— [ WALTZ OF CROWNS ] —

-『CHAPTER 08』-

« Heiress of the House of Novaldein »
— Velestina von Novaldein —

I stood on the bow of the ship right above the figurehead with an impassive eyes as I gazes upon the sprawling shorelines from within the distance. 

A cold breeze caresses my face softly as my long hair sways along with the winds as if welcoming my arrival and the advent of change that I will bring about upon this hinterlands. The journey took at least half a month but we have finally reached our destination which signifies the start of my tenure as the new incumbent Colonial Viceroy of our colonies here in the New World.

All the blood within me starts igniting with such intensity, as my resolve burns anew at the realization that my trials are also about to commence. My mettle will surely be tempered by the insurmountable tasks that lies before my path. However, I refuse to merely cower upon such adversities that might come in my way.

For I am Velestina von Novaldein.

Born to the Household of Sovereign's, I was raised to rule the masses with both dignity and grace comparable to the way my forefathers reigned in the past. 

"We should arrive in a couple of minutes so tell everyone to prepare to disembark and gather up their luggage." I firmly ordered without ever looking back to the officer awaiting behind me.

"Yes Milady."

I let out a soft breath whilst crossing my arms underneath my bosom.

It all starts now.

I gave one last look at the shoreline, particularly at the swaying Narfá flag that is enshrined at the top of a watchtower.

Ara, to have the audacity to use the flag of their own faction instead of Arklaund's, these bastards sure have guts of steel.

This is blatant declaration of rebellion.

A smirk inadvertently formed into my lips.

So these guys want to rebel eh?

"You Narfá scum should better prepare yourselves then—"

—For I have finally arrived.

« Chieftain of the Blackmane Clan »
— Aranis Blackmane —

I let out a long dragged out breath.

I will always rue the day I decided to migrate my clan to settle in the town founded by these Gáishins. I shouldn't been rash in my decisions and that have always been my problem.

Too young.

Too Inexperienced.

Too brash.

The list goes on but these insults, contrary to what my indifferent facade alludes to, have a way of piercing into my confidence and that's why I have this strong desire to prove myself to my clan.

I inherited this leadership position and became the youngest Clanhead after the death of my father decades ago. The Blackmane Clan is just a small Darkelven community with our numbers not even exceeding a thousand hence we were easily defeated and forced out of our precious woodlands when a bigger clan invaded our homes.

After our loss, the Blackmane Clan then became nomadic until I stumbled upon a settlement founded by these newcomers from across the Great Blue. I didn't want to get involved to these people but to my shock, I found an elven clan also living amongst these Gáishins.

That clan's leader then explained to me that these Gáishin's have been facing a lot of problem especially the lack of manpower so they have been accepting anyone, outcast, people with dubious backgrounds and even natives just as long as they are eager to join and work for the community. Anyone who gets a job are promised a decent compensation and for a landless clan that has no consistent viable source for income and a secured place for which we can call home, this offer can be really attractive.

Moreover, I've become less wary of the falsehood of their promises due to fact that another Elven Clan had already migrated and these foreigners seems to uphold their side of the bargain so far.

Thus after an intense discussion with my people and the Council of Elders, we have finally decided to settle down together with these Gáishins alongside « Waterleaf Clan » the elven clan that came before us.

I eventually applied to be a guard after learning the rudimentary language of these Gáishins and in a span less than a decade, I've been quickly promoted to the position of Vice Captain of the Guards. The annoying thing is, although on paper I'm still the Vice Captain but alas, to the local populace, I'm already remembered and hailed to as the 'Guard Chief' for the actual chief rarely does his job properly and mostly just spends his time dallying with booze or women.

"Argh! Where is that idiot drunkard chief of mine, shouldn't he be the one performing the inspection instead of me?" I complained in a gruff tone of voice to the raven haired beauty next to me whilst traveling forward by jumping from tree to tree as we head towards the coastal outpost.

"Same old, same old. Your chief's suffering from a hangover and can't even stand straight so I had no choice but to relegate this task onto you." Replied icily by my female companion after pushing her eyeglasses upwards the bridge of her nose.

Her name's « Lorah Waterleaf » the Governor's secretary and also the current Clanhead of the Waterleaf Clan.

"The Chief Captain told me to use you as his proxy as usual."

"Tch, what an insufferable guy. The governor should've already fire the bastard and promote me into the position instead since I'm basically doing his job now anyway."

I clicked my tongue as my eyebrows furrowed while the lady besides me grimaced and made a rueful snort. 

"Well you know how it is...these Gáishins might offer us work but they would never really appoint us natives to be in the top position."

My left brows rose upwards before retorting, "What, are they afraid that we'll overthrow their rule!? Please, who wants to live in their god forsaken town now anyway? If my clan only have some other woodlands to settle then we would have long leave already!"

Lorah turned her head forward before sneering. "Well for some reason, all of the biggest clans have been on this mad spree to amass as much woodlands as they can so both your clan and mine's have unlikely chance of leaving since even if we do found one, there's still a high chance that one of the « Big Three » clans may took over it again since we're already considered traitors by working for these foreigners."

I scratched the back of my head.

"What are the Big Three gonna do about those woodlands they conquered anyway? All they do afterwards is simply put some sentries to prevent anyone from entering and nothing else. They don't need that much woodlands now do they?"

Lorah hummed for a moment before sighing.

"I think...its the Big Three's preventive measure against these Gáishins. You know of their stance concerning these newcomers."

"Are you saying that the «Sun Clan» «Moon Clan» and «Sky Clan» have somehow made a pact to hoard all of the woodlands of us, the lesser clans just so they could protect it from these gáishins? Apeshit! If those Big Three clans really can settle their own differences like that so easily then why don't they simply make a formal alliance and drive these newcomers back to the Great Blue?"

Lorah shrugged indifferently. "Well I don't know either. All I know is that the Sun Clan once tried fending off these newcomers but they eventually lost so bad and ever since their defeat, the Sun clan's Chief have been going around trying to unite all of the Darkelven clans."

My mood instantly soured upon hearing the word 'Sun Chief' for that's the murderer of my father. One day, the warriors of the Sun Clan arrived at our woodlands and have boldly made an ultimatum;

Either concede and obey the Sun Chief as our new leader or resist and face their army on battle. Despite the low chance of winning, my father still had chosen the latter and that's how me and the rest of my clan have lost most of our men and our precious home.

To live in servitude is the greatest shame for us Darkelves that's why we the survivors declined the Sun Clan's offer of assimilation after the battle and live a nomadic life.

Who would want to serve the murderers of our own loved ones anyway?

Ah great, now I'm pissed off.

I'd better stop thinking about the past matters or I'll simply be consumed by thoughts of vengeance.

I slapped my cheeks loudly to steer away my mind off these wild and reckless ideas. I have a job to do and that is to oversee these ships that just arrived earlier this day at the outpost.

It took us half an hour to finally reach the seaside outpost and upon walking onto the docks, My eyes finally landed towards the six ships that's been laying still offshore. Their sails got no particular emblem etched onto it but the Arklaudian flag swaying at the top of all their masts shows that they came from the same country as these Gáishins whom I work for.

I then ordered my fellow guards which have arrived earlier than me to prepare the dilapidated docks so that these ships could finally dock on the outpost. I then looked around for Lorah and found her currently talking with a pair of unfamiliar people. 

I recognized one of the two and if my memory serves me right then this Captain's name is Guillian....something.

Fuck, I forgot his last name. 

Why can't these Gáishins just use a singular last name for their own members like we do?

Our way looks more practical.

Anyways, this Captain have done some shipping job many times in the past so I'm somewhat familiar with him but the one that really caught my attention is the weird looking person standing next to this guy.

This peculiar Gáishin is wearing a hood for which mostly concealed a person's overall appearance and only a portion of the lower face can be seen. The current weather is downright hellish so it felt kind of odd that this person still decides to wear something like that.

Nonetheless, I felt that this Gáishin has high probability to be a woman. No men could have such an aesthetically pleasing nose and lips after all but the biggest hint of her gender is the slight bump at her chest area. 

This person also has this odd feeling about her. 

She's only standing there wordlessly yet I could feel a wisp of prominence just by walking in front of her.

A noble perhaps?

I began to join their conversation.

"Nœx æterná Captain Guillian, so you're finally back again shipping cargoes after a year, huh?" I greeted with a lopsided grin.

"Nœx æterná Sir Aranis. Yeah it's been a year since we last met but I see that you're still doing the Chief's work as usual."

I gestured my hands upwards in exasperation. "Bah! don't remind me, anyways you've traveled here for more than a couple of times already yet this is the first time I had seen you brought along a female companion with you."

Now then, let's see who's this person is since its actually my job to check upon these kind of matters.

The Captain at this moment paused for a second to look at the hooded figure and the woman nodded as if confirming something with him. Sir Guillian then turned his head back at me and after letting out a nervous chuckle, he then finally continues and said—

"—This is ensign Vina, one of my fellow crewman and my new personal a-attendant."