Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Elves
And now, it was just more confirmed that this seemingly kind-hearted noble lady was actually a malicious psychopath with extremely twisted special hobbies behind the scenes.
The humans imprisoned in the basement, judging from their attire, were clearly mostly like him, adventurers from abroad who had registered for free with the Five Flowers Alliance.
Most of them had encountered the same experience as himself, being "graciously" invited by Ariel to visit her home.
Unlike him, they were completely unguarded, ate the dinner "carefully prepared" by Ariel, lost their ability to resist after being drugged, and fell into the hands of this noble lady.
Reji only glanced a few times at the foreign adventurers who were flayed and had their limbs cut off to make human sticks, some were on their last breath with bodies full of whip marks, and some even...
Reji forced himself not to look anymore.
He still wanted to spare Ariel's life for the time being.
His thoughts returned to the key point.
"My king, There's no mistake, they are elves."
Shermen was the first to approach those prisoner in the cells, imprisoned in chains, with "pointy ears" and "green pupils."
After a brief inspection, Shermen confirmed this conclusion.
This made Reji fall into deep thought.
Elves A thousand years ago, in the human world, Reji was certain that this race did not exist.
The only record of "elves" in the game was his master, the Great Guardian Malvin, who, when the demons first invaded, attempted to detach his mental power from the world to peer into the mysteries of the universe in search of a way to fight against the demons.
And the result back then, naturally, was that he returned without success, and even more despairing.
Malvin had originally wanted to seek help from other worlds, but after peering into the universe, he discovered that outside, there were already countless worlds that had been invaded by demons and had all been destroyed.
The native beings, after the demons set foot, all suffered the tragedy of extinction, extremely miserable.
And among these worlds that Malvin had peered into, there was once a world of "elves."
Reji, as Malvin's disciple, learned about this history from perusing the Great Guardian's notebooks, and this is also why he can recognize elves now.
And this is also why, afterwards, the Great Guardian was so determined, even willing to sacrifice himself, to defeat the demons.
Because the bloody examples from so many worlds proved that if they failed, what awaited was not a lingering existence but only destruction.
His thoughts drifted a bit again.
Reji refocused on the "elves."
Elves, as a highly intelligent race, excel in the study and achievement of magic far beyond humans, even more so than demons.
So, in Malvin's notebooks, Reji remembered, the Great Guardian had observed that although the world of elves was destroyed by the demons' "Black Beast Legion" at that time, a small part of the elven remnants successfully escaped.
Later, it seems the Great Guardian even made contact with these elven remnants and learned a lot of magical knowledge from them.
Malvin's strength increased in the later phases, enabling him to engage in back-and-forth combat with the Sorcerer Demons. Reji surmises that Malvin is unable to be isolated from the assistance of the remaining elves in the unknown outside of the planet.
'So. Could it be that the elven remnants from a thousand years ago, after discovering that humans had defeated the demons, chose to seek refuge with humans? Settling in this world? Are there actually many elf species in the world a thousand years later?'
'No,That's not right'.
Reji quickly denied this guess.
First, the elf race is mostly incredibly proud, even if humans had defeated the demons, they probably wouldn't just come over to flatter humans and ask humans to take them in.
Secondly, if the elf race was widespread in this world...the average strength level of humans would definitely not be what it is now, where even a third-tier magic spell is considered a rare treasure.
Based on the above deductions, Reji came to two possible conclusions.
Either, after the war a thousand years ago, the elves really did "flee as refugees" here, but have always been in hiding, not contacting humans, not letting humans discover them, which with the elves' strong magical capabilities, is not a difficult thing.
Or, these elves have "recently" just arrived in the world.
And whichever conclusion it is, it cannot be separated from a doubt.
That is.
Why, at this point in time?
Obviously.
There must have been some major change that made the elf race decide to no longer hide or observe from the sidelines, but must come forward and contact humans themselves.
If one continues to think along this line of thought
The answer is already emerging
Demon King Summoning
The seal is broken
A thousand years later, the demons...reappear in the world!
Reji could not think of a greater calamity than the "reappearance of the demons."
Reji already had a rough speculation in his heart, but he could not rashly come to a conclusion; he needed evidence.
With this thought, Reji's gaze returned to the elves that Ariel had captured and imprisoned.
Like the other foreign adventurers in the basement, they too suffered extremely cruel torture.
A part of them, especially the female elves, obviously showed signs of being drugged.
Fixed in an unspeakable posture on the "wooden horse."
Stripped naked and locked in the "iron maiden".
Reji could not describe what came after.
The entire basement was completely filled with Ariel's evil and twisted fetishes.
Now, these elves were in a comatose state, unconscious. To confirm his previous conclusions, Reji needed to find an antidote to wake them up first.
Reji gave Shermen a look.
Shermen immediately understood, conjured a shadow blade, and then stabbed it into the thigh of the unconscious Ariel.
*Puchi!*
"Kyahhhhhhhhhh!!!?"
The pain of being stabbed instantly woke the comatose noble lady.
When Ariel realized she was in the basement of the manor and that all her secrets had been discovered by Reji and Shermen, the twisted lady had nothing left to pretend.
"Where is the antidote?" Reji asked emotionlessly.
"Hahaha! What joke are you making, antidote? You wouldn't still want to save these mud breeds, would you? Hahaha, this kills me.
These lowly inferiors, they deserve to have an antidote prepared by me?"
"Their entire existence is to serve Ariel, to serve us nobles! They are just for our amusement! These disposable trash, there's as many as you want throughout the kingdom, antidote? Hahaha!
Would you pick up trash and put it back in the bin?"
Ariel laughed out loud, her beautiful face showing disdain and nobility, seemingly unable to understand Reji's act of searching for an antidote for the "mud breeds," finding it absurd and ridiculous.
But soon, the noble lady's smile turned into a twisted and fierce expression. Her fierce gaze turned to those female elves she had tortured, jealousy burning in Ariel's eyes.
"But damn it! Even though they're mud breeds from foreign lands, why do they have green pupils! Why do they have golden hair! Why...why is their skin...why is it better than Ariel's, who ate so many crystal red pomegranates!
Why why why!"
"So hehe...hahaha! So, I fed them a lot of drugs, watching their skin ulcerate, watching their golden hair fall out, making them lose the most precious thing in front of their companions, haha! You don't know the expressions of those green-eyed male villagers at that time hahaha!
That was simply the most delicious dinner Ariel ever tasted!"