Lucia’s Elder Brother
"Ah, my dear sister. I was just about to send someone to look for you. Our celebration party is coming up next. You have to attend; after all, you're our hero."
An elf in a dark red robe with a helmet pulled Lucia into his embrace when he saw Lucia and ignored my existence. He then patted her on her back.
The so-called elven imperial capital was about the size of our town. The buildings in the city were simple, circular, timber homes. The top of them were covered in green, which was comparable to creepers on top. The city was tiny but orderly. Judging from that, the elves were, presumably, a race that considered order to be integral.
A war had just ended. The elves' imperial capital was abounded with a joyous atmosphere. Every elf still carried their weapons on their back and donned leather army that was desecrated with humanity's blood, but they merrily chatted amongst each other. Lots of naked humans had their wrists tied up to one another with vines and were forced to squat on the ground to await judgement. An elf held a small book as he stood before them. After recording whatever it was he recorded, an elf, who was holding a length of iron, would press the burning, bright red piece of iron onto the humans' faces.
Listening to the humans' screams was enough to feel my own face burning… The elves would ignore their cries as they imprinted the number on the humans' faces. The elves had a tradition of turning prisoners or war into slaves. By going through that process, it signified those humans were effectively turned into the elves' slaves. Further, the elves were by no means kind masters to their slaves. The humans were never going to be able to return to humanity. I doubted Queen Sisi would be accepted after she returned. The captured humans were destined to die in the elves' forest and never be recalled. Their fate was the same as the trail of corpses outside. The only difference was that they got to live for a while longer.
I specifically checked but didn't see Queen Sisi among them or the corpses. She'd be noticeable since she was eye-catching compared to the naked men.
I analysed, "Where could Queen Sisi be? The elves must've employed some tactic involving explosions to blow up humanity's army. Did Queen Sisi die right then and there from it? No, that's nonsense. The elves just mentioned a thirty-thousand gold coin ransom for her. That means she's not dead. Where exactly did the elves lock her up, then? As the elves want to use her to get a ransom from humanity, they wouldn't harm her. They can't sell their damaged goods."
A crucial question was, would humanity really want to pay the ransom now? There hadn't been any word from humanity. I wasn't in the capital; therefore, I had no clue what their stance was. I needed to keep Queen Sisi safe until I heard from them. If humanity abandoned her, Queen Sisi would no longer have any value and would, subsequently, be cruelly killed.
I supposed my wedding with Lucia would be able to divert all of their attention on us as opposed to Queen Sisi. I prayed humanity would remain loyal and have hope for Queen Sisi. If any side dropped the ball, not only would Queen Sisi be sold off, but the elves would butcher me, too. There was no question an enraged Lucia would me. I wouldn't put it past her to dig my eyes out and send them to Veirya.
"Lucilia, is this our human friend t you mentioned? Indeed, his information helped us a lot, and we managed to buy a large amount of gunpowder thanks to him. We should invite him to join our celebration banquet. Dear sister, you're more thorough than I am."
Lucia's brother finally paid attention to me. He first examined me then revealed a smile and patted my shoulder. I could sense that he wasn't as strong as Lucia despite being her elder brother.
"No, Brother." Lucia looked at me bashfully. She then ambled over and lightly looped her arm around mine. She leaned onto my arm and shyly smiled: "Brother, I didn't call him over to attend our celebration banquet. Just now, I accepted his proposal… The truth is, we're here to ask for your input."
I saw Lucia's brother's smile slowly recede. His gaze went from confused to shocked and then even to fear. His face slowly turned pale, probably because he never expected it. His sister suddenly wanted to marry a human. There couldn't possibly be anything more heartbreaking than that. Regardless, the elf looked slightly scary to me.
"Are orthopaedics popular with elves at the moment or something?" I wondered.
"Wait… wait… what happened…? Why is this so sudden? You never mentioned this before. Didn't you say you don't like him…? Why do you suddenly want to get married…? This development… is too sudden, isn't it?" stammered Lucia's brother.
I answered, "To be honest, I fell for Lucia at first sight. That's why I unconditionally help elves. I sincerely love Lucia. Please believe me."
"No, no, no, you shut up for now, Human." Lucia's brother flustered a little. He gave me a push then anxiously warned Lucia, "Lucia, Lucia, calm down. I know this human helped us a lot. That said, he's still a human. We just finished a war with humanity. I'm not suspecting your feelings, but it's awfully suspicious for him to propose now. I could approve if it was before the war, but why now, right when humanity just failed? Why? Is his goal really to marry you?"
Though Lucia was very pure, her brother didn't seem to be. Her brother immediately discerned that I was suspicious. Nonetheless, I didn't panic. I had to maintain my composure and act as though his suspicions were fairly warranted; I needed to avoid appearing guilty.
I expounded, "I proposed precisely because humanity failed. I only had the chance to propose because humanity failed. Otherwise, I'm humanity's slave. I've only just been granted the freedom to freely love. In truth, I've always loved Lucia. I came for Lucia; I swear I didn't come for anything else. I hope you can trust me."
Lucia was on edge but didn't know what to say. She trusted me from the very start; unfortunately, her brother doubted me. I pulled her into my embrace with one hand. I then kissed her lips right in front of her brother…
"Hey! Hey! Hey!!! What are you doing?! What are you doing to my sister?!!!"