Chapter 28

Two weeks have gone by and Vladimir has just entered the land of the Elves. The Abella kingdom. Vladimir regretted not bringing a carriage. Riding on horseback most of the time made his butt hurt, and he didn't bring a carriage because he wanted to show off.

He could only endure. He had passed many towns and cities and to some extent; it is like in the books. The cities at least are a mix of trees and ground buildings, while the villages were ground level as well with the towns. When he arrived at the capital, the entire city was built in giant trees with the leaves covering the top and just a few spots of sunlight enter. The city seems to be lightened by some kind of lanterns. They are quite beautiful.

For the elves, they are nice to look at, especially the women with slender legs. The pointed ears stand out the most. The females tend to wear colorful dresses in red, green, blue, and a few other colors. The males wore robes, trousers, and tops. The guards wore dark metal armor.

He had observed everything and had figured out why there are no walls. The elves mostly will stick to treetops and use archers to their advantage.

'the best way to deal with them would be to burn the trees' he thinks to himself

He didn't go to visit the queen because he was tired and wanted to rest. So they found a hotel to rest in and somewhere else to take care of their horses.

When he was in his room, he had to give it to the elves for making things look amazing. He happily slept well. The next day he woke up early, bathed, and changed. He left and went to visit the queen finally.

The queen's palace was built on the ground and is in the center of the city. While going there, Vladimir and his men were watched by curious gazes. He arrived and admired the white walls and the blue roofs. The bright garden flowers complete the look. A servant was there, waiting to take him in.

Vladimir walks in with his chest out, taking long strides while passing by the guards and anyone else. He has to show his majesty as well.

He arrives at the throne room door and was told to wait. He waited 3 minutes before being let inside.

He enters and ahead of him is a beautiful woman with long black hair reaching her back and pointed ears poking through the hair. Her blue eyes look back at Vladimir. They looked at each other for a few seconds, sizing the other up. On the side were six elders. Three on the left and three on right. two female and 4 males. They also looked at Vladimir with a few looking down on him as a child.

Vladimir first introduced himself with a small bow

"Tsar Vladimir greets your majesty Aurora," he smiles after

"and I return your greetings as well" her voice sounded soft and soothing when she spoke.

The queen didn't want to underestimate the little boy in front of her.

"How was the meeting with my daughter Tsar Vladimir?" she asks but Vladimir frowns when thinking about what happened a while back.

Flask back...

Vladimir is sitting on the throne waiting for the elf envoys. When the envoys came, they were an older woman and a girl looking to be in her teens.

The older woman greets him respectfully while the other girl didn't attempt, instead she folded her arms and says out loud, "I am princess Emily of the Abella kingdom. I am interested in the goods your kingdom has, and I want you to sell them to my kingdom at low prices. Humans don't usually have products we elves are interested, but your country is different." The older woman's face turns pale and tries to hush the princess.

"princess please stop. You are being rude, we are on a diplomatic mission to be close,"

"Why should we? We are proud elves and if the Arcadians can't conquer us, why do you think they can,"

'how arrogant' Vladimir thinks to himself "get out" he says calmly "I do not need to talk to someone so disrespectful" The diplomat herself was surprised but also upset at the princess.

Vladimir himself was taken aback as well, since he thought these things only happened in movies or books.

The princess leaves in a huff while the diplomat calmly tells him bye and leaves. The next day the diplomat came by herself and things went better.

Flash back end...

"your daughter was rude and arrogant as well," he tells the queen.

"I'm sorry for her behavior. She was spoiled when growing up,"

"well you should curb her ways or else the consequences may be more severe,"

They exchanged words and Vladimir went straight to the reason why he came.

"Your majesty queen Aurora, I came to propose a union of our countries through marriage,"

"so you want to marry my daughter?" The queen asked, a little confused since she thought Vladimir hated her daughter.

"you're wrong, your majesty. I want to marry you." Vladimir says with a straight face.

a gasp is heard and the elders chime in.

"How audacious,"

"little boy, don't pass your place,"

Aurora raises her hand to quiet them and they stop talking.

"Surely you can't be serious Vladimir" it would be wrong to say she wasn't surprised as well because this is just unexpected.

"well, to be honest, I just want to marry you on paper and acquire your kingdom and I will make you governor of the state," he tells her and he wants to try the diplomatic approach of getting these lands.

"and if I refuse?"

"then war is my next option and we Russians never shy from war" he directly looks into her eyes when he says this. "I will give you a month and consider it an ultimatum." He starts to leave before she or the elders could say anything.

The elders only watched in anger as he left. Once he is gone, they started to express their opinion.

"your majesty you shouldn't marry him,"

"We should prepare for war"

"marriage is simpler and it won't cause unnecessary deaths"

The queen sighs as he leans back on her white throne with blue cushions. He had heard about the weapons the Russians use and know the Tsar has the power to back his words up.

"Leave me," she says waving her hands for the elders to leave. They say their final suggestions before leaving.