Chapter 449: Borrowing Troops
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren looked at the sculpture of himself for a long time, and did not know how to react. After some thoughts however, he found it to be pretty normal. Nonetheless, for a guy who had never been a public figure, the statue was a little too much. Vimm, who was standing next to him, felt nothing wrong about it as he cheerily asked, "What do you think? Are you happy with the sulpture? Mother thought that it was only proper for this statue to be placed in the center of the city square..."
Lily finally came to her senses as she lunged forward. "Landlord, you're finally being paraded through the streets!"
Just when Hao Ren thought of giving the husky a slap in the face, he heard Vimm laughing and saying to Lily, "Your sculptures are at the city gate in the Western District; you will find your human form as well as your beast form there. The guardian of the Aerymian elves, the beast who cleared the road ahead—there's a statue of every one of you."
Hao Ren patted Lily on the shoulder and teased her back. "Look, you're being hung on the city gate."
Lily thought about it for a moment, and felt good. "Oh, so that I can ward off evil spirits, I guess..."
"Is all this really necessary?" Hao Ren looked at Vimm as the magnificent sculpture felt strange to him. As a guy from the streets in his twenties, he was of course flattered. But deep down in his heart, he felt more embarrassed than ever—it was like helping an old lady cross the road and finding your heroic mugshot printed on dollar notes the next day; it was especially surreal, particularly unscrupulous, certainly unbelievable, and mostly undeserving.
"What seems to be the matter?" Vimm asked as he nodded matter-of-factly. "The whole idea is, as the entire race is being reborn, it is necessary to leave behind something to commemorate the event, lest our children and grandchildren forget whom this place belongs to."
Hao Ren folded his arms across his chest, feeling justified. He then turned his head and looked at his sculpture with a brilliant smile on his face—his demeanor resembled a bumpkin more than the reactions of the two elves, who first boarded the spaceship earlier. However, the born-inspector—as recognized by Raven 12345—was just as naive. He quickly recovered his composure and heartily accepted the honor. It was already written all across his face; declining would only make him appear hypocritical.
Despite that, after glancing at the sculpture, Hao Ren felt an unexplainable weirdness. Lily scratched her chin as she walked around the sculpture in circles before she coming back and pulling on Hao Ren's sleeve. "Landlord, why do I have the feeling that your statue looks like a dummy in a shooting range."
"..."
Why was the husky's mind always so sharp at moments like this? Had she been faking her dumbness all this while?
The two elven aides had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. They appeared to be cautiously vigilant in the unfamiliar environment and they slowly drifted into silent mode. After sometime, they finally caught Vimm's attention. "Landlord, who are they?" asked Vimm.
"My aides from another world. They're also my special envoy," Hao Ren so introduced. "This is Yrse, a white elf, and this is Aylu, a dark elf. They come from another world. If you refer to God's creation workbook, you'll find that they are also your distant relatives. I have something to discuss with your mother and the both of them must be present."
Vimm was a down-to-earth person. He reached out to shake their hands with enthusiasm when being introduced—an etiquette he had learned from Hao Ren. "Welcome to Aerym, miss. I am Prince Regent of the Aerymian elves, and the current archon of this planet."
Yrse reached out his hand awkwardly, looking embarrassed. "I am a male, by the way..."
Vimm was a little surprised. "Oh, I am so sorry. It seems there are some physical differences between elves of different worlds, gentlemen?"
Aylu's face instantly turned green.
Hao Ren almost laughed out loud. "This is a girl... Oh well, forget it. It's not that important anyway. Let's go."
Aylu looked down at her breasts and found nothing, so she just remained silent.
"..."
They walked past Hao Ren's eye-catching sculpture towards the new Royal District just across the square. Instead of appearing like a real Royal District, the place was just like any other residence, separated from areas surrouding it. Although some towers were of a royal style, they were overshadowed by a few large factories nearby. They were constructed using recycled gray composite materials from the maritime cities.
Aerymian society, from the top to bottom were already accustomed to thrifty living. During the early stages of city building, engineering teams and factories were the most valuable as well as useful assets. Naturally, these two units were given priority in resource allocation. Meanwhile, the relatively "less useful" royalty could only stay in low-value houses.
In addition to Hilda and Vimm, royalty there also included a large number of princes and princesses. These members of the royalty who currently lived in the Royal District were helping out in various management, and technical researches. Those who lacked ability, or were temporarily "less useful" joined the engineering team. Their only difference was that they lived inside the so-called Royal District away from the civilians. Such was Aerymian royalty.
This was exactly why, in front of the Royal District, Hao Ren could see an elf wearing a high-level official uniform wrapping his arms around a bearded man dressed in worker's uniform. They were father and son. The son was a member of the city council, while the father was originally the director of Corona Station. He was now temporarily out of a job, and therefore worked as an excavation operator. Aerymian elves did not think this wrong: they made good use of people in areas where they could contribute and took pride in it.
It was Yrse and Aylu who were astonished at what they saw. Hearing Vimm and Hao Ren's introduction on the Aerymian elves, the two elves from a different world found it incredible. While they both came from different elven societies with different cultures, both societies were of ancient hierarchical dynasties. None of the ethereal or halfling society took part in a social class system, or ever had such a thing. Their understanding of Aerymian elves thus increased.
They finally came to the Council Hall's humble meeting room in the Royal District. A moment later, Hilda hurriedly arrived.
"Long time no see, My Landlord." Hilda's face still glowed with a wonderful lustre and she looked exceptionally good. When she saw Hao Ren, she came up and and gave Hao Ren a warm hug. "Sorry for the less than decent place. As construction is still on-going, I can only offer my guests to meet in this rudimentary place."
Hao Ren was a little embarrassed by Hilda's passionate, wifey hug. He quickly sat down and said, "No, no, no. It's fine. After all, we're friends."
Hilda shoved a plate of snacks across the table right in front of Hao Ren, and smiled. "Please, enjoy. It is a wild root that we found to be rich in nutrients. We have successfully grown it in the artificial environment and its growth cycle is short. This is the first harvest."
By this time, Lily had already stuffed her mouth full with the snack. She nodded repeatedly as she said, "Finally... We don't have to eat chalk anymore?"
"This is the best time the Aerymian elves have ever had." Hilda smiled. "The first crops are sprouting in the farm land; the first ship is sailing in the ocean; we have our first mine, and the first set of alchemy equipment; plus, a large amount of technology has been recovered from the museums and archives. Every day is a memorable day—including today. This is the first time that you, Landlord have returned to visit your properties."
Hao Ren was pleasantly surprised to find that this once serious-looking queen was finally cracking a joke. He laughed, but his face quickly turned solemn. "Hilda, I did not come just to say hi today. In fact, I have something I need your help with..."
Hilda became serious when she saw Hao Ren's face. "What kind of help do you need? You are the savior of the Aerymian elves. As long as we can be of help, we will try our best to help."
"I'm afraid that it's going to be a tough one," said Hao Ren. "To put it simply, I'm going to transport an object, and a group of immigrants, who are similar to yourselves, from another world—it will be just like before. However, this time, someone is in our way."
"Due to the private nature of the operation, I couldn't secure the support of my superior, so I need a number of armed escorts." Hao Ren spread out his hand. "A large number."
Hilda replied without hesitation, "How many?"
"The estimated number of enemies we have is eight million."
Hilda's glowing being suddenly flickered as if it encountered some poor connection. "What?! Who have you offended?!"