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Chapter 36: Elidranthia Part 2
🕑 Added 2023-12-01 18:23:57 +0000 UTCIn my dream, I found Elidranthia skipping on top of the dead bodies I had killed. She was joyfully jumping on the corpses, playing hopscotch with them. Her giggles, accompanied by her red eyes, were mystique and enchanting. She then turned her gaze towards me, her mirror image, and skipped in my direction, fixing her red eyes upon me.
No words were spoken, but I felt a bit repulsed, and she knew it. "Why did you kill him when there was no profit to be made? That was against the order. Do you truly enjoy murdering people? Torturing them?" Such thoughts were transmitted to her. No one could lie in this place. All our thoughts, all our feelings, all of our beliefs were laid bare. I didn't mind killing one or two bandits; video games and novels do it all the time. But the way she… the way we do it was unsettling. The satisfaction bubbling inside me was making me nervous.
Elidranthia then approached me and extended her hand to my face. It was cold and soothing. Then, a vision came to me. In the dark forest, my grandfather and my mother were having fun chatting with me and playing with a rabbit doll, but there was no sound. They opened their mouths, but the sounds of horses, carriages, and the clanging of metal were absent. The doll was battered, but I liked it that way. The path was narrow and lifeless. The moon was red, marking the arrival of the red killing star. I knew then that it was just moments before I arrived in this world—the moment when my grandfather and mother were killed by monsters.
Then, the carriage abruptly stopped. Our guard knights, four of them, were engaged with monsters. Four knights seemed a bit excessive, even when guarding the head of a house. The path to County Shadowsteps was already cleared. No monsters, barring a single or two goblin, were supposed to be encountered here.
However, what lay before us was a group of over thirty goblins, two trolls, and an ogre. It was about a quarter of what we usually encountered in the northern forest with over 200 knights guarding it. Grandfather quickly picked up his sword and went out to engage them with the knights. If only he had his war axe, we might have had a chance. But all he had was a ceremonial sword from the capital.
Mother was looking at them with a worried face, but she comforted me with a forced smile. 'It will be okay,' her mouth gestured to me. The clash between the knights and the monster was intense, and the muted sound from her dream made it even more impactful. Elidranthia was not afraid. She looked at her grandfather with excitement. Even with a sword, her grandfather battled with valor befitting his name—the war hero of Althemer.
Everyone except Eli missed it, but Grandfather's movements suddenly turned sluggish. I didn't know what happened, but the symptoms reminded me of the paralyzing poison we had just acquired. Then, a slam from a troll's club ended his life. With grandfather gone, the battlefield turned for the worst. One by one, our tired knights fell. Mother then looked at me with a ghastly face. She hugged me as she cried. 'Please, God, protect her,' her mouth moved to form the words in the silent world. With little time remaining, she put me in a box, then opened the carriage door and threw all of her belongings together with a box containing me. She then raced the horse, trying to break the encirclement by force. Eli didn't know what happened after, as she was inside a box. But from the reports of Zach and the others, the carriage was found nearby with my mother's mangled corpse. Brother Zach and Father mobilized over seventy knights to scour the forest after that incident. After eliminating those monsters, they declared the road unsafe, and carriages had to detour, avoiding that route and traveling should not be done during the night.
Eli didn't know how long she was inside the box. The box was unlocked, but she didn't dare to get out. She thought Mother was feeding me to the monster at that time and cried incessantly. Fortunately, her crying didn't leak out, nor did it attract the monster.
When hunger kicked in, she opened the box to get out and found a serene forest still in the dark of the night. The night was getting redder than before, and she rummaged through her surroundings to find food. All food and water were littered beside her, together with other things her mother threw away. Her grandfather and his soldiers were already dead, with crows and rats feeding on their bodies. Days had passed with Elidranthia staying at that place filled with fear. Slowly but surely, as she bathed in the night of the coming of the Reaper comet, fear soon became her home. Elidranthia then looked toward me as her red eye glowed.
I never knew what intimidation felt like, but when I saw her eyes, I understood. The pressure, fear incarnate. The avatar of fear manifested within her window of the soul. The memory trip soon ended with Elidranthia looking at me again, smiling. I smiled back, and we hugged.
Birds chirped from a distance as I woke up from my dreams. Melancholy filled me when I reminisced about it. The vision was so vivid compared to the memory of what Eli gave me when I first came to this world.
"Lady Elidranthia! Good morning! Eek!" Alicia opened my door while carrying breakfast but dropped it when she saw me.
"Come on, Lady Eli. Why are you not suppressing your mana? You scared me. I dropped our breakfast just now, geez…" Alicia said as she picked up the tray she dropped. Thankfully, the breakfast was a sandwich with a glass of water, so it didn't create a lot of mess. She then looked back at me before turning aghast," Lady Eli? Oh my god. Why are you crying?"
"Eh, huh?" I raised my hand to my eyes and found it was wet on my cheeks.
"Lady Eli? Are you okay? What happened?"
I organized my feelings. My mana was harder to control, and it took several breaths before I relaxed and handled it. "Sorry, Alicia. Is it okay now?"
"Lady Eli. What happened? You have never cried before!" Alicia hugged me.
"I am sorry. I just had a bad dream," I replied.
"It's fine! It's not your fault. It is those bandits' fault!" Alicia hugged me tighter.
"Let's go to school. We are late," I dismissed Alicia's nonsense and picked up my bag.
The day went by uneventfully at least until lunch. Elidranthia 's expression kept me awake through the lesson, but nothing went into my head. So, that's why she was such a psychotic murderer, huh? She was trying to find her grandfather and mother's killer.
"Lady Margareth, may I help you?" Safira turned to the woman approaching me. I ignored her as I wallowed in my own melancholy.
"Will you please get off my Ludwin? You've already attended his tea party twice, right? Are you eyeing royalty?" This kind of harassment again? I stared at her like a cat in that particular meme against a shouting woman. I had forgotten her face since six months ago.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Lady Margareth. Lady—"
"Shut it, commoner. Although it's annoying that Lady Elidranthia is getting close to royalty, it's even more absurd for you, a commoner, to even face His Highness.— Hiek!"
Calm down, Eli. She wanted to pick a fight, but I must not be baited, I told myself. But it was challenging to control myself after such a dream.
"I apologize, Lady Margareth." Alicia and I bowed to her. She was a higher-ranked noble. This was standard aristocratic etiquette. "We merely acted on Prince Ludwin's request."
"Good. Please stay away from him. I am also a mage, so he is the most suitable for me."
"Elidranthia! I have been looking for you! I apologize for yesterday's tea party; our chef and menus are still new. Do you think I could make it up to you at our next party this Sunday? My sister was glad to meet you!" Prince Ludwin barged in just as Margareth was about to leave. I rolled my eyes at her glare when Prince Ludwin greeted me first, but not her. It was not my fault!
"Ah, greetings, Prince Ludwin." My smile was stiff as Margareth stared daggers at me. However, everyone seemed to take this day to be totally oblivious to my bad mood.
"So, this Sunday evening. Is that alright with you?"
"Prince Ludwin, I was not invited to this tea party of yours. May I ask why you invited Lady Elidranthia but not me?" Margareth asked. She sure was brave to ask a prince directly like that.
"Hm? You are Lady Margareth, right? Why should we invite you? You have ignored our invitation before."
"What!? That butler sabotaged me!" Margareth shouted aghast. "I didn't receive that invitation!"
"Your butler said it would be unwise for Lady Margareth to come alone since only Duke Bron and Duke Slane's faction attended."
"Ugh…"
"Well, in that case, I would ask to be granted permission to invite all my retinue. They would gladly come over."
"Ugh… Those Manaless loan sharks?" The prince scrunched up his face. Oh yeah, Alicia was a mage despite being a commoner. So that's how he saw things huh? "I will ask my father about that… but maybe no more than three?"
If I remember correctly, Duke Luca was an ardent supporter of the first prince. He was the richest of all three dukes. The book didn't depict him that badly. However, his greed was natural. His greed was a running joke for the book. This was his daughter? Wasn't she a bit too arrogant for that rotund merchant who kowtowed to the first prince at the first chance of opportunity?
"I thank Your Highness for his magnanimity." Margareth, now defeated, tried to excuse herself.
Duke Luca was a new duke appointed from the merchant guild seventy years ago. His territory oversaw the large sugarcane farms in the west and also the owner of magic tools copyright. Theoretically, magic tool copyright was owned by the empire. However, someone had to manage the permission for mages to make magic tools, and he willingly put himself at the front. People knew the three dukes as the three managers. Duke Slane handled politics, Duke Bron handled military and security, and Duke Luca handled commerce.
"So, I shall see you on Sunday. You too, Alicia." Prince Ludwin left. The atmosphere froze as glares from other students intensified. I looked at them, and other students evaded their eyes. Some even openly discussed us. Little did I know their target wasn't me but Alicia. I grew increasingly irritated.
Comments
Charles Owens
The first part seems good but it feels a bit discordant with the second half. I think mixing an emotional flashback and a history lesson in the same chapter wasn't a good idea. Maybe have a slice of life second section instead to show how that dream affected her throughout the day or her interactions with others.
laulau20
This one should be in the first Elidranthia meeting back in chapter 20. what do you guys think?
