Epholanor's gaze met his younger companion's, and without a word, his companion nodded.

While no spoken words were exchanged, it was clear that the two were conversing.

How?

By using one of the spells that Elves who are sent on a mission to the human lands must know by heart.

Telepathy.

'Eithelin,' It only took one word from Epholanor for Eithelin, the young Elven woman of two hundred years of age to quickly guess what he's about to say.

'I felt it too. A surge of Spiritual Energy! Finally, we have a lead.' Eithelin couldn't hide the eagerness in her inner voice.

It has been almost twenty years since they started their search for their missing kins. It has been too long since they have last seen the glorious forests of their homeland. Most Elves live their entire lives that spun for thousands of years without leaving the Elven Kingdom, and those who do leave, do so only for a short period of time before getting homesick and returning, never to leave the forests where they spent their childhood ever again.

Thus, Epholanor could understand Eithelin's impatience for even Epholanor's longing to return grows every moment they are away from their home.

But this is not time to be hasty, for they have a very important mission that was assigned to them.

Well, they and many other Elven diplomats who're currently within the Human Kingdom.

That is to save their kin from the hands of these savages.

Finding and freeing their brethren is of utmost importance for it achieves two things. The first is to end the suffering and free their captured kin. Elves are beautiful creatures, and it is no secret that many humans fancy them for their looks. Thus, many of their brethren that Epholanor and the others have rescued were ones who were used as sex slaves which enraged all of the Elves in the Kingdom.

Just imagining their pureblood kin's sacred bodies being sullied by the hands of these mongrels would send any Elves in a fit of rage. Their race has been walking and thriving on Astrea even before the other races have been given breathe by the Earth Mother. While humans were hunting with sticks, the Elves have brought down colossal beasts that were a danger to the balance of nature, and while these mongrels lived in caves and mud huts, the Elves have nurtured the very trees so that they would grow to create wondrous architectures that would boggle the mind of the feeble-minded.

Thus was the reason for their pride. Also, it is the reason why most Elves detests half-elves. Half-elves might have an appearance close to pure-blooded elves, but everything with them was a poor imitation of one. Their ears sure are pointy, but they are not pointy enough. They were taller than humans, but not as tall as the Elves. They are more skilled in ranger craft than humans, but their skills fell laughably short compared to pure Elves. They might be beautiful, but they can't even be compared to the beauty of the pure Elves. Lastly, they might be loved by Mana, giving them mastery over it better than their human counterpart, but they fall short when compared to the pure-blooded Elves, who, even when they don't train in their lifetime, would reach the 5th-Circle of Magic at the very least. In every aspect, they fall short. Their very existence felt like mockery to the pure-blooded elves, especially since they know that in order for a half-blood to be born must mean one of their own was being sullied by the human mongrels who have managed to capture them during the "Thirty Years War".

Ah yes, they "Thirty Years War". The war where thousands of their brethren have fallen in order to protect their lands from the humans who have dared to invade their home. The Kingdom of Malos.

The war that, in spite of their advantage in power, the Elves have ultimately lost. For even when each elf was more powerful than a hundred humans combined, the humans just kept on coming at them no matter how many armies they have defeated, as if saying that number is quality itself. Alas, with each elf's death, their fighting strength dwindles, until they tried to do a final push on the human's last stronghold, their capital city the City of Krishna.

Epholanor took a deep breath. Elves have an ability of perfect recall where they could draw out a specific memory in their mind and re-experience that moment perfectly. With this ability, elves only need to execute a technique once perfectly to be able to continue to perfectly execute that technique for the rest of their lives. While it is extremely useful in terms of imparting knowledge to the next generation, it is also a double-edged sword. Memories can become medicine or poison. For while it can be used to recall how to perform techniques and skills perfectly by recalling how to do it, it can also be used to recall other memories outside learning.

For example, most Elves could lose themselves in recalling beautiful memories, causing them to stop living in the present so that they could relieve the happier moments of their lives. This is something that plagued most of their kind especially after the Thirty Years war where a lot of their kin have perished, this caused a lot of the survivors who are mourning the loss of their loved ones to be lost in the memories of the past where they could be with their loved ones once more. But that is just escapism. While they were lost in their dreams, their race is also facing a dire problem.

Their lack of manpower.

With most of their kin perished during the war and more were lost in their memories, the power that the mighty Elves have been proud of was severely declined, and with their race's infamous weak fertility, the only and immediate course of action, if they want to recover some of their lost power, is to save their captive kin.

If only the Golden Warrior didn't appear. Then, Prince Veren would have led our kind to victory! Epholanor lamented in his heart. The final battle of the Thirty Years War where their prince and general, Prince Veren, with the holy sword Imloth Megill, was supposed to be remembered where the Elves have finally defeated the humans, instead, because of that one lone warrior clad in gold, it is instead remembered as when the Elves have been defeated and both their crown prince and their holy sword fell into the hands of lesser beings.

This is one more negative impact of having perfect recall, the wound of the past never really heals, instead, it lingers and festers, which is evident in how the younger generation of elves who have witnessed their fall are eager to balance the scales and return the humiliation that their kind has suffered from a lesser race.

This makes their mission of utmost importance, and now that a spiritualist has been discovered, this rescue has become more important than ever.

Let's not waste any more time. Let's go find the spiritualist and get out of here. Eithelin urged him through telepathy.

Still not moving from his seat, Epholanor answered. Haste makes waste, young one. I am aware of your wish to return, for I too miss the golden flower fields of home. But it is because of that that we must make we avoid making mistakes, especially since we have a spiritualist to save.

In the Elven kingdom of Malos, there is no other group of people other than the royal family itself who are more esteemed than Spiritualists. Being one of the creations of the Earth Mother, Elves have a close connection to nature. Thus, spiritualists who're able to summon spirits that have domain over aspects of the very nature itself are seen as the conduit of the physical world to the spiritual world. But their prestige doesn't only come from religion, spiritualists can also be considered as walking natural disasters themselves. In control of powerful spirits that could control aspects of nature, their spirits could summon earthquakes, blazing fire, torrential waves, tornadoes, and more depending on the spirit that they have formed contracts with. Such was their strength and power that one spiritualist could take on an entire army by themselves if the situation is compatible with the summoned spirit.

But when it comes to those who were able to form contracts with the 'Lords', it doesn't matter when or where, devastation would surely follow.

At the height of their power, the elven kingdom has at least a thousand Spiritualists. 800 of which could summon Low Tier Spirits. 150 can summon Mid-tier, 40 could summon high tier, and ten can summon Lords. But now, there are less than 200 spiritualists left, with those who can summon Lord tier spirits less than 5 people.

If they want to rebuild their strength, then filling the numbers of spiritualists is their number one priority for spiritualists are not only a pillar of strength, but they are also a symbol of belief for the elven people. The more spiritualists there are, the more the Earth Mother and her children favor them.

'From the amount of Spiritual Mana that was discharged, it must be low to mid-tier summon. I can't be so sure since it is quite a few distances away.' Eithelin guessed. Realizing that the spiritualist is not that strong, the young elf seems to lose some of her interest.

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'You are about right. The spiritualist might not be that strong at the moment, but there are a lot of higher-tier spirits that are waiting for their new contractor.'

Hearing that the spiritualist that they found could possibly be able to form a contract with a Lord, Eithelin's enthusiasm shot up. 'So. What do we do now? We can't just go and look for the spiritualist all willy-nilly, otherwise, we might tip off the humans of his or her existence.'

The young elf's word was true. They can't let the humans know of the existence of a spiritualist before Epholanor and his companion secure its safety. Spiritualists wreaked havoc on the human armies during the war, thus, it is understandable the hate of the humans who had lost their loved ones at the hands of the spiritualists are so great that it would not surprise Epholanor if the humans would disregard the Treaty and kill an elf outright if they ever find out that he or she is a spiritualist.

'For now, use your familiar to scour the place where we felt the spiritualist's energy. We need to find our kin first before we can make a move. We must find enough evidence so that we could invoke the Treaty.' When the elves lost the Thirty Years War, King Eryndal had to sign a treaty with the king of humans, with the Golden Warrior as the intermediary between the two rulers. The Treaty was a set of rules that both sides must follow, not only prevent further hostility from both sides but also foster a good relationship between races.

What Epholanor and the other agents like himself are trying to enforce is the rule in the treaty that says that all prisoners of war on both sides are free to return to their homes. If only the treaty was followed, then there shouldn't have been any more reason for Epholanor and the others to come here to the human kingdom, unfortunately, the humans are as crooked as ever, thinking that all must follow the rules, except for them.

Another important rule in the Treaty is that each race is not allowed to meddle with each other's government, thus when one is in the territory of the other, they must follow the law of the land. While normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but it turns out that humans have a lot of rules and those rules differ from one place to the other. There are also rules that are only applied to normal people while most of the nobles are exempt from it, and there lies the problem, for nobles, who are supposed to be the role model for the people they govern and should uphold the treaty the most, are its most notorious breakers, for one, it is the nobles themselves who are usually the ones who are keeping elves as their slaves and refuse to hand them over to the elven kingdom.

This makes rescuing their kin a bit complicated, for how could one make someone who has blatantly displayed their utter disregard of the treaty follow it?

While others might say that Elves should also throw away the treaty to balance the playing field, Elves by nature value their honor, thus when they agreed to the treaty, they are honor-bound to abide by it even when the other side does not.

Due to this, agents like Epholanor are faced with a predicament, how could they uphold the treaty without breaking it?

After almost a year of debates, the king and his council have come up with a solution. The elves will not break the treaty. Instead, they will use the humans to break it for them. By paying underground organizations who are not afraid of crossing the nobles to act as their cat's paw and do the dirty work of breaking into a noble's territory and extracting the prisoners from their captivity. With this, the agents would not to have to act personally, will have their hands clean, and at the same time, uphold the treaty.

'If only these humans are doing their jobs right. Then we wouldn't have to worry.' Eithelin wordlessly eyed the man with an eyepatch named Paulee that the local underground organization has assigned to watch over them.

'True. These are peculiar humans.' Epholanor agreed. The local underground organization of this town was strange. Unlike the other organizations that Epholanor has dealt with in the past who have no qualms of crossing the local leaders as long as they get handsomely paid, the underground organization of this little town was harder to deal with. Since the mayor of this little town was openly hostile to Epholanor and his partner, he wasted no time contacting the local crime organization. Unfortunately, this particular organization doesn't seem keen to help Epholanor despite promising to pay them handsomely just to find the location of the elf that they suspect is hiding within the town.

Epholanor clutched the handkerchief inside his pocket. It was not an expensive one and the fabric is quite coarse, but it was not the thing that caught his attention. It was the embroidery that adorn the fabric. It was a simple figure of a tree trunk stitched with black colored thread with green leaves, and while it is clearly well made and is pleasing in the eyes, it is still something that could commonly be found being sold in various stores.

Its true value is something that can't be seen with the naked eye.

This handkerchief has a hidden ability. The threads used to make the handkerchief is imbued with Mana and the embroidery formed a rune that heals most wounds when applied.

But that is not the only thing that caught his attention.

This tree. This is undoubtedly the Tree of Mana, Yggdrassil.

Before the Earth Mother departed Astrea to return to the spirit realm, she left a final gift to her creations. The Tree of Mana., Yggdrasil. The giant tree that towers in the middle of the kingdom of Malos is the most important and most revered site to all elves. The tree represents the overflowing love of the Earth Mother to her all her creations, like its namesake, the tree continually produces Mana, making the Mana near the area so dense that just staying within the vicinity of the tree can cause a normal person to Awaken to the gift of Mana, and if someone who has already Awaken and was stuck in terms of strength would find themselves breaking through to the next level. Truly, it was a miraculous tree. Finally, it is also known as the final resting place of most elves. Every elf who feels like the end of their journey in the material plane is about to end, they go on a final pilgrimage to the Tree of Mana. There, they spend their final days in meditation, reliving their fondest memories before the fire of their life is extinguished and their spirits return to the loving arms of the Earth Mother.

Thus, with how important the Tree of Mana is to all the elves, no self-respecting elf would fail to recognize the image of the Tree of Mana if they see one, and this handkerchief is undoubtedly embroidered with the image of the Tree of Mana. This means, not only the one who made the handkerchief was an elf but was also an elf that was high enough in the echelon that they were able to visit it while not going on a final pilgrimage.

Upon realizing this, Epholanor went to great lengths to uncover where the handkerchief was first bought, and after months of searching, they finally arrived here.

And just when he's so close that he could almost see it, he is met by a criminal organization that doesn't accede to his request.

Just when Epholanor was about to sigh in vexation, something caught his attention.

Something big.

Eithelin's light blue eyes turned towards Epholanor's. She must've also noticed what was approaching the town.

Good.

If there was something good that the war against the humans has done, it has produced a generation of battle-hardened elves. If they nurture more of these battle-ready elves, if ever another war erupts, the elves would be ready.

They only need to build their strength.

Their sharp hearing detected someone running towards the room. From the sound of the footsteps, they must be in a panic. This is understandable since a malevolent mass of energies seems to be approaching.

For some curious reason, they have stopped their advance and are gathering at a certain point. But they are coming.

It didn't take long before a man barged into the room that they were in. Their guard, Paulee, was enraged by the sudden intrusion but after a few seconds of whispering between the newcomer and their guard, his reaction quickly changed to worry.

After saying something to the newcomer, Paulee then turned his head and with his one good eye, turned his gaze towards Epholanor. Whispering final orders to the newcomer, Paulee then walked towards them and bowed his head. "Apologies, vaunted guests. There are matters that require my immediate attention. In the meantime, you may speak with Lukas here if you require something."

"Then, could we go out for a stroll?" Asked Eithelin which earned her a sharp look from Epholanor. A foolish move was made by her eagerness to search for the newfound spiritualist. If she only waited till Paulee was gone, then they could have bartered with their new guard. But now that she has revealed her aim, then their guard would find an excuse to stop them.

Before Epholanor could even finish those thoughts, their guard was already on the move to stop them. "Once more, I would like to apologize, but I would ask you not to. As you know, the citizens of this town comprised mostly of people who were affected most by the previous war between our races and harbors ill will upon elves. If you stroll outside, we cannot guarantee that the townsfolk would rationally, and while I don't think that you would be put to danger, for what can hapless folks do to your venerable selves, but I would rather not risk our honored guests to break the Treaty by accident."

Epholanor smiled. This human. Contrary to his brutish appearance, have ways with words. Unable to refute the man's words especially since he invoked their pride which makes them unable to break the Treaty, he left them no room to argue. Epholanor raised his hand to stop Eithelin who was about to speak, then with a posture befitting their proud race, Epholanor answered. "If that is what you deem fit, we will oblige." He then let his Aura slip and it filled the room. The amount of power that he let slip for a few seconds was enough to shake the men before him. Then, he quickly withdrew his Aura in an instant, which would make people wonder if the heavy atmosphere from before was just their imagination.

"Don't worry. About your request, we will do our best to fulfill it as best as we can." The man called Paulee assured them. This human truly is astonishing. While most humans would be visibly shaken or even faint after experiencing his power, Paulee was only affected for a split second before regaining his composure, and now, he still has his way with words. It may sound like he is promising something, but if you read his words carefully, he is guaranteeing nothing.

He has amazing willpower. Epholanor thought.

Bowing once more Paulee then exited the room, leaving the new guard who is still catching his breath from experiencing Epholanor's power to watch over them.

Should we try to entice him to allow us to leave? No. After promising to follow that human's suggestion, asking once more to be allowed to go out to town would be uncouth. Epholanor's pride wouldn't let him unless he would want the humans to think that he is begging to be allowed to leave the premises.

Somehow, he must find a way to make them let him leave without asking them.

Suddenly, another footstep could be heard approaching. This time, it was heavy, determined footsteps.

Upon arriving in front of the room, Epholanor could feel the frustration of the man behind the door as loud thuds could be heard as the person behind the door knocked.

Their new guard, Lukas was clearly alarmed by the sound and he asked for the identity of the person behind the door. "Who is it?"

"It's Negan. Open the door. I have an important message to tell our visitors."

"The boss instructed me to not let anybody speak with our visitors without her consent."

"I have her consent."

"Oh yeah? Where is it." Lukas opened the sliding metal on the door so he could peek outside. The moment he did, a sword stabbed through his head and he fell to the floor with a loud thud.

A second later, the door was kicked open and a familiar figure was revealed. If Epholanor could remember clearly, this man was one of the guards that received them when they first arrived in town. At that time, he had a hunch that this man is corrupt from the moment his eyes laid on him with his shifty eyes that seems to always scan people if they could be duped, and with his appearance in the underground organization, it seems that his hunch was correct.

"I need no 'consent', you prick." The newcomer spat at the corpse of his 'comrade'. While the man tried to hide it, Epholanor could see the desperation in his eyes as he turned his attention to them. The town guard walked towards them and kneeled. "I apologize for the rude spectacle, honored guests. I am Negan, a former town's guard of this little town."

"No need to apologize. It was getting rather dull being kept in this shabby room that what you did was the best entertainment that we have seen for weeks."

"Thank you for your magnanimity."

"I reckon you did not come here just to settle a grudge with that fellow over there."

"Apologies, oh great one. I believe I am in possession of information that you seek."

"Is that so?"Epholanor stroke his beard as he watched the figure of the kneeling man in front of him.

"Yes. oh honored one. I believe you are seeking one of your kin hiding within the walls of our town." The man stated. "I am willing to show you where she is." The man raised his head to meet Epholanor's gaze, desperation is clear in his eyes.

Hiding? Not being kept? Thought Epholanor. But he didn't let it trouble him since it would implicate a lot of things, which is not as important as accomplishing the goal at hand. "State your price."

The man then started to tell them everything he knows, and as each word comes out of the man's mouth, Epholanor begins to tremble. For if what the man is saying is the truth, then the elf that is hiding within this little town is no common elf, but a powerhouse.

Could it be that she is here? But they were told that she has perished in the war.

Keeping those thoughts to himself, he continued to listen to the man.

Knowing what he now knows, he could not treat it as just a normal rescue mission.

They must not fail.