Willem had his fair encounters with odd people, the princess and the cowardly knight included. Heck, he once saw a guy dancing in the middle of a warzone once in his old world.
"dark elf, I challenge you to a duel!!!"
But they seem to pale in comparison to the person in front of him.
Standing in front of him with a sword that was probably a decoration piece and in a ready stance with stars in his eyes was what he assumed to be a normal elf garbed in blue linen pants leaving his chest bare much like Willem's
He stood about as tall Willem's shoulder, which was still pretty tall considering Willem stood at least somewhere around the 6ft in height
But unlike Willem, the elf barely had any muscle on him. And by a glance, he could tell his hands were soft, not used to working much less holding the sword in his hands. His blonde hair and sharp features gave him a regal look the kind you would find in rich CEO companies back on earth
"no. Leave me alone" Willem said to him and kept walking in a random direction literally wanting to be anywhere that wasn't with the delusional elf.
At the moment he really did have nowhere to go
He couldn't go to the city. He'd probably be ordered to be executed upon entry of it, it was a human kingdom after all and he was a dark elf
"nonsense, have you no sense of honor?!" the elf sputtered in outrage despite Willem refusing the duel for the 5th time today
Why was this dude so adamant on fighting him?
Willem had just minded his own business taking a leisurely walk in the forest located to the north of Lunaria city. when all of asudden the elf jumps out of bush screaming and pointing at him like he was some exotic animal and later challenging him to duel
Willem was by no means violent.
Sure, he knew how to fight but that didn't mean he liked fighting. He had seen the horrors of war and lived through it with a newfound respect for life as his reward
He was a tame person at heart.
Just a normal person who wanted the best for his family.
"If I fight you would you leave me alone?" Willem asked a tick mark growing on his head from the irritation caused by being shouted at to fight ever since daybreak.
Instantly the elf perked up with stars glittering in his eyes and raised his sword
"prepare to lose. I shall show you the strength of-" Willem punched his face midway through his little speech sending the poor sod sprawling on the ground
"what the hell are you doing? Talking to the enemy when he was clearly accepted your challenge will get you killed!" Willem scolded shaking his head as he prepared for a follow-up attack from the elf
"I see now the difference in our strength but with this one move I shall finish you off!!!" Willem felt bad for the first blow so he let the elf finish this time around raising his hand in the air two fingers extended towards Willem
Willem's instincts screamed at him to get out of the way
"FIRE LANCE!!!" a burst of fire erupted from the elf's hand making its way for Willem
And then all of a sudden Willem was gone not a trace of him could be found by the elf who started to panic worriedly
"oh no! I didn't mean to kill you!" he said worriedly panicking "I'm sorry!!"
He stopped as he felt the bite of steel behind his neck. not enough pressure to draw out blood but the steel still caused the elf's hairs to stand on end
"an interesting tactic…" Willem commented behind him and the elf turned briefly to catch a glimpse of the dark elf's Steely gray eyes that bore into him "but not enough"
"now… do you yield?"
"i-i-i y-yield" he managed to stutter out
Willem put his machete down and sheathed it.
"good. It seems you know when you are beaten" Willem praised lightly "most youngins never give up and most often it gets them killed," he said his eyes closed
"soo cool!!!" the elf gushed out
Willem blinked.
"you have fought me and bested me fairly dark elf" Willem didn't like where this is going "so I would grant on to you the privilege of being my master"
And with that line, Willem turned and began walking again
"hey don't ignore me!!!"
"what do you want from me!?" Willem groaned
"How did you dodge my fire lance?" the elf continued to ask
Willem sighed.
It was better to give in and hope he leaves him alone after he answered all of his questions
"I hid among the tree's and shadowed your movement and waited for the perfect chance to strike, " Willem said
"Now my turn." Willem pressed "what's your name and were you dropped as a child?" he asked giving the elf a flat stare
"How did you know?!"
Willem repressed a groan.
"and your name would be?" Willem redirected him to the proper question
"my name makes beast tremble, my strength makes the earth, quake and my charm causes women to throw themselves at me," he said dramatically possing
"I am Siris Ausr tremble before me!-wait don't go!" he called just as Willem was about to turn and walk away again
"you can call me Willem,"
"very well master Willem"
"drop the 'master' honorific"
"Okay then master"
Willem sighed.
"Why do I even bother…" he mumbled
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Willem POV: the idiots master
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I have to admit This new body of mine was in quite the condition. I couldn't even feel fatigued even if I ran a whole marathon. But either way, at least in this body I could put most of my skills, mainly the combat-oriented ones to use
Wait… what was I doing again?
"aah!! damn that hurts" Siris grunted after being shoved by my open palm
Oh right… him.
"the hell is wrong with you?" I asked in mild annoyance "you're stance is full of holes your footing sucks and don't even get me started on you're stupid bravado" I scolded noticing the elf look downcast at my judgment
Seriously.
Why was I teaching this idiot again?
Oh yeah, cause he won't leave me alone.
And I thought teaching Sebas hard.
Well, granted, Sebas did have at least some formal training since he was a knight. not the best one knight in the kingdom but a knight non the less
Well actually, it wasn't hard to train him, just punching him over and over until he got the general idea of trying to predict where I was about to hit next was actually kinda fun.
Now what to teach this bumbling idiot…
"that should do…" I mumbled as I grabbed two short sticks roughly about 18 cm in length and handed one to Siris
"master is that…" he trailed off eyes wide "the enchanted sticks of the sacred tree of the cross?" he asked dramatically
"no you idiot, they're normal sticks" what in tarnation is an enchanted stick?!
"oh"
And why do you look so disappointed?!
"Take this and try to follow my motions," I said correcting his former stances and giving him advice on how to attack
huh… It looks like he can actually keep up.
Time for some full contact sparring.
With one swift move, I hit the stick in his hand with mine, letting the force of the blow drag Siris's body sideways a bit before the elf looked at me in surprise.
I made a 'come at me' gesture.
"I see…" he mumbled out before getting into the stance I showed him "this is the time for I, Siris Ausr to prove myself to- ouch!" I brought my stick across his left shoulder
"dead" I announced
breaking that dramatic streek in the middle of a battle is gonna take a while…
__________________________________________________________________________________________
A few screams and sticks to the face later…
__________________________________________________________________________________________
"don't look at me like that" Willem said scoldingly at the bruised and battered elf who looked at him like he was the bain of his existence.
And Willem?
He barely broke a sweat.
For some reason, Siris's form looked like the European sword style albeit executed really badly to the point that it lost its potency and couldn't match up to Willem's mediocre use of Kali swordsmanship
"look on the bright side," Willem said trying to cheer the elf up "you managed to hit me once right?"
The elf brightened a bit
"despite the fact that I use daggers or knife in combat"
He was back to sulking in a heartbeat
Willem looked up to the sky
"kid, don't you have a home to return to?" Willem asked seeing the sky start to darken a bit as the reddish tint of dusk could be seen in the sky
"Nah, me and a few other trainees have a mission here for two days," he said looking at the sky
"trainees?" Willem raised a brow at the term
"in the elf village, children are trained to be hunters like how the human's train knights" Siris explained "usually we're always accompanied by a senior trainee on missions like these"
"mission?"
"just simple plant collection," he said cheerily "I already completed mine so here I am" he added proudly
"you said, children. So how old are you?" Willem asked curiously
"236 I'll be turning 237 this year!" he said excitedly as Willem tried his best to hide his shock remembering how long elves usually live "how old will you be, Master?"
Willem didn't quite know what to tell him. Since Sebas convinced him he was actually over a thousand years old in body, he couldn't just say he was 85 now, could he?
"Frankly, I don't know anymore" he responded with the nearest thing he knew to the truth
"can't you just check your back?" Siris tilted his head to the side confusedly
"what do you mean?"
"I don't know if it works for dark elves but we normal elves usually have a mark on our back that grows darker the more we age," he said showing his back to Willem
There was a symbol of an arrowhead and a cloaked figure in blue that looked like it was barely there at all located on the nape where the spinal cord meets the head
"they say it changes color too!" Siris said enthusiastically "blue for early children still young, red for the young adults who are at least 600 years old and silver for the actual adults," the normal elf said trying to impress his master
"Siris, do me a favor and see if I have a mark on my back?" Willem asked and the elf nodded
Willem turned around and pulled his braided hair over the shoulder
He heard a gasp.
"what is it?"
"It's silver, " Siris said "you're older than a thousand years old" he whispered in awe
"so it seems" Willem commented turning to the younger elf "why is it you seem surprised that it was silver?" he asked seeing Siris still in his little trance
"well about a year ago most of the older elves were killed off in a war," he said a bit downcast "and you're a dark elf!" he said with renewed joy in his eyes
"and what does me being a dark elf have anything to do with your surprise," willem asked slightly wondering if that was a racist thing to say
"the elder always tell us to avoid the dark elves"
Willem blinked.
"they say they are the scariest of all the monsters because of their knowledge in the art of killing and sheer skill with weapons," Siris said looking up to Willem "they also say always that dark elves that reach adulthood are all merciless killers" Willem frowned
"not all dark elves are scary just like not all humans are bad," Willem said sagely
"I know Master! You're a dark elf and your kind" Siris beamed at him "our senior is also believed to be half dark elf too!!!"
Him? Kind?
Willem certainly didn't think he was.
He just hated violence and preferred to be alone most of the time
"and being told this you still challenged me to a duel?" willem looked at the elf incredulously
Siris only scratched his head
*BOOM!*
Suddenly there was an explosion and a red flare like light was shot a few hundred meters away attracting the attention of Willem and Siris
Siris's face grew three shades whiter
"kid, what's wrong?" Willem asked in mild worry of seeing the normally cheerful idiot grow worried
"the others…" siris began running
"they're in trouble!"