After Leeora left with the Human girl, Erlos went to Draven's study to inform him of their departure. "Sire, Elder Leeora and the human girl have left."
Draven simply nodded, but a frown inevitably made its way onto his face. For some odd reason, he was displeased about something.
Erlos, who could never fail to notice any change in his master, asked, "Is there something that is troubling you, sire?"
As if he found the perfect way to vent his frustration, Draven looked at Erlos. "Go to my armory and clean all the weapons inside. Every blade should shine enough to reflect your face like a mirror."
"What?" Erlos exclaimed in shock but realized he acted somewhat rude., "I-I mean, sire, why so suddenly? There have been no armed conflicts for as long as I remember, and there is never a need for you to use them. Sword? Psh, you can wipe out enemies with a flick of a finger."
The pair of red eyes glared at him. "You dare question me?"
The young elf immediately bowed as he dared not mess with the Devil King when his mood was more foul than normal. He was sure something must have happened to upset this heartless man.
"I do not dare, Sire. I will head out immediately as soon as I finish arranging these books."
Draven did not comment and looked at the honeycomb-patterned shelf where each hexagon hole had a scroll kept inside it. One of the scrolls flew towards him and unrolled on its own, laying open on his desk.
His pointed ears twitching in curiosity, Erlos went closer to the table to peek. "The map of the continent, sire?"
Draven did not answer him as he observed the entire map. His gaze was stuck at a particular kingdom in the west—the Kingdom of Valor.
It's been a long time since he had last stepped foot in a human kingdom after Agartha was founded. Multiple decades, close to a century, had passed since he visited the western part of the continent. Compared to the empire and the three largest kingdoms back then, the Kingdom of Valor was nothing, just an ordinary small kingdom with not much strength, and at that time, there were tens of ordinary kingdoms like it.
Based on the map, he found the location of that particular mountain where he picked up that human girl. He tried to recall if he had been in that place before or if he had any relationship with this ordinary kingdom, but there was a discrepancy with his memories.
Draven could not recall if he had anything to do with this kingdom, except for the fact this kingdom was part of the alliance headed by the empire against the supernatural beings, which was created to prohibit the practice of magic and sorcery.
"What happened, sire?" Erlos asked when he saw Draven deep in thought.
"It's time to upgrade this map of the continent," Draven said.
Erlos looked at the particular part of the continent and said, "Sire, I have seen so many maps before but this part of the land across this mountain range, those maps show it as barren land. Yours is the only map that shows there are the kingdoms beyond these mountains and that there remains an unexplored part of the continent. Why so?"
"Because they cannot see what I can see," Draven answered and looked at the other part of the continent that Erlos pointed towards.
"Have you visited these kingdoms before—this Megaris… and this Thevailes?"
Draven nodded.
"Do they also hate supernatural beings?"
"Humans fear what they do not understand, and that fear gradually turns to hate," Draven answered and started working on the map.
"Is that why you did not like that human girl and wished to throw her out? Because she fears you?" Erlos commented, only to get another killer gaze from his master.
"Do I need to throw you into the armory by using my means?"
Draven moved his hand as if he planned to use his powers, but the next moment, Erlos disappeared from his sight. He ran away using his fastest speed, trying to gain distance from the study before his master literally threw him. He had been abused enough for years to know how his master kept true to his words even if they sounded like jokes.
Draven resumed his work, and took a clean scroll, wanting to draw a new map which would be later filled in now that he decided to idly walk around the continent. He loved to teleport anywhere with his powers, observing how civilizations flourish, discovering ruins and finding hidden places from all parts of the continent. His penchant for travel was how he found out this hidden place that was a perfect hidden sanctuary for those who wish to be reclusive and built a kingdom of their own.
The Kingdom of Agartha was in fact a deep and hidden valley surrounded on all sides by the mountain ranges so tall, that their peaks were covered in snow all year round. It was as if the valley was situated in the deepest part of the continent, and that was why he named it Agartha, the place situated at the core of the world.
Due to the terrain, it was a place that was impossible to find by human means. Even for the young supernatural beings and those wanderers outside who were unfamiliar with the land, they would find it impossible to reach this kingdom. It could be said that those humans who accidentally stumbled into this kingdom were an extremely lucky bunch of people, surviving through the harsh journey of traversing those rough mountain terrain. Acknowledging how much hardship they had to go through to reach Agartha, the magical races showed pity for their plight and allowed them to stay in the outermost territory of the kingdom.
After putting aside the incomplete map, he found his mind wandering towards that female creature with emerald green eyes. Only then did he realize why he felt bothered by her leaving.
That human left with Leeora as if she's escaping from a predator, not even hesitating to take up that offer when it was him who saved her and brought her back to his palace to be healed.
Yet she refused to take his hand? She easily followed Leeora when she said they were leaving. Not like she knew Leeora for long. Was she looking down on him?
"How dare that thing disrespect me?"
Gritting his teeth, he clenched the ink pen in his hand and ended up breaking its body, which resulted in creating an unwanted ink spot splashing on the map he put on the side.