TBATE | PROVIDENCE

Chapter 11 - Farewell Elenoir

•2 Years later, Kingdom of Elenoir•

ARTHUR LEYWIN

“Art, I'm getting bored. How long will it take? We've been looking for weapons and potions for an hour now.”

I lazily turned my attention to Tess, who was catching her breath while clutching onto her knees.

“Do you finally regret following me?” Chuckling, I took the heavy shopping-bags from her and stored them inside my dimension rune.

“Why? You don't want me to be with you, Art?” She placed a hand on her chest and lamented. “In my opinion, most boys would die for such an offer.”

I thought I heard Regis scoff inside my head for a moment, but I ignored it, my eyes still fixed on the elven princess.

“This humble boy from Ashber considers himself 'honoured' to be accompanied by you, Princess Tessia Eralith.” I made an exaggerated bow while stifling laughter as I watched her face go red in the cheeks from the embarrassment.

Tess raised her hand to perhaps pull my ears—or my cheeks, but stopped midway, placing her hand meekly in the crook of my elbow, letting out a weary sigh.

“Actually, Grandpa told me that an important guest might be coming today to visit us from Xyrus City.” She confessed after a brief moment of hesitation.

“And… I should probably assume you snuck out of the castle because you didn't want to meet them.”

“Hehe, you know me well, Art.” She giggled, pulling me by my arm as we made our way through the endless crowd of elves.

The entire city was buzzing with festivity, warmth, and excitement. The tantalising aromas of herbs and spices alongside delicacies like grilled meat, and syrupy desserts waft through the air, bombarding my senses. Elves, both old and young, strolled leisurely through the bustling streets, dressed in their traditional decorative silky robes. Laylack, the designer, once again worked tirelessly to create elegant and luxurious robes for both Tess and me for today's special occasion. I tried to decline him respectfully as I had done before, but lo and behold, here I was, being forcefully transformed into a dress-up doll by the scheming head maid, Meryl, and her team of maids.

Today, March 25th of the 1002nd Cycle, marked the twelve-year anniversary of the end of the long war between the elves and humans. I reflected on the efforts I'd made over the last few years during my stay in Elenoir. The relations between elves and humans were finally improving. Albeit it was a slow process, we were still moving ahead of the previous timeline.

The floating orbs of light around us began to emit a faint golden glow as the veil of darkness took over the night sky. My gaze nonchalantly scanned the surroundings as we made our way towards the city square, where people had begun to gather in large numbers to enjoy the fireworks show, making it much easier for us to move around without drawing too much attention to ourselves.

“By the way,” Tess nudged me gently, drawing my attention to herself. “I'm still wondering how you got so much gold on you. We just spent more than five white-gold tablets on buying the Elder Treant Bow and Meliae's Wand. I thought Grandpa only gave you twenty gold coins a month as pocket money.”

“Hmm, about that…”

‘So, who's going to tell her about how the mighty slayer of Asuras and his majestic weapon emptied the entire treasury of a certain goth-serpent king, hahaha!’ Regis's voice chimed in, letting out a chortle.

“Well, I 'took' it from the slave traders and bandits I apprehended in the forest a few years ago.” I lied, obviously. She regarded me with a raised brow of suspicion while I did my best to maintain my impassive mask in front of her. Gradually, her gaze shifted, looking slightly past my shoulder as I noticed her glare in that direction, a deep frown forming on her face.