~ Chapter 113: First contact with Ledmerra Kingdom ~

[Two years and one dragon month ago]

[Seryanna’s point of view]

 The Elf Continent was stretching out before us like a thin line in the horizon. There were no tall mountains, lush forests, jagged cliffs, or endless plains we could spot as of yet. We were too far from it, but according to Captain Matthew’s calculations, we were closer to Ledmerra Kingdom than the Anui’Yahna.

For those who were waiting to see the next harbor or even the next island, there was an eager gleam in their eyes, however, for me, it made no difference if we were getting closer to the Human Continent, the Relliar Continent, the Dwarf Continent, or the Dragon Continent. Land was land, no matter what species lived on it, and it did not matter if it was covered in lush forests or barbed wire drenched in the deadliest of poisons.

I would even go so far as to say that after visiting the Dwarf Continent and the Relliar Continent, the fact that the dragons were born on our continent was no less than mere luck and pure chance. Whether we could have been born there or on another landmass, it did not really make a difference to me.

However, I was not so insensitive as to voice out my opinion to those around me. There were plenty of other dragons and dragonesses on board this ship who were eager to set foot on land again no matter who it was ruled by. There were many who also looked towards the strip of land on the horizon with eyes filled with curiosity and energy. For them, this place was a goldmine of opportunity.

While the sailors were getting ready to land, the captain and Princess Elleyzabelle were by the starboard taffrail, looking out into the horizon through their spyglasses. Ignoring the rest of the busy crewmates, I walked up to those two and placed my hands on the beam.

“Did you spot anything interesting, captain?” I asked.

“Those ships don’t belong to the human nations.” Captain Matthew he replied as he lowered his spyglass.

“Ships?” I asked farrowing my brow.

No matter how much I tried to squint my eyes at the horizon, I could not see a single thing.

“There are three galleon-sized ships heading towards us. Their sails are of a dark purple color and their flag is unknown to me.”

“I do believe that flag might belong to the Ledmerra Kingdom. Those ships could be the border patrols, so I advise against taking any hostile actions… for now.” said Princess Elleyzabelle.

“Let us hope then that they harbor good intentions, otherwise, we’ll be greeting the el’doraw with a wave of cannon balls and magic attacks.” Captain Matthew said in a worried tone of voice.

Around thirty minutes or so later, the ships were close enough for us to communicate with them. The captain did most of the writing, while a small white bird was the one that delivered the messages. When we first spotted the carrier flying towards us, Tanarotte almost jump up at it. intent on turning it into her second breakfast, it was a good thing Kataryna was nearby to drop an anvil on top of her head.

Those [Purse] rings were quite versatile in what they could carry inside of them. Princess Elleyzabelle also commended Kataryna on her quick decision to stop the mischievous dragoness. It would have been bad if this little incident of a dead bird sparked a feud between the el’doraw and the draconians.

When the last message arrived, Captain Matthew let out a sigh of relief and gave a thumbs up to his sailors. The el’doraw navy apparently allowed us to dock at one of their harbors. Their only request was to escort us there, so that the harbor’s defenses did not take us for pirates.

Then, later that day, we finally set foot on land.

The harbor’s name was Offspray, which was apparently the name of a nymph from their mythology.

It was said that a demi-goddess by the same name and unknown origins arrived on this shore long before the el’doraw raised their first hut here and with the help of the wind spirits, she sent out her beautiful song that covered the entirety of the Elf Continent. It was said that on that day, all the flowers bloomed, and the forests applauded the enchanting melody.

At least this was what Princess Elleyzabelle read about it in one of her books when Captain Matthew mentioned the name. I personally found it rather interesting and charming, Kataryna said that it was somewhat romantic, more like the fairy tale of a elf who spent too much of his time dreaming about the clouds, the seas, and other stuff like that.

Unlike the case with the dwarfs, the el’doraw had nothing against us undocking as soon as we dropped the anchor in their harbor. The Princess immediately sent a request to have an audience with the local lord and then Captain Matthew began to trade with the locals.

Since I acted out as her Highness’ bodyguard, there was no way that I would shamelessly walk off to look around the port city. As soon as the letter of reply came from the local lord, I would have to accompany Princess Elleyzabelle there. Kataryna was more or less in the same position, however, since Tanarotte had her own peculiar set of skills, we decided to send her off to find more information about the locals, more specifically, their culture and customs. So as to not cause any unnecessary commotion, her orders were to lay low as much as possible, if she could act stealthier than a wolf walking among sheep, even better.

The reply to her Highness’ letter arrived around three hours after it was sent. We were to meet them the following day at his mansion, which gave us enough time to begin resupplying as well as gather intelligence on the locals, such as customs, legends, social norms, and with a bit of luck the organizations against which we had to keep our guard up.

Then, later that evening, while Princess Elleyzabelle was enjoying a cup of warm tea on the deck of the ship, Tanarotte looking all haggard and out of breath returned from her little spying adventure in the town. There was a branch sticking out of her hair, and she had tiny bite marks on her tail.

“Oh, my! What happened to you?” her Highness inquired.

“Ahahaha... children are scawy~!” she replied and then started to cry.

After we calmed her down, we got to learn that while she was doing her mission diligently, she stumbled upon an orphanage that was being pressured by a group of local ruffians. The el’doraw woman who oversaw the place tried to reason with them, but she was not able to and then they tried to take one of the children by force. Tanarotte could not let something like this go, so she stepped in and protected them. Those ruffians were no match against a dragoness like her.

While I was commending the dragoness for jumping in to help, Kataryna agreed on the fact that tricking little children was the best way to get information on their parents and then she recounted a time when one of her subordinates from her old gang did exactly this in order to obtain some blackmail info on some merchant couple.

It was a good thing her Majesty pardoned Kataryna of any and all of her past crimes when she became Princess Elleyzabelle’s Knight, otherwise, we would have needed to consider the possible repercussions of harboring a criminal among us.

Tanarotte continued her story and spoke about how the children viewed the world. The el’doraw had a patriarchal society first of all, ruled by a King and then a Queen. The Matriarch was actually the oldest woman in their family. She held power over the finances of the house, while her daughters were responsible for investing in new business opportunities. The men mostly cared about their strength in battle and ways of advancing on the social ladder. When they went up by a rank, so did the prestige of his entire family.

Originally, the dragoness learned of this from the way the children bragged about what they wanted to do when they grew up, revealing in the process some of the main jobs the el’doraw had and also a little bit about what they considered to be rude and what wasn’t. For example: swearing, drinking, and smoking in public was considered as rude, while drinking at a pub or during a special event was considered as something proper. Commoners were not allowed to swear in front of nobles, since many could consider those words as being addressed to them, while smoking was essentially a noble’s delight which had to be tasted, measurably, indoors. Their guardian also chipped in with pieces of information to correct their initial misleading knowledge. They also drank some tea together, but the dragoness found it awfully bitter. Because she still had more stuff to do, she promised the children to return later that day once she was done looking around.

We did not commend Tanarotte for revealing the fact that she was on a scouting mission that was supposed to be an absolute secret. We all gave her a cold stare when we heard this.

By going from place to place and listening in on what the el’doraw were talking about, Tanarotte learned that the Lord of this town, was called Talmarund Offspray and was the Patriarch of the Offspray family. While he did not abuse his power in this little port he governed, he wasn’t willing to use it to make everyone’s lives better either. In essence, he was an average lord by all standards.

“An average lord would mean that he has little ambition to grow. Their type are the most troublesome to deal with since they are neither evil nor good, neither smart nor stupid, they will go with the flow for the most part and if you don’t know where the flow is heading, you risk to end up swallowed by it.” Princess Elleyzabelle pointed out.

For me, it did not matter what type of lord he was and how he ruled this land. If he desired to harm her Highness in any way, I would make sure to repay him with the edge of my blade. Being hot headed and short tempered wasn’t a good idea, as this could allow even someone with mediocre intelligence to plan ahead of me, but letting others insult me or her Highness too much wasn’t recommended either.

I spoke to the others about these things, about when it was the right time to unsheathe your sword and when it wasn’t. How could I mediate over a delicate situation and what I had to do when a noble was backing me up into a corner. While her Highness elaborated her answer and explained various circumstances that made it alright for me to attack, they were all very tricky and depended a lot on the moods of the other people around me. Kataryna, on the other hand, was less tactical and more spontaneous. She told me that ignoring the weaklings was the best one could do and then when they went too far, I just had to dominate them with absolute might. After all, who was there to comment on a Breakthrough-er’s actions when the other party dared to challenge them? This was the secret, to take up their words as a challenge of might and turn it into one even if the other party was denying it.

While Kataryna’s method wasn’t recommended for various reasons, Princess Elleyzabelle couldn’t deny the fact that it worked even for the most complicated situations. After all, the only ones to blame for challenging a hotblooded individual to battle were only the victims themselves. If they were strong, they could defend against a couple attacks until I made my point clear that I wasn’t too happy with their words. If they didn’t die, it was good and if they died, again, it was good.

The downside of this matter was that those of upper class would find it less likely to invite you to social events as well as put weight in your suggestions. There weren’t that many who dared to listen to the words of someone who was considered to use their brawn more than their brain.

In the end, what I understood from all of this was that I should find my own way of expressing myself. The limit of insults which I could tolerate could be set only by me, and the same went with everything else. Kataryna was less likely to tolerate an impertinent noble, while I could hold back longer. In the end, I had to define myself as a Breakthrough-er and be myself no matter the situation and the individuals I was up against.

In a way, this was supposed to be the easiest thing for me to do, but at the same time it was more complicated than it seemed.

Simply put, politics gave me a headache, and I would have preferred if Alkelios was the one who dealt with them. Unfortunately, he wasn’t here.

“What else did you learn about the el’doraw?” I asked Tanarotte after I cleared my head of these complicated thoughts.

“Hm, well, it appears that Ledmerra, as a country, is a vassal state to the Anui’Yahna Empire. According to their legends, the el’doraw were once ancient elves who suffered under the corruptive darkness of the Mad God long before either of the two countries on the Elf Continent existed. The one to save them from this corruption and cut off the influence of the Mad God was none other than the heroine Anui’Yahna the First Empress.” Tanarotte told us.

“Ledmerra was also mentioned in that story?” Princess Elleyzabelle asked.

“Yes, she was a powerful Warrior Knight and loyal follower of Empress Anui’Yahna.” she nodded.

“No such story in your books, your Highness?” Kataryna asked raising an eyebrow.

“No.” she replied shaking her head.

“Strange.” she furrowed her brow.

“Indeed.” she nodded.

“So, how did you end up with those bite marks?” I asked her after a moment had passed.

“After I was done with the mission... Hic! Hic!... I went back to the orphanage, and the children asked me to play with them... That’s how I got the bite marks.” Tanarotte replied with teary eyes.

We could only pity the poor dragoness. One thing was to fight against a horde of monsters, and another was to be assaulted by a mob of children who were far too young and innocent to understand that they were traumatizing their adult friend.

That night, instead of heading offshore to spend the night at the local inn, we remained on board the ship.  There were a couple of our sailors who went out in town to have some fun, however, Captain Matthew made sure to order them to keep a sharp ear and an eye open for anything suspicious or strange.

Instead of resting peacefully, I remained awake in my room as I watched the moon pass over the night sky, I took out a needle and thread and began to practice my embroidery skill. Although I made a lot of mistakes and everything that I created turned out ridiculous, I had heard from her Highness that some mothers usually taught this skill to their daughters while they were expecting an egg so that the first warmer to embrace it would be one made by them.

Before she even had the chance to see me engaged and then married off, my mother had already passed away. There was no one left to teach me this skill, but this didn’t mean that I couldn’t learn it myself in my free time. Some would argue that learning embroidery or knitting when I wasn’t expecting an egg or even had a husband to warm my bed was nothing more than a waste of time, a mere delusion of a pitiful widow... However, Alkelios wasn’t dead, he was just missing. I knew it in my heart that one of these days I would receive a message from him and we would once again be reunited.

This feeling of mine was powerful enough to rip to shred all the gazes of pity and whispers of evil that others my dare to toss my way. So far though, I seemed to have been spared by most of them... Maybe this happened because I was far away from the capital or even away from those who would normally think like this?

I did not know, but if those idiots tried to step out of line, then I had all the right in the worlds to slash them to pieces. At the same time... what was wrong with me wishing to acquire the skill one might need when they would become a mother? Even Kataryna knew how to both knit and embroider, so why shouldn’t I?

“Ouchie!” I said after I poked my finger.

I licked up the drop of blood and then let out a sigh.

“This is harder than I imagined...” I then looked up at the moons and said “But, maybe if I learn this skill now, then I can teach it to my little sister later instead of our mother?”

Tonight, the stars looked gentle to me. Maybe the gods were encouraging me to do this in their own way?

As I looked down at the embroidered mess in my hands, a pair of tears gathered in the corners of my eyes, and a single whimper escaped my lips:

“Alkelios.... Where are you? I miss you...”