Chapter 172 - Elfheim City

As Cecil explored the city of Elfheim, he came across many peculiarities. The plants and flowers that were growing everywhere in the city were filled with a whole bunch of mana!

Even a street flower had mana that rivaled a 100 year-old herb. When asked around, it turns out that this was caused by the blessing of Urrugdrasil. Any plant that was grown within the vicinity of Urrugdrasil's influence was blessed with life and mana.

They had an accelerated growth rate and the quality of mana stored inside their bodies were above anything Cecil had ever seen. Every plant or flower in Elfheim could be used as a top quality ingredient in alchemy or medicine concoction.

He asked the local elves if he was allowed to take some with him, and to his surprise they were actually so cordial and friendly. Not like the arrogant elves that were described in the stories from Earth.

Cecil of course wasn't shameless enough to take every single plant within his sights. He didn't want to intrude too much on the elves' kindness so Cecil only took one of every species of plant he saw that piqued his interest.

There were many unique plants and flowers as well. It was actually pretty interesting to see flowers with rainbow colored petals, or mandragoras that actually sang instead of scream. There was even a vine type plant that had flowers and fruits of all different kinds growing on it.

This blessing of Urrugdrasil that imbued everything with Mana and Life energy...Cecil wondered if he could acquire such a blessing. It'd probably be an upgrade to his strength if he could obtain it.

Cecil continued to explore the city. He chanced upon an exquisite looking restaurant and decided to stop by for a meal. To his dismay however, the elves' meals were just as the ones described in the stories from back on Earth.

They were all vegetarians! It wasn't that he had a thing against vegans, but Cecil preferred to eat meat with vegetables on the side. It was his first time eating a dish that only had vegetables in it.

Despite all this, he actually enjoyed his meal. The dish had a unique taste reminiscent of Earth's fruit salad. However, Cecil didn't see any kind of fruit on his dish, but he still felt like he had eaten a fruit salad.

"Woah, this actually tastes really good!"

As Cecil was eating his dish happily, a group of students from the Elven Royal Academy entered the restaurant.

Cecil was eating pretty ravenously that he didn't feel the gazes that had locked onto him. One of the waitresses had seen Cecil eating with gusto that she came over and asked whether he would like a second helping.

"Sure miss! I'd like 2 more of these, the pickled fairy flower dish, the spicy mashed potatoes, and this mock meat vegetable dish please!"

"F-five more dishes?"

"Yes! The food here all sounds delicious! So I'd like to try more of them! Also, please send my compliments to the chef!"

"Yes sir!"

The waitress smiled happily after Cecil's large order, she quickly went back to the restaurant's kitchen and relayed Cecil's order.

The group of students standing by the entrance walked over to a table nearby Cecil's and sat down. They eyed the foxkin boy who was eating happily and some of the females of the group grew a little interested in him.

The guys however scoffed and looked at him with scorn.

"Hmph, how barbaric! Does he have no manners?"

"Oh shut it, Selem, he actually looks kinda cute if you ask me~"

"Hmph."

"At least this one appreciates the things that our proud kingdom provides, have you seen those Gigantes? My god are they annoying!"

Another one of the elves added in.

"Yeah, they're loud and rambunctious! They totally ruin the peaceful atmosphere of the city!"

"We have very friendly relations with the Beastkins and Merfolk, so they can come to appreciate our culture, not so sure about those Gigantes and the wild ones."

"You mean the Beastmen, Argo."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Cecil couldn't help but overhear what the elven students were saying, he shrugged and continued eating. Not long later, his 5 additional dishes were served and he began resuming his eating in gusto.

The large helping of food placed in front of the small boy caused many of the patrons to turn an incredible eye at him. Even the group of elven students next to Cecil's table was look at him in astonishment.

"What is this guy? A ravenous ghost?"

"Ufufufu~ how cute~"

Cecil quickly finished all the food in front of him and hummed in satisfaction. Everyone in the restaurant wondered just where he put all that food into.

"For a small guy, you sure eat a lot~" The elven girl who kept on saying that Cecil was cute spoke up.

"Hm?"

"My name's Cleo, nice to meet you," The elven girl named Cleo said as she stuck her hand out in greeting.

Cecil wiped his hands with a wet napkin and dried it using mana. Then he shook hands with her and introduced himself.

"My name's Cecil, nice to meet you too!"

Cleo's group had their food brought to them and the rest of them began to eat elegantly. Cleo was still engaged in a conversation with Cecil.

"So Cecil, I guess you're a student of the Beastkin Academy, yes?"

"Isn't that kind of obvious?"

Selem who was eating on the side couldn't help but overhear Cecil's somewhat rude remark.

"Hey kid! Have some respect! That's no way to be talk—"

"Oh shut it, Selem. He can talk to me in any tone he wants!"

"B-but—"

"I told you, to shut it."

"Y-yes, ma'am..."

Cecil was wearing his uniform so it was kind of obvious to tell at first glance. He could also tell that the group before him was also part of the Urrugdrasil Magic Academy because of the uniform they were wearing.

Cecil called for the waitress that had been serving him earlier. He asked for the tab and paid for it with his bank card.

To the Elven students' surprise, the bank card that Cecil pulled out actually had an exquisite gold lining around it. This indicated that Cecil's bank card was a gold card and he had a couple millions of gold credits inside it.

The waitress took the card with trembling hands and quickly made for the register. She quickly waved it above a magic tool created by the Alterna Bank and brought the card back to Cecil in a hurry.

"Th-thank you for your patronage, young master," The waitress bowed deeply with thanks.

Cecil was a little unaccustomed to this and so he only replied stiffly, "Huh? Yeah, sure..."

Cecil quickly stood up and bade farewell to the new elven friend he made. Cleo sent him off with a light greeting and began to eat her meal.

"Woah, Selem, you almost bit the dust earlier!"

"..."

"With the way he acted, I didn't think he was actually a part of the Anglaria Kingdom's aristocratic families!"

"We bumped into quite the fellow here, haha~"

"Well at least he had some status to back up his lacking manners in talking with the princess."

The elven group turned to look at their princess, Cleo. Cleo Clarentine, she was the high elf princess whose family administrated the Kingdom of Elfenheim. They took charge and united all the elven species under the banner of the kingdom.

Their only objective for creating the kingdom was to care for, nurture and protect the World Tree where they, the elves, resided upon. Urrugdrasil was their life blood and their patron guardian.

As a race, they enjoyed the World Tree's abundant blessings and gifts. So it was only natural that they would take care of it. Before this, during the times of war and dispute, many demons would venture over to their continent via teleportation and sea voyage and attack the World Tree, Urrugdrasil.

Since it had an abundant amount of mana, the warring race of the demons naturally wanted to take it for themselves. The elves banded together under one rule and defended the World Tree. Because the elves didn't seek out power they had the Clarentine High Elf Family be their 'administrators' and not 'rulers'.

The Clarentine Royal Family was in fact only the representatives of the elven race to the outside races. They had a government closer to a parliament than that of a monarchy, like what was present in the Beastmen, Beastkin, Gigantes, and Merfolk Kingdoms.

Cecil walked out of the restaurant and continued his explorations all the way until the evening. He only came back to the Arks Academy's lodgings when the curfew was close.

"Man~ what an eventful day~"

Although the capital city Elfheim seemed pretty peaceful, there were plenty of wrong doings happening all over the place. Cecil was kind enough to help out whenever he could.

"Oh, Cel~ you're back. I made some ramen, call everyone in to eat. They're all on the balcony goofing around."

"Alright~"