Chapter 312 Royal Princess
"Royal Princess?!?" Several Elves exclaimed in unison, unable to hide their astonishment.
They hadn't expected the Royal Princess to appear in the doorframe of the Holy Hall, let alone that she seemed to have run over.
She was breathing heavily and her face was flushed red in anger. To say that she was pissed off would be an understatement. Nial instinctively took a step back when he perceived the unstable mana of the Royal Princess.
He could visualize her clearly and he had to agree that she was beautiful. Her long hair cascaded down her back, reaching her waist, while her long eyelashes highlighted her big eyes. Her appearance was gorgeous even amongst the other Elves Nial had met until now.
'Who cares if she is beautiful…This little brat also looks otherworldly handsome but he wanted to kill me…' Nial reminded himself to clear up his mind. He didn't want to provoke them and get attacked because that one time was already more than enough for him.
Nial could barrel feel his lower body right now as the vines' poison had spread through his body. Without any mana left in his body, let alone dark energy or Darkness Essence, it was basically impossible for Nial to stop the poison from spreading through his veins.
A wry smile appeared on his face as he began to think about a few ways to escape the annoying situation.
He didn't feel like he had done anything wrong but Nial was pretty sure that being reasonable with Elves was pretty hard, especially the ones he faced the moment he emerged on Yggdrasil.
"What the hell happened here?!" The Royal Princess's golden eyes stared at the Elves in fury. Everyone around her trembled as she stepped forward, including the oldest Elves, who were clearly stronger than her.
However, while their mana core's rank might be higher, they didn't have the same authority as the Royal Princess, who was adept at making sure that everyone knew who would rule the Elves in the future.
The Royal Princess' Charisma was not something one could obtain by simply becoming stronger. She was born with talent, power, and the responsibility to lead all the Elven races when her mother would relinquish the throne. Thus, it was only obvious that she would have a more imposing aura than everyone else.
Everyone began to kneel down on one leg as a sign of respect and to show that they were loyal to the royalty. Nial looked at this in confusion but he didn't follow suit, feeling like it would be stupid for him to do the same.
'I am not loyal to her, and neither will I ever submit to the Elves… I guess it would be rude if I were to do something I don't even mean,' Nial thought, ignoring the fact that it may also be considered rude that he was still standing in front of the Royal Princess with a straight back and looking at her, which would mean that he thought of himself as a being of equal repute or authority as that of the Royal Princess.
It was only at this moment when the Royal Princess noticed Nial. She could clearly perceive the destructive energies in the Holy Hall but because nothing had been damaged by it, the Royal Princess didn't give it much thought.
However, upon seeing the blind human, she was a bit stupefied.
'Is that him? But wasn't he supposed to emerge in the Hall of the Newcomers?' She thought in confusion while keeping her eyes on Nial.
Nial felt a bit weird but before he could say something, the young Elf, Jilas, began to speak in an excited voice.
"Princess Evalyne, we're back from our mission! Finally, I can see you again, Princess!"
Jilas looked at the Royal Princess in excitement and gave her a bright smile. However, Princess Evalyne scoffed at his attempt to suck up to her with an expression that spoke volumes about her opinion of him.
Jilas seemed oblivious to her contempt and his smile widened when he realized that the Royal Princess had looked at him for a second. He seemed no less than a dog wagging its tail at the sight of a bone.
'She looked at me, She looked at me!!' He shouted in his mind, feeling exhilarated, ignorant to the reality that was staring him in the eye.
"Jilas, shut it! You may be noble, but watch how you behave in front of the Royal Princess!" A stern voice that only someone with extraordinary hearing could hear swept through the Holy Hall. The words were accompanied by the wind element, sealing them only for Jilas to hear them…and Nial.
'So this idiot is a noble…well he is powerful, I guess…' Nial shook his head lightly before his attention returned to the Royal Princess. Unfortunately, just at this moment, his legs gave in as the poison within his system had advanced even further.
Nial landed on the ground with a groan that caused a few Elves to recall that a human was amidst them.
"Princess, please allow me to execute this disgusting peasant! We found this trash of a human being in the Holy Hall when we returned from our glorious mission!" Jilas' loud voice echoed through the entire Holy Hall. He was eager to extinguish Nial's entire existence and get in the Princess' good books.
This was frowned upon by many of the other Elves, who started cursing Jilas in their mind. The Royal Princess would have taken care of Nial by herself if he wouldn't have been invited to Yggdrasil. Something was obviously wrong but this idiot of a young brat didn't seem to realize this!
Princess Evalyne looked through the entire Holy Hall with her golden eyes that had begun to glow. Her silver hair fluttered in the faint drafts she had summoned to clear the hall of the bits of black miasma that were left behind.
"Ina, heal him," She ordered as she motioned for the female Elf to treat Nial. Ina, the Elf, who had looked at Nial with interest before jumped up from the ground. With brisk steps, Ina emerged in front of Nial and a white light began to shroud him.
'This feels a lot like the healing provided by the Elvingar Elves…just that it is several times stronger…' Nial realized pretty quickly when a soothing and invigorating sensation spread through his entire body. The white light was focused on his legs and feet.
"How did you end up here?" Princess Evalyne asked Nial calmly, ignoring Jilas' existence in its entirety. She took a step closer to him to have a better view of Nial and she was definitely not dissatisfied.
'The dark energy they spoke about is pretty strong. No wonder he could push back the Dryx. Still, to think that he could fight against the Incarnation of a God…even if the Incarnation was injured, it was still the Incarnation of a True God; an Incarnation, who was of a much higher rank…' The Royal Princess was now pretty sure that the blind human in front of her was Nial Orin, the young human, whose arrival had been announced to happen today.
Thus, her expression was completely different when she looked at Nial from what it had been when she spoke to the others.
"That is a good question. I wonder about that myself. Meryl and Master Crevian had told me that I would be separated from them but I had never expected…this…to happen, your majesty?" Nial was not sure what to call the Royal Princess. It was a relief that he could understand the Elven language after he listened to Master Crevian and Meryl for so long, but that didn't mean he knew how to act accordingly.
There were limits to the use of the God of Darkness' memories. Nial felt a bit weird about her sudden appearance, especially after he had just fought a brat so as to stay alive, but it was a great sign that Princess Evalyne spoke nicely to him. Her reaction was the complete opposite to that of Jilas who wanted to skin him alive.
"You are here to help the Elves, there is no need to bother about formalities, just call me Evalyne. I apologize for the rude behavior of Jilas. I will ensure that you get justice and punish everyone who mistreated you after I find out what actually happened!
Just tell me every little detail of what happened after you emerged from the portal, and I will compare it to the reports the others will have to give, either way," the Princess spoke in a reassuring tone to Nial and her eyes turned cold when she looked in the direction of the other Elves as she added,
"After all, they have to explain why you're injured and why the Holy Hall was damaged!"
The Elves closed their eyes in fear and grit their teeth when they heard the Royal Princess. They knew that it was a big mistake to have allowed Jilas to destroy the Holy Hall's ground but it was not as if they expected the young brat to do something so stupid!
"W-we can explain. Please let us explain right now…" One of the younger Elves suddenly mumbled in fear as he was unable to hold himself back anymore. However, the Royal Princess couldn't care less about the young Elf as he stared at the oldest of the Elves with a fiery expression.
"We will speak about the punishment for abusing Yggdrasil and destroying the Holy Hall later. If you want the best for your disciple, teach him some manners and start acting properly yourself. I know that you could tell that he was accepted by Yggdrasil so there was no need for this ruckus!" She said with an air of finality, leaving no room for rebuttal.
Even Nial felt the chills running down his spine and he could only smile faintly at that. He was quite satisfied that the Elves would get punished but it wouldn't make things easier for him.
'Jilas will definitely hate me to the core. He will be of the belief that everything was my fault and that I have to be eradicated…great…yay,' Nial's lips twitched at the thought of Jilas attacking him when he was asleep. He shuddered for a moment just to realize that he was finally able to feel his legs and feet again.
"Thanks," Nial said to Ina, who only nodded her head before she retracted the white light.
Nial got up from the ground and swung his arms and legs to test if there were any side effects of having been poisoned or not. Fortunately, everything seemed to be perfectly fine, which was why Nial let out a sigh of relief.
"You can tell me everything that happened, if you want to," Princess Evalyne repeated, her entire attention on Nial.
"Okay…" Nial could only answer while feeling a bit pressured by the Princess' impatience.
"To put it simply, I emerged in the Holy Hall, recuperated from traveling through space for the first time in my life, and was about to search for Master Crevian, or just any Elf to figure out where exactly I ended up. Everyone present around us appeared from the portal and I was about to introduce myself when Jilas attacked me out of nowhere.
He didn't really feel like talking, so we fought…I didn't want to lose, but I still tried not to destroy anything, somehow. The black miasma and dark energy I released shouldn't have destroyed anything but if it did, I hope you can forgive me," Nial summarized everything neatly, just to look at her when he spoke the last few words.
He didn't need the forgiveness of the Royal Princess if he destroyed something but Yggdrasil's as everything else didn't really matter.
The Royal Princess smiled when she saw what Nial did, but her eyes turned even colder than before as she stared at Jilas.
And this time, even the oblivious Jilas noticed that something was wrong and that he had fucked up.
"Shit.."