Chapter 36: Ysera

He had a hunch that all of the stuff, including the fight with the altered goblin scout he had experienced were just the opening sequence to the quest.

***

The sudden appearance of Princess Ysera had shocked everyone, including Venn. Against an opponent that he had absolutely no chance of winning, the young princess standing in front of him literally took less than a few seconds to gracefully dispose of it from head to toe.

Watching the scene made him wonder just how strong and powerful the NPC in front of him was, and the things he needed to accomplish in order to successfully complete the elite quest.

Staring blankly at the princess's slim figure, his train of thoughts was soon derailed when he sensed the ground rumbling intensively.

Noticing the intense vibrations from the ground, Venn peered over the horizon to find the blurry shadows of a large herd of horses galloping towards the goblins at top speed. He could see that riding on top of the horses were people from the Oni race as well. 

As such, Venn guessed that they were reinforcement that followed the princess here.

With their leader dead, the goblins seemed to be in disarray as they scattered away without any order, fleeing with their tails behind their back as they ran for their lives, leaving behind the captured Onis who were mainly children and women.

Once the goblins had fled, the rest of the Onis behind Venn immediately rushed forward to take care of their people that were tied up.

Seeing the situation, Venn finally let out a sigh of relief. It had been a close call for him, and he knew it. 

He further calmed down when he saw a small group of reinforcements breaking away from the formation to their position whilst the rest of the group pursued the broken ranks of goblins soldiers.

However, he could not relax just yet. The quest was just starting to begin for him. 

Depending on his response later, the difficulty of Lilith's quest would change drastically. Faced with the princess's presence, he was extremely stressed and worried on how to respond to her. 

He had to be on the good side of the princess since the elite quest depends on her. Even a blind man could see that the Oni princess would be the crucial key in completing the elite quest. 

Without the overwhelming power of the Oni princess, he can kiss goodbye to ever completing Litith's quest.

Thus, after some careful deliberation, Venn slowly approached closer to the princess's side. He had determined that adopting a polite and humble attitude would be a better choice as he could score some brownie points for his first impression.

Unexpectedly to him however, before he could open his mouth, the Princess instead opened hers first to greet him with great respect. 

Tucking away her long white sleeves, she turned around to face Venn before kneeling down to the ground with her head bowed in a refined and dignified manner, without paying any mind in dirtying her white dress in the process.

Additionally, even more puzzling to Venn, the princess went on to profusely apologize to him whilst addressing him as her lord. 

"My lord, I am terribly sorry for my sloppy behaviour. I should have gone to greet you the moment I arrived."

"Ah?" Upon hearing the princess's words, Venn was so surprised that he could only utter a nonsensical sound. Confused and stunned by the sudden turn of events, he could not, for the life of him, figure out why the princess was being so polite towards him.

"When did I become a lord? Or did I hear wrongly?" Venn doubted himself in his mind.

Mistaken by Venn's puzzled face as him being upset, the princess explained herself hurriedly. "My lord, I needed some time to recover after using my skill to defeat the goblin, hence the delay to greet you. Once again, Ysera is humbly asking for your forgiveness."

Hearing Ysera's explanation did not help Venn in understanding a single thing. He was still as clueless as before. Nonetheless, as a player, he quickly strung some words to form some sentences to avoid the misunderstanding.

"I think you have mistaken me for somebody else. I don't recall me ever being a lord."

"Your sword… they are from her supreme highness, Lilith isn't it?" Faced with an unexpected answer, the princess raised her head quickly to explain herself once more.

However, those words could not reach Venn as he was in the middle of a trance as he was transfixed by Ysera's beauty. 

Ysera's facial features were unlike anything Venn had seen. Her tanned and exotic face were so unique and out of this world that he swore that she could never exist in the realm of reality. 

With her long and thin eyebrows and her large crimson red eyes staring at him, he felt both terrified for his life and intrigued at the same time. Tying her dark brown hair in a long ponytail fashion with several braids and ornament hairpins as decorations, she gave off a stylish yet classical charm.

The most prominent feature that stood out was the two horns sticking out from her forehead. Unlike the rest of the Oni that he had seen, only she had more than one horn. Contrary to Lilith's blatantly provocative charm, Ysera's had a much soothing element to it.

If Venn was an ordinary man, he would be in a panic now, however Venn was someone who had been given a second chance to live. 

"Lilith gave me this sword and told me to help your clan from the goblins. Can I know why you are calling me Lord?" Venn answered Ysera's question as humbly as he could. Nonetheless, as a fellow man, he could suddenly sympathise with the player who fell in love with a game character for nine years.

"Great! Her highness is the sovereign ruler of our land. As a vessel clan, we can only seek help from her as our land is currently invaded by the goblins. You are the envoy who came under the order of her highness right?" Ysera smiled and her face brightened up like a flower that just bloomed.