Chapter 58 Tea Tail's Time
----------------------------------------
"Lord Lily," Sarielle greeted us. We are currently riding a carriage. The carriage was moving at a comfortable walking pace, so we simply made Lily's horse our pack mule.
"Sarielle? I didn't know you were a lord." Lily tilted her head since Sarielle unexpectedly joined us with the merchant caravans.
"I am not a lord, but Lord Edelweiss ordered me to take lord's curriculum to help her on her duty. Sarielle answered.
It was true that commoners were free to take lord's curriculum if they desired it. You could take the course as long as you have the money. From this conversation, elves sometimes took lord's curriculum despite not being a lord, maybe to act as acting lord when their current lord was away. Sarielle was not the only one who took the lord's curriculum. Dozens of elves also took the curriculum despite the fact there were only 5 provinces in the elven realm.
If I looked at Edelweiss, she often got called left and right, so the management of Regoia couldn't fall on her hands alone. She must have someone who could fulfill her role as the lord while she was busy healing others.
"Ah, sorry for my ignorance." Lily bowed down in apology.
"Lords do not apologize like that!" Sarielle sighed," I don't know if you were ignorant or picking a fight. If somebody asked me."
"Well, we are not in formal settings! Hahaha, No need to take it to heart." Alith laughed.
"I know. But if you don't practice it right now, you may blunder when the real thing happens! Sarielle whined, but his voice fell on deaf ears.
"Alith! Switch!" Sana shouted, and Alith went down from his carriage and switched with Sana. As the carriage swayed, Lily was lulled into sleep. Traveling to Hoeth would take about a day. Lily offered to switch with Alith and Sana, but they never called her when the switch time arrived. Is it because they enjoyed riding horses, or are they too shy to ask their lord for assistance? I didn't know. But it was not necessary.
A letter from Lhorne arrived this morning before we traveled to Hoeth. The letter was mainly about the directive the high council has decided. Since our land was filled with mercenaries and warriors such as Mattheus and Lhorne, We informed them of our war effort contribution. The enemy is undead, and thus, Mattheus should be eligible for war support.
Mattheus already trained several talfolk for war. Among our populace, thirty percent was ready for it. Since we do not have any sword fetish, unlike elves, we have no qualms about using wooden spears and shields. Half of our recruits are already battle ready.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Our food supply was also good, wheat, rice, and flour were produced on Edenthal's farms. Food was cheap in elven lands, but we could not afford it. Mattheus knew how to guard supply caravans; thus, we should offer our food into the military food supply chain. I wonder if the elves would accept them. If not, we could put Mattheus on the frontlines with Edenthal Region's troops and us.
Our reply letter should be in Lhorne's hand just about now. Lhorne was amazing at archery. He could fire his arrows while moving and had no problem, even on horses. We should incorporate his horseriding archery into our troops. Maybe we could have an elf with a bow and a tailfolk riding horses together.
The peaceful slumber continued as the carriage strode lazily across the paved path into the elves' capital. Lily graduated from Synctail Academy almost simultaneously with Hoeth's new student registration for this semester. It is not a coincidence, by the way. We did aim either for this moment or downright next semester if we had trouble with some of Synctail Academy's curriculum.
As I continued to lazily stare outside the carriage window, Hoeth was finally within view. He elven capital. Unlike other cities, it has a shining white. Still, my appraisal said that the wall was actually a tree trunk covered with a white metallic alloy. The wall gleamed as the sunset shined on them. Casting an orange light that glimmered across the entire wall. The wall was impressive enough that I didn't mind whatever material made it. How did they do it, though? Making a tree that behaves like a wall. Where are the leaves? How did it get such sharp corners? What about overgrowth? How did they maintain it? Didn't they say that they were shorthanded?
"What a pretty wall." Lily woke up and stared at the view.
"Yeah! The walls even had those spires and high towers, just like in fantasy. I wonder how the elves used them." I muttered.
"Maybe we can put archers or huge bows on it?"
"No, we put mages on there. Those spires contained several feystones used to control this city's defense system. With it, the mage could be stationed there and cast spells to annihilate invaders." Sarielle replied.
"I see."
As we were inside, we were taken to Hoeth academy. When we arrived, we were taken to our room which resembled our room in Synctail Academy. The room presented to us was like Synctail's, and I heard it was the same for the entire Academy. The elves must have a standardized building for these academies. Their similarity was borderline uncanny!
Lily could only look at this room in disgust. Her thought of squandering money for these furnishing made her could not enjoy the luxury provided to her. Unlike in Synctail, there are more rooms for attendants of the lord. Sana and Alith were placed there.
Less than two hours later, our door was knocked on. It was already nighttime. Why would they bother us so late in the evening? Is it something important?
"Greetings Lord Lily. May you be blessed as the bright moon shined upon us on these occasions. My name is Lord Elvira, and I am here to share some tea with you." A black-haired elf stood before me. Together with her, 3 more tailfolk as retainer soon followed.
Was it just a tea party? Lords sure didn't waste any time making connections. Unlike in Regoia, we already had a guess right at the moment we came inside. I was already planning on how to create occasions for Lily to make friends, but apparently, it was unnecessary.