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[Villian] Chapter 21: The Fake Elites
🕑 Added 2025-04-01 13:21:49 +0000 UTCMeanwhile, in the royal palace, Kassinki.
“Princess Emilia has requested your services, Captain Beldroth,” a royal scribe commanded from beyond Beldroth’s door. “I’m coming in.”
The tiny man looked comical sitting at such a large and imposing desk, surrounded by mountains of paperwork.
“The hell does she want?” Beldroth erupted like a volcano at the man who had barged into his office, “I’m being worked to death over here already!”
“Language, Captain. Do not speak about the princess in such a rude tone,” the royal scribe said coldly.
Beldroth despised the pompous clowns who were exempt from taxes simply because they were willing to sell their souls and loyalty to the crown. However, soul contracts existed for better or worse, and this royal scribe’s soul was in the hands of the princess; if she died, he died. At least the pay was supposedly good.
“I don’t work for the princess.” Beldroth said dismissively, “I am a second-tier captain for the queen. If the princess requires my assistance, tell her to come to me personally.”
The royal scribe was about to bark again, so Beldroth cast Aerokinesis to slam the door in his face. He could hear the weasel cursing him from the other side before stomping off.
“Doesn’t the princess know we are short on people?” Beldroth sighed while trying to massage away the upcoming headache. His hands opened a side draw, retrieved a silver flask, and took a swig. “Darn, old habits are hard to break,” Beldroth muttered as he felt the liquor burn down his throat.
“The queen already gave the princess agents to fulfil her personal missions, so why does she keep bothering me?” The little elf sighed for the hundredth time today. “Ever since escaping Silvermoon and entering this political marriage for refuge, the queen has spent all her resources trying to recover knowledge from the now destroyed clan… I do feel bad. The princess and queen are stagnant in their magical studies without the guidance of the scriptures.”
He sighed again and looked at the mountain of papers, he knew he was short, and everything looked daunting from his perspective, but this stack of paperwork went up to his head!
Beldroth picked up a piece from the top and inspected it. “An appeal for higher pay?! Do these people not understand that I’m here working for free? What do you mean by higher pay? The queen gets an allowance of ten platinum a month for her expenses. She hasn’t even bought a single new dress or piece of jewelry because she’s busy paying for your booze!”
Beldroth was a distant cousin of Queen Kaylessa, so he was willing to work for free and instead made money from running a few inns that he purchased in the city a few years ago.
Soon a knocking sound resounded through the room. “Come in,” Beldroth replied, sighing once again. He found dealing with Princess Emilia incredibly difficult. She was just too adorable and reminded him of his sister when she was young. So, saying no to her requests was almost impossible for him, especially when she called him elder cousin.
“Hi, Elder Cousin Beldroth…” the princess said while entering with a massive smile on her face.
Oh, no. She opened with my weakness right off the bat. It must be a big favor this time. poor Beldroth thought.
“Emilia, welcome. Have you come to visit me? I would invite you in, but now isn't the best time, as I’m quite busy, as you can see…” Beldroth pointed to the massive piles of paperwork, making a strained face. Hopefully, this would be enough to convince her to leave him alone.
“I know that Elder Cousin is very hardworking, and I’m so impressed!”
She came over and gave him a bear hug despite his efforts to ward her off. It was a little humiliating that she towered over him, and he felt like a child, but the hug was full of warmth and melted all his stress away.
“Okay, okay, let go of me. I’m not a toy!” Beldroth wiggled out of her embrace and gave her a serious look. “What do you need help with this time?”
Emilia’s childish smile vanished. “Elder Cousin, a girl visited me today and claimed that my spy Imryll is staying at their place because she found a parchment of Luna runes and is too worried about delivering it to me safely.”
Beldroth’s eyes went wide with shock. “Is she telling the truth?”
Emilia shrugged. “She passed a lie detector stone, and she knew Imryll’s name and abilities, the girl told me to come with her to pick Imryll up, but obviously, I’m worried it may be a trap.”
“So, you want me to go instead of you?” Beldroth asked, totally serious. Although he didn’t answer directly to the princess, any information regarding Luna runes was his responsibility.
“I have received no word from Imryll in days, so the fact she is staying at their house is possible. The claim of her having Luna runes is a stretch, but it’s worth investigating. I would also like to meet the resident of that house personally. My brother took great interest in him a few days ago, and I still don’t have any information.”
“Just to ensure I have all my eggs in order, I need to bring back Imryll to verify the validity of the runes and also persuade this noble fellow to come with me?”
“Yes, exactly. I will give you a royal decree,” Emilia added to make his life a little easier.
“I will need some troops,” Beldroth said cautiously, although the mansion was just on the city outskirts. Knowing that Prince August was interested in the noble made this entire operation a lot more dangerous.
Emilia looked deeply troubled for a moment while nervously tapping her foot. “I don’t really have any elites on hand.”
Beldroth wanted to comment on how insane it was to try to escort the noble without elites, but seeing how nervous Emilia was, he decided not to.
“How about I take out some trainees for some field experience?” Beldroth finally said after a long, awkward silence.
Emilia put on a strained smile. “I could arrange that. I have twenty young elves in training that I could call on. How about I also provide Elaith?”
Beldroth winced a little. “I hate Elaith. He’s a complete pervert.”
“I know, trust me, I know, but a Psychic mage is very valuable, and he can contact me with telepathy if there’s an emergency. That way, in a disaster, I can beg Mother to send some of the hidden elites to save you.”
“How will we transport the noble? Carriage?”
Emilia again went deep into thought, but her answer surprised him. “Take my car and the water mage, Walter. Considering how weak the soldiers I’m sending, it’s only reasonable that I provide my safest transportation.”
Beldroth was a little shocked. Emilia had been gifted the car due to her deep friendship with the person who invented it. But to buy one usually would cost more than an entire mansion. It was practically a moving castle. Only a B-tier could damage its occupants if the doors were locked.
“Oh, Emilia, I also suggest we dress the recruits up in the elite guard’s gear. Hopefully, they will intimidate any enemies enough that they will think twice about engaging,” Beldroth suggested.
Emilia nodded with a strained smile. This mission was quickly becoming a costly operation if it were to fail. She risked losing her car, twenty sets of enchanted armor, and some promising recruits.
“Sigh…hopefully, nothing goes wrong. Sometimes I worry too much. It’s only a thirty-minute escort mission. I wish I had more actual elites available, but they are all away on missions at the moment, and I can’t send my hidden guards, or Prince August will make a move on me,” Emilia said with resignation.
Beldroth grinned and patted Emilia on the back. “It’s okay, Emilia. You are developing into a fine ruler.” His face then became dark. “That’s assuming we can wrestle the throne from that demon brother of yours.”
Emilia gave Beldroth a sweet smile. “Father is still in good health. So, we should have time to gain enough power to seize the throne. But August does have some dangerous and powerful backers.”
They both stood silent for a minute, a solemn atmosphere, as they both felt the impossible task ahead of themselves.
“All right, I think it’s time I got a move on!” Beldroth suddenly exclaimed and pushed his cousin’s daughter out of his office. “I still have a lot of paperwork for your mother to complete before I can leave.”
“Be careful, Elder Cousin. We don’t know much about the man other than he’s the assistant professor, and his name is Damien.” Emilia said before leaving down the corridor.
“Don’t worry.” Beldroth grinned and shouted after her, “I can always run away if I have to!”
***
Beldroth finished up the most pressing paperwork and went to inspect the recruits he was going to be taking with him after lunch. The Silvermoon elf clan had been destroyed twenty years ago, so these recruits were the sons and daughters of current or retired soldiers who had been in service to the queen since the fall of the Silvermoon clan.
They were all in a training field on the princess’s side of the palace, wearing cheap leather armor and wielding wooden training swords. Some were sparring, while others were practicing on dummies made of straw.
Their skills were surprisingly good for only a few months of practice, but most were stuck at the C-grade for their sword skills due to the limited timeframe.
Anyone could reach the D-grade with a skill through hard work and practice. However, to reach C-grade in a skill required the person to have talent with the skill. They had to learn the limits of the skills and push them to greater heights. To upgrade to B-grade, like Beldroth’s B-grade in Wind magic, a person had to achieve enlightenment or do something that impressed the world and made them a cut above the rest.
For Beldroth, it was realizing that the wind was not helping him but instead restricting him, something he had since called ‘air resistance.’ Since having this enlightenment, he began using areokinesis to move the air away from himself instead of using air to push himself around the battlefield. With no air resistance, his speed increased three times, and his skill upgraded into the B-grade.
However, upgrading to A-grade was almost impossible without money and connections. Beldroth would need to get his hands on a Wind Elemental Stone to upgrade his mana circuit, or he would have to form a contract with a Wind Spirit. Considering how rare both of them were, a person who found either was unlikely to sell the location or the actual item to anyone else.
If one ever did go up for sale, its price was usually ridiculous as even kings and queens would attend and use their vast wealth to acquire them either for themselves or an elite in their ranks that had signed a soul contract for eternal loyalty.
Beldroth shook his head to remove the lofty thoughts of ever achieving A-grade and focused on the recruits. He quickly rounded them all up and took them to the treasury. They all got excited when he handed out real metal armor and swords. Not that they would get to keep them, as these belonged to true elites.
Beldroth gave them a few hours to get used to moving and attacking with the extra weight so they wouldn’t look too suspicious, and then they set off.
It was time to visit this mysterious assistant professor named Damien.
