“Power?”
“Yes, power. Even if he kidnapped all of you guys, that power must have given him the resolution to start a war with all the tribes.”
The elves looked serious. Some glanced at the burning castle.
“Are the flames burning that castle perhaps…”
“Yes, it’s the manifestation of power.”
It was a frightening power that could engulf a gigantic castle into a sea of flames in an instant. Besides, since elves lived in a forest, they couldn’t help but feel more threatened by fire.
“Do you think the Iron Tribe King is still alive? Actually, I’m amazed how we are alive right now,” Lyla asked. When the door opened and a burst of flames shot out, Lyla thought she would die. If it wasn’t for Zich, Lyla was sure that she would have died in the basement.
‘Truthfully, I don’t even know how we were able to get out.’ Lyla had closed her eyes at the incoming flames, but she didn’t feel the intense heat she had expected. She simply felt something wrap her body and lift her up. When she opened her eyes, Zich was already going down the staircase with her and Romanne in his arms.
The flames that enveloped their surroundings didn’t approach them. Instead, they made a path for Zich to run on as if they didn’t consider Zich and his companions as their enemy. But this special treatment was only restricted to them. Everywhere else—until they got out of the castle, elves floundered around in the fire. Thus, it seemed highly unlikely that Renu, who would have received the full force of the flames as he stood near the door, was alive.
Zich replied to her firmly, “He’s alive.”
Before he got out of the basement, Zich checked the area where Renu was. Like it had done for Zich, the fire didn’t attack Renu. He probably also had something that blocked the flames.
“But he probably won’t be completely fine. I saw the flames ‘playing’ around with him a bit.”
Based on Zich’s laughter, Lyla realized that even if Renu was alive, he would be in a mess.
* * *
Renu gained his senses again, but his consciousness didn’t come back to him immediately. He couldn’t remember where he was or what he was doing. It felt as if he was wandering inside a forest blanketed by a heavy fog. Then, by his side, he heard murmurs and opened his eyes.
“His Majesty woke up!”
“Bring in the healers!”
Renu saw his subordinates acting in a frenzy around him. He wasn’t pleased about this. He always told them to act with calmness and etiquette near him. Of course, Renu was someone far from such behavior, but he was the type of elf who was strict towards others but lenient on himself. He thought he should tell them, so he furrowed his brows and was about to shout.
“Ahhhhhh!” What came out of his mouth wasn’t scolding but a piercing scream.
“Ah! Ahhhhh!” He couldn’t stop screaming. He felt pain all over his body. Because of the pain, he shrieked and flopped on the ground. As he did this, he felt a greater sense of pain. It was a vicious cycle.
“It hurts! It hurts! It huuuurts!”
“What is the healer doing!”
“Potion! Pour the potions over him for now!”
The soldiers began to pour potions over Renu. His body cooled down and the pain he felt from the burning sensation died down a bit.
Renu gasped and heaved. He still felt pain, but it wasn’t at the mortifying level that made him want to end his own life.
‘…Water.’ His throat was dry. He searched his surroundings. His subordinates—Kandis was among them—watched him worriedly, but Renu wanted water first.
Thankfully, he saw a large basin filled with water right next to him. Renu quietly pointed towards it with his finger, and a subordinate quickly brought the basin closer to him.
Renu got the basin and plunged his face into the water. Then, he began to gulp the water down. Although the elves in his surroundings gasped in shock, not expecting him to drink the water, Renu didn’t concern himself with them. Quenching his thirst was his utmost priority.
“Haaa!”
Renu raised his head from the basin. His bangs, which had been submerged in the water, swung and sprinkled water droplets around. After he quenched his thirst a bit, Renu began to think about his situation again.
‘What happened?’ Renu was definitely arguing with the intruder just a moment ago—with that rude, annoying, and infuriating bastard.
‘And that guy opened…the door...’ Huge flames burst out of the door. In an instant, the flames blanketed the basement, burned his subordinates… and smoldered him.
“Gasp!”
Renu quickly escaped from his memories. He felt chills from his back—he didn’t want to recall the pain he felt after that or the sensation of his whole body burning up.
‘Wait.” Another irritating thought came to his head.
The fire that had burst out of the door was unusual, but how was he still alive and well? No, was he even ‘well?’ He recalled the pain he felt the moment he woke up and looked down at the basin he was holding. The water droplets remaining on his face fell into the basin and made small ripples, but it didn’t obstruct the reflection on the water, which showed his hideous and scarred face.
“…What…what is thisssssss!”
Black and red flesh dripped down and merged and intertwined with each other. His beautiful face, characteristic of all elves, was nowhere to be seen. All that was left was his revolting face and body that was destroyed by the power he so desperately wanted.
* * *
In the end, the elves that were kept as hostages decided to withdraw for now. They decided to go back to their respective countries and calm down their tribes. Then they would organize a military force and fight against the Iron Tribe together. Zich and his companions followed the Lake Tribe and went back to the Droud Forest.
Dronian and Leona were overjoyed to see their family again. Leona burst into tears in her mother’s arms. Just like this, their reunion ended. Since they arrived back in Droud late at night, their meeting for future plans was pushed to the next day. However, since they needed to gather their military force as soon as possible, Retree stayed behind to issue a few simple commands. Dronian also stayed behind to help his father.
Zich and his companions were not involved in tribal affairs, so they went back to their assigned rooms. Leona was not with them; she wanted to spend more time with her family after not being able to see them for so long.
Even though Zich and his companions returned to their rooms, they didn’t immediately fall asleep. They planned to exchange information. Hans and Snoc began talking about what happened in the battle—no, to be more accurate, Hans and Snoc were basically reporting to Zich. However, it wasn’t as if Zich didn’t tell his side of the story at all. One part of his training was for Hans and Snoc to hear different types of information and find out which piece of information would be useful for them and use it to their advantage. Even though the atmosphere wasn’t very serious, it was not a lighthearted atmosphere where jokes could pass between them. However, Zich burst out into laughter.
“Hahahahhahaha!”
Zich laughed so hard that he had to clutch his stomach. Compared to him, Lyla sent Hans a ‘what the heck’ type of expression.
“Hahahaha! So after that, they got angry?”
“Yes, sir.”
Hans had been explaining to Zich what happened in the battle at Mentis. He had already finished explaining how the elves discovered that the armored figures were not humans but puppets, and he was reaching the part where he was withdrawing and collecting the armor into his magic box.
When Hans was giving a rough summary of his conversation with Kandis, Zich began to show interest. Thus, Hans told Zich the whole context and the words that passed between them. Even though Hans couldn’t remember the exact words of their conversation, he remembered the basic details. Then he told Zich what the elf’s reaction was.
“I guess it was hard to accept my apology on the battlefield. Or maybe the elf’s personality was bad.”
Zich laughed even harder. He bent his back backward, and the chair flipped over. There was a loud thud as the chair flipped back, but Zich paid no attention to it. He started rolling and laughing on the floor.
“Don’t laugh! Because of you, Hans became weird!” Lyla scolded Zich, but Zich continued to laugh. He laughed so hard that it was becoming hard for him to breathe.
“…Did I do something wrong, sir?”
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. So in the future, continue to…ump! Ump!”
Lyla blocked Zich’s mouth, as he was encouraging Hans to continue while putting the chair back up.
“I know you didn’t do it on purpose, but your actions were definitely provoking to the receiver.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
Then Lyla told Hans how his words could have been interpreted by his receiver step by step. While chuckling, Zich kept trying to intervene and interfere with her explanation; but every time this happened, Lyla kicked Zich’s shin to stop him from talking.
“Miss, I understand now. If I think about it like that, my words were definitely provoking. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it like that before.”
“Don’t feel guilty about it. I can clearly see one reason why you might have thought this way.” Lyla glared at Zich, and Zich winked back at her.
Then Lyla threw a cherry from the table at Zich. Without much effort, Zich ate the cherry that came flying towards him at a pretty fast speed. He thoroughly chewed the cherry and spit the seed back out. Then he smiled brightly. In the end, Lyla had to kick his shin again.
“Anyway, be careful from now on. Even if you are affected by some bad influence, it’s still not too late. Hans, you said you wanted to be a hero, right? Then I think you should also be careful with your words. I’m not saying that you should speak with great manners, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for heroes to spit out degrading insults or mock their opponents.”
Zich intervened, “If you just have the skill and results, no matter how bad your personality is, people will regard you as a hero—”
“You should keep your mouth shut!”
While watching Zich and Lyla argue with each other, Hans thought he should be a bit more careful with his words in the future.
* * *
After finishing a simple breakfast the next day, Zich and his companions received an invitation from Retree. An elf guided them to a room. In the room, the entire royal family of the Lake Tribe was gathered together: King Retree, Queen Sidia, Shaman Romanne, Crown Prince Dronian, and Princess Leona.
“Ah, you’ve arrived!” Leona jumped up and welcomed Zich and his companions. Dronian sighed at Leona’s careless manners but did not stop her. Zich and his companions all sat on the chairs prepared for them.
“I want to first express my thanks once more. Thank you all for saving us.” Retree expressed his gratitude. The other royal families did the same; even Leona expressed her thanks seriously.
“I’m happy to be of help.”
“I never imagined that my immature daughter would run away from home and bring people like you.”
Leona proudly raised her shoulder, but it soon went down at Retree’s next words. “But don’t ever run away again.”
“…Yes.”
All the humans and elves in the room made a bitter smile at Leona’s crest-fallen figure. After returning the atmosphere back to normal, Romanne said, “The reason why we called you here is to exchange information about this event.”
Since Zich expected this, he nodded his head.
“I will first tell you all about what I know, but even I don’t know everything. This information has only been passed down through shamans, and even for us, it happened such a long time ago that a lot of information has been cut out. Please keep this in mind while listening to my words.” Romanne collected her breath for a bit.
“A long time ago, there was an ancient empire ruled by humans named ‘Clowon.’ It was an extremely powerful empire.”