Alice felt her breath hitch as the dark elf turned to them his gaze analytical and settled on her judgingly
She knew that look.
He probably thought she was some abomination like most of the people in the elven villages because of her raven black hair elves deemed a curse.
She could already hear him insulting her.
"you did well young one, are you hurt?" he made no move to get closer
Huh?
Had he actually asked if she was unharmed?
Alice, being deemed the cursed child of her village who almost no one cared for. didn't know how to respond to someone bothering to ask if she was fine
She nodded her head weakly
"good" the dark elf nodded satisfied "now I assure you youngins I am no threat to you or any of your kin. I am merely a passer-by" he said scanning his eyes over the dead battlefield
Alice had never seen anything quite like how this battle turned out.
One dark elf had decimated about 50 to 60 monsters by the looks of the battlefield which looked and smelled like blood and gore. Despite the condition of the monsters, the dark elf himself had barely a drop of black blood on him.
There were also those two roars he used to make the monsters back off.
The blood howl and some other kind of variation to it.
"Why did you help us?" she snapped her head to Lucius who was still in the root of the tree next to Annie staring at the dark elf warily "you're a dark elf aren't you!?" he asked in hostility raising a short knife in a defensive position
"Lucius!" Alice scolded
"that's rude!" Annie scolded
"hey don't talk to master like that!" Alice raised an eyebrow at the term
Indeed there had always been an old hate and fear of the dark elves for their sheer prowess in the war but what's more, were they respected.
The elves respected their strength and wisdom.
Alice prayed the dark eld wouldn't take offense. Any normal elf would have cut off the tongue of the person who'd insult them and raise their weapon against them.
Instead, the dark elf smiled patiently.
catching her off guard
It was the smile of a father watching his children grow up in front of him.
"would you have not done the same thing if a stranger was in danger?" he asked rhetorically and Lucius was about to snark back at him before he spoke again "no you would have not," he said curtly
"then why the hell did you decide to help us?!" Lucius shouted his short knife ready to attack and charged at the dark elf recklessly
"apathy is such a terrible thing" the dark elf sighed closing his eyes tiredly and stepping to the side with his foot extended sending the blonde elf garbed in red tumbling
"ha serves you right" Annie laughed
"as expected of master" Siris piped in through a snort
"apathy?" Alice asked she calmed down the second the dark elf showed no sign of hostility towards them
"yes…" the dark elf trailed off opening his eyes his lips quirking down a bit "knowing others are suffering and knowing you have the power to help but chose to do nothing" he dodged another strike from the shorter elf
"that's…" Alice's eyes widened
That was what happened to her.
Her people knew she was suffering through the harsh judgment of the elders yet the fear of their wrath kept them from even coming near her.
They would just look at her when she was being oppressed.
They would do nothing when she was being insulted.
They would only stand there
She didn't hate them for it.
She was considered the cursed child of the village anyways.
Apathy…
Whilst the dark-haired elf was thinking she barely registered Lucius making a fool of himself in trying to hit the dark elf while the one being attacked continued to rant on about apathy and turning it into a lecture turned story
One which Annie and Siris were listening keenly on.
"and that young one is why you shouldn't fear the judgment of others and do what you think is right" Alice snapped back to reality as the dark elf finished his little lesson
Alice looked at the trainees she was supposed to be watching over
Lucius was on the ground breathing raggedly
While the other two looked the dark elf with stars in their eyes.
"name…" Alice managed to say
"hm?" the dark elf hummed in confusion
"your name, we never got it." she clarified. She wasn't exactly the type of elf with a lot of social experience seeing as the others avoided her like the plague
"it is basic manners to give your name first before asking another" he responded dancing through the wild slashes Lucius made in his fit of anger
"oh…" she didn't quite know that. She'd never actually had anyone to teach her things involving other people seeing as her mother…
"Willem"
"huh?"
"you can call me Willem"
"my name is Allesandra Raidon, now you two introduce yourselves," Alice said indicating to Annie and Siris
"I already know Master! He taught me sword stuff!!!" Siris exclaimed with a childish mirth
"I am Anabel Courtel, please pardon my brother's behavior" the smallest elf present introduced politely a small
"why…" Lucius huffed "cant… I hit …you!"
"it's no problem at all," Willem waved off extending his foot out again to send Lucius crashing down for the second time
"serves you right for trying to attack master" Siris laughed at the downed elf
"why you!" instead of charging Willem Lucius tackled Siris and Willem observed with great interest looking at some odd form of mud wrestling
"I take it this happens often?" Willem asked Alice who seemed to flinch at his voice
"Yeah, actually" it was Annie who responded in a bored tone "teacher always said boys will be boys after all"
"I can't deny that…" Alice heard Willem mumble under his breath "now then how about I help you out with setting up camp you little miss seem like your tired" he offered a small smile to Alice
…who felt her cheeks redden from the attention
Had she had that bad of a communication skill before?
The answer was plain and as simple as day.
Yes.
In spite of her efforts of constantly trying to talk to the other elves, she'd always been ignored and now that someone was talking to her she didn't quite know how to respond to someone voluntarily doing the talking
How ironic.
"um… we don't want to bother you…" was all she managed to say before her voice turned into an incoherent mumbling even she didn't understand
"nonsense, when I came here you looked ready to fall on your back out of weariness" he cut off sternly his body already moving to make camp
Alice's response died before it even started
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Willem sighed as he found himself helping another group. As he had a deer with crystal antlers in the metaphorical sights of his bow
He fired.
It struck true like most of his shots did after the events of that god awful forest mission back on earth when he still didn't' know how to hunt
He shuddered at the memory.
The horrors of what he had to eat to survive
He'd never looked at maggots and newts the same way ever again.
He slapped himself out of the memory
"come on Willem you have a group of elves to help," he told himself making his way to the downed deer to drain it of blood and drag it back to the camp
Why had he decided to help again?
It was just like that time with Lilian and Sebas all over again.
Why couldn't his second life be more simple?
To Willem seeing a person in need was never a choice of whether or not to help. he always helped them from the good of his heart.
Was it his way of coping with his old life?
Did he gain pleasure from helping people thinking it was redemption for all the bad things he's done in the old world in the name of family?
He shook his head.
It was better not to think about it.
He was the type that didn't think too much on serious things
Even the occasional thoughts about Amanda had their bright sides as depressing as that subject was for the old soul that was Willem
No, he wasn't doing this for self-fulfillment.
It was just his nature.
As much as he hated to admit it and cast himself off as a merciless killer in the army, he was actually considered one of the most looked up to person there.
His fellow soldiers liked to call him Willem the saint on the battlefield but the devil on the training grounds
His fellow scout rangers often said he was too soft on the younger recruits, helping a great many of them. In fact, he was the sole reason some of them managed to make it out alive in the first place.
No matter how much he denies it.
Willem Balthasar would always be a kind person.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
When he'd returned camp had already been set up as two tents perched themselves beside a small river the group decided to set camp beside and the three younger elves were nowhere to be seen.
The black-haired one wearing a loose white long-sleeved cotton shirt that reached her wrists paired with black linen pants that wouldn't hinder her movements much. Started to make a fire pit to cook the deer on by using stones to border where the fire was supposed to go
Willem believed her name was… Alesandra Was it?
He approached her.
"you seem to be busy, young one," he greeted causing her to flinch and jump back a bit in surprise "oh have I done something to scare or offend you?" he asked placing the deer beside one of the plentiful rocks where he perched himself on
"no!!!" she shouted suddenly
Had she been capable of making such a loud sound before?
She'd seemed so meek and timid from the way she interacted with the others Willem thought that was just how loud her voice could get
"no, it's not that," she caught herself shouting and lowered her voice talking in the more familiar timid voice she used before "you just scared me is all, you move very silently like an assassin" she waved her hands around in a panic to try to correct herself her cheeks slightly tinged with red.
All the while she made some incoherent noises Willem thought were an apology? maybe?
Willem didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.
The fact that she looked so worried she'd offended him meant he should take it as neither and just brush it off as another comment
He laughed. Which seemed to catch her off guard.
"do not be so tense with me Allesandra, I am by no means an easy man to offend," Willem said factually as he began to skin the dead deer with crystal antlers with his machete
"…ok then" came her meek response
As Willem worked he found the elf's gaze land on him on multiple occasions as he caught her mouth moves a couple of times as if she wanted to say something
"you are curious about something" he stated catching a small 'eep!' from the elf who looked at him in alarm "I am not adverse as to answering a few questions in return for a few of mine answered."
Silence
"that… thing you did, after decapitating the ogre what was it" she asked a bit hesitantly
Willem put a hand to his chin
"that is what I like to call intimidation young one," he didn't know what in hell's ass he was saying at the moment but decided to let his mind make up a lie on the spot
"intimidation?"
"yes… a technique I created that uses my voice as a catalyst to scare enemies" he closed his eyes in what he hoped to be a sagely manner hoping she believed the lie
"huh?!" she suddenly made a surprising sound of realization
Willem winced as he kept his eyes closed anticipating her to call him out on his lie
"That means you made a variation of the blood howl!" she said her voice going into uncharacteristic amazement looking at Willem with stars in her eyes
Willem kept his eyes closed as to not show his relief as he leaned on his past experience to decipher what in the hell this 'blood howl' was
"and what do your people suspect the blood howl is?" he asked curiously as if he was testing her
She went immediately rigid at the sudden pop quiz thrown her way
"it… is more of a hiss technique instead of an actual howl meant to be used to scare off a few enemies by using the dark elves bloodlust… as a catalyst like mana for magic… I think?" she said a bit hesitantly as if she wasn't confident about the answer
Despite the inner turmoil within him, he found himself nodding approvingly and storing the information in his head for later use
So that was the hissing thing he did when he saved Lilian and Sebas from the wolves. He didn't know why but it came as an instinct to his body to do it soo naturally.
"but it is more of a natural trait. It is like second nature for me to use it" he just had to pull that BS out of his ass for some reason "but overall you were quite right in your assessment Allesandra"
There was a comfortable silence before the elf decided to break it
"Alice"
"hm?"
"Call me Alicia my name could be quite a mouthful sometimes" she added meekly
"very well Alice," Willem noted a hint of red on her face but carried on with his question "as for my question, can you tell me why you looked so worried when talking to me?"
And there it was.
He saw her head slump a bit as a bit of familiar sorrow clawed at her eyes that reminded Willem so much of himself
It must be a touchy subject.
"it started in the elven village…"