Unlike Zonyan’s party who were slowly charting a new map at the Western Continent whose every effort so far would go to waste if they accidentally died, many Players were now gathering in the elven capital of Trinia, ready to show off their talent—for one loud feast.
The wood elves’ main food were wild herbs and fruits. Moreover, as a race favored by Pecora—Goddess of the Forests, wood elves did not really have to feed and could recharge their bodies through photosynthesis.
That was the exactly why they felt extremely uncomfortable about the Players who were gathering at the square and cheerfully preparing to feast.
They felt even more repulsed when they saw that the players had brought meat in seasoned skewers to Trinia.
Although the Elven Queen had explained that Luna the Goddess of the Silver Moon had sent forth an oracle to accommodate the Players, only a third of Trinia’s entire elven population were pure believers of Luna. Another third were believers of both Pecora and Luna, while the others were either pure believers of Pecora and other gods.
Therefore, although Luna’s believers wouldn’t hold prejudices despite their dislike of humans, the others who weren’t believers of Luna were showing outright enmity.
But most of the Players naturally didn’t care.
Their world view had become simple and comprehensive after they converted to the Church of Games—regardless of how they were treated, green names were allies, yellow names were debatable, and red names enemies.
To a certain extent, Xi Wei owed Luna when she allowed the Players to place a Lifestone in Trinia. As such, he would be graceful towards the wood elves whom Luna favored, and he would keep the elves’ names green despite their hostility as long as they didn’t overstep boundaries.
On the other hand, if anything past the reservation occurs and deliberate harm was inflicted upon his adorably crazy believers, apologies but there will be red names!
***
“Brave hero, could you speak to your comrades so that they don’t feast on animal corpses while inside Trinia?”
Even though the Elven Queen was pro-human, she was still uncomfortable about the raw-looking meat skewers—which Players who recently learnt Butcher had sliced and was then seasoned with various spices by others who had learnt various cooking skills.
“No corpses? Alright, I understand.” Edward said, and relayed the queen’s cautioning to the other Players.
Everyone else all replied with ‘Got it’, ‘Understood’ or ‘Roger, roger’ before leaving Trinia—only to return soon enough, dragging along living mountain goats, struggling boars, thrashing saltwater fishes and bubble-blowing crabs.
The Elven Queen only felt a twitching agony in her head when Edward gave her a smug ‘What do you think? We are so understanding, right?’, as well as the impulse to slap his brains out.
What did you actually understand, brute?!
It was fortunate that she understood that the alliance with the Players was an oracle from the gods. She ultimately decided to simply act as if she saw nothing and left with her officials in tow, allowing the Players to do whatever they liked at the square.
The Players naturally weren’t shying away, and started to prepare for the feast under Princess Leah’s instructions.
Nonetheless, their unrestrained activities naturally caught the attention of most elves.
***
Marni was carrying a bucket of ale past the corner of a wall when he found a young elf’s head poking out as he leaned above the wall and observed the Players warily. Hence, he walked up to greet the young elf.
“Yo, kid. You want to join us as well?”
The young elf was certainly startled and was about to flee, but he paused when he saw Marni’s grinning at him in greeting without any sort of enmity and slowly approached them instead.
“What are you people doing?” He asked curiously.
“A feast, of course! Do wood elves not have feasts?” Marni answered as if it only made sense.
The young elf became confused. “A feast? Isn’t that supposed to be a congregation where we pray to the statues of Silver Moon Goddess and the Goddess of the Forests, offering the rare herbs we gathered from the woods and share our recent dreams to divine the future?”
“That’s supposed to be a religious mass…” Marni could not help retorting. “How is that a feast?”
“Then what should a feast be like?” The young elf blinked in curiosity.
“A merry time fooling around, drinking and eating away as we vent all the tension we had, a celebration that is only limited to a single a day… such are the feasts we hold at the Church of Games!” Marni beamed, and gave the young elf a thumbs-up. “We’ll start around the evening, so come join us if you’re interested!”
The young elf didn’t say anything. Instead, he cast Marni a long look before turning to run away.
“Was it something I said?” Marni scratched his head, confused.
“Haha! You’re being barbaric, Bossman. The delicate elves would find it hard to accept your face.” Ivan, his escort captain who was helping to move buckets of rum was laughing heartily.
“Silence. You’ve never even met a human for so long that people thought that you’re a magical beast. You’re the last person I want to hear that from!” Marni shot back indignantly.
“Not a magical beast. They merely take me for a boar!”
“Isn’t that even worse?!”
“Now that you’ve mentioned nonhumans, wasn’t there one of them amongst the Players if I’ve remembered correctly? The one who was recruiting sailors…”
“Oh, Zonyan Blackhand? Indeed, why haven’t we seen him at the feast? Actually, he didn’t show up in Trinia at all.”
“That fellow never liked feasts anyway—he only likes the foot.”
“I quite liked that big steel ship of his. Who knows when the God of Games could let me something as big as that? If he did, we’ll definitely chart some sea routes.”
“You’re really passionate about commerce, Mister Marni.”
“Few things interest me, but one of it is watching my wealth increase. Come to think of it, I wonder if the wood elves have stuff that could be sold in Lancaster as souvenirs.”
The two men hence continued their chatter they headed to the square where the feast was being held, their voices fading the further they went.
And from the corner of the wall, a small head poked out jade-green pupils—flickering in the colors of curiosity just like a new sprout.