“Stay. This concerns you as well,” King Remlia stopped her. The beastmaid sat by my side. After quietly strengthening his resolve, the king began to tell his tale.
“It all began with Ellusion’s plan to expand lands for agricultural use. Ostensibly, they claimed the effort aimed to increase food supplies to share among allied nations. However, it was nothing but a ruse to invade neighboring regions,” he explained.
“They first set their greedy eyes on the Heuress Forest. Through merchants indebted to Ellusion, they meant to approach the elves and feign interest in purchasing the land. Then when those negotiations inevitably fell through, they would ensure the Heuress elves inflicted casualties among their merchant pawns, forcing my kingdom into action. Such was their heinous scheme.”
Dirty, but clever.
“My son, the first prince, Bellheart, saw through their scheme—but it was already too late,” continued the king. “Ellusion cleverly manipulated a rival elven family, the Hillens, who detested the Heuress clan. Ancient and of a so-called pure-blooded lineage, they had for many years raised doubts about the veracity of Heuress legends. Bribed by the promise of land after Ellusion took control, the Hillens began murdering my people. When my son Bellheart went out to stop their madness, he fell under attack—”
My hand instinctively found Lanceil’s. We were talking about her late brother, a topic I imagined must have pained her. The beastmaid squeezed my hand tightly. She was a stouthearted young woman.
“—but killed every one of his would-be assassins.” What? “Lanceil, your brother lives.”
“Huh?! WHAAAT?!” Lanceil shouted, too taken aback to control her voice.
“However, all was not well. A knight errant of the Church of St. Lillideas had joined the Hillen elves in their aggression and then in their downfall. Nevertheless, no matter the cause, for a prince of Remlia to take the life of an allied nation’s knight would, in the worst-case scenario, give Ellusion cause to destroy the alliance in favor of direct subjugation. As a result, I consulted with Mellum and decided to feign Bellheart’s death. The knight’s death posed a challenge, but in the end, we managed to attribute it to a drunken fall in the river where he drowned.”
From there, Mellum took over the story. “We eradicated the entire Hillen clan, a task the prince made considerably easier by decimating their active forces. Afterward, we laid the blame for the prince’s supposed death on a Heuress citizen and agreed to pay a certain fee in compensation, after which King Remlia would secretly reward our cooperation. At least, such went our plan, but—”
Unable to keep her silence, Lanceil interrupted the King of Elves. “Forgive me, Master Mellum! Your Highness! Where is my brother now?!”
“In the West of the Left Continent. He now lives in disguise, serving one of the continent’s regents. I imagine it shall not be long until Georg joins him as well.”
“You have had correspondence?!”
“By shadow rabbit, from time to time. I shall show you his letters at a later moment. Now, restrain yourself.”
“Y-yes, Your Majesty. Forgive me. I could not help myself.” Lanceil burst with excitement. Her tail had pushed up her skirt and swung vigorously back and forth. I knew full well it was a family matter, but it still made me jealous somehow.
Stock-still, Mellum resumed his tale. “—Such went our plan, but we ran into difficulty. One of the Lillidean knights mustered a private army and descended upon the forest, outfitting every last soldier with dwarf-made firearms. Who can say from whence those guns came or to what end she wanted to achieve by marching into our forest?”
Breaking his silence, Pops chimed in. “Revenge. That knight, Elmina, I believe was her name, had been the fallen errant chevalier’s lover. She saw through our ruse, then attacked. Those are the most dangerous kind of women. We had laid out a compromise, but she lost all sense of reason, acting in a manner unthinkable for a battalion member. The blood of every elf in the forest would not have satiated her crazed hunger for vengeance.”
“So who shot Éa?”
“Elmina, or one of her soldiers,” Mellum replied.
“So how did Lana play into this?” I already had enough context. It was time to get to the main point already.
“Remlia, does he know?” Mellum shifted his gaze to the king.
“Aye. In fact, he vanquished the beast with Werner using otherworldly weapons of some sort.”
“This peasant?”
“Yes, I am a peasant. Those beasts were nothing.” All three men shot daggers at me; I could feel the intense pressure. I definitely shouldn’t have taken that bait.
Mellum continued, “Elmina unleashed a cursed beast within my forest. I know not how it began, but my daughter vanquished the abomination.”
“She did?”
“Indeed. With some superlative extension of Hoense magic, I imagine. However, it was fatally flawed. The flames raged on even after they had ravaged the beast, burning the forest and innocent citizens alive. The unmitigated fool.”
“But wouldn’t the beast have hurt even more people if Lana hadn’t stepped in?”
“No,” he flatly denied. “If only she had the patience to wait for me, I would have ended it all.”
“How could she know for sure you’d be able to slay it?”
“How dare you ask such ludicrous questions. Who do you take me for?” he haughtily demanded like a typical arrogant elf. Or maybe he actually was that powerful.
Either way— “You expect me to believe the asinine father who couldn’t even keep his own daughters from harm could pull that off?” I was livid. Letting the anger get the best of me, I taunted the elf.
“Oh, so I’m an asinine father, am I, peasant? Well then, how about I give you the opportunity to demonstrate that beast-vanquishing prowess of yours here and now?”
“Done. We’re taking this outside. I’m warning you, self-control is not on the menu. I’m going to rip you to shreds.”
“Cease this at once!!” King Remlia bellowed furiously at us both. “Souya, do not forget your place. That is no way to address the King of Elves.”
“Exactly. Infuriating though he may be, he is technically the King of Elves.” Pops threw in a supporting jab for me.
“Forgive me, Elven King. As husband to an elven wife, I felt I had to speak up. Still, as reluctant as I am to say it, please accept my apology.”
“Do the three of you mean to incite my anger?” he replied, enraged. “Now, now,” the other king urged him to calm down. The four of us drained our glasses, washing away our ire with it in the traditional adventurer method of reconciliation. Spicy, bitter, stiff alcohol burned our stomachs.
After pouring us all another drink, Mellum said to me, “Once my daughter’s spell had obliterated our forest, the ash-covered remains were soon tilled for farming. Regardless of the deviation from their original plans, Ellusion achieved its ultimate goal, acquiring new agricultural lands. The marquis lined his pockets and kept these secrets sealed behind his greedy lips. The knight Elmina disappeared; her whereabouts remain a mystery. As planned, we then feigned a war between the Kingdom of Remlia and the Heuress, temporarily impeding Ellusion’s greater ambitions. At the end of it all, we were left…with a princess who turned her own people to ashes, and another on the brink of death.”
“Why didn’t you help her? You could’ve done something, couldn’t you?”
The arrogant elf smirked at my silly protestations. “In war, one must provide a clear admission of defeat. Foolish heims could not appreciate the sacrifice of our forest or the sustenance our lands would produce, both too far removed from the direct taste of victory. Laualliuna notwithstanding, Éa takes after me in her pristine beauty. To see her fall into the depravity of uncouth adventuring, weakened and in pain, would more than suffice the appetite for triumph, as well as deceive any Ellusion operatives lurking in Remlia.”
“Then you should’ve become the damn example, asshole,” I spat, my fury turning my speech indecorous.
“There is only one true king, and he cannot be replaced. Women, however, are plentiful and expendable.”
If Lanceil hadn’t caught me by the shoulder, I would’ve rammed my fist into his face. This asshat was the King of Elves? And the girls’ father?
“Souya, I’d like to apologize as well,” the king of Remlia added. “My illness blinded my judgment.”
Honestly, I wanted to send both these fools flying.
Snickering quietly, Mellum said, “Otherworlder, you have made a fatally incorrect assumption. Unsightly as she may be, Laualliuna is still my daughter. She accepts her duty as princess and has the fortitude to sacrifice herself to save her people, to take her own life to protect her bloodline. Though, I cannot expect a mere commoner to comprehend the burdens royals must bear.”
Who the heck would want to comprehend that shit? You’d never convince me a father could dispose of their own goddamn daughters like trash.
As I seethed, a question came to mind. “Was Lana in on your scheme?” The elder princess detested the idea of war. She’d even married me to stop Remlia’s idiotic son from instigating another, a move that wouldn’t have made sense if she had known her father and Remlia’s covert plans.
“She knows nothing. I have only ever asked for her obedience,” replied the callous elf. “And she is no longer my daughter. I have cut all ties between us. Yet even I could not have imagined the heights of stupidity to which she would climb, marrying a trifling heim.”