Chapter 224: 223

Chapter 223

Deep Darkness is a Harbinger of the Coming Dawn (3)

The arrogant High Elf couldn’t convince himself of his defeat until the end. I understood how he was feeling. No matter how sharp the first King Leonberger’s Dragon Slayer sword was, the elf had believed that a child less than half his age would never be able to surpass him.

In fact, my soul was that of a sword that had lived several times more compared to the foolish High Elf.

I didn’t even tell him that. I just scoffed and started laughing at the arrogance put forth by one who was only a fraction of my age. I laughed for a long while, then told Arnand, “Right. Now that our game is over, the time has come to keep your promise.”

The High Elf’s eyes shook as if they were was an earthquake raging within him.

“This is the first requirement,” I said as I looked at the elf. “Apologize.”

His eyes widened as he heard my unexpected words.

“What am I apologizing for,” he then asked.

Instead of answering, I looked back: There stood a half-elf, looking at me.

“You,” I called her over and let her stand beside me – and I exercised the first boon given to me as the victor by the High Elf.

“You should apologize to her, not to me.”

When Gunn realized the situation, she started to gesture in confusion.

(Opportunities to get something from High Elves are rare. Look to the future. Make demands that will be useful in the long term)

“Whatever I ask for, nothing will last longer than seeing the rare sight of a High Elf apologizing to a half-elf.”

The High Elf stared at me with a stiffened face.

“Are you telling me, a High Elf, to bow my head to a half-blood?”

“You got that right.”

“It cannot be accepted.”

“Don’t be mistaken. This is not a request.”

Looking at the elf, I reminded him of our covenant.

“If you don’t accept it, what you will lose is not your great pride, but the part of your soul you used to bind our covenant with. If you’re willing to accept that, I won’t force you anymore.”

Arnand’s face was terribly distorted. He turned his head and glared at Gunn. Then, he shook his head. His appearance after having been defeated by me twice made him look far weaker, yet he still considered my request to be unreasonable. He didn’t know that the longer he waited, the angrier I became. It was hard for Arnand, and after a long time, he bared his teeth and spoke.

“I hope this half-blood is important to your Highness.”

He said that, no matter how worthy a woman Gunn might be, he would always resent her for bringing such a permanent shame upon him, a High Elf. Despite his blatant threat, I didn’t raise a single eyebrow. I just looked at him and said, “Go to your knees and apologize.”

‘Shh,’ the high elf began crouching, with a disgusted face, as if he was kneeling into a field of filth.

‘Chin,’ his knees bent so slowly and finally touched the floor.

“Satisfied? That’s it.” The elf no longer spoke as if he had an oiled tongue; he now spat out crude words. I watched him, then released my spirit and pressed it down upon the elf.

Arnand had knelt so half-heartedly, he now collapsed to the floor, unable to overcome my energy. I forced him to stay kneeling on his knees, forced him to apologize.

Gunn was staring at him blankly. The emotions on her face were so complex that I could not even dare to guess at her internal mindscape. I just hoped that this would lessen the fear of High Elves that had been rooted in her heart and that it would serve her as her reward for her past torments as a slave.

Gunn stood looking at the elf with a complicated face for a long time. I waited patiently so that she could fully enjoy the humiliation of the arrogant High Elf. In the meantime, Arnand tried to raise himself several times, but I pressed him down every time, forcing him down, making sure his posture remained lowered. In the end, he gave up resisting and just waited.

After some time, Gunn looked at me and nodded. I did not know how she felt, what she thought, after seeing the High Elf. Only the fact that her stiff body had relaxed and that she was looking at me as she usually looked at me was important.

I drew back the energy and spirit I had released. Arnand shook himself awake, fearful, as he felt the relief in pressure.

“Then, I will tell you the next requirement.”

Looking at the elf’s face, which was as dry as a grain of sand in the desert, I made my second demand.

“Nectar.”

Arnand had already suffered enough shame; now, the face of the elf, which had seemed as if it didn’t matter what I would ask for next, hardened like stone.

“You know what that is?”

“Everybody knows. You guys call it the Protection of the Forest.”

Arnand growled as he heard my words.

“If you know what it is, you know how precious it is.”

“I was told by a handsome High Elf that each elf only receives it once in their lives.”

“Do you think I’ll give you something like that?”

In the worst case, if he had wanted to break the agreement, there still remained a reason for him to give me the Nectar.

“If you would pay the price for breaking the covenant, I would happily withdraw my request. Keep that in mind.”

Looking at him, I laughed as I saw him bare his teeth at me.

“If you don’t give me the nectar, then you will fail the successive, final requirement as well.”

I was threatening him gravely, and I knew he would not fail to understand the hidden threat that existed within my words. It would’ve sounded strange to someone who did not know how the existence of souls functioned and how they could be damaged.

A successive failure of a binding covenant… the price paid for that would never be a light one to bear for a young High Elf. Maybe he would be damaged so much that he could never again dance his sword-dance. In all likelihood, it would be so.

Arnand’s face was terribly distorted.

Accepting my offer would mean that he would be offering up something that would have aided him greatly, and rejecting it would hurt his very soul. The High Elf couldn’t do this; he couldn’t do that; he could only chew his lips in anguish. I decided to show him a bit of goodwill.

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“If you offer it to me, I promise that the third demand will be relatively straightforward.”

It was so small a hope I could give Arnand that I didn’t know whether it bred any good faith in him. After my offer, he pondered on it for a while. I was relaxed as I admired the changing color of the High Elf’s face.

“Fwoo,” the elf sighed and then glided his hand into a pocket, and from it, offered me a small silver bottle. It was a small flask, about the size of a little finger.

My eyes stretched wide because the material of the flask was one rarely seen in this world. It was a rare metal hard enough to be compared to dragon bone. It was capable of being forged into the most excellent of swords, yet only a handful of such weapons had ever been made. All blacksmiths in the world wished to obtain this metal; it was called True Silver of Silver.

I snatched the Nectar from the High Elf’s hand and touched the silver flask again and again.

It was obviously made of True Silver. Laughter flowed from me; when I had asked for the elixir of knightly rebirth, a True Silver flask came as an unexpected bonus. What else can it be called but a windfall?

After touching the True Silver flask for a while, I laughed and stowed it deep within my chest pocket. It would have been a big deal if the High Elf had drummed up the courage to ask for the return of his flask. All I had asked for was the Nectar, so there would have been no valid reason for me to reject his request.

Fortunately, however, the High Elf who had been robbed of his Nectar seemed intent only on that.

He merely stood tall with a lost expression upon his face.

“What is the third requirement?” he then asked after a while.

“I’ll tell you after thinking a little bit more.”

Instead of answering him right away, I promised I would do so later. The High Elf gave a sigh of relief. The tragedies he had been forced to endure were over, so he thought he was fortunate to be let off the hook for now. But when he truly woke up, he would realize it – it would’ve been better for me to tell him straight away.

It wasn’t because I was compassionate about his situation that I didn’t voice the third demand there and then. I merely did it to make him tremble, with anxiety and dread, not knowing what I would be asking for with my third demand.

I will only allow him to fulfill the full covenant after he suffered enough.

“If I’m done thinking about it, I’ll send someone. So, don’t go back today.”

After hearing my words, the High Elf escaped from the hall, almost running.

He had lost his pride and his Nectar. He had even lost True Silver.

It was such a shabby exit.

* * *

Having obtained the Nectar, I went straight to the king’s bed.

“I heard that things at your palace were noisy. I almost went to look.”

I ignored the king’s words and stepped forward. Ignoring his gaze, with him looking at me with doubt-filled eyes, I reached out like a lightning bolt.

“What is this?” I demanded.

The king had tried to draw back from me, but it was too late: I had snatched away his coat. All his bandages were unwrapped, and his wound was visible.

Finally seeing the king’s wounds, I spat in disgust. His skin had turned rotten, pulped into an ugly mess. The holes that had pierced into him had been sewn shut with crude skill. Something rotten and black bubbled from the still-open gap of the severest hole. The wound was so terrible that it could not be described.

“You came to the capital in this state?”

After he remained silent for a long time, I asked the king a different question.

“You were trying to last four more months like this?”

The king still did not answer; he just sighed. I also didn’t wait for an answer.

“In three days, I will heal your Majesty’s wounds. Until then, let your body rest enough so that it can withstand the treatment.”

As the king heard my words, he finally spoke.

“Huh. It looks like you got that elixir.”

“I was lucky.”

“If it were a lucky thing to get, you would’ve had it long ago. It must have taken a lot of effort.”

In fact, I had robbed a foolish High Elf a while ago, but I didn’t dare tell that story to the king in his current state.

“You should not do all this hard work for me,” the king said vaguely as he looked at me. “Even if I drink this heavenly elixir, will I live another hundred years? Will I have fifty more years? It’s all useless.”

“It’s not useless. What about ten years? What about one?”

Seeing the king open his mouth again, I spoke forcefully on.

“Even if you live only another day, you will live as the King of Leonberg, not as a bed-ridden, sickly patient.”

The king shut his mouth at my words. I looked at him and left his bedside. I ordered that he be given sedatives in his meals by the maid and that no one was to disturb him, to make it possible for the king to replenish his strength as much as possible over the next three days.

And three days passed. I entered the king’s bedchamber again. He was in a deep sleep after eating the medicine prepared by the court wizard. His coat was removed, as well as his bandages. The king’s condition had worsened in three days. I took the rope I had slung over my shoulder and started fastening the king’s limbs to the edges of the bed.

Then I took out the flask of Nectar and popped its lid.

‘Hwaak!’ an overpowering scent spread all over the place. So sweet was the scent that I could not stop myself from gulping. I was relieved, then. I bet that the High Elf would never have given up his Nectar if he had smelled this enchanting scent only once. I was sure he would rather have sold his soul, so fatal was the scent to one’s will. Even I was shaken.

Of course, the True Silver was still more attractive to me than the Nectar. When I forced myself to snap awake, the smell of death that had filled the room had disappeared as if it was never there. I took deep breaths for a while and then gained courage enough to apply the Nectar.

Half of the elixir had flowed over the wound when the king waked up. His eyes were blurred by the anesthetic drug prescribed the wizard; they pointed at me for a moment – and quickly turned white.

“No!” a scream erupted from the king’s mouth. It was a terrible scream, not of this world. I shoved a bundled-up cloth I had prepared in advance into the king’s mouth.

“It’ll be over soon! Please be patient!”

I pressed against the king’s struggling body with one hand and touched his chest with the other.

Mana from my heart ran to my shoulders and into my fingertips, then it flowed inside the king’s body.

I felt the tremendous energy of the Nectar, which was whipping the king’s body in a crazed frenzy. I forcibly grabbed the Nectar’s energy that ran in all directions… and I led it, just as I had led a country boy walking upon a road four hundred years ago.

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