Chapter 57 - Adrihna, the High Elf
Adrihna Akonium:
Nearly three months have passed since I began teaching the two Evenhart children, heirs to their parents' territory. It’s been a good period, where I could rest my mind away from the tedious paperwork at the Academy. Private tutoring is something I enjoy; I could say it’s my favorite hobby after reading.
I thought that becoming a professor at the best Magic Academy of the three kingdoms might make my life a little less dull, and it was the perfect excuse to escape the responsibilities of aristocracy, pushing the boring stuff onto my brother. Even though my father preferred me for the role, I never liked putting on those formal clothes, attending parties, and talking about useless things like business figures.
I even managed to escape the responsibility of getting married.
I despise those noble responsibilities. If I could, I would lock myself in a room and spend 20 years reading books, not leaving until I was tired of it... actually, I did that once... during an adolescent crisis.
In the past eight years, I’ve returned to teaching, but now at the Academy of Apsalon. Fortunately, my mentor and old friend is the director there, and she understood my quirks, so it was easy for me to get a position that suited my style. I also had to fulfill some tasks for the annoying council of the High Elves, and I was surprised when the king assigned me the mission of finding his lost lineage. Thanks to my diplomatic role in the three kingdoms, as a renowned private tutor, I had a small amount of political power that allowed me to make moves and access classified documents without raising suspicion.
I found the little lost and starving fox-girl in a village in the middle of nowhere. I had a copy of the lineage stone bearing the blood signature of the High Elf King who had married the daughter of the Founding Emperor. Since the Archduke’s lineage died with him, the only way to confirm if there were any lost descendants of the royal family was to use the king’s lineage stone. I was surprised when I found a rare golden fox, who, on top of everything, inherited the Element of Light when her Mana Gem awakened.
It was fortunate that she was with me when it happened...
Kinue’s existence was a true treasure, worth it after the century I spent privately tutoring the children of nobles from all the kingdoms. I took her as my apprentice and decided to raise that girl to be the greatest mage of the Light element. She has all the qualities of her demi-human race and can access a rare bestial form. Kinue brought back the joy I had in unlocking the magical potential of young mages.
The High Elf council didn’t know what to do with the heir to the royal lineage being a demi-human, and I assured them that if they didn’t accept her, I would adopt and raise her myself... that was enough to shut them up. They couldn’t let a royal family heir be adopted by another family. They recognized her as an heir since the lineage stone never lies, and when she’s older, I’ll explain everything to her.
The king, queen, and I have ensured that she remains safe and hidden until the right time comes for her lineage to be revealed.
There was just one small problem... I only reached Kinue four years ago because I followed the records of the Teresia Kingdom that led me to the Kingdom of Renesia, but recently, about three years ago, another record was added, linking the existence of two heirs to Kinue’s family tree. It seems that an heir to the Evenhart duchy went unregistered for five years. When he was finally added to the records of the kingdoms... he was automatically linked to the family tree, connecting him to the fugitive High Elf from the king’s family.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Nathan Evenhart and his mother have no idea of the chaos unfolding within the royal family of the Elven Kingdom. The royal lineage now includes not just one relative of another race, but three. The worst part is that they are descendants of a High Elf from the royal family, which places them in an even higher position than my father, especially because the two new additions are human. Humans are entirely compatible with Elves for reproduction, and having a royal High Elf heir who is human and capable of reproducing has put that boy in serious trouble.
High Elves prefer to reproduce only within their species, but the entire Elven Kingdom is populated by common elves. There's an intense competition among the noble families of the common elves to try and marry the boy. Nathan Evenhart is enormously privileged. He belongs to the Elven royal family, possesses great magical potential due to being a descendant of a High Elf, and unlike Kinue, who is a demi-human, the boy is fully compatible for reproduction with Elves because he is human. Poor Nathan; he will have many noble-related issues to deal with in the coming years.
Nathan Evenhart and his mother are the only ones compatible with the Elves due to being human, and we won’t burden Lady Katherine with this responsibility, especially after losing her husband. We didn’t want to overwhelm her with the weight of political nobility. So, all the inheritance of the Archduke, along with his political position and influence, was bestowed upon Nathan Evenhart. The two girls are members of the royal family, but the boy is not only a royal member; he holds a political position within it.
At the age of eight, Nathan Evenhart is one of the most powerful people in the three kingdoms... and he doesn’t even know it.
I’ve been tasked with looking after the family and maintaining contact with him. The king wanted to send a small army of 100 elves to protect them around the clock, but I had to convince him it wasn’t necessary since the boy comes from a family of high-ranking nobles in the Kingdom of Teresia, and they are safe.
Thankfully, he listened to me... I avoided a diplomatic incident, and no one even congratulated me for it.
I was assigned to be his tutor, keeping a distance while monitoring the boy's growth until the right time for him to be sent to Apsalon. When Nathan Evenhart is sent to the neutral zone of that city, he will be old enough to understand his responsibilities and will also be protected by the diplomatic immunity of that place.
Unfortunately, the former High Elf royal broke some laws as he was from the royal family, and there are diplomatic agreements preventing them from engaging with people from other kingdoms. Such actions could be considered attempts at union and might threaten the existence of the third kingdom if the other two unite. To prevent this, there are a series of laws prohibiting high-ranking nobles from marrying people from other kingdoms, and that High Elf violated these rules. Nathan will need to stay in the city of Apsalon while we handle the diplomatic work to resolve his political situation.
Perhaps that’s why the Elf abandoned everything and fled with the human. The two of them just wanted to live a peaceful life together, far from all these responsibilities.
Ironically, the book I was reading was about a couple from two warring families who couldn’t marry. To be together, they abandoned everything and fled.
Who would have thought I’d live to see this happen in real life, involving a royal High Elf no less...
I let out a small laugh, and the boy looks at me.
"Another romance novel?" he asks me.
"Absolutely... and this one even crossed borders..." I say, pretending to go back to reading.
Should I tell his family that even the current Elven king is considering marrying him to the princess of the Elven Kingdom?
I glance at the boy, who’s trying again to catch the energy of the thunder with his hands.
I'll keep quiet about this for now...
I sigh.
Who would have thought that the human family I’ve had a long-standing friendship with would be the one I needed to find to reunite with the royal family...
I try to put these thoughts aside and focus on my book, but I can’t.
This boy is going to be a handful... but it’s been a while since I had this much fun. You and I, Nathan Evenhart, will have many political issues to sort out in the future.