Chapter 65 – The Boogeyman

When Leone’s voice turned rather odd, the Halflings that were listening turned curious. They saw that fear is present on the two elvens.

“So what happened? Who is the one that appeared in the forest that makes you two all so scared?”

“Julian Nostredame was it?” said the dwarf.

“Yeah...” Leone and the silver-haired elven said.

“Oh, that guy…” the Halfling finally remembered.

“Like I was saying, Julian Nostredame appeared on the borders of the elven forest. At that time we didn’t know the existence of him. So we thought that he was just some normal human and thus we fire our arrows.”

Leone recollected the way Julian Nostredame casually walked to the borders despite the arrows raining down upon him.

“But what surprise us truly was that he did not blink at the sight of the arrows. The arrows that we thought that would pierce his skin deflected as if it was nothing...he merely grunted and took a step back as he receives the arrows without even getting his clothes scratched.”

“We then warned him that he will not trespass anymore. Using the vines, we tried to entrap him but it was useless, all he did was make a knife out of his right hand and chopped all the vines like it was nothing.”

The Dwarf made a serious expression. The Halfling widens their eyes in amazement. The Drunk Ramiel who was on the floor, lying near Leone’s lap opened one of his eyes as he listened.

“We tried telling him to reconsider his actions. But all he said to us was: ‘Bring me to your Queen; I want to ask why she allowed the convoy that the Kingdom of Lin sent to die just like that.”

“Hearing his disrespectful tone to the Queen, we thought of charging upon him, only to realize that after a minute, that we are no match for him. He beat us up with his mere fist. And considering that we are the Elven Rangers, we thought that we could win, but no, he showed us the reality.”

Leone took a sharp breath as he recalled the way he got punched by the Carnifex. A sweet jab to stomach, and got himself knocked out.

“Then after being beaten up by him, we were dragged into the capital, every single of the Rangers, pulled by a single rope by him. Seeing us being held disgracefully, we could only put our heads down.”

“So you were part of that shameful parade eh...” said the silver-haired elven.

“Yes, I was part of that shameful march. And seeing us being taken as a hostage, the King and Queen was forced to talk to him. In front of the elven rules, he protests about the killing of the convoy. The King was not intimidated, even berated him along with the dead convoy.”

“So what happened?” the dwarf said, clearly interested.

“Julian Nostredame merely said: “How about this: Either you shut your disrespecting mouth or I'll kick your teeth down your throat... and shut it for you. So try me...” and hearing that the King wasn’t so pleased. He told the royal elven guards to shut his mouth...but a minute or so...”

“The famous elven royal guards had their left hand ripped out of their bodies. And the royal throne was shed with blood.” said the silver-haired elf.

“So you heard about...as expected of a spymaster.” Leone commented.

“And after that, the Queen who was always calm wasn’t able to think quite well.” Leone continued. “For the first time, the Queen who was famous for her cold stature was showing fear. I witnessed the way he did it so casually, and we were afraid what would that human do to us, the moment he gets his explanation. The Queen told him, and after that, he demanded that the Kingdom of Lin will have no qualms as long as the trade between the kingdom resumes. The Queen agreed, making the Dark Elven who learned it after the event complained. And because of that, the dark elvens provoked the Kingdom of Lin, telling them that they will have the Matriarch’s head.”

“What a bunch of fools...” the silver-haired elven said.

“Yes, they were a bunch of fools for saying that. And within a month...the dark elven kingdom was nearly destroyed.” Leone said grimly.

“Whoa...how scary.” said the Halfling.

“Indeed...the Queen told us to keep watch of the human and the way he ravaged and faced the armies of Dark Elven all by himself made the whole non-human kingdoms afraid of the Lin Kingdom. The Dark Elvens, at least the ones who survived Julian Nostredame’s onslaught started finding ways to take revenge. While the Elven Kingdom has decided to take the idea of ever touching the Kingdom of Lin, as long as Julian Nostredame is alive.”

“And then...” Leone’s face turned demonic as he says. “When we were afraid of offending the Kingdom of Lin, the Western humans took advantage of this and penetrated the elven forest. They manage to enter the forest, even pillaged the village that was the first line of defense...and on that village, my parents stayed. So when I found out that they were murdered...I went against the oath I took, chased after the murderers and murdered them. I was then captured by my fellow Rangers, was sent to the court that is governed by the elders and got thrown out to Tinople.”

Leone finished. He took a sharp breath.

“I see...”

“So that’s what you did to get thrown out into Tinople.”

“I know that I should be talking about my story, but instead talked about the boogeyman himself. After all, that was all I talk about.” Leone apologized.

“No need. It was interesting enough.” said the Dwarf.

“Yeah, I didn’t really know who this Julian guy before, so knowing his scary reputation made me shiver!” said the Halfling.

“Indeed, Julian Nostredame himself isn’t an evil callous person. But the way he acts, the moment he gets angered is something that needs to be weary. Just imagine the fury if someone would murder the matriarch right in front of his eyes. The World would end!” said the Silver-haired elven.

 “Yeah, let us pray to our Gods that such tragedy won’t happen.” The Dwarf said.

Leone who finished his story looked above the sky. In the ground, Ramiel who listened to the story took note of what the elven said.

And with Leone’s story over, Ramiel rise up from his sleeping position and started chatting with the non-humans.