TBATE: Blessed by Mana (Dropped)

29. Clashing Ideals

Early that day

Alduin Eralith POV

Pushing another stack of papers and parchments aside, I lean back on the chair for a well-deserved short break from the monotonous work of reviewing through various documents, stamping a few of them for granting permissions and of course the most important, reviewing through the daily military report. Even though we are not in the middle of any sort of war, the army must never slack off. We never know when an emergency situation will arise where the mobilization of the army would be needed to be done at top priority. 

"Emergency situation huh," These words left my mouth, followed by soft chuckling. "I guess the situation that arose a few days back can be termed as such."

The last few days were quite hectic for all of us. It all started with Tessia running away from the palace after a small argument with Licht over pudding and was kidnapped by the slave traders. If not for the human boy named Arthur saving her from her kidnappers, we would preparing for something entirely by now. Despite being of merely four years old, he was able to deal with four adults with weapons and one of them was a mage.

What's more is that Arthur himself is a mage at that age, with his core being at the red stage already. He must have awoken at the age of three, the same age as Licht. I won't be surprised if he is considered a prodigy among the humans, similar to how my son is considered one among the elves. Both of their awakening happened way earlier than the age it usually takes place for their respective races.

(A/N - Yeah reincarnated MCs have a knack for awakening at the age of 3 or below.)

A knock on the door snapped me out from my thoughts, prompting me to sit up straight on the chair. Clearing my throat I answered. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal this kingdom's strongest mage, Lance Jader Grephin, Hero of the Second Human-Elf War and the current head of the noble Grephin Family.

"Greetings your Majesty." He greeted with a polite bow. 

"Please take a seat, Jader." I instructed before getting up and went for the couch. He sat on the one opposite to mine. Notifying the palace servants to bring us something to eat, I sat down in a relaxed manner. "So how is the training of the new candidates going?"

"Both of them have been showing promising results in their training. It reassures me that I will be renouncing my position to capable candidates such as them," Jader answered. He paused when the servants brought in some snacks for us. Once they were gone, he resumed after taking a bite. "Though I believe you did not summon me just to ask that."

He was right on the mark. Given his position as the Lance, he had been serving our family for a very long time. We both got closer and formed a friendship-like bond during the wartime when both our brothers became martyrs in the war. 

"I should stop beating around the bush then," I took a deep breath before resuming. "You are someone who fought in the last war against the humans? What if I were to tell you that we are bringing the continent of Dicathen together as a whole by unifying all the three races? Tell me your thoughts."

Dead silence filled the entirety of the room with only the sounds of our light breaths being audible. Unlike myself, Jader was a war veteran and was one of the leading forces in the war. He is the one who has experienced horrors of the war firsthand, in the battlefield itself. It won't take a genius to guess what his feelings would be on the matter of forming friendship with the humans when they were the ones who killed his brothers. 

The phrase "Yesterday's enemy is today's friend" might sound simple and can be used as a quote or slogan but it is very difficult to make it a reality. The survivors of the war on both sides simply cannot forget what they went through during those turbulent times.