The Queen’s Visit
Naphthalese immediately stopped Nell and Carlotta, who were about to bow to her, as she walked up to the two, accompanied by three elven soldiers who appeared to be her bodyguards.
“It has been a long time, my friends. I wonder how many of my troops can fight as well as you two can. Won’t you come over to my kingdom instead?”
“Thank you for the invitation. But we have sworn our allegiance to this country.”
“We are truly honored that Her Majesty the Queen has invited us. However, Nell is right, we are loyal to our country. I hope you understand.”“Is that so? I am sorry to hear that. Well, I guess, I’ll just have to put up with what we have.”
They knew that they were both joking at each other, so they exchanged a light smile as they said those words.
Nell and Carlotta had a history of going to the Elven village and helping the Elves in a major way during the previous war.
Nell, in particular, had fought a one-on-one battle with an enemy general and had healed the severely wounded Naphthalese – or, more correctly, had given up one of her many bottles of potions that had been given by the overprotective Yuki. Moreover, the affection of the elves for her was quite great.
The incident had raised the elves’ favorability toward humans, in no small measure because of her.
“You all should look at these two in their match and be encouraged.”
[Ye, yes!]Actually, Queen Naphthalese was the most powerful among her current group of elves, and she was just as powerful as Nell and Carlotta, making it almost pointless for her guards to be with her. Since the three elven soldiers were weaker than the Queen.
There was no doubt that they were elite soldiers, and they were competent enough…but they themselves understood the difference in power, and so they overflowed with a wry smile.
“O hero, is that Demon King still alive and well?”
“Yes, he is still the same, living and doing what he likes every day. Just the other day, he said, ‘Watch this, meadow. I’m going to turn you into a wilderness!’ and so on, and he was building forests and rivers.”
“…I see. I don’t know if I’d call him the same as before, but I’m glad to see that he’s doing well.”
“…He seems to be doing some grandiose things, does he always do that?”
“Yes, he loves to build things. He makes weapons and stuff, but he also builds houses, gardens, grows trees, makes playgrounds for the kids, he creates just about anything that enters his mind.”
Carlotta and Naphthalese smiled at the sight of Nell smiling so happily as she talked about her husband.
Nell asked, “Do you need something from him? I can contact him about it…”
“Yes, well, there are a few things I would certainly like to discuss. However, it is still in the planning stages, and I am not sure if I can spare a lot of time to talk to him as well as discuss it with other kings.”
Naphthalese continued, “I’m thinking of holding a big festival with the other races.”
