The Elf Saint is a NEET, so I Forced Her to Work in Another World

Repopulating Cherwoods (Extra Chapter)

**Kuro**

"Based on my calculations, the pre-war population of the elves would be reached in about 500 years, if we're going to use your time reckoning, Kuro. Oh yes, I forgot to say that it is a positive assessment. If we go by the more conservative route, the years would be longer."

"I-I see," was all I could say while staring at the papers Salis gave me. While I did ask her on her opinion about the elves' predicament, the owl-lady did travel all the way from Cherwind just to hand me her estimates. I guess she was a god-sent, for the numbers she wrote there—as well as the calculations used, was something my simple mind couldn't understand quickly...notwithstanding her efforts to explain those to me. Nevertheless, I knew her capabilities lean on the scientific side of things, and so I trusted her judgment when it came to these statistics.

"Well, elves—while they are a sexually-active race—bear children slowly compared to us beastfolk," the owl-lady explained. "And also, you have to understand that, in elf terms, 500 years is just a sliver of their lives."

"Yeah, and to us humans, it's really a long time..."

"I guess, on an objective perspective, it's nothing to worry about."

I agree with Salis' observation. I mean, I'm human, and my life would be long gone before the first signs of Cherwoods' population recovery appeared. And, as long as there's no conflict to kill them, their demographics would be secured.

That is, if there's no conflict. I may be 'young' compared to the elves, but I think the Lady Hinwe would agree when I say that the future was always uncertain. We could always project, based on our available data; nevertheless, Fate's a bitch—one could never know how she would play her cards, just to fuck with you.

The image of Lady Time suddenly crossed my mind at the moment.

"..."

And no, I'm not thinking of her as such.

I did say I wanted to help the Lady Hinwe, and by extension, her people as well. I guess it would be stupid to form plans to keep the elves alive from the desertification of their place, then let them die out by not doing anything about the demographic change, brought forth by the Seductress' influence. Unlike the beastfolk, elves were monogamous, and their pregnancy duration was something one would expect from a long-lived race: even without something to base it on, I could tell that elves take years before eventually bearing a child.

Yes, a child. Asking around and researching on their culture gave me the impression that there was no chance of an elf lady bearing twins. And I was not even in their customary 'cooling period'. For elves, child-bearing was a sacred duty, and as time was of no issue to them, those who had just sired children would go on an 'isolation trip' to recover their strength, and other related cultural stuff attached to it.

But, with entire cities annihilated, and those that survived had been severely decimated, it's necessary to find ways to 'replenish' the lost people...not only for their survival, but also for the elves' economic stability. Because, yes, I always believed that economy was tied to the political and societal order of any civilization, or people. And I could back my claims with hundreds—if not thousands—of examples from my old world, from the ancient days up to the present.

"Kuro."

"Yep?"

"I know it's kind of difficult, but don't you think we can encourage elvish immigration back to their former homelands?"

I fell silent at Salis' suggestion. While the thought did really come to my mind before, I decided against it. For one, the elvish population of Chersea—descended from the earlier generations of elves that migrated from Cherwoods during the days the Lady Hinwe was a famous lazy bum, was radically different from the locals. They lost their ability to 'talk' to the trees, which was the only way to settle and find home in this land.