Arc 4 Side Story 3 : Elf Athelion

[??? POV]

Athelion...

The home of all Elven races.

It was a vast island located to the west of the Human Continent. Most of the island's landmass was covered by trees, with the rest consisting of beaches along its coastline.

Six Elven races inhabited this island: High Elves, Wood Elves, Night Elves, Gray Elves, Sun Elves, and Dark Elves.

The first were the High Elves.

This race held the highest status among the Elves of Athelion. They were descendants of the first Elves who settled on this island. The Queen who led the Elves always came from this race, and most High Elves lived in the capital of our nation. They were characterized by their blonde hair and snow-white skin.

The second were the Wood Elves.

This race of Elves could always be found within the forests of Athelion. They built their homes in the trees and possessed exceptional archery skills.

The Elven races other than the High Elves came into existence because, long ago, the Shrine Maiden believed that the Elven people needed to possess a variety of different abilities.

The reason was that the High Elves only excelled in magic.

The third were the Night Elves.

This race of Elves usually ventured outside after sunset. When exposed to sunlight, their bodies weakened. However, at night, their strength could become up to three times greater than that of ordinary Elves.

They usually lived in the caves scattered throughout the island.

The fourth were the Gray Elves.

This race was notorious for its wild way of thinking and possessed unique forms of magic that even the High Elves did not have.

To be honest, I didn't particularly like them.

However, my dislike was nothing more than a normal disagreement, because all of us were still brothers and sisters.

The fifth were the Sun Elves.

This race possessed reddish skin. They were highly skilled in fire magic, and their skin would become even redder whenever they began releasing increasingly powerful flames.

And finally, there were the Dark Elves.

The race into which I was born.

Dark Elves like me possessed dark brown skin and the greatest physical strength among all the Elven races.

Furthermore, we were the most prideful and conservative of all the Elven races.

That was why our race strongly disliked the Gray Elves and their free and dangerous way of thinking.

Five representatives from each Elven race held seats on the Elven Council, which handled matters concerning our nation.

Even so, the Queen remained the one with the authority to make decisions.

The Council's role was merely to provide advice and formulate plans for our Queen.

At present, several of my fellow guards and I were escorting the Queen to the Vetalon Building—the place where the Council held its meetings.

"Arwyn, how many years have you been part of the Royal Guard, yet you're still unmarried?" the Queen asked me gently. "Isn't almost everyone from your generation already married? Considering the low birth rate among Elves, we are encouraged to marry early and have more children, you know."

I had been a member of the Royal Guard for thirty years, ever since I was 170 years old.

An Elf was considered an adult upon reaching the age I had been back then.

Now, I was 200 years old, but honestly, I had never had any intention of finding a partner.

"I don't have time for that, Your Majesty," I replied. "Caitlin and several other Elven children are still missing."

Hearing my words, the Queen's expression became solemn.

That's right.

It had already been three years since a group of children had been kidnapped from the beach by humans.

One of the victims was my younger sister, along with several children belonging to members of the Elven Council.

We had actually conducted frequent patrols around the coastal areas.

However, those humans were incredibly skilled at infiltrating our territory and somehow slipping through our defenses.

We eventually arrived at the city center.

The atmosphere here was peaceful, despite it being the most densely populated area of our nation.

Many people were selling food in front of their homes, ranging from meat to various fruits.

Dark Elves like me usually ate animal meat quite often.

The Wood Elves, however, preferred consuming fruits rather than animal meat.

The High Elves were similar, as they disliked eating anything that had once been alive.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Not long after, we arrived at Vetalon and entered through the front doors.

Inside, Elves from various races could be seen moving about, either working or attending to their respective affairs.

We then entered the meeting chamber, where the Council members were already seated in their respective chairs.

"Queen Catelyn fou Forrester has entered the chamber!" one of the guards announced.

The Council members immediately stood to show their respect for their leader.

I followed Queen Catelyn and stood beside her seat at the front of the Council's table.

"Very well. Let us begin this meeting."

After the Queen spoke, the Council members returned to their seats.

I then received a document from one of the Queen's assistants and handed it to her.

"Gentlemen, we have gathered here to discuss something important for the future of our nation and our people," the Queen said, opening the meeting. "There was an incident recently that resulted in twenty-one Elves going missing last year. This year alone, eleven Elves have already disappeared, causing our people to grow increasingly anxious about this phenomenon."

It wasn't merely these numbers.

For hundreds of years, Elves had been disappearing every month, forcibly kidnapped from this island.

Yet, for some reason, the families that had ruled our people had always remained silent, refusing to take decisive action to solve the problem.

Their passivity allowed victims to continue appearing year after year.

"I will not hide the truth this time," the Queen said, her voice becoming serious. "It is humans who have been kidnapping our brothers and sisters and turning them into slaves to satisfy their disgusting desires!"

The moment the Queen said this, the meeting chamber erupted into an uproar as numerous Council members shouted in anger at the revelation.

"Those wretched humans! Their minds are filled with nothing but depravity and utter stupidity!" a Council member from the Wood Elves shouted.

"If I ever meet one of them, I will carve their filthy bodies into pieces and feed them to the wild boars in the forest!" said a dark-skinned man from the Dark Elf delegation.

He was my father, Marwyn fou Darkshade.

"We must not act recklessly. At the very least, we should establish communication with the leaders of the human nations out there and address this matter with them," said an old, heavily bearded Elf from the Gray Elf delegation.

"Diplomacy? How long are you planning to rely on diplomacy with those greedy creatures?" a red-skinned Elf from the Sun Elf delegation retorted. "Have you forgotten the agreement between us and those creatures seven hundred years ago?"

"They violated the agreement that was supposed to prevent humans of their kind from setting foot on this island! Do you remember how they responded when we protested their violation of the agreement!?"

Seven hundred years ago, the human nation ruled by the Kingdom of Francia had established an agreement intended to separate the Elven and Human races from one another.

However, when the agreement was violated and we protested, they simply shifted the blame onto other nations and refused to take responsibility.

Our journey to their nation had ended up being completely pointless.

The Gray Elf Council members could only remain silent after hearing the Sun Elf's words.

"Then what do you want? War? Do you want to turn our nation into a place that could potentially be destroyed and consumed by the flames of hatred!?" the Gray Elf Council member retorted.

"We must act! Otherwise, they will never stop because they will think we are weak for refusing to fight back!" Father shouted passionately. "I don't want my children's honor to be defiled by their disgusting things! I don't want my daughter's smile to disappear completely because those filthy humans have inflicted suffering upon my innocent daughter!"

I felt the same way as Father.

I would never forgive the people who kidnapped Cait and tore our family apart.

She was a kind and obedient child.

Just imagining those humans touching her was enough to make me want to lose control and destroy everything around me.

"Your Majesty! Forgive me for speaking so boldly to you! But please! Give me the opportunity to avenge myself against those vile creatures!" Father said as tears began to stream down his face.

"You are a mother as well, aren't you? How would Your Majesty feel if your own daughter were violated and defiled by those savage humans!?"

"Lord Marwyn, I understand how you feel," the Queen said, attempting to calm Father. "However, none of my predecessors ever decided to resolve this issue with humans through violence. Therefore, I want the people of Athelion themselves to decide what course of action we should take against humanity."

I didn't understand why our ruling family had always restrained themselves from taking action against them.

Was there some kind of secret that prevented us from acting against these humans?

"If more than seventy percent of Athelion's citizens agree that this matter should be resolved decisively, then I will declare war against humanity!"

Upon hearing the Queen's declaration, every Council member except those from the Gray Elves erupted into cheers.

They would break the Elves' thousand-year tradition of peaceful coexistence for the sake of our people's security.

"Within two months, we will hold a vote! Your task is to convince the people, and if you succeed, I will break this tradition!"

Following the Queen's announcement, from this very moment until the vote two months from now, all of us would campaign against humanity so that every citizen of our nation would understand that our people were no longer safe and that we needed to unite for the sake of our people's peace in the future.

---

[??? POV]

We Elves were not the original inhabitants of this world.

Our Goddess had moved the Elves from our original world, which had begun to collapse because of a parasite that was devouring the World Tree that supported our homeland and allowed it to survive.

Our Goddess, Theona, then asked Goddess Diana to allow the Elves to reside in the world she had created while Goddess Theona repaired our world, which had been damaged by the parasite.

Goddess Diana accepted our Goddess's request.

The Elves were then moved to an island west of the Human Continent.

Goddess Theona took one of the roots that had not yet been infected by the parasite and planted it deep beneath the island we named Athelion.

Slowly, the root began to grow, spreading upward toward the surface and providing the Elves with a new and comfortable home.

Goddess Theona then transformed one of us into a Demigod to watch over the new root of the World Tree on this island.

The Elven Demigod became known as the Shrine Maiden.

However, Goddess Diana warned Goddess Theona that the Shrine Maiden must not be allowed to interfere in the affairs of the Elves or any other living beings in this world.

The Shrine Maiden had only one duty and purpose in life:

To watch over the World Tree on Athelion and heal one person as part of her daily duty as the Guardian of the Island.

At present, I was inside the Sanctuary, where the heart of the World Tree was located.

I could see its roots growing high into the air, strong and sturdy.

However, I discovered a black stain beginning to appear and spread across the roots.

It was the same parasite that had once infected the World Tree in our original world.

"It seems the condition of the Elves is truly getting worse..." I muttered worriedly.

The World Tree did not merely provide the Elves with a home.

It also provided us with our source of power.

The power of the Elves originated from this tree, from our magic to our physical strength.

The souls of all Elves were connected to the roots of this tree.

That was why, when the souls of the Elves were peaceful and pure, the condition of the World Tree would also remain healthy, causing the power of the Elves to grow stronger.

But the opposite was also true.

If the souls of the Elves became filled with immense hatred and evil, the roots of the World Tree would turn black and begin to become infected by the parasite.

If the infection spread too far, every Elf on this island would lose their sanity and become nothing more than mindless creatures, much like monsters, attacking anyone in their path—even their own families and friends.

Everything would be destroyed unless someone could tell them to restrain themselves.

I wanted so badly to warn them.

But if I did, I would break my oath to Goddess Diana.

If that happened, the Elves would be expelled and would have nowhere else to live.

I hope everyone can restrain themselves...

I hope the Elves can find a solution to this problem...

I hope that if this parasite has already spread too far, there will be someone capable of saving us—the Elves—from suffering the same destruction that befell our original world.

Please...

Someone...

Anyone...