Last Hope

When they passed by Litchia everyone got scared, no one had really seen a dragon of time, only heard the story, but Satoru didn't see it that way anymore, after talking to her, his image of dragons changed a little.

As much as even he had several questions to ask, the ideal, for now, would be to take the elves at once to that city in the forest, but the unexpected thing was that Litchia had the trolls bring food for everyone, although it was true that none of them there had been no food for some time.

With full stomachs they all went their way, no matter how dark elves saw this day, it would be a great story to tell others.

The second part of the mine was quite quiet, knowing that soon they would be among fellows of the same race maybe their families would be there. It took them a few hours to finally get out of the mines through a narrow cave, and still, in the afternoon, it was possible to see a lot of dense trees on the horizon.

"There it is, the forest I told you about, it won't be long now, we should be able to reach it before the sun is in the center of tomorrow's sky."

"Good, let's keep walking to the more open area, we rest for one last day to avoid fatigue problems."

"I agree, and thank you so much for everything so far.", said Gileon who bowed to Satoru.

“Don't thank me, it's Hilda who came up with the idea.”

Smiling all the other elves also bowed in thanks.

“Wait for this…”

Not quite understanding what this was all about, suddenly, Satoru was going to say something, but Hilda and Envy approached him and stopped him.

“If it wasn't for your generosity none of us would be alive by now, you even faced a dragon because of us, there are no words that can make up for what we did when we first met so if there's anything you want I, Gileon, promise to do everything you can to get.”

“Lift your head, everyone, please, I did it because Hilda wanted to, but if you want to thank me then do something.”

Taking his sword from his back, Satoru placed it resting the tip on the ground in front of him.

"I want everyone to swear never to hurt an innocent human again, I know humans only brought pain and suffering to you, but not everyone is guilty, so swear you didn't take any more innocent souls."

All dark elves looked with emblematic faces, this was still a sensitive subject, but Gileon didn't change his expression as they all looked at each other, he was the only one who answered.

"I swear and promise to convince everyone about this, so please give us a break."

Tucking the sword behind his back, Satoru smiled and turned around.

"Okay, let's continue our journey, we'll never get to this pace.", said Satoru going ahead.

Everyone was more relieved, they could finally continue to the city, keeping in their hearts the words of promise, they could at least try mostly after all.

⊛⊛⊛

Time seemed to fly by as they walked, anxiety increased, the dark elves were more motivated than ever, but if they weren't careful they would only destroy their own body, so a break was made, as soon as dawn broke, they would head towards town.

"Big Brother, did you hit a dragon with a giant object?"

Envy sitting around a fire asked Satoru who was in front of her, Hilda beside her seemed to find the sudden subject amusing.

"You still don't believe? Do you want me to call Litchia to confirm?" Said Satoru pointing to the curious girl.

"Uh-uh no thanks"

Envy grabbed her daggers and went to practice, she was afraid of Litchia, which should be the normal reaction for someone who sees a dragon right in front of her.

"Speaking of which, they got pretty close didn't they?"

This time it was Hilda who spoke, she knew how much interest Litchia had, although Satoru doesn't seem to like the idea at all.

"Not really, she made me talk, that's all."

"That's right, but you know if Envy is her sister, maybe her wish to have a younger brother or sister will come true."

“Hey, Hilda, not that…”

Awkwardly, Satoru glanced at Envy, who stopped looking in their direction with a twinkle in his eyes.

"First of all I don't even know if I can have kids and second, me and a dragon, don't take that vision away from me!" said Satoru rolling across the grass in shame.

"Sometimes you look like a little girl, big brother."

"Look who's Talking!"

"Be silent, you will wake the others up at this rate."

Hilda stepped in between them, stopping the heated conversation, at which point the two looked like brothers.

"Hey big brother, if you're my brother, Miss Hilda is what?"

"Let me see, she takes care of us both, she hates it when we play running through the fort..."

"It's true, I remember when you brought vegetables and I didn't want to swallow them because they tasted bad, she got nervous and made me double-train."

In sync, the two were listing each of the things Hilda did, and without her understanding they were all bad things, seeing that the two didn't seem to stop so soon, her patience was wearing thin.

"Okay enough, you don't like me, I get it!"

Satoru and Envy then stopped, but they didn't seem shaken by Hilda's statement.

"That's not true, I love how you always train with both of them, and when training seemed impossible, you went there, motivating us as you could, we didn't even give you a chance to refute you, it was very funny, but it worked."

"Or since you didn't like the vegetables either, but swallowed making that disgusting face, just because you wanted to convince me to eat, after a while, I thought that if she could, I should too."

"There's also how you always cover Envy whenever you see her sleeping uncovered."

"Like? I thought it was you, big brother!"

Not understanding why Hilda felt her eyes water, so she walked over to Satoru and Envy and hugged them.

"Thank you both!"

Being hugged while Hilda cried, Satoru and Envy looked at each other smiling, they both had the same thought.

"You're welcome, mother."

"You're welcome, Mom."

⊛⊛⊛

At dawn, everyone woke up and straightened up in an instant, Satoru who was watching all night, didn't know what to think of these attitudes, the children were so excited he could understand, but even the men, but there was a problem.

Because they stayed up late talking, Satoru was forced to undo the greatsword and convert it into armor so he could carry Envy on his back while she slept, he was jealous that she could sleep that long.

After walking for a long time, they finally reached the forest, however, Satoru didn't see anything like houses.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Satoru looking around.

"Don't worry, just be careful when entering the forest, you know we usually attack first and ask questions later."

"Right."

The forest itself didn't look much different from what Satoru had already seen, the trees were taller and others had thick trunks, but nothing much different.

There didn't seem to be much sunlight passing through the trees it looked like an ideal forest to hide in, as dangerous as it was, in this world, there were many monsters that loved this kind of environment.

Being careful where he stepped, Satoru had Envy with him, if he was alone he could easily do anything, but his abilities were unpredictable because of the Void.

Suddenly, a sound of something ripping through the air was heard, and Satoru jumped back, where he now had an arrow stuck in the ground.

"Brothers, wait, they are not enemies."

Gileon stopped and began to swing his arms, making signs to stop the attack.

After a few moments of silence, a figure came out from behind a tree, wearing cloth robes and light iron armor on top, with a sheathed sword at his waist, on his back was a quiver of arrows beside a longbow.

The dark elves didn't want to be bothered, and if they tried they would be killed, but the problem is how many must exist in this forest, it wasn't that big, and even if it was, their race was in the last ones inside the continent.

Gileon seemed to say something to the elf warrior, who looked towards the rest of the group until suddenly the conversation turned into an argument, Satoru knew exactly what they were arguing about.

Until the warrior elf backed away, Gileon apprehensively walked towards them, from his face it looked like it hadn't been a good result.

"They don't want humans entering the city, but if you prove you have no bad intentions, they can offer help."

"And how do we prove it?" said Hilda who took the lead in the conversation.

"Well, we don't have anything against the daemons so you can come in, but the two of you will have to talk to the current king, if they're willing, I guided them there myself."

"Okay, no more laziness!"

“AH! Ouch! Not the ear!"

"Wait, were you awake all this time?"

Hilda turned and grabbed Envy's ear, which opened her eyes at the same time fearing what might happen, Satoru surprised by this, understood immediately what had happened and couldn't help but be angry at being used as a mount all this time.

"In my defense, I woke up less than two hours ago."

Not wanting to discuss this, Satoru dropped Envy who fell to the ground, and gestured for Gileon to go ahead, the dark elf just looked awkwardly at the whole situation, they didn't seem to think the situation was a big deal.

Separated from the larger group, Satoru and Envy, guided by Gileon, walked forward until suddenly without realizing they passed through an invisible barrier, confused as they looked up, their eyes filled with the beautiful sight.

Houses built in the trees were connected by several bridges, a truly stunning sight for those who saw everything for the first time, there were all kinds of buildings, and also black elves of all ages, giving the feeling of liveliness to the place.

"How many dark elves are there?" asked Satoru still fascinated by the place.

"I don't know the exact number, I don't stay here very long here, but it must be something like 200 dark elves, to think that one day we were more than 1000."

It was easy to hear the sadness in Gileon’s voice, seeing his race so reduced, so Satoru chose not to mention the subject any further.

The way they were going was towards a giant tree where at the top was the biggest building in the city, the current king's house.

Climbing up a ladder that circled the trunk of the tree, there were two guards at the door waiting for them, and at the same time facing the humans, they harbored so much hatred.

Envy was a little intimidated by this, but she still held her ground, she had already been through worse, all she needed to do was hang on.

Entering the building, the three were in a kind of waiting room, Gileon then turned and looked at the two.

"There are some things I need to explain before we go in, so listen to me carefully and everything should be fine."

Satoru and Envy just nodded.

"First, avoid touching sensitive subjects, second, don't talk unless you ask something, all they want most is reasons to kick you out, third and last, they'll try to irritate you on purpose don't react."

"Wait, did you say 'they'?"

"There are two powers within the dark elves, the king's advisers and the king himself, to maintain himself partially, the king only asks or answers something he thinks is extremely important, the advisers are the ones who usually talk, so don't care too much, if the king likes you the rest doesn't matter.”

As soon as Gileon finished speaking, the door to the room was opened, leading the way, the dark elf was the first to enter and bow. The other two entered shortly thereafter and did the same.

The room wasn't all that grand, but given the condition of the entire race, that was more than enough. There was a long wooden table, all ornate, on the other side in the center was a black elf with long white hair, his appearance showing clear signs of fatigue.

Sitting on the left side, a stronger black elf had propped up in the chair where he sat, a long sword. Lastly, on the right side, wearing a worn purple tunic, a black elf with yellow eyes, and a shaved head.

"Your Majesty, these are humans, the oldest is called Satoru and the youngest is called Envy.""Tsk, bringing humans to our city, do you know how serious this is?", who spoke was the elf sitting on the left side.

"Yes, Adviser Alron, I understand perfectly, but they saved my life and several other dark elves by facing even other humans in the process."

“Still, who's to say they just didn't want to know where we were hiding? What do you think, Brother Frey?” Alron asked the elf sitting across from him.

"Alron is right, humans are usually not ashamed of the methods they use, how can you guarantee that this despicable race won't betray us the next instant?"

"Advisors, please reconsider your opinions, Satoru is the Black Devil himself, the savior of many, even the other elves who came with us can attest to that."

Alron and Frey looked at each other for a moment, they seemed to think about what Gileon had said, but then they started laughing as if they had heard a joke.

“You tell the 'black devil' that story to make kids feel safe? Don't be naive Gileon, it doesn't exist!" Angrily, Alron slapped the table.

"Calm down, Alron, it's obvious that Gileon still believes in fairy tales, but still, it would be unfair of us to reprimand him just for a blind belief."

Not believing what he was hearing, Gileon looked at Satoru who shrugged, he didn't like the nicknames very much, so it would be problematic if everyone started calling him that.

Envy on the other hand looked annoyed that they were making fun of saying her brother was nothing but a legend.

Satoru noticed this and placed a hand on her shoulder, calming her down shortly thereafter. But what he didn't notice where the king's eyes, which we’re watching the young man carefully.

"These humans think that in the dark elves we are idiots, what example would you be setting for them, if you continue with... you majesty did something happen?" Alron was talking until suddenly the king got up and started walking.

"Satoru Seigi, could you follow me!"

Everyone looked in shock, Satoru too, but not because he was called by the king, but because of what he was called.