Chapter 1: Final Chapter?

“Defendant, General Yakovlena El Fride, former Strategic Commander of the Albheim Nation.”

That’s me.

“The Mizia-Albheim International Military Tribunal hereby rules on the defendant, Yakovlena El Fride…”

[Guilty of Conspiracy for Anti-Peace Crimes.]

[Guilty of Planning and Executing Crimes of Aggression.]

[Guilty of Violating International Laws of War.]

[Guilty of Planning and Executing Genocide.]

[Guilty of Using Mass Destruction Magic.]

It was the expected verdict.

If asked if it’s unfair, I would answer that it is not.

For the survival of my platoon members, I executed Dwarf prisoners, for the safety of my company, I burned down human villages, for my battalion, brigade, division, and further, for Albheim and us Elves, I shot other races dead, burned them to death, killed them with magic…

Yes, I killed many.

Directly or indirectly.

Of course, I’m not some crazy psychopath who enjoys murder.

As a former human, the kindness I showed to other humans became bullets aimed at the back of my head.

A Beastkin with cute cat ears served us poisoned soup.

The Dwarf with the impressive red beard… let’s stop thinking about that.

‘The judge delivers the verdict solemnly.’

‘Who are these filthy Beastkin to judge anyone?’

“Therefore, the defendant Yakovlena El Fride is sentenced to death.”

“Hah… do as you please.”

“Defendant!”

The prosecutor shouts.

A short body with a messy beard, one of the Dwarf kin.

Honestly, I have no lingering attachment to life.

Born as a pure-blooded Elf, I lived for over 300 years.

250 of those years were spent on the battlefield.

Since I died before turning 30 in my past life, I’ve lived more than 10 times longer as an Elf.

It’s better this way.

We may have lost, but the tedious war is over, so now my tedious life will end too.

The one thing hard to bear witness to is Albheim being occupied by inferior races.

‘Rather than see such a sight, I should ask them to carry out the execution as quickly as possible… Hmph.’

Fride inwardly spewed hatred and curses towards the inferior races, rationalizing her war crimes as she exited.
Towards her new home, a solitary prison cell no better than livestock quarters.

In the pre-dawn darkness, an Elf confined to a solitary cell cannot sleep.

Dreaming of the ideals she could not achieve.

The extermination of all races except Elves; for her, it was the only way to end the war and bring about lasting peace.

Of course, that wasn’t true.

Then again, spending 250 years on the battlefield, it would be stranger if she wasn’t warped.

Of course, her specific condition of having been a human in her past life, a human male at that, might have contributed.

The process where the self established as a human gradually crumbled while living as an Elf, and a new self was established – we call that going mad.

“General Fride, are you asleep?”

She answers gruffly.

“General? Don’t make me laugh… Everything’s ruined, why still call me General?”

She found the man in the next cell, Ernst Wittrich, utterly despicable.

He confessed to all his crimes and repented.

Of course, it was likely a lie to avoid execution, but that made it even worse in its own way.

‘Didn’t he betray his race and homeland for his own safety!’

“Did someone hold a knife to your throat and force you to participate in the trial like that? If you had just pretended to repent like me, you could have avoided the death penalty.”

“Quite the boast. How does the safety tasted after betraying your race feel? Is it delicious?”

He didn’t just offer false repentance.

He even testified about the crimes of his fellow kin to reduce his own sentence.

“Indeed, it’s sweeter than any sugar. Beyond comparison…”

“Just go to sleep. You traitor.”

She fought the urge to grab his long ears and rip them off, trying to sleep instead.

“You don’t need to sleep, do you? You’ll be sleeping continuously starting tomorrow.”

“Eternally.”

He chuckled, coughing and wheezing with lungs abused by habitual smoking, as if he had landed a blow.

BANG!

Rumble…

“Hiiik!”

The fist she slammed out didn’t break through the prison wall, but it was enough to make the wall vibrate and strike fear into him.

“Just because you have a mouth, you run it carelessly. I will definitely kill you. Definitely.”

“You’re completely mad, utterly insane. Why are you so obsessed with war? You’re nothing but a warmonger! A defeated one at that! And you’ll meet your end at the hands of the very races you despise!”

“…Shut up.”

“Do you know this?”

“When hanged, all the body’s muscles relax, and bodily waste is expelled.”

“Those damn Beastkin won’t give you the mercy of a quick long drop, either.”

“Using a short rope to asphyxiate the condemned – wasn’t that your preferred method back when you were a junior officer?”

“…”

“How does it feel?”

“Until now, you hanged them; now, those bastards will hang you.”

“You’ll slowly suffocate, painfully dying while soiling yourself.”

“And those inferior race bastards will be watching, enjoying it.”

“Is this the ‘end’ you truly desired? If so, congratulations.”

Their conversation ended when guards rushed in, having heard the sound of her fist hitting the wall.

And she still couldn’t sleep.

Ernst Wittrich, the Finance Minister who spoke with her, had indeed sold out his own kind for his safety, just as their conversation implied.

In return, he would soon be free (by Elven standards of time), while she, conversely, would ascend the scaffold.

“Yakovlena El Fride, do you have any last words?”

“I only did what I had to do! Glory to Albheim and the Elves! Destruction to the filthy inferior races! The World Tree protects us!”

“No remorse until the very end… Execute!”

‘With a clang, the trapdoor falls. I didn’t want this kind of end.’

‘These sons of b*ches, they made the rope incredibly short too. My vision blurs.’

-Ghk… Khek… Kugh…

‘It’s really the end… Truly…’

‘Who would have thought the end of Fride, the Witch of the Battlefield, would be a stinking corpse hanging from the gallows. Ugh… truly unsightly.’

A soldier from the anti-Elf coalition forces, responsible for the execution, thought this while looking at Fride’s horrifically transformed corpse.

Of course, his thoughts were quickly cut off by his superior’s shouting.

Such was her death.

“Why are you just staring? Hurry up and clear it away! Besides this b*tch, there’s a truckload of knife-ears to hang every month!”

“Yes, sir!”

Yakovlena El Fride.

She was reborn as an Elf in this world after her past life.

A pure-blooded Elf, a minority even among Elves.

Born a pure-blooded Elf, he— no, she— initially wandered, confused about her identity.

However, the upbringing received as a pure-blood, the education from society, and further, the training she received during her military life transformed her from a human into an extreme Elven supremacist.

And she finally put an end to her long, long military career.

Receiving back the same method she used to hang enemies, or civilians she claimed were enemies, during her junior officer days.

It’s an unfamiliar ceiling.

To be precise, it’s an unfamiliar sky.

‘Am I dead? Well, being choked and made such a spectacle, of course, I must be dead.’

‘Then, is this heaven? The thought of me in heaven makes me scoff, but who knows? Maybe the World Tree sent me to heaven.’

[Child, my child…]

“Hkkyak!”

‘What? Who is it?’

[I am the being that children like you called the World Tree.]

Looking behind, I see a giant tree.

And from the giant tree, a woman emerges.

‘The World Tree? If it’s the World Tree, those filthy Dwarves…’

[Yes, they burned it. But child, I am a continuous existence.]

“A continuous existence?”

[I exist there and simultaneously do not exist there. And I do not exist only there.]

‘The World Tree explained something about its identity. Existing even when not existing there. What on earth does that mean?’

“So, why did you call me here?”

Such words and actions would be considered disrespectful by other Elves.

To Elves, the World Tree is an ancestor, a guardian, and their sole god.

‘So what? I’m already dead anyway.’

[Pitiful child. Child living your second life. Taking pity on you, I have gathered your soul.]

[I wish to grant you one more life.]

“If it’s life, I’m tired of it now.”

‘I want to stop living. I want to rest deeply.’

[This life will be the life you truly desire, child. And I will send you to your homeland.]

‘Homeland, now? The place I lived in my past life? If this was the plan, I don’t know why I was brought here. It’s just resentful.’

[Child. Your reincarnation was not by anyone’s will. It was an accident due to the weakening of the dimensional barrier, not anyone’s responsibility.]

“Are you avoiding responsibility now?”

[Do not be angry, child. Being able to go to your homeland this time is also because the dimensional barrier weakened, and my children planted a World Tree there.]

‘Wait a minute… What? Why is there a World Tree in my home world?’

[There are already many beings like you there, it seems.]

‘It’s hard to understand. Does this mean a gate through dimensions has opened?’

‘Besides, even if I go back to my original world, what’s the use? It’s been over 300 years since I reincarnated; by now, they’ve probably either followed that Mars-loving guy and settled on Mars long ago.’

‘Or they’ve annihilated themselves through nuclear war due to resource depletion.’

[You worry too much. The flow of time is relative, child. It is not an absolute value.]

‘Alright, I guess I should go and greet my parents. If they’re still alive, that is.’