บท 47: The ambition of an elf
A few days later.
Outside of a village, two people, a man and a woman, got off their horse and headed to the village that was doing well. Since this village still hasn't been recognized as a part of the kingdom there were no soldiers standing guard.
They covered their faces using hats, face masks, and 2 different pairs of sunglasses.
"I'm hungry." The woman, also known as Princess Harmony, held her grumbling stomach tightly with her hand.
"Like that isn't the 100th time you've said that. Now, whatever you do, don't-" Clement was interrupted.
"Take off my mask, talk to others, or try to escape, I know, and don't worry. I won't." She happily and tightly held onto his arm.
Clement didn't know how to feel about Harmony's state of mind. This is not how he wanted this to go. It wasn't within his expectations that she would develop a severe case of Stockholm syndrome. At most times he thought about dumping her back to the kingdom where she belongs, but then all of his actions, the hard work that he had put on his for some time would have been all for naught.
Upon entering the village, people were awfully cheery as if there was a festival going on, music played, people were dancing, laughing, eating, playing. There were even soldiers patrolling the area.
"We better go." Clement did not want to go into a village with guards, because there is a chance they will recognize him despite covering his face.
"But the nearest village is at least half a day's travel with Esmeralda, and it's already under the protection of the kingdom. And besides, I don't think anyone would suspect that you would enter a village with soldiers on it."
"Hm, you have a point. Nobody would think that."
More and more villages are being built each time, and each of those villages are being granted protection by the kingdom. If a new village is built, it won't take long for them to be forced under the protection of the kingdom.
Lately most of the new villages have been almost instantly granted protection due to many reasons, a few of them being: collecting tax money from the villagers, protecting people from any danger, but most importantly Clement.
The king thought that if all of the new villages were to be kept a close eye on, then that would limit Clement's resources and ability to move freely. With most of the villages under his rule it would back Clement into a corner.
"You both came to the festival for the cause?"
Clement and Harmony were both met by a young girl, this girl would be familiar to Will as it is one of the girl's that was kidnapped by Taker, but was saved by Will, her name is Kat.
"The cause?" Harmony asked.
"Since Taker and the noble who committed those killings are dead, we're raising money to help those families who lost their children. People here can pay to eat, play, dance, and all the money that we earn here goes to those families."
"But, that was some time ago. People are still doing that?" Clement was confused, but if that's what they wanted to do then sure, why not?
"Yup. My daddy, and mommy, and their friends helped set up this so we could help them."
"Kat, don't run away like that." Kat's father, picked up her daughter and carried her back to the pregnant lady who is due to have a child any minute now.
Kat's parents, when their daughter got kidnapped, they prayed and prayed to God, or someone to help them. Religion is not a thing in this world because the Great Sage forbids it since it could cause a lot of unnecessary problems. However, heroes after him have taught people to pray to give them a sense of comfort and faith.
Kat's parents prayed and asked that if their daughters returned to them safely, they would do anything to help those families who suffered because of Taker. And sure enough, they kept their end of the deal.
"That's nice, isn't it?" Harmony smiled behind her mask.
"It's wrong." Clement stated.
"Why is it wrong?"
"No, not this. The kingdom has the resources to compensate the families, but all they did was kill a noble, and they weren't the ones who brought him down, it was a sorceress who did their jobs. It's just like them to not take responsibility for their actions."
Nobles are the descendants of heroes, and are also a part of the kingdom. Whatever good or bad deed they do, it reflects on the kingdom.
Harmony didn't say anything. It's true what he said, her parents, the king and queen of that kingdom, did not compensate their families because they had many excuses.
For example: The heroes need better gear. A mutant dragon recently attacked their kingdom. A possibility that the Empress might visit the kingdom and have to be prepared, and so on.
It was many, many families who suffered over the years. And those families demanded compensation from the kingdom since it was their noble who basically planned it all. However, the king wasn't willing to spend so much of his resources on his people, but would rather spend most of their resources on the heroes.
The black tower, where the Great Sage mages his income from various requests from people, does not belong to the kingdom but the Great Sage instead. No one knows what he does with that money other than pay the ones he employs in his tower.
"Well, let's just eat. Do not split up from me."
"I promise!" Harmony, with a smile on her face, clings tightly to Clement's arm. Her bountiful breasts pressing his arm.
Clement took a deep sigh and walked to the other side of town while avoiding attracting any unnecessary attention to themselves. They found a relative quiet restaurant there.
"Welcome. To stay or to go?" A male servant came up to them, it was an old man who was fairly tall, had a good build despite his age.
"We'd like it to go. Give us whatever we can afford with this." Clement places a few silver coins on the table. It was his entire fortune for now.
"Running a little low on funds? Well, even this little does help the cause." The old man smiled and took the money.
"Do you not have any money left?" Harmony asked with a concerned voice.
"I used it all up to buy the materials I required to kidnap you, it wasn't cheap. Most of it I had to spend on bribes."
"Aw, you're willing to spend your money like that on me?"
"Not what I meant."
"Hey, waiter! A table for four please!"
"And bring us something cold to drink!"
4 people in sorcerer robes came to the store. They were all dehydrated, tired, and were on the brink of collapsing.
Clement tipped his hat downward to hide his face, while he hid Harmony behind him. Harmony took this chance to hug Clement from behind without being pushed back by him. Clement didn't care and slowly dragged her to the corner of the room.
"Axel, this is the last time I am ever going to follow you to confirm false rumors!" The sorceress angrily said.
"Same here."
"Count me in!"
"Come on guys, this was worth a shot." Axel said sadly.
"No, not worth a shot. This is like the time with the Princess Harmony thing all over again!"
"Well, on the bright side, this wasn't as bad as that time, right?"
"It was! It was just as bad! Only this time all of you were idiots enough to waste the water like you were kids playing in a pool!"
"Yeah, we're idiots." One of them agreed.
"If it weren't for Melanie bringing some more water beforehand, we wouldn't have made it this far."
"Well, there was grass and trees growing in the deserted lands, we could have found water there if we dug." Axel said.
"Oh, you mean water that is probably contaminated? Yeah sure, let's risk our lives and health drinking dirty, contaminated water and possibly die from a disease. MARVELOUS IDEA, AXEL!" Melanie sarcastically said.
"Well, now we know that the hero isn't there as the rumors said. So we're not going back there again." Axel said.
"Good."
Clement was listening attentively. He hasn't heard of the rumors because he's been on the run lately. However, this gave him a new lead on finding Will. After all, Clement is one of the few people who knows Will's hero identity.
"But, there is this place where I'd like for us to go." Axel scratched his head in embarrassment. He knew that they were mad at him now but he needs to ask them about this.
"Where to now?" Melanie asked in an annoyed tone.
"I heard that there is a dragon under the black mountains, sleeping, like a king of dragons. We should go there and check it out."
"..."
No sooner than later Axel was kicked out of the restaurant by his friends and landed on his face. The black mountains are home to the most dangerous creatures, going anywhere near there is suicide. And now Axel wanted to bring them there to die to merely confirm a rumor.
"That idiot. That rumor about a king of dragon's living underneath the mountains has been going on for years now. No way that's true." Melanie said.
The rumor about the dragon living under the black mountains has been going on for ages ever since the black mountains were discovered. There were many rumors as to why the dragons and cyclops were fighting over the black mountains.
The old waiter came to Clement and Harmony with a bag of food.
"I added a little something extra just for you two." The waiter winked at them and went to serve the other guys.
"Let's go." Clement didn't want to waste another second in the village. The longer they stay the more likely they'll get found out.
"'Kay 'kay." Harmony attached herself to his side and walked side by side like a couple.
Axel, who was just kicked out of the restaurant by his friends, could only stare at envy at those two.
"Damn. That's how I envision myself with Princess Harmony. Clement, someday I will find you and take back Harmony from your vile and perverted hands." Axel cried tears thinking that Harmony is being tortured as they speak, but don't know where Clement was hiding her.
Unbeknownst to him, Clement and Harmony were literally in front of his face.
Meanwhile…
Will, was peeking out of the tiny holes to the outside world. More and more people kept coming to this place in search of the 100th hero.
The people varied from soldiers, ordinary people for some reason, sorcerers, and so on. Not many of them were willing to stay in this place for far too long thanks to the sun, so they returned back to their homes where it was fresh, comfortable, and had a roof over their heads..
"Seriously, don't they have better things to do with their time? I can't even build anymore thanks to them!" Will said, annoyed.
Over 60 people have come to these hills, and probably hundreds more are scattered throughout the deserted lands. Many of them were willing to go travel through the deserted lands to find the 100th hero. After all, this is the first time a hero would have failed to be properly summoned.
"If I ever see Arbor, or Grace, or any of those other elves, I am gonna make them pay."
Will blamed the elves because who else would know of his identity? Jack does but even he hasn't told his own family, why would he suddenly tell everyone about him?
Clement also knows, but who would actually listen to a wanted criminal? And what would he gain from telling everyone about him?
"Well, too late for that now. I can only hope no one finds me and that those rumors die down. Still, I am glad I found this during the time I was mining deep underground."
Will held up a silvery-blue ore, this was cobalt, the one ore he needed to craft the inventory function. Thanks to his pickaxe he was able to find this ore at last.
{Cobalt x2}
The downside is that this was very rare to find, the only reason he has two ore is because it multiplied the moment his enchanted pickaxe mined it. Afterwards he came back up and collected whatever else he had mined.
Another downside is that every time he got deeper, the longer it took for him to go up and go down. It was too time consuming.
Will thinks that there will be a time when he will have no choice but to live deep underground to continue mining. Or else the only thing he'll accomplish during the time he wants to mine is cardio due to how much he has to run.
"I probably should've stayed down and continued finding cobalt ore. But I had no choice."
Will had many things to do in his base, tend to the camels, tend to the crops, check up on Adaline, make sure that nobody found his base, consume the exotic pills that he makes to increase his HP. Mining is important to him, but there were many other things he had to attend to that were just as important.
"Hiss!" Adaline comforted him after sensing how down he was feeling at the moment. She rubbed her giant head on his chest.
"Heh, thanks girl." Will smiled as he patted her head.
Meanwhile…
In the middle of an enchanted forest, Grace was honing hrt bowing skills using wooden dummies as a target practice. Being taught by her grandfather on using a bow, she had to go under his strict training. Right now she was learning to shoot a bow without relying on her eyesight. She tried enhancing her other senses, but it was a complete failure. No matter how hard she tried none of her arrows could hit a wooden dummy.
"Come on, at least hit one." Grace gripped her bow tightly and released another arrow but it missed the test dummy by a mile.
"AAHHH!" The sound of a woman screaming was heard.
"Oh no, did I hit someone?" Grace immediately took her blindfold off and ran towards the source of the scream.
"Rias! I am so sorry!" Grace said.
"Nonono, that's okay princess. It was my fault. I should have been more wary of my surroundings." Rias acted strange and nervous when talking to her, and it was not because Grace almost killed her.
Grace, noticed something weird about Rias. She wore black clothing, even covering her ears and face with a type of scarf. And she also carried a sword.
"Where are you going?" Asked Grace.
"Hunting. Why else would I bring this sword?" Rias said.
"Hunting?"
It was forbidden for elves to eat any kind of meat as they will lose their connection and protection of the forest. But, they sometimes use the fur of animals to make items like weapons, armor, or clothing.
However, to Grace, Rias wasn't the type to hunt, especially alone with a sword
"Yup, hunting. Well it's more like a vacation for me, you know to explore the world a bit, and learn more about it. I've been doing this for years now, Princess. Even king Silvas told me it was okay to take a vacation once every few months. But, unfortunately I cannot come in contact with any humans. He granted me this vacation!" Rias began trying to defend herself.
"Oh, okay then." Grace found it even stranger that Rias was suddenly being overprotective of her vacation, like she would die if she didn't go.
"Thank you, Princess. And also, please don't try to kill anyone." Rias smiled and ended the conversation there.
Rias left the enchanted forest. Grace watched her but didn't say anything and continued practicing.
After several hours of walking, seeing that no one was following her, Rias took out a small tube that looked like a size of a small flute, it was made out of bamboo. She sat near a thick tree near some dirt road. She patiently waited for someone or something.
Not long after, this young man, walking through the forest on a dirt road. It didn't look much like a forest because there weren't as many trees in the area.
This young man was leisurely walking as if he had nothing to worry about. Of course he carried a gun in case something does go wrong.
'Young, healthy, sorta plump, he's perfect.' Rias thought after observing him for a bit.
Once the man's back was turned against her, Rias pulled her tube and blew on one tip and it released a small needle and struck the man's back.
"Ow! Damn bugs." The man felt the sting but thought it was a bug bite.
A few seconds hadn't gone by until he fell face flat on the ground. Not because he died, but because he was paralyzed. The arrow needle was tipped with a powerful paralyzing drug that can even paralyze cyclops in seconds.
The man couldn't move, speak. It became hard to even breathe.
"I am so, so sorry about this." Rias looked awfully guilty doing this, she didn't find this amusing or pleasurable at all.
She took out her blade and swung it and liberated his head from the rest of his body. Rias took the head and wrapped it around a black cloth.
"Oh goddess Lea, please give this man a proper burial. Let him know I am sorry about this, but also thankful."
The roots from the trees took the entire body and buried it deep within the earth. There were no traces of that man at all.
Rias hastily took the head with her inside a secret cave. One could easily miss this hidden entrance to a cave even if he were near it. It's because the entrance was blocked by vines, as well as the entire surrounding area of the cave, making it almost impossible to detect by normal people. Most notably, there were no trees nearby.
The cave was dark, moist, but spacious. The cave went somewhat deep underground. Rias stopped at a certain point at the cave. She held a night flower which barely luminated the cave.
"I'm back. I even brought you… food." Rias couldn't say that sentence without feeling disgusted by it.
*Growl*
A deep growling noise could be heard meters in front of Rias. As well as the sound of metal chains rattling, and iron bars.
Rias took out more night flowers from her pocket and laid them gently near the source of the noise.
Iron bars could be seen. Most of it had begun rusting already due to how long it's been there for.
Behind the iron bars, was no other than a zombie, an elf zombie. The skin of this zombie was falling or turning grey. Its hair was mostly gone, only a few of its long strands remained. Several iron chains were on his neck and limbs which stopped him in place.
"Dad…" Rias could never get used to this scene. It seemed like every time she visited her dad, it became harder and difficult to keep seeing him in this state.
Rias rolled the head to him, and he began eating it by first breaking it open with its bare hands like a coconut. It began feasting on it, especially the brain.
"Dad, I am so close to finding a cure. I can feel it. I tested a few things on some zombies, but it ended in failure till the end but I made great progress." Rias said.
The zombie ignored Rias as it continued munching the severed head.
Then, Rias suddenly started crying a river of tears.
"I am so *hic* sorry. I thought I had *hic* f-found a cure to bring you back *hic* when I met Will, who I thought had a *hic* powerful item that can bring back the dead. But I was wrong!" Rias was crying so hard she started hiccuping.
The zombie ignored her and continued eating.
"Wait for me dad, I'll find a cure for sure. Even if it takes me another 300 years."
Rias stayed for a few minutes, but left eventually. She wanted to keep him company, but the last time she did that, things didn't go so well.
When Rias first heard of a zombie breakout in Jack's village, she became scared and ecstatic. Scared because she thought it was related to her dad and somehow spread the disease, but thankfully for her that wasn't the case. Rias became ecstatic because she can use this opportunity to test some of her possible theories of curing the undead on other undead.
There had been many times she thought of using test subjects to use the 'cure' on them and not on her dad, but she couldn't let the disease spread around the world like last time. Otherwise the same chaos that shook the planet 300 years ago would once again repeat itself.
No one knows about her dad, not even Silvas.
Rias sat beside the cave for a short while. Watching the clear-blue skies as it gave her a sense of comfort.
Then, she remembered something from 300 years ago.
She was merely a kid, only 24 years old at the time, but she already looked like a fully grown woman.
It was a dark night, probably the darkest night of anyone's life.
Right above her, were what looked like 3 gods were fighting each other. It was 2 men and 1 woman, these were the first three heroes. Their battles shook the earth itself and even changed the topography of the area she was standing in.
Rias didn't know what to think or do in this situation, she couldn't even think rationally and run away. She was only studying some flowers, minding her own business, when suddenly this fight dragged here out of nowhere and endangered her life.
"Rias, run!" Her dad, who was with her, grabbed her arm and dragged her with him. Both of them started running as fast as they could. This wasn't a battle that ordinary elves like themselves should ever intervene in.
Rias's father looked back trying to see if they were actually gaining some distance, because that fight was being dragged everywhere.
The Witch, who he could only perceive as a womanly, dark-shadow like figure from afar, screeched like a banshee and hundreds or even thousands of dark, pointy objects, that were spears and swords that were made out of some sort of dark energy, produced out of her own body and flew out everywhere.
Rias's dad saw that. Out of pure instinct, he grabbed his daughter and pushed her down in front of him, using his own body as a shield protecting her from any harm. Multiple dark spears and swords pierced through his body. The entire area was covered in those two weapons.
Rias didn't know what happened. One moment, everything seemed fine, everything was normal. But, one second she sees these 3 gods fighting, next she sees her dad in front of her smiling at her, then spears and swords impale his body.
He was only smiling for one reason, because he knew that his daughter was safe, for now at least.
"I love you." Those were his last words before he drew his last breath and died.
Rias started to cry.
"D-dad?"
The three heroes dragged their fight elsewhere but Rias could still hear them.
Rias, got up, took out the foreign objects that impaled his father out of his corpse. She then dragged her father's corpse throughout the forest.
Filled with sadness, anger, guilt, her only thought was her father was only injured and not dead. Her mental state. For elves, those who were 80 years of age or less were still considered children. Right now, Rias was no different from a 5 year old child with the intelligence of an adult. Yeah elves are kinda confusing.
"Help him, someone help my dad."
Rias stopped in her tracks when she felt her father's grip tightening around her hand.
"Dad?" Rias said.
*Growl*
Rias's dad eyes were entirely white. He started to growl like an animal, or a hungry beast. Rias's dad pounced on her like a tiger.
"AAAHHH!" Rias covered her face and screamed and fell on the floor. Noticing that nothing happened, she opened her eyes to look at her father.
Her father was still a zombie and tried to eat his daughter. But, several trees and roots grabbed hold of him before he could even touch her.
"No, please, don't kill my dad! He's hurt!" Rias tried to pry the roots from her dad. But a root gently coiled around her arm. She heard whispers coming from those trees.
After coming to her senses, Rias plopped to the ground at the realization that her dad had become a zombie.
"Please, don't kill him. Don't take him from me. I'll find a way to bring him back, just please, don't take him away from me." Rias pleaded to her goddess.
Coming back to the present, Rias shook those thoughts away. Ever since then her strong ambition to find that cure has never wavered not once.
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