Chapter 108 – A Long Day At The Royal Capital

“Adre, shit, what is wrong with these guys!? Do they have something against us?!”

Gregor, who had avoided being directly hit by the sandstorm attack but was still blinded by it, opened his eyes and angrily shouted, but it was drowned out by the White Elves’ battle cries.

“I don’t understand what’s going on, but this must be divine providence. All hands, chaaaaargggeeee!!”

“OOOOOOOOOOH!!”

On Guard Captain Zeist’s orders, twelve guards rushed at the enemy with their Sabers drawn.

“We can’t let them charge alone, we will also follow their lead!”

“YES!”

The Chamberlain Knights also drew their swords and followed suit.

“G-Gregor!!”

“Don’t panic, we still outnumber them! Men, get into position!”

Unnoticed, a shadow approached the leader of the reformist militants who continued to inspire his allies despite knowing that they were already losing. The first Elder Kobold who showed up had taken advantage of the confusion and had somehow made its way from the rear of the semi-circular enclosure.

“Uguh, aa…h”

“Guauh.” [Surrender!]

The Kobold dodged a slash attack aimed at his upper body by one of the Black Elves protecting their commander. The Kobold countered by drawing his sword and cutting down the Elf, kicking him away before his enemy even fell.

“What the hell, you bastard!!”

“Voooh!” [Too slow!]

Another Black Elf tried to attack me with a Fireball spell, but I moved towards my left and slammed my wind magic-wrapped fist into him!

“Gaah!?”

The moment my wind magic directly hit the Elf, the wind burst immediately and knocked him unconscious, clearing the path that led to the pointy-eyed Black Elf.

“This is all your fault!!”

“Guuh!” [Guuh!]

The man shouted and launched an attack with his Long Sword which I caught with my Curved blade, but a one-handed weapon was not as effective against an opponent wielding a two-handed weapon.

I then ducked to the left side of my opponent, slid my Curved sword up to the tip of the Long Sword to deflect it by pinning the blade to the ground, and punched him in the face with my right fist.

“Guhah!”

It was a spur-of-the-moment move so I couldn’t imbue any magic into my fist, but the pointy-eyed Elf spat out some blood from his lips and stepped on a foot bellow lying on the ground.

“Kyuuh!” (I got you!)

“Wha–!?”

A small fox jumps out of the bushes from behind the man just as he loses his balance, lands on his shoulders, and undoes her spell to turn back into her original appearance!

“What the..!? Guuh!”

Needless to say, my sister, who was riding on the shoulders of the Black Elf Leader, tightened her legs around his neck.

“Kyuuaan, garuvoruaaaaaan!!” (Take this attack I learned from my brother, Iron Steiner!!)

(It was Greio who invented it, though.)

She falls backward while both of her legs are wrapped around his neck and performs a somersault. With both hands on the ground, she uses centrifugal force to throw her opponent away!

“Uwooooooh!? G-gaaaaaah!”

The guy flew in a beautiful arc as my sister threw him, and he plunged face-first into the ground, where he stopped moving…

“No way, Gregor!”

“Damn it!!”

“Gaoruah, guruoooaaaaann!!” [We have defeated the enemy general!!]

To quickly quell the battle, I let out a battle cry that was carried into the wind by magic. The reformist extremists temporarily stopped attacking and became uneasy.

“Calm down, all of you. The leader of the group invading the Royal Castle has fallen.”

The voice of Aristia, who left for the World Tree with her guard Lenaide, was heard all over the garden. She seems to have been waiting for the right opportunity, but… was her voice being conveyed by the World Tree through the vibrating leaves and branches of the trees?

“… I wish to achieve everybody’s wish of freedom and equality, but I will never accept violence as a means to get things done.”

Originally, the current queen was widely known to be leaning towards reformist idealism, so the Black Elves of the reform extremist faction concentrated on her words. The rumor that the queen, who had gone into hiding, was being imprisoned by conservative extremists also fueled the distrust of the monarchy among the Black Elves, so they were interested in her whereabouts.

In a sense, it could be said that her absence had led to the current chaos, though some of it was generally unavoidable.

“Even though it was triggered by my stupidity, it’s still impossible to acquit those who did the deed when there have already been so many casualties. However, if they don’t commit any more crimes, their sentences may be reduced by a pardon.”

“So this is as far as we’ll go?”

“It’s time for us to surrender…”

Upon losing their leader, some of the reformist militants put their weapons down at the advice of the queen, but some members still did not surrender, so Aristia spelled it out to them further.

“Besides… to tell you the truth, I do not want to see further bloodshed amongst my subjects. So please, please let me help everyone.”

(… The queen who has the highest concentration of High Elf blood has a special significance to the Elves after all.)

If this were a country run by humans, there would still likely be a dispute, but… In this case, the Elves were already surrendering their weapons.

Furthermore, the same message had also spread through the trees in the city to the whole Royal Capital of Elfast, so the battles between the guards and the reform extremists at the north and south gates have already ceased, and both sides have already begun to lay down their weapons.

Meanwhile, the people around the west gate, mainly the Black Elves, who had been on the verge of rioting at the instigation of the reform extremists, also gradually regained their composure.

The calming down of the situation was due in no small part to the activities of the coalition of moderate reformers and conservatives who had been working behind the scenes with the White and Black Elf Clans. The Prime Minister’s daughter, who had been working to bring order from behind the scenes, breathed a sigh of relief as the people in the west gate retreated.

“Kuh, Her Majesty bows her head to the Black Elf Clan!?”

“Father… If she were not to do that, would it be better for the country to be in a state of chaos?”

“Uuuh, that’s… Forgive me, that was improper of me.”

As usual, Eliza bows in dismay at her Father’s antics… Although the gap between the White and Black Elves still ran deep, any possibility of bloodshed had been successfully avoided for now.

“It looks like this is going to be a lot of work to clean up, but let’s go see my friend Aris for now.”

Without talking to anyone in particular, Eliza said her thoughts out loud as she made her way back to the Royal Castle.

After that, nightfall came, and after the affected locations in the Royal Capital of Elfast took care of the aftermath, the long day at the Royal Capital finally came to an end…