Volume 8, Chapter 1: The Dark Twins, Part 1
Within the world [Tess], they were called the [Forces of Darkness].
Why were they called “of Darkness”?
It"s simply because their race had the “bloodline” of a “Demon”.
The forces of darkness were mainly comprised of the beastmen, intelligent monsters, and Dark Elves.
The beastmen were partly people who had mutated as a result of being steeped in “Magic power” for a long time, and had become “demonized”.
It was not usual for a normal person to turn into a Demonic form even if they had been exposed to a lot of magic power. Instead, they would usually show signs of poisoning and die.
However, the peoples of certain regions became Demonized by incorporating certain [Beastly] attributes into their bodies as a result of magic power, creating the [Beastmen].
Animals that had taken in too much magic would Demonize into monsters.
Unlike normal animals, they could increase their powers and lifeforce by taking in more magic, gaining an extreme lifespan.
Those who gained great power would gain “wisdom” in their years, turning into “intelligent monsters” that formed a kind of society.
And then there were the dark elves. It was said that the dark elves were the result of the original High Elves breeding with demonic things.
It was said that when high elves bred with humans they would get white elves, and dark elves were the result of breeding with demons, but it was unverifiable as it happened in ancient myth.
It would certainly be correct to say that dark elves had stronger magic than the white elves, and were of a much more brutal and cunning nature.
However, they were part of the [Darkness] not because of their bad characters, but rather because of their terrible living environments.
They lived north of the northern nation of Gamble. Living s.p.a.ces were far from each other in those huge mountain ranges, and it was impossible for them to eke out a decent living.
The earth was frozen over by the bitter cold blizzards that devastated the land, and the warm underground was tinged with a powerful dark magic. Seeking what little land and food there was, they had to fight and devour one another.
It was the first “otherworlders” that had suddenly appeared several thousand years ago that had bound them together into the [Forces of Darkness] from a people that only knew strife.
This otherworlder had accidentally drifted into this world after being pulled into the dimensional ripple, and seemed to have also become the first [Hero].
n.o.body knows what it was that he had seen or had thought at the time, but the [Hero] seemed to have sympathized with them being trapped underground in that particular way of life, and he wanted to take them all to the “land of light” where the rest of the people lived.
But the [Hero] failed.
He labored under the illusion that they had the same “common sense” from his own knowledge.
If he had abandoned his role as the [Hero], and lived together underground with the [Evil Races] as the [Demon Lord], the story between light and darkness might have been very different.
He had instead pleaded to the “humanity” within those monsters, and tried to form a “republic” based on “equality” with the various tribal chiefs.
And so it came to pa.s.s that even though they became the [Forces of Darkness], their fundamental behavior changed little, and all they did was rob people more……
In the end, the hero that had wished for their happiness had their life taken away by those forces.
Still, a tiny bit of the hero"s ideals had been preserved.
At least they were united. But they could not look past the boundaries of race, and eventually formed into the three groups, beastmen, monsters, and dark elves.
Their “equality” took on the worst possible form, becoming a compet.i.tion to see who could take things away from another by force.
They refused to accept anyone that wasn"t from their own tribe. Even though they could have easily robbed the humans by uniting, they could only think of using each other.
This was especially so for the dark elves, who believed in racial purity and had beautiful forms.
Even though it wasn"t generally true, the powerful amongst them had equally powerful urges, and the n.o.bles held all others in contempt and didn"t think twice about robbing someone else.
And finally, the two youngest princesses of the dark elven royalty.
The black king didn"t care at all for the twins, rather, only the pleasures of life. Their elder siblings constantly warred with one another, never even sparing a look at the twins.
Nefiー who had blue eyes and golden hair.
Rimi ー who had purple eyes and silver hair.
They were abandoned by their caregivers, and struggled to live, and only the first princess Nefertia observed them.
"I-I"m sorry……!"
"…… You failed again?"
As the maid humbled herself to her, Nefertia sighed.
The only decent thing that she"d inherited from parents was her platinum hair ー a combination of her silver-haired father and blonde mother, the first Queen. In contrast, the twins had inherited a split of each from their parents, with the sixth Queen also being blonde.
Nefertia was the favorite of the king, with her glossy brown skin and intelligent eyes that sparkled like jewels.
Thanks to that, she prided herself as being the closest to the king over her two foolish elder brothers.
She had merely thought of messing with the twins on a whim.
As the two of them were too young, there was no way they could possibly contest the succession to the throne. Her other brothers agreed with Nefertia on this.
Besides, for her two brothers, the twins weren"t even in the running for succession because they weren"t real dark elves.
Her father, the black king, had impregnated a white elf with the twins on a whim.
Nefertia had seen that beautiful white elf only once, and her father cared very much for that wife, and had lost interest in the twins after she had been poisoned.
Even though they were related to the king by blood, they were children without a single backer.
Still, if they were sheltered by their brothers, they might obtain the right to speak out, and become a source of troubles.
They had to go, just in case.
Even if Nefertia had taken them under her wing, they couldn"t be relied on to not betray her unless she brainwashed them.
At first, she tried putting poison into their food. But since it was a slow-acting poison, or perhaps due to luck in obtaining [Poison Resistance], they didn"t weaken even after a few years. She"d plotted for them to fall into traps, and be attacked by wild beasts in accidents too, but they"d managed to avoid all of it.
It was at that point that Nefertia began to suspect that the twins were more talented than they let on.
They looked like children who didn"t have the ability or the knowledge, and she"d initially thought that they were exactly as they appeared.
Nefertia had had the twins investigated and came to realize a few things.
The twins" mother, the white elf, hadn"t been a.s.sa.s.sinated by any of their brothers, but by dark elf racial supremacists.
Even though that person was a racial supremacist, they had sworn absolute loyalty to the black king. The next king, regardless of whomever took the throne, would never have allowed the bloodline to mix. There was almost no possibility of the twins succeeding the throne either, so was it really necessary to kill their mother before the king had become senile and incompetent?
Nefertia thought that if a boy had been born, it was entirely possible for him to become one of the successors, regardless of the twins.
And then something came to mind.
The twins" mother, she couldn"t possibly be a [High Elf], could she……
The High Elves were the origin of both the dark and the white elves.
Marriages between White Elves would occasionally result in the birth of High Elves, but they were almost never born between Dark Elves.
The elven subspecies longed for High Elves. It was a kind of instinctive desire for them, and every home had their own little [High Elf Photo Alb.u.m].
It was entirely understandable why the king didn"t let anyone else even look at the twins" mother if she had been a High Elf.
If her existence was exposed to the public, people would gather each day to worship her like a G.o.d. And the twins would easily become the successor to the throne from the enthusiastic support of the people.
Perhaps the king"s hedonistic behavior was because of the sorrow of losing her?
Or maybe it was because it was hard to not be reminded of her looking at the twins?
"……It definitely bears investigating."
She definitely needed to deal with the twins before the king could recall himself.
Barring the fanatical racial supremacists, the twins were pretty cute, even to the cold Nefertia.
She could not allow anything that could betray her to live, though…… even if it was only a suspicion.
Then, the skilled a.s.sa.s.sin that she"d sent out to murder the twins did not return.
"Your Highness…… what"s the matter?"
The female dark elven knight by her side was strangely voluptuous and s.e.xy, but apparently that was decided upon by the first hero.
"……Hmm"
Nefertia thought to herself, her eyelashes curling downwards.
It would not do for other people to know that the twins were related to high elves. She wanted it to be dealt with as soon as possible, but they knew that Nefertia had shown her hand hastily, and it would be even worse if the rest knew about the twins.
"……I wonder if someone else can take the blame."
Author"s Notes:
It"s a new book. There"s going to be a lot of serious explaining to do.
App"s Notes:
Elo, folks! Due to the large nature of this chapter and the decision to make a buffer, we"re taking the opportunity to split this chapter up so that we won"t be late in upcoming weeks like we were last time. I hope you enjoy the chunk o" exposition, though, with more to come.