"She's not worthy of our attention." Angus said decisively, waving his hand away. It was as if all the love plot was just imagination.
The only authentic information was probably the love between the saint and the Duke in the original novel. Looking at the guy keep glancing at the saint, a corner of the elf's mouth twitched, feeling like someone was coveting his daughter.
"I still have no traces of their main operation. They mainly gather at the border of the empire but their recent blatant kidnapping in the North was strange." The Duke leaned back on the chair, crossing his arms in an imposing manner.
"They are in a hurry. Maybe their goal is almost reached…" There was no more smile on Alfred's face. His eyes darkened visibly and a murderous aura emitted from his body. It meant that too many people had been sacrificed for that cult, and too many lives were lost due to the empire's 'strongest' forces' incompetence.
Aeson tightened his grip and patted the man's hand assuredly. Alfred turned around and showed a helpless smile. Lives were already lost and they could only try to prevent more from being taken.
All of a sudden, Aeson felt a strange sensation in his heart. His patting hand froze and his eyes became unfocused. That moment only took several seconds but it already caused great concern to the man next to him.
"What's wrong with you?" Alfred worriedly grabbed the little elf's shoulder and pulled him closer to his chest. His usual arrogant attitude changed into a frown.
"I-I have to go back..." The World Tree and the Elf King were calling for him. His heart of an elf was urging him to go or something terrible would happen to the elves and the world. Thankfully, he did not go too far from the village yet.
Seeing him abruptly walking out of the hidden room, everyone was flustered. Alfred immediately followed despite the confused remaining people in the room.
Liliana chased after them but to no avail, the two people she followed disappeared. She panicked, not knowing what to do at this juncture. Then a shadow loomed behind her back, looking at her fidgety appearance, Angus's usual unmoved eyes softened.
He wanted to take her with him but looking at her vigilant appearance, she would definitely guard against him. So he could only offer her some AEDs for her to stay in the inn and also chose to settle there until he had further information from the strange boy and the wizard. Thankfully, they at least left a message for Liliana to reassure her a little bit that they would come back and help her situation. Angus wanted to know more about her but he knew it would be impolite for a married man to try to question an unmarried woman so he chose to stay until they came back.
Compared to the tangled thoughts of the Duke, Alfred was having the time of his life.
"...I remember you can use teleportation?" Aeson looked at his lover with disdain.
"I have been using too much power today, cutie. Don't you remember the illusion I had to cast this morning? And then I had to use my power to track you when you tried to hide your presence." Alfred was busy listing his exploits to explain that he had no strength to use magic.
However, Aeson was not stupid, he knew that his lover was just wanting to eat his tofu. Looking at the invigorated appearance, Alfred was even carrying him in princess style while running through the forest with an invisibility spell and an acceleration spell. How could Aeson believe him? But he just let it go and decided to be a salted fish in the man's arms. With the current speed, they would arrive at the village gate at least in a day.
Regardless, Aeson could not just let an outsider enter the village without authorization so he had to convince the pouting Alfred to wait for him at a further distance. His plan was to finish collapsing the plot and elope with his lover anyway so he promised to let Alfred accompany him later. The lover of this world was more clingy and more childish compared to his previous worlds but he quite liked it, the only thing that never changed was his attentiveness to himself.
After being dropped off a little far from the border of the village, Aeson jumped through the trees again and entered the elf territory. At this point, he already took off his necklace and returned to his elf appearance.
Aeson walked from the gate to the center of the village, the house of the Elf King. He was not the only one there as all the other elves were clamoring outside, surrounding the tree house.
"What happened? I have never felt such distress from the great World Tree before."
"Mommy, why do I feel strange?"
"Did something happen to the World Tree!?!"
Many voices raised their concerns which caused unease and dread among the crowd. The young elves were confused and some of them even cried. The adults had to coax and comfort them in their arms with frightened and alarmed expressions on their faces. The atmosphere was definitely chaotic but none dare to shove open the door of the Elf King's house because of the elven knights guarding Kiirion.
The atmosphere was getting tenser and tenser. Aeson looked up to find the glowing lights coming out of the second floor of the king's place. Those lights floated in all directions until they gradually disappeared. That must have been the elementals helping Kiirion delay some news to other elves.
'This matter must not be simple. This happens to all the elves...' Aeson was seriously getting sick of this world more and more. If he did not meet his lover and he was still transversing worlds with the system like back then, he would just quit and bare the punishments. He could only give a long sigh in his heart while maintaining his expressionless face.
As he was complaining his heart, the dense number of knights began to split and reveal a pathway for one person to come through. Aeson was short and at the back of the crowd so he could only see the spears of the knights move but not the person walking in between.
'...This is seriously annoying.' The corners of his eye and brow twitched subtly. So, he had no choice but to jump the nearby tree to see what event was happening.
Landed on a tree just a little further from the crowd, thanks to his physique of an assassin, he could see and hear clearly even at a long distance. As soon as he adjusted his position on the branch, his eyes wandered to the gorgeous appearance that he vaguely saw in Aeson's memories, Kiirion Aebanise, the Elf King.
Kiirion's expression was cold, exuding an air of arrogance. His hair was silky blond and loosely tied in the back at his waist. His eyes were half-opened but they could not hide the brilliant color of sapphire under the thick set of blond lashes. His jaw was sharp and his chin was pointy, but it did not give a feminine feeling. All in all, his appearance and temperament really suited a noble existence.
Aeson could only admire a little before Kiirion raised his hand to quiet the crowd and draw their attention.
"Elves, please stay calm in this situation. Our elves need to be rational and united whenever a problem occurs because that is our elves' way." Kiirion carefully reminded them to stay put and remember their elves' dignity. It successfully silenced the crowd and they all looked at him with reverence. Then he continued to explain.
"The current situation indeed involves the benevolent World Tree." Elves were the creatures that were closest to nature, therefore, their attachment to the World Tree was greater than any other creature. Hearing such shocking news, the quiet crowd wanted to get noisy again, but due to Kiirion's cold glance, no one opened their mouths.
"The World Tree maintains the balance of nature and the livelihoods of every creature. This issue is detrimental to all. The source of this problem has been investigated by me for a while and it will be resolved soon." The Elf King was not a liar, he always kept his word no matter how small. So his words of reassurance and affirmation eased up the tension greatly.
Kiirion observed the crowd with a serene face until he turned his head in Aeson's direction. It startled Aeson so much that he almost lost his footing.
A ball of golden light appeared in front of him and a young girlish voice sounded.
"Aeson! Aeson! You still look so cute as always!" The voice was waxy and full of admiration.
Aeson nodded, knowing that this was one of the contracted elementals with the elves called Navis. She was especially fond of anything cute.
"The King is gathering all the forces at the World Tree. He told me to inform you all!" The ball flew lightly to his cheek and gave him a light touch before disappearing again.
'Did that elemental kiss my cheek... Uh... Alfred better not found out...' Even though his lover never restricted him from interacting with other people, his lover was still a big pot of vinegar when others tried to act intimate with him, only their children were the exception. The old husband was even jealous of Sun Wen back then when he found out they had been exchanging letters since Sun Wen fell in love with a woman so it was not an exaggeration if he fell for a ger according to Zheng Guozi's logic. Sun Gui was really speechless back then.
Aeson shook his head to extricate himself from those moments and immediately ran to the World Tree's location.