[Southern Pride — Eternal Forest]
This was the country of the proudest mortal race in the entirety of the Mortal Realm. The country of the elves, drenched in the sin of pride and hedonism. They had once been as close to being the rulers of the Mortals realm as possible. Fighting against angels and demons while keeping Humans and dwarves under their servitude. Since Angels and Demons were of Divine origin, it wouldn’t be a mistake to say that they were the strongest mortal race in the Mortal Realm.
The structure of the houses in the kingdom of Southern Pride was one that fused with nature. Elves did not cut their forest to create houses but simply used their magics to create special trees that were empty on the inside.
The closer you came to one of the five main settlements of the elves, the taller the trees would become. It was big to the point that 10 to 20 meters tall trees were a common sight in the inner region of the settlement.
In the center of the seemingly never-ending forest of green, where the high elves lived, stood the tallest tree in all of existence.
One so tall it literally pierced the clouds above and no one could see the ends of it with just standing on the ground alone.
The elves called it the World Tree— a tree born from one of the seeds of Yggdrasil, the Divine Beast of Humilitas.
The world tree also housed the sanctuary where the High Priestess and the Queen made their decisions.
Satella Superbia like any other elf was a beautiful and graceful woman. She had a slim body with small curves, but she did not lack a single bit in the feminine charms department. Though, because of her emotionless face and the long golden hair that reached fell gently on the ground, some would inevitably compare her to a beautiful doll more than a living being.
Jasmine, on the other hand, could not be more opposite. She was a short-haired brown-skinned elf with a body many men would judge was worthy to wage war for. Her satin-like robe was stretched so much by her bountiful curves that it looked like it would burst at any given moment and show the barely hidden spring sight to all concerned.
Usually, at this moment, it should have been a calm space filled with melody as the Queen, Satella Superbia, quietly drank her tea or discussed stately and/or personal matters with her friend, Jasmine Humilitas who was also the Supreme Daughter of the church of Humilitas.
But on this day, the two were facing each other in silence while listening to a report from a dark elf.
Once the elf finished her report, she bowed her head deeply before leaving the two rulers with a complicated expression that marred their enchanting faces.
“This is…”
Jasmine tried to keep her expression in check but the mirth in her eyes could barely be hidden. This caused Satella to sigh out loud.
“You find this quite funny, don’t you?”
“Well… Do you want me to be honest?”
“Go on.”
“Pfft! I honestly find it absolutely hilarious.”
Having received permission from the Queen, Jasmine could no longer hide her laughter and Satella knew that there was not much she could do about it.
Southern Pride was currently facing a crisis like no other. It wasn’t something like a war or the infiltration of the vampires, but something much much more insidious. To the point that she was completely helpless to do anything about it.
“A new cult… I would have never thought that someone would be this daring to do something this brazen.”
“Hehe. Attention. It is not the cult. It’s an assembly formed by like-minded people who respect and admire the tales of the Dragon Emperor…. Pfft! Hahaha~!”
She could not keep a straight face even as she spoke out that line, causing Satella to feel like facepalming herself due to the antics of the Supreme Daughter of her country and long time friend.
All countries in the mortal world had freedom of religion. An elf wasn’t forced to pray to Superbia or her sister. Nor were humans forced to pray to Luxuria and so on.
This was a law that had been established since the start of the Kingdom era. But in the end, it was because any other religion that they were able to divert to would be the religion of the Mother Goddess of Order.
This was the limit of the freedom of religion.
Even for the elves who respected and worshipped dragons, there were some limits they did not dare to cross.
But what was happening currently was quite headache-inducing, to say the least.
Everything started nearly three weeks ago when they received news that two pure Dragons would come down from the Astral Realm.
For elves, it was akin to earth-shaking news. But when they finally came down, there was one more guest with them that made everyone’s eyes go round into saucers.
A phoenix.
In hindsight, Satella should have been more careful about their guest. But — Before being a queen, she was also an elf. One with dragon blood in hers. While her respect and admiration for the dragons were lesser than the majority. It still existed to some degree.
This was why she had overlooked the weird action of the woman named Nefertiti. After all, she was an honored guest of the dragon race.
She shouldn’t have. Oh, she definitely definitely shouldn’t have done that.
The Elves had a very tribalistic lifestyle and the four greatest tribes used the Four Dragon Kings as their Totem.
In just a week, news about the war against Chaos seemed to have spread throughout the forest like the most wildest of wildfires.
In two weeks, a group of more than hundreds of elves already formed as they showed respect to the supposed Dragon Emperor. For the elf's small population, a hundred gathered individuals were quite a large number. Enough for a minor tribe to form.
—And this was where the problem truly began for them.
Currently, the group was pushing the idea that it would be disrespectful for the Dragon Emperor to not have a Tribe under his name.
If the Dragon Emperor was someone from the Astral Realm, Satella would not have minded. It wasn’t like some minor tribe didn’t use the others princes as Totem or even others dragons. But the problem was the identity of the so-called Dragon Emperor.
Sol Dragona Luxuria — The current Crown Prince and future King of Lustburg.
The reason why the different totems were accepted was simply that dragons did not care for the affairs of the Mortal Realms. They were above that.
Unlike them —Sol was quite invested in the Mortal Realm. He was the future king of a literal Kingdom for crying out loud. Of course, he would be invested in the matters of the Mortals. Creating a tribe under his name only meant giving him great power over Southern Pride.
“Ugh…”
Satella groaned under her breath. As a ruler, what she should do now was to ruthlessly stamp down this growing cult. But she could not do that.
Not only would the elves riot if she tried to do so, but there was also the fact that they had visions about an incoming doomsday, and Sol Dragona Luxuria just happened to be the key to this incoming event.
They wished to be in his good graces no matter what would happen to them.
“Sigh… Ismelya’s daughter also cut all contact with us. I guess she became completely enamored with him.”
Clara should have also played the role of an informant for them. But her last report was only about her joining the Prince and thanking southern pride for everything they had done for her.
Clearly, the girl had no intention to play double agent from the start.
“Well. I am not surprised. He seems quite imposing and enchanting.”
They had seen records of Sol in both his Hybrid form and War form. Those records were made in pictures and all sorts of products were being sold by the dastardly Phoenix freely to all of the elves.
Dragons generally hated having their pictures recorded or even interacting with elves. So those pictures were selling like hot cakes and there were even black auctions happening taking place for them and the price of the pictures was literally reaching gold coins.
“Indeed. But this is ridiculous! Who the hell paid 30 gold for a mere picture!?”
Jasmine coughed embarrassedly, causing Satella’s eyes to squint in suspicion.
“Don’t tell me…”
“What I do with my money is my own problem.”
“Seriously?”
“What? He is handsome, charismatic, and sexy. I have money. So I bought it. Simple.”
“I don’t even know what to say…”
Jasmine chuckled. “Well. I will be honest. I had a discussion with the goddess not long ago and this boy caused many storms recently. She didn’t tell me anything deep. But she gave me a warning.”
For once in this discussion between the rulers of Southern Pride, her expression was draped in the veil of seriousness as she spoke out ominous words, “Either ignore him or become his ally. No one in the Mortal Realm can bear the weight of becoming his enemy.”
———
(AN: You should reread the last Special Chapter about Elves. Heh, I didn’t directly show Nefertiti. But just wanted to let you guys know about the storm she was stirring in Southern Pride. Man Vol 13 with the war against Wratharis will be fun. Also, I posted Illustrations of Lilin.)
