Lost

Chapter 12 : Attacked

It's been around 3 hours since the trio left the elf village and are back in the woodlands. Only now they're on top of their mighty steeds, who can cover hundreds of metres in a few minutes. After the tiring journey, they decided to rest and replenish their energy. They tied their horses to a number of various oaks and settled down under a large canopy. Cyane excuses herself shortly to bathe her foot in the crystal clear brook nearby while Lycia and Louise stayed to guard their rides and provisions.

"Hmmh, I loved these things! It's pretty rare back in my hometown." Louise commented as he gobbled down another hunk of croissant.

"Aah, I see you're a fan of these pastries." Lycia giggled.

"Yeah. I thought they're French delicacies."

"Yeah, well remember that time I told you about some humans visiting us a while ago?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, she's apparently also a fan of these and brought the whole recipe. Magicis Regnum totally falls in love with the sweetness and well, keep making it. It's pretty common to see here. Why is it rare in your place?"

"You see, my country and French have been in battles long before time had a name. Actually, no. I was just exaggerating the last part but the first part's true though. There's even this 100 years war between the two of them."

"Damn, serious rivalry there."

"I know. So I think it's an understatement why not much bakery supported the treat. Might be considered some kind of paradox somehow."

"Aah, I see. Well, Magicis Regnum has some troubles with humans before, like serious troubles. But I take you under my wing and had no problems with it. Why can't your country and the French do the same?"

"Uhm, well they do make peace with each other...for now. But you do know it's not that easy to forgive someone. One does not simply forgive someone as easy as cutting a butter. Besides, you had your doubts when we met, right?"

"Fair enough. But acknowledge that the relationship between Magicis Regnum and the human realm is rather fragile. As fragile as glass I'm afraid. One wrong move like you figuring out the entrance here can lead both you and I to the end of our lives."

"Why though? I didn't do anything wrong and all you did is accompany me to the place I'm meant to be, my home. So why?"

Lycia sighed. "Prejudice and duties I'm afraid. Let's start from prejudice. You see trust is like a paper. Once it's crumpled it's impossible to straightened it out. And even if you do, it's still not the same to it's original form. In other words, once trust is broken, it's impossible to mend. Magicis Regnum have trusted the human that has resided within our world and it betrayed us. Can't you feel the bitterness in our blood vessels even though the traitor is banished? Hatred and thirst for vengeance runs in our blood and passed on to the next generation. So I suppose it's somewhat normal to have a bad feeling about a human's nature when one first laid eyes on a human. I mean, it's what people here thinks as 'stereotypical human beings' are like, you know? But after the journey with you so far, I'm confident and proud to say they're wrong."

Louise smiled and blushed at the last sentence. "Well, thank you for trusting me after all that."

"It took a while but hey, holding grudges ain't gonna earn you much good either so.... Anyways, the reason for Magicis Regnum to hate me is because well my duty and position. You've seen the reaction of those people who sees a royalty with a commoner, you know what they're like and their expectation / preferred expectation. Now just think, think what they'll do to me when they knew that my new travelling companion is a human, their mortal enemy."