Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

===

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

We were gathered in the audience chamber at the Palace of Eld.

Four elves were in front of us.

The elven race was composed of only women, eternally young women on top of that. All of them were beautiful and the four elves before us were undoubtedly beautiful.

I looked at them curiously.

One of them acted as the representative and stood in front of the three others.

The elf standing on the left side behind the representative looked like a dryad, otherwise known as a wood elf, they had the biggest population among the elven race.

They lived in tree houses and were infamous for kidnapping the men who caught their eyes to turn them into their husbands.

The elf in the middle who brought a bow and sword was an aureiad, otherwise known as a mountain elf or a bow elf, they were natural born warriors.

They usually left their home forest and became comrades with good looking warriors, and then returned to their forest after nurturing their love with the good looking warrior they chose.

The petite elf on the left looked like a napaia. They were known as valley elves or wind elves and looked like girls between the ages  of 12 and 13 years old – in human terms – regardless of their age.

That's why she might be the oldest one among the four.

They usually like to dance in circles in a windy and open place such as a prairie, and they’re famous for kidnapping the man who gets attracted by their dance.

After the chosen man spends some years in the napaia's village, they send him back to his original place with his memories of the time he spent in the village erased.

Thus, leaving the man completely surprised upon realizing that so many years had passed in the blink of an eye without knowing the true reason.

Lastly, the representative might be an arseid, otherwise known as a high-elf or a light elf, they were the counterparts of the dark elves.

Her elegance dwarfed the other elves.

In fact, even her standing figure was radiating elegance.

This was also the first time we ever saw an arseid. That was the reason why our attention was focused on her.

Normally, they prefer to stay in their kingdom, deep in the forest, and never come out.

Was there a reason why she went out of her kingdom to visit this place?

「Welcome to our country, Your HIghness Luthien.」

Reiji stepped forward and greeted her elegantly, the three elves behind her cheered at once.

The napaia looked the happiest among them.

「Chiyuki-san… I get this feeling that their reaction is different compared to when I welcomed them though…」

Said Shirone while puffing her cheeks.

Shirone was the one who welcomed the elves before us.

According to her, they didn't seem to be that enthusiastic back then, they didn't even try to hide their bored faces.

I knew that feeling, sister.

「Well, that’s just how the elven race is…」

I heaved a sigh as I replied to her.

In most cases, the majority of elves were fond of handsome men.

The elves who we met along the way were mostly attracted to Reiji.

Nevertheless, as I said before, that was in most cases.

I then looked at the most quiet elf among them.

The high elf princess's name was Luthien. As one would expect from an elven royalty.

She kept her composure even after seeing Reiji.

The reason for their visit was to sightsee human countries. And since they happen to pass Eld, they came to greet Reiji, the Hero of Light.

But that was a lie.

Rino, who could detect lies, frowned when she heard their reason, that was obvious.

They might not be telling us the real reason for their visit.

But since Shirone, who could detect hostile intent, didn't feel anything, I guess we had nothing to worry about.

Thus we could give a warm hospitality to Luthien, the elven princess.

I looked at Luthien.

She was smiling sweetly as she talked to Reiji.

===

◆Elven Princess, Luthien

We were walking together along the corridor of Eld's palace after the end of the welcome dinner, the hero Reiji readily gave his consent to allow us to stroll around the palace.

We could literally visit every place except for the private rooms.

That's why we decided to go sightseeing around the palace.

The palace looked shabby when compared to Arseidia's palace or Elios' heavenly palace. It wasn't that big or made from rare materials either.

Well it was the palace of a human country after all. It was stupid to compare it with us.

That might be the reason why it looked shabby.

My attendants, who followed behind me, didn't seem to be that interested with the palace either.

All they did was talk about the hero Reiji.

「Man, he's such a big jackpo~t! It's been a really long time since I met such a nice gentlema~n♪ Maybe I have to start thinking about a plan to settle down in this pla~ce♪」

Piara was in high spirits.

He was handsome, that was undeniable. Most of the gentlemen from Elios couldn't match him in this regard.

He might be as handsome as Alphos-sama, my father.

「It is just as you say, Piara-dono. Is there someone of his level among the spirit knights? If Her Highness decides to stay here, I'll be with you for sure.」

I felt Aureola's gaze as she spoke.

Aureola seemed to want to stay in this country. But she was a bit reserved in that regard since she was my escort knight.

If I gave her permission, she would settle down in this country for sure.

In contrast to them, Tess stepped back a bit.

Though she also raised a voice of admiration upon seeing the hero Reiji for the first time, she wasn't as entranced as them.

It seems she had met an even more wonderful gentleman before the hero.

「He's handsome for sure, I'll give you tha~t. I might have been just as entranced had I not met him beforeha~nd. Come to think of it, what's your impression about the Hero-sama, Luthien-sama?」

Tess moved the topic to me. Her eyes told me that she expected something.

Dryads loved these kinds of stories, and Tess was no exception to this.

Well, I couldn't deny the fact that the hero was a wonderful man.

But, something about him didn't click with me. In short, he was simply not my type.

Rather, I recalled the palpitation that I felt the first time I saw Rena-sama.

「U~hm. He's a wonderful gentleman indeed but… Oh my?」

I stopped when I felt someone’s line of sight.

When I lowered my line of sight a bit, I saw a human boy looking up at me while carrying a baby in his arms.

Though the boy looked like a girl at a glance, I knew his gender thanks to the elven natural intuition to differentiate gender. That was the reason why I was convinced that the human was a male.

The boy was coming toward our direction. It was a narrow passage and he couldn't pass since we blocked the path.

I failed to notice the coming boy since he was rather short.

Looking at the boy, I noticed that his blonde hair resembled Rena-sama's hair. I could see my figure reflected in his sky-blue eyes.

Upon looking into his eyes, my heartbeat rose up for some reason.

「My apologies. I have no intention of blocking your path.」

The boy went to the side to give us way.

How polite of him. Truly admirable.

「He seems to be quite a polite boy in spite of his age, Your Highness, he should be a servant working in this palace. Let's go, Your Highness.」

Aureola urged me alas, I shook my head.

「Wait a minute, Aureola. May I speak to that boy for a minute?」

Aureola looked really surprised when I said so.

But, I had to speak to this boy no matter what.

Then I kneeled in front of the boy.

The boy looked at me with a dumbfounded face. He had really nice eyes, so nice that I wanted to doll him up.

「Uhm… Is something the matter?」

「Nothing, I just want to talk but, why were you not saying anything a while ago and only staring at me, am I really that scary?」

I asked the boy.

I might get dejected if he nods.

Alas, the boy shook his head.

「My apologies… It's not because you're scary. Personally, I think that you're beautiful.」

When the boy said so as he apologized, I felt as if an electric current was running down my spine.

「Y-Yes. Don't worry about it. There's no denying the fact that I'm beautiful. By the way, is the baby in your arm your little sister?」

「The baby's name is Sana-sama. Child of Hero-sama. The child is emotionally attached to me for some reason, that's why I'm taking care of this child. In fact, I'm on my way to bring Sana-sama to Saint-sama.」

The boy explained.

The one called Saint was Sahoko, one of the Hero Reiji's female comrades. And definitely the mother of this child.

The baby was a girl, and she was sleeping soundly in the arms of the boy.

For some reason, this baby girl annoyed me.

「I see, sorry for disturbing you… By the way, may I hear your name?」

I looked back at the boy and asked for his name.

The boy got flustered when I was staring at him.

How adorable.

「Of course, my name is Kouki.」

I committed the boy's name in my memory.

Kouki.

What a nice name.

My heart was stirred upon hearing his name.

=== THE NEW PROJECT(More than 20 advance chapters available for $5 in my patreon): Knight's Chivalry ===

(~’.’)~You Can Read MORE AND CHEAPER The Advance Chapter Becoming My Patron~(‘.’~)

(~’.’)~Support Me With Ko-Fi~(‘.’~)