Moonlight Blue

I look at the elf who is now down on her knees, eyes wide open due to fear. She has scratches everywhere on her body and a nasty wound on her abdomen, bleeding profusely. Her clothes are tattered and covered with dirt and cuts.

“Hello, there. To think I’d meet an elf. How interesting.” I say with a modified voice, fitting of my current appearance.

She releases her hand from her wound and places them both on the ground. Her head lowers slowly until contacting the ground. And then she speaks.

“#=+@$#!?*&.”

“Huh?”

Confused, I command Ariel.

Analysing the foreign language.

It seems like it’s the Elven language. Well, it makes sense. After all, in this world, there are a lot of languages. The language that is the equivalent of English in this world is Lallari. It’s known throughout the entire continent as a universal language.

I believe it was made so during the war with the Great Evil. Because that was a war that involved the whole world, people from different cultures had gathered to fight in that war, all with different languages.

As the elf kept on talking in an indistinct language, Ariel finishes analysing the language.

Analyses complete master. Should I help translate or should I integrate the entire elvish language to your brain?

Integrate.

Ariel begins integrating the entire Elven language to my brain. It didn’t even last a minute before I was fluent in Elvish. Although an entire new language was integrated to my brain, I didn’t feel even the slightest bit of pain. I remember the agonizing pain when I first had Ariel send me a bunch of information in the past. I guess my brain is also improving. Is it a side effect of Mindscape? Well if it is, it’s a good one.

“Enough!” I say menacingly.

The elf stops speaking and shaking at the same time, realising I had just spoken to her in the Elvish language. She slowly looks up at me.

“Y-you know the Elvish language?”

I can understand her shock. The Elvish language is one of the most difficult languages to master out there. And as for humans who actually know this language, they are believed to be less than a hundred.

And of those less than a hundred people, many were believed to have had a form of a relationship with the elves in one way or the other and it’s been a positive relationship.

“Yes, I do.”

My simple answer brings forth tears to the elf as she begins to bag.

“P-please help me. My mistress… these terrible humans… my sister. Please save me… please forgive me mistress.”

Her words are muffled by her hiccups and sniffling. Even I couldn’t tell what was happening.

From her expression, fear, pain and regret are apparent master.

I see. Experiencing a bunch of emotions at the same time huh. Well it doesn't matter. I’ve already detected five life signatures coming this side.

Five men appear where me and the elf are. The elf’s eyes open wide in shear shock as she falls unconscious from all the trauma that she experienced these past few days.

“Hehe, finally found the bitch. Huh, who’s this old man?” asks one of the men.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as he saw us, he has to die. The boss did tell us to be discreet,” another states brandishing his sword.

I look at them with a bored expression and with a slight gesture from my hand, earth spikes sprout from the ground, impaling all five of them in an instant. I could see the shock in their eyes but I couldn’t care less. I lower my hand and the ground trembles, opening its earth jaws under their feet and gulping all of them in one big bite.

After, the maw of the earth lets out a short burb before it settles, reverting back to its original form. I look at the unconscious elf and decide to heal her.

***

A while later, her eyes flatter open. The fire is still burning as a rabbit is slowly roasting.

“Are you awake?”

To my question she jolts up, crawling away from me as she looks around her surroundings.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. And I took care of your little friends.”

She blinks in confusion before settling down. She brings herself close to the fire, opposite me. It takes her a while to notice that all her wounds were already healed.

“Y-you healed me?” she asks.

“Well, if it wasn’t me I wonder who would? Anyways, hungry?”

Her mouth opens half-way before she nods her head vigorously.

“I hope you aren’t a picky eater,” I say giving her a plate made of wood with a salad and a piece of rabbit meat.

“That’s just a superstition about my race. After all, nature’s duty is to provide for its inhabitants.”

She uses the wooden fork I gave her to indulge in the food. In many works of fiction, elves are depicted as a race that either eats meat only or eat plants only. To eat both is rare. I guess it really is just a superstition.

“It’s delicious. Thank you very much.”

“You seemed to be having a nightmare while you slept. You kept on apologizing to someone.”

Her fork stops in mid-air, eyes filling with tears. It seems she doesn’t want to talk about it. Well, not that I care anyways. After finishing eating, I instruct her to sleep as I hand over a blanket to her. The night isn’t that cold so there wasn’t a need to build a tent.

Early in the morning, as I open my eyes, I find her on her knees looking at my direction.

“P-PLEASE SIR. PLEASE HELP THE PRINCESS!”

Princess, huh. Sigh, why not.

***

A few kilometres from the forest Allen is at, a camp can be sported near a cluster of trees. Men of about thirty are gathered here, scrambling all over the place panicked.

“I guess we are in some deep shit huh?” says a man as he puffs out smoke from his mouth.

Opposite to him is a circular structure made of wood rooted to the ground. Inside the structure is a girl aged 16-17. She has pointy ears, lustrous green hair blooming with different coloured flowers and porcelain like skin. However, what stands out more than those features is the green three leaf clover mark on her forehead.

Proof that she is the heir to the kingdom of the elves.

A grin escapes the elven princess. “At least you aren’t so stupid. For a human that is. If I were you, I’d leave this place immediately. After all, the Elven Forest isn’t so far from here even if we are in another kingdom.”

As she says this, her arms are folded over her chest, feet crossed and confidence brimming.

Dusk can’t help but sigh. This job was supposed to be easy. They only needed to transport the elven princess, Elianora Zylkas, to the destination their client gave them. From what Dusk gathered from his client, he had a mole within the Elven Forest. Obviously, another elf. Kidnapping the princess of the elves can be considered impossible even with a mole’s help.

Forgetting the bodyguards for now, the Zylkas family is said to be blessed by the Spirit King of nature herself. Due to that blessing, they are said to be loved by the spirits of nature and can command them without needing to form a contract nor using their own spirit magic.

Not only that, the princess herself is no slouch. She is the heir after all, so it makes sense that she’d be a powerhouse herself.

“It’ll only take me a few hours to recover. When that happens, you filthy humans are dead,” she says with a ruthless glare unbefitting of a princess.

The men open their eyes wide stricken with fear as panic drip their hearts. Dusk, however, just takes a puff from his cigarette and looks at the princess. Although young, Dusk knew that even with everyone here, they wouldn’t be able to defeat her.

That’s just how big the gap was. He puffs out smoke and scowls before clicking his tongue.

“This was supposed to be an easy job damnit.”