"Alz... Alz, wake up! It's time to eat."

Alz slowly lifted his eyelids when he heard his name being called out, revealing a pair of clouded eyes beneath as he stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Come on, let's go to the dining hall. Resting is important, but you won't get better without eating your meals." another voice entered his ears, prompting Alz to look over where he saw Tol and Kleiz standing by his bed.

Indeed, just as he tried to move, Alz immediately felt a mild sense of weakness in his limbs accompanied by a dull pain in his stomach, physically reminding him that he hadn't consumed anything over the past day.

After brushing off the subject with an awkward laugh, Alz propped his body up and took hold of the crutches by the side, standing up on his feet and heading towards the dining hall with the two of them.

Alz wasn't aware of when he managed to fall asleep the previous day, but his mind was feeling refreshed now, ready to tackle another day of information gathering at the military library as he had originally planned.

After all, although he had already gotten the information he wanted the most, he had only taken a quick glance at everything he was interested in before moving on yesterday, intending to read more in detail over the following days.

While much of the information he gathered yesterday plagued him with many headaches and concerns, there was a belief that he firmly stood by, a principle that was further reinforced by the years of reading he spent back in the archives.

"Knowledge is power, it is always better to know more."

Alz inwardly nodded to himself as he chomped down on the spoon held in front of him. As he was chewing his food, Alz stealthily shot a glance at the hectic scene on the other side of the table before looking away immediately as he felt sweat gathering on his palms.

"Besides, who knows what'll happen if I continue to stay..."

Alz's body shuddered slightly as his train of thought went on, further strengthening his decision to coop himself up in the military library as he shut off his mind and motionlessly waited for the next bite to present itself before him.

Tol and Kleiz both let out powerless sighs and briefly exchanged glances as they silently watched Alz's plight unfold from the neighbouring table with a hint of envy concealed deep beneath the pity reflected in their eyes.

"It's my turn to feed him. Ah." one of the elves seated opposite of Alz said in a joyful voice, holding a spoonful of food out towards Alz's mouth while Alz mechanically repeated his motions of opening his mouth and eating the food without showing any resistance.

Rewinding back several minutes, when the three of them had just arrived at the dining hall, they were suddenly ambushed by the group of female elves from the Calla tribe who immediately rushed up to Alz and brought to a table where his food was already collected for him.

Appreciating the kindness behind their gesture, Alz thanked each of them after sitting down, but they still continued to look at him with smiles on their faces, causing him to involuntarily gulp as he felt a sense of deja vu in from their gazes.

"Look at those bruises on his hands, it must be difficult for him to eat... Why don't we feed him?" indeed, one of the elves proceeded to bring up this point, causing the eyes of everyone in the group to light up as they seconded her view.

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Despite Alz's futile resistance, one thing led to another which resulted in his current plight, leaving Alz lamenting on his own powerlessness in the face of them as he began to recall the days during the initial expedition towards the capital.

After he finally finished the plate of food before him, an excited glint flashed across his eyes, but it quickly died down before he could even make a single move as one of the them returned to the table with another plate of food in hand.

"You have to eat more to recover, you didn't eat anything yesterday right?" a gentle voice with a hint of reprimand drifted into his ears as the elf quickly replaced the empty plate while directing a caring gaze towards him.

"T-Thank you." Alz replied with a slightly forced smile, releasing the tension he had gathered in his legs and remained seated in place.

Thankfully, Alz only had to go through one more plate of food before the group finally decided to let him off, hastily speeding out of the dining hall as quickly as he could manage.

After Alz left the hall, a few of the elves in the group finally couldn't resist any more, breaking out out into chimes of laughter as they started chatting about how interesting it was to tease Alz while making their way out of the dining hall.

Having witnessed the entire spectacle, the look of pity in Tol and Kleiz's eyes deepened as they looked in the direction where he left at, feeling like they finally understood why Alz was so adamant on living away from them when they first arrived.

Naturally, Alz's destination after the meal was none other than the military library, arriving at the small building outside the guardhouse where he lightly greeted the guards before heading inside.

Upon entering the library, Alz immediately went around to pick out several scrolls from the shelves before stacking them into a pile on the table. Following this, he lit the stone lamp before him with experienced motions and chose a scroll from the pile, spending the entire day buried in books.

The days began to pass by peacefully and two elven weeks went by in a flash. It had been eleven days since the incident at the sunflower field and it was already starting to fade from public attention, only appearing occasionally in the conversations between elves.

Ironically, although the attacks had caused the tensions between the North and the Capital to escalate, the situation here at the southern guardhouse was exactly the opposite with the Northern elves acting more meekly than before with Cruz's departure.

Regardless of the reason, the southern guard captain still happily welcomed this change and hoped that these days would remain for as long as possible despite knowing that there was never any chance of his hopes being realised.

Over the past ten days, Alz's condition had also been steadily improving under the meticulous care of his tribe that bordered on being overwhelming at times, leaving only a minor injury on his left leg that would likely disappear soon as well.

On a separate note, while news of the incident had already began to die down, there was hardly any elf in the guardhouse who didn't recognise Alz currently, with the many ways he stood out.

While a part of this owed to the captain personally going around the guardhouse and informing all the tribes of the incident back then, an even larger reason was because of the shocking news that had been going around, originating from the two guards who were present back when the captain was talking to Alz.

The matter of him receiving a letter from the Queen had been rapidly spreading by word of mouth, inciting a wave of shock and curiosity within the southern guardhouse that solidified Alz's newfound fame here.

Yet, none of this ended up affecting Alz at all, with him spending practically all of his time outside of eating and sleeping in the military library, remaining oblivious to the various changes that were occurring in the guardhouse.

At the start of the day, Alz headed over to the library as usual, smoothly walking pass the two library guards and successfully gaining access to the library without any trouble.

As this had been his daily routine over the past ten days, the two guards showed no surprise when Alz came over at this early hour, having long since gotten accustomed to seeing this.

However, unlike the previous times, Alz didn't pick out the scrolls beforehand, instead choosing to casually browse through any that caught his eye as he went around the shelves in the library.

Before long, Alz suddenly halted in his tracks and turned around, realising that he had already cross the last shelf. His gaze briefly swept across the shelves in the library with a slight hint of disappointment in his eyes, letting out a deep sigh.

"I suppose it's about time." Alz shook his head lightly and muttered under his breath, realising that he was asking for too much.

With a resolute gaze, he looked towards the entrance and took a step forward, willingly leaving this place before the skies darkened for the very first time.