Chapter 261 - Unconsiousness
The King's arrival was announced upon arriving at the Great Hall along with Grandmaster Don tagging along. The general marquis was the first to kneel and paid his respects to the king.
"Greetings, your Majesty."
"Arise," Heinrich said and glanced at the elven envoys. He had affirmed that the beauty of elves depicted in stories was not an exaggeration at all. His eyes lingered on the Princess for a few instances longer before retracting his gaze. He was simply admiring their beauty and had no further thoughts.
"Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty."
The two envoys, the Supreme Elder and Princess Faelyn greeted.
"Thank you for coming out to meet us. I pray that you are not offended by our sudden visit to your domain."
"You are too humble. I welcome you both to my kingdom." The king said coolly.
At the side, Grandmaster Don was especially surprised. He had quickly guessed that the Supreme Elder was most likely stronger than him from the fact that he could not see through the other party's cultivation.
For a Transcendent more powerful than him to be this respect to a human king who had yet to reach the Transcendent Realm, he found this unbelievable.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. And this is…?" The Supreme Elder naturally noticed Grandmaster Don's studying gaze and asked.
"Oh, pardon my late introduction, esteemed envoys. I am Don, a Grandmaster Alchemist of this kingdom." Grandmaster Don introduced himself respectfully, before continuing, "With all due respect for someone stronger than myself, I believe there is no need for the esteemed envoy to be overly humble, right?"
"Not too humble… not too humble at all." The Supreme Elder waved it off nonchalantly as he recalls the expert last night. He really wanted to ask about the experts in their kingdom, but it was insensitive and inappropriate to pry.
Seeing the grandmaster being so respectful, Heinrich also looked at him questioningly. It took a moment to understand before he looked back at the Supreme Elder with shock.
This person was also a Transcendent? And he is more powerful than his Uncle Don? An elf really cannot be judged by their appearance!
The Supreme Elder looked like he was in his 30s and the King totally treated him like a junior! Heinrich gulped with a dribble of sweat. Was there anyone more powerful than this person in their kingdom?
This was not someone they could offend and should be treated with all due respect. Heinrich was totally caught off-guard by the Supreme Elder's humble attitude.
'So, it was true that all elves were good-natured and humble?!' Heinrich mistakenly thought.
"Ahem." Heinrich cleared his throat and asked, "Is it true that your Elven Tribe is seeking an alliance with our kingdom?"
"Ah, yes. That is correct…"
…
Leon thought he had gotten up early, but when he went to look for his father, he failed to find the king after visiting the bedchamber and study room. In fact, the king was nowhere to be found in the Inner Palace. Even Grandmaster Don was missing.
'Don't tell me the meeting with the envoys had already started? So early. There are a lot of people that still sleep at this time.' Leon thought wryly as he scratched his head.
The sun rises early during the cold seasons just as night also arrives early. Most people would not get up this early in the morning unless they had something to do like early morning exercise before breakfast.
After asking around, Leon found out that was truly the case. The king had taken the grandmaster with him to meet the envoys in the Great Hall.
Knowing this, Leon prepared to make his way over. He was interested in what the elves were seeking from forming an alliance with them, although he already had a few guesses in mind.
It was at this moment that something happened.
Click.
Akin to something clicking into place in his mind, the elemental seeds had completely merged with his soul core, slightly ahead of time.
Leon was pleasantly surprised, but before he could celebrate, something else also happened subsequently.
"What the… what is happen—"
He could not finish speaking when his world started spinning and blacked out. His consciousness slipped into the darkness of his own sea of consciousness as his body slumped onto the ground with a thud.
The nearby palace guard sentries were shocked and rushed over immediately.
"Your Highness! Are you okay?!"
"His Highness isn't responding! Was it an enemy attack?"
"There's no wound and his Highness's breathing is steady."
"Was it a soul attack? The same one that put his Majesty in a deep coma?! Alarm the others and search the perimeters!"
"Guard his Highness properly!"
The Royal Palace was quickly stirred, and the palace guards and maid all began freaking out.
Something happened to the prince and no one knew why or how. What they do know is that if the Queen returns and find out something happened to her darling son in the safety of their own palace, a violent storm will soon shake the entire place.
…
In the Great Hall, Heinrich met with the envoys of Elvengarde and was already in the final stages of their discussion.
Contrary to what the envoys originally intended; some details they had once discussed with general marquis were changed after the events the Supreme Elder sensed last night.
Rather than an alliance, they were willing to recognize the Crawford Kingdom as their sovereign so long as the Crawford Kingdom could provide a patch of land for the refuge of their people.
Strangely, the Supreme Elder did not mention anything about the World Tree. Simply said, any land would do for them.
Such a thing baffled the king. This went beyond the realm of being humble. They were simply submitting to them, an entire tribe no less!
"Is this appropriate, Supreme Elder? I don't think the tribe will agree to this arrangement." Princess Faelyn whispered. She did not doubt that her father would disagree along with the elders of the opposing faction. Elves also have their own pride. How could they lower themselves to humans?
"Even if they disagree, they have no choice but to agree!" The Supreme Elder said firmly back.
With the great mountain range as a natural barrier for the Human Domain, they would be able to keep themselves safe from the growing rampage of the beasts.
The beasts still made up the greatest numbers in the Wildlands. The day all beasts begin rampaging was not something their mid-rank tribe could weather through.
They must be willing to live under the rule of humans if they want to move their tribe into the Human Domain. Any other reason would be seen as an act of aggression, an invasion of the Human Domain.
The growing concern of Wildlands was recounted by the general marquis, which in terms gave more credibility to the Elven Tribe's reason to migrate to the Human Domain.
Heinrich's brows were locked into deep thoughts as he carefully considered the matter. The royal family had a more detailed recollection of historical matters.
When he learned about the concerns of the Wildland, a different idea formulated in his mind. Turning to the general marquis, Heinrich asked with all-time seriousness, "What do you think, general? Do you think the Second Cataclysm is upon us?"
"Whether a Second Cataclysm is happening or not, I am not sure. But what I am sure of is that the storm forth by a Second Cataclysm will be incomparable to the First Cataclysm!" Hendrick stated.
Heinrich nodded in agreement.
"The First Cataclysm was the most violent eruption period of solar storms in the history known to men. Not only did beasts grow extreme powerful during this short period, their murderous basic instincts and urges increased exponentially."
"If the beasts undergo a similar power spike again, I'm afraid that even the Great Wall will not be enough to keep the Human Domain safe. The Second Cataclysm bring forth a storm so violent, it will sweep across the entire continent—No, the entire world!"
"Your vassalization proposition, this king accepts!"
Henrich's words echoed throughout the Great Hall, emanating the grandeur and majesty of a king. A free pie falling out of the sky, there was no reason to refuse.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The reason it was a proposition and not simply submission was because there was one thing the Supreme Elder still had to fight for at all cost even if they were yielding to the human king; that is the right to self-govern themselves.
The Supreme Elder was not stupid. The beauty of their elven race was something humans could hardly resist. He would not offer his tribe's allegiance without some guaranteed form of protection. They had to protect the last vestige of their dignity at the very least and not simply becomes slaves to humans.
"However, this matter cannot be settled by my words alone. We will continue to discuss the allocation of land at a later date. There are some people I still wish to speak with beforehand. For now, I shall temporarily grant you the title of Marquis. You may use the guest courtyard for—"
Heinrich's speech was interrupted by a group of palace guards barging into the Great Hall. He looked at the palace guards gloomily.
The palace guard immediately felt the king's displeasure and intention. If they did not have a good reason for barging into the Great Hall, they would be punished severely. A palace guard shook his head from the pressure and said, "Your Majesty! Something has happened to his Highness!"
"What!"
Heinrich immediately stood up from his throne.
"What happened to my son?!"
"His Highness had suddenly collapsed and fallen into a coma, Your Majesty! We've checked his Highness's condition, but we have no idea what is wrong!"
"Take me to see my son right this instance!" Heinrich urged.
There had been an invisible wall between father and son that made them feel awkwardly distant from each other, but at this moment when Heinrich heard something had happened to his son, that invisible wall seemingly collapsed in the brink of an eye.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The palace guard complied immediately.
Hearing something happened to the prince, the Supreme Elder recalled the person he had met in the workshop previously and was interested in meeting the person again.
"A moment please, your Majesty."
"What is it? Make it quick!" Heinrich said with knitted brows, obviously anxious to see his son.
The Supreme Elder was not offended and said, "I don't wish to brag, but our elven race is quite adept in medicine. Perhaps, we can be of assistance."
"Is that so? That's great! Follow me then."
Receiving the king's agreement, everyone left and soon arrived in front of the unconscious Leon, who laid motionless in his own bed.
Alchemy shared a close relationship with medicine. As a Grandmaster Alchemist, Don also had some understanding of medicine. He was the first to diagnose the unconscious Leon, but within a short instance of taking his pulse, he shook his head.
"His breathing is perfectly steady and there are no irregularities in his pulse. He is perfectly fine." Grandmaster Don stated.
'If my son is perfectly fine when why isn't he waking up?'
Heinrich wanted to shout, but held it in and turned to the Supreme Elder. Subsequently, the Supreme Elder turned to the Princess while saying, "The Princess is more adept in medicine than me. Perhaps, she can find an answer."
Of course, this was not true. The Supreme Elder just wanted to give the princess an opportunity to show off her skills. Her presence was completely overshadowed by him. He did not want the humans to think the princess of their tribe was just accompanying him like a porcelain doll.
Receiving the acknowledgment from both the king and Supreme Elder stepped forth to diagnose the prince as her eyes fell upon Leon's soundly sleeping face....