Venland: A Dominion Beyond Worlds

Chapter 5: The Royal Marshal of the Potentate

I could not fall asleep thinking about it.

Venland was too different from Earth. Magic alone was already shocking for a layman such as myself, never mind the ogre, elf, wyvern, forest of the waving children, face cards, and Demonlord. However, all of those did not really startle me. Perhaps that was one of the perks of being an Awakened One. Your brain and heart may not recognise the sight and stories you were seeing and hearing, but your body was familiar with it. Your reaction was only minimal as you once had already lived in this world, the only difference was: it was half of your soul that did. Yet, curious as may seem but, of all the wonders of this world that Earth people would fall unconscious over due to stupefaction about how peculiar things in Venland were, it was the news relayed by the royal guard that startled my core.

I turned my body to the other side of the bed side-lying.

"THREE PRINCESSES WERE MISSING?!" I remembered myself exclaiming horror at the royal guard.

He only nodded in response and fell ever deeper in silence.

Although he might have heard of it for sometime now, the news still left him dumbfounded. The man was in his 30s wearing a full-dress uniform of vivid blue tunic and a bearskin hat. It was lightweight and dignified, both stylish and practical, but not an inch screamed new. From head to toe it spoke of a decade of loyal service. Thus, it was expected that he was shocked considering how long he had served the royals.

"When did it happen?" I asked.

"Three days ago. After the conclusion of the Blue Moonfall Festival," the royal guard replied.

His tongue was yanked down to his throat and he stood shrinking in himself.

Muscle tensed in visceral sensation, I retorted, "Three days ago and it was only reported today?! That's absurd! Why?"

"You don't understand. This is a bad omen, young man! The Blue Moonfall Festival is sacred; a commemoration for the High Elf Blue Eluviaheid, that this kingdom is looking up to. Spreading news of missing princesses only after it ended would panic the citizens of the Kingdom of Argus. They are the descendants of the High Elf Blue Eluviaheid, and during the festival is the time they are most powerful. They are not royals for nothing. Their Magicule is the size of this kingdom. However unyielding the monsters may be, trying to attack the kingdom, if they are non-human, they could not pass through its invisible barrier. Even a Demonlord would have a hard time making a way in. It is believed only non-human entities as powerful as the six High Elves could pass through it with ease–and no one was as great as them," the man narrated in trepidation.

"What about it?"

The royal guard knitted his brow, perplexed at my question, yet still continued, "the three-day festival is the time of the year when the moon is nearest to Venland, almost like a falling saturated blue marble in the night sky, hence called Blue Moonfall Festival. High Elf Blue Eluviaheid sacrificed her life for the creation of the moon, and her twin sister High Elf Green Elluexheid for water and earth. Since the creation of the world, they are interconnected. Thus, high tide and low tide are based on the position of the moon.

The magic affinity of the royals is Water Magic; and like the ocean, the waves are reliant on the push and pull of the moon as if the High Elf twins are forever trying to reconnect again. Therefore, when the moos is nearest to Venland, the royals are most powerful. How come they went missing on days they can manipulate any fluid including your blood? You will be helpless; you will be deemed too unsuited to even show yourself before them. Yet still, curiously, someone or something managed to abduct, not only one but, three of them!"

I swallowed the lump of horror forming in my throat and fell silent.

"Could it be the doing of the Demonlord?" the guild attendee finally broke into the conversation and asked.