Chapitre 18: The Beginning of a Storm
"Mmmm...Your Majesty...It's morning already." A half-naked woman was standing on the side of a large king-sized bed. She poked on the shoulder of a naked, blanketed man who was still asleep.
"Five more minutes." The man rolled over to the other side not wanting to get up.
The woman put her hand on the man's shoulder again to wake him up. "I'm sorry Your Majesty but you have a meeting with Chief Kylantha in one hour. Please get u—"
Before finishing her sentence, King Adrian jolted awake. "I'm up. Prepare my breakfast and clothing." As the King was leaving the bed, he entered the bed again to kiss another woman who was still asleep. "I'll have to work now. Last night was great." He left the bed to do his morning routine.
--
The meeting was set in the castle's garden. In the past few months, the royal gardeners have planted some native flowers and plants to diversify the sights. The garden looked extremely beautiful and artistic. A silver table with two seats was placed in the middle of the stunning garden. King Adrian and Chief Kylantha was seating opposite of one another while drinking tea. Their subordinates were nowhere in sight as this was a private meeting.
"How have you been holding on, Chief Kylantha?" King Adrian asked while putting down his cup of tea.
"Holding on?" Chief Kylantha did not understand his wording.
"Ah. I apologize. It simply means 'how are you'?" King Adrian simplified his question.
Chief Kylantha flashed a dignified smile and answered. "I see. I have never heard such an expression. I am fine, King Adrian. My people are in good shape as well, in fact, our situation is steadily improving after your scholars and officials come to our village to help improve it...I should be the one asking, how are you? I am sure you have been working tirelessly."
"It seems there are certain limitations with using the translation necklace to converse effectively. We'll have to learn each other's languages someday..." King Adrian stroke his chin in thought for a bit. He then realized he was trailing off. "Ah, sorry. You shouldn't worry much about me, I'm well taken care of by my subordinates. In fact, I feel quite guilty for not having the time yet these past few months to visit your village and learn more about your people...I have just been too busy with the development of the town." King Adrian said.
Chief Kylantha flashed a sincere smile. "That's fine, King Adrian. What you have done for my people so far is enough." She replied.
"Tell me...how many elves do you have in your tribe?" King Adrian asked.
"We have around five thousand elves in our tribe...many more are scattered all over the kingdom. Some enslaved by the humans...some I've heard are forming little resistance cell and settlements to liberate their people...but we don't have much contact with them." Chief Kylantha responded.
"Do you have an estimation on how many more are out there?" King Adrian asked again.
"It's hard to tell...our estimation is sitting at around 20.000 elves scattered throughout the continent." Chief Kylantha replied.
"How barbaric for humans to enslave another kind like this...are all of the human kingdoms that evil?" King Adrian inquired.
"Some...yes, one of the nearest kingdom from here is Leincester that promotes the enslavement of elves and other demi-humans as part of their religious beliefs. But I believe....some human kingdoms don't really encourage slavery but they just don't have any laws against it." Chief Kylantha answered.
"I see....as promised, we will be sending out agents to those kingdoms to try to find ways to liberate them by winter. Winter is also going to be the time I will start conduct trade with other kingdoms." King Adrian replied.
Chief Kylantha's face was a bit confused hearing the latter part of his speech. "But King Adrian....why winter? I understand sending agents on winter would help lower their visibility and trace but....trade? Many kingdoms will shut down their economy for those months as it becomes too cold." She asked.
"Chief Kylantha...tell me. What are the problems people usually encounter in the winter time?" King Adrian asked back.
Chief Kylantha put down her cup of tea to think. "Problems....being too cold to go outside and work is one.....the coldness, in general, is also a problem....and of course, the limited food supply due to the crops not growing is also another. There are probably more I haven't mentioned yet." She said.
"I am coordinating with my people to solve all those problems. If it is viable, we will sell products to those kingdoms to meet those requirements." King Adrian answered while smiling.
"I see. I understand. Well, the fact that you are going to start liberating my people in the winter is enough." Chief Kylantha picked up her cup of tea and started drinking it again.
"How is it, the drink?" King Adrian asked as he watched her continuously drinking the tea.
"It is very refreshing and a treat for your mouth....what is it?" Chief Kylantha asked.
"It's tea...made out of leaves of a special plant. I have instructed my people to start growing it as well. Do you think humans here will like it?"
Chief Kylantha put down her cup of tea again after having a sip. "I'm sure they will. This is good...King Adrian, you're quite an easy person to talk to...The human nobles I've met to coordinate treaties with are all stuck up." She said while giggling.
"Well, you know me. I wasn't even raised to be a king but here I am." King Adrian noticed her cup of tea was empty. "Want some more?" He said while picking up a kettle.
"Sure." Chief Kylantha replied.
--
"Brother Aimer, where is the deer?" A young elven girl asked a man who was carrying a bow.
"They are near, let's jump up this tree." An elven man replied.
These two elves were currently inside the forest near the elven territory hunting for a meal.
"Let's wait here. This is the usual trail for the deer so they should pass by here." The elven man said and sat on the tree. The young elven girl followed and sat next to him.
The two waited for a while in silence. As the elven girl was visibly getting irritated, she started to speak. "Brother Aimer, what do you think about the Vathrian humans?" She asked.
"Humans are humans. I don't know what tricks they pulled on the chief and the elders, but this agreement was a mistake. We should never involve ourselves with the kind that enslaved us. Do not get in contact with them, you hear Renna!?" Aimer the elf talked to his sister sternly.
"But....they said they're from another world and the knights I've met are really nice to us....and they promised to free more of our people." Renna the elven girl replied.
"As I've said, I don't know what tricks they pulled on the chief but we should stay vigilant. You remember what happened to our mother, yes? Where is she? Somewhere out there in the human world enslaved!" Aimer reprimanded the girl.
"D-don't talk about mother like that...If the Vathrians are telling the truth...then perhaps they could free mother..." Renna started tearing up.
Aimer glanced at the girl and started to feel guilty. "Listen, Reina, I also hope they're different but we should never trust a human just like that. We'll see how the agreement goes but personally, I feel they'll want something in return—" As Aimer was speaking, they heard a rustle in the bushes near them.
Aimer glanced at Renna and did a 'be quiet' gesture with his finger on his mouth. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and placed it on the bow's nock.
In a quiet voice, Aimer spoke to Renna "I can't see anything. Let's head down and crouch."
They both went down the tree silently and crouch-walked. Both of them went to the place where they heard the sound.
Aimer stood up after realizing there was no deer. "Odd. Must be a false alarm. Renna, let's—" He turned around to see Renna when he saw that there was a man who had his hand on her mouth to prevent her from screaming. Renna's face was distraught but she couldn't say anything.
"Renn—" Aimer reached for his daggers and was about to scream his sister's name when suddenly he felt cold metal on his stomach. He looked down to see a sword penetrating him from the back. He plopped down almost lifelessly as he couldn't let out any more noise.
Renna, who saw her brother stabbed from behind, made a small scream underneath the mysterious man's hand. She was so shocked that she fell unconscious.
"Was that a male elf? He looked pretty. Some perverted nobles could've wanted him you know." The man who was holding Renna captive said. He then carried Renna's small body on his shoulder.
"We can't let him alert anyone else so I had to kill him. But let's leave his body here. Boss said we should create panic and paranoia for a while before we do more drastic things." The man who stabbed Aimer replied.
The two men were wearing leather armors and hoods to cover their faces.
"Let's go back to camp. We'll tell Boss we succeed." The man who carried Renna said.
"Alright. Let's not waste time." The other man responded.
Both of them walked away from the bloody scene, leaving Aimer's corpse. However, after a while, the corpse was no longer a corpse. There was a small twitch on the hand of Aimer's body before his eyelid popped open.
"R...enn...a" He screamed weakly.
"I...m..ust....alert....every..one." Aimer started dragging his body and crawled.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone