I told everyone that we would be heading back to the elf village and Vanessa didn’t seem to like the idea, Kira didn’t mind from the start and Jade had a murderous look on her face that made me worried.
Nira and Sophia looked at each other looking worried, Sophia said she understands me being angry but doesn’t want anything to happen in the village where she grew up.
I spent some time explaining to everyone that it was all a misunderstanding on both my side and the Elves’ side, I was still upset about being tricked, but now that I’m calmer I can understand them wanting to know more about a group of suspicious people like us wanting to enter your village.
I can understand their motives, so I can forgive them for what happened and I hope they forgive me for what I did anyway, but if they don’t forgive me I don’t care too much, I never cared what other people think about me.
I have to admit that my own self-control surprised me, I didn’t kill anyone, the Keeper really did help at that moment, I wouldn’t have liked to have killed all those Elves because of a misunderstanding.
We drove the carriage back to the Elves village gate, this time the dozens of Elves stayed away from me as they looked at me in fear, I was a little embarrassed to come back here after what I did, but I don’t regret it either.
Even though the Elves were scared they didn’t run away, they just walked away so my carriage could go to the gate.
In front of the gate stood High Priestess Aredhel, her expression an amusing mixture of anger, concern, and shame.
“(It was worth going back just to see that face, hahahahaha…)” (I)
The gate which was made of two large trees intertwining in an arch was different, the runes on the trees were lit and the space seemed to ripple inside the arch.
Following Sophia’s instructions we kept going, as we passed through the gate the landscape changed completely, I was so amazed that I climbed out the window and sat on the back of the carriage to get a better view.
“This is wonderful…” (I)
“Welcome to Illusory Forest Village, master.” (Sophia)
Sophia leans halfway out the window as she smiles looking around nostalgically and welcoming me to the village she grew up in.
The forest outside was already beautiful, but the village was something amazing, there were no constructions of houses as I knew, all the things I could see were trees, that’s because the trees themselves were the buildings of the village.
It had from small trees to large trees, it was magnificent to see trees with doors and windows, there were even some with chimneys.
Each tree was different, but it gave a sense of harmony and vitality.
I could see trees that were two-story houses and big trees that were more than four stories tall, there were even some places that looked like they had houses built on top of big trees with rope bridges connecting them when I looked up.
“Follow me, I’ll take you where you can live while you’re here.” (Aredhel)
“I was going to try to talk to you about something, but I’m in a good mood seeing this beautiful view, so I suggest we leave what happened behind, we both got it wrong in the end.” (I)
“Your mistake was much bigger than mine, but I have a good heart and I will forgive you this time.” (I)
“You great…” (Aredhel)
“High Priestess, please let me take care of these guests. You must be tired after a long day.”
“Thank you, Eleanor, I’ll do it, I think if I stay close to this Vampire my heart might explode…” (Aredhel)
“Nice to see you again, Mister Zenos.” (Eleanor)
I enjoy teasing this High Priestess, I don’t think she’s used to other people treating her in such a childish and rude way, but being childish can be fun sometimes.
A hooded woman approaches Aredhel and kneels down giving Aredhel an excuse to leave, so this woman by the name of Eleanor stays in place to take us to the place where we will be staying.
When this woman removes her hood I recognize her face from the capital city of the Makari Kingdom, she was the Elf I asked to take the children out of the city before the battle.
“Good to see you again, thank you for protecting those children in the capital of Makari.” (I)
“I didn’t think I’d see you again, but how did you find out my name?” (I)
“In the Makari Realm I saw your face before your roar, afterward I didn’t have to look far as the Church of Light was putting out wanted posters of you in every Realm with your Religion.” (Eleanor)
“Still out of politeness I should still introduce myself, I’m Zenos, nice to meet you.” (I)
“My name is Eleanor, a faithful servant of Lady Aredhel, so I ask that you show the same politeness in front of her if possible.” (Eleanor)
“That’s not going to happen, to be honest, I haven’t forgotten what happened before and I still harbor a little anger at being tricked, consider me bothering her as a way to vent my anger without causing too much fuss.” (I)
Sigh
“Alright, so please follow me.” (Eleanor)
She is a White Elf, but her appearance is different from what I remember, she looked to be around 40 when I first met her, but now she looks younger, she looks to be around 25.
I was curious as to how she did it, but soon I’m distracted again by the landscape of this dreamlike place.
There were all kinds of flowers everywhere, the streets were dirt, but it was smooth as a stone street, I can only imagine that an earth element mage took care of it.
I look around and notice that there are thousands of Elves in this place walking around, clearly, this was not a small village as I thought, this place seems to be as big as the capital of Makari Kingdom, maybe even a little bigger.
I kept looking around and I realize that over 90% of the people here were Elves, but there were also Beastmen, Humans, Runes, Dwarves, and Lizardman.
I also noticed the colossal number of Fairies and Spirits around, I had never seen so many, they flew everywhere without hiding in plain sight.
It was at this moment that I noticed that the environment around it looks like a Cradle of Fairies and a Cradle of Spirits.
This explains why I feel such a pure concentration of so many different elements here, and it also explains the great concentration of energy in this place.
But without a doubt the most spectacular was the tree that was certainly the tallest here, I can’t even see the top of the Tree as it is above the clouds, this tree is the height of a gigantic mountain, its view was magnificent and imposing, was so big that I couldn’t even measure my distance from it.
“(That must be the World Tree, magnificent!)” (I)
This whole place is amazing, I feel like a child who has lived his whole life in a small village visiting for the first time the capital of a great kingdom, but I kept changing the direction of my head not knowing what to look at.
We keep walking and I realize something, there are no old men among Elves, the oldest Elf I saw looked to be a little over 40 years old.
I asked this the others and Sophia said that Elves keep a youthful appearance all their lives, Elves don’t age more than around 40 Human years.
I was going to say this is unfair, but then I remembered that I’m a Vampire, my appearance will never age, so it would be hypocritical for me to say anything.
I think we can stay for a few weeks visiting if nothing happens, this place is fantastic, I think I can go back to my sightseeing tour plans in a place like this.
I thought it was amazing the way the sunlight crossed the tops of the trees forming rays of light that only brought even more beauty to this place.
I could never have imagined that it was possible to live in harmony with nature up to this point.
I was fascinated watching everything that I didn’t even notice the time passed and the carriage that was now being pulled by Freya stopped in front of a large tree that looking through the windows must be a house of about five floors.
“This place is all yours for the duration of your stay, rest for today, tomorrow morning I’ll be here to guide you through the city.” (Eleanor) 𝘰𝑣𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
After dropping us off here she left without giving us the keys, just as I was about to call Eleanor to talk about the house keys, Sophia gets out of the carriage and opens the door to enter.
It wasn’t until I got close to the door that I noticed it didn’t have a keyhole, Sophia explained to me that no one tries to do anything wrong since Fairies and Spirits are everywhere in this place, so it’s hard to hide if you’re stealing or killing.
After that, I go in with the others to learn more about this place where we will be living for a few days.