Chapter 134 Tail Motives

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"Greetings, Lord Alistar. We welcome and praise you for your success in your quest for titan ores in dwarven land in the east," Resse, the prime minister of the elves, said as we strode to our chairs in the council. Alongside him were the usual four individuals: Lord Ghander and King Garme. Not long after we arrived, Lord Silane and Silvainesse also came in, indicating that this meeting was so important that every lord was required to attend.

"Hello. Greetings to you, too," Lily replied. Her greetings were getting shorter and shorter, and the lessons from the academy were slipping out of her head.

"We have received the titan ores. I offer you my sincerest gratitude," King Garme said.

"You are welcome. So, what is our status?" Alistar asked.

"The titan ore will be processed in Lord Silvane's territory. However, we need the golderite before we do anything with it," Resse took over the conversation.

"Hm…. who is going to be the sacrifice? We need 700 kilograms of golderite. One or two people won't be enough," Alistar said.

"Yes. The dwarves said it would take at least five people. Lord Eldamar, one of the central lords, will go with his retainers," Garme said.

I didn't expect things to go that smoothly. Was there a catch? Why would these central lords sacrifice themselves for us? Lily also looked pensive and doubtful of their motives, but she could not find the words to ask them.

"We shall do our best for the elves," Lord Eldamar said.

"Lord Eldamar, we never wanted anyone to be a sacrifice. Did you truly wish to sacrifice yourself for us?" Lily asked. Her question was a bit brash, but nobody commented on it. We needed to clarify that all of these sacrifices came from their own will. If not, then their high magic or law would forbid us.

"Yes," he smiled.

"Why?" Lily asked directly. Her eyes stared at him, asking for an honest answer.

"Hmm…. If not me, then who will be the sacrifice?" he asked.

"That's…." Everyone turned their heads. Nobody was willing to be a sacrifice, and now we had confirmed that Lord Eldamar didn't want to be a sacrifice either. Lily looked at the other lords and King Garme, silently asking them if this was okay with their law, and Alistar was the first to speak.

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"That's not a reason. You know our laws. We could not force you to do this. Just because no one was willing to be a sacrifice doesn't mean you have to," Alistar said. "King Garme, we cannot go through with this sacrifice."

"He has not yet finished his reason. According to our law, when everyone has heard his plea and thinks it is fair and the best of him, his sacrifice will be permitted," Garme replied. His tone was decisive. I pondered a bit about this and finally figured it out. Wasn't it the usual reason that it would be permitted if they thought it was fair? That meant Lord Eldamar was given something in return for his sacrifice. I wondered what he received.

"What's the prize? Did you ask for money or honor?" Lily asked. Elven society could not grant honor or medals without a good reason. Even if they awarded him a medal, his family could not inherit it. Was it money? They didn't strike me as someone who was willing to do anything for money. Elven law prohibited us from taking interest when lending money.

"Neither. I did not wish for money nor honor," Lord Eldamar replied.

"Huh?" I was puzzled.

"It seems we started out on bad grounds, Lord Lily. Did you think of me as some arrogant elf?" Lord Eldamar asked.

"Well, at least you were better than human nobles. I did not hate you that much," Lily responded. She stuttered a bit now that the questions were thrown back at her.

"So, what's the reason for you to voluntarily sacrifice yourself? I apologize, but we need to be clear. If we do this without you telling us, the high magic will curse us," Alistar said.

"King Garme has told us what we are going to do after retaking Northlangard," Lord Eldamar said, his eye flitting to the king, asking him to explain it himself.

"After we took over Northlangard, we plan to shrink our nation to Northlandgard, Hoeth, Silvane, and Silvainesse territory. And then, we will give Reminiscence, Regoia, and Edenthal to Tailfolk."

"Why would you do that?" Lily asked. We already had an inkling about why. However, we wanted to hear from the king for our own good conscience.

"As you have already known, elves are on the brink of extinction. Even on our own land, only Hoeth has more elf population than Tailfolk. This is through no fault of your own. It was a dire situation that was forced upon us. Our clash with humans and the undead has left us with too many casualties," King Garme said. A bitter smile of shame was apparent on his face.

One could only laugh at the circumstances. Elves took refugees from Tailfolk country and put them below elves. However, due to high magic and fairness laws, Tailfolk grew fond of elves and served the elven nation without any rebellion, and they also felt unity with elves as the common enemy of humans.

However, Tailfolk's lifespan was around 60 years, while elves were over 200. Their life cycle was different, which made Tailfolk reproduce at an alarming rate. As their leader, Elves were forced to expand their territory, opening farmland to employ these Tailfolk. But that prevented elves from finding their own soulmate. After all, elves and Tailfolk could not reproduce. It was impossible to have mixed blood in this world, which is why elves were convenient sex slaves for human nobles.

Then, the elf population continued to decline. In contrast, the Tailfolk population continued to rise in these fifty years after Tailfolk's country got destroyed. King Garme was aware of this and thus made a complicated and seemingly illogical decision to shrink his own country. All so that elves could have a chance with their fellow elves. I have questions regarding their method, but it seemed there was no way to organically grow elven marriage and population other than to make them all live closer together.

However, that doesn't explain Lord Eldamar's motive in this. What does he have to say now?