10 minutes prior:
Outside of the manor, there was a large metal gate, black as night, with long purple banners that had the symbol of a diamond on them. This gate connected to a tall stone wall that surrounded the Harenhart Manor that lay about a quarter of a mile inside the massive gate. Along a brick path that leads from the manor, a lone figure began walking back towards the manor gate where another thinner silhouette was standing like a pole.
"Aahhh." A masculine yawn came from a tall thin man who stood at the ready with a large spear. He was wearing a shoddy helmet that didn't cover his long pointed and single notched ears, and he was also wearing a leather armored chest-plate over his brown tunic that reached just above his brown trousers, and worn iron greaves that didn't seem to fit just right. He gripped his spear tightly as he received a pat against his back, which caused him to jump slightly.
"Look alive, Newbie." A deep voice came from behind, and as the elven guard turned around, he saw an older elven guard with a smile on his face. The older elf looked quite aged with wrinkles around his sunken face, and his ears had five notches on both ears; however, despite his pure white hair, he was rather muscular for his age, much unlike the other male elves in the manor. His outfit matched the younger guard, but it was much more worn and faded in color. He looked towards the sky and said calmly, "No sleeping while the sun is in the sky."
The younger guard looked at him with a face of fear, opening his mouth to speak, and then not as he remembered the rules.
"Oh! First day, right." The older guard laughed, "Out here, we can talk. It's our job to relay important messages to the inside and deal with the problems on the outside. Think of it as the only advantage above the poor ones on the inside."
"O—Oh." The younger guard said with a gulp, still afraid of being punished for a single word. He saw the dangers a few days ago with a poor young female elf getting lashed on her legs in the punishment yard for apologizing that she bumped into another elf.
"The name is Runar." The older guard said with a smile, "Out here, it's probably the easiest job of the manor since trouble only comes once in a blue moon. Nothing an 18-year-old newbie couldn't handle!"
"Nice to meet you, sir." The young guard bowed. As he did, his helmet almost fell off his head, prompting him to catch it unexpectedly. "I—I am Seran."
"Seran, eh?" Runar laughed, "Well, it looks like I got a lively one." Runar let out a heavy sigh, "I hate to break it to you, but this place, it breaks you down."
"I can see that. I've only been here a few days." Seran said, scratching at his chest where, underneath, a giant tattoo laid spread across it.
"Yeah, this household is a bit…better than most." Runar said, choosing his words cautiously, "If anything, hope lies in the daughter of this household."
"The daughter?" Seran said with a raised eyebrow, "Why is that?"
Runar laughed to himself, "She doesn't dislike the elves. Heck, not a bad bone in her body."
"Naïve." Seran said with a frown, "She must be unaware of what goes on in the punishment yards or-- "
"No." Runar interrupted, "She has been there herself and seen the torture. She disliked it. A few days ago, that girl ran out into the yard and begged them to stop torturing a poor young elf maid, little older than yourself, actually. "Runar let out a low whistle, "The way they were beating her, you'd think her legs would have been dust by twilight."
"Impossible. A human saving an elf?" Seran looked shocked. This maid couldn't be the same elf woman he saw a few days ago. He thought to himself before speaking aloud, "When did she run out?"
"Four hours into the beating." Runar said, "Us elves have quite the resistance due to our healing properties. Even with the slave crest, we can access it, so they beat us until our bodies give out and the wounds won't stop freshly bleeding. "
"Oh." Seran said solemnly, "I couldn't watch after twenty minutes." He then thought to himself that he would have liked to see the young girl, the master's daughter, protest for the safety of an elf. He shook his head and gripped his spear a bit tighter.
"A shame." Runar said, shaking his head as well, "Word of advice, young one. Watch for a bit longer, and you might learn more than think. Even if it's painful, these lessons you will learn will be of much use in the future."
"Yes, sir!" Seran smiled as he saluted. Runar chuckled as he walked to the other side of the gate, took a key from his pocket, and opened the door to a side shack. He appeared a few seconds later with a trident-like spear, locked the door, and then stood parallel to Seran.
A minute of silence passed by before four silhouettes appeared in the distance. As they got closer, Runar and Seran saw that it was three masculine figures of various sizes, and behind them, they were dragging through the dust and mud the petite figure of a young maid. Both guards got their spears at the ready, and Runar let out a loud cough to alert the men as they came within a few feet of them.
"State your business." Runar let out a stern tone and gripped his spear even tighter.
"Oh!?" One of the men said in a mocking tone, "They let elves do this job too?"
"State your business," Runar repeated.
"Don't order me, you filth." The man said, stepping forward. This man was a human male around the size of six feet tall. He was quite muscular and looked to be in his early thirties, but his clothing was rather ragged and damp, and a bunch of knives hung around his belt. He had thick brown hair that reached down his neck, and a large scar over his left eye. He walked up to Runar and spat at his feet.
Seran went to move forward, but Runar held out his hand to stop the young guard. Runar looked back towards the human man with a deadpan gaze, moving his spear's tips closer to the gentleman.
"State. Your. Business."
The man scoffed and snapped his fingers, and the other two human men, rather lanky figures, tossed the female maid in front of the two guards. Her face landed in the spit mark from earlier, and she let out a groan as she impacted the ground. As the young maid looked up at the guards, they saw her muddied pale-yellow hair, double notched pointed ear, and that she was beaten and badly bruised. Also, it was clear that she had been crying for quite some time as her eyes were swollen and red. As Seran lifted her to her feet, her clothes had slowly slipped off her body, due to being ripped apart violently, revealing quite a gruesome sight to the guards.
Seran's expression flared up angrily towards the men, and his fist began to shake as it gripped harder around his spear. Runar saw this and shot Seran a gaze, which brought the young man to a halt. The maid quickly hid around the backside of Seran, as the human men began to laugh.
"Look at that, boss!" One of the lanky henchmen said as he pointed at Seran and the girl, "She's hiding."
"She's scared." The other one said with a snarky laugh.
The larger man, the boss, laughed with his men, "All we did was pay back the filthy Jag for running into us."
"What did you just say?!" Seran said aloud in anger.
"Do you Jags have hard of hearing?" The boss said, laughing even louder, "I guess it makes sense when you get the shit carved out of your precious ears."
"Seran, no." Runar said with force in his voice, "Lead the girl back to the manor. Inform someone immediately that we have quite the impatient guests."
"Let your masters that we've come for reparations." The boss said suddenly with a growing grin on his face. "After all, because of your friend there, we lost a business partner of sorts. Not the cheap kind of business partner, either."
"That's not true!" The maid said in a cry. Her voice seemed to be raspy as there were bruises around her neck, "They took me off the street! They—"
"Shut your mouth, damn Jag." One of the lanky henchmen shouted, causing the young maid to shrink back behind Seran with a short cry, "Get your master out here, or we are telling the town that he lets his precious elves harm humans."
"Seran. Go." Runar said, "Inform a butler named Reau about the situation. He looks to be around my age. He is the one you can talk to inside the manor."
Seran immediately took the young maid by the hand and began walking hastily with her towards the manor. Behind him, he heard more footsteps as the men tried to approach the gate, but instantly, their footsteps stopped. Runar had his trident out towards them.
"Gentlemen, the leader of the house will meet you right here. "Runar said in a very serious, but calm tone, "If you want him to hear you out, do not trespass on his land."
All of them spat at Runar's feet, and the boss crossed his arms, "Fine. Fifteen minutes, or we are coming in."
Seran, stabbing his spear into the ground, picked up his pace as he lifted the girl onto his back, and piggybacked her up towards the mansion. She began softly crying and apologizing profusely, but Seran kept quiet as his anger began to grow inside of him. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do.
After two minutes, he came upon the manor, a massive two-story building. The outside of the building was mostly marble with darkened stone supports, and multiple various-sized windows coated the outside of the building—all the windows had purple curtains. Around the outer layer of the manor was a darkened hardwood that gave a firm border to it. Seran ran up the small steps to the front door and knocked loudly.
While waiting for the door to open, Seran set the maid down on the top step. She instantly grabbed his arm and didn't want to let go of him, and he responded by nodding at her with a smile. She nodded back and let go, as the door opened. It was a younger butler; he was another elf, not too much older than Seran, with sunken cheeks, long hair, cracked glasses, and double notched pointed ears. He looked over Seran's outfit, and in a way that appeared as he understood the situation, he calmly pointed down the hall.
With a quick nod, Seran bolted down the sides of the hallway. The manor was immediately aware of his actions, as his loud clanking footsteps echoed through the hallway, due to the running on the hardwood. As he was running, multiple elven heads sprouted from the doorways, silently wondering what the commotion was about, and he narrowly dodged some of the sprouting heads as they surprised him. His speed didn't slow; however, as he finally reached the end of the long hallway where two figures were standing at the door: an elderly butler and a young maid.
"A-Are you, Reau?" Seran panted as he saluted. His vision moved over to the young maid, and he recognized her instantly. He turned back to the elderly elf.
"Indeed. " Reau said as he saluted back, "I take it that Runar has sent you?"
"Yes. T—There are three human men at the gate. They have come for reparations due to one of our elven maids. They request to see the master and are very impatient. Runar might have to use force."
"I see." Reau said, with his tone of voice a bit worried as he rebalanced the platter he was holding on his right hand, "I will inform the master immediately. Return outside."
"A-okay," Seran said impatiently and saluted. He then frowned and began running back down the hallway as he heard the door behind him knocked upon loudly.
'I wish I could do more." Seran thought inwardly, 'Curse this life.'
As soon as Seran reached the entrance, it was only a matter of moments before the master of the household came bursting through himself. Reginald, already in a fit of rage, looked over to Seran, who instantly went into a salute. He pointed at the elven girl beside him with his pointer finger.
"Is this the one?!" Reginald roared, which caused the crying maid to fall over backward, scared. As she did, a dried trail of blood that ran down the inner sides of her legs appeared to Reginald's sight. He then looked over her face, grabbing it a bit forcefully as she let out a whimper. He looked at her bruised face and swollen eyes, her dry lips, her bruised neck, and her torn up clothing.
"Hmph." Reginald said as she let her go softly, which threw Seran and the maid off, "I'll decide your punishment when I get back." He turned to Seran, "Make sure she doesn't go anywhere."
Seran saluted and got a nod of approval from Reginald as he attached his blade to his hip. At that moment, Brenda burst through the open doorway herself, surprising everyone, including her father, who stood staring at her with a raised eyebrow. She was panting softly, and she raised her hand to her father.
"Father, wait!" Brenda said, still panting.
"Go back inside, Brenda!" Reginald yelled as he turned back to the guard, "Make sure she doesn't follow me either."
"Father, let me help you!" Brenda went forward as Reginald held up his hand.
"No. This problem is not something you can handle. You are just a child. Let me take care of this quickly. Acceleron!" His body began to glow blue for a second as he burst forward towards the gate with ferocious speed. A gust of wind was left in his wake, as Brenda gave a small pout.
Brenda looked over towards the maid on the ground, noticing the same things her father saw instantly. She instantly got on her knees in front of the maid, who got even more scared. Brenda held out her hand to the maid and gave a soft smile.
"I'm so sorry." Brenda said as a tear ran down her cheek, "That must have been so terrifying."
The maid was left speechless and looked towards Seran, who gave off a surprising look and dropped his jaw. The maid nodded slowly, and Brenda moved forward, thrusting the maid into a hug. The elven maid burst into tears again in her master's arms.
Seran couldn't believe it – Runar might have been right about this girl! Seran instantly moved to a salute as he stood over them, and continued to watch as the maid separated from Brenda's embrace a minute or so later.
"What's your name?" Brenda asked in a soft voice. "It's okay, you can speak to me."
"N--Nadia." The elven maid said with a hiccup in her voice.
"And yours?" Brenda turned to the guard, who turned his head to her in surprise.
"Seran, miss," Seran said in a shocked tone.
"Nadia. Seran." Brenda reaffirmed, before turning back to Nadia and held out both of her hands to her, "If it's okay with you, may I heal you?"
Nadia's and Seran's eyes widened, and their ears perked up when they heard that request. Nadia's tears came forth again. "You are asking me?" Nadia questioned in a quiet voice.
"Of course." Brenda said, keeping her soft smile, "You've been through so much without your consent already."
Nadia's tears went from a small trail to full-on sobbing as she nodded twice. Brenda motioned to Seran to take a step back to clear the way. As he did so, Brenda cleared her throat and clasped her hands together as she said,
"To the heavens and earth below, I humble myself with this prayer. Allow me to become the conduit of thy power, oh great, Myantha. May your essence surge through me and restore the health of your precious child. Regenerate!"
A green aura appeared around Brenda as her hands began to become warmer and warmer. She instantly grabbed Nadia's hands, and the green aura spread from Brenda to Nadia in an instant. The bruises around her body and neck, along with the swollenness of her eyes, began to fade back to the pale skin that was Nadia's original skin color.
Brenda then turned to the butler, who was watching silently from the doorway with a similar shocked expression on his face, and said, "Please go find my maid, Meriah, and ask her to bring spare clothes for a fellow maid. New, if she can, please."
The butler's eyes widened as he nodded, bowed, and disappeared from the doorway.
"That was very kind of you, Miss." Nadia said with a tearful smile, "Thank you so much."
"Thank you," Seran said as well.
"Oh?" Brenda turned towards Seran, "Thank you for your service in getting her here."
At that moment, a loud boom came from the gate, which made them all turn their gaze as a smoke cloud billowed into the air.