Life Hunter 16 ''Do You Accept?''

"Well, I didn't really try to hide since the beginning you know? I didn't completely erase my aura and when I sent those birds, I let them fly freely. The only reason I didn't use 'World Index' is because the range and magnitude are too strong and it would maybe provoke them" Arima explained calmly.

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to see how much the promise of a princess weight. She said I'd be welcome. And if they ever try to kill me then, first I beat them up and then I could ask for another favor" He grinned

Night's mouth twitched and then turned to look at the front "... I already detect ten presences other than the treants two hundred meters from here" He said

"Yeah, I detected them a while ago. If you want to know, the town is a few miles from here, the population is around a million people, the number of people patrolling around the city is almost a thousand and the people waiting for us are a mile from here, and there are twenty elves, those you sensed were just the scouts" Arima said calmly

"...Is that princess with them?" Night asked after a moment of deep silence

"I don't know but I don't think so. Even if she said I'm her friend already, as long as I am a human, they will insist on meeting me without her, to keep her safe. Their actions would be something like that, if they don't like me, they will try to kill me and if they acknowledge me, they would still try to chase me out. For each scenario, they will give an excuse to the princess something like 'he left on his own' or 'he tried to attack us so we killed him'. Well, I'm not saying it's a certainty but there is a high chance" Arima explained slowly.

Night closed his eyes with a really difficult expression "My head hurts, why can't you keep things simple"

Arima pondered a bit "Princess important. Human dangerous. Chase human. Protect princess." He said with an almost too serious face.

"Sorry, it's my fault. Don't ever do that again please" Night instantly responded.

Five minutes later, the two finally arrived at the place where Arima predicted the ambush would happen.

As expected, a group of elves surrounded them in a second.

Half of them stayed in trees, aiming at Arima with their bows and the other half was ready to attack directly with blades.

"Who are you?" A good-looking man walked out of the group and asked.

"I'm Arimane Blade" Arima just answered casually.

The elf frowned "Why are you here?"

"Because I want to visit" One more time, Arima talked like it was normal.

The elf took an even more difficult expression "Sorry, but I'll have to ask you to leave. Letting you in will give too much unrest" He said politely

"Then, what if I said I have the permission of your princess?" Arima said

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean that your princess already told me that I would be welcomed in your country. Oh, if you have not only one princess then the one who said that to me is Lifa"

At this point, the elf didn't know how what to say. He turned towards an elven soldier beside him and told him to go to the town and report.

Arima grinned, he sent an order to a falcon he had left flying and had him follow this soldier.

"Please wait" The elf said that to Arima. The latter smiled "No problem".

"{Hey, it's a bit different from what I expected. They don't know who you are" Night sent a telepathic message to Arima.

"{It's okay, that's the same thing. Most likely, Lifa didn't tell anyone about me, at least publicly, that's why. Also, even if they look like they are going to ask her and let me in, that won't happen. They will ask her something like 'do you know a human with this name?', they actually won't say that I'm here. And in the end, we come back to what I said to you before}" Arima responded

"{Why are you so sure? Maybe they'll just let you in}"

"{Believe me, it's the job of the soldiers to protect the royal family, if they are reasonable, they will try everything to keep me away. Also, from what I know, the elves treat their princes and princesses very importantly. That's why I sent a falcon to follow this soldier, like that I can spy and talk myself to Lifa, even if I'm here}"

Night sighed "{Troublesome}"

Arima smiled "{Welcome to real world. Though there is something that surprised me with those elves...}"

"{Something?}"

"{Yeah, something}"

*************************************

Two miles away from Arima, the elf soldier arrived at the town. Because the latter couldn't do anything alone, he went to see the higher ranked officers. The word pa.s.sed from a person to another, countless times. Until a pretty high-ranked officer entered the castle, which was more like a big mansion because the town was mainly made of wood, with stone to make some pavements and a lot of different types of plants. The majority of people would say that this place was extremely pure.

After the soldier entered, the falcon lost sight of him. But a strange, small magic circle formed discreetly behind the officer and a small black cat jumped out of it and followed instead of the bird.

This cat was made with dark magic instead of lightning so its specialty was discretion. The cat and the officer wandered a bit in the mansion until they arrived before a door. The officer knocked and entered, he knelt almost instantly. The cat tilted his head to peek in the room, there were three women sitting in sofas, enjoying some tea and a man standing behind one of them. One of them was Lifa, at her side was an equally beautiful elf, who looked more mature, they seemed to be sisters with their resemblance. The other women were surprisingly a therianthrope with fox ears and tail, the men behind her seemed to be a lizard type with green scales.

When the soldier entered the room, the fox girl directly looked behind him "What is that?" She pointed with a graceful voice.

Everyone in the room reacted and looked, they realized there was a cute black cat, the size of a palm, standing there. The officer was shocked.

Lifa stood up, took the cat in her hands "So cute!" She caressed him and the latter meowed. The other elf looked a bit but lost interest while the fox women looked deeply before shaking her head. Life returned to her seat with the cat.

"Why are you here?" The calm elf asked with a soft voice.

"Y-yes" He turned towards Lifa "Does princess happen to know a human called Arimane Blade?" And he asked

"Eh?" Lifa was surprised "Yes. How do you know that?" The cat meowed and looked at him too like he was asking the same thing.

"That human pa.s.sed by the forest a while ago. He said that he would leave the continent and he would come by maybe one more time in the future" He said. He also lied.

"Oh, I see. It's a shame" She seemed a bit disappointed. The other elf seemed a bit surprised "Lifa, who is that person?"

"It's the human that saved Layra. I told you right?" Lifa answered

"I see, so that's him" The elf nodded "Thank you for telling us, you can go now" She told to the officer.

"Yes!" When he was about to leave. The cat in Lifa's arms revealed a grinning expression which shouldn't appear on a cat. At that moment, the elf women reacted and looked at him.

"Wait a minute there, soldier "An unfamiliar voice resounded in the room. Lifa and the soldier froze while the elf woman, the fox girl and her guard looked to the source of the voice.

Lifa yelped and the cat jumped down. His eyes became extremely sharp and looked around "Hi" He said.

"Arima" Lifa pointed with a trembling finger at the cat, she was full of embarra.s.sment because she held that cat.

The cat looked at her "It's been a month since last time. Well, I have only one thing to say, I'm waiting outside with some people surrounding me, so I hope you can tell them to let me pa.s.s. That's all, bye"

The cat meowed, became a shadow and vanished before everyone's looks.

The elf woman looked coldly at the soldier "I'm sure you know what to do" And said

The officer kowtowed "Yes! I'm sorry" And left the room in hurry. He knew that he would be punished later, he couldn't allow himself to disobey the princess.

**********************************

Back in the forest.

Arima was sitting face to face with Night. Between them, was chessboard on the ground made of earth magic. Arima was the white side and Night the black side.

"A5 to B3" Night said and the cavalier moved on its own to the case specified.

"Queen to F5, check" Arima said calmly and the chess piece moved alone.

Night's eyebrow twitched. He began to ponder. Even the elves around became interested in the game.

"King to E7"

"Rook to A3, checkmate"

"Dammit" Night was infuriated and Arima just laughed. They've been playing chess for almost thirty minutes now. At that moment, the officer who went to see Lifa arrived panting. He greeted Arima and told him to follow. The other elves around were shocked they didn't expect that to happen.

Arima laughed in his mind "(Don't underestimate my range circles, I can form them five miles away if I want)" To create the black cat, Arima used a range circle to directly summon the cat in the mansion.

When they arrived at the town, Arima observed it one more time, even though he already saw it through his bird but being there was a very different experience. The air was particularly pure and one would feel cleansed when breathing it.

Arima was escorted by soldiers on the streets and every habitant who saw them were either surprised or afraid because a human was here. Arima didn't look away and carefully observed the expressions and reactions of everyone.

Arima soon arrived at the mansion (castle), he was led to the room where the princess was and entered.

"Arima, you can sit here" In there, Lifa stood up and greeted Arima with a smile. The other women elf frowned, the fox girl smirked and the guard behind her kept a stone face. The soldier who brought Arima was dismissed.

Arima sat down on single place sofa and Night sat down on the floor beside him "h.e.l.lo, I'm Arimane Blade, you can call me Arima, nice to meet you" He smiled and said.

The elf woman nodded "I'm Elia Drein, Lifa is my little sister" She presented herself

"Hi! Little human. I'm Niria Feil, the first princess of the Free City, the guy behind me is my guard" She said with a grin.

"Um, Arima" Lifa raised her voice "Sorry for what happened earlier" she apologized

"Don't mind, I understand, after all, I sent that cat for a reason" He waved his hand and the black cat reappeared from a magic circle and jumped on Lifa's shoulder.

Lifa's eyes brightened and she began to play with the little cat. Arima chuckled and looked at Elia.

"You said your name is Elia, right? You're pretty famous to even appear in the human books" He said

Elia only responded after a few seconds "...Yes, it's me"

"To be honest, one of the reasons I came here is to meet you" He said while taking a cup of tea and some of his candies.

Elia was surprised "Why is that?"

"Because I want to help you in your cause. You're trying to make peace with humans, right? Then I'll help you" Arima paused and smirked "Do you accept?"