Duke Pendragon

“Ahhhk!”

Raven drew himself closer to the floor after hearing a terrible scream from afar. The ground was muddy and full of rotting trees and grass, but he did not care. His face was fully covered in mud anyways.

He had deliberately applied mud to his entire body to avoid being detected by the lizardmen.

“Ahhh…!”

The dying screams seemed to mark the end of the massacre.

‘Fast and cruel. What are they…?’

A few hours ago, Raven was searching for the right place to hide after setting up the traps to ‘take care’ of his pursuers. The demonic army would not give up easily. Raven planned to set up even more traps and devices to rid of the imminent pursuers before heading to Red Moon Valley.

But then he detected an unknown energy. Surprisingly, he felt the spirit of nearly a hundred creatures, all emitting an energy of the same nature, and each rivalling a skilled knight. From Raven’s experience, only the paladins of the deities’ temples possessed a type of spirit that resembled each other.

But there was something different about the energy of those who were approaching. In a way, it was most similar to the energy of the Lumina Temple, but something felt foreign. Unlike the refined, upright spirit exuded by the paladins of Goddess Lumina, the spirits felt unrefined and turbulent.

Raven became nervous as the collection of spirits drew closer. It would be hard to guarantee his victory, and he was currently being chased by the demonic army as well.

If the newly emerging creatures were hostile to him, the situation would become immensely difficult. Fortunately, however, the unidentified force passed him by, and shockingly, started to attack the demonic army soldiers and the lizardmen that were chasing him.

“Kiyahahah!”

- While letting out grotesque shouts that made his very bones quiver, even though he was only listening from afar.

‘Perhaps…’

Raven thought of their possible origins as he listened to the roars which marked the end of the massacre. Perhaps they were the ones he had been looking for – the elves of Red Moon Valley.

They were a tribe residing in the middle of the Great Forest, mostly unknown to the rest of the world.

‘But perhaps not.’

Raven pondered as he snatched an aggressive snake in front of him, which had started to rear up in an attempt to attack him.

Elves were difficult, but they were not cruel. Most importantly, they avoided killing and respected life. Even when they fought to protect their forests, they resorted to capturing or chasing out the enemy and never engaged in indiscriminate slaughter.

Naturally, they showed no mercy towards the evil undead, such as the ghouls and the zombies, but elves almost always showed mercy to living enemies.

However, the creatures who had engaged in the massacre in the distance were completely different. He could imagine their brutality from the howls that resonated from the victims.

‘Here they come…!’

Sensing the blood-scented spirits nearing him once more, Raven held his breath. He was grateful that they had taken care of the demonic army and the lizardmen, but that did not mean they would not attack him.

Shhk! Shik!

Several shadows approached while jumping over tall trees with light movements. Raven hid in the mud, and only his blue eyes were visible. He carefully observed them. All of the creatures were of slender build, and they had bizarre patterns engraved on their necks and faces.

Moreover, their heads and shoulders were wrapped with decorative objects made from feathers and animal hides. They displayed a strange appearance, and it would be easy to mistake them for animals in the dark.

In particular, they were bare-footed, and they ran around while casually stepping on long, thin branches, while also moving by grabbing onto long wooden vines. They seemed like real animals.

‘That’s…’

Raven narrowed his eyes after seeing one of the creatures pass right above the rock where he was hiding. His curiosity was not due to the human skin hanging from the creature’s waist.

None of the weapons hanging from their backs or waists were made of metal.

‘It’s all made of animal bones. How strange.’

One of the figures jumping over a tree suddenly stopped as Raven pondered. Then, it tilted its head and began to observe down below very carefully.

‘Dammit…’

Raven became anxious at the sudden action. The trouble started to grow.

Beeep!

The figure who stopped whistled, and all the creatures that went ahead began to return.

“Kara ma rotabi an.”

“Rotabi?”

Raven’s restlessness grew as they started to converse in an unknown language. One figure jumped out of the tree, and more followed down.

The distance between them and himself was only 10 yards.

The creatures started to look around with attentive eyes while sniffing, and Raven clicked his tongue inwardly. He made up his mind and slowly stood up.

“Aranta!”

Alarmed by the appearance of a mud-covered man, the creatures raised their weapons toward him.

‘Should I attack?’

After contemplating for a moment, Raven inwardly shook his head and raised his hands to show them he was not hostile. As soon as he saw the creatures’ pointy ears rising above their tattooed faces, Raven recognized them as the elves of Red Moon Valley.

He might have a chance if he engaged in battle, but he did not come to shed blood.

“Aranta!”

“Tarak!”

All of the elves on the trees took out their weapons after Raven appeared. The forest quickly filled with murderous intent.

Raven had no choice but to hold his hands up, surrounded by about a hundred of the Red Moon Valley Elves that even the lizardmen, the hunters of the Great Forest, feared.

***

Kikikiki!

After walking through the dense forest filled with foreign birds and beasts, a huge mountain soon appeared in Raven’s view.

The mountains were cut sharp at a right angle, as if the gods had struck it with an axe. Waterfalls came pouring down from the high mountains. However, the mountains were so high that the water from the falls were unable to reach the ground. Instead, it vaporized in the middle of the mountain, forming a fog shaping into a colourful rainbow.

Raven was in awe at the overwhelming sight created by nature. Words could not do the scenery justice.

“Keri na!”

Someone poked Raven’s back with a sword made from buffalo horns, and Raven put aside his admirations and continued to walk. After he expressed his intention to surrender, some of the Red Moon Valley Elves gathered and began to converse about something.

Raven scrutinized them carefully, preparing himself to subdue all of them without killing if they tried anything. After a brief heated debate, one who appeared to be the leader of the pack gestured for Raven to follow them.

So Raven had followed them all the way here, surrounded by the hundred or so elves. Strangely, the Red Moon Valley Elves did not tie him up or threaten him in any way.

He could not understand why they were acting in such a way, when they had mercilessly killed the soldiers of the demonic army and the lizardmen. The spoils of the massacre were proudly hanging from the elves’ waists.

‘Is it confidence?’

Raven felt pretty certain.

Surely a human could not escape through the siege of nearly a hundred elves in the vast thickets of the Great Forest.

Fwaaaaah!

The elves entered a huge cave, walking through the dense fog created from the falling water. They truly were a strange tribe, for elves to reside in a cave. Raven walked with them.

But Raven was soon forced to revise his thoughts.

The space inside the waterfall was not a cave.

It was a wider, larger space than the village of the Ancona Orcs. The habitat was filled with all kinds of unknown plants, herbs, and trees centered around a colossal tree. The central tree was so large that its diameter could not be estimated, and the space opened into an open sky.

It was large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people at the same time. Huts similar to human homes were built upon the branches that stretched out from the central tree, and as soon as Raven and the elf warriors appeared, hundreds of figures came out.

“Huh…”

Raven became speechless at the sight that unfurled in front of him.

Among those who appeared from the trees, there were women and children. Unlike the elves who brought him, they had no patterns on their faces and bodies. They were clean.

No, clean did not do justice.

The elves with the tanned skin were exceedingly fair and handsome. Regardless of age, all of them displayed stunning elegance, rivalling that of any human beauties.

In particular, the female elves were the most gorgeous creatures he had ever laid his eyes upon. Even Irene and Ingrid, who were the prettiest people Raven had ever seen, would be considered normal in the presence of the elves.

Each one of the world-breaking beauties were looking at him with surprise and curiosity. Even Raven, who was not usually obsessed with women’s beauty, felt strange at the attention.

“Tora an.”

The leader of the pack that brought Raven pointed to a certain place while speaking to Raven. It was a large space at the base of the colossal tree. Raven realized that the elf was telling him to go into the space and walked forward with dozens of elven warriors.

The elven warriors stopped him after entering the compound. Even though it was indoors, a refreshing scent overflowed.

Some figures walked out from between the thick, entangled roots of the tree. At first glance, they seemed to be in their mid-30’s, but the white eyebrows and the hair of the three figures made it hard to accurately grasp their age.

Raven recognized that the female elf at the center with the two males by her side was the oldest of the bunch, or the representative of the elf tribe of Red Moon Valley.

The reason was simple.

He had not seen any elves wearing metal accessories or weapons thus far, but the woman walking towards him was holding a metal cane surrounded by a blue hue. She walked unhesitatingly before stopping in front of Raven and shared a brief glance with the two men on her left and right before turning to Raven and speaking.

“Let me ask you. Who is the exalted sibling of the gods that you are in a relationship with?”

“…..!”

Raven was momentarily flustered by the perfect imperial dialect. The elf smiled and continued.

“The years I have spent in this world is long. Not as long as some of the olden siblings of the gods that exist over the world, but it would amount to a thousand years by human standards. It is not lacking to learn the different languages used by the humans.”

“…I see.”

Raven nodded after coming to his senses. A slight interest appeared in the elf’s eyes.

“You are not so surprised either. That means you have a very intimate relationship with the sibling of the gods, the owner of the energy that I sense from you.”

“…..”

After a moment of thought, Raven made up his mind and answered honestly.

“My name is Alan Pendragon, a Duke of Aragon. I am the companion of Soldrake, the Queen of All Dragons.”

“…..!”

The woman became astonished.

All of the elves began to murmur with great surprise upon hearing the name ‘Soldrake’.