15 The Departure After (3) - 14

"This is where we leave you, Young Master." Said the voice that had asked me to leave the carriage back at the maid training center.

Nodding my head, even though I knew the person wasn't even looking, I opened the door of the carriage and let Estella step out first so that she could help me step out afterwards.

And this time, she truly did so, as she knew that I only viewed her as a maid, and nothing more.

"Thank you."

As she heard this after I had stepped out of the carriage, she froze for a second, before quickly regaining her professionalism.

'Hmm, did she really live her whole life without anyone saying "Thank you" to her? I mean, there was a similar reaction when I said "Thank you" as I killed her last time...'

Anyways, I would for sure treat her as a person this time around, as I needed to repay her for what she had done for me back then, even if I had been completely horrible to her...

Well, back to the current situation, I looked towards the Truebreak Forest, studying the delegation of elves that stood there, all ready to escort me to my new home.

But, again, all I could think about was "her", the painfully smiling face that I would never forget for the rest of my life.

After all, how could any person ever bear the pain of being killed by your spouse, all whilst smiling?

She was truly the kindest person in the world, and this time, I would be sure to protect her innocence from the depths of this evil world itself.

She deserved it, and anything she deserved, she would get.

I would make sure of it.

...

"Human, please put this blindfold on, as we, at the moment, aren't able to show you the location of our home."

Then, turning to Estella, they asked the same thing.

I mean, I already knew where the home of the elves was, and I also could figure it out once again due to the fact that I had already trained hard enough to the point that I had already developed my "Third Eye", which was basically a six sense, at this young of an age.

Of course, with her inborn beastmen senses, Estelle could do the same thing, but we complied with the wish of the elves, as I didn't want to leave a bad impression on them in our first meeting.

But, as I "saw" an elf bending down to pick me up, I extended out my hand and stopped him.

"I can follow behind perfectly fine, she can too."

Hearing this, I could "see" that all the elves around me were wearing shocked expressions, before those expressions turned into smirks.

Well, it was only natural for them to be smirking at us, especially me, as they thought that I was just a rich young noble that was too confident in himself.

Yet, I couldn't let them think that about me, could I?

So, when they started running, expecting to see me being left behind in the dust, they were shocked to the core when they saw that I was keeping pace with them, and that I hadn't even made one single mistake yet.

After seeing this, they knew that it was useless for them to continue to blindfold me, as I would find out the location of their home no matter what, so they let me take it off, and Estella was given the same treatment too.

I could already tell that this came with a caveat, but it wasn't something I was unwilling to accept.

Anyways, after we travelled at full speed for a total of 3 days and 3 nights, with no stops in between, we arrived at the city of the elves, the only city actually, as they all lived in harmony together with one another and Mother Nature.

And, although the elves were kind of surprised that I could go three straight days without stopping to rest or sleep, they quickly attributed this to my training, as it had been made obvious that I wasn't a regular noble brat.

They had even subconsciously built up a form of respect towards me in the deepest parts of their minds, as, at my age, even they couldn't accomplish the physical feat I had just breezed through.

Also, during the whole trip, I had been courteous to all of them, and had learned each and every one of their names, boosting my favor with them even more.

Now, we were finally in front of the Elven city, a massive fortress that stretched up into the sky, all built into the grooves of a tree that resembled the "World Tree" from Norse Mythology.

You see, as the Elves valued nature so much, they respected all natural things and were probably the closest race to the "perfect" human ideal, with the mana of this world being their main source of food, and, as they only ate mana, they never produced any bodily waste.

Of course, this was just the tip of the iceberg, as their "perfectness" extended far past their food and excrement, as all elves were guaranteed to be top tier beauties or casanovas, they never had to sleep, and they had a lifespan of about 900 years in times of peace, give or take a few years depending on the individual.

The only "imperfect" thing about them was their rate of birth, which was abysmally low, with only about 5 children being born every year, balancing their strength with all the other races.

This weakness was evident right before my eyes, as, even though the war had ended 4 years ago, I could see that many of the houses built off the grooves of the world tree, were just empty husks, with no happy families living in them.

Seeing that I had noticed the sad state of their city, the elves that were escorting me could only grimace, before we started ascending the side of the tree by jumping from platform to platform.

Mindlessly climbing, I didn't realize how high we were until everything suddenly fogged up.

Catching me off guard for a second, I realized that it was just because we were passing through the clouds, and when we emerged above them, the top of the world tree still wasn't visible.

At this point, even with my partially awakened body, I couldn't take the lack of oxygen anymore, so I didn't hold back and asked one of the elves to make a mask made of mana around the place near my nose, with a hose made of mana sucking in oxygen from below the clouds.

They happily complied, not wanting their princesses' fiancé to die before even meeting her, and eventually, we reached the top of the World Tree, on the border between the atmosphere of the planet and space itself.

I was met with a familiar sight, a soaring castle that was built atop the World Tree, the tips of it's spires touching the burning coldness of the vast emptiness itself.

And, contrary to the expectations of the elves, I didn't show any emotion upon seeing their most prized achievement, but what could I say? I had seen this place way too many times to count in my past life, even living here for a whole 5 years.

But, I pretended not to know anything about the castle and I let the elves lead me to the throne room, where I was met with the image of a group of elves, all looking like they were in the prime of their lives, and in the middle of the throne room, two humongous chairs made up of thick, intertwined branches laid.

Bowing in front of the assembly of elves, I greeted my future parents in law.

"I greet the King, Queen, and Tribunal of the ones bound not by the world."