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Rating:
Explicit
Archive Warnings:
Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceMajor Character Death
Categories:
F/MGenMulti
Fandoms:
The Beginning After the End - TurtleMeThe Beginning After the End - TurtleMe & Duta Permana (Webcomic)
Relationships:
Tessia Eralith/Arthur LeywinKathyln Glayder/Original Character(s)Claire Bladeheart/Original Character(s)Lilia Helstea/Original Character(s)Elijah Knight & Emily WatskenCurtis Glayder & Original Female Character(s)
Characters:
Arthur LeywinTessia EralithElijah KnightNico SeverAlice LeywinEleanor LeywinReynolds LeywinSylvie (The Beginning After the End)Sylvia IndrathOriginal CharactersOriginal Female Character(s)Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags:
Slow RomanceMultiple CrossoversBloodGoreInjuryDismembermentYandereAlternate Universe - Canon DivergenceMagicReincarnationIsekai and TransmigrationOther Additional Tags to Be AddedButterfly EffectBreaking the Fourth WallFate & DestinyHurt/ComfortFluff and Angst
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:2026-06-03Updated:2026-08-17Words:216,609Chapters:25/?Comments:4Kudos:10Bookmarks:4Hits:618
TBATE - A More Experienced Reincarnated
SleepyWalkerYN
Chapter 4: Chapter 3 - What we have in a forest?
Summary:
After so many problems and be saved by a Lady. Luz and Arthur are once again lost in the middle of the trees. But this wasnt any forest, it was the Forest of Elshire, a famous, almost continental in size, forest that covered the entire Elf Kingdom of Elenoir.
How will be the page of this adventure? And what will be the first impressions of another race?
Chapter Text
[Arthur Leywin POV]
I was torn apart inside, crying out in horror after what had just happened to me. I was separated from my family, having only my foster brother and a gentle high being with powerful black armor. And for 3 entire months I have been in care of this being.
This being was actually a gentle lady, who seems to have that equipment all the time for her own safety, I never thought of asking, as this could be seen as rude. She helped me so much that I could even consider her my grandma in some way. It was just a little time, but in perspective with the time I'm alive in this new reality, it was greater.
At the final moments of being near her, it was when I discovered her true identity, she forced herself out of her armor just to be able to make properly a portal for me and my brother to travel a long distance that could help us. Showing a beautiful body of feather-like white scales, two big angelic wings, a fluffy tail, the two horns of the armor, revealing being part of her body, and her purple-ish eyes. A dragon, she was a dragon…
And now she wasn't with us, my mind was really affected by it. But than I heard a voice in my mind, it was her…
'Ahem. Testing, testing… Ah, good! Hello, Art. It is Sylvia.'
My heart fluttered in instant response to her voice. I was extremely happy, thinking that she was still alive. "Sylvia?! Where are you?? We are her-" But soon, my own words were cutted by the mental connection.
'If you are listening to this right now, it means I have shown you what I actually am.'
This was a recorded message? But how…? Maybe it's due to that strange energy she placed on my mana core?
Luz looked at me while I was talking with no one. His face showed some kind of pain… Does he know what I'm hearing now?
'You're nowhere near ready right now to know the whole truth. Knowing you, if you knew who my enemy was, you would have brashly tried to fight him. I even asked your so-called -Brother- to pull you away if the time came… Little Art, you are barely four years old. Yet, looking at your mana core and seeing that it was already dark red in color, I have realized that you have a rare talent… I will leave you with this: I have injected your mana core with my unique will. This is something incomparable to the will of any normal beast. Your future progress as a mage depends on how well you will be able to use it…'
So this so-called 'Will' also entered my body at that time…?
'When your mana core passes the white stage, you will hear from me again. At that time, I will explain everything. What you do from there will be your choice…'
"Past white stage…? Is there something like this?..." I whispered to myself.
'Lastly, Art… I know you may be grieving, but remember that you have your own family to look out for, your brother to help you in many problems, and the stone that I trusted you with. My wish is for you to embrace the joys and innocence of childhood, train hard, and make everyone proud of the great man you can be… Do not go chasing after shadows in a fit of rage. Killing the ones responsible for my death will neither bring me back to life nor ease your pain. There is a reason for everything that happens in this world, and I don't regret any of this, I don't regret what has already happened… With this, I bid you farewell for now. Remember, protect your family and the stone I gave you, study what I have left you, and enjoy this life, enjoy it as a happy and incredible person that I believe you can be, King Grey…'
And the message finally was over. She was really dead, this was now a complete fact. But not only that...
"She knew about my past self..." I said in whispers again, as Luz helped me get up.
"Yeah, I know how it is, she knew about me too, I mean... she said it was accidental with me, but maybe she just said that so I wouldn't feel invaded." My brother looked deep into my eyes and then released me after getting up.
"But where are we now? It's my question." He said looking at the landscape full of mist.
"We must be in the Forest of Elshire. It's a forest in which there are some mana beasts, but not that powerful. In addition to surrounding the realm of the elves."
"I understand, so we're on the edge of the elven realm. Maybe we should walk and try to survive until we reach some city, and PRAY that there's some portal to Sapin, like the portal that we would use to go to Xyrus." He said picking up our only bag from the floor, which had a canteen full of water and some fruits that Sylvia gave us.
A disheartened sigh escaped from my mouth. It seems like I won't be meeting my parents anytime soon. It had been over some months since we had fallen off of the cliff. Our family had most likely either gone back to Ashber or had maybe even decided to stay in Xyrus.
I looked at the strange stone that was wrapped in Sylvia's feather, and put it in our backpack. This cursed fog limited my vision to about a few meters around us. While reinforcing my eyes with mana helped quite a bit, that didn't solve the even bigger problem of how we would get to some city in this place. Luz said that he was also trying to augment his eyes, but it didn't seem that he could see much more than me, maybe only 4 meters beyond using his normal sigh.
I started to do some mana rotation as we started to walk inside of this forest. It seems that with this technique I could absorb 20% of my mana pool, while the rest I needed to get in a meditation, but I couldn't complain.
I also couldn't use this in order to purify my core. I need to solely focus on gathering mana, from both my body and the surrounding atmosphere, and use that to get rid of the impurities little by little. One notable thing I felt was that after getting my mana core to dark red in Sylvia's domain, the amount of mana I could store inside increased significantly. While the size doesn't increase, I'm guessing the purity allows more mana to be stored.
After some walking, Luz started to climb a tree to better use his augmented eyes. But he went back to me, saying that there wasn't any construction nearby.
More than a walk later, about ten to thirty minutes of searching, jumping from tree to tree, we found what we were looking for. I hopped a few more trees, feeling quite proud of my primate nimbleness, while Luz started to walk near the trees I was, in the ground.
Stopping at a tree just a few meters away. Hiding ourselves behind the thick trunk, we observed a group of humans. But something was off.
I could see Luz's eyes in some type of fury, but why? I got my answer when I built mana into my ears.
"NOOO! HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! MOMMY! DADDY! NOOO I'M SCARED!!!"
"Someone shut her up! She's going to attract attention!"
*THUD*
"Quick. Put her in the back of the carriage. We're only a few days away from the mountain range. We'll be safer then. Don't relax and keep moving."
"Hey, Boss? How much do ya reckon she'll sell for? Elf girls go for a lot, don't they? Hehe, she's a child too, so a virgin at that! I bet she'll fetch us a lot of money, huh!"
They were slave trades!!
I carefully took a peek to spot the small-sized carriage, enough to tightly cram in about five or six adults. I turned back around just in time to see a middle-aged man hauling a little girl into the back of the carriage. She looked to be around five or seven, with a silvery hue in her hair and the trademark pointed ears that elves were known for.
"These sons of bitch… " I could hear Luz whispering this as he was seeing everything from my side.
Luz pointed out that they had strange animals near the carriage, possibly because of them those men were able to walk through the disorienting fog. So we thought of some options we could make, as our child bodies wouldn't help us use 100% of our combat capabilities.
Option one: Steal one of the forest hounds and have it lead us out of the forest.
Option two: Kidnap the kidnapped elf girl to have her lead us out of the forest.
Pondering for a couple of minutes, we're faced with a dilemma. Option one would be easiest, but it didn't sit right with me to just leave an innocent elf girl behind.
But then again, who knows... maybe she'll get bought by a kind old man who will free and take her back to her home.
"No, it's very unlikely to happen..." Luz replied to my extremely unrealistic and optimistic guess.
Option two had the obvious flaw that, once we saved the elf, she wouldn't lead us out of the forest and just insist on going back home. This could be good for us in some way, using the old plan Luz said early. But the slave traders probably wouldn't take it too kindly.
"How about.. a third option? Kill all of the slave traders and set the elf girl free, then take the forest hounds and have them lead us out of the forest, if her town doesn't have a portal." My brother said it with a sadistic smile on his face.
Yeah, Option three was the better one, but how would we kill them…?
"Use your brain, Old King. Let's wait until it's night, they will probably be all sleeping or just having one awake as a guard." Luz said with a smirk on his face.
So we waited until nightfall to take our plan into action. Despite their rustic appearances, the slave traders were surprisingly vigilant; they never built a fire and always kept two people on guard at all times.
That way, I threw a rock in one direction, causing one of them to look and go see what it was. Luz quickly used a reinforcement on his legs, to create that strange smoke, disorienting the other guard near. He ended up being killed by my brother, when Luz jumped.
Sitting on the guard's shoulders, he used the strength and agility of his legs to quickly snap his neck, but it seems that he used more strength than I expected, since this act of snapping a neck actually made the head of the guard go more than 180° of rotation.
Having seen that, I advanced from behind the guard who had been distracted by the stone earlier, quickly digging my wooden sword into the joints of his armor. As the sword was reinforced with mana and he was not prepared for it, it turned out to be a fatal blow.
Yeah, I still had the gift Jasmine gave me, but in this context it's better to have the biggest weapon rather than the most resistant.
With that done, I made my way to the front of the carriage carefully, jumping up and landing silently behind one of the bandits. I saw that he didn't seem to be that strong, with some visible muscles and only a large knife as a weapon. He ended up noticing me, but before he could say anything, I put mana back into my wood sword and stuck it in his neck. With a swift movement, I decapitated the man.
This ended up scaring the mana beasts that looked like dogs, with them making a lot of noise and eventually running away. The emergency part of our plan was destroyed.
I heard someone going near, making me hide. "Hey Pinky! Can't even calm the hounds... What the!?!"
I had taken the big knife from that bandit, and was now hidden on top of the carriage, while his partner saw the freshly dead body. With him distracted by the sight, I jumped after him and stabbed him through the neck, just like I had done with the previous one.
"HELLLLP! MOMMY! SOMEONE! ANYONE! PLEASEE!!" I was able to hear the little elf's cry for help, why did it have to be now?
Due to the noise, I noticed the last of the thugs coming out of a tent they had made, but before he could say anything, upon seeing the scene of his dead partners, Luz emerged from the shadows and punched him hard from behind. This shocked me, but my brother managed to get through an adult's torso using his fists.
The man moaned in pain in surprise, while falling on the floor with my brother kicking him on the leg. Already down and to take that man to a certain death, he didn't even wait a second, putting his foot above the man's skull and crushing with a powerful mana enhanced stomp. Staining his leg, a little of his pants, and some of his face, with blood.
I knew he was also reincarnated, just like me. But even I couldn't do something like that, how did he get so much strength, even though we were at the same mana stage?
It seemed that the elf girl knew that there was fighting going on since now she was eerie quiet.
I climbed up onto the back of the carriage where she was locked and I spotted her leaning in the corner with dirty rags minimally covering her privates. She studied me in surprise and doubt, her eyes almost saying, "He can't have been the one who save me, right?"
I untied her as she remained silent, her swollen turquoise eyes never leaving my face.
My brother appeared soon after, watching the girl. "We'd better get her home soon." his pants and shoe were still stained in blood, but it seems that he used the bandit's clothes to clean his face at least.
When he said that, the elf started to cry a lot as she hugged me. Apparently she didn't know if we were friends or enemies, until the word "home" was said by Luz, her tense face transformed into pure relief of a crying baby.
"Hic! I was so scared! They were going to sell me! Hic! I thought I was never going to see my family again! Hic! WAAAAAA"
It had felt like a good hour before the little elf girl was finally able to settle down. I didn't blame her; being forcibly kidnapped would cause trauma even for adults, even more so since she seemed to be only a bit older than I was.
As I sat next to her, comforting her, I realized how bizarre of a scene this made. A 4 years old boy patting the head of an elven girl in the back of a carriage as four bloody corpses were being thrown far away by my brother.
"W-What happened to those bad guys?" she sniffled, her voice coming out a bit nasally.
Not knowing if telling the near-seven-year-old about killing was appropriate, I simply dismissed it by telling her, "Er... they ran into a very unfortunate accident."
She studied the hesitant expression on my face with the raise of a brow, only to look back down and whisper, "Serves them right."
Looking closely at her now, I couldn't help but notice that she carried all of the necessary features that would allow her to blossom into quite the beauty later on in the future. With long gunmetal gray hair that I mistook for silver in the sunlight, the girl's disheveled state couldn't mask the innate beauty that she seemed to radiate from her pores.
A pair of gleaming teal eyes shaped like perfectly rounded almonds quivered as her perky nose was so red from crying that it matched the color of her rosy lips. While all of her individual facial features seemed to be carefully molded gems, on the fair creamy skin of her face that was the canvas, it brought her features into a surreal, almost phantasmal work of art.
Of course, this was me just observing her from speculatively as a gentleman and king who enjoyed beauty in the world. I wouldn't go as far to say I was "checking her out".
I helped her up to her feet before speaking again.
"Those people that tried to kidnap you aren't going to chase you anymore. That being said, do you think we can start taking you home?"
She nodded in agreement with the idea as Luz returned to us. Helping her out of that carriage.
"We have to be careful, even if this is the domain of the elves, I think her presence will not drive away mana beasts." When he said that, she looked surprised and agreed.
I was also surprised, I thought we were going with her just to not leave a child alone, I didn't think only adult elves who had a presence to ward off creatures within this forest. Perhaps it was because, as far as I know, in Luz's old world there was magic, it was not unlikely that there could also be elves there and that some of their rules were similar to our current world.
"But first of all, what's your name? I'm Arthur and that's my brother, Luz." I said, still looking into the eyes of the elf, who went back to staring at me without stopping, as if I were a protector.
"My name is Tessia..." She said still not so confident. And that's how we returned to walking through the forest, this time with a guide.
The Kingdom of Elenoir was quite a long way north and it seems that Tessia didn't know how long it would take to get to her city. I learned a lot about Tessia along the way. She just turned five, which meant that she was about a year older than I was, albeit physiologically that is.
Tessia was also a pretty reserved, if not shy, girl. She was very polite to me, considering how younger she was, and never complained, making her a very agreeable traveling companion. Perhaps, if we weren't traveling in the opposite direction of my destination, I would have actually enjoyed having her with me.
With the sun setting and the fog thickening we pitched the tent underneath the sprouted roots of a particularly large tree for the night.
I couldn't fit any of the supporting rods in the backpack so used the long rope I brought with me instead and tied on two of the roots and hung a tent canvas over it, weighing down the ends with moss-covered rocks. After I finished setting up the tent, I took out a couple of dried rations that Luz found back, after our attack, and handed some to her.
"...Thank you very much." She gave a slight bow.
"You know, you don't have to be so polite to us. We are the same age as you and we'd feel a lot more comfortable if you aren't so on edge." Luz replied, while I was eating, my cheeks were full of dried food.
"O-okay, I'll try!" she let out a shy smile as she held back a chuckle.
I began wondering if she had been raised by very strict parents. Maybe it was simply an elf custom and by telling her to be more comfortable with me, I was inadvertently inviting her to marry me...?
Nah… I BET that there is any culture where being 'comfortable' means 'marry me'... maybe it's just me overthinking.
Giving her a shrug, I resumed stuffing my face with more food.
We sat underneath one of the roots of the tree next to our tent and continued chatting, while finally Luz started to eat too.
"C-can you tell me about the human kingdom?" She suddenly asked, her eyes sparkling in curiosity..
"What did you want to know?" Luz asked.
"What is a human city like? How are humans? Is it true that all male humans are perverts and have more than one wife?"
We choked on the dried fruits we were chewing on, spraying them out before they got caught in our lungs. "Ahn... for what I know, only nobility and royal families in there can have multiple wives. And generally only one of them is a true love wife, while the others are just married for political meaning. We, commoners, normally don't do this." My brother gave an explanation that even I could see as the most easy example for other races.
"I see now!" Her eyes seemed to say, still sparkling.
Do you really?
I go on, explaining a bit about the town of Ashber and our family, and that Luz was actually my foster brother, with this, we pass time until it was my moment to asked as well. "What is it like living in Elenoir?"
"Mmmm...." She pondered a bit before finding the words to explain. "I don't think it's too different from what you told me about where you grew up, except the children all have scholar teachers to learn about our history and how to read and write. When we awaken our cores, we get mentors assigned to us and we become their disciple. From there, a lot of it is just training with your master."
"So the elves' method is more culture and education oriented? Good to know, I think I'd better start acting more polite if we're going to get there." Luz said with a silly smile, I remembered when we introduced ourselves to the TwinHorns and talked to Sylvia. He always looked relaxed, like he was on their level, or even more, so hearing that phrase coming from his mouth made me feel relieved. I wouldn't want to get in trouble with the elves.
It was already kind of cold there, so I got up and helped her into our tent. "You better go to sleep, we'll keep an eye out here and keep reversing." I said as I turned my back to her, but she grabbed my shirt, looking deep into my eyes.
"Please stay in here.. it's dangerous out there..." She said with a sad look and pulled my shirt tighter. I looked at Luz and took a long breath.
"Look... how about this, I'll be right in front of the tent, where you can see me whenever you look out, and Arthur stays with you." he said as if this was nothing to worry about.
I stared at him and replied "Why me???"
He smirked saying "Because you're her knight." I blushed a lot and we went to sleep with Tessia.
Nights passed as I continued sleeping in the tent with Tessia and her growing more comfortable around me, at least comfortable enough not to get embarrassed every time she woke up. While all of this happened, Luz was always out of the tent, I think that he was meditating all time or even testing if he could unlock a better enhanced sight in the middle of the fog.
Our conversations became more natural and had less awkward silence as she began joking around with us, even teasing me about the way I talk. In her words she said that I "tried too hard to sound like an adult."
Fortunately, my worries that the wave of pain, that I was feeling sometimes in my mana core, went away. With luck, our pace wasn't impeded by any tree golems or even stronger mana beasts looking for children to snack on.
"Can you tell how far we are from Elenoir now, Tessia?" Luz asked on our 5th day of journey, the morning had a more clear fog compared with the other days.
Her elongated ears twitched as she began surveying her surroundings, almost like a rabbit when hearing a minuscule background sound that never should be there. With a new agitation, she ran to a particularly crooked tree and ran her fingers over the trunk. A few minutes of silence went by before she came, visibly excited.
"That tree is one I used to come with my Grandfather sometimes! I remember carving my name into the trunk of the tree when he wasn't looking. We're not too far anymore! I think that if we quicken our pace a little bit, we'll be able to make it by tonight!" she said, pointing to the tree.
"Sounds like a great thing." I answered, following behind her with my brother.
As lovely as the journey had been, walking in the woods with a cute elf, just like those fantasy books from my worlds, we needed to make our plans to somehow get home, and that wouldn't be possible until we got her home. Although, I admit, I'd probably miss her after this, and I could see that Luz had the same thought, since during those days, he acted like a big brother to her.
"Arthur? You said your family and the people close to you called you Art. I feel that, through this journey, I have gotten close enough to call you that as well." We were crossing a stream atop a moss-covered log bridge when she suddenly stopped. "So... Can I call you Art as well?" Tessia turned around, revealing a wide smile.
"Hmm? Sure, I don't mind," I said, returning her smile. I could feel laughter coming from my brother, Luz didn't have this problem, since no one had given him a nickname yet, and his name was so simple that there isn't any way to shorten it.
"You 'don't mind'? Tch, you could sound a bit more enthusiastic..." she stuck her tongue out at me.
Seeing how I didn't give her the expected reaction, I decided to tease. "I would be honored to be called Art by you, your highness." I made a bow gracious enough for a noble despite my tattered clothes.
"Hehe, and you may also have the honor to call me Tess." she giggled, curtsying back at me before turning back around and hopping off the log.
"Oh my god, how cute! Maybe I should be these nobles' assistant." Luz said as he went back to laughing at what we had said, making us blush.
We continued on the rest of the day, with only a few quick stops to rest ourselves and replenish our stomachs. Constant use of mana rotation had kept my body from being strained, but it was obvious that Tess was growing more weary.
It was dusk now and the fog around us seemed to be getting thicker. My sense of direction was all but useless in this blasted forest. Enough so that, if I were to get separated from Tess, I could wind up travelling in circles without even realizing it. Luz on the other hand seemed to have somehow managed to get used to the fog.
Gosh, was his reincarnated body half-elf or what? Until now he had an easier way with mana compared to me, and now he was getting used to a fog that only elves and specific mana beasts are supposed to navigate in?
My mind was taken back to reality as Tess suddenly turned to us, her face a mixture of happiness and hesitation before she muttered. "We're here."
Looking around, the only things visible were clusters of trees and fog. Confused, I was about to ask where we were, but I stopped myself when I saw Tess placing both her palms on a tree and muttering a chant.
Suddenly, the fog around us was sucked into the same tree and what came into vision was a giant wooden door that seemed to be propped up by itself on the ground.
"Wow… So this is basically the front door of Elenoir…?" Luz asked while he seemed more interested in the patterns on the door rather than the fact it popped up in our vision.
Tess grabbed our hands and pulled us towards the door. When she opened it, I was reminded of the portal that Sylvia had pushed us through. The experience didn't feel any better the second time, but I at least knew what to expect. As we softly landed on our feet, arriving at our destination, I immediately rummaged through our travel bag to make sure we still had the stone Sylvia entrusted me with. It was only after confirming that it was still there did I finally look up and take in the scene around us.
[Luz Leywin POV]
My eyes started to adjust themselves after we had been through the portal when following Tessia. At first, I could only see a blurry mix between white, green and brown, something expected from many variations of elf's taste and style. But then, I rubbed a little my eyes, having a clear view of the scenery.
We had been directly teleported to a place where buildings looked flawless and smooth, made using something similar to Jade. It was so flawless, that I wouldn't be surprised if the elves had access to gigantic versions of that stone and each house was made by carving inside a single one of those pristine things. Gigantic trees were present as well, being used to support some of the houses' structures, as well in blending with the streets.
The streets themselves were covered with soft moss on the sides and paved in white smooth stones, the streetlamps were made using small organized trees with some fruit that produce its own brightness on the tips. And in places where those natural streetlamps couldn't go, they used some kind of light sphere that emitted a soft yellow.
I grasp the expression Arthur was making when looking up, I did the same, curious, just to find more and more extraordinary pieces of the elven architecture. More houses were there, now built on unnatural thick branches, with some having light soft smoke coming out of the chimneys. All of this gave a more distinct and organic look to the environment, as if mother nature was the main architect, and the elves were just the workers.
That beautiful landscape soon reminded me again of a friend of my homeworld, as his elven hometown had a similar aspect to this one, with the difference that the trees there had predominantly bluish aspect, while here it was greenish. But those good memories were interrupted by shadows that I felt reaching my face. That's when I noticed Arthur and I were still holding hands with Tessia, and in front of us were dignified elven warriors, all dressed in black uniforms with green trim and gold left shoulder pads.
These 5 elves carried rapiers on their waists. I noticed that I couldn't feel their mana easily, while the essence was something easy to perceive. Since augmenters and conjurers naturally have mana emitting from their bodies, that meant two things, either they didn't have mana, or their level was much higher than my body's natural sight, maybe something around yellow stage?
Anyway, the way they acted was impressive.
The guards seemed to ignore our presence as they knelt in front of Tess and said in unison. "We welcome back the royal princess."
I got a confused look, looking at the Guards and then at Tessia. Arthur seemed to be doing the same thing. I had my suspicions, but I didn't even bother about it, since different worlds could have different ways to see the 'air of royalty' on someone.
Was Tessia really the princess of this entire kingdom? This Tessia?...
Welp, this made her behavior and shyness more logical. I bet she is one of those prestigious little princesses who never get away from their castle by themselves, until they are considered teenagers.
When we tried to take our hands away from Tessia's, she seemed to squeeze ours tighter, as if she didn't want to let go of us. And then I heard her say something, in a cold, apathetic voice, completely 180° out of the character we had in mind when thinking about her.
"You may rise."
They stood up putting their right fists across their pecs, with one of the guards now speaking. "Princess, we arrived as soon as we saw the royal teleport gate being used. The king and queen are..." Before he could finish speaking, we heard a cry not far away.
"My baby! Tessia, you're okay! Oh my baby!"
I could see three people running in our direction, two men and a woman. With the way they acted and the accessory on their heads, I could assume that probably one was the king, other was the queen, and the last one…..
Could be a Royal advisor, or maybe Tessia's grandfather? After all, she mentioned having a grandfather before we entered here, didn't she?
The one I assumed was the king, had a tall body, dressed in a decorative robe. His eyes were emerald and staring upwards, his lips set tight to match a military-style hair, classic for this type of setting. While the queen looked extremely beautiful, her age could not mask the beauty she had in her youth. Having long silver hair that fell over her shoulders and a skin that seems more like porcelain if seen from far away.
The mother's cheeks were lined with tears, while the father had a very tense expression as if he was holding himself back from crying. I soon looked at Tessia's face, which was already forming tears. In this way, I released my hand from hers so she could hug her mother, and Arthur patted the girl on the back, for her to go to her parents. Tessia landed in their arms and began to cry to the point of kneeling, both with their faces buried in their daughter's shoulders.
After seeing that, I looked again to our front, seeing the third person, that old man with a wise-like expression. His facial features are all sharp, with a gaze that could kill someone on contact. His hair was pure white and was tied in the back, face cleanly shaven. This elderly man didn't say anything, but his eyes did warm up a little when he saw Tessia.
"Okay, so it's confirmed this is her grandpa" I thought to myself, unable to contain a simple warm smile, it had some nostalgic feeling. After all, it was always good to send warriors alive back to their families after a war, or in this case, a kidnapped girl back to the arms of her loved ones.
It took several minutes for Tessia and her parents to settle down. In the meantime, the guards were glaring at us with daggers in their eyes, as even the elder was eyeing us curiously.
The King finally stood up and while his eyes were red, he still carried an air of dignity. "As the King of Elenoir and the father of Tessia, I must apologize for this unsightly appearance of mine and more importantly, I wish to thank you two, for escorting my daughter back home safely" He stated, his voice coming out a big hoarse. "Please accompany us to our home so that you may rest. Afterwards, you can tell us what happened."
I saw Art silent, just watching the king's words, as I bowed almost 90 degrees and said it respectfully. "We would be grateful to speak with your majesty, we will gladly accept the opportunity. Please, don't need to worry about how you look in front of guests in a situation like this, it's actually heartwarming noticing how some lovely reactions exist no matter the race. Oh… And forgive our surprised looks, Princess Tessia never told us about being part of royalty, we just found her while we were lost in the woods, and expected that any elf could help us."
Arthur swallowed hard at my sentence, he didn't expect me to go from some little brat to a respectful knight like that out of nowhere. I could see the eyes of the king, the queen and the wise elf, they seemed surprised at the way a 5 year old was acting.
As we were starting to follow them, Tessia came back to us, took our hands firmly and took us with her. We could see surprised expressions in the eyes of the people around us, as I swore I could hear her grandpa give a small laugh.
Arriving at the castle I noticed that it was circling the immense tree that was in the center of the city, making me admire the architecture choices even more. If the three was about 10 times bigger, I could even say I was a clone instance of Yggdrasil.
We told the King and Queen that there was no need for a rest, and that we could talk about what had happened. Without delay, we went to a rectangular dining table that was located on an underground floor of the castle.
The king was at the end of the table, directly opposite us. The queen sat perpendicular to her husband, with Tessia sitting to her right. Her grandfather was sitting opposite the girl. What made a huge space between the elf royalty and us, having those same 5 guards as before next to each other, behind the king.
With both his elbows resting on the table, fingers intertwined, showing a natural serious expression, the King was the first to speak. "Children. What did you say your name was?"
"Forgive us for the late introduction. My name is Arthur Leywin, the other on my side is my brother, Luz Leywin, and we come from a remote town in the Kingdom of Sapin. As my brother said before, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance King, Queen, Elder, and gentlemen." We stood up and bowed at each of them individually before sitting back down.
Both the King and Queen and the guards showed surprise again in their gazes at Arthur's mature way to speak. So they could see both me and him as something other than children. Tessia gave us a shy smile while her grandfather seemed to have a smirk on his face.
"From the looks of it, both you and your brother are more mature than your ages. Forgive me for assuming. My name is Alduin Eralith and this is my wife, Merial Eralith, and this is my father, Virion Eralith. Now about what happened, please tell us. We'd like to hear your sides on this" The king said, getting a more respectful look.
Waving off the apology, we began telling the story. I told them that we had been separated from our parents, due to an ambush by bandits on nearby mountains, and we ended up surviving by luck. It was inevitable, Arthur had to tell them about us being mages. This made everyone look discredited, including Tessia. Since there were no dangers in our way with her, we didn't have to talk about it before.
One of the guards told us that we were liars and to prove that we were actually mage when, unexpectedly, Tessia's grandfather shut him down. He then clasped his hands together on the table and looked at us with a renewed, eerie interest.
Arthur soon returned to talk about how we found the carriage and saw them carry a child tied up. At this, the King slammed both of his hands on the table, his eyes narrowing into a menacing glare.
"I should've known it was humans..."
I corrected his racist comment and said "They were slave traders. They and bandits look for victims, not just elves, but humans too, speaking as victims ourselves."
That made the king close his mouth before he sat back down, letting out a light cough. It seems that my rude words were accepted, as the Elder had lifted his hand just to stop any guard from arguing about it. Then we asked something really important about this whole situation.
How did she, a princess of a warm cozy-like family, even left the kingdom's urban terrain?? The queen said it was because of a disagreement that happened between them and their daughter, causing Tessia to run away.
With that cleared up, Arthur spoke again. "Luckily, we managed to catch them off guard and get rid of them, so we could untie the princess and escort her here."
"So kids between 4 and 5 years old managed to 'luckily' kill adults, and among them there was an augmenter, and you say that like it's no big deal?" chimes in the king's father seated across from Tessia, leaning back on the chair so only two of the legs are touching the ground.
"Allow me to demonstrate." I said looking at everyone there and waiting for Elder to let me show.
After he nodded, my eyes started to glow different colors, one glowed a bright red and the other glowed a mixture of green and blue, I released my killing presence, which caused the royals to look at us with quite a bit of surprise, while the guards seemed weakened to the point of kneeling to the ground. Even Arthur looked at me with surprise because I never showed him this, in fact I had used it in the attack against the slave traders, but he hadn't noticed.
After this little demonstration was over, the elder seemed to clap his hands lightly, it seems he hasn't been surprised so many times a day in a long time.
With that done, I spoke again. "As we mentioned, we've been away from our parents for about three to five months. We don't plan on staying long in this kingdom as we want to find them quickly. So we wanted to know if you have any teleportation gates we can use to go to the City of Xyrus or anywhere in Sapin at least. If we aren't in a place where they are at the time, we could use some adventurer guilds to relay messages for us, as our father was a leader of an adventurers party."
"You're going to leave already, Luz!? Art?!" Tessia shot up from her seat, face stricken with panic.
Both her mother and father gave each other a baffled look as they mouthed 'Art'. The elder just shot a snide grin at this and chuckled, rocking on his chair.
"I don't think it's appropriate for humans such as ourselves to be inside this Kingdom for too long, Princess. Besides, we wish to make sure that our family is safe and tell them we're okay as well." Arthur answered, giving a sheepish smile.
The King responds back to Tessia. "It has been a couple hundred years since the last human has stepped foot into the Kingdom of Elenoir in a friendly way, and both of you, Luz and Arthur, are the first humans to be in the capital of this Kingdom, the City of Zestier. However, saving our daughter and taking the trouble to accompany her all the way back to us entitles you with a proper reward..."
I took a peek at Tessia as her head went down, her gunmetal silver hair covering her face. But the King continued. "...Unfortunately, the teleportation gate linked with the Kingdom of Sapin opens only once every seven years, for the Summit Conference between the three races. Since the last Summit was two years ago, it'll be another five years until the gate will function..."
I saw my brother letting out a deep breath in disappointment. The king continued to say that he really knew the decision to leave there as soon as possible was the best choice, as there were problems of tolerance between humans and elves, due to some war that took place earlier between these races.
He also said that he would look for guards who could take us safely to our kingdom. With that information being given, he called maids to take us to guest rooms, where we would stay for the time being, with the idea that we could not leave the castle, so that there would be no confusion in the capital.
Arthur had been taken away by one of the maids, while, before leaving that large room, I took a notebook from my pocket and threw it in Elder Virion's direction. "Pick it up grandpa, I think it will be within everyone's interest to see this."
He gave a big laugh, with everyone looking at me strangely. "Grandpa?! Brat, you really don't have any sense of danger eh? But what is this?" he said with the notebook in his hands.
"I took this from a slave traders' tent, apparently it has information on the kidnappings and there is a map attached, possibly with all, or at least most, locations of their illegal selling houses, across the three kingdoms." When I said that, their eyes widened in surprise, the so-called Virion opened the notebook and passed his fingers through everything there, soon finding a loose map there and putting it in front of his son and daughter-in-law, their eyes still on me, making me smile with pride at having found it.
"I hope this is enough help a human boy like me can offer." I said, with everyone nodding in agreement, with the exception of Tessia who was still quite surprised since I hadn't mentioned this to her or my brother. Maybe her head was back to thinking and realizing that whenever they went to sleep I was alone reading that information.
That done, I followed the other maid, who took me to my room.
[Arthur Leywin POV]
The room I was led to was large, but elegantly simple in furnishings. As soon as I got into the room, I closed the door behind me, stripped and went straight for the bathroom. The shower was a pleasant surprise, a simple waterfall that seemed to naturally flow from the ceiling and drain back out on the floor. However, the constant flow of water that didn't seem to ever turn off was a surprisingly perfect temperature, just warm enough to relax my body and pores.
While in this waterfall in my bathroom, I was starting to think about what I saw my brother doing, that killing presence was similar to mine, but there was more power and concentration, and a feeling of urgency to kneel.
Was he a king in the past world, just like me?
Was he more than a king?
How exactly was he naturally getting used to something that only elves were natural with?
And... that attack...he crossed the torso of a distracted adult using his own fist…
I was deciding that I wouldn't ask him so many questions, I prefer to do it on the same day that I was in the mood to talk about my past life too.
As I finished dressing into a very silky robe just for your top and short pants, I placed the stone Sylvia left me inside the chest pocket in my robe and once again, tried to study my mana core. About thirty minutes in and making only minimal progress, I heard a knock on my door.
"Coming!" Opening the door, I'm greeted by a pouting Tessia who threw a light punch at my chest.
"You dummy! Why did you act all unfriendly when you were with my family back there." She harrumphed, slipping past me and sitting on my bed.
"Well, as Luz said before, you didnt mention to us that you happened to be the princess of this entire kingdom!" Shaking my head, I gripped Tessia's hand and pulled her out of my room. Kids or not, I don't think her parents were going to like her being in a boy's room.
"Come on, show me around the castle! I won't get the chance to visit this place again." I immediately regretted saying this.
I hear a slight sniffle as Tessia suddenly broke down into tears, trying to talk while sobbing. "Art, I don't want you to... leave... You two are the first... persons I've gotten ever close to.."
"..." I just gently patted her head while she was rubbing her eyes with the arm not holding onto my hand.
As we continued walking in silence, except for Tess' soft sniffles, we made it outside, in the courtyard at the back of the castle. Before that we tried to find Luz, but he wasn't in his room, so we thought that he could be also here. The floating orbs were giving off a dim, luminescent glow, lighting up the well-kept garden in a gentle atmosphere. I couldn't help but imagine how differently this scene could've been played out if we were ten years older.
Before I even had the chance to finish my thought, a blatantly clear killing presence bombarded my senses. Milliseconds later a faint glimmer gave off the position of a projectile aimed at Tessia. I pushed the still crying princess out of the way and I prepared to parry the projectile with a mana infused hand.
At that instant a figure in black was facing my back, his right arm in a stance to attack. Grabbing the projectile, I immediately spun myself to block the assassin with whatever was thrown at me. To my surprise, I was face to face with Tessia's grandfather.
I jumped back out of range before angrily shouting. "What the hell, Old Man! Why are you trying to kill us?"
"Kid. It may hurt a little but I doubt that toy you're holding could kill anyone." He chuckled.
I looked down at my hand to see a pencil sized projectile with both ends blunted and coated in a layer of something close to rubber. I was tricked!
"Haha! Nice reaction, nice reaction! I didn't think you'd catch my little present and use it to block my next attack! Truly marvelous! However, your brother had a better usage of mana, yours was mediocre at best!" When he said that, I looked behind him and saw Luz standing there laughing and waving at us as he approached Tessia. His legs had a little smoke coming from them, which meant he at least augmented his legs against Elder Virion.
He proceeded to throw me a wooden sword fit for my size as he took out a wooden sword of his own, just a bit bigger. "Here I come!" Not even giving me the time to get in a stance or even the chance to accept his impromptu training, he dashed towards me.
This crazy old bat!
We started our spar, with me using augment in my legs and arms to do so. Tessia's grandfather tried to out speed me, while I was using sword techniques to minimize my movement. But it was soon over, after he managed to move behind me without my knowing how, I jumped up and hit him on the forehead, making a banging noise.
"HAHAHAHA! I guess I deserved that one!" he laughed, rubbing his swollen forehead.
Throughout all of this, Tessia was surprised at first but after realizing it was just a spar, she settled down. She used this chance, though, to jump out and stomp towards the elder.
"Grandpa! You hurt Art too much! You should've gone easier on him!" Pinching the elder's side.
"AHH! That hurts little one, Haha I'm afraid if I went easier on Arthur, he'd be the one bullying me!" He gently answered as he picked up his granddaughter.
He flashed in front of me and suddenly placed his right palm into my sternum "Just as I thought. Your body is in a dangerous state..."
I stared blankly at him. Through constant use of mana rotation and meditation, my body should be a lot healthier than even the most well-fed four-year-old. Virion, noticing my doubtful gaze, pressed his palm on my sternum at a certain angle, triggering a familiar searing pain.
"Your mana manipulation is very good for a beginner despite your age, and your sword techniques and fighting experience are frightening enough to make me wonder what sort of life you had led to learn all of this." His eyes narrowed. "But you failed to mention one critical thing in your story earlier." I could feel my heartbeat beginning to rise as I started to suspect that he found out about Sylvia.
"I've decided. Arthur, become m-" He was going to say it but was interrupted by Luz.
"Wait, will you make him your disciple too?" He nodded for what my brother said, throwing me entirely off guard.
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