Chapter 2 - Nature's Princess
In another dimension far away from the world where the boy died...... existed the soul that once lived in his body. For a while, it floated in darkness and without self-conscious. Soon enough, a voice was heard and made the boy's soul regain his consciousness.
"Perfect," stated the voice.
"... where... am I?" the soul replied.
"The body, which once hosted your pure soul, has ceased to function," the voice continued.
"....Does that mean... I died?" flickering in worry, the soul asked.
"In a way.... yes. But worry not, I shall revive you into a better world, protected by our kinds that you once taken care of."
"What.. do you mean?"
"They would love to be by your side, their new.... Nature's...... Princess."
"No... wait..."
Without giving the soul a second to voice his thought and questions, his was sucked into a hole that appeared almost instantly in front of him. Soon enough, he lost consciousness yet again, as he felt himself being wrapped in kindness and warmth.
After a few minutes, the boy woke up. However, the view that was laid out in front of him was different from his usual greenhouse. In his surroundings, instead of glasses and plants, only trees, grasses and plants covered his view.
Looking behind his back, he saw a huge tree with withered leaves and branches that almost lost its colors. Placing his hands on the tree's bark, he could almost feel how it's not responding.
"It's dead..." he thought.
But that wasn't all. His whole body felt different than usual. It's as if he became smaller, and also weaker.
Curious, he began looking at his own body and to his surprise, it was the body of an infant. That wasn't the end of it however, as when he noticed how he did not have his son on his lower part, his consciousness literally flew away for a while, although not for long.
After a while, he tried to figure out the situation while rubbing his head.
"I have heard and known of the term reincarnation..... but can this possibly be it?" he wondered.
It didn't take long before yet another thing disturbed his train of thought because something was on his head while rubbing it. Through further inspections, he felt a soft and flexible stuff that felt like a stick and at the end of it, was something that felt like flower buds. It took him a moment before realizing two things.
First, he was reincarnated, as a baby girl to be exact while still retaining all normal human features. Secondly, a flower grew on his head. Thanks to his calm demeanor and intelligent mind however, he decided not to get panicked as he knew that nothing good can come out of it.
Following after his... her discovery, a male elf suddenly stepped forward from behind one of the trees. The elf had a yellow hair, while wearing leather armor and a pair of pants unknown to the girl. Attached to his back was a bow and some arrows on his waist.
"It's an honor to be the first elf to wit-" as he was about to kneel down to the girl, his face was painted in the emotion of surprise.
"Your highness, this may sound disrespectful but allow us to bring you a set of clothes."
"Clothes? Oh ok," replied the girl as she noticed she can speak and soon enough, realized she was naked.
The elf then pulled out something that looked like a horn out of his pouch and blew it. No sound came out from it, but after a few minutes, some other elves started appearing out of the woodwork. Some carried clothes, while others swords and bows with them.
In a hurry, a female elf began putting on a silk cloth onto the girl, while the rest simply covered her from the view of the male elves. It took them only a few seconds, and as soon as they were done, they dispersed and regrouped with the rest of the elves.
"Resuming my introduction just now, it's an honor to be the first to witness your existence. My name is Trevtas, the King of the Elves."
Claiming that, he began kneeling down to the girl. The rest of the elves didn't hesitate and did the same as the first one did, thus clarifying the truth of which he may be the elves' king. The girl on the other hand, flinched back a little due to the sudden treatment.
Experiencing the situation foreign to her, the girl replied, "Umm... please, stand up and no need for formalities. I have only recently been brought to this world. However truthfully told, I would appreciate it if someone can explain the situation here."
"Very well and it will be my pleasure, your Highness." he said as he stood up. Following his actions, the rest of the elves also stood up.
As Trevtas is about to explain, the girl's feet felt weak. It appears that her body could not take much activity and required constant rest, due to it being small and more fragile than it looked.
"Ahh... how I wish I can sit," she thought.
Suddenly, as if responding to her wishes, roots bursted out of the ground and started entangling with each other. A few seconds later, it formed a structure that looked like a chair and covered itself with leaves to increase the comfortability.
A little shocked at first, the girl simply stared at the mini chair-like roots for a few seconds before deciding that she can stand no longer and sat herself on it. The rest of the elves on the other hand, were simply amazed as the girl that was recently created in this world, was already capable of utilizing some of her abilities.
"May I continue, your Highness?" Trevtas inquired.
"Unnn... yes," she answered as she relaxed herself
It didn't take seconds after Trevtas started to explain everything to the her. It was known that the dead tree behind her is in fact Yggdrasil. Nearing its time, Yggdrasil made the decision of using every last of power it had to reincarnate the boy which was now a girl into this world to replace Yggdrasil and become the Princess of Nature.
Regarding why Yggdrasil turned the boy into a girl, it was quite simple. When leading the nature, the female gender had an advantage over the male gender for their synchronization rate with the nature is much higher, combined with their loving personality.
For the boy, his over-loving personality for plants was more than enough so the only problem was his synchro rate. To make things easier to explain, if the boy was to command nature, it would take a slight time interval before they were executed. If he was a girl instead, it would take no time at all. There were more advantages, but Trevtas said he didn't know as Yggdrasil didn't tell him.
However, that wasn't all. In order to ensure that she can play the role of the Princess more efficiently, Yggdrasil was forced to wipe out the memory of her old world except herself, her obsession of plants and changed her personality by a little. It wished that it had another way around it, but sadly there was none.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Then.... what about my name?" asked the girl.
"Yggdrasil said it was to be Rene, your Highness," Trevtas replied.
"Rene...... I like it, Yggdra..." turning back, she started patting the tree bark while smiling, with a slight hint of sadness.
Trevtas and the elves had been a faithful alliance to the nature itself, so Yggdrasil requested that he and his kind to watch over Rene during her growth in order to ensure that no life-threatening harm befell the princess.
In the end, she concluded that she needed to accept the changes around her like it's nothing and decided to live with it. Even about the fact that she used to be a boy. After all, rejection would bring nothing regardless of how much effort she poured in it, for Yggdrasil itself had died.
"What's the point of struggling? Might as well enjoy the new life I was granted with," she thought.
Turning around to look at the trees surrounding her as far as her eyes can see, a smile bloomed once more on her face. Finally getting the hang of commanding nature, Rene instructed the roots to return underground and she stood up.
"I look forward to the time we will be spending together, everyone!" Rene exclaimed cheerfully while opening up her arm as if to greet the elves.
"Yes, your highness!" the crowds of elves replied.
.
..
...
A day after Rene was reincarnated, the dead Yggdrasil soon enough disappeared from the land where it once grew on. She felt a little sharp pain in her heart after witnessing it, but decided to put it in the past and move on as a sign of gratitude to Yggdrasil.
During her free time which was all the time, she took the prosperity of wandering around in her new surrounding area, full of curiosity. The elves naturally allowed it since Rene was within the forest boundary, where her magic power was at the highest. Additionally, the trees themselves could protect her.
One time, she stumbled upon a lake and began swimming inside it and then almost drowned. There was also a time when she tried to eat a fruit due to hunger but suddenly shed tears. That was because she tried to eat herself, or her own kind to be precise. Confused, this caused her to starve for a while.
Rene then figured out thanks to Trevsta that to actually satisfy her hunger, she just need to absorb some water and get her flower exposed to sunlight. Otherwise, the flower on her head would wilt and Rene herself would die. She laughed the moment Trevtas told her as this fact was so obvious and yet, she missed it.
If one thinks her life was perfectly safe without harm, they were absolutely wrong. On a particular day when Rene was 6 years old...
"Urghh..... Trevtas, it hurts! It hurts!" cried Rene painfully.
"Your highness! What's wrong?!" worried of Rene's sudden suffering, he inquired while holding her.
"Someone... someone is.... *sob*... it...hurts," while trying to reply, she suddenly fainted.
"Your Highness! Tch, everyone, grab you weapon and come with me!" lifting the unconscious Rene, he commanded his men.
"Please... wait here, your Highness.. I swear on my life I will find the source of your suffering," he continued while slowly placing her down on the ground.
The moment Trevtas placed her on the ground, branches from nearby trees began extending and wrapped Rene. Next, they lifted her high up in the air and covered her in leaves. Trevtas, assured of the Princess's safety, hastily headed out to search the cause of her sudden pain.
A few hours later, one of the elves reported a sighting of a lumberjack within Rene's forest boundary. He was seen chopping down a few trees with an axe. Trevtas soon enough realized that the lumberjack was the very reason why Rene felt the sudden pain.
"Attack that man and kill him for causing our princess to suffer!" filled with anger, he shouted while pointing toward the lumberjack.
"For the princess!" his men replied.
One of the elves shot an arrow to the lumberjack's legs to make sure he doesn't escape. Following up, three elves carrying a spear, a dagger and a sword jumped down the tree and began inflicting blows toward the man in three different direction.
The lumberjack himself, caught off-guard couldn't possibly do anything. From his back, the elf with a dagger rapidly stabbed the man, causing him to bleed dangerously. To his left front, was the elf with the spear who kept striking the man's limbs added by the elf with the sword to his right front who continually slashed the lumberjack.
It didn't take long until the lumberjack was considerably weakened and could barely do anything to resist. The elf with the spear, attempting to end that man's life charged to him targeting his chest. It was then, branches suddenly began covering the poor man.
"Stop! Do not attack those branches!" Trevtas commanded, recalling how inflicting damage on it would cause Rene to feel the same.
The elf who was about to strike the man down, halted his charge and jumped back. During the confusion, the trees took the chance and started carrying the lumberjack away, half-dead. Dazzled of the sudden action of the trees, Trevtas simply stared as that man was carried away.
"Why?" in anger, he questioned.
Suddenly, the tree branches began forming letters trying to answer his question, and their reply was, "PRINCESS WISH NO UNNECESSARY DEATH."
"I see..." Trevtas sigh as he attempt to bury his fury.
Since that day, Trevtas took the initiative of patrolling around the forest by himself in the event on the appearence of intruders. The rest of the elves, amazed by his efforts, joined the patrolling group as well.
In any case, a human was never seen wandering inside Rene's forest anymore after the escaped lumberjack. Trevtas circulated that the survivor probably spread a rumor of the danger within the forest here, thus causing other humans to stay away.
Despite the incident that day, it never impeded Rene's wish of enjoying her life as it was then, or rather, it just motivated her even more knowing that her life as she knew it, may end in the near future. Slowly but surely, she was on her way to become, a true Nature's Princess.
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Author's side : Hopefully all of you enjoyed the chapter! Also, looking for PR please o.o. Sorry for the short note as well, since I am using a phone to write :b.