6 The Capital (1/2)

The squadron had already prepared everything to go for the capital as soon as dawn broke; the group captain had come to wake Selena with cold water collected from a stream. The poor elf had clearly not recovered enough energy during the night; her eyes were red and her hands were shaking more clumsy than usual. Hector didn't think her magic would make her so amorphous, if he had known, he would have stopped her.

This was for two reasons, the first because she was not going to be effective at her job; the second: because she snorted all night, keeping him awake. He had tried to change huts, but the riders on night duty had asked him to stay in the one assigned to him.

In other words, Selena and Hector both had corpse heads, which had earned them some nice mockery from the other riders. Instead of getting upset, Hector preferred to laugh about it, but the elf, who seemed not to be a morning person, did not.

\”Come on, don't pout, just laugh a little.\” Hector laughed at Selena with other members of the squadron.

\”It's your fault that I'm in this state... if I didn't have to heal your wound, I would be-\”

\”Yes, maybe, but you treated me and I owe you. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?\” he said, pointing to his neck from which the stitches had been removed. \”Thanks to you, it's already healed, we can say it's a blessing in disguise.\”

\”Besides, you're still tense and distant, it wouldn't hurt to laugh a little, you know.\” said one of the riders who was chatting with Hector while eating her breakfast.

From what Hector had been able to learn, Selena was quite lonely. It could be explained in different ways, but the most logical was the one Balam had explained to him while he was trying to get to sleep.

In the past, the Elves tried genocide attempts on different peoples such as half-man and dwarf tribes, brilliantly succeeding for the dwarf tribe, making them disappear, leaving no survivors to date. Seeing the threat that these people were, the men had decided to sign a non-aggression pact between the two peoples, however, after several political disputes, the Elves decided to ignore the non-aggression pact, and attacked humanity, killing and imprisoning more than one million men and women. This had put an end to the era when Elves were seen as wise and mature beings; a hatred from all nations then made its wrath heard.

The Elven repression was orchestrated by Dentelia who was at this time, a country newly built. That's how the rest of the elves disappeared in turn. All this happened on the ashes of the war and had only brought even greater anger an fear, which had now turned into racism.

Selena suffered for the past actions of her ancestors. She didn't want to be looked down on or thrown out of the army, she knew where she would end up if that ever happened. Be ready to do anything to be important to others so that you can lead a dignified life. Remembering all this, Hector stroked the dark elf's head with a little smile.

\”Yes, she's right, you should laugh a little.\”

The elf's childish reaction made the other riders laugh, while everyone was packing their equipment to leave. It was after a short while when the captain — who was much more beautiful with a rested face — gave the order to leave.

The capital was more than six hours away, much more than Hector thought. The villagers who had fled from Vaine had really walked such long distances? It was after two hours on horseback that Hector got an answer to his question. A small village was on the way; men and women were busy with their daily tasks. The squadron greeted the guard present on the scene and entered to make the horses drink and eat.

Many of the villagers were surprised by the squadron's arrival, but others were even more surprised by Hector's presence. A young girl and her little brother walked towards him with a questioning look.

\”Mr. Weiler...?\” she asked.

\”Um... Yes, what is it?\” Hector replied with a tender smile.

\”My little brother told me that he saw you lifeless when we fled... he was very shocked... he told me you weren't moving, your eyes were empty, so...\” she paused while looking at her brother hiding behind her. \”He thinks you're an undead... so I wanted you to tell him you're not...\” explained the little girl as Selena listened carefully.

\”Well, if I were one, what difference would it make?\” Hector replied with a deliberately scary look as he stared at the little boy. \”Ahahah, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Of course not, I'm not an undead, but, on the other hand, the fact that a survive to this it's a miracle!\” he concludes, trying to reassure the boy who didn't dare look him once.

Hector knew very well that he would eventually have to confess who he was to someone other than Selena, but saying it now was unnecessary and risky, so he had chosen another option. The elf, on the other hand, looked at Hector with a thoughtful look.

\”Are you going to confess it to someone other than me?\” she asked, looking at the two children who had returned to their family.

\”I intend to admit it to people I will decide I can trust.\” he replied, stroking the horse's mane, the one he was riding with Selena. \”For the time being, I've decided that only you meet that criterion.\”

\”Yes... but why?\”