Chapter 168: Mo-Mother, You Say!

Things were going out of hand. "Umm…. Calm down?" I tried to think of a logical way to confront this. But I couldn't come up with anything. 

Have all of them gone mad or this is a different world?

"Is- is that you Daarc? Is it really you?" Jowy stood up in confusion and awe. "Are you sure it's you Daarc?"

Did you even hear what you just said? 

"DO you want me to punch you, your majesty?" I was kind of ticked off. 

He cleared his throat and sat down again. 

Lianne came closer to me. "How-how is this- how can this be?" She was touching me a bit too much.

"Calm down. Why are you so flustered?" That really was the question. Ever since I turned to a girl, every single elf I saw, showered me with respect and even these guys.

"You-you look almost like mother!" Lianne couldn't hide her emotions. I really didn't think elves were capable of this much emotion all at once.

"Come again?"

I didn't have time to react. She hugged me tight, tears in her eyes. Everything struck me as weird. I looked around and most of the guards were displaying similar vibes. 

The hell?

Jowy came over "Can-can I get a hug too?"

"No thank you." My voice went flatter than I intended.

Someone cleared her throat. I looked for the source. It was Imazael. 

"You look like the sanest. Care to explain?" I asked.

Imazael seemed casual, like she didn't have a care in the world. Maybe she didn't.  "Elves are quite a fickle race. Normally they don't show much emotion but when that emotion is stored for a few centuries, they tend to get like this."

My eyes twitched: my teeth grinded. "You know that's not what I meant, right?"

She cleared her throat again. All of this was seriously starting to piss me off. "You seem to resemble the late empress."

"Say what?" My jaw dropped. Lianne mentioned something about her mother as well. The whole day was full of shocks but this was probably the most shocking. "Seriously? I don't even have ears like…"

That's when I realized. Among all the Jowy lookalike pictures, there was a picture of a beautiful girl. But I was too tensed to remember the face. And last I remembered, she did have smaller ears than typical elves. 

"Your ears might not reflect on the elves but you do bear a striking resemblance. And her Excellency also had small ears you see. Besides, black hair is considered sacred in Alfheim."

Sacred? 

I looked around and sure enough, no one's hair was black. But my hair was black when I was a guy too, so how come they never treated me well?

Wait a sec…

They had treated me well. They even threw a party for me. And the first prince even wanted me to be his brother. Meaning they were basically telling me to get married into the family.

If a certain somebody hadn't betrayed me, none of this would have happened. So basically, everything was set for me the moment I was born with black hair? Then they the hell wasn't I born an elf? They would have treated me like I was some sort of god or something!

But was this coincidence supposed to be funny? Cause it certainly was not.

I tried to take off the bangle but Lianne didn't let me. She was still attached to me. "Just a little longer. How I've missed you so…"

She buried her face in my chest. I would have appreciated it if she'd done it while I wasn't a girl. But I couldn't deny that I kind of liked it. It did tickle a lot more than desired though.

I sighed, cleared my throat and everyone in the room regained some of their composure, at least on the outside. Lianne still stood rather close to me.

"Anyway, I'd like to leave as soon as possible. So would you mind returning my stuff?" I had to be blunt. I had no intention of staying in this place. 

Jowy walked around. He seemed kind of tensed. Something was wrong. "Of course. But there are some things that we need to cover first. Why don't we meet father?"

"Father? That dude's still alive? Then how come you're the emperor?" I didn't feel like sugarcoating my emotions any longer. I didn't care if he was the emperor. I'd done enough caring.

"Acting emperor, to be specific. Come with me." Jowy walked out.

I followed Jowy. He acted all serious but it all got ruined as he kept on stealing glances at me. Lianne didn't leave my side while the demigod followed us. Honestly, it just felt weird.

Here I parted from the guard. He wished me luck and left. I didn't catch his name. I didn't even get to thank the guy properly. Maybe next time I ought to treat him a little better. 

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***

The elven palace was pretty big and everything was made from crystal. There were even living organisms based on the crystals too. I had a lot of questions but I kept my mouth shut. The less I knew the better. That way I won't be dragged into more trouble. 

We walked down a corridor and there were loads of pictures. I carefully examined one of them. It was the empress'. 

My eyes twitched. Biteria poked out, looked at the picture then at me, and then back at the picture again. I could understand her confusion. If I had pointier ears, I'd pretty much be considered the empress by now. It was like I was literally looking at a mirror. Actually, I might have looked a bit younger than the picture.

I sighed again. Everything was wearing me down. I needed to rest. 

We arrived by a large door. It was probably the emperor's chamber. Jowy knocked, asked for permission and we went in. 

If these morons are reacting like that, how the hell will the emperor react?

I steeled myself and went in. But my fears were dumbfounded. The emperor didn't react. More like he couldn't. He was unconscious. There was a doctor in the room and he was probably the one who permitted us in.

"I'd assume you have a reason to bring me here?" I didn't see any reason to be here.

If the emperor was unconscious then I didn't have any business with him. He looked awfully pale, and he was also sweating in buckets. 

"La-lady Anasia!?" Apparently, the doctor recognized me. He was wrong though.

That's a pretty name…. But stop calling me that!

"He is not our mother. This right here is the person we talked about. Currently, he is wearing the bracelet of Arcs," Jowy explained. 

I had no idea if this bracelet even had a name or not but it didn't really matter at this point anyway.

The bracelet had a name too, huh?

The doctor didn't look convinced. "My apologies. But he looks just like-"

I tapped my feet in annoyance. "We get it. Can we move on?"

So this guy knows. 

If the doctor was someone qualified enough to cure the emperor then had to be pretty good or at the very least, someone important. He even knew about me. 

"Right, I brought you here to see if there's anything you can do about father," Jowy said something. It caught my attention. But the way he said it, made me weary.

"What do you mean?"

"I'll explain. You see, I can manipulate water and I could use healing medicine in an efficient way to increase the potency. But I can't really control the holy element. You on the other hand can do that. The emperor was heavily poisoned and there is also a curse that binds him. Healing won't do much as he's a half-dead. But maybe the holy element could do the trick." Imazael was right behind us. "And compared to Lianne his curse is much weaker so your powers will be more effective for cleansing."

"And what if it backfires? You do remember holy is like poison for the undead right?"

"In that case, we'll accept the outcome. But he is not an undead. He is a half-dead. So we're counting on his living side." Jowy butted in.

Jowy's no-pressure dialogue wasn't really helping.

"Not quite." Imazael tapped my shoulder. "If the mana is pure enough, it won't harm him." Of course, she was referring to me but I couldn't help but feel like a goat. "Besides," she whispered. "As long as you don't intend to harm him, it should be good."

The last part really had me worried. So what if, I did intend to harm him? A lot of these things could have been avoided if the damn emperor paid more attention to his brats in the first place. He even made stupid decisions and trusted his family a bit too much. So I did resent him a little. And what if that resentment made me harm him too?

"Really?" It wasn't a question. It was more like I declared my doubts.

"Believe me," Imazael said.

Trust me; I don't believe you one bit.

I had to come out clean. I didn't sugarcoat my thoughts. "Sorry but I don't believe you. However, I do have some respect for this man if not pity. Even after all that he stretched his hand to Araan. That took some serious guts." I did respect the man if only a little.

They looked away. I could get their feelings but that didn't mean much to me. 

"Even so, please…." Lianne pleaded from my side.

"Fine. Don't blame me if I'm not pure enough," I said under my breath. I reached for the emperor, my hands above his chest. "Here goes nothing." I made up my mind. 

They could have killed me if they wanted to. But they didn't. Because of this?

I didn't trust them anymore but I couldn't just doubt every single one of their motives either. I had to move on.

And if wanted to do something, I was going to see it through all the way.

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