May the Essence be Witness

The convoy was traversing the forest at a leisurely pace underneath Vakt's surveillance. As he was keeping his distance and using the terrain to his advantage, he remained undetected. Similarly, to when Vakt had followed the adventurers, he remained too far for Elroy to hear their conversation. In these, being able to listen-in would have quite a good thing, and so Elroy resolved to try to find a solution in the near future.

'Perhaps small birds or bugs would do the trick, especially considering this is a forested area.'

Even though he really wanted to hear the contents of their conversation, the risks outweighed the potential reward. Vakt had to remain undetected, being a trump-card of sorts.

Although he was too far to hear them, Vakt and Elroy could now have a better look at the members of the group. At the back, he could recognize the two adventurers who had been in the dungeon on the first day. There was also a blond swordsman who looked to be an adventurer, he had a longsword that looked to be coated in silver. This one was standing in the center of the group near to the last person of interest. It was a woman, dressed in splendid white robes embroidered with birds taking flight, she looked more like a noble than anything else. The rest of the group was composed by some twenty non-descript soldiers armed with spears.

Although Elroy questioned the practicality of trudging through the forest-grounds in white robes, he did have to admit it made for a pleasant sight with her silky hair, dark as night, contrasting with the robes.

Since the group was soon to be approaching the entrance of the dungeon, Elroy thought it best to make some last-minute preparations. He had Orkan stand near the entrance of the dungeon accompanied by his warg, while five hobgoblins were a bit further behind him, an arrow already notched on their bow. Additionally, he also had around ten hobgoblins hide in the forest around the clearing, one could never be careful enough after-all.

As the group arrived, they paused in the clearing, the lady pointing to the entrance tunnel before asking Lloyd and Reid a question. "Is this the right place? It looks quite unimpressive." Elroy reluctantly acknowledged this statement; it was quite right to say that it seemed to be a random cave underneath a cliff.

"Yes, Lady Erys, this is the right place. This is the dungeon where a named monster was reported."

"Well then, I shall begin."

She then stepped further towards before speaking up. "I am Lady Aileen Erys, hereby representing the Royal Adventurer's Guild and the Kingdom of Erydania, we have a proposition for the Lord of this place."

Elroy waited a few moments to introduce tension before having Orkan and his warg step forth from the dungeon into the clearing. His large figure dressed in bear fur and armor, coupled with the claymore resting on his shoulder made for a sight to behold. While the soldiers and the adventurers were looking warily towards Orkan and the monstrous wolf, Lady Erys and the blond swordsman seemed unfazed.

This changed however when they noticed the glimpse of cyan fire resting inside his eyes. While a flash of surprise and excitement could be discerned from the lady, the swordsman had a much more drastic reaction. His hand shooting to the hilt of his longsword, he was only stopped from drawing it by Lady Eris catching his hand.

Puzzled at the disapproving look he was receiving, he leaned towards to whisper, as if he did not want the other members of the group to hear what he was about to say. Of course, since they were now close enough to the dungeon, Elroy was able to listen-in.

"My Lady, these are signs of the beginning of demonification, your Father wouldn't approve-"

He was cut short by Lady Erys, "Ser Leonhart, let me handle this."

Although he was unsatisfied, Ser Leonhart had to relent as he had to obey his Lady.

Even if Elroy wished for more information regarding the so-called 'demonification', it seemed that his wish would go unfulfilled for the moment at least as Lady Erys addressed Orkan. "Might you be the Lord of this Dungeon?"

Once again, Orkan would serve as Elroy's mouthpiece. "Indeed, I am. What is your proposition, human?"

"It is an agreement we wish to make between the Guild and yourself." She paused there, not explaining further as she wished to see if the Monster would be interested at all.

As it signaled for her to go on, she resumed speaking. "In short, we wish for you to allow the Guild to send adventurers to this place every so often, in order to train them in a safe environment-"

Orkan interjected. "Providing a 'safe' environment is unrealistic, fights are inherently risky and I could not guarantee safety from danger you must change your demand. Besides, what would I gain from such an agreement?"

Lady Erys gritted her teeth before replying. "Of course, what was I saying… We ask only that you do not attempt to kill outright the adventurers we send but rather to drive them back; injuries should be expected. As for benefits, we can provide protection from rogue adventurers as well as the surrounding kingdoms, riches, equipment or about anything you wish for."

This request was something Elroy could accept, after-all he was already intent on doing so. As to the benefits, he had a special idea in mind.

Orkan seemed to speak up after some reflection. "Regarding the adventurers, you have to understand that some areas will be off-limits, should they still venture inside those, only death will await them. As for what I want, it is not riches, or equipment but rather knowledge and protection."

She seemed a bit surprised by the unusual request. "Knowledge? About what?"

"Anything and everything", he chuckled, "Let's just say that I am rather curious by nature."

They then proceeded to discuss a myriad of things that would form part of the agreement. Among these, was the development of a town just beyond the pass leading into the valley. Originally, Lady Erys wished for it to be built inside the valley, but this was rejected by Elroy and so Orkan had demanded for the valley to form part of his territory.

As they were nearing the end of their negotiations, Lady Erys seemed to be hesitating about something. But as she got to the last request, she appeared to have come to a decision as determination radiated from her eyes.

"I have one last request" she said, "I want a guarantee that you will not act intentionally against me. Furthermore, that I will be your only contact with the Guild and the Kingdom as to this agreement." This sparked a reaction from Ser Leonhart, but Lady Aileen's cold glare made him keep his mouth shut.

Elroy was greatly interested by her last request, as he had been expecting something along these lines from the beginning. However, he had thought that it would be much broader, instead there seemed to be some internal struggle behind the scenes that he wasn't aware of.

"Such a guarantee could be feasible, however, you would have to provide a counterpart: that you would not intentionally act against my interests." By now, Ser Leonhart appeared greatly concerned with the developments, a small bead of sweat rolling down to his brow. Lady Erys seemed to hesitate once again, however, that same resolution appeared as she accepted.

"To officialize this agreement, we will take an oath", she continued, "Follow after me, May the Essence be witness, I, Aileen Erys, second of my name, swear to uphold the contents of the present agreement."

Under Elroy's watchful eye, he could see Essence rising in the area before weaving itself into an extremely intricate sigil.

He then made Orkan swear an oath in response. "May the Essence be witness, I, Orkan, Lord of this Dungeon, swear to uphold the contents of the present agreement."

Similarly, as Orkan finished the oath, Essence also rose before weaving itself into a duplicate of the first sigil. Then, the two sigils started drifting away. One of them sank into Lady Erys' chest, while the other attempted to fuse with Orkan. However, almost as if it was alive, it seemed to detect the deception that was afoot. It then traced back the connection Elroy had with Orkan, finally ending up just below the iridescent flame inside the Dungeon Core. Somehow, he had a feeling that if his flame was burning bright enough, it wouldn't be impossible to undo this sigil.

'Ah well, I guess it was worth a try after-all. Besides, it isn't all bad as it doesn't seem to be exactly final.' Elroy could also now feel a faint connection to Lady Erys, as if the two sigils were resonating softly with one another.

She also seemed to realize something wasn't quite right as she didn't feel any connection with the creature as she expected, but rather with some kind of vague presence. 'It seems we were all led on', she thought, a small smile making it to her beautiful face. 'If the one in front of me isn't even the true Lord, perhaps this cooperation will be more successful than expected.'

"Well then, we shall be going now, until we meet again 'Lord'" she said, her small smile still present. Elroy could almost swear she was looking in his direction. At the prospect of being able to interact with someone in the near future, Elroy felt like smiling.

As the group had now been walking for a while in silence, Ser Leonhart finally couldn't hold his thought in anymore.

"Lady Erys, this is very unusual, you must know that the guarantee was put in place to safeguard the Kingdom's interests and not…" He had stopped, seeing the frigid look in her blue eyes.

"Are you perhaps insinuating that my interests do not align with those of the Kingdom, Ser Leonhart?" she said, freezing him in place.

"No, I wouldn't dare Your Highness."

"Good", she scoffed.

'Dear eldest brother, although you successfully rallied the heroes to your side, you know as well as I do that I will not give up. After-all, I too can find myself allies.'