1.3 (ab)

John found himself in his room after the incident with the ungrateful elf, he hurled himself onto his silk bed and sprawled his body. His stiffened spine decompressed as he let out a long groan before his mind wandered towards moments before he his day was set on a bitter tone

“I think I am forgetting about something important. Oh yeah…lunch. Ah whatever—”

As if anticipating for him to speak those very words, a figure dashed to where he was and launched itself on top of him.

“R-Raina? What are you doing? Get off!”

The princess had a very suggestive face on her as she inched her body closer to him. Her small frame, and the sudden sight of her cleavage was enough to send the troubled John into great confusion.

John swallowed his bare throat, unsure what to do.

“A-are you wearing a new dress or something?”

Poof.

Like vapor in the air, Raina evaporated right in front of his eyes. The weight that was acting on his lower body disappeared as soon as she was no longer in his line of sight.

“Wahahaha!” an ecstatic laughter doused on him as he felt himself being yanked away from the warmth embrace the bed. His body unable to refuse the sudden change in momentum, had went along with the ivory hand that latched onto him.

“Come on you silly goose, I have been waiting for you to return. Let’s have lunch now, shall we?”

A smile as radiant as gold flashed at John as he was led running alongside Raina. The girl virtually looked like she was skipping which each step she took.

“How was my illusion? I have gotten pretty good at it haven’t I? You were completely convinced that I had jumped on you in such a lewd way, ehehehe,” she kept giggling to herself as she clutched his hand tightly.

“Yeah, I didn’t even have time to react.”

Raina stopped their little sprint when they have arrived in a vast room that hosted a number of clothed tables. Out of all them, there was one that had crockery elaborately laid out with fine food laid on top of them, and the baked goods that he handed Raina earlier were among those delicacies.

It was obvious that Raina had prepared it while he was busy attending to Declan, and that she acquired the cuts of soft meat on those plates because they were the staples to his meals most of the time. The two of them pulled out the chairs familiarly and sat beside the other.

“I was thinking that the bread and cakes themselves would do fine… Not that I am complaining about the meat,” John kept his eyes on his plate as he watched his hands move on their own, inching back and forth with the knife at the cuts of meat before him. “Thanks though, they look nice.”

Certainly, this room was restricted for only celebrations, parties and festivals alike, if it weren’t for those reasons, the only people allowed to enter whenever they pleased were the only two royal elves who are the princess and the queen.

John however, had been in this room countless times, far more than any elf would have been permitted to in their entire life, for this was where the two of them dined together.

“What happened earlier?” Raina asked in a serious tone.

“Nothing much,” he shrugged, avoiding her gaze.

“Don’t lie to me. You haven’t criticized me for misusing my magic on you, I figured you would probably say ‘What if other people saw that?’ but you didn’t. Something did happen with Declan, didn’t it?”

Raina lifted her chair and shifted closer to his side. She titled her head to meet his disengaged gaze. She kept her eyes steady on John, frowned her brows at him as she stared sadly. “You don’t want to talk to me anymore? Am I too boring for you? Hic…John no longer loves me…”

“Fine! Just stop that. I can’t eat in peace if you keep looking at me like that.”

“Yay!” her eyes lit up in delight.

“That guy punched me. Haaah... He ended up slicing his brother with his magic glaive. So, after healing the brother, I got overly excited and asked Declan to demonstrate his powers, then said something that ticked him off, he went into a frenzy and punched me...”

Raina’s face hardened, she immediately got to her feet, “I’ll go talk to him about this right now. Even if he denies it, I’ll—”

“No, don’t. If you do that, it will only complicate things even more. It will look like oppression on your end.”

“He was the one who asked for your help and hurt you instead. Even if you did not have your powerful healing magic, it is a crime to even attempt something like that.”

“Just let it be, things like this happens, and it isn’t my first time dealing with his antics. It was worse in the past.”

“But—"

“He is probably the only one who has an extreme dislike towards me and acts on it. I know being the only human here isn’t a normal thing, there’s bound to be people who still don’t like the idea of me. Besides, I didn’t even feel much pain because I casted [Heal] out of reflex. All thanks to you, Raina,” he reached for her arm, coaxing her back to her seat.

“As the Princess, I can’t let him push you over like this. What good would it be if I inherit the throne but when the Johnny I care about suffers? Why can’t I do anything about it? Hmph!” Raina folded her arms and sulked.

John gave out a snort, “The Johnny you care about? Ha, that’s just because I look different than your average guy in the Elven Tribe, I am pretty sure you’ll get bored with me once you are around other humans. I am not that special, Raina.”

“Gahhhh! You idiot! Don’t go joking about things when I am being serious! Why do you have to say that? You clearly know us Higher Races— Take that!” she launched multiple blows to John’s arm.

“Hahaha, I’m just kidding. We both know that you want to stick around with someone who has a short lifespan like me because you like torturing yourself when I am gone.”

“Ahhhhh! Johnny you idiot! You won’t be having more of that meat that I’ve prepared for you!” she tried to take his food away but John held her back with his free hand.

“Ah, wait, no, I apologize. This marbled meat is great, it goes super well with the bread I brought back.”

Raina’s blows on him softened and came to a stop, her cheeks were flushed from his words.

“R-really? You’ve liked the meat… I-I’ve c-cooked?”

“Are you for real? Who wouldn’t like this? It tastes amazing! I could have this for everyday and I won’t ever get sick of it. Having meat is great Raina! The taste that seeps onto your tongue as you chew it, it’s indistinguishable. Muah! This is perfection!” He kissed his fingers then suddenly stopped his ramble, “Hang on… You’ve cooked it?”

“Y-yeah… I’m glad you liked it,” Raina had her head low, elbows rubbed together.

“Oh… I… Wow… That’s…”

He became speechless, unsure what to do next.

John sat there awkwardly, eyes unblinking, he did not dare to make a move on the meat that was beautifully affixed on the glazing plate.

Was this what they call a lover’s cooking? They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but is it really? He never really had that much standards for food, as long it had good texture and did not upset his stomach, it was all he could ask for.

But Raina’s cooking? They hit a spot in him that other foods can’t.

“A-are you d-disgusted with my cooking?” Raina fretted at John’s sudden suspension.

“No… I was just… A bit too overjoyed that I was stunned?” He scratched his cheek, flashed her a nervous smile. “This is awesome.”

Raina placed a hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief. “In that case… You can’t say no to what I’ll be giving you next, ehehe.”

“If it’s that straddling but without the illusion thing, I think I can pass. You can keep your seduction when you are of age.”

“It’s not that! I’m giving you something. Besides… I’ll be of age sooner than you think!”

After 17 years of existence, the elves consider themselves to have reached maturity. This was because their facial complexion will retain their youthfulness of that age for the rest of their lives, and such marked their start of their adulthood and their road to bearing heavy responsibilities.

That is not to say that their face will not age, rather it changes so slightly after becoming of age that it takes at least a century to have noticeable alterations.

While John kept himself busy with his food—this time he used more effort in savoring the taste—Raina pulled out something from the side of her dress, she moved behind him and placed a necklace on him.

“Hmm? What’s up with this?”

John looked at the chain necklace that was around him, a lonely piece of rectangular metal with his name carved hung in the middle as the pendant.

The design for the necklace was similar to the name tags that soldiers used, but unlike those, the one Raina gave was elegant and was made of silver adamantite.

“It’s a late birthday present, of course! I wanted to give you something, thankfully I managed to finish this on the last day of November. It might be a few days late but you can’t say I have forgotten about you.”

Raina wrapped her arms around his neck, rubbing her face onto the back of his head while she sniffed the comforting smell from him.

“You can be creepy at times, smelling me like that, exactly what a wolf would do.”

“Mmm, whatever you say Johnny,” intoxicated by the scent, she mulled over the bliss within her.

“I told you I didn’t need anything for my birthday. The messenger bag you gave last year was more than enough. The enchantments you have imbued in it was more than enough, in fact, I think [Space Amplification] itself was more than enough. The mana you used on that spell was overwhelming, it was so effective that I could fit years’ worth of supplies and still have room to spare— Hey, are you still listening?”

“Mmm… Yeah… It’s fine, you don’t have to thank me for it. This adamantite necklace has [Presence Concealment], so no one will notice it unless they know what they are looking for.”

“That’s not what I am trying to say… [Presence Concealment]? That’s a mana consuming one. Not even you have limitless mana, it must have took you a week to just cast—”

“Zzz...zzz… I...mmm… John...zzz...it’s fine…”

Raina was already dozing on his shoulders, warm shallow breaths rolled on his back as her soft cheeks became firmly pressed on him.

She must have finished enchanting the necklace just before she gave it to him.

The process of shaping adamantite into a sleek chain necklace alone took roughly a month with a skilled smith. Not to mention imbuing it with a permanent magical property such as [Presence Concealment], that hid the item unless someone knew what they were looking for, takes at least another few weeks for the average magic user.

“Honestly, you don’t have to imbue it with anything and I’ll still accept it… I am already happy that you appreciate me,” he spoke to the sleepy Raina as he placed the chain inside his shirt.

Carefully, John positioned himself to stand while he kept the princess from falling to the ground. He lowered his body slightly, slipped his arms behind and lifted the girl off her feet and gave her a makeshift piggyback.

“Whoops!” he blurted out as he felt Raina’s full weight on his back. “Where did all that extra weight come from Raina? I don’t think I can run around with you on my back anymore. Hahaha.”

John hadn’t offered Raina a piggyback ever since he reached adulthood, he used to do it whenever he made her sad when they were younger. But now that the two of them were older, he figured that a princess should maintain a certain image and it was bad to indulge her in things like these.

Despite his distaste for physical contact from anyone in general, he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of bitterness whenever he told himself to keep his distance with Raina whenever they were in the presence of other elves.

“Zzz…I missed this...zzz… Johnny…more...”

“Ahaha, we’ll be in your room soon enough, just hang in there, Raina.”

“Sleepy… because of you… Zzz…”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s all my fault for making you this sleepy,” he smirked as he carried her along the vast hallways and headed to her room.

When he reached her room, he gently laid the sleepy princess onto her bed and tucked her in.

“What would you do when I am gone? Will you even still remember me?” he spoke softly before he left.

Mana, aside being the source to cast magic, was able to estimate the lifespan one had, the greater capacity of mana, the longer someone lived. It was one of the reasons that most elves were able to live to centuries old.

Royal elves like Queen Veissa and Princess Raina have an ever-expanding mana pool. Though there has not been an official record to it, it was a known fact that royal elves were capable of immortality should they pursue it.

That said, immortality was something that many of the elves do not care for due to their already long lifespan. In fact, the royal elves of old, those who came before Queen Veissa, had opted to move on from the living world before they reached a century’s worth’s lifespan. Even Queen Veissa who was the oldest known elf in A’vetheas had such thoughts.

In the queen’s words:

“Royal elves like us would come to a point in our long lives where we realize that we could no longer bear to witness any more death of our loved ones. There comes a breaking point for each of us, be it when a generation becomes completely replaced by the next, when we are reminded that every second in the mortal realm means a second less spent with those who are no longer of this world. As such, we choose to no longer suffer such torment and embrace liberation.”

To say that royal elves would just choose to end their life whenever they could was inaccurate. In order to preserve the royal bloodline, they were only permitted to do so when they have lived at least a hundred years and have a successor ready in accordance with their passing on.

Having a successor for royal elves was never a problem, even without a partner, the royal elves were able to use portions of their vast mana and create another being as they wished.

“Immortality means nothing when there is nothing to live for.”

John understood that statement well.

Even so, he still wanted to prolong his life by expanding his mana pool through the practice and mastery of multitudes of magic. As long one used magic often, their mana capacity would increase and expand until a plateau is reached when full mastery of a particular magic spell is achieved.

When a mana pool of a person increases, so does their life expectancy. Such was how the world worked. The more spells an individual is able to master, the larger their mana pool capacity, hence they would live longer.

But unfortunately for John, he was incapable of using any other magical spells other than [Heal].

This meant that the increase in his mana pool size with the [Heal] spell would one day reached its plateau, and will no longer allow him to prolong his life. It frustrated him to no end for having no options to prolong his life other than this one magic spell.

Was it that hard? To want to live a life longer than the average human lifespan of 80 years?

He still had time to figure things out for himself.

Even if it is a few decades extra in his lifespan, it would be worth all his effort. He dared not think of a time when Raina’s adoration for him and her long lifespan would become her source of sorrows.

For all Elves have only one lover throughout their lifetime.

And the princess had made him hers a long time ago.