This story was actually pretty interesting and had good potential but this elf arc is just terribly nonsensical. The pacing of picking up a new party member and dealing with her backstory just a few chapters later is bad, first of all. But also they just appeared and immediately everyone and the kitchen sink got thrown at them. Is the elf nation that tiny that they zero in on the one random location where three people materialize? The backstory is presented in the most pointlessly convoluted and nonsensical way, too. First it seems like there's a bit conspiracy or tragedy, then it seems like it's just petty rivalry, none of it really connects or builds up on itself. Akira's motivation for participating in all of it is dubious as well. He's just passively going with the flow because it's what the plot dictates, apparently? It all feels like just a lazy attempt to continue the concept that all the kingdoms have somehow been corrupted, like with the initial human king and princess. But the exact reasons or motives for all of this are very murky. And not in the suspenseful, read and find out sort of way, but in the very trite author clearly has no clue himself sort of way.