Discussion (2)

"Ah," Luis was stunned before he could even react. The oath of the soul is a very important rite among the moon elves. As they believe that once they die their souls will rise up to the heaven and will become a star to accompany the moon goddess in the night sky, the moon elves are careful not to do the oath of soul as this will mean their total destruction.

"You guys," Luis doesn't know how to react. "Once you did this, anything that you promised in that oath is irrevocable. Or else your souls will be destroyed without a trace. This stake is too high of a cost."Luis felt a pressure at this period. However, the men stood firm without any signs of wavering.

"Alright, I accept your sincere oath. And I swear that I will never disappoint you."

Seriously, Luis doesn't know if such fervent faith towards him is a red flag or not.

He felt like running away whenever they does something extreme just like this.

He is not a god, alright!

And in any case, it is in his virtue that he should be the one kneeling!

"Don't kneel. Come on, we are here to talk about something important. Please sit."

Luis heaved a deep breath once they are settled.

"Right. Can you please tell me what all is there to know about the current state of all the moon elves?" He said straight to the point.

"And the third rule, always answer my questions directly. No buts or what not. Just answer me truthfully."

"Ever since the extreme draught four hundred years ago, us moon elves have made various efforts to find ways on how to secure the source of our food. From the original foraging, we started to study on cultivating lands into arable land. However, it was slow for the first hundred years since the soil has received a great damage in its fertility during the draught. It took quite a long time before it recovered. It's just recently, roughly fifty years ago that we are able to produce something from these lands." Nicol explained.

It is a good thing that these moon elves are slowly transitioning into agriculture.

"That is great news! Good job." Luis complemented. It's seems like they are not resistant to changes like how the elves portrayed in the animes and mangas in Earth.

This is a pleasant discovery for Luis as he is gunning for development of the entire moon elf race.

But wait, listening to the time that is mentioned.

Four hundred years... And fifty years is something that fits the word 'recently'?

His world view and common sense is on the verge of crumbling.

Luis felt helpless.

Right, he is no longer a human being. And out of these moon elves he has the longest life span. Fifty years is an ant compared to a quarter of his life span.

Luis realized something.

Then a decade is like a blink of an eye. Luis felt his forehead palpitating. Ten years later and it's hello apocalypse all over again.

It appears that he needed to start grinding if he want to make either a huge fortress, or a well secured city before the world turns crazy.

Thinking about all that needs to be done makes the newborn moon elf lord dizzy.

Luis immediately stopped his thoughts before he got sick with the illness of procrastination.

Never knew why but he often times have this chronic laziness whenever his work gets piled up.

So let's just focus on the current situation.

He wrote the key points on the wooden board. Luis will refer to this later once he is drafting the plan.

"Okay. How large is the agricultural land that you are currently using?

"Agricultural land?" Legland tilted his head in confusion.

He then thought of the meaning of the term based on the context of the statement. "Ah, it was large enough to have five hundred earth power moon elves work for two days in order to open up the entire land."

"Oh okay," After a moment of hesitation, Luis grabbed the stylus and the wooden board and wrote: 'popularize standard unit of measurement'.

"Is that for land for everyone?" Luis tried to clarify.

The two is gave an uncoordinated nod and head shake.

Luis helplessly watch this and scribbled 'quite possibly not all moon elves' under the agriculture note.

"Have you ever tried to raise your own meat? Like the two horned fire boar. You raise them in captivity, feed them, bathe them then you kill them once you fatten them up."

After his explanation, the two moon elves'face are as white as paper. Luis is baffled why they have such a reaction as if they are facing the devil.

"Pardon me, my lord. Isn't that too cruel? It's something that only a heartless being can do! It's like eating your own contracted beast that you raised! That is taboo." Nicol's rich reaction. Ever since beast contracts are made by the previous moon elf lord, Lord Gwendolyn. The moon elves treat the entire process of contract binding as something sacred. Some of them treated their contracted beasts as family.

This is probably the reach of the halo of the moon elf lord. Most moon elf treats anything that is related to the lord as something precious.

"My lord, such thing is not possible for us. In addition to that, hunting is a rite of passage for all moon elves. If we raise animals like that I think the significance of hunting will lessen until it will be forgotten one day. Also, hunting helps us strengthen our body and combat abilities. If we ever get used to raising our food then I am afraid that moon elves will become weak." Nicol gave a very reasonable explanation.

Luis nodded in agreement. This is indeed reasonable so he held his thought of raising poultry away from his plans. But that doesn't mean he will leave it just like that. Actually, his head is cooking up some other thoughts and he thinks that it should be possible.

Still, he didn't said anything and moved forward.

Legland and Nicol explained things one after another.

"The most pressuring problem of the entire moon elf race is the fertility rate. The moon elves are experiencing an all time low birth rate these previous years. Rion is actually one of the youngest generation of the moon elves and is probably the last baby that was born in the Amber Forest." Legland explained.

Rion is forty five. Luis remembered and felt pressured.

That just shows how dire the situation is.

 He needs to set the Name Proclamation Ceremony and receive the blessings of the moon goddess as soon as possible. That is the quick fix.

However, that is not necessarily the treatment for such problems.

The source of the problem could be somewhere and this matter should be studied thoroughly.

Moon elves' pregnancy is different from humans. Aside from the moon elves does not have 'females' on their race.

The bearers conceive their offspring as an energy at first. Then they will nurture it inside the bearer's womb with the energy of both parents for ten months.

Once the physical body of the baby moon elf is complete then it will be born.

"Were there any changes on the bearers diet and activities in the previous years?" Luis tentatively asked.

"Eh?" The two male moon elves are stupefied. How can they openly discuss the things about the bearers? Nicol is a priest that never tasted god-given flesh. Legland is a possessive married man so of course both of them would not dare say anything.

Luis heaved a sigh. "Gather a group of smart and quick witted bearers preferably has considerable knowledge on health and medicines. Have them talked to me so that we can investigate the underlying cause of this fertility problems in order to treat it."

"It's not like we can place all of our hopes on the moon goddess' blessings to resolve this. We needed to do our part too."

"Understood, my lord." Nicol could get the gist of it so he actively answered. Plus he is very cooperative since this concerns the future of their entire race.

"How many moon elves are living in the Immortal's Glade anyway?"

There was a long silence.

"Don't you guys count the number of your people?"

"That, my lord. We only know the clans that stayed in contact with the temple. We don't really know the number of the entire moon elf race." Explained by Nicol.

Luis wants to flip the table over. Are you dragons? This isn't that much different from those reclusive and selfish species who prefers to live miles and miles away from each other.

"Oh many clans have you been in contact with?" Luis asked.

"Thirty two clans my lord,"

Nicol explained that thirteen of which are living in the Amber Forest. While the rest is scattered in the so called Immortal's Glade. Legland estimation of the current population of the moon elves is around three hundred thousand. This figure may seem big but since we are talking about the population of an entire race, this number is indeed a little small. This is no way near the population of urban cities on earth. If this is earth, moon elves are endemic species that is needed of preservation.

"Alright, next is can you explain to me the existence of these clans?" Luis then fired the question that he wanted to ask since the very beginning. These days, Luis is digging the information that he obtained from the inheritance of the moon elf lord. Yet he never came across the idea of clans even at the time of the previous moon elf lord, Lord Flamion.

He hadn't met the guy or will he ever be in the future but this didn't stop him from hating the previous lord.

Lord Flamion is the textbook definition of a war freak! He even used his fire to blast a huge part of Amber Forest because he was irritated of the bugs flying around his ears. The explosion was so great that it even cause a wide and deep crater on the earth.

Aside from killing high level mystical beasts, warring orcs in the north and suppressing people that he doesn't like, that crater is probably the most remarkable thing that happened during that lord's time.

And Luis has a very strong feeling that Lord Flamion's crazy antics played a huge role in the formation of clans.