Memory, the elven tradition

" Grughhh I can't believe it! That old perverted bear!"

The old lecture hall that used to be used by the old royalty, at the moment was treated as a warehouse. There were three young girls, their ages were 12, 11, and 9. The oldest girl in the group crossed her arms, her face frowning seemingly pissed at something.

" Uhm sister Ilireielth, please don't call his highness Gillian like that."

" Lucia, I told you many times just call me by my name. And refer to him as your father."

" But…"

" There's no but, I would be mad if you keep using formal words."

" Uhm…"

" It's ok Lucia, you have the right to be angry. What kind of father forgot his own daughter's birthdate? He kept promising us and kept forgetting!"

" No, sis— Ilireielth, I'm ok without celebrating the birthdate."

Ilireielth held Lucia by her shoulders, her eyes were scary.

" But I'm not! If this situation goes on. He'll never come to our birthdate anymore! How could we be ok with that? We have to make him regret his mistake! "

" Whatever you do, just don't drag me in."

Said the black-haired young girl wearing glasses and a big hat on her head, blue cloak, white robe with white boots, in her hand was a book and besides her was a long staff. Her appearance was screaming that of a mage.

" Of course, you have to join me, Estella, we're comrades in crime after all!"

" Comrades in crime?"

" Don't listen to her little prince— Lucia, I didn't do anything!" - Estella panicked

" Really? I'm sure that Evelyn sensei will believe you ~ Hey Lucia, listen, this girl might look diligent but she actually hid the — in the libra—"

Estella blocked Ilireielth's mouth before she made her become a weirdo in Lucia's eyes.

" Ok I get it! I get it! I just go along ok? Don't expect me to do anything!"

" Perfect!"

A few hours later. In the royalty kitchen.

" I'm not here, I'm not here, I've never been here." - Estella rumbled

" Hahaha, you used [Mind trick] on a guard. Drug a guy to sleep, even hit the chef. Your mana signature was still there."

" Nooooo! That was all of your ideas!"

" Yes yes, my idea, I'm the captain, and you're my trusty sidekick."

" Stopp!"

" It's already too late now. Help me to cast an illusion on this thing."

" This is the last time…"

" Yes yes, the last time."

Ilireielth had no idea how many last times had been since she first tricked Estella. She began to wonder if her hidden-perverted friend was secretly enjoying this. Ilireielth replaced the food inside the big golden tray with the ugly head of a cave troll she just killed. The head was a little too oversized so she told Estella to cast an illusion to make the tray look fit. She even spent time grilling it with some random flavor to hide the smell.

" Ilireielth, the guest… are you sure it's ok to do this?"

" Don't worry, the guest this time'll probably be just some old noble that wants to arrange marriage with me."

" Eh? That's gross! There are people like that?"

" Yeah, the old custom of this kingdom's not completely erased. There're still some big bad guys. Father said it would take some more time."

" …"

" Don't worry I'm not going to marry anyone, not before you!"

Ilireielth jumped to hug her friend whose face turning red.

" Now that I think of it if I scared the guest. Didn't I just do my father a favor?"

The two of them giggled.

A few hours later in the dining room. Ilireielth stood next to her father, her mouth was wide open. Just half an hour earlier she was dragged by her nanny and forced to change into the most luxurious attire she had ever worn in her life. Just as she was about to complain. Her father was in the same style of attire, he looked strangely nervous. The last time she saw him like this was when her mom came to visit but at the moment, it was impossible… Just who would this guest be to make her father like this? Ilireielth began to worry.

" D-Dad… Who's our guest?"

" What? No one told you? You went outside to do some silly thing again didn't you? Today our guess is… Ugh hum!"

Clearing his throat, Gillian said:

" Your grandfather Adriel, the elven king."

Ilireielth swallowed her dry spit. What had she done? Now that she realized who their guest gonna be, she knew how serious this meeting would be. This's not the time to regret she had to tell her father about what she did, even if she would receive a hit from him.

" Father I—"

She was too late; the dining hall door opened and a group of people came in. They all have pointy ears and wearing elven royal attire. A tall handsome young elf smiled brightly at her. He was her stepbrother Mendith. It must be weird to call someone doubled her dad's age as her brother but they used to it. He was the closest person to her besides Estella and Lucia. Standing next to her brother was the seemingly youngest man in the group. His ivory hair was so smooth and shiny that she thought it could absorb light. His face and his movement had an elegant sense that she couldn't comprehend. One thing Ilireielth knew for sure was that there could be only one person with such an intense aura as this.

" Welcome to our humble kingdom, your majesty Adriel."

Gillian opened his arm to welcome the elven king Adriel. Although her father was the biggest person in the room somehow he looked so small in front of her great grandfather.

Adriel gave Gillian a slight nod and took his seat. Mendith quickly took the seat next to her as always. Some elves seem to be dissatisfied with Mendith's action. But since their king didn't seem to mind it was not their place to speak.

" Your majesty, about the alliance—"

" I didn't come here because of the alliance Gillian. That's the future's issue. Today, I just want to see my granddaughter."

Adriel's emerald eyes turned to Ilireielth who was trembling because of the pressure. He made a light laugh and told her.

" Though you might already know who I'm, let me introduce myself again. I'm Adriel Graduin. The current ruler of the elven kingdom. My apology to you my child for not meeting you sooner."

" I…I'm…"

" I know your name so you don't have to."

" I.. Uhm…"

Ilireielth stared at the golden tray in front of Adriel, she wanted to scream. Maybe if she acted like a spoiled kid and threw a tantrum right now it would solve the problem. But Adriel's aura dismissed all of those thoughts.

" Uh hum.. your majesty Adriel."

" Just call me Adriel, we're both kings and family after all."

" Then forgive me Adriel sama. Ilireielth is a little overwhelmed to see a living legend like you in person."

" It's ok, I'm used to that. She was just a child so it's understandable. Ilireielth, it seemed that I made the wrong impression."

His aura disappeared after that. And the temperature in the room seemed to cool down, now he looked like he was just a normal young elf. Mendith giggled, he whispered into Ilirielth's ears.

" Grandpa just wanted to show off, that's his bad habit."

Adriel smiled at her, the expression on his face changed and he seem to be more approachable.

' Maybe it won't be as bad as I thought.'

" Don't worry sis, as long as you're not doing anything outrageous like messing with his dinner. He will be a docile grandpa."

" W-What if I did?"

Mendith made an awkward smile, his eyes looked at Ilireielth worrisome.

" Please tell me you didn't."

" … Sorry ~"

Mendith made eye contact with Gillian, he then turned to Ilireielth whose eyes were glued to Adrian's tray. The two of them immediately understood what happened.

" I heard that your country had good food, Gillian."

When Adrian was about to open the tray. Gillian raised his voice, he made a quick signal for his attendant. His only hope was to stall time and made up some excuse to swap the tray.

" I have to tell you Adriel sama, Ilireielth has broken her first class ascension."

" Oh, that's great for a 12-year-old."

There were a few whispers from the elves' group '12, Only the first one? Isn't that only the standard of our race? Our princess broke the third at her age. Even the blood of our princess is polluted by humans' Ilireielth was getting pissed off, they could ridicule her whatever they want but how dared they talk sh*t about her father's bloodline?

" Adriel sama, no, grandfather! I've prepared a present for you!"

" Oh what could it be?" - Adriel smiled amusingly.

" It's under your tray."

Her word made her brother and father both shocked. Their eyes like wanting to say ' what are you doing daughter/stepsis?'

Adriel opened his tray, and even when he saw the ugly head of the troll his smile remained.

" I heard that there was a tradition in the elven kingdom that we gave the person we respect the head of the monster we had life and death battle with."

' There's no such thing like that!' - Mendith exclaimed. The elves' group too became confused, of course, all of the things Ilireielth said were completely made up. But there was one person in this room who could turn dark to light. This was a gamble for her.

" Very interesting, there was actually a tradition like that but it was very long ago. Even before the arrival of Mordox, it's not strange that almost everyone has forgotten about it. Ilireielth, such a wonderful child, you could remember things that even most of our races've forgotten. On behalf of the elven kingdom, I expressed my thanks. From now on it will be once again marked into our history."

Ilireielth was dumbfounded, did she just change the history of a whole race for saying some nonsense? In a moment, she could see Adriel wink at her. He was really not that bad after all.

The meeting went on everyone was chatting happily.

" Hey what's the level of Adriel sama?" - Ilireielth asked

" He's the strongest being in the whole Alliance at the moment." - Mendith

" I knew that, but how exactly strong he is? Could he beat the demon king?"

" Heh, the demon king?"

Mendith laughed. He continued to sip his wine without telling Ilireielth the answer which made her want to punch him in the face. In her book, the elven king Adriel was the only king of the elven race since ancient times. The one united all elves' tribes into one. He was a living legend who was rumored to have reached the realm of god. Some said he was even stronger than the demon king. But that would let to another question. If he was that strong why didn't he fight the demon king and end the war or at least help the heroes on their journey?

' What's the reason? Maybe I should ask him…'

Ilireielth felt unreal when someone at his caliber was her grandfather. While Ilireielth drown in her thinking, Adriel called out to her.

" Ilireielth, I have a present for you too."

" Yes."

" I originally intended to give you a new sword but first to follow our tradition, this is the thing I killed yesterday…. cough life and death battle of course."

four elves carried something enormous into the room. A giant tray. When the servant opened the tray, inside it was a monster with tentacles and spikes everywhere. For 12 years old, Ilireielth looked horrified to witness a thing like that, the troll head was nothing compared to this abomination.

" A-are you sure this thing did not come out of Mordox?"

" Of course not. It's very delicious, feel free to take a bite."

Ilireielth was filled with regret. She swear from that day that she would never play any prank on the guests' dinner.

After the dinner, in a secret room in the palace sitting Gildian and Mendith and two other human figures, or rather, elves.

" Damm it Gildian, you couldn't keep her out of our way?"

" Our plans had been ruined because of her childish attitude."

" We would never get another chance like this!"

" No, I think my girl just saved our lives." - Gillian

" What do you mean by that?"

" Heh, I'm afraid he probably knew about your sh*tty plan." - Mendith

The two elves trembled when they heard that.

" He was testing us. If we tried to poison him there. The one who went to the grave should be us. From now we need to act more carefully."

" If he notices us isn't it all over?"

" No, it's not. We still have time, as long as Ilireielth is still with us. He won't do anything."

" Yes, we still have the princess."

The two elves laughed while Gillian and Mendith had blank looks on their face.