章節 16: The Last Descendent Of The High Elves
Dear readers, Erlos is one of the most important and powerful characters in this novel. In today's chapters, you will get to know him and his abilities.
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Bordering the outer walls of the palace of the King of Agartha was a lush and mystical forest belonging to the territory of the elves. A small but bustling city of elves could be found inside.
It was the home of the Wood Elf Clan under the jurisdiction of High Elder Leeora.
Wood Elves were known to spend their entire existence bent solely on the preservation of their forested realms. They were the nurturers, defenders of the forest, guardians of all things natural and pure, and generally lived in a state of harmony along with other forest creatures, whether they be ordinary animals or plants.
As such, unlike humans who cut trees and turn them into wooden boards to build their houses, Wood Elves use their magic to grow living shelters within the bodies of their tree of choice, and they enchant the branches and vines of the trees to build bridges connecting each tree, coexisting with them without destroying anything.
Rather than calling it a city, it was more like a magical community where the majority of inhabitants are Wood Elves. As the city closest to the palace, a small number of elves from other clans and other races reside within the city as well.
Tap, tap, tap!
Knocks that sounded more like rhythmic music resounded within one of the largest tree shelters. A gentle voice of an old woman echoed from the other side of the wooden door.
"Erlos, the sun is out already. Are you going to continue sleeping?"
A groan from within the shelter responded to that gentle voice.
"If you do not rise now, you won't be able to have a meal before heading off work."
The young elf whose sleep was disturbed tossed and turned in bed with an annoyed face. As the knocks continued, he turned on his side, his back facing the door, and covered his head with a pillow so he wouldn't hear the sound of the nagging old lady.
The door opened on its own, and the elegant Leeora entered his house and headed to his room with a helpless smile. "Are you still not up? You will be late if you do not move still."
"Let me sleep, Elder," a muffled voice said under the pillow, "Yesterday, he drained my energy, and now my entire body aches so much. I think I will call in sick today, no, for the next couple days."
Leeora raised a brow. "It couldn't be that bad. The King isn't as ruthless as you make him out to be."
"He's a devil! Literally and figuratively a devil, I tell you!" He moved the pillow off his head and pouted in the old lady's direction. "Heart of stone, no, he's heartless!"
Used to his whines and complaints, the elf elder merely moved about the house that was as familiar to her as if it's her own. She cleaned and cut a couple of fruits and made hot tea for the pouting young elf.
"You are the only servant that Sire trusts to serve his side. If your body aches so badly, do you want me to brew an elixir for you?"
With a begrudging expression, Erlos finally hopped off his bed and trudged his way towards the table where the meal was prepared. "Why me? Why am I being punished like this?"
"You should be glad instead of feeling annoyed."
Erlos noisily chewed on the fruit, as if trying to vent his feelings that way. "I am not glad at all. Excluding myself, there are exactly fifty-two servants working in the palace, forty of them elves. Everyone is older and more hardworking than me. Why is the King only bullying me? Can't I just be like other palace servants?
"Others clean and rest afterwards, but no, not me. I have to stay by the King's side all day long. The thing is, even his aides get more slack time than me. You know Xyno who keeps records of intelligence of the outside world? There's also Yula who's in charge of housekeeping, and even Garros who oversee finances—"
Leeora smiled at the rambling young man. "Other servants are envious of you and here you cry over it."
Erlos swallowed another piece of fruit before rolling his eyes. "They are envious because they don't know what that heartless devil makes me go through each moment. Do you know what he did yesterday, Elder? He zapped me to another location without telling me beforehand! I didn't have time to protect my body with magic. Luckily, my tolerance is exceptionally high. If it were someone else, he would have died by now."
Leeora merely smiled as she listened patiently to his words.
He continued, "He's a big bully, I tell you! This isn't how a powerful man should treat someone weaker than him. Who even made him the king here? If..If I had his strength, I would open a portal and banish him to somewhere I won't ever see him again, hmpf!"
"Calm down. In future, you will understand why the Sire keeps you by his side always," she said to assure him.
His pointed ears twitched as he heard those familiar lines from Leeora. This was something she always told him, but never fully explained. "There is no other reason other than he enjoys making me suffer. Hmm, could it be because I am more handsome than him? Is he envious?"
This time, it was Leeora who wanted to roll her eyes. She merely shook her head. "Sire cares for you but he just doesn't show it."
"No, he doesn't."
"Alas, you know you are the only descendant of the High Elves we have left after that massacre led by humans. If not for him, you would have died there too. He brought you with him when you were just a child and always kept you by his side. How can you not see how much he cares for you?"
"I might reluctantly agree that he saved me to keep the last surviving bloodline of the High Elves, but for that part that he cares for me? A myth." Erlos was not ready to agree.
"Fine, fine. For now, change into your work clothes and head back to the palace. You have your own sleeping quarters in the palace, why did you even come back here to sleep? Go now. You need to be there before the King wakes up."
Erlos nodded unwillingly and finished his morning meal, groaning at the thought of returning to the palace with an aching body. A silly grin formed on his handsome face. "Uhm, Elder? If you brew me an elixir, please give me two, no, three bottles."
Leeora eyed him suspiciously. "That's a precious healing elixir, not ordinary juice. Do you know how expensive it is to make?"
"But my muscles are sore so…Thank you, Elder! I know you treat me the best!"
章節 17: Powerful But Just A Servant
Erlos prepared himself to return to the palace.
Though he had his own chamber in the palace, once in a while, whenever he felt too tired and felt like he had enough of his heartless master, he would return to this house. This was his home, the place where he's most relaxed, surrounded by nature and his kin. Not to mention, this was High Elder Leeora's territory. She looked after him and treated him well like her own grandson.
When he stepped out of his home, he saw Leeora tending to newly grown seedlings of what seemed to be precious herbs. They were neighbors, their tree abodes connected to each other with a hanging bridge.
The old lady smiled. "Leaving?"
"Do I have any other option?" he asked as he hopped down from his tree, disappearing from there and leaving nothing but a gust of strong wind.
If humans were to see this spectacle, they would think he had powers of teleportation like his master, but only because his body was moving too fast for their mortal eyes to follow. It was as if he had turned into the wind itself.
However, although he was moving at a high speed not visible to the eyes of humans, his fellow elves could see him sprinting like his life depended on it. He caused many hanging bridges to fiercely sway left and right, and the dry leaves on the ground to blast towards the innocent bystanders who happened to be standing on the wrong spot.
Having disturbed what should have been a peaceful morning, many elves clicked their tongues and commented upon seeing that young elf with silver hair.
"Oh, he's back?"
"Yeah, and now he's gone."
"Tsk. Seems like he is again late."
"Look out! Spirit, you almost made me fall," one elf shouted at Erlos as he hugged the vine ropes of the hanging bridge that he was crossing.
"That boy needs to be disciplined. Herbs I kept outside to dry almost scattered everywhere."
Only Erlos' laughter and insincere apology could be heard as he continued his trail of destruction. It was nothing new for him, and even those elves didn't mean what they said as they were long used to his rascally behaviour.
Contrary to the more pacifist nature of most elves, High Elves were highly aggressive. They were in fact similar to ancient battle mages. Considered the royalty of elves, High Elves were the strongest elves and the protectors of their kind, capable of using magic spells with multiple attributes.
Despite his young age, Erlos was a High Elf who possessed various abilities like strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes that exceeded even the most outstanding talents of the other elf clans. Additionally, High Elves have a penchant for archery and Erlos in particular was especially gifted in that aspect, but he hardly got the chance to use any of his abilities as a servant in the palace. All he had going for him was his stamina.
After all, serving his heartless master needed not only physical endurance but also long patience and strong willpower.
Erlos reached the King's chamber in no time, and after noting he was not late, quickly fixed his silver mess of a hair. He licked his lips, a little sad that Leeora merely gave him a single elixir, but it was of course powerful enough to revitalize his body and fill him with energy. He gave out a sigh of relief before opening the door.
The moment he entered his master's chamber, he saw the tall man was already awake and talking to his pet owl.
"Make sure to not make any mistake or you won't be able to fly again."
'Ahh, he decided to serve a threat first thing in the morning. As expected of my master.' Erlos blinked and threw a pitiful glance at the poor owl. Midnight caught his expression and blinked back at him, as if to say 'What can I do?' He then greeted his master, "Good morning, Sire."
Draven didn't reply to him and simply stared at the owl who used that chance to flee.
Erlos looked at the floor and found muddy footprints on the marbled floor as well as the carpet. He also saw the familiar sight of the King's sleeping robe and the clothes his master wore yesterday lying on the floor.
'Here starts my day! Cleaning after his mess,' he sighed inwardly. However, he couldn't stop his mouth from complaining. "I cleaned the floor before I left yesterday. Why are there dirty footprints on the floor?"
"I went out to play with a little mouse," Draven replied.
It didn't matter to Erlos what or who the little mouse was. All he had in his mind was the chores he had to do, starting with cleaning this mess.
He picked up the clothes from the floor and arranged the boots on one side. "Elder Leeora said she will be taking that human girl with her today."
"Hmm," was all Draven replied.
Erlos said no more and went to the attached side chamber to prepare the bath for his master. Remembering the conversation he had with Leeora, he could not help but scoff.
'Descendant of the strongest elf clan, they say. And what is that precious descendant doing? Washing clothes, cleaning the floor, serving food and looking after a grown adult as if he is my own child.'
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