Chapter 114: Elves Culture

At the moment, Tristan was on his second day session of learning the so-called the way of the Elf. 

The lovely princess came to pick him up from the quarters where he lived. She stood in front of the door wearing casual, green leather armor. It was ordinary - one that the elven soldiers could get their hands on, but thanks to its wearer, it looked extraordinary.

The girl looked at Tristan with a smile, but he knew that she was trying hard to force the smile to appear. He did not call her out since being treated to a beautiful smile in the morning was definitely not a bad thing at all.

Currently, Tristan still could not believe that this beauty would agree to marry him. He truly had to consider his current life as a blessing and a marvelous one at that.

Today, Serene was taking him on a tour around the City, to let him see the environment and society of the Vanyar kingdom

As they walked through the bustling streets, she told him that today she was going to teach him about the people - the Elves.

She started to explain the set of customs, etiquette, and manners of the elves, at least the one living in Vanyar. Things he had to learn in order to act his part as the new member of the Vanyar Kingdom's royalty.

While introducing him to a few of the elves, she started to teach him the basics.

First, the elves apparently had their own way to greet each other, which Serene taught him at that moment.

It wasn't uncommon for the elves to shake hands as a greeting. However, how the elves did their handshake tended to be different than the humans - which automatically meant Tristan would have to learn this other method of shaking hands.

When the elves greeted each other, instead of grabbing the other person's hand and grasping it, they would go further and clasp the mid-forearm part of the other elf. The hand should be positioned fairly even between the wrist and elbow.

Moreover, if humans tended to shake their hands with their right hand, the elves uniquely used the opposite, which was the left hand.

When on a more formal occasion - greeting someone who was held in high respect or simply of higher standings, it was more appropriate for the other party to bow.

Seeing how Tristan had a difficult time performing a simple handshake made Serene shake her head in bewilderment. 

Although it was a simple difference in their culture, Tristan still need some time in order to get used to it. 

It would have helped if Tristan really took an effort on learning it. But honestly doesn't really care about this kind of thing. he doesn't even know why he must learn all this thing in the first place.

It took Tristan a few minutes to actually able to do it right, though not the apparent awkwardness when doing it.

After several weird gazes, they continue their walk and Serene continued explaining about the different status of the elves.

The elves were separated into three different classes:

First, The upper class; the noble and royalty who were called Yinto.

Second, The middle class; the warriors were called Yuri.

Last but not least, The lower class; the commoners were called Yenti.

Serene told Tristan that he could differentiate these three classes through the colored sashes that they wore. The Yinto wore a gold sash with silver motifs and streaks on it, the Yuri wore a white sash with faint dark lines, while the Yenti wore a plain black sash.

A Yenti did not take part in day to day military practices, instead they had a series of standard duties including but not limited to guarding a small town or particular place. They only had the most basic of military training, and went about their normal daily life until they were called upon. To put it simply, these Yenti were acting like reserve forces.

Because of that, most Yenti would spend most of their time doing all the other necessary for the community. Most of them are gardeners to provide food for the community, and crafters.

Serene shows how some of these gardeners and crafter work, and nothing that they do was normal. They were more like artists, crafters in the art. Tristan even saw the use of magic in their activity.  Making a roof by shifting and forming the roots of a tree was a damn interesting thing to watch.

Serene told him that at the moment Tristan was labeled as Yenti due to his nonexistent history in the Vanyar Kingdom. He realizes this was what Serene called him yesterday, hearing this somehow made Tristan a little disappointed. This class and labeling were really low for a race that claims to be more advanced than humans.

Serene gave Tristan the information about the number of each class in Vanyar City.

Yinto: 192

Yuri: 1028

Yenti: 3485

All in all, the entire Vanyar City housed less than five thousand people, which in kingdom's standard, was an extremely low number.

"Why are there so few elves here?" Tristan asked in bewilderment.

Serene explained that The elves typically didn't have the strong desire to reproduce like humans and many other races.

She added that even if they wanted to, female elves generally only had a fertile period every three months and it normally lasted for a day or two. The combination of these factors led to far fewer elven offspring when compared to other races.

Right at this moment, Tristan took the opportunity to ask what had been bothering him all this time.

"Then.. what about... What about sex for elves?"

This question had been on his mind ever since he couldn't perform the act with the smoking hot fire magician, Herrera. He really wished there would be a special way, or anything, for the elf to do such a thing.

Serene seems reluctant to explain the question, but she forced herself to.

"Sex for elf is a sacrilegious act, we are not like humans who treat it just as a physical release like an animal. With elves, it's the union of both body and mind"

Hearing this made Tristan both curious and excited. It appears there really was a reason for his last 'failure' and he definitely needs to know more about this

Unfortunately Serene seems unwilling to explore this topic anymore and decides to ignore him.

Only when they reached a huge compound on one side of the city did Serene open her mouth once again. Even so, Tristan could still taste the aversion in her words.

"We have arrived at the Warrior's hall"