Chapter 275: Prince Aesril: Journey

"You do look like a human in that mask, my Prince." Gelethorn praised Prince Aesril after they both wore the Mask of Careé.

It has been a couple of weeks since they left Castle Golag with other the participants of the Hunt.

After they deliberately fell underground from the worm-like beast attacks, they made their way to a series of tunnels that leads them to the Portal that would take them to the lands of humans.

But leaving the labyrinth-like tunnels wasn't so easy as Aesril thought. Avoiding both the corrupted beast inside the labyrinth and their team was a lot to take in even for the Prince.

After a day of both digging the buried Portal and avoiding their fellow Elves, Prince Aesril and the Wood-elf Gelethorn successfully unearth the Portal.

But making the Portal work took another day of their time. The portal was an old kind of portal in which Prince Aesril had little knowledge about. Luckily for Gelethorn, Aesril was an elf entranced by reading diverse kinds of books.

With both his mana and knowledge, Prince Aesril successfully opened the Portal. But due to its century-old structure, the Portal crumbled just in time for Gelethorn to pass through it, making it unpassable to anyone.

Upon arriving at the other side, they were surprised that it was an old underground shrine. This shrine was managed by an old couple bound to aid the return of any Elves.

At first, Aesril and Gelethorn didn't wish to believe that humans were aiding them.

Sensing their reluctance, Old Tanaa, and Elliose: an elderly human couple between their 70's, produced an item that would prove that their family was guarding the Portal for generations and all they ever wanted was to prove that their cause wasn't gone to waste.

Old man Elliose gave Prince Aesril a blank parchment that only Elves were able to show what was written.

Without opening the parchment, Prince Aesril immediately knew that the parchment was made from a rare skin of a magical beast called Thrym hounds. Only Elves could domestic Thrym hounds. Their silver fur was crafted for various fashion produce for Elves, and their skins were used to make magical parchments.

With the Thrym hound's skin mana conductivity, Elves produced items like parchment and with the aid of magic, they could hide words in the skin and could only be used with specific kinds of mana.

Injecting his mana, Aesril saw that the parchment glows in white blinding light and realized that it was something that records whoever injects their mana onto it. At the same time, it also informs the user that both their mana were compatible and that they were a genuine item from Elves.

One would think: What would happen if someone stole it and used it to disguise themselves as the user of the parchment?

No. The moment that the user (in this case was the old couple) didn't inject its mana in a certain period of time, it would vanish. Perhaps burn to ashes, or simply explodes. Depending on the seal it was used, the effects were different.

Now that Prince Aesril and Gelethorn believes that the couple was indeed aiding the Elves, they went to their humble abode: A tiny shack of woods and branches with burned mud as its base. From there, they learned that the couple was living like any other humans. Old Elliose was a coachman in a nearby town while Old Tanaa tends their home and grow and sell vegetables. They have a son that works in the town as a guard but left a long time ago. While their daughter married a merchant from another city. With only two of them left in their tiny shack inside the forest, they tend to live a normal life.

Prince Aesril and Gelethorn stayed for a day to prepare things and gather knowledge for their travel.

They were in a mountain range somewhere West of the Cassan Continent.

The nearest town was called Millbeech. A mostly farming town located at the foot of the mountain. Farther west was the city called Dirin governed by a noble under the Great House of Kinsley.

Prince Aesril was given a choice by old man Elliose: Go farther West to the city of Dirin and guise as his son and Gele as nephew and sail a ship going to the Region of Titan Cay. From there they could find someone to give them a sail going towards the Scattered Bay where O'rriadt was, all these while Old man Elliose accompany them. Or they could go East on foot, perhaps rent carriages posting some farmer, perhaps messenger and leave the border and arrive at Bogblot and sail going to Scattered Bay, but Old-man Elliose declared it would be difficult for them to leave the border since a heated Great House war was occurring between the Great Hose of Soak against the Great House of Kinsley.

Prince Aesril chose to travel West, to avoid any delays. It took them three days to travel from Millbeech to the city of Dirin, and another two days to reach the port. They decided to stay away from the city since Prince Aesril and Gelethorn were not aware of any magical items that would reveal their true identity.

Reaching the port of Dirin, Prince Aesril demanded that Old man Elliose would stop to accompany them. Although Old man Elliose was a Magic Capable able to conjure spells of Tier 2, his magic wasn't polished to the point that he could battle the magical beast of Grades D or C. He knew he would be a hindrance, so he agreed to stay. Seeing an Elf was enough for him to put his mind to ease.

To aid their travel, Old man Elliose gave the prince and his aide resources to last them a month in the high seas of Scattered Bay.

It has been a day after Prince Aesril and Gelethorn left the port of Dirin.

Seeing that their resources were lacking, Prince Aesril's brown eyebrows frowned.

"Maybe I'm overly suspicious," Prince Aesril said with his brown eyes looking at a handful of gold coins inside the brown leather pouch. "At first I thought my mask won't fit my face. But now that you mentioned it, I do look like a human without my long ears."

"You looked beat, my Prince," Gelethorn said across Prince Aesril.

They were inside a sailor's cabin. The plank of woods affixed together to act as a wall creaked as the ship shook left and right from the waves caused by a thunderstorm. Prince Aesril sat at the table fixed against the wall with Gelethorn sitting across him. A rusty lamp was their only light at the corner of the table.

Prince Aesril smiled. His new face looked like a man in his early twenties: chestnut brown hair, high nose, and thin and impatient eyes. He looked at Gele on his new human face too: Dark hair, and rounded eyes, and square face in tanned skin. Prince Aesril imagined Gele lifting hundreds of kilos of weight with his wide shoulder visible without his usual Wood-elf armor.

"You're the one who's beat," Aesril said. Unfortunately, the Mask of Careé could only change faces and not voices. His voice was soft and elegant as though he was some noble. But people of the ship would laugh at them seeing that they wore a sailor's uniform instead of garments fitted for nobles. "I didn't know the great son of the Great Wood-elf General was afraid of the seas."

"I am very sorry, my Prince," Gele said. Face and eyes were pale, he nearly puked with the ship inclined to the left. "But the sea is taking the Soul out of my precious Wood-elf body. You've never been to the sea, my Prince. But how come you're not affected? Were you using some kind of Magic, Prince Aesril?"

Prince Aesril wanted to laugh, but seeing and hearing the handful of copper coins clanking inside the pouch made his brows furrowed once more. "Guess my excitement overcame the thrills of the sea. And... " Prince Aesril looked over his shoulder, then to the door to their right with a slit open as though were stabbed by swords, then he looked behind to the window and back to his honest Wood-elf companion and said: "I'm Ely of Millbeech and you're Enrol the farmer, and we travel because?"

Gelethorn paused for a moment, trying to digest what Prince Aesril had said then tried to extract the conversation they had last night. "Because your mother is sick and we needed to find your Herbalist Uncle somewhere in Avaii Island in Scattered Bay."

"Apparently, humans like to structure themselves in terms of power. So they decided to separate themselves in Houses. It works like Seeds in our Elven hierarchy."

"But we're not in any House, my P—I mean, Prince Ely."

Aesril shook his head. Gelethorn has been calling him Prince ever since he could remember, so calling him without the address would take a lot of his courage, and it would take time before Gele was accustomed to it.

"Listen here, my beloved friend Enrol." Prince Aesril posting as Ely raised a finger as though trying to lecture Gelethorn. "Do you want to find Elfeinheim? Then we better work towards our goal." Aesril said even before Gelethorn could nod.

"But, my P—" Gelethorn took a deep breath and continued. "My Ely, do you—"

"Stopp!" Prince Aesril said raising his hand toward Gelethorn. "Don't say that, if humans heard that you calling me... like that, they will think something is going on between us."

"But something is going on between us, my P—" Gelethorn stopped, unable to continue and unable to say his Prince's name without his title. "E... Ely. I'm your aid, and I will do everything for the Prince of Elves."

"Okay, that's enough, Enrol."

Prince Aesril knotted the brown leather pouch and hid it under his clothing. "I am Ely you are Enrol, and if you really want to help me as my aid. Then we need to leave now. Captain will get angry at us if we are slacking here while the other sailor scrubs the deck."

"Deck? my P—" Gelethorn sighed. "M—Ely.

"Its part of the ship was in, we needed it clean so that we could have meals and room here to stay. Now sta—"

The ship racked back to the right, barely throwing Prince Aesril. But Gelethorn stood in a flashy way that he held Prince Aesril by the shoulder and clutched him closer to his body as though he was protecting him from the rain of arrows.

"Be careful, my P—I mean Ely, you must not—"

The door beside them swung open and a man in his twenties bare witnessed the scene happening inside Prince Aesril's cabin.

"Uhm," the man said, his cheek almost red under the torch he was holding, "Captain wishes to see you two."