novelraw Chapter 456: The Three Children (Thanks to book friend "I have two precious cats" for the Silver Alliance)
Chapter 456: The Three Children (Thanks to book friend "I have two precious cats" for the Silver Alliance)
Fisher frowned and walked in front. Following his bit-by-bit approach, the landscape within that crimson building also bit by bit unfolded before the eyes of their group.
There was a rather spacious courtyard inside, the ground entirely paved with blue-gray stone bricks, yet on top of those stone bricks were placed one small jar after another. There were several such jars, and the slightly open mouths of the jars revealed a little bit of blood color inside.
He walked inside and looked at those stacked jars, only to see that the jars which originally should have been tightly closed had now become half-covered, revealing the scarlet liquid inside.
What was contained inside was blood.
But this didn't seem to be the source of the bloody smell they caught.
Just as Fisher turned his head to search for the source of that bloody smell, Tsubaki behind him flashed his figure and instantly appeared deep within the courtyard. Mikhail and Asuka Karasawa also hurriedly squeezed into the courtyard, looking towards Tsubaki's direction.
"Are... are you okay?"
He only saw, lying weakly before him was unexpectedly a woman with golden long hair dressed in Tree Continent style attire.
That woman was slightly older in age, roughly between thirty-five and forty years old. Her facial features were extremely three-dimensional, possessing a pair of slightly blue eyes, and her face was attractive. But through the gaps in the golden bangs hanging over her forehead, Fisher faintly saw an extremely long scar by her right eye, just like a dark scar burned by something scorching hot.
At this moment, that lady was leaning against a stone pillar in the courtyard. Her right hand was slightly spread out by her side, yet her fair arm was full of healed knife marks. And then between those knife marks, a brand new cut appeared again. Her other hand was even holding the murder weapon that formed this wound, a Dagger.And beside her spread-out arm, there was also placed a small jar exactly the same as the ones Fisher and the others saw, currently receiving the blood dripping down from her arm drop by drop.
"You..."
That haggard-looking woman heard the call, raised her eyes to look at the Tsubaki before her, and subsequently opened her mouth. She seemed somewhat surprised, wanting to say something, but Tsubaki opened his mouth ahead of time,
"I am the Elf you encountered earlier. You said to let me save you... I brought your companions and came in together."
"Companions?"
Hearing this, that golden-haired woman froze slightly, and immediately saw Fisher's group of three standing at the doorway.
And acting as a fake companion, Asuka Karasawa somewhat vigilantly hid behind Fisher, while Fisher also prepared another set of rhetoric for after being exposed by that woman.
But after that woman saw Fisher and the others, she shook her head and said,
"Mm, they are indeed my companions, thank you, Lord Elf."
Fisher was slightly taken aback. His first reaction was that the other party saw through their group's identity as Transferred Persons, but on second thought it wasn't right.
This woman before their eyes was just an ordinary human, completely not of the Mythic Rank, and didn't have any items on her that Fisher could sense. It was highly unlikely she could sense the chaotic aura on their group and thereby judge their true identities.
Tsubaki nodded, not suspecting. After hesitating for a moment, he extended his hand and waved it over the woman's hand before him. In the blink of an eye, the cut wound on her body recovered to its original state, and even those knife marks on her body also all vanished without a trace,
"My name is Tsubaki, just calling me Tsubaki is fine. Why... do you have to bleed yourself and collect the blood? The King keeping you alone by his side is exactly for what..."
Hearing this, the woman before his eyes smiled helplessly, subsequently shaking her head and saying,
"My name is Margaret, a Transferred Person who doesn't belong to this world. I arrived here two years ago and was offered as a slave to the Elf King. The Elf King wants my blood, demanding I regularly give blood to him, so..."
Tsubaki frowned, looking at the scarlet blood in the jar, truly feeling puzzled and unable to understand,
"His Majesty... why would you..."
Right at this moment, the Transferred Person named "Margaret", after looking at Tsubaki and Fisher's group behind him, suddenly spoke in Elvish,
"Lord Tsubaki, please save me and my companions. This kind of life drawing blood day after day... I really can't go on anymore. I don't want to be like the other slaves, I really have no other way, but there is never anyone else here, only the Elf King..."
"But I..."
Tsubaki seemed to have some hesitation, but Fisher could see his struggle. Just as Helaire said before, Tsubaki was indeed a very unique Elf; he unexpectedly really started considering methods on how to rescue Margaret and Fisher's group, even though they just met today, and Fisher's group had no prior friendship or relationship with Tsubaki.
"But, how can I help you... The King is the King, if I take you out directly there will be very serious consequences. Even now, me privately entering the King's inner court is already a Great Crime or Taboo. I still have my kingdom and subjects, I cannot abandon them to save you..."
But after hesitating for a moment, he still shook his head, because he really had no way to help her.
Margaret remained silent for a moment, yet raised her head again, saying to Tsubaki,
"I have a method that won't cause you trouble, and no one will discover your traces afterwards either. I want to take you to a place. Once we get there you'll understand. If it's like this, are you willing to help me?"
"...Alright."
Looking at the incomparably emaciated pitiful woman before his eyes, Earl Tsubaki ultimately still nodded, deciding to help her.
Subsequently he quickly stood up, quickly walking towards the direction of the doorway, looking at the completely empty palace outside and saying,
"We have to be a bit faster. Marquis Bai brought a doctor to treat the King's illness, I don't know when they will return, but if we are discovered..."
Tsubaki had already stepped out of this broad courtyard first, and that Margaret sitting on the ground also slowly stood up. She seemed truly very weak. In Fisher's opinion, having her blood drawn long-term had already made her similar to a skeleton, with not much flesh on her cheeks, looking very pitiful.
Margaret walked bit by bit towards the doorway of the courtyard. She looked at Fisher and the others who were still standing in place, and opened her mouth to ask,
"Aren't you... going together with us?"
Hearing this, Asuka Karasawa opened her mouth, and asked back somewhat straightforwardly,
"Lady... Margaret? You clearly haven't met us, why..."
Fisher and Mikhail also looked at her, yet unexpectedly the emaciated woman before their eyes froze slightly after hearing Asuka Karasawa's question. Subsequently she smiled a bit, walking a little closer to Asuka Karasawa.
Just as Mikhail and Fisher both put up their guard, and Fisher's fingers all tightly grasped the Fluid Sword in his embrace, Margaret abruptly spoke,
"Child, how... old are you this year?"
"Eh... eh?"
Asuka Karasawa stood in place, pausing for a moment before answering,
"Seventeen years old."
"Seventeen years old huh..."
Under Fisher and the others' somewhat surprised gazes, Margaret suddenly touched Asuka Karasawa's face, subsequently smiling and saying,
"I also once had a daughter. If she reached this year, her age should be about the same as yours, also seventeen years old..."
"Eh?"
The Asuka Karasawa who was originally stepping back wanting to dodge heard Margaret's words. She immediately stopped in place, allowing the emaciated fingers of the woman before her eyes to slowly caress onto her cheeks.
The Margaret before her eyes carefully scanned Asuka Karasawa's height as well as her face up and down, only then somewhat reluctantly putting her hand down, muttering a sentence,
"If she grew to your age, who knows if she would be as tall as you... Well, got a bit off track, sorry. However, I indeed haven't met you guys before. Could you perhaps be slaves who escaped from the other side? Since it's like this, taking one more along to escape doesn't matter too, right?"
Slaves from the other side?
Fisher narrowed his eyes looking outside. In other words, inside the Elf King's inner court, besides Margaret this Transferred Person, there are actually other slaves temporarily imprisoned?
That's right, he only heard before that in recent years the Elf King very much liked receiving slaves as tributes, hence many Elf nobles competed to imitate.
And the Earl Tsubaki outside was probably because he didn't offer a single slave as tribute that angered the Elf King, culminating today after his tribute in calling him into Jianmu Palace to continuously scold him roundly. Yet unexpectedly, due to a combination of fortuitous coincidences, he bumped into the Margaret hidden in the Elf King's inner court.
In Reality, it should be exactly Margaret and Tsubaki conspiring to steal the World Tree Teardrop, and Margaret's promise was also fulfilled. Although not knowing how she did it, Earl Tsubaki really hadn't been exposed.
After finishing these words, Margaret prepared to walk outside with difficulty, only to find her legs were terribly weak, finding it very difficult to even take a few steps out. Hence she could only look back at Asuka Karasawa somewhat awkwardly, requesting,
"Um, child... I'm a bit unable to walk. Can you slightly... aid me with an arm?"
"Ah... okay, okay!"
Asuka Karasawa was still somewhat dazed. After hearing Margaret's request, she first glanced at Fisher. Seeing he didn't oppose, she then pursed her lips and came to Margaret's side, supporting her bone-thin body.
"Thank you, child..."
"No... no need for thanks, L... Lady Margaret."
Asuka Karasawa smiled slightly and said thusly to Margaret, while Margaret took many more looks at her, only then barely withdrawing her gaze with pity.
After convening with Earl Tsubaki outside the door, Margaret only pointed in a direction, and their group continued walking towards that direction she specified.
Supporting Margaret's thin body, Asuka Karasawa silently glanced at the other party's side profile, still unable to resist asking,
"Lady Margaret, what you just said about if she grew to my age is..."
"Ah, that..." Margaret's eyes darkened for an instant, seeming somewhat unwilling to mention much, only saying, "My child died prematurely at the age of five."
"I'm truly sorry, Lady Margaret..."
Margaret smiled shallowly, shaking her head without saying any words, merely quietly leading Fisher's group walking towards the depths of Jianmu Palace.
"Inside the inner court... why is it so empty, without anything at all?"
The deeper they went, the closer they were to the place where the Elf King normally resided, but the surroundings still remained empty. Tsubaki looked around the Completely Empty palace, unable to resist asking thusly.
Hearing this, Margaret smiled bitterly, saying to Tsubaki,
"Perhaps there were some before, but now there definitely won't be any."
Even Fisher felt it was extremely bizarre that they could wantonly stroll unhindered like this inside the lair of a Nineteenth-Tier Mythic Rank existence, just like returning to their own home.
The defense outside the space rift was extremely tight. This could be known from Fisher and the others even having to do everything possible to replace the Gou Wen who came in to treat the illness, coming in together following Marquis Bai; but forming a sharp contrast to this was the emptiness inside Jianmu Palace.
As the saying goes, When Things Are Abnormal, There Must Be Something Fishy. Fisher felt there must be a special reason inside this.
Otherwise, since Margaret said there was a place to store tributed slaves inside Jianmu Palace, why was it still so quiet, not even a bit of sound could be heard?
Following their bit-by-bit deepening, an extremely magnificent door appeared before Fisher's group.
That door was extremely tall and large, yet tightly closed, hence Fisher and the others could only see what exactly the situation of that door was.
"Behind this door is exactly the place where the Elf King normally resides. The key to helping me escape lies inside."
Margaret said while stroking that incomparably huge door, looking back at Tsubaki and saying,
"In the past when there were still people in the palace, this door was opened daily by athletes under the Elf King. Ever since the palace became Completely Empty, the Elf King's entering and exiting relies entirely on some transmission method to bypass it. However because of this, even if we open this door, the Elf King won't discover any clues. Lord Tsubaki, the method I spoke of lies within, wait until we enter and I will explain to you, please believe me, okay?"
Fisher raised his head to look at this incomparably huge wooden door before his eyes, and very quickly discovered the unique aspect of this huge door.
He discovered there seemed to be engraved three huge peculiar petal patterns on this door, and subsequently the entire door was also composed of three parts, by three unique types of wood. Fisher wasn't an expert on wood, so he didn't recognize the three types of wood above, yet saw many branches blooming with pink flowers growing out of the wood on the left side.
That was Peach Blossom.
"On this door..."
Tsubaki also looked at this huge door before his eyes. His hands clenched tightly, his breathing involuntarily becoming rapid.
Perhaps even he himself hadn't thought, today he would consecutively perform such Overstepping and outrageous actions.
"This is the [Supreme Gate], the absolute highest and most noble symbol in our clan. The top is made of three kinds of wood, respectively representing three Lords, the three earliest born Elf-kin."
"Mm, wasn't it said, the Elf King is exactly the earliest born Elf?"
Fisher couldn't help but open his mouth to inquire, but Tsubaki shook his head, respectively pointing at the three types of wood above and saying,
"No, the Mother also like the Chief God at the very beginning, created three Elves endowed with the most heart's blood. Moreover, His Majesty is actually not the one born first. The one born first is [Tao]. Lord Tao is the oldest Elf-kin among all Elves; followed by His Majesty, [Bing]. He possesses the heaviest prestige. Although the Mother's boon he obtained was the least among the three children, he is the one among all Elves who cares and minds his compatriots the most, hence being supported by the Mother as King..."
Subsequently, Tsubaki's finger moved away from the highest piece of wood, pointing towards the right side,
"Next, is the youngest Lord among the three children, [Gui]. But Lord Gui disappeared very long ago, and didn't obtain a fiefdom and fief state like us. Legends say she could see the final ending of the future; perhaps exactly because of this she is different from all our Elf-kin."
Listening and listening, Fisher's pupils abruptly shrank, looking at the Tsubaki beside him somewhat Unbelievable.
Note: Special thanks to book friend "I have two precious cats" for the Silver Alliance, extremely grateful for your support.
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!
(End of Chapter)