"... Let him in."

When I heard that voice, it was as if the ground beneath me crumbled. A strange jolt ran through me, noticeable even to Klauss, though he pretended otherwise. In those moments, I stood rooted like a tree. If I had wanted to flee, I could have done so instantly. Yet, despite the fear, I refused to be a coward—or at least, I tried not to be. Thus, after the initial terror that gripped my heart and mind, I sought to calm myself and face the consequences of my repeated failures.

Klauss opened the door, signaling me to enter; i gazed into the dimly lit room with uncertain and anxious eyes. Yet, I had already made my decision, and I wouldn’t back down now.

So, I entered in the room, full of accolades, trophies and with the heads of beasts coming from the beautiful dungeons on display, beasts that he himself had shot down. As soon as I set foot inside, Klauss slammed the door shut, and at that moment, it was as if I had ended up inside the cage of a bloodthirsty beast.

I raised my head, and in the middle of the room, where his desk was located, I saw Umarth sitting in his sumptuous chair, intent on reading a book carefully; his expression was not that of an annoyed or an agry person, but I still had to be careful, since with my "father", nothing was certain.

"Feel free to sit on the chair."

The fact that he was so calm made me a little strange, but I stepped forward, since I was there by now and there was no way for me to escape from him; first, however, I took off my shoes, since because of the beautiful purple carpet that covered the entire floor of his room, he hated it getting dirty.

After doing this, I headed to the chair, sitting in front of him; I thought he would start asking me questions about the failed mission, but instead, Umarth spent more than two hours reading that damn book page by page, while I was there, waiting for him to look at me, as the pressure began to play tricks on me, putting me in such an agitation that made me completely pathetic.

At the same time, however, a certain sense of anger grew inside me: true, I had failed Elaine's recovery on several occasions, but it was thanks to me if Umarth felt so strong and powerful today; it was thanks to me, if Umarth got rid of the Blueheaven and the Greenolds... I expected at least a little gratitude and respect...

"Sorry for the wait..." Umarth said, finally closing the book, looking straight into my eyes – "It's a not bad book, coming from a human author... you should read it, son" the man said, scratching his eyes slightly.

"I'll take it into consideration, father..."

Then, the silence dropped again for a few seconds; I couldn't understand what the hell Umarth was thinking about, and this scared me a lot, while I was sure that looking at my tense face, Umarth understood what situation I was in, judging by the fact that in his expression I read a note of annoyance and disgust towards me.

"... Rudolf. You are an important member of this family, you have done important things for me, and I am grateful for that. But my patience has a limit, I don't accept that a member of my family fails a mission so many times, and that he returns at home diyng..."

Umarth got up from his chair, and after putting his hands behind his back, he began to walk around me slowly; as he walked around me, I expected at any moment to be hit: for this, I closed my eyes, because I expected to die by now.

Then, however, he walked away from me, passed his desk and headed towards his large window that showed a breathtaking view of the snowy Alps.

"In these days, I've been thinking about what punishment to give you, since the urge to break your head has passed me over and over again... But, as weak as you are, I'm sure that little girl wouldn't be able to do you such great damage, even though she's very talented. So I'm sure during the chase, something unusual happened. So before giving you any type of punishment, I want to hear what you have to say."

[Thank You Father! Thank you!] That's what I wanted to say, since in that moment, I had the chance to be able to save myself; but I didn't want to be any more pathetic than I hadn't done at that moment, and so, I tried to stay composed, despite the happiness.

"Of course father, I'll tell you everything...huh?"

Suddenly, I felt a strange presence behind my back; I turned around, but I didn't see anyone, and that strange presence I felt suddenly disappeared; what the heck was that?

"I'm listening to you" – said Umarth – "Don't waste any more time..."

"O-Of course..."

So, I started telling everything, from the meeting with Elaine, to the intervention of that monster, who had made me evoke bad memories that I thought I had now erased. As I told the story, Umarth's gaze was focused on my every single word, and so I had to be careful not to say contradictory or meaningless things.

"So... are you telling me that this Ron meddled in our mission, and that it was the one who reduced you to that pathetic state ..?"

"Y-Yes father, that's exactly how things went..."

Umarth remained silent for a few seconds, with his gaze fixed in the void; after a while, he closed his eyes, and returned to sit in front of me; in his eyes I saw disappointment, but at the same time, the anger I saw in him before had somewhat diminished; which was good for me, because it meant that he believed me!

"Well, it makes a lot of sense now... but tell me, in your opinion, who is stronger between me and this human?"

"W-Well, of course you my Fa-?!"

“Suddenly, his gaze intensified, fury blazing in his eyes. It stole my breath, causing me to startle in my chair.”

"Don't tell me bullshit... You know I hate lies."

[D-Damn..I thought he would enjoy be praised like that!] I thought frightened, immediately turning my gaze away from his so as not to be further subdued by the fear.

"S-Sir, my words are to be taken with a pong, but I believe this human being is definitely stronger than you..." I said hastily, trying to make up for my mistake of a few moments earlier, hoping to appease his annoyance

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Umarth looked at me for a momont: I thought he would be furious, but he caught me off guard, when he began to laugh out loud.

"AHAHAH! Well, I didn't expect anything less from the kingdom I want to annihilate!" - said Umarth, who laughed to tears - "Well, If it was so strong, then it was impossible for you to finish the mission! Well, if that's the case, we should use another method to catch that stupid girl...."

[W-What?!] - Umarth had stressed me for weeks about Elaine's capture, and now he was... he was ok about my failure? this situation was very strange for me, to the point that I wondered if he had not hit his head too hard during my absence;

"I see you confused" – Umarth said, probably noting my perplexity – "What do you want to know? You want to know the reason why i'm laughing, or why I'm not worried about Elaine?"

"...Both"

"Well... as far as i need Elaine for my future plans, let's say I had the feeling that something was going to go wrong, and although I'm definitely disappointed with your results, this time you wasn't really lucky."

"Ah, got it..." I said to the man, giving a little sigh of relief: this time too I had managed to escape from the dead!

"Anyway, father... I can't actually believe that humans could be so strong... and yet, we are more talented.."

Umarth looked at me disappointed; I didn't know what I said wrong, despite the fact that what I said was not wrong at all!

"... Rudolf, do you know the story of the humans?"

What kind of question was this? Why was I supposed to be interested in such a thing?

"No sir, why this question?"

"I imagined that a person as dull as you didn't know the history of the earthlings, but I don't blame you, it's a normal thing..." said Umarth, who, in one of the drawers of his desk, pulled out a book with a leather cover and a black color, and then started reading it.

"You see, according to ancient texts, thousands of years ago humans were not at our level, not even at the level of orcs or dwarves; they were a barbaric and backward people, denied in the use of any kind of magic, and unlike the other races, they were not even able to control any elements. They were such a weak population that they were enslaved by the ancient elves, who used them to work their lands and for the lowest jobs. They were inept, incapable, a people who should not be able to free themselves from our hand, but then something changed."

This was a story I had never heard; of course, I considered humans scum, but even enslaved... feeling that at one time those shits were miserable slaves, it made me fantasize about what we could do to that scum one day; but I was intrigued by the story, wanting to know what the hell had happened.

"Humans, seeing us use magic, began to learn in great secrecy the magical arts and the control of mana in search of revenge.. all this without properly teachings. However, this process lasted several hundred years, as the difference between humans and us elves was like day and night. The elves, who had softened over the years, not only stopped improving their magic ability, but they became weaker and naiver, not realizing that in the meantime, humans were setting up a frightening army. And it is so, that in the most total naivety, human wizards of enormous potential took over, destroying the elf colonies. That day, moreover, also coincides with the beginning of the millennial war."

"And do you want to know the funny thing? It is that Eledwen, our 'myth', our legend, sided with the humans along with his children and his followers, betraying his own people!"

"W-What? What kind of story is this? Eledwen... did he betray us?" I said completely upset, unable to believe what I felt at the time: why the hell did Eledwen help such an inferior race?

"In the history books, Eledwen is seen as a hero, one who saved the earth from his own destruction from some evil Elf, but in truth, he is a cowele dog who betrayed his own homeland! And do you know what's the worst thing about all this?"

"No father..." I said, beginning to question everything I had been told since I was a child...

"It is that we Elves have gathered humans in their miserable situation, we have educated them, we have taught them that in this world there are hierarchies to be respected, yet, that people of barbarians have allowed themselves to bite their owner's hand without a minimum of recognition!" - concluded Umarth, pulling a punch so strong as to break the table in two; -"Unacceptable... Don't you think?"

"Yes, a lot..." I replied, enraged by what I had heard... How did they dare to do such a thing to us, their saviors?!

"What's worse, is that all this happened out of our negligence!" – Umarth replied screaming, snapping to his feet in anger – "Do you know what the difference was between us and humans? It is that we, in our pride and complacency during the peace period, have forgotten the meaning of training hard, and this reproduces in our current kingdom, which is so pathetic that we are forced to live in this small kingdom, while the earthlings, although they don't have our talent, have trained hard for millennia of years, reaching the levels we know today... Normally, we elves should be stronger than those worms and dwarfs, and yet, how do you explain that there are so many talented humans? It's the result of years of hard work and suffering!"

As I listened to his speech, I began to tear: I remembered why I decided to follow Umarth: his ideals, his conviction and his ways of doing things were very similar to mine; what I felt at that moment was so beautiful that everything doubt i had toward him was erased in a instant.

"Humans and dwarfs do not deserve to live on this planet free! They are miserable traitors who deserve death! We have to take our people to their trees, when we were the ones who dominated the world without anyone being able to stop us! And that's why I chose you to become my son, because I see in you the me I was once! So, will you help me with this task, or will you still get in my way?!" Umarth concluded, putting his foot on top of the now destroyed desk;

At that moment, while the sunlight made the image of Umarth even more magnificent, In front of me I saw Umarth like the savior of our Kingdom; the one who would save us from this daily injustice, the one who had the charisma and the strength to be able to guide us, someone for whom I would die, without thinking twice;

I got up from my chair, and without wasting time, I bowed before him, ready to swear eternal loyalty to him: if before I had doubts, now they had been completely wiped out.

"Father...no, my lord, I will follow you all the way into the world in order to make you happy!"

END OF CHAPTER 15 - King Umarth