Elf Queen 2

"What happened, mother?"

The woman barely able to open her eyes looked at the elf and smiled.

"Daughter of mine…you came back…though for a moment I feel that the abomination has left this perimeter, I still feel its presence nearby…Did the humans decide to help us?" said the elf queen in a tired voice.

"No mother…they didn't even let me meet their king…"

"Then we are for naught, my dear…But who is this that you brought with you, they look human…but the one in the middle…not so much…"

"These are…"

"Queen of elves," I said as I approached the woman

"Bow to her majesty filthy human!" said one of the guards…

I looked at the insolent woman and said

"Is this how you treat people who want to help…I think that I should rethink about my offer…Come, Elia! We leave now"

I said as I turned away.

"Please no!" shouted the Elven princess, she then came running towards me holding my left leg "Please, we need your help…Please…"

I looked at the pitiful girl and could only sigh, but before I could speak one of the guards was ready to pull her sword"

"Halt right there," said the queen.

"Who may you be?" asked the queen

"I, am the current owner of your daughter, she is my slave right now," I said to irk the woman a bit.

"What is the meaning of this Elia…" asked the queen

"I-I had to do this, he said he will offer help if I was to promise servitude…"

"My queen! We do not need one such as him, let me slay that man and set the princess free! His actions are offensive to our race! How dare he enslave our princess and then have the audacity to show his face here!"

"Silence!" said the queen then entered a coughing seizure.

"Mother!" cried the little girl. Torn between either following me or to go to her mother's side.

"Listen up, Elves…" I said "Prideful or not, your lives depend on my actions, if I were to help or not, it shall be decided by how you say your next few words…"

The guards didn't dare say a word, but I could feel their hateful gazes from under their helmets.

The queen then sighed and said

"Human…We apologize for the maltreatment you suffered and would repay you kindly if you do as you say, we need help…and if my daughter had decided to give her own free will to you in exchange for your assistance…then it must mean that you are more than capable of help…though I cannot see how the four of you can defeat something like that…"

"Who said anything about defeating it…that thing is not even real…"

"Huh?" Exclaimed the elven queen "What do you mean?" asked the queen

"That thing is not what you all seem to think it is, It is an Idea, a lord over a concept, the concept of Famine…it feeds upon your magic, and would only grow more the weaker you get, not the more it eats…"

"I still cannot understand, human."

"Stop with that human thing, my name is Daiki…And furthermore it is like I said, that thing is but the representation of Famine, the only way to defeat it is to remove the very concept of famine from this land"

"And how would you do that?" asked the queen.

"Before I answer such a question, can I know when did this event exactly happen?"

"It was a few years ago when the moons merged together…this only happens once in every thousand years…"

Is she talking about a lunar eclipse?

"Does this event have anything to do with your racial trait? Does it weaken you in some way?"

"How would you know that?" asked the queen

"Just answer me," I said

"Yes, but not us, it is the time where the tree of life sheds its leaves…its then when we are at our weakest, the tree becomes unable to sustain us with mana for a month…but that should be a closed secret, none of the other races know about it, otherwise, we would have been attacked by them long ago"

"Then this makes sense," I said

"How so?" asked the queen

"I read the books of a certain library, in the last few years, wars were rare, and struggle was minimal. So it should be the reason why this happened"

"I still cannot understand," said the queen

Sigh, I have to explain everything don't I…

"Oh, I get it!" said Misaka

I turned to look at her and said

"Then care to explain"

She fidgeted a bit but said

"Yes! He is right, if the case was like he said, and war was not present, then there is no need for famine to appear in any of the countries, the only place left for it is a place where people would struggle and feel famished, so normally instead of appearing within poor countries, that is none existent at the present time, it chose to appear here in the land of the elves where they were in their weakest moment"

"Exactly," I said "It's just a case of bad luck…your country was the weakest one, and the one that was starving the most, so it attacked and its passive corrupted the tree from giving you mana, so it became stronger and you weaker…if there was a severer case of famine in another country it would have probably gone there and devoured it…"

"Huh…so we, the elves were forever fortunate that whenever the moon merging would occur, another country would already be plagued with famine, and the monster would emerge there…"

"Yes, but surprisingly I never heard about this thing in any of the books…perhaps it grew this largely due to the enormity of the tree's own mana reserves…"

"You said you had a way to remove the concept of famine from this place…how you would go about that?" asked the queen

Well, she was following along though she looks fatigued.

"Well, like I said, there are two ways, the first is to replenish the mana reserves of the populace which will require enormous amounts of mana potions, and even this will probably not help much"

"How so?"

"Even if we do this, the monster, like you called it would still stay around, as the tree still holds enough mana for it to feed upon..."

"And what is the second option," asked the queen

"Well, it's a bit easier to do…you just have to revive the tree," I said with a grin.

"Hahaha" laughed the queen, "You think we haven't thought about that? There is no way to revive this tree…that abomination needs to leave this place and the tree needs time to recuperate…time which we don't have…"

"No, time that you don't have…I have all the time in the world in my hand"

"You are not thinking about…" said Haruka

"Yes, I am…it should be feasible…" I added

"What are you talking about? Make sense"

"I need to discuss terms of help with you, I can help you, and I can revive this tree right now…"

"You seem to not be speaking lies…What do you require, Gold? Power? Women, you name it, and it shall be yours if you promise to help us…"

"I want none of that…what I want is a fruit from the tree of life…"

"…"

"A fruit?" asked Haruka?

"The price you ask for is high…but I shall provide…" said the queen and threw me a small ring.

I caught it and inspected it

Dimensional ring

1 item in storage.

Fruit of life.

Fruit of life huh…

"Thank you." I said grinning "Well how hard could reviving a tree be?" I added while removing the gauntlet of my left arm.

"Not that hard apparently…" and I touched the floor that we were stepping upon…