The roar of the war horn resonated throughout the area as we walked towards the entrance of the kingdom of Erela. We walked forward until we reached the capital while being escorted by the elven knights while the king of the kingdom was in the front of the line guiding the injured.
The citizens of the kingdom emerged while cheering the elven warriors passing through.
Their faces were filled with happiness upon realizing the acquired victory of their kingdom against the forces of humanity.
The people on the sidewalk were cheering and throwing flowers with smiles on their faces, that for some reason, instantly vanished upon seeing us, the ones who were in the last group in the line.
Their beautiful smiles turned into grimaces or faces of fear, some of them were showing both expressions while walking back as if we were some kind of anomaly passing in the street.
I exhaled.
I see. So this is what Tanya was talking about.
I tried to ignore them and wandered my eyes through the area, the buildings around were made of chiseled white stones carved in beautiful shapes and woods. This capital was less of a forest type of a place and much more massive than I thought, and I would say that the buildings were impressive. Most of the buildings around were white, green, and brown due to the woods they had used that were carved beautifully and made the entire place look so elegant.
And the people? All of them were beautiful. They were wearing silky white dresses complimenting their snow-white skin. They had blonde hair and smooth gorgeous faces that seemed like they would never fade, and their striking gem-like eyes were extremely stunning and so fascinating to look at, if only they weren't looking at us with such disdain on their faces.
At least, try to hide it, you know?
"Boss, this place is full of narcissistic blondies with beautiful faces that every time of the day would look at you with disgust," Leo smirked at me. "Knowing you, you will love this place."
I stared at him with my widened eyes, I slowly opened my mouth to say something, but the words I wanted to say did not come out.
What the fuck does that even mean?
I think you're misunderstanding something, Buddy.
And anyway, how about you wash your hands first? Those hands have been getting a lot of looks for a while now.
I shook my head and just shifted my eyes towards the people staring at us. And as I observed thoughtfully, I noticed that the majority of them were not actually looking at me with their disgusted faces, many of them did, but... most of the eyes were on the person walking beside me.
Tanya told me about this hate by the people of Erela towards Kuro and her. But even after seeing it happening right in front of my eyes, I still can't believe it!
Although I could pretty much tell that Kuro was just ignoring them and just walking with her head high, I could not help but ask.
What the fuck is with the hate with these lovely girls? What kind of despicable people would hate them?
Just look at that attractive girl wearing a maid outfit! I would never hate Kuro!
Now that I think about it, the people of the kingdom of Erela have blonde hair, so far I have not seen any citizen that has the same hair color as Kuro and Tanya.
Please don't tell me they dislike Tanya and Kuro just because they have different hair colors! That would be very stupid!
As we walked forward in the direction of the giant tree, the disdainful stares we were receiving kept on increasing and I could even hear their whispers sometimes.
If it were not for the invitation of their king himself, something is telling me, the chances of them throwing rocks at us are alarmingly high!
However, as I stared at the people walking with me, all of them were walking with their heads high up. Both Leo and Leal were expressing proud smiles on their faces. Kuro with her usual strict expression. Even Mehrad who was walking at the side of the road did not seem bothered by the stares he was getting.
I heard a snort behind me and as I looked back, I found the behemoth of a person, Rumble walking valiantly, beside him was Jabez who was looking at me while expressing a gentle smile.
"Mister Casimir!" Karoon waved her hand at me while smiling.
It seems I am the only one affected by it. I should hold myself together and be the one showing the most confidence!
After a few minutes, we reached the root of the giant tree of Erela, and it looked much more massive in person! The trunk of the tree was covered with some kind of light creatures with different colors flying around it which could have been the reason why the tree had been filled with light every night even though it was located in the middle of a dark forest.
As we stopped, I pointed my eyes to the massive white infrastructure in front of us, even though it had not reached even half of the height of the tree behind it, the peak of the massive infrastructure was still very high up in the sky, it also so wide that I could not even see the end of the side part of the infrastructure.
All the Elven warriors lined up on the side of the white road and elegantly stood while facing us. Their eyes were filled with pride as they looked up. In front of us, four people had emerged, three of them smiled at us as they walked forward toward us.
"Welcome to the castle of Erela, warriors of the town of Agrona." King Asmit said while expressing a proud smile on his face.
Walking next to him was Prince Alric who still had his cautiousness visible on his face.
Man, he really isn't trying to hide it, doesn't he?
Along with them were two unfamiliar faces, another guy that looked exactly like Leal, but with ponytailed long blonde hair and a noticeable gentle smile on his face.
He shifted his gaze towards me with his gentle smile still intact on his face. "Greetings, the name is Hien Durmada, the second prince of the kingdom of Erela." Half of his lips rose. "I heard a lot of things about you, The Tyrannical Warlord of Agrona. Unfortunately, we hadn't met back then when we visited your town a while ago."
I nodded. "If you haven't got enough of our humble town, you are more than welcome to visit there whenever you want." I smiled. "After all... our town and your kingdom are no longer strangers to each other."
For a very brief moment, his gentle smile broke and stared at me while expressing no emotion on his face. Afterward, he just chuckled and repeatedly nodded. "Of course, of course. I would love to."
Hmm.
Yep, this guy is definitely Leal's brother. Despite their glamorous faces, all of them have these shady vibes on them! If I haven't gotten used to Leal's puzzling personality, I would definitely be running away from this bunch of dubious people!
It fucking runs in the blood!
"Leal… Lei."
I shifted my gaze towards the owner of that soft voice. I found an extremely attractive woman who looked like she was just in her early to mid 20s, she had silky blonde hair and a very tender-looking face that was filled with kindness in them, her gem-like jade green eyes were directed at Leal and Kuro.
Yep, this is what Leal looks like if he happened to be a girl. Definitely his older sister.
The young lady rushed to Leal and Kuro and hugged them both tightly. On the other hand, both Leal and Kuro expressed smiles of happiness on their faces while hugging her back.
"I've missed you two so much, Leal... Lei." The lady said while tightening her hug.
Did she just call Kuro… Lei? Seriously, how many names does Kuro have?
"Queen Ayani."
Queen?
"I've missed you too... Mother."
Mother?
What!
Mother!
Of course, that young-looking lady is his mother! Who am I kidding? Even his father looks like just his older brother! Of course, what am I expecting! That's elven people for you!
The next thing I knew, his mother was already standing in front of me while expressing a gentle smile toward me. We stared at each other for a few seconds before she put her hand on her chest. "My name is Ayani Durmada. The queen of the kingdom of Erela. You have my deepest gratitude for taking care of my Leal and Lei."
Ah, the Queen of the kingdom of Erela.
I scratched my cheek using my index finger. "I don't remember taking care of them. They have been fighting their own battles on their own long before I even arrived. And when I met them, they were already outstanding individuals. To tell you the truth, it's the opposite of what you've just said because the two of them are a pair of very valuable comrades of mine. So valuable that losing either of them is something that I could not let happen." I smiled at her. "You should be proud… because they are remarkable elves."
She stared at me with her widened eyes. "I see. I am glad to hear that."
"Oy, Leal, why are you smiling like an idiot? Were the words of praise coming from Boss made your little heart melt, You little softy?"
"You stupid! Your hand is drenched with blood! You made my clothes dirty, you bastard! Come back here you idiot!"
What came next was Leo's laughter followed by the much louder laughter coming from the warriors of Agrona as they watched the two chase each other through the crowd.
I chuckled as I stared back at King Asmit who was staring at me with visible confusion on his face as if he just saw something very unbelievable right in front of his eyes. "Pardon the chaos, my people are a little bit wild in nature."
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