Chapter 17

Erlos prepared himself to return to the palace.

Though he had his own chamber in the palace, once in a while, whenever he felt too tired and felt like he had enough of his heartless master, he would return to this house. This was his home, the place where he’s most relaxed, surrounded by nature and his kin. Not to mention, this was High Elder Leeora’s territory. She looked after him and treated him well like her own grandson.

When he stepped out of his home, he saw Leeora tending to newly grown seedlings of what seemed to be precious herbs. They were neighbors, their tree abodes connected to each other with a hanging bridge.

The old lady smiled. “Leaving?”

“Do I have any other option?” he asked as he hopped down from his tree, disappearing from there and leaving nothing but a gust of strong wind.

If humans were to see this spectacle, they would think he had powers of teleportation like his master, but only because his body was moving too fast for their mortal eyes to follow. It was as if he had turned into the wind itself.

However, although he was moving at a high speed not visible to the eyes of humans, his fellow elves could see him sprinting like his life depended on it. He caused many hanging bridges to fiercely sway left and right, and the dry leaves on the ground to blast towards the innocent bystanders who happened to be standing on the wrong spot.

Having disturbed what should have been a peaceful morning, many elves clicked their tongues and commented upon seeing that young elf with silver hair.

“Oh, he’s back?”

“Yeah, and now he’s gone.”

“Tsk. Seems like he is again late.”

“Look out! Spirit, you almost made me fall,” one elf shouted at Erlos as he hugged the vine ropes of the hanging bridge that he was crossing.

“That boy needs to be disciplined. Herbs I kept outside to dry almost scattered everywhere.”

Only Erlos’ laughter and insincere apology could be heard as he continued his trail of destruction. It was nothing new for him, and even those elves didn’t mean what they said as they were long used to his rascally behaviour.

Contrary to the more pacifist nature of most elves, High Elves were highly aggressive. They were in fact similar to ancient battle mages. Considered the royalty of elves, High Elves were the strongest elves and the protectors of their kind, capable of using magic spells with multiple attributes.

Despite his young age, Erlos was a High Elf who possessed various abilities like strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes that exceeded even the most outstanding talents of the other elf clans. Additionally, High Elves have a penchant for archery and Erlos in particular was especially gifted in that aspect, but he hardly got the chance to use any of his abilities as a servant in the palace. All he had going for him was his stamina.

After all, serving his heartless master needed not only physical endurance but also long patience and strong willpower.

Erlos reached the King’s chamber in no time, and after noting he was not late, quickly fixed his silver mess of a hair. He licked his lips, a little sad that Leeora merely gave him a single elixir, but it was of course powerful enough to revitalize his body and fill him with energy. He gave out a sigh of relief before opening the door.

The moment he entered his master’s chamber, he saw the tall man was already awake and talking to his pet owl.

“Make sure to not make any mistake or you won’t be able to fly again.”

‘Ahh, he decided to serve a threat first thing in the morning. As expected of my master.’ Erlos blinked and threw a pitiful glance at the poor owl. Midnight caught his expression and blinked back at him, as if to say ‘What can I do?’ He then greeted his master, “Good morning, Sire.”

Draven didn’t reply to him and simply stared at the owl who used that chance to flee.

Erlos looked at the floor and found muddy footprints on the marbled floor as well as the carpet. He also saw the familiar sight of the King’s sleeping robe and the clothes his master wore yesterday lying on the floor.

‘Here starts my day! Cleaning after his mess,’ he sighed inwardly. However, he couldn’t stop his mouth from complaining. “I cleaned the floor before I left yesterday. Why are there dirty footprints on the floor?”

“I went out to play with a little mouse,” Draven replied.

It didn’t matter to Erlos what or who the little mouse was. All he had in his mind was the chores he had to do, starting with cleaning this mess.

He picked up the clothes from the floor and arranged the boots on one side. “Elder Leeora said she will be taking that human girl with her today.”

“Hmm,” was all Draven replied.

Erlos said no more and went to the attached side chamber to prepare the bath for his master. Remembering the conversation he had with Leeora, he could not help but scoff.

‘Descendant of the strongest elf clan, they say. And what is that precious descendant doing? Washing clothes, cleaning the floor, serving food and looking after a grown adult as if he is my own child.’