty! You tricked me!"

"You just have to peel the outer layer here."

After the captain helped the boy peel off the wrapper, the boy immediately dug in and laughed in delight. "This is delicious!"

"Do you think they may be allergic to anything from Earth?" Lieutenant Li asked, scribbling something into his notebook.

"No clue, but chocolate should be safe. Caelu ate some a few days back, and they ran a diagnostics test on her," Captain Moore said. "We'll need to be cautious of potential allergic reactions, though. We still have much to learn about them."

"Well, I hope you had more chocolate. Otherwise, we'll have an unhappy crowd."

Captain Moore turned around to see Chiu and his friends standing before him, along with a few more children with wide eyes, staring at the purple-haired elf boy devouring a chocolate bar.

He sighed and pulled out a family-size pack of Snickers bars hidden in his pack. "Who wants one?"

+++++

Already at chapter 13, whoowhee. I didn't have time to work on the omake for the past few days due to being busy irl. I'll see if I can squeeze some time in today or tomorrow though.

Shoutout to CJ Moran, Philip Mackinoths, Demoniose Oculus, Rémi Dufour, and deathraven181 for their support on Patreon. Thank you so much 

I do have an extra scene I'm working on related to this chapter, so stay tuned. I'll hopefully have it out by Monday/Tuesday. After all... if a god is proven to be real, how would that affect some of the ordinary folks from Earth?

As always, thank you for the support. Any comments, criticism, and suggestions are always appreciated.

And I do have a Patreon if you want to read advanced chapters/support my work.  /okmangeez