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Chapter 623: Ironic Fate

Eich’s environment was far more dangerous in comparison to the relatively peaceful Earth. There were all sorts of dangerous magical beasts, along with the hostility of other species. Even the most basic action of “living”was highly difficult.

Back on Earth, the countries were typically gatherings of those who had the same ethnicity, nationality, culture, and so on. However, that was too extravagant to hope for in Eich. Although the humans of Eich also had countless different tribes, nationalities, and differences, all other species and Gods viewed them all as humans.

The reason? There was only one. Life was difficult. Teaming up to protect each other was primary priority. There was no time or effort spared to separate humans into different categories. If humans had to deal with an alien invasion for several hundred years back on Earth, it was likely that racial discrimination and so on would be much less prevalent as humans would band together against a much greater common threat.

With such an environment, Eich’s countries and human society were foundationally different from those on Earth.

“The weak will serve and worship the strong, while the strong will protect the weak.”

This was a very simplistic symbiotic relationship that served as the foundation of human society. The weak desired to become the strong as it would mean being able to gain reputation and status, and when someone became strong, that meant taking on responsibility to protect the weak.

So, with such a social structure, feudal lords became the mainstay of Eich’s human society, and from a certain standpoint, this was indeed the most appropriate social structure for this world. The local domain lords and knights were responsible for being local military commanders who had to protect their own citizens!

What, did you think that I would try and set up communism here just because I was originally from China? Or that I would try and establish capitalism, or at the very least get rid of the feudal system? Then who would be in charge of protecting everyone? Was I supposed to count on the ordinary commoners who had never learned any magic or martial arts?

Some were born with high status as rulers or royalty due to their bloodlines. These individuals would be taught military knowledge and the responsibility of protecting family, country, and people from the start. This wasn’t due to any sense of nobility or justice. This was simply societal pressure due to the environment and external threats.

In this world, since magic and martial arts existed, there was a tremendous gap between the weak and the strong. Professional warriors would have different jobs from commoners. As this became the norm in human society, a knights and nobles system was naturally produced.

Even back in my original world of Earth, in primitive society when life was extremely difficult, those in charge were nothing more than the military leaders of their tribes or people, such as Chinese King Wen or Emperors Huang or Yan, Alexander the Great, King Arthur, and so on. All of them were known for their military exploits. It was just that the long eras of peace and extravagance that followed afterwards caused their descendants to become rotten, living off and enjoying their ancestors’ accomplishments and forgetting their true duty.

But even despite all this, whether it be the dark Middle Ages of Europe or the chaotic Warring States Period of China, domain lords all needed to fight for themselves and their people’s future.

The land of Eich had a much more severe situation compared to Earth. Perhaps there was also extravagance that could be enjoyed here, but there had never been a long period of peace in Eich. The Holy War, other species, magical beasts, and so on would forever be threats to all humans and their countries.

Perhaps the current human nobles were already absorbed in enjoying their extravagant lives. Perhaps the Superior Elves were concentrating mostly just on power struggles. Perhaps the beastmen tribe leaders had already returned to a primitive tribal structure. However, as long as any of them had their lands invaded, they would still need to pick up their weapons and lead their people in defending their homes.

In Eich, the nobles were allowed to be foolish, greedy, ignorant, or arrogant. However, no noble would ever allowed to be useless or cowardly.

If a threat appeared, and the domain lord abandoned his own domain to escape, not only would he lose his domain and noble title, everyone would look down on him… And this “everyone” would include even the lowest commoner farmer down to criminals scheduled to be executed.

Perhaps the countries in the central portion of Eich had already relaxed their guard due to being at peace for a relatively long period of time for Eich. Their nobles and knights had indeed become fallen and corrupt. In this area, the short-lived humans indeed couldn’t compare to the elves. However, for someone like myself born in the Northlands, the responsibility upon me since birth was right before my eyes.

Ever since birth, the threat of the Northlands beastmen and the cruel natural environment had constantly reminded me that this was no peaceful planet like Earth. This was Eich, where anyone and any species could die at any moment.

With our being successors to the Mist Kingdom, the first toy given to me and Karwenz was actually a wooden sword. Ever since young, we had to accept knight training and military education. A great Sword Saint from the royal knights was our sword instructor, and the royal instructor Kelly didn’t teach us etiquette, but rather political and military knowledge.

It wasn’t only myself and Karwenz that had to directly go onto the battlefield before we even reached adult age. Countless domain lords’ successors had the same experience as us. In fact, some places even viewed this as a trial, using this type of law of the jungle to select the best successor.

“The domain and the citizens are forever the foundation of a domain lord. The citizens support you and give you resources in order for you to protect them.”

“The land and the citizens are the foundation for any ruler…”

“The tribe’s territory and people are forever the foundation for any tribe leader…”

Countless other similar phrases existed out there. No matter if you were an ordinary town mayor, or an exalted emperor high up above, you would still have a contract to protect your foundation. This was the most basic sense of trust that people had in each other in this world which was so dangerous.

A high status not only represented power, it also represented the responsibility to protect. The glory of the ancestors wasn’t only for show. It was something that had to be upheld.

I didn’t know if the Gold Elves had a similar education to the human nobles or not. Still, I had never found any differences before in this area—no matter the species.

“Harloys, what do you think of everything? Do you still hate the Elven Gods? Do you wish to destroy the entire elf species? Or do you want to bring a renaissance to the elf species, and revive the entire Elven Empire?”

This was quite an underhanded and cruel question. That was because not only was I spreading salt on her wound, I was forcing her to choose from two difficult decisions… and I knew her answer right from the start.

As the last descendant of the Gold Elves, although Harloys had only been a princess rather than a ruler herself, she still carried the responsibility of the empire. If she had still been a grudge-filled undead, at this time she would likely be shouting “I want revenge, kill all the elves!” or something like that.

But now, Harloys was alive again. I highly doubted that she had never considered her responsibility as the only living Gold Elf. However, every time that she thought of “will they accept an ancient artifact like me from so many generations ago” or “why think about such meaningless things?”, she would stop herself from thinking deeper.

How did I know? Would you believe me if I said that it was because I was also someone from a destroyed kingdom…? Fine, I admit that our original magical pet contract had been signed too hastily. I would always mysteriously obtain certain thoughts of hers.

I knew how Harloys would answer, just as how she knew I knew how she would answer… Although this seemed quite confusing, that was how it was.

What happened to Harloys had been so long ago in the past. Although Harloys would always go berserk when mentioning the elves, this actually confirmed in a way that she still cared about the elves. And if I wrote down all her complex emotions towards the elves in words, I would probably have enough material for an entire series of novels.

In the end, Harloys finally broke her long silence.

“You’re so sly… The bastards from that year must pay the price.”

Any lies or haggling would be meaningless when talking to someone with a soul connection. Harloys had just spoken of the limit of what she could accept.

However, the Elven Empire had been destroyed more than ten thousand years ago. Four or five Holy Wars had occurred since then. Those from that year… Fine, there were still some who were alive. The booklets that Harloys had given me all recorded the original names of those Elven Gods. Anslo and Lorci’s names had been at the forefront.

As for Harloys’ elven enemies in the mortal plane? Not even Gold Elves would typically have lifespan exceeding ten thousand years. When considering the pitiful survival rate in the Holy Wars, it was likely that the number of elves from the Elven Empire generation who were still alive could be counted on one hand.

Well, the elves had also put an insane amount of energy into trying to hunt Harloys down over the years. Without mentioning anything else, when I was Yongye one hundred-ish years ago, Harloys would first focus on hunting down the oldest elves on her list every time that we destroyed an elven kingdom.

“There’s more than you think! There’s still five of them alive! Silver elves Savor and Ostan. These two are both traitors from the Silverspear Family. They were guard captains of the royal guards back in the day. Moon elf Finna Moonshadow. My father, the emperor, trusted this priestess more than anyone else. However, she betrayed us all. Wild elf Vincent. I was blind back then to have promoted that bastard. Wood elf ‘Elder Tree Sleeper’. He was the one who forcefully sent all the guardian elder trees to sleep back then!”

Damn, there wasn’t a single easy one to deal with among them. They were all ancient artifacts at SemiGod or above. After so many years, these individuals and their families were major powers, with large numbers of Superior Elves. Dealing with even one would be like prodding a hornet’s nest… Well, this was only natural. If these last elves that Harloys wanted revenge against had been easy to deal with, she would have killed them long ago.

“Alright. I will personally send them down to the infernos of Hell. This is my promise to you.”

Originally, my promise to help Harloys obtain her revenge had only been an exchange of personal benefits for our alliance. I hadn’t paid too much attention to my promise. I had only dealt with the elves out of convenience if I happened to run into any. I hadn’t intentionally gone out hunting elves. But now that Harloys had resolved herself and compromised thanks to my convincing her, I felt that as a man, I should help her carry out her revenge.

These five elves were simply a group of bastards who betrayed their master. I would spend some extra effort without caring about the price to kill these five elves within the next three years.

Harloys’ face actually flushed red. Maybe it was because she felt that my promise was a serious one for once? Her eyes were becoming watery… Wait, wasn’t something wrong with the style? Normally, she would never be this moved, but she was so moved by a promise to help her kill others?

But the next instant, she calmed down again. She averted her gaze as if she was rather embarrassed.

Still, the red flush on her pointy ears soon receded. Her beautiful eyes now stared directly at the succubus Didina. Harloys’ expression constantly changed as she opened and closed her mouth several times. She wanted to ask a question, but was also afraid of finding out the truth.

It was obvious that the three pieces of Gold Elf God Equipment were one of the greatest secrets of the Gold Elf royalty. It was certain that very few would know about them. Harloys had probably already guessed who Didina really was. There were probably only a few candidates to choose from.

“Mother…?”

Didina smiled bitterly as she shook her head. She also knew that it was impossible to hide the truth anymore.

“Aunt Betty?”

This time, Didina fell silent for quite a while. But still, she shook her head in the end.

Harloys then covered her face and lowered her head without asking anything else. However, her expression while looking at Didina through her fingers became even more complex. It seemed that there had only been three candidates who knew about the three pieces of God Equipment. Now that two wrong answers had been eliminated, there was only one correct answer left, no matter how inconceivable it might seem.

At this moment, I also covered my mouth. This wasn’t because I had learned it from Harloys, as she was blocking off our soul connection to the maximum. However, it had been quite simple to guess who Didina had to be based on basic family structures…

“I can’t laugh, I can’t laugh, I’ll really die if I laugh out loud. Harloys will kill me for sure…”

I did my best to hold in my laughter while thinking about what I should say. After all, if I wanted to be technical about it, Didina was actually Harloys’ senior.

“Father… no, Mother, please allow me to marry your daughter!”

Astonishing words echoed throughout the hallway. Everyone focused their attention on the person who was suddenly kneeling and asking for Didina’s daughter’s hand! Didina had an expression of absolute astonishment and disbelief.

“Paha, Harloys, you have a Void Devourer little sister now? How do you feel about your little sister getting married before you? Hahahaha!”

In the end, I was unable to take it any longer as I rolled around on the floor while laughing. The next instant, a familiar cat attacked me while attaching herself to my head.

Hey, don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t the one who asked to get married just now. The person who was kneeling while asking for forgiveness was a certain Dracon from myths and legends.

However, Beifeng was sneaking peeks behind him while kneeling and asking for Didina’s permission to marry the Void Devourer. A certain centaur archer had a complex expression while looking over at Beifeng.

“The topic was so serious just earlier. However, things suddenly became so comical the moment that Beifeng arrived. He really knows how to steal the spotlight… What does this count as? A shuraba between a centaur and a Void Devourer? Sheesh, it’s so rare for me to be serious for two minutes. Let’s not watch this bastard ruin everyone’s worldview.”