Chapter 203: Migration
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: imperfectluck
The disaster relief for the northern elves went rather well. From a certain standpoint, it was an excellent platform to flaunt our military might and organizational capabilities.
Imperceptibly, the Eastern Mist Communal Country was already showing off plenty of might. Their Aurora Knights that were capable of flying through hailstorms as they pleased, the Borealis that could ignore fierce weather conditions such as tornadoes, the huge engineering contraptions that could clear away so much rubble, and the incredibly adaptable Four Elemental Swordcasters—they were all the best examples of East Mist’s power, which also strengthened our control of the Mist Alliance.
Yet there was one other group of reinforcements aiding with the disaster relief that nobody expected. Their arrival further increased the speed of the relief significantly, but there was a small problem—this group was from the Underground World, and was called the evilest existence of all by the Holy Church.
In the previous battle, Annie Layde had established a certain amount of friendship with Suana; this led her to unhesitatingly bring her elites to Suana’s aid this time around.
Chaos, however, continued to exist within the dark elves, and the Underground World needed to keep them under control; the Underground Lords were unable to send their main forces. However, they possessed a scarily strong foundational strength—just their elites alone were a significant force to be reckoned with.
With their dozens of Gold-ranked and Legend-ranked individuals having arrived, not only did they speed up the disaster relief, but the Underground World’s true strength also somewhat frightened the other countries.
The most eye-catching of all—to the point where they could be said to be the foundational pillar of strength of the Underground—were a group of dark elf Law Knights.
Yep. In the entire world, only Sulfur Mountain City could boast of such a group of dark elf knights. Town Security had sent them here to assist in the disaster relief, and since they were already experienced in keeping order within cities as well as in dealing with various “dangers,” searching through rubble and saving people were basically their specialty.
The lowest of them were of the Silver rank, and Law Knights were excellent tanks to begin with. Their enchanted armor was also the newest edition from this year. As the only main forces of Sulfur Mountain City, City Lord Annie unhesitatingly gave them the best equipment.
Only a holy sword per individual in the past? Sulfur Mountain City was now much richer than before; they were all equipped with enchanted mithril heavy armor along with various trinkets crafted by the engineers. These female elves, who looked more like canned food, totally ignored the hail and tornadoes.
After many long years of working as Town Security, something like demolition was normal for them. They were also used to dealing with disputes and explosions; this allowed them to excel at rescuing the elves from crumbling buildings.
They could also help heal the injured immediately since they had plenty of Holy Knights in their ranks. In just a short while, stories about them spread throughout the entire disaster area.
“Buried too deep and the injured can’t be found? Three high-ranked Holy Knights arrived and filled the entire heap of rubble with holy light, helping protect those still alive.”
“After finding an injured elf behind a wall, she actually ripped the wall apart with her bare hands, even using her body to block the falling debris, and she herself was not hurt as she rescued the elf. Simply amazing.”
The Sulfur Mountain City Town Security definitely surpassed the level of the imperial squads representing those human mega-empires. Their equipment was extravagant enough to make even Legends jealous, and any one of them could go straight into an epic and be the main character. This elite squad, excellently equipped down to their very teeth, used this disaster relief as an opportunity to reveal their true strength. This led those who were originally waiting in the shadows for a chance to strike to change their minds and hide their ambition.
And, so, the “dark elf knights” from Sulfur Mountain City started becoming famous…
“What? They’re only Town Security? That must be a cover-up; how could such a strong knight squad be used for Town Security?”
The incident that gave people the deepest impression was when the warriors from Sulfur Mountain City suddenly had a “conflict” with the Eastern Mist Communal Country’s relief army. They even trapped the Church of Law’s venerated, highest-ranked priest Xueti in a corner and gave him a vicious beating…
Yep, actually, just hearing the familiar name “Gentlemen Alliance” as a mercenary squad in the East Mist relief army caused the Town Security forces to run wild.
“You bastards! After leaving you alone for a while, you’ve multiplied so much in number! But we’re here now. Today shall be your end… Xueti, we caught you red-handed! We’ve finally captured you again! Sisters, deal with them!”
Alright, the Gentlemen Alliance indeed had people who were difficult for anyone to accept, such as that Clothes-Slicing Swordsman and so on, but Xueti was somewhat wronged; he actually didn’t do all that much. It was just that Archbishop Xueti was so concerned about the elves suffering from the winter catastrophe that he took off his robes and undershirts for the elves to put on against the cold, and he only wore a pair of underpants as he continued his disaster relief.
Even if it lacked elegance, the Archbishop’s strong body had a masculine attractiveness to it, not to mention that this was due to the situation at hand; nobody would read too much into it. However, it was evident that these dark elves, who had “obsessions about being proper,” were utterly unable to tolerate his actions. They treated him as a moral hazard, which was truly somewhat overboard.
“Everyone knows the dark elves themselves aren’t exactly paragons of virtue. They must have been thinking dirty thoughts themselves to misunderstand to such a degree. For someone who’s biased to begin with, the entire world is tilted. If that person’s heart is dirty, she’ll think everyone else is also dirty!”
In the end, due to the combined protests against injustice by all the other countries, Captain Yawen of Town Security could only come out and personally apologize. Fortunately, Xueti was incredibly magnanimous and immediately forgave their rashness. It was obvious, though, that Yawen and the other Town Security elves weren’t going to actually let bygones be bygones.
“We actually had to lower our heads and apologize to that pervert! This was basically the most pitiful we’ve ever been in history. No, this is the second most pitiful incident; the most pitiful is that this pervert actually became our boss.” —Yawen.
And not even two full days later, they caused yet another incident…
They chased around the Friend of the Centaur Tribe, the Legend Hunter Beifeng, like a rabbit. The first incident with Xueti was still understandable in the general public’s view, but Beifeng was known to them as kind and respectable, even somewhat dull, and a good fellow. This half-dragon Beifeng, who was instantly attacked by Town Security the moment they laid eyes on him, was far too pitiful in the eyes of the general public.
“Do we even need a reason to beat up Beifeng? Alright then, let’s just punish him for the crime of being Beifeng.”
Perhaps this reason would work in Sulfur Mountain City, but as the bystanders saw it, this was clearly unreasonable and a blatant abuse of power.
“Do you hear that? The crime of being Beifeng? Punishing him for being Beifeng? He clearly didn’t even do anything; this is too much! They’re just big bullies!”
“Everyone knows who’s in the right. Perhaps these elf ladies still have some biased views against me, Beifeng. I can understand. Or perhaps they’re suffering from too much stress, and if beating me up can relieve their pressure and help alleviate their biased views, then please, come!”
Beifeng’s magnanimity made the dark elf knights seem more unreasonable—maybe even insane in contrast.
“Listen to Beifeng’s resolve; he’s basically a saint! Sulfur Mountain City’s Town Security, even if they’re astonishingly powerful, their moral characters and narrow-mindedness are… humph, not even scratching the surface of Lords Xueti or Beifeng’s! Ptui!”
Alright, in a way, this was all just a repeat of certain past events at Sulfur Mountain City. The Gentlemen Alliance had succeeded once again in toying with Town Security, albeit paying a small price in doing so this time.
Of course, if I personally appeared, I could indeed clear up all misunderstandings, but that would mean I would have to explain those past incidents in the Underground World and about Beifeng and Xueti’s true natures… I hesitated for just one second before making my decision. The Gentlemen Alliance had messed around with the Town Security for many times before this anyways, and I might as well leave the Church of Law and the aboveground Gentlemen Alliance’s reputations intact.
Soon, however, I didn’t have time to spare for such small matters.
Thanks to the Underground World’s Lord Annie’s “sincere persuasion,” Suana finally made her decision to have her entire tribe immigrate. Of course, her target was the Eastern Mist Communal Country’s sparsely populated wide swaths of land.
“Sincere persuasion? Annie knows how to do that? Wasn’t she always supremely ineloquent? I thought that she was just like Adam, only knowing how to persuade others with her fists. What happened—did she learn something new?”
“…You’re actually treating it as true? Suana and the gray elves were just using Annie as an excuse, to leave themselves at least a little face.”
What really happened was that when Annie was chatting with Suana, she casually mentioned “It seems that this place is unlivable now. How about coming to the Underground World together with me? If not, I think Brother Roland’s East Mist is okay as well.” Obviously, such a casual invitation would seem to lack sincerity, and the real reason for Suana to have the resolution to decide the fate of her entire tribe couldn’t possibly involve a concept as abstract as “sincerity” to begin with.
“It seems they think we’re reliable enough to carry them, so they got on board.”
After Suana became the new queen of Tassel Kingdom, even she had to abandon all personal emotions and place the benefits to her tribe first and foremost.
The current Tassel Kingdom had obviously angered too many. Even if they made it past the winter catastrophe, it was definite that there would be others looking to rub salt in their wounds. Moreover, since their entire species was now a new one, they couldn’t count on the Elven Gods anymore, and they needed to find a faction to join and side under in order to ensure their survival.
Although it was already guaranteed that they needed to join another faction, the important part was which faction to join. If that faction ended up falling, then there would truly be no more future for the gray elves.
If the other human kingdoms had been able to display an excellent force of might, perhaps the elves might have made another choice, but the Eastern Mist Communal Country was the indisputable main character in both the battle and the disaster relief that came afterward. The power and foundational strength that they showed was just one facet; their tight connections with the Underground World, the new Guiltless faction, the Church of Law and many others were also critical factors.
Most important of all was East Mist’s obvious rapid development and new technology, along with the plan for the Mist Alliance, which was likely to involve the entire Northlands. For a politician like Suana who valued what would benefit her tribe above all, the choice she should make was quite clear. The rest was dealing with internal disagreement and coming up with a compromise that those disagreeing could accept.
To be honest, in order to have the elves, who had no concept of the flow of time at all and would always get themselves locked down in pointless arguments, to come to a decision so quickly, Suana had truly given it her all. It could be said that she possessed her own selfish way of thinking as well.
“Am I an elf? Or an undead? I’m clearly an undead now, but the surviving gray elves are all relying on me. Perhaps only the home of the Guiltless, the East Mist, can be my home as well. I’m tired—so tired. As long as my tribe can survive through this, I shall find some place to rest; I’m already dead, anyways.”
After the dishonorable plot that had incited the battle was revealed, the Council of Elders that had originally held the reins of power ended up being overthrown. Those elders, those co-conspirators of the former king, Adrian, were all dragged down from their pedestals by furious gray elf civilians. Any elders who were able to keep their lives in the end were among the most fortunate.
The ironic part, however, was that Suana had accomplished what her father Adrian had always dreamed of and worked hard all his life for—completely controlling all of Tassel Kingdom, yet it was at the cost of her own life and the very existence of Tassel Kingdom itself.
After such a massive immigration, even the most optimistic of the Tassel gray elves knew that no matter how generous East Mist was, they wouldn’t possibly allow them to become a country within a country. In the short-term, perhaps they could still live in a relatively isolated district, but if they were to continue to reside there for the long-term—or perhaps forever—the only choice was for them to be scattered among the original residents. Not only would this be beneficial for the Eastern Mist Communal Country, but it would also be beneficial for the gray elves.
And once all this happened, Tassel Kingdom, which had several thousand years of history, would be at an end. All that would remain would be a new species of the Eastern Mist Communal Country—the East Mist gray elves.
When the huge hordes of elven migration squads embarked upon their journey, the gray elves that were already becoming homesick would turn their heads and gaze backward with every few steps, as if they were praying for a sudden miracle to erase the natural catastrophes and the dark clouds of war… and it was at this moment that a familiar song rang out again.
“Dajh da jd, ka su odd as da…”
[Our distant relatives, where did you go, we miss you here in the homeland…]
Once again, the undead banshee Suana started singing that familiar traveler’s song. Back in the day, when dark clouds of war loomed over their homeland, Tassel had sung this very song as she left her birthplace, by herself, to search for a utopia for her tribe.
“Fre de ld, kad…”
[Are the ancient trees at home still verdant green, that familiar spring lake always reminds me of my childhood, the sky was so blue…]
Perhaps Tassel from that time long ago was smiling just like this as she bid farewell to her friends and family in her homeland.
“My wonderful childhood is now over, and a nightmarish war is right before me, but I, Little Tassel, love singing ever so much, and I believe that there will be a peaceful and beautiful land on the other side of the mountains. Hmm—perhaps there’s no such land behind these mountains, but behind the mountains that are behind those mountains, there definitely will be such a place…”
This situation was all too similar to when Tassel had departed to found a kingdom in the past. Even though it was supposed to be an optimistic and even joyous song, a number of younger elves had already begun to sob softly, while even more of them began singing the song together in a low voice. All the low elven voices soon joined together, echoing throughout the vast skies.
“My dear Aunt Susan, I miss you so much. But Little Tassel still can’t return home yet; although I still haven’t found my dream utopia homeland, I believe that four-leaf clovers are always hiding beneath the horses’ hooves and my dream utopia homeland is right in front of me.”
Tassel was the type to never give up, and she sang her song everywhere as she stepped quickly and lightly in that chaotic era, crossing mountains and oceans, crossing this mountain, that mountain over there, and the mountain behind this mountain behind this mountain, until finally…
“…I found it; it’s right over there! The ancient tree in my dream is pointing me in its direction; I’m about to see my dream utopia homeland.”
Indeed, she had found it! The hesitation and melancholy in the song had all vanished, while the joy was now at its climax.
“Dda jd ad! Dal dada aty…”
[My relatives, I finally found a dreamland for us, our new home is in the north…]