Novels2Search

26. Arandir Exla

After my meeting with the president, I went directly to my flat. I have gained a lot of information, and I had to analyze and process it correctly.

The mystery behind Samuel Avongus has been partly resolved. I just need to find out the exact reason why my future self decided to save him. Being able to control the royal family of the human kingdom will definitely be a huge advantage when the demons start their attack. But I could have archived the same result with Silas Avongus.

There was definitely something more to it. I had to look at the bigger picture if I wanted to understand the plan that my future self made. It took me a few hours to visualize all the possible scenarios that the involvement of the first prince could bring to this world. But unfortunately, I wasn’t sure of anything yet.

I looked at the time, and it was already past midnight. I decided to go to sleep since I had to wake up early to meet the elf princess for our history assignment. From the prince of the human kingdom to the princess of the elf kingdom, my life was definitely not humdrum anymore.

***

“Didn’t we agree to meet at eight? Why are you an hour late?”

I was inside the academy library in front of a short black-haired and bright green-eyed elf girl. She was looking at me angrily, waiting for an answer. Of course, I wasn’t going to tell her that I overslept.

“I had to meet someone, and our interaction took longer than what I expected."

“You could have at least sent me a message. I was going to leave in a few minutes if you hadn’t shown up."

“But you’re still here, right? Let's forget about that and start working on the assignment since we already lost some time.”

“And whose fault is it?”

I ignored her question and took out some blank papers and a pen from my dimensional storage.

"Let's first start with the life of Arandir Exla before his involvement in the war. Since he was your great uncle, it should be easy to gather enough information."

“The truth is that I don’t know much either. All the information about him was completely erased by my family. I have only heard bad things about him when I was a child.”

“Let’s start with that, then. Can you tell me everything that you heard about him?”

“Alright. Everyone said that he was jealous of my grandfather. He always wanted to be the king of the elves, but when my grandfather was chosen instead, he decided to gather supporters to overthrow him. But he was stopped before he could persuade enough people, and he was able to avoid being executed because he was the king’s brother. Instead, he was banished from the elf territory and was forced to take refuge in the central region."

“Good. Let's start our assignment from what you just said.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“But that’s just what everyone said about him. I don’t know if it’s really the truth.”

“It doesn’t matter, even if it’s a lie. A lie told often enough can become the truth. That’s how our society works."

“But why do we have to mention it? Instructor Grace told us to do research on his life as a hero. Why do you need to bother with anything before he becomes a hero?”

“Yes, you are right. It will be easy to gather enough information about all his achievements here in this library and finish this assignment early, but are you sure we will be able to get a perfect score if we only do what we were told to do?"

“What do you mean?”

“Nyx, did you know that we can get merit points if we get a perfect score on any assignment the instructor gives us?”

“What? Are you sure? None of my subordinates in the second and third years mentioned anything about that.”

“That’s because, till now, nobody was able to get a perfect score on any assignment given by the instructor. That’s why there isn’t anyone who knows about this yet.”

“But how do you know about this, then?"

“Simple deduction."

“Deduction?”

“Yes. Why do you think the instructors never give anyone a perfect score?"

“Maybe they are really strict on how they mark our work."

“True. But why are all the instructors like that? Isn’t it possible that a good instructor could give his favourite student a perfect score as a reward for all his hard work? But why hasn’t it happened yet?"

I could clearly see Nyx's confused face, so I didn’t wait for her answer, and I continued my explanation.

“I have reached only one conclusion for all those questions. To be able to get a perfect score, more than one instructor has to approve it. Now why would the academy undertake all these measures for a perfect score? That’s because there's a good reward for anyone who can get a perfect score. And the most suitable rewards were, of course, merit points.”

“Wow. The way you think is really impressive. It didn’t even cross my mind that there could be a reason why nobody was able to get a perfect score. But from your explanation, now it makes perfect sense.”

“Always question everything around you and try to solve it purely with logic. Now, do you understand why we need to mention your great-uncle' history before he became a hero?”

I allowed Nyx to think about it carefully, and after a few minutes, she answered, “I understand that we need to do more than what the instructor told us to do to be able to get a perfect score. But will the past of my great uncle be enough?”

“We will use his past to form a hypothesis on why he decided to get involved with the war."

“What do you mean? Wasn’t he already involved in the war as long as he was living in the central region?”

“That’s the most logical reason. But why did he involve himself so much that he is now considered a hero? Not only did he kill thousands of demons, but he also helped and saved thousands of humans at the risk of his own life. But why would a former member of the elf royal family risk his own life for common humans? Unless, of course, he had a hidden agenda.”

“Hidden agenda?”

“Think about it. What was Arandir Exla's biggest objective before he was banished?”

“To become the elf king.”

“Now, do you think he would change his purpose only because he was banished?”

“Wait, don’t tell me that his hidden agenda you mention was to become the elf king? But what’s the relationship with why he helped humans?"

“You are thinking too fast. Take a step back. Put yourself in your great-uncle's shoes. Imagine that you were just banished by your own race. How would you feel?

“I would be sad and angry at the same time. Maybe I would even think about taking revenge against...wait, don’t tell me..."

“Exactly. ‘Revenge’. That’s the keyword for all of his achievements. After being banished from his own race, his only purpose would be revenge. But, of course, he was alone in the central region. All of his previous supporters were already executed by his brother. Do you see where this is going now?”

“Yes, I think I understand your point. The reason he was involved in the war was to gain new supporters. But what was the point of helping the weak and poor humans? If he just wanted an army to invade the elf kingdom, he just had to gain the favour of the human royal family by killing the demons. He didn’t need to risk his life to save the humans that even the human royal family didn’t care about.”

“Did you forget his true objective? He didn’t want the help of the human royal family to create an army to invade the elf territory. He was looking at the bigger picture. After the war, he was planning to take control of the human territory and become its new king. He helped as many people as he could, and his influence in the human kingdom kept increasing every day. Nobody saw him as an outsider or even as an elf anymore. He was becoming someone everyone could rely on. After the war, the main force of the royal family would be greatly weakened. And he was going to use that to create an uprising with all the people who admired him to overthrow the human king and take his place. After becoming the king of the central region, he would wage war against his brother to fulfill his revenge. Unfortunately, before the dragons got involved at the end of the war, he was killed by an unknown demon.”

Nyx was visibly shocked after hearing my complete explanation. “That’s a really big hypothesis you are making. Aren’t we going to be in trouble if we submit that?”

“No, we won’t. It’s just a hypothesis we came up with after a few hours of research. Nobody will take it seriously, but it should be enough to impress the instructors and get a perfect score.”

Of course, this hypothesis was actually a fact that was going to be revealed in the future, specifically during the second-year first semester, one of the game's main events titled "Arandir Exla returns."