LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 17: Snow Elves
Elves were the original indigenous people who lived on this continent millions of years ago.
The actual size of the mage world is unknown, with no map covering the entirety of it.
In fact, Owen is not even sure that it is finite.
He tried to look for books about this matter when he was in the Blue Light Academy, but he found nothing.
They may know the truth and keep it to themselves, or they may not know.
He put aside these thoughts and looked at the surrounding buildings.
Their design was very peculiar to human standards.
All of the roofs were snow-white. There were tiny windows on top of each house.
Owen didn't know the details as to why they were built this way.
The streets were quiet, but you could occasionally see people.
Everyone in the street was elves. There were no other species.
"It looks boring," Rachel said.
"This is a small city with less than 50,000 people, so this is expected," Owen said.
Large non-human populations would be destroyed by the academies.
The academies, even evil ones like the Red Light Academy, are human forces, so even if they allow non-humans, they just use them, not caring for them.
The non-human situation today in this continent is actually very good.
In times of the Seven Colors Academy, they weren't allowing even small settlements like this one.
"Why is there so much enmity toward non-humans like snow elves? They don't seem evil to me," Rachel asked.
Owen looked around.
He was also surprised.
"They say non-humans can be infected by the dark element, so even if they are not evil, they have the potential to be evil." He said.
"That's nonsense; humans are evil too," Rachel said.
Owen went on for a bit and saw a big tavern in the city center.
It was busy, and people were moving in and out.
"Let's go there," Rachel said.
Owen continued and moved in.
Many people were in and sitting at tables, drinking various weird foods and drinks.
Owen didn't understand a word of what they were saying.
"Rachel, don't you have any skill about languages?" he asked.
There were spells for translation, but he didn't have them.
"I don't have such skill. Don't tell me you came here without knowing the language?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know the language. Do I look like a snow elf?" he said.
"Then you shouldn't have bothered disguising yourself so much. You will be recognized right away!" Rachel said.
"Relax, not all snow elves speak the same language. They only think I'm a snow elf from other places." He said.
He went to the counter, gave a gold piece to a good-looking male elf, and pointed to some drink.
"Why do all of these elves look beautiful?" Rachel asked.
"That's a question that everyone who meets elves asks themselves!"
"Some legends say elves are descendants of the god of beauty, but that's not confirmed."
"You said, god?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, gods live in heaven," Owen said.
"What is heaven?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know, heaven is very obscure. It's said that gods live there. It's filled with positive energy and has angels," Owen said.
"That's it? Then why do you know so much about hell?" she asked.
"Many demons from hell take the initiative to divulge information."
"There are many demons from hell in the mage world, even today!"
"They keep their identity secret, but they do exist."
"However, according to my knowledge, no angel or god ever existed in the mage world, so naturally, we don't know much about them."
"As for going to heaven, you know, a million years ago, literally every single one of rank 9 mages attacked, and all went missing, so it goes without saying that it's impossible," Owen said.
"&&&&&," the male elf spoke.
Owen smiled, took the drink, and went to sit somewhere.
He took a sip, and his face twisted!
"How does it taste?" Rachel asked curiously.
"Just sour, unbelievably sour! What is this?" he was astonished.
"Maybe it is not meant to be taken like this ?" Rachel said.
Owen looked at the counter and saw the male elf looking at him strangely.
"Maybe you are right," Owen said.
He went forward and bought a few different kinds of drinks and food.
As a rank 2 mage, he is not worried about poison.
After eating and drinking for one hour, he stood up.
He liked some foods and drinks, but some tasted weird.
One that tasted like meat but looked like a plant.
Another was moving!
Owen skipped that one.
He left the tavern and entered a building that looked like a hotel.
"Do elves as isolated as this also have tourists?" Rachel asked.
"I have no idea," Owen said.
He went in and gave an elf girl a few pieces of gold.
The girl looked with confusion and asked something he didn't understand.
He pointed with his hand to the stairs.
After a minute, the girl finally understood his intention.
She took a key and pointed at him to follow.
After some distance, the girl stopped and pointed to a door.
Owen smiled, took the key, opened the door, and went in.
He thanked the girl by giving a thumbs up.
Although doubtful she understood what he meant by thumbs up, he didn't care and closed the door.
There was a bed, table, papers, pen, and bathroom.
"This looked suspiciously like human hotels," Rachel said.
Owen didn't care and sat on the bed.
"I want to stay here for a few months," he said.
"OK, but next, we should visit goblins!" Rachel said.
"What is it?" he said.
"You guys don't have goblins? I thought every fantasy world had goblins," she said.
"What are you talking about?" he asked in confusion.
"Nothing," she said.
Owen took out the pill container.
"Time for rank 2 'root mana' pill," Rachel said.
Owen took the pill, swallowed it, and closed his eyes.
…
The nineteenth day of the eighth month of the year 989987.
Luke was the governor of the state of Haas.
Haas was an independent state with a population of 1 million people.
It was a mortal nation with no official mages.
Haas was in the vicinity of snow elves' settlements.
In this area, snow elves are very common.
They have many nominally independent cities but are part of a prominent structure named non-human alliance.
The non-human alliance was created only a few thousand years ago, with many official mages as members.
It remained under the radar because it never caused trouble and had connections with some mages within The Orange Light Academy.
But in recent years, some mortal human nations such as Haas have felt threatened by it.
The snow elves have been expanding their territories, conquering some human cities.
As a primarily peaceful species, the elves didn't massacre the human population but expelled them.
The state of Haas was also invaded by it.
As a result, anti-snow elf sentiment dominates the minds of people.
With pressure from the population, Luke, as the governor Haas, formed an army, ready to invade a neighboring snow elf city.
The Snow Roof City, with a population of less than 50,000, was an easy target for Luke, who was looking for an easy victory.
After gathering an army of 10,000, with more than 100 knights, they marched.
The snow roof city was actually not in a snowy place.
It was on a flat land suitable for farming.
The army reached the city, caught it off guard, and completely surrounded it.
…
It had been a few months since Owen lived here.
He has been learning the language these days, and now, he understands daily conversations.
He went out of his hotel room and greeted Mia.
Mia also greeted him with a smile.
This girl is the snow elf he saw the day he first came.
She is the one most responsible for him learning the language.
She is the sole owner of this hotel, inheriting it from her mother.
The 'tourists' who come to this hotel are snow elves from other snow elf cities.
Owen has already met a lot of them.
He went out and moved toward the tavern but noticed something wrong.
Everyone was moving in a rush.
He got curious and soon reached the tavern.
It was busy, almost packed.
He heard whispers talking about a war.
Soon, a muscular male snow elf shouted, "The humans have surrounded the city, and we need brave fighters to defend ourselves. Please come forward if you think you can help. The reinforcement from other cities will arrive in a week."
Many people moved and volunteered.
They all heard of what happens when humans conquer a non-human city.
Everyone would die.
Humans don't even take them as slaves!
The reason is that both the White Light Academy and the Black Light Academy forbid taking mortal non-humans as slaves.
They also take it seriously, destroying some human kingdoms that violated it.
The reason is simple.
Humans and non-humans can reproduce.
If they are mixed together, after only a few generations, every human would have non-human blood.
There were hundreds of people near the tavern, and out of them, nearly 60% volunteered to defend the city.
The muscular man smiled and said to the ones who volunteered, "Thank you for your courage. Let's go!"
After a while, they reached a place that looked like a training ground.
Many other people were also present.
"Owen!"
"Hey, Mia, you volunteered too?" Owen said.
"Of course, this is my city! I won't let humans destroy it," she looked determined.
Owen sighed!
"Not all humans are bad!" he said.
Mia looked surprised and asked," Have you ever seen a good human?"
She looked really curious, as if it was something impossible.
"Yeah, I have seen good humans. I'll show them to you later."
"By later, you mean when we fended off this latest human attack?" she said with a smile.
"What do you mean by 'latest human attack'?" Owen asked.
"You're not from here, so you don't know. Humans attack snow elf cities like us every few years, and their attacks are getting more frequent. How do you think my mother has died?" she asked with sadness in her eyes.
Owen went silent.
"Everyone," the muscular man came and shouted.
He grouped everyone into different teams responsible for different places.
He and Mia were grouped together to protect the south gate.
Mia was promoted to the group captain, as she had a lot of experience with bow and arrow.
Owen was atop the gate and looked at the humans below.
The invading humans didn't have siege equipment like he had in Robels kingdom, so taking this city with tall walls will take a while.
"Do you think humans are the bad guys here?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know why they are attacking."
"Also, cleaning non-humans is a common thing, even my ancestor did it," he said.
"Well, Alister isn't exactly a poster boy for mortals!" she said.
Owen ignored Rachel's remark about his ancestor and said, "Let's go and check it then!" Owen said.
He cast a spell called 'clone' and another called 'invisible' on himself simultaneously and then jumped off the wall!