The Count Family's Young Master
Chapter 27 - To the Border (4)

A human. With long and pointed ears. Wearing clothes that are so simple with pieces of cloth sewn into one. His hand held a wooden spear with a blade made of honed bone.

The man looked at them with piercing eyes. Ready to throw the spear in his hand at the four people before him if it gives him a little suspicious movement.

He could see how a black-haired woman with a mage-like appearance saw him scared and nervous. Force yourself not to move and make any noise at all.

The silver-haired man and the golden eyes beside him clenched their lips tightly with both eyes open. The black-haired man also looked not much different. It's just that he looks like a child who has high self-pride and has prepared himself first.

And the last man, red hair with a book in his hand. He looked calmer than the other three. Even his eyes were emitting words like 'I had expected it to look like this'.

The person with the spear frowned accepting that look.

"Miss elf."

He, that summoned elf turned his sharp eyes at the person who had just called out to him. The red-haired boy. It was miraculous to be so calm looking at the appearance of her elves.

Valias felt the tension of the three children beside him. He as the most mature had to face that. "Can we talk?"

"....You...the book.Who are you?"

"My name is Valias, miss. May I speak with you alone?"

"The answer is my question." The elf refused.

Valias smiled faintly. "I can't do that, lady. Not in front of my friends."

The elf frowned but did not feel any danger from the red-haired child with that pale complexion.

He himself was actually curious how the four children could exist in the hiding area of himself and his family. Especially how the magic mechanical door that had never opened for hundreds of years, for the first time opened.

That elf, Pralta, that, for the first time watching the door he had always looked at curiously produced a tremor before it finally split in two and made the light of the outer sky which he thought would only be his delusion appear before his eyes.

Parents and elders have always said that the base of the stone pillar they call the door is a mechanical magic made by a human hundreds of years ago. The story of the door at the end of the tunnel where they live is a downhill story that will always be conveyed if someone asks out of curiosity.

Finally,—after saving great curiosity for 20 years—, Pralta watched how the door that had always been there finally disappeared, replaced with the incoming sky light.

Humans cannot live more than 100 years. No one knows how to open that door now.

Could it?

Pralta saw the boy's eyes sharp. Trying intimidating. But the redhead did not wrinkle at all. So calmly looking back.

Pralta felt a signal from the friends behind him.

"Listen to him. Maybe we can figure out what's really going on if we talk to him."

Valias and the three children beside him observed the elf who was still in the ground and only revealed half of its body slowly lowering its spear. They could hear someone talking from inside the hole but they did not understand the meaning at all.

"You." They saw the female elf directing her cold eyes at Valias. "Come with me."

Pralta then set his sights on one by one the other three people. "They're staying here."

Pralta saw the black-haired child carrying his hand in front of the red-haired child. The silver-haired child is seen gaining his courage and bringing his body to his knees in front of the same red-haired child. "Where are you going to take him?" The child with golden eyes looked at him cautiously. Pralta noticed how the boy in front of him was wearing luxurious clothes with a badge and gold decoration. His appearance looks like a showy noble. Pralta also realized how the boy called him 'you'.

Pralta scoffs. "He who speaks first. You are the first to disturb us. Why are you even afraid?"

Wistar felt his heart pierced by a needle. It was true that he was a bit scared. Especially for the first time he felt someone brandishing a weapon at him. But still. He is a prince. Great to be a protector of his people. He will protect his friends. Including Valias.

"Why does he have to come with you?"

Dylan spoke up. It looked at the pointy-eared human in front of it with cold eyes as well.

Pralta was upset. They are the ones who come and talk first. Why is Pralta the bad guy here? "If you don't want to, that's okay. You can stay there until tomorrow or take the attack from my friends if you try to get in. The choice is in your hands." Pralta could not contain his irritation. "Basic boy."

Pralta felt how his friends looked at him with round eyes.

Down and down their families taught human language. Many children wonder why they have to study creatures that are different from them but Pralta is a child who likes science. He is the most proficient in speaking foreign languages.

'Basic boy' is not the language his elders teach. But Pralta always studied the books themselves in the book warehouse. His friends must have been surprised how Pralta uttered such a harsh sentence that was known only to them in those humans.

Vetra felt how cold sweat flowed through his skin. Wistar and Dylan were still not moving. Valias pats Dylan on the shoulder. "You guys stay here. I'll be right back."

"No."

"Valias, we don't know anything about them. How could we let you into their lair?"

Pralta felt his head dizzy with annoyance.

A nest? You think we're animals?!

"Hey! What do you call a nest? You brat!" Pralta again felt a shocked look from his friends.

Vetra was surprised and started to want to cry. Dylan looked at Wistar wanting to hit his nape. Wistar did not understand why the elf was suddenly enraged. "..Why are you angry? I'm worried about my friend here."

Forget spears. All Pralta wanted to do was hit the silver head.

Valias felt the situation was ridiculous and decided to stand up. "That's it. I'm going in. You guys wait here, okay?"

"Valias!"

"Hap. Thats enough. The lady is right. I'm the one who opened their door. I'll go with them."

Valias gave a friendly smile to Pralta. "I'm going in."

Pralta screeched at Wistar before bringing his eyes to Valias. "You're so skinny. You're a man why are you so weak?" pralta said jutek while moving his head signals Valias to get into the hole.

Valias laughed awkwardly.

The hole can fit two people. Valias could see the footing descending downward. Quite stunned by the sight that greeted him. A tunnel from the ground. The sunlight shone through the open hole. But there were already glowing crystal-like rocks.

As Valias read in one of the journals in Valias Bardev's room.

In front of him were already several other elves who were also holding spears and looked to give Valias an intimidating look. But Valias could feel their awkwardness. It was as if they were not good at intimidating people like the female elves just now but were still forcing themselves to scare Valias.

Valias looked at the elves earlier. "Miss, forgive my friends just now. They're just worried about me."

Pralta grunting. "How can't it? Your appearance is worrying."

Valias smiled awkwardly again. "Where are you taking me?"

Pralta led the way while the other elves surrounded Valias who was walking following the female elf. "You'll meet our elders. They must have wanted to see the person who opened the door after hundreds of years not open."

Valias nodded in understanding.

They continued walking with the formation until Valias could see the underground city that was illuminated by glowing crystals of various colors.

It looks like a festival. The elves there vary in age. It really looks like a rustic human being but with pointed ears and a simpler lifestyle is also primitive.

Valias could feel the various gazes of the various elves along the path he passed following the steps of the elves in front of him.

"Dad. He's the one who opened that door. He only came with three boys like him."

"Praltese. Be a little more polite." A mature male elf rebuked the female elf who had been leading the way before then bringing his eyes to Valias.

"Sir, introduce, my name is Valias. Sorry to bother your daughter and her friends. I came to ask for something."

"Valias? You're so young. What makes you look for elves like us? How did you open that stone pillar? Who're you?"

Valias gave a friendly smile. "My mom left me a few journals. I've read those journals and found clues to your whereabouts." He paused his sentence. "There's a rock. That stone was the key I used to open the stone pillar."

"Stone? That man hundreds of years ago used a stone as a key?"

"It seems so, sir. I'm just following the lead in this journal."

Valias showed me the book in his hand.

"....Let me see."

"Please."

One of the elves who had been surrounding him took the journal from Valias and gave it to Pralta's father.

Pralta's father opened it and began to read and study it. He also saw the space he suspected to be the stone storage that the boy who claimed to be named Valias mentioned.

"....I already know your name and how you opened that door that's been closed for hundreds of years. Now, can you tell me how your mother can pass on this book and information?"

"I'm sorry, sir. My mom told me about those journals before she died. I have only started reading them since then. Before I finally try to get here." Valias gave a reason.

Pralta's father, Rama, was not one to bring up the dead. He chose to ask something else. "'Try' here? You have no other purpose?"

Valias smiled faintly. "You're right, sir. It's true there's another reason why I'm seeing you all."

"What's that?"

Valias closed his eyes slowly. "My home kingdom, Hayden, is going to have a war soon. I thought I'd like to ask you and your family for help in that war."

All the surrounding elves rounded their eyes and started whispering.

"the war? How do you know that? You're too young. Could you be the king's son?"

Valias. "No, sir. I'm just the Count's secret son in Hayden. I came here personally to convey that request."

Valias nodded. "Indeed right. I also realize this very well. But,"

Valias looked at Rama right in his eyes. "The existence of elves will be revealed. Many outer empires will try to exploit your family."

Valias' words provoked shock and emotion from the surrounding elves. The elves surrounding Valias tightened the grip on their spears.

"Why can you say that? You're planning to leak our whereabouts?"

Pralta advanced one leg, giving Valias a sharp look.

Valias. "I don't have that intention at all."

"What about your friends? If you really intend to keep our secrets, why don't you go alone and bring them?"

"As the lady said, my body is weak and doesn't have enough confidence to travel alone. Besides, I need that miss mage to bring me and my friends here."

Valias makes use of his physical appearance.

"That silver-haired boy. He looks like a noble. Who her? Prince? King Hayden already knows where we are? And you're still saying that you don't have any intention of leaking secrets?" challenge Pralta.

"Prince and King Hayden are my friends. It was me and them who knew about the war. And I personally want to convey my request."

"You keep saying you don't have the intention to divulge information about us, but you're asking us to come out for war? Isn't that the same as dismantling our existence?"

"Your family's secret will be revealed sooner or later, Miss Pralta. I have no intention of dismantling your family's existence but those outer kingdoms will find you sooner or later."

That's what Valias read. The author of so many conflicts without a clear story and background.

How those kingdoms could find the existence of elves, and why they were exploiting them. It all just happened.

So what Valias said was not nonsense but the knowledge he gained from reading the story. "Hayden will be the kingdom that protects your family. And will ask your family for help to defend yourself from other kingdoms."

"Protect? Don't you and your kingdom just want to exploit us with frills asking for help?" the cynical elf.

Valias put on a faint smile again. "I won't deny all your words, miss. But that's the truth. I need your strength to excel and win the war. So that my family is not hurt. And I can live longer.

"You and your family can certainly refuse my request earlier. I can't force. That's what I came here for. Maybe I'd better get back soon."

Valias bowed small. He's done what he can. If these elves refused to provide help, then he would accept fate according to the plot in the story.

"I can go back alone." He said again. "You and your friends don't have to drive me. And, sir, you can keep the book. That keystone, I'll leave it to you."

Valias doesn't know if the real Valias will let him do that or not. But now he's the one holding the book. And he lived his life as Valias Bardev. He will do what he thinks is the right thing to do. Decided to hand the book and stone over to the elves.

Valias turned around. "...Wait, Valias." call Rama. "Praltese. Take her."

"I? He told me he could go back alone."

"Pralta." said Rama firmly. Pralta sighed.

"Whatever. You're. Walk fast."

Valias laughed a little. "okay."

****

"Dylan! Comein! Valias hasn't come back yet!"

"Shut your mouth, you idiot. You want them to hurt Valias because we're in when it's forbidden?"

"But!!"

Pralta and Valias could hear the commotion up ahead.

"The prince of your friend is a fool."

"Well.." Valis smiled awkwardly.

"Valias!!" Wistar saw Valias' head emerge from the hole and immediately sprinkled to give his hand. Give Valias a hand up.

Valias accepted the hand and thanked him.

"Go home." Pralta says cuek.

"Valias! You're all right? They didn't hurt you? You're going to nosebleed again? You dizzy?" Wistar voiced out a barrage of questions while grabbing Valias' shoulder.

Pralta. "He's that weak?"

Dylan and Wistar brought their bodies back in front of Valias.

"Really! My brother even said he didn't know when Valias would die. That's why we have to accompany him! But miss instead.." Wistar grumbling.

Pralta did not expect that but still opened his heartless mouth. "Are you going to die before that war? Why bother asking for our help if you won't feel the war?"

Pralta kept talking without knowing what would happen next.

Dylan, Wistar and Vetra rounded their eyes.

"What's? A war? Valias. Hayden's going to war?"

"...Is that true?" Dylan did not believe in what he had just heard.

Pralta felt his forehead wrinkle. "What. You said your friends knew."

"God gave you another message?" ask Dylan.

Pralta. "..A deity? God gave you a message?"

"Really! Valias receives a message from the god. He must have gotten a message that Hayden was going to have a war. It must have been the gods who told you that the elves really existed. And give you a clue to meet the elves.

"You got a clue but God didn't tell you where the elves were? Is that why you've been looking for elves all this time until a nosebleed like that? The papers in your room, the red stains, must be your blood, right? You also bother to write in your own language. So that people can't read what you're doing.

"You carried all that burden alone all this time? Why didn't you tell me? Does your sister know?"

Dylan who was listening to Wistar's rant began to feel that everything was becoming clear. God's message, a room full of paper with brown stains. Then Valias who met the elves, all that to prepare for war?

Pralta, too, understood everything the silver-haired prince said, and was shocked by every sentence he heard.

...Deities..

The elves seemed to have been worshipping the gods in descending order. Far more than humans. Hearing that there are humans who receive the message of a god, for Pralta, the human is a god himself.

Various thoughts filled the mind of the female elf.

If it was God who told the red-haired child to meet his family, perhaps the god asked them to help the blessed child.

Pralta. I can't believe what just happened today.

Pralta had to tell this to his entire family. If that is true, Pralta and his family must help the boy named Valias.

Valias finds himself at the center of all misunderstandings again. Don't know what to say.

He was starting to feel sorry for starting that shit. Could it be that it would be better if he admitted that he did not come from there and knew all that because he read a story recommended by his study friend?

Valias looked at Pralta who was looking at him sharply with a frown. That elf must have been annoyed by those who had yet to leave. "alright. We'll discuss all this later. For now we go back first. Sorry to bother you and your family, Miss Pralta. We're leaving now." Valias then called out to the mage. "Miss Vetra."

"I-yes."

"Wait!" exclaim Pralta in a hurry.

"You. Tell me the coordinates of the place you're going to." he said.

"..Pardon?" Vetra doesn't understand. And quite surprised with Pralta asking him to talk for the first time.

"Coordinates. Hurry up." press the elf again.

"I.. That's.."

Of course Vetra couldn't divulge that easily. "You want to be Valias' friend too? You planning on seeing him?" ask Wistar. Pralta was irritated to be spoken to by that stupid boy.

"Valias, right? You said you needed my family's help? We'll think about it. We will meet you after conferring with our elders. Tell me where we can meet you."

Uh.

Valias did not understand why the elf in front of him had suddenly changed his mind. But that's a good thing.

"Wissy. Can we tell him the coordinates of Frey's noble room? We still have to hide their arrival."

"Valias!! You called me that again! I'm happy." exclaimed Wistar happily. "certainly certainly. We can tell this nonal elf. Miss Vetra. Tell him."

Pralta was taken aback by the silver boy's change in mood and increasingly felt that Wistar was a strange stupid boy. He rolled his eyeballs lazily before listening to Vetra's words mentioning the coordinates to him.

"alright. We'll see you after we've finished deliberating, Mr. Valias. I hope you're back safely." Pralta gave a small bow of respect.

The four people were surprised by the change in Pralta's attitude towards Valias but did not say anything. "Thank you, miss. Preltas. Thank you for being willing to consider my request. We're leaving." Valias gave a friendly smile and light surrounded the four of them.

Pralta stood there alone and began to realize something.

"Now how do we close this door again? The elder didn't even know how to open it." Pralta murmured frantically.