Moon and his uncle, Celestial, were having a small sparring session. They have been at it since Moon returned from the academy and it was almost night so Celestial was impressed by the fact that his nephew had energy to do anything after hours of constant physical activities.
“Sir, An import message just arrived for you.” An elf man that was clearly the butler of celestial said as he entered the sparing area of the mansion.
“I will see to it as soon as we finish this.” Celestial said as he parried another slash from Moon and kicked the boy a few meters back.
“Sir, you need to see this now.” The butler said, very seriously. The message was urgent and everything was pointed to it.
“Nephew, rest for a few minutes.”
“...Yes.” Moon said as he began to catch his breath. He wasn’t going to waste any energy if possible so he just did as he was told and didn’t think much about it.
Celestial approached his butler and was handed a letter. After reading it he paused, read it a few more times, taking a few minutes to do so with his face becoming increasingly frowned as it was visible that he didn’t like what he was reading.
“Nephew, have any elves from outside of our nation tried to contact you?”
“...No!?” Moon affirmed somewhat confused, his brain taking a few seconds to actually think straight.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Barely anyone is talking with me for anything really.” Moon said in a tone showing that it wasn’t something he particularly was proud of.
“People will open up to you in time but back to the problem, I will need you to keep an ear out to any foreign elves around.”
“Why?” Moon was now really confused.
“The less intellectually inclined of our brethren in other nations decided to pretty much declare war on Azuria and we just received orders with either helping or leaving the nation.”
“Wait, what? Who did it and why nobody heard about it?”
“Nobody formally declared war but their actions are pretty much the same thing. Do you remember your earlier education about or darkened brothers and sisters?”
“Yes. My professor is one. I was really surprised how different she was from what I was told to expect.”
“She is a special case. But the thing is that their curse is not bound to our blood alone. Someone is systematically spreading it to people around this kingdom.”
“I am still lost on how that is a declaration of war.”
“Because that is the first step of any invasion most if not all of the elven kingdoms use. Your run of the mill evildoers don’t have the resources to do what is happening right now. Also, as you should know, not just any elf can curse someone.”
“...Yeah.” Moon clearly didn’t know about that, shame his uncle didn’t get it.
“Now we just have to find which other avenue of power they are going for so I don’t let you go on a headless chase.”
“A what?”
“...Nephew, how far has your education in our homeland gone?”
“I finished all the martial and magical courses.”
“And the others?”
“I did the basics.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Just that?”
“There were more?”
Celestial was somewhat appalled. Moon was by no means stupid and basic education was indeed way higher than what one expected but he himself had to finish the intermediate levels of his education before he was allowed to leave the nation in his youth.
“We are finished for the day. Let’s clean ourselves up and I will teach you what you are missing before I have a stroke.”
“...Ok.” Moon said somewhat defeated. He genuinely didn’t know that his formal education was just the basics. The fact that he was allowed to focus so much on the magical and martial side of things now made a lot of sense to him.
Almost an hour later Moon was sitting in his uncle's office as they both drank some tea.
“Let’s start from the beginning. All the elf nations are founded on the principles of the four powers. War, Lust, Commerce and Lineage. War being the fighting power of the nation, Lust being the ability of increasing and controlling the population, commerce is self explanatory and lineage is more about family honor than blood itself. Understanding so far?”
“Yes.”
“I could go more in depth about all these principles but that won't be necessary. What is important to know is that when an elf nation goes to war she always attacks one of those powers in the enemy nation more thoroughly than the others.”
“An equal attack wouldn’t be more effective?”
“Let me ask you a question for an answer. What do you think is the main principle of this nation?”
“...War? As far as I am aware Azuria has a very powerful military, or will have one in the future.” Moon was alluding to someone getting into the army in the future.
“Wrong, it’s lust. Azuria has way more people than would normally be possible and it was never a problem. They always have as many people as they need and it has been that way for a century at least.”
“Wouldn’t people just be part of the other powers?” Moon asked, he was somewhat tired so not everything was being absorbed by his brain.
“Nephew, you know what a pleasure house is, right?”
“...If my mother asks, I don’t.”
“Good answer. Now, why are those banned in our nation?”
“Because they corrupt man and woman, sullying our honor?”
“That is the academically right answer but the truth is that our nation is pushing people to make a family as fast as they can. If a man can get milk cheaper and easily everyday from somewhere, he will not need to take care of the cow.”
“...I don’t get it.”
“...The act of breeding is very pleasurable but if we allow everyone to partake in it without the risks usually involved, everybody will and doing that will make sure people don’t have kids as fast as the kingdom wants. Why do you think nobles arrange marriages for their kids when they are barely 10 years old? It is to show that we want families.”
“...Now I get it.” The tea was finally kicking in and Moon was being energized.
“Continuing. Breaking any one of these pillars will damage the others and help destabilize a nation. If we can find the one being focused and stop it, the chances of stopping an invasion greatly increases.”
“Ok, and why should I look out for things? Not that I don’t want to help but I don’t see how I can help.”
“Using you these people can probably destroy the academy from inside. How easily could you round a few dozen other students there with your position and simply guide them somewhere bad?”
“...Quite easily.” Moon hated to admit but if he just asked any number of random students, they would probably just follow his orders depending on how he asked.
“If anyone comes to you with promises of power, any type of power, tell me or your Professor.”
“I will. Now if you excuse me I will leave you to your job, uncle.” Moon said as he noticed that there wasn’t more to hear. A few minutes after he left, the butler entered Celestial’s office.
“I think there was a better time for you to explain all of that, sir.” The butler said.
“Nilo, he isn’t the only one who is tired.”
“The missus was intense as always I see.” Nilo said with a small smirk on his face.
“I can only see her once per month. She gets very lonely.”
“Your five children will beg to differ.”
“Sincerely, I see another one coming if this war happens.”
“You are what every noble should aspire to be.” Nilo said with clear sarcasm in his voice.
“Shut up you old fish. Now, find a willing sacrifice to tour the pleasure district and see what he finds. That is probably the easiest place to attack in this city.”
“What am I going to do? Nobody will want the hard task of walking among beauties all day. Maybe I should do it myself since it’s so important.”
“...I will tell your wife.” Celestial said since he didn’t know if the old man was being serious or not.
“Please do, I would like some company.” Nito said as he left the room.
Celestial laughed a little about the situation, something he clearly needed. He didn’t like war, he liked fighting here and there but war, especially elf war, was not something pleasant to him. Seeing a nation eating itself and being unable to do anything was not something he wanted to witness again.