Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

22 - Eirlys

"Before we talk, can't you do something about the ice? Like I said, I'm human, I'm not resistant to ice. I'll freeze in a minute," Aria glanced over to the timer and grimaced. The sword stabbed a bit deeper into The Queen.

"Ahh? Oh, that's right, that's right," The Queen hurriedly manipulated the temperature to dissolve the ice and stop them from growing.

"If you want to have a civil conversation, swear a Sacred Oath not to harm me," Aria didn't forget the chances of the Queen deliberately dragging the fight to recover her mana and restart the entire ordeal.

"...! You know of the Sacred Oath, but you're saying that you live in a world without monsters?" The Queen looked troubled.

Aria tilted her head. Her eyes were cold and unfeeling and her sword didn't leave the Queen's chest.

"I-I swear to the Origin of the World that I will not harm..." The Snow Queen stopped and looked at Aria.

"Aria Schreiner,"

"...Aria Schreiner for the rest of my life. Alleinke," The Queen finished the oath.

A yellow-greenish light enveloped the two of them.

To tell the truth, Aria had never used a Sacred Oath in the past. She had only overheard the term and the meaning from someone she couldn't even remember the name of.

The name had only been spoken of around 7 years after the invasion started, so Aria deduced that it was a new discovery. They spoke about how some of the test lab monsters were willing to swear the oath in exchange for peace.

She was only testing the waters when she asked the Queen to form an oath, but it seemed like the all monsters knew what the meaning was.

"A civil conversation it is, then," Aria sat down and gestured for her to talk.

The Queen seemed to be a little shocked that Aria actually stayed true to her words.

The Queen lightly coughed.

"Where I used to live, humans and monsters... no, other races lived on the same land," The Queen started the explanation cautiously.

Aria didn't make a response.

The Queen gulped, but continued. Her eyes slowly changed into those of reminiscence.

"There were many inhabitants of a large piece of land. The races were vaguely divided into 2, which were then further specified into a lot more,"

"On one side, there were the humans. The humans were gifted with intelligence and knowledge. Upon noticing the superior gifts they had, they started grouping those who didn't look like them as 'monsters',"

"And thus, the newly founded monster group was made up of thousands of different kinds and species. In contrast to the humans' intelligence, the monsters usually possessed strength. Only the higher ranked monsters had intelligence comparable to the humans,"

"However, unlike the humans, the monsters had been grouped selfishly. They refused to accept each others wholeheartedly. All of them had different strengths and weaknessed, had different physiques and voices, unlike the humans who looked similar to one another,"

"And thus, the first trifles were started. It all begun when the elves spoke up, declaring themselves as a much more developed species than the others. They told us that they couldn't be grouped with the other monsters,"

"Triggered by the elves, other species started coming out. The dragons, the dwarves, the giants... In the end, there were too many races to count,"