The entire royal family, together with Finn and Sophie, were currently leaving the palace via a vine carriage. They were heading to the main square of the capital city.
Finn was wearing a suit that he wore when he went with Sophie to visit his parents' restaurant. He also had his hair styled because he wanted to look sharp if he was to enjoy the festival with Sophie.
Sophie wore a beautiful blue dress that highlighted her mouthwatering figure, and she wore a thin necklace that decorated her slender neck.
Erelith wore clothes that Finn had never seen before. It was a white robe with a green undershirt, and Finn guessed that those were formal clothes for elves. To really show his authority, Erelith's robe was adorned with golden threads.
Next to Erelith was Lusha, who wore a light green dress that had a lot of frills, and her shoulders were hidden, making her appear innocent.
Fae also wore a frilly dress, but hers was white, and it had blue decorations all over it, making her beautiful blue eyes and long silver hair go well together.
"So, what do we do when we get there?"
Finn was still uncertain about what they would actually be doing during the festival.
"I will give a speech first, and then couples will be asked to walk to the stage to recite their verses that they had prepared."
Erelith quickly answered Finn's question with a smile.
Hearing that, Sophie leaned over to Finn and whispered in his ear.
"Did you prepare something, or should we just say we won't do it?"
"Believe me. I am more than prepared!"
Finn sounded really confident, but his thoughts told a different story.
'What will I do? I am not good at making romantic verses from scratch… Wait! This is another world, so if I just take some inspiration from the poets of my world, then everything will be alright!'
He enjoyed reading a lot in his previous life, and he liked to read romantic poetry a lot because whenever he used it on girls, they would instantly fall for him, so he smiled at his genius idea of using this knowledge, and they soon arrived in the square.
The guards led the others to a table in front of the stage while Erelith was led to the stage by them.
There were a lot of tables that were taken already, but the one that was decorated with a red and gold tablecloth was meant for the royal family and their friends.
Sitting down, Finn noticed that the elves around him were looking at him, but it wasn't a hateful look.
They were just curious about him and Sophie because they hadn't seen a human in their city for a long time now.
Finn and the others were then served a drink that was blue in color, but it had white specks floating inside.
Lusha told them that it was a special drink that was served only during this festival.
Upon trying it, Finn found out that it tasted like carbonated grape juice, and because it didn't have alcohol inside, Fae was free to drink it as well.
Suddenly, the atmosphere around Finn quieted down, and looking up, he saw that Erelith was wearing his golden crown and was standing on the stage.
First, Erelith cleared his throat and then looked at all the elves that were gathered below him.
The square was absolutely packed. The nobles and the royal family were sitting down around tables, but the others had to stand around them with almost no room in between two people.
Also, the capital city wasn't the only one celebrating this festival. The other cities had a gem that worked as a TV, and it showed a live broadcast of Erelith's speech.
Looking around, Erelith finally opened his mouth.
"My fellow brethren. Today I am here with you to celebrate another Starry Night Festival, where we thank the Goddess of Stars, Asteria, for granting us peaceful nights. Before we begin though..."
He pointed at the table where Finn was sitting with his hand.
"I would also like to introduce my new friend, Finn, to everyone. He is the first human that has visited this city ever since my son passed away, and he is also the person that saved my daughter Fae and brought her back home."
Finn was a little flustered because he didn't expect to be put in the spotlight, so he raised his glass towards Erelith and nodded, but that was something humans did, so it only made the other elves confused.
Erelith lightly smiled when he saw Finn's gesture and continued.
"After meeting Finn and finding out that not all humans are evil, I have decided to allow some humans to enter our cities."
The crowd started whispering and getting rowdy, but Erelith cleared his throat, and everyone shut their mouths.
"But! We will not just let anybody in, because that would be an unwise thing to do, so we will only allow those that we thoroughly check beforehand. We will check their history and background so that we don't happen to let a gang member into our city."
This made the elves agree with Erelith, and they started nodding while Finn began to sweat.
'I mean, you might have let a gang boss into your city already…'
Erelith then talked about how he wished to see the Elvish continent prosper and how he was grateful to all elves because he wouldn't be able to rule without them.
After his speech was over, Erelith started walking away, and Finn stood up.
Clap Clap Clap
He started clapping with a smile, but all the other elves just looked at him with their eyebrows raised.
Not realizing that he was the only one clapping, Sophie had to tug on Finn's suit while whispering to him to stop and sit down.
When he finally stopped and sat down, Sophie was facepalming herself because she was embarrassed for Finn, and Fae was laughing because she thought that he was making a joke.
Some of the noble elves had already visited the human continent, so they knew what Finn was doing and paid no mind to it, but everyone else was bewildered when they saw him clap his hands.
When Erelith left the stage, a handsome young elf walked to the stage instead and started talking with an excited voice.
"Now we'll start our poetry segment, where the man will talk about how he feels in a romantic verse!"
The host then bowed toward the table where the royal family sat.
"The first one to begin, like every year, will be the royal couple!"
Erelith, who had already walked back to the table and sat down next to Finn, looked at him with a grin.
He then patted his shoulder and looked at the young elf on stage.
"I believe that my friend here has a lot of energy, so he will be the one to begin!"
"Huh?"
Finn looked at Erelith with his eyes open because he wanted to first see what he was supposed to do before he went onto the stage, but now he was being forced to go first.
Noticing his expression, Erelith leaned his body toward him.
"Just say some romantic-sounding sentences. That's really all there is to it."
When he heard that, Finn nodded and stood up.
He then looked at Sophie and held out his hand.
"Shall we?"
Sophie was a little embarrassed because of the attention, but she still grabbed Finn's hand, and they both went to the stage.
The young elf left the stage to allow them to have it all for themselves, and when Finn stood in front of Sophie, all the lights suddenly dimmed.
This was to make the people on the stage less nervous and also to create a good atmosphere.
All the tables had a stone that radiated light, and the stage was also lit up by these stones, but when Finn and Sophie got on the stage, only the stage lights remained on.
The elves were all focusing on the stage, expecting Finn to say something boring because he didn't have the experience that they had from celebrating this festival every year.
But what they didn't know was that Finn had the help of some of the best human poets when he was creating his verses, so he quickly thought of the lines that he had created in the carriage and opened his mouth.
"Sophie. You are the sun that illuminates my world, and if I were to go blind looking at you, I wouldn't grieve, because the last thing I'd see would be your angelic beauty."
The crowd remained silent because they didn't expect Finn to say something like that, and Sophie just blushed.
Nobody came to stop him, and the lights didn't stop illuminating him, so Finn thought that he was supposed to continue, and so he did.
"Sophie. Every second that I am not with you, my heart aches. Every second that I don't see you, my world becomes colorless. But the moment you appear in front of me and show me your lovely smile, all my sad thoughts leave my head, and my heart blooms with happiness."
Sophie kept blushing with a smile while covering her red face with her hands, and the crowd became even more shocked because they had never seen someone as talented at creating romantic verses as Finn.
All Finn was doing was thinking of books from Earth and using them as a base to create new poetry, but to the elves, it sounded exceptional.
'Again?'
He looked around, but the lights still didn't stop shining on him.
Finn didn't know if there was a rule where he had to say three or more lines or if he was supposed to wave his hand when he wanted to stop, but he decided to say one last verse.
'Okay, I have one more. Let's make this one count.'
Finn prepared his last line that he had created and walked towards Sophie.
He then grabbed her hands that were covering her blushing face, and he leaned towards her to look her in the eyes.
Their faces were so close to each other that she could feel Finn's warm breath.
"Sophie. I love you so much that all my thoughts are about you. I love you so much that the air from my lungs gets stolen away when I look at you. I love you so much that my heart beats only for you…"
Finn lovingly smiled at Sophie as he stared into her gem-like green eyes.
"And even though I love you that much, I still keep falling more and more in love with you the longer we are together."
Hearing that, Sophie felt the entire world pause around her, and the only person that she cared about at that moment was Finn.
Before today, she didn't love Finn with all her heart, but seeing him this close and hearing his caring words made her feel her chest get hot, and it was at that moment that she had truly fallen in love.
Her heart stopped being hers, and instead she took his.
She wanted to tell him something, but she couldn't think of any words that could truly describe her current feelings.
Deciding to take the risk, Finn tilted his head slightly to the right and closed his eyes.
Sophie understood what he was trying to do, so she happily closed her eyes as well while standing on her tiptoes to get closer to him.
Their faces slowly neared each other until their lips finally connected.