123 – The Kingdom of the Elves – 4
The world tree was beautiful. It was no different on the inside either. Rather, it seemed that the inside was better decorated than the outside.
Unlike the exterior, which looked nothing more than a large oak tree, the interior was beautifully decorated like a palace in another kingdom. If I hadn’t known that this place was inside the World Tree, I would have thought it was just the palace of a kingdom.
“To see Emilia-sama.”
“Yes. Where is your mother?”
“As always, we are watching over our country of elves from the highest place.”
“I will have an audience with my mother. With them.”
“…Humans… You mean?’
“Yes, prepare right away. I will not take any objections or questions.”
After hearing Emilia’s words, the attendant immediately put on a suspicious expression. However, at Emilia’s resolute attitude, she bowed her head and accepted the order. It was to fulfill her duty as her attendant.
“I will send a message to Her Majesty the Queen.”
“Yes, I invite you to follow me.”
With a satisfied smile at her attendant’s answer, Emilia waved her hand at me and walked forward.
“If the mother is meditating, it may take a while. So she leads me to the drawing room.”
“Okay.”
I had to wait for the elven queen to meditate. I thought of dissatisfaction for a moment, but she just agreed to understand. The one who has the key to the test is the elven queen, there’s nothing good about being looked down upon.
“The inside of the World Tree is very complex. Even attendants who worked for 30 years sometimes get lost.”
“Isn’t that what those attendants have problems with? If you’ve worked for 30 years and lost your way.”
“Never. Because the inside of the World Tree is really complicated. Even I, who have lived in the World Tree for a very long time, don’t know everything inside. Yeah…It’s like a maze.”
It’s a maze-like royal palace, so it seems like it would be very easy for an assassin or a surprise attack. Of course, other than that, it’s useless.
Anyway, despite the fact that the inside is like a maze, there are many attendants. In general, I would write people who work from beginning to end, even taking risks.
As I tilted my head at this, Emilia added an explanation.
“The places allowed for attendants are very limited. If you set foot in a place where you are not allowed to enter, you will be blocked by a barrier.”
“Ooh….”
In a nutshell, are you saying that there is a minimum safety device? Will the barrier work for me as an outsider?
“Now, this is the drawing room. It is one of the largest rooms in the World Tree. There shouldn’t be any inconvenience since there are four of us.”
The room Emilia showed us was a large room that looked to be roughly 50 pyeong. Fancy decorations are the basics, and judging from the abundance of magic items for living and decoration, it seemed like a room for VIPs among VIPs.
“Sniff…the room smells like flowers.”
“The rooms located inside the World Tree are all designed to emit a special scent. This drawing room smells like lavender.”
“Lavender…”
Personally, I like lavender among fragrances. Of course, there are scents that I prefer more, but I still like lavender enough to be in my top five.
Emilia probably didn’t know that and led her to this room, but she couldn’t help but feel better.
For reference, my favorite scent is fruit scent, especially apple or grape scent, and my second favorite is rose scent. Originally, I liked a different scent as my second favorite, but as I fell into this world, the ranking fluctuated.
-Let’s try harder.
‘Hmmm…’
Veronica’s pleasant voice rang in my ears. Yes. In fact, it was because of Veronica that I fell in love with the scent of roses.
To be precise, it must be that he likes Veronica’s scent, because the smell of her flesh is too classy to be a common rose scent.
-Still, I don’t like that it’s not the first one.
‘It can’t be helped. I’ve liked fruit scents ever since I was little.’
-Then I need to give the king a strong smell that will make him forget even the scent of fruit.
Always welcome…Not!
This is just Veronica’s joke. Because I used to tease him so often. I heard that I’m shy, but secretly looking forward to it, is it cute?
There is no guess this time. Consistently without expression. Then Veronica, too, insisted on her silence, with her little snort of ‘Huh’, as if her excitement had cooled.
“Miss Emilia.”
“Yes, whatever your mother says?”
“It is time for the meditation to end soon, so please come right into the audience room.”
“Okay.”
After receiving approval from her attendant, Emilia glanced back at me.
“I’m sorry when you’re intoxicated by the scent of lavender wafting from the drawing room, but I think I’ll have to see her mother right away.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t matter. I like the scent of lavender, but not to the point of infatuation.”
“Whoa… You have similar tastes to me.”
“Do you like the scent of lavender too?”
“I like it. But my favorite is the rose scent. It’s not a strong rose scent, but a subtle, antique rose scent.”
“Oh, you really have similar tastes to me.”
It’s a delicate, antique rose scent, and Veronica comes to mind as soon as I hear the description. The scent she gave off was subtle and light, unlike the generally thick and heavy rose scent.
Dubuk thump…
The topic of scent must have come up. Emilia and I continued our conversation as we went to the audience room.
“Do you like the scent of roses the most?”
“No, I like the fruity scent the most. But secondly, I like the smell of roses.”
“You seem like a child. It is said that young elves prior to the age of 50 prefer fruity scents the most.”
“I can’t help it. It’s been said that young children like things they don’t like the most, right? It’s not for nothing that children’s tastes are said to be. The scent is the same. Fruit flavors are the least objectionable to the public, so children prefer them.”
”Huh.. Yes, actually, when I was young, I really liked fruity scents. I particularly liked the scent of green grapes.”
It smells like green grapes, so it’s the smell of Emilia. Her body exudes a very strong but fresh grape scent. You will be well aware of it.
“Does that smell of green grapes emanate from you?”
“I know. When she was little, her mother told me that I smelled strongly of green grapes, so she liked it the most.”
“But why did you like the rose scent better?”
“That’s…”
In an instant, Emilia’s cheeks turned red. It was like a girl who remembered someone she was in love with.
“..It’s a secret.”
“What a bland thing.”
“It is natural for a woman to have one or two secrets. You just arrived at your destination.”
At that moment, Emilia’s steps stopped. In front of her, a large door with a height of about 10m was proudly reflecting the light and boasting its majesty. It was the door to the audience room where the elven queen was.
“The servant.”
“Yes.”
One of the attendants who received Emilia’s wink approached one of the soldiers guarding her audience room and whispered in her ear.
She eavesdropped on it with her hearing beyond that of an ordinary human.
From noble mtl dot com
‘Is it telepathy?’
-That’s correct.
The elven guards did not enter the throne room. As she stood there, she only let out a very small amount of mana.
It seems that he is leaving a telepathic message with the queen. It has been compared to Veronica’s telepathy, which emits no mana, but that’s because Veronica is a monster, and that’s normal.
“Permitted.”
After waiting for three minutes, the telepathic elven soldier informed Emilia that her audience had been approved.
“Humans, please show your respect in front of Her Majesty.”
A soldier with a displeased look cautioned us. But I wasn’t the one who cared about that, and in the case of Celeste, it seems that I heard it with one ear and let it go with the other. Illyana…
“I’m sleepy…”
“Be patient.”
“Yeah….”
I am suffering from drowsiness. I don’t know why, but it feels like her sleep time has increased lately.
“Princess Emilia El Titania and her three other companions will have an audience with Her Majesty the Queen! Open the door!”
After finishing what he had to say formally, the guard glanced at another guard standing next to him. Then, the two guards began to push the large door over 10m high, and soon the scene inside the audience room was slowly peeped out.
Kikiiik-!
“I go in first. Follow me right away.”
“Uh. Okay.”
With those words, Emilia proudly entered the audience room. Perhaps it was because she had frequent audiences with the Queen, and she seemed relaxed, as if she was going in and out of her own house.
Ah, is this your house?
“…Is that the queen?”
-That’s right.
At the end of the throne room was a beautiful and large wooden throne, and on top of it was a female elf looking down at us with a bored expression on her face.
It was Bianca El Titania, Queen of the Elves.
“Welcome. Welcome.”
Bianca, the elven queen, smelling of her thick mana, brushed her sun-bright blonde hair behind her head and glared at me with beautiful blue eyes.
She would normally look at her baby and her daughter first, then at the person standing next to her, but Bianca’s eyes were fixed on me from the moment she entered her throne room. Sometimes she turned her eyes to Celeste, but each time she looked away hastily.
“…Mother?”
Seeing the unusual appearance of the Elf Queen, Emilia called her own mother in a questioning way. Then she greeted us with a bright smile as if Bianca had never had a bored expression.
“My name is Bianca el Titania, but I hold the title of monarch of a country.”
“…..?”
Emilia widened her pupils as if not understanding her question. This is because Bianca, her own mother and her queen, finds her strange.
Originally, “Is my daughter okay?! I heard you were chased by the Dark Elves?! She also doesn’t hesitate to use honorifics that she wouldn’t use unless she was the king of a kingdom.
Attitude as if you were treating someone “Higher” Than yourself.
“Nice to meet you. I am…..”
As I tried to answer the queen’s words, I thought about revealing that I was from another world, but decided to hide it for now.
“…It is called Gaon.”
“Gaon, that’s a beautiful name.”
“Thank you.”
At that moment, Emilia looked behind her and could only hold her breath.
That was also the case because our party, who naturally thought she would be on her knees, was standing proudly with both feet on the floor.
Originally, it was an unspoken rule to kneel on one knee when meeting the ruler of a country.
However, my pride did not allow me to kneel before the elven queen.
If you twist them, they will attack you. I am confident to accept it with a smile.
“That…you…what are you doing?”
“What?”
“What are you saying…! Get down on your knees right now…”
“It’s okay, Emilia.”
Her bewildered Emilia hurriedly whispered to me, but the elven queen seemed to have heard it clearly and calmed her own daughter down without losing her smile.
“Since when did our country of elves force us to obey? I’m fine with this.”
“…Okay mother.”
“Now, shall we begin the story?”
Bianca licked her lips with her tongue, with the seductive smile typical of a mature woman. Emilia didn’t seem to notice, but Bianca’s eyes sparked ‘excitement’, albeit momentarily.
‘[Emotion].’
[LV 95 Bianca El Titania]
Stamina: ?/?
Mana: ?/?
Status: excited
“…?”
Why?
Why does it remind me of the day I first met Veronica?