Chapter 32: Past memories (13) - Rewinding the experience

The old goblin was truly bitter after noticing Lireesa's behavior. He didn't know what caused her to loathe their race. Was it wrong for them to be short? Was it wrong for being their color? Or was it wrong for their aesthetic to be ugly? Was it their cultures not suited for high elves? Or was it wrong for goblins to be too greedy and only care about money?

Cough. Cough.

Don't bother the last sentence. As a capitalist, there was nothing wrong with being too oriented toward money and only see gold coins in their characters. As long as there was a transaction, their reputation could be trusted provided that someone paid higher than the enemies. Otherwise, profiting from both sides had always been their motto. Being known as profiteer was their pride. Whose name was well known would be admired by many. Their tradition had been passed on for many generations and there was nothing the old goblin could alleviate to change Lireesa's opinion.

Fortunately, her mother was more polite and not hard to deal with. The old goblin even felt Lireesa was really more barbaric than theirs. The baby was bitter, but he dared not said it out aloud. The baby cherished his life more than anything else, except gold coins. The old goblin now really knew what it was to have a conversation with elegant elf, particularly nobility and her literacy nearly killed the old goblin's clever innate brain. The politeness shown by Alleria was difficult to be commented upon. She covered all aspect and not giving a handle for the other party to have complaint.

When Alleria greeted the old goblin kindly and thanked his help, he merely rubbed the back of his bald head and replied sincerely. "Madam needs not to thank us. Lady Lireesa saved us from the trolls and as a favor, we served the role of transportation. Besides, she had promised us wealth by doing such task."

Alleria nodded her head imperceptibly after digesting the news, which she had guessed long ago what happened, but she hadn't expected her daughter to promise to even give them money. It appeared the goblins didn't have the urge to help brought elves back to Quel'Thalas and was likely threatened by Lireesa secretly. So, she gave them sums of money to knock their grievance and opposing opinions down, and to prevent the goblins from sprouting evil ideas. Lireesa displayed strength, oppression and vigor to deter, while showed her attitude of willing to find them wealth by completing her task, alleviating dissatisfaction among the ranks of goblins. She was extremely satisfied with her daughter's thoughts and thoroughness.

Seeing Alleria deep in thoughts, the old goblin cheekily said, "Besides, if madam provides us with more golds, we'll gladly appreciate your favor." His sentences caused Alleria to roll her eyes and to convince herself, how Lireesa had acted was indeed the most correct method. Apparently, both threats and cakes must be on the agenda when dealing with goblins. Quite in contrast to her mother, Lireesa cracked her finger into a fist and gave a dead look at the goblin. He was now having cold sweats and shiver behind his neck. He even wondered why he now sought death by saying out loud beside Lireesa.

He quickly remedied his speech. "Of course, this doesn't need to be taken account, because our culture is, in fact, mostly about throwing golds at each other. Nothing too unusual. Pardon us for your surprising our ladies with our culture." Lireesa now really wanted to beat his head for his gibberish pushing the blame to their culture. Every race on Azeroth knew what exact goblins were. Her mother despite her smile on her face, had her eyes turning colder and colder as she listened to this old goblin, who naturally discovered the atmosphere changes and decided to quickly escape from the scene.

He turned his head toward Lireesa and said, "Lady Lireesa, it was an honor to personally escort you and stood in the epitaph of histories in providing help during your travel. I hope our goblin's name will presides over the rest of the world for our righteousness. Here is my token of our goblin family, which can ask for our service as long as our consortium exists. Don't worry about my life expectancy, because every one of our goblins recognized this token as a special important guest. Looking forward to our cooperation."

He still smiled and handed over the token to Lireesa. Only after the token was well received, did he feel happy and relax. He smiled at the two women and bowed in salute saying, "Miladies, I'll be resting on the wharf near my ships for a moment. You can contact me here if needed. Goodbye for now." Afterward, the old goblin drifted away from Lireesa and Alleria as if he feared he'd lose his life lest he stayed longer.

Hmph. Suit yourself, Lireesa spoke out in her heart.

Alleria was awkward for a moment when the goblin ran away without waiting for her reaction. She was baffled but not too surprised when she glanced at her daughter beside. It appeared the goblins already had phobia of Lireesa's momentum. Now that they were alone together, Alleria summoned her entourage and asked her to guide the rest of Lireesa's group to rest, while Lireesa requested her two friends to help organizing. Mother and daughter strolled along to the carriage where they would be on the road to meet the king.

The old goblin, since meeting Lireesa for the first time discovered her unique temperament different from her other elves he had seen, not only in terms of leadership, but also had an aristocratic aura exuding in every gesture albeit slightly reduced by the military occasion. He had already thought Lireesa had the hidden identity when he saw the way her subordinates respected her, more than her rank, even if there was a possibility of her military prestige very high. Later, after some engagement, he knew Lireesa was very capable, and her subordinates all admired her and followed her orders without hesitation. Based on her abilities and demeanor, he concluded her identity to be a high noble among the rank of Quel'Thalas.

The old goblin thought he had already overestimated her identity, but the arrival on Silvermoon Harbor had proven him wrong. He hadn't overestimated the situation but had underestimated her identity. Which noble had one seen personally welcomed by the king and it seemed the king gave enough respect to her mother. Now, he couldn't help regretting what he had done during the initial encounter. He should have treated more seriously and helped her so that she owed him a favor. But, since it was all over and he had given her his contact information, which he doubt she would be using when he was still alive. Maybe, his descendant would receive her help and request, and have the chance to have a relation.

During the walk, Alleria asked her daughter several questions, to picture what Lireesa went through and pointed out some of her shortcomings in a few decisions. Most of the time, Alleria was happy to have her daughter improving the capabilities to take over her position. She felt relax to handover the whole Windrunner house. Although, the current Lireesa was still insufficient in personal relationships dealings, Alleria believed her training and advice would help her daughter settled in the house of nobility.

Alleria heard her daughter proudly showing off her deeds during her great escape and she always love Lireesa's expression when she bragged. She patiently listened Lireesa's descriptions, wreaking havoc behind enemy lines, staying away if they met stronger opponent, and no matter what the operation was during that time whether it was an ambush or frontal combat, they avoided being encircled. But as it went on Alleria's eyebrows became tighter and tighter the more Lireesa spoke. When Lireesa reached the point where they encountered more chasing groups and the trolls were tightening their circles, Alleria's heart tightened when she compared with the scout reports received during those times and she was very frightened, even if her daughter in front was already out of danger.

Perceiving her mother's pale complexion on her face and complicated eyes gazing at her, Lireesa was tongue-tied, oblivious to why her mother's reaction was grave while relief at the same time. She asked, "What's wrong, mother? Is there a problem?"

"Of course, there is." Alleria replied with anxiousness in her tone. She poked her finger at Lireesa's forehead with some helplessness. She then mentioned her knowledge of the frontline situation where they detected something went amiss because nearly all quasi-legend trolls went missing. Lireesa's heart jumped and said to her mother in an affirmative tone, "You weren't kidding, Mom."

Lireesa was not naive enough to believe quasi-legend trolls were enjoying their rest, not particularly at the specific time when Lireesa's group was extremely active. Other than surrounding and decimating their ranger groups, there was no deniability. Lireesa thought to herself her embarrassment which was having wrong map direction and losing the map itself, was actually her savior. When she was bragging, she naturally omitted her carelessness related to map. Trolls could have guessed her next destination and might have prepared a trap waiting for them to step in. Luckily, it appeared Lireesa led the whole team into a different direction, throwing their plan off-guard.

Lireesa confessed her mistakes to her mother with solemn and obedient attitude, receiving her mother's rolling eyes and a loving slap on her back. Alleria really believed her daughter was bathed in golden luck and asked the effect of poison used by the mage during combat. It was as she had originally expected, the effect was not really satisfying but it did help a lot during her daughter's difficult path. As a race fighting against the trolls for more than a millennium, how could the high elves not think of using poison to defeat trolls. The poison used by Lireesa merely put the trolls out of combat until they were killed after cleaning the battlefield. Despite not being able to kill trolls, it did knock them out and created an opportunity for the elves.

Mother and daughter blurted out all their love and thoughts, while laughing and walking toward the carriage. Even inside the carriage, they still discussed about several topics and the voices soon lowered as they left the port.