Dagger

"James, are you okay now?" As usual, Anna was inside the shop, she stood up from her former squatting position and greeted.

"h.e.l.lo.", James weakly greeted back.

"n.o.body"s going to greet me?", Ivan asked.

"You are not the one who is sick.", Anna didn"t even bat an eye towards Ivan.

For the past few weeks, Anna and Ivan got acquainted because of one common thing, and that was their worrying for James.

Ivan: "..."

"Hehehe...", James chuckled.

"Hmph, traitor! I thought we are friends!" Ivan snorted, "I still have something to do, I"m going out, goodbye!" He stomped his foot then left the shop. "HMPH!"

"Where"s Mr. Morgan?", James asked.

"He"s not awake yet.", Anna replied.

"Then how did you enter the shop?!", James narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Oh... I have my own ways.", she quietly took a peek at Little Salad. Afterwards, she squatted back down in front of it.

"I think you developed some sort of weird plant fetish.", James scratched his face with a single finger as he said.

"What? Why would I even do that?", Anna angrily looked at the other kid.

"Oh come on, just tell the truth. You are in love with that plant, aren"t you?", James smirked.

Little Salad: "..."

Anna: "☺"

Few seconds later...

Anna: "??"

"Calm down, calm down, calm down. He is sick and he doesn"t know anything about magic, don"t slap him to death...", Anna tried to calm herself down.

Meanwhile, also in her head, her chibi self was furiously slapping James" chibi figure just like the last time, but this time, the color of the fire on her hands was blue!

Her line of thoughts broke when she saw James started coughing hard and went to his knees. One of his hands were grasping his belly while the other was holding onto the counter.

She immediately ran over towards James and tried to help him stand up, but the latter refused Anna"s hand.

"Why are you even..."

"I think I"m dying, right?"

James" sentence startled Anna, the latter was about to say something when the former continued...

"I"m going to die because of some sort of sickness. You shouldn"t touch me, or else you"ll get hurt instead.", James backed off a bit.

The kid continued, "I don"t understand some things, but I"m not completely blind. I saw how you hastily retracted your hand from me when you touched me one time."

Anna slightly relaxed and squatted in front of James.

"I heard my parents" conversation. My father started to work at the mines earlier than scheduled and he planned to work the whole day and night, in fact, he hasn"t come back home since two days ago. My mother is also working double time. But I know that they want to throw a party for me, bigger than the previous ones... my birthday is tomorrow, after all.", James said.

"You"re smarter than I thought you were.", Anna mumbled.

"No, but I still wonder... what is your walking stick for anyway?", James looked beside the door and saw Anna"s staff.

"W-walking stick?", Anna also looked at her staff and was dumbfounded by what James had said.

The gems socketed in her staff were covered by a plank of wood which looked like a design on it.

"It"s for... uhh... checking if the snow is too deep so I won"t accidentally fall.", she still remembered what Allen said not to let James find out she was a magician.

"So, your birthday is tomorrow, right? What"s your wish?", Anna swiftly changed the topic of their conversation.

"Well... I want to see magic up close. I always heard about magicians but I never saw them doing magic up close.", James said.

Anna paused for a moment when she heard James" wish.

Then she took in a deep breath and said, "James, do you want..."

However, she didn"t get to finish her sentence after they heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Mr. Morgan"s awake.", James supported himself up and walked towards the stairs while Anna followed behind him.

***

In the deep region of the Monarch Forest where only a few humans would enter, and even fewer to make it out alive, there was a hidden yet large kingdom.

That kingdom was recognized to be the ruler of the said forest, and it was known by smart beasts by its two t.i.tles, "Monarch of the Forest" and "Forest of the Monarch".

Both of the t.i.tles referred to the kingdom itself, but has two different meanings. The first one was about the external relationship of the kingdom to the everything around it; on the other hand, the second t.i.tle was about the kingdom being ruled by a supreme ruler, thereby making it the ruler of the forest too.

It was really just a miniscule kingdom based on its size if compared to real ones, which was only thrice or four times as big as a large human city.

Its inhabitants were mostly elves, who were only myths in the human legends. Their lives were obviously much of higher grade than humans, even the poorest of elves could match the middle-cla.s.s humans.

From atop the nearest mountain, one could see tall, decorative towers that were constantly getting taller the nearer they were to the center of the city-kingdom, where there were four citadels representing the four cardinal directions.

On the middle of the citadels, was a halved mountain and on top of it was a palace whose spires and towers could reach up to the skies, making it look like a heavenly abode.

That would be the first impression of outsiders, however, the higher ranked elves knew that the half mountain wasn"t really natural but was literally built and forged over hundreds of thousands of skeletons of their enemies!

...

Meanwhile, a white-robed elf riding a horse stopped outside the western gates of the walled Western Citadel.

"Halt!", the fully armored elven guards on the walls switched their weapons from bladed staffs to their bow and arrows and they aimed them swiftly at the newcomer without delay.

"Open the gates!", the newcomer removed the hood of her robes, and she was none other than Ariel.

The guards retracted their bows and elegantly changed their weapons back to bladed staffs.
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Following which, the large steel gate rose up and Ariel entered through it.

She rode through the soldier filled streets and headed towards a large palatial building, which was the citadel itself.

After dismounting, Ariel entered it and ran up on a spiraling stairs. When she reached the top, she only saw a single door at the end of the corridor.

She furiously opened the door while panting, "Elder Dewthorn!"

Inside the room which seemed to be like an office, there was an elf with hair as white as snow, reading through the parcels and letters.

"Your Highness Ariel, what can this lowly one do for you?", Elder Dewthorn asked without looking at her.

"What did you do to that human? Where is he now?", Ariel calmed down and asked politely. Even though she was a member of the royal family, and one of the highest ranks at that, her authority doesn"t exceed nor even come close to the aged elf in front of her.

"Is there something that Her Highness wants from that human? I can force it out whatever it is from him.", Elder Dewthorn said, still not batting an eye on her.

"So my guess was right. You are the Imperial Prosecutor, I know what you can do!", she said.

"I think I know where this is heading to. Let me guess, you want me, Your Highness to free that human boy?" This time, the elder glanced at Ariel.

After she didn"t answer his question for awhile, Elder Dewthorn sighed, "Your Highness, you know very well that you shouldn"t tamper anything in these kind of matters, specially concerning about an outsider. Haven"t you been taught of not making contact with humans?"

Feeling like she was thrown a bucket of cold water, Ariel retorted, "I was also taught to not repay kindness with emnity!"

"So you owe something to that human? Nevertheless, your refutation doesn"t make any sense... because actually, do you even owe anything to that human?", Elder Dewhorn coldly stated.

"How did you...?", Ariel was surprised that the aged elf knew what really happened, the former actually doesn"t owe anything to Edwin anymore, because she also saved him from the poison in exchange.

"Don"t you have a friend named Zoe?", the old elf raised his brows in curiousity.

"She... told you?" Ariel"s countenance changed slightly when she heard the last sentence.

"How could I put this into words? Hmm... I think you should just wait until the verdict is out, Your Highness.", Elder Dewthorn dismissedly said.

"But..."

Before Ariel could finish her sentence, Elder Dewthorn interjected, "Your Highness, even if I wanted to free that human, I won"t be able to, because the Council of High Elders is the one supervising this case, I"m just managing it for them."

"Your Highness, I know that you requested to one of my men to not do something bad to him, but please forgive me, this isn"t my decision, it is the council"s; if not, I wouldn"t even touch a piece of hair on that human if you told me to.", Elder Dewthorn sternly replied.

"Thank you for accomodating me, elder." Seeing that she won"t be able to do anything, she didn"t stay any longer and left the room.

On the way down the stairs, she tried to relax herself, "I should visit Zoe and ask why did she do this. There must be an explanation."

When she thoroughly calmed herself down, Ariel muttered under her breath, "Why does that human gives me a familiar feeling?"