RISE OF EROS

After listening to the hooded man, the same elf who had spoken throughout the interaction said again, "I understand. You are dismissed." With those words, the hooded man disappeared into the shadows.

"Elder Vilmon, I thought you gathered us together to take action on this matter," said another of the elder elves. These five elven elders are the highest-status people among the elves residing in the empire's territory.

However, very few know of their existence even among the elves themselves. Only the elves of the highest authority know of their existence and even in the empire only Arturios and Demon, as well as the previous hooded one who is their communication link are the only ones.

Although they all have the same status, the elf named Vilmon is special, as he is the oldest and the founder of this community. The elves of the empire, as well as the beastmen, came to this place many years before the empire was formed.

In fact, the elder Vilmon helped in the creation of the empire as did some respected elders of the beastmen clan. It is for this reason that the two races are extremely valued, as they were part of the founding of the empire.

If you are wondering why they are not rulers, the answer is simple, because of their numbers. Both beastmen and elves are considerably fewer in numbers than humans, especially in this continent plagued by human kingdoms.

For this reason, they allow humans to rule, but that does not mean that they are oppressed. In terms of strength these 2 races have more experts than the empire itself, so they cannot be underestimated.

That is why Arturians and Demons were upset when Tripia's kingdom attacked them, as they know the strength of these races. An appearance of their power in public can create a lot of trouble.

"I didn't call you for that. We certainly had our problems, but fortunately, it wasn't too much trouble," Elder Vilmon said, but was immediately refuted by another of the elders, "Elder Vilmon, I don't think so. Several of our people were injured."

"True, but do you know why there were only wounded?" asked Elder Vilmon calmly. Elder Vilmon's question left everyone thoughtful. It wasn't that they didn't know the answers, it was that they didn't know the details.

Although they were all too embarrassed to answer, one of them plucked up courage and said, "Because Elder Vilmon found out everything in time." This was what they all knew.

Everyone present knew that Elder Vilmon was the one who warned about the enemy, but none of them knew how he found out. Although Elder Vilmon is definitely the strongest of them all, they all knew that it was not possible for the elder to find out about the threat so quickly that was what they wanted to know.

Noticing the curiosity of the other elders, Vilmon said, "I wasn't the one who noticed the problem, it was Arturios." With the revelation, the elders were surprised and could not hold back so they asked, "How?".

Up to this point, Elder Vilmon was in a calm and even jocular attitude, but suddenly he regained his seriousness and in a deep voice replied, "Because the same thing happened in the savannah of the beast men."

This new revelation disturbed the elders. In the empire, it is believed that elves and beastmen have no contact, but that is not true. Since the elder Vilmon had participated in the founding of the empire, there was also an expert of the beastmen who had done so.

Vilmon and that elder are sworn brothers, therefore, despite what other people think, elves and beastmen have more relations than humans believe.

"Were there casualties?" one of the elders asked with concern. Vilmon noticing the elder asking, understood his reasons. These two races were so friendly, that some elves and beastmen married and formed families. There are several beastmen living in the elven forest and elves in the savannah, that's how close these races are.

The reason for the old man's concern above is because one of his sons is married to a hawk woman and lives in the savannah. Although he knew that his family was fine, because they lived in the savannah city and even with a powerful army, no one would dare to attack that city.

However, thanks to his son living there this old man visited the savannah a lot and had many friends there, so he worries about the beastmen. "Elder Afilis, I'm afraid to say that several villages were destroyed," Elder Vilmon replied in a heavy voice.

The room immediately fell silent and the temperature dropped several degrees as Elder Afilis' anger was evident and he commented in a murderous tone, "I think we should act after all."

Although the elders understood that Afilis took this personally, they still thought he was not wrong, but Elder Vilmon convinced them not to do so, as he understood that demonstrating his power in public, could bring trouble, although he was also annoyed.

"Elder Afilis, calm your anger. I am upset too, but we must look at the big picture. Besides, you heard, Demon is on the move, I guess I shouldn't explain anything Right?".

Elder Vilmon's words calmed the others, especially Elder Afilis because everyone knew that Demon was not only a pillar of the empire and a powerful expert, but that he had strong ties to the beastmen.

Very few knew it, but Demon and Arturios have families. The former is married to a beastwoman and the latter with an elf, but those relationships even the king doesn't know.

"I see, if it's Demon there's nothing to worry about," the elder Afilis said more calmly. "So, did Arturios find out thanks to Demon?" one of the elders asked and Vilmon replied, "Yes. Upon learning of the attacks on the beastmen, they immediately notified Marquis Cupal and quickly quelled the attackers."

"So that's why Marquis Astivia acted so quickly?" exclaimed another of the elders and Vilmon smilingly replied, "Yes, even if we have our reservations, we can always rely on Demon and Arturios when it comes to the safety of our people and the beastmen. So if Demon said he would act, he will and it won't be pleasant for Tripia's bastards."

A certain gloating escaped Vilmon's words and everyone knew the reason. Demon was not one to be trifled with and they had touched his reverse scale. Things were about to get ugly.

Meanwhile in the savannah city, in a simple, but cozy building, five elders with the same characteristics as the beastmen leaders were discussing the same thing as the elves, but they were a bit more heated.

Although the beastmen are just as civilized and intelligent as humans or any other race, they are natural warriors and hot-blooded, so when they hear about the attacks on their people, they don't take it as calmly as the elves.

"Those cursed Tripia kingdom who do they think they are? We should crush them," said the elder of the dog clan burning with anger and the others were no different, they wanted to go out immediately to destroy the Tripia kingdom, but then the oldest of them, the hawk man spoke up.

"Do not be hasty. I certainly want to destroy them just as you do, but let us think of the consequences of revealing our existence to the continent." The elder hawk's words calmed the mood.

Beastmen are hot-blooded, but not stupid. They knew that revealing themselves would put the empire in a difficult situation. On the continent, there were 2 empires on par with the Cannaris empire, not to mention other prominent kingdoms.

All these countries had a certain amount of experts and maintained a strange balance of forces, which brought stability to the continent, but if powerful elders like them and the elves appeared, that balance would be broken and chaos would descend.

That benefited no one, so they calmed down. Still, the annoyance would not go away and one of them could not help but ask, "So what do we do?", this was the bull-man who asked.

"Nothing," the elderly hawk replied and added before the others could raise their voices in protest, "Demon will handle the matter personally." When they heard that, they all smiled at ease.

They all knew that Demon was the husband of one of the daughters of the old cat lady present. That's why she was calm. Demon himself visited her and the old hawk telling them that he would personally handle the matter, so they were both calm.

Demon in public is one of the pillars of the empire, leader of the spy organization under the king's command, and slave of the king, but it was all due to love for the empire.

Few knew about his family or his background. Much less did they know that with his power the slave contract he had with the king was not binding, he could withdraw it whenever he wanted, but he did not do it because of his love for the empire.

Nevertheless, he loved his family above the empire. Arturios was the same, so attacking these two races was the worst thing Tripia's kingdom could do. No one knew that the two pillars of the empire loved their family more than the empire itself and so the kingdom of Tripia had made a grave mistake because now the two most powerful experts known to the empire were after their heads.