Sleeping elf

"Have you calmed down?" Kian asks the faerie next to him as she blew off her nose on a handkerchief given by Milera. 

Dolunay meekly nodded, completely docile after letting out all her bottled-up emotions. She cried for half an hour, and all they could do is watch her. Milera cried along with her too.

"...are you okay, Miss?" the beast woman stepped up out of genuine worry.

Hundreds of her underlings witnessed her shed tears on the arms of her enemies... maybe they might actually be her friends? They never thought she's even surrender. They know her as someone who loathes the people from the Imperial Palace. 

She could've been exploding---Well, she did, and they had expected her to be that way until the end.

But she cried, which leaves them with one thought: What are they to her?

Dolunay beams a smile. "I'm okay, Gina. I'm sorry you had to see such a weak state of mine," she responded. 

The beast woman Gina shook her head in response. "You're not weak for crying, Miss."

Gina then glanced to the Imperial Crowned Prince, who shamelessly has his arms around their Mistress' waist. To a daughter of a famous Marquis, who is holding her hand, and to a son of a known Count, who was lightly patting her head... and to an unknown man, who was simply watching them. All five of them were on the ground, sitting as if they were in a picnic. 

Our leader sure has a strange set of friends... Gina thought to herself. 

"Then, we'll leave you for some privacy," Gina says and Dolunay simply smiled, and before she could turn away from her, Dolunay said...

"Good judgement, Gina."

Gina responded with a smile as she commanded every single underling of Dolunay to leave the room. 

Dolunay originally gave her authority and permission to command and to do whatever she wanted with the people who will soon come to their hideout. Gina either had a choice to attack them or to let them talk to her and negotiate. 

If she chose the former, she would've ended up half dead.

She knows full well how capable they are even in front of a hundred people, Yves alone can wipe out them in a single attack.

They were quiet for a long moment, until Yves decided to break it with a long sigh of relief. They then turned to him in confusion.

Yves smiles. They don't know how tense I was while we were on the way here. He was completely relieved that a battle did not break out, as well as how right he was to not attack them.

Killing is against his values, even more than using his power on a living being. The emperor is basically asking him to go against his morals, but this is his responsibility to do so.

"How have you been, Luna?" 

Before anything else, Yves wanted to ask her first. She's been away from their group and even her own family for a long time. 

Dolunay forced a smile as she looks down to her hands. She seems completely ashamed. 

"As you can see... I turned to a faerie... because of some stupid mistake I made..." she started her story, while all four listened attentively.  "I drank a random bottle of liquid at my home while I was high in negative emotions from Rue suddenly leaving. I thought it was simple water. The earlier days were normal to me, until I noticed my skin color changing..." 

One can already tell if one is a faerie or a fairy with a glance at their skin color. 

"I went to a physician-no, more like a witch, and she told me that I was already transforming to a faerie and that it was inevitable. She even advised me to drink her prescribed potions and certain herbs to maintain my vitality, because faeries apparently have really fragile bodies and short life span of ten years."

Yves nods. Faeries are this rare, because dark mana itself is rare. Dolunay, on the other hand, is not born from dark mana, she has pure mana. Maintaining a body that lives off of dark mana is nearly an impossible feat for someone with pure mana. 

"I followed her advice and ran away to focus on making myself stronger, or even recover, so that I can take care of myself without her help. That's when I didn't know that she was connected to Heins... I didn't know that he was the one making the potions to maintain my body for the past six years."

Their ears perked at the mention of that man. 

"I was then in debt of him and began working for him until I had people work under me as well."

They saw her smile improve. She seems to have a soft spot for the people who work under her now.

"They've helped me learn about potions and herbal medicine, so that I can maintain my body even without Heins' help, and throughout the years, I've manage to make them for myself now..."

Although her words seem to contain great news, she still seems sad... they're confused. 

"...but my knowledge was not enough to make an antidote for Cimmerian."

"...what?" Ezio voiced out his shock, while Milera gasps. 

While Kian and Yves... their faces darkened. 

An antidote for Cimmerian... it means Cimmerian has Black Heart.

"Where is he resting right now? I've heard he was unable to wake up," Yves asks, he was doing his best to remain as calm as possible. 

Dolunay nodded with honesty as she picks herself up. "When I heard that from Nilsine, I went to his house and saw him lying on his bed... with black veins on his chest. He was barely even breathing and his heart beat feels faint too." 

All the other four then stood up. So Nilsine was the one who saw him in a comatose state first before disappearing, Yves thought to himself, now wondering where the said demon lady is. 

"Wait, he's still in his house? In that forest?" Ezio asks, and Dolunay nods in response. "I visited just two weeks ago! He wasn't even there!" 

Dolunay smirked. "I had tricks off my sleeves."

"I've never been there before, so I can't use teleportation. How can we get there as fast as we can? I have to check on his condition."

Yves was so eager that he began talking too fast, which somewhat baffled the other four. 

He's really worried, gosh, Kian thought was he chuckled lightly at how impatient and childish Yves looks right now. 

I guess he can have this cute side of him, Milera thought with a hopeless smile, while Dolunay was not holding back her smile. This was supposed to be a serious conversation. 

I thought him being worried was cool, but now, look at this man child, Ezio thought with disbelief.

Yves raised a brow at them. 

"What's with your gazes? Let's get going! I needed to confirm something! Hurry, hurry!" 

The brats laugh at their savior's eagerness. It's not like Cimmerian is going anywhere. Maybe it's because he's a researcher who's always curious? 

"Aye, aye~ I have a portal connected there, we should be able to get there within a minute," Dolunay says as she forms a portal right in front of them. It was similar to the portal that they used to enter this hideout. 

Not long, they were able to arrive at the said home of the elf, right outside. They really were in the middle of a vast forest. It was in the middle of the night, so they can barely see anything. The moon and stars looked brighter than how they were if you look at them in the Capital city.

That's definitely one of the two reasons why Cimmerian had his home built here instead.

Hearing the doorknob click, Yves looked back to his companions, only to see Luna opening the door and showing them in. 

"Come inside, the bed should be appearing in his room any second now."

They were all looking at Yves' reaction. They don't know why, but they feel as if something was different with how he's acting ever since he heard Cimmerian contracted Black Heart.

All five of them walked inside, and by the time they got there, the mist was already dispersing. 

There, they saw him. The sleeping elf, their old friend---Cimmerian Cortland. 

The whole place was rich in pure mana, Yves can see with his 'eyes' how dense it was. All that were surrounding the elf. 

His second reason for living here was definitely because of the mana... after all, he was the weakest in magic and had the lowest mana among all nine. What's strange was, he had high resistance against magic instead. Yves has yet to know the reason how in the world was that possible. 

They all walked nearer, and Yves' expression darkened. 

Yves barely even took a look at him, and he already knows who did it. His mind had connected dots with possible reasons, but he still lacks certain evidences to back them up. Although, he is sure...

Of all people... you've decided to meddle, Celio.