Chapter 70: The Last Adventure Inn
"You look quite surprised," Hoyo said.
Ludwig's eyes were looking at a girl who was moving ahead of three other men who wore hoods that covered their entire bodies but their faces.
The girl seemed to be about the age of Ludwig, and had an incredibly beautiful face. A sharp jawline to match and green as emerald eyes, her hair was a mix of gold and silver, and her hood seemed to have slightly fallen enough that her ear was visible to Ludwig to see. The ears was long and pointy and this brought memories of stories and novels that Ludwig had grown up reading.
"Yeah… also, is that an Elf?" Ludwig asked.
As if the world went silent, the people around Ludwig and Hoyo's horrified expression was enough of a tell to Ludwig that something bad just happened.
"He's just joking! Haha!" Hoyo said stifling an awkward expression and laugh, "He's here for the first time, don't mind him, he doesn't know anything." He said as he patted Ludwig on the back.
The group of people that paid attention to Ludwig's soon began losing interest and the rowdiness of the square returned to how it was. However…
[You're in a hostile environment]
Ludwig noticed that one of the three men placed his palm on the pummel of his sword, perhaps out of habit but another person soon lightly nudged him. Stopping any and all aggression.
"You really are clueless," Hoyo said as he led Ludwig out of the square.
"Why? What's up with elves," Ludwig said.
"First off, there is no way there is an elf in this Empire, Lufondal is extremely hostile to them," Hoyo said.
Ludwig frowned as he turned his head to once again look at the elven group, the girl who Ludwig was talking about had locked gaze with Ludwig's eyes.
"Second, if there was an elf here, all hell would break loose, the country's Imperial Knights would come rushing here and literally kill any and all that are associated with elves even if they simply look at them."
"Last, if there was truly an elf there, we'd all be dead by now," Hoyo said as he dragged Ludwig all the way to a nearby Inn.
Out of curiosity, before Ludwig's eyes could no longer see the girl as the crowd was getting bigger… '[Inspect]' he muttered.
Status Screen
Name: Lorina Ulesse
Race: High Elf
Title: Tragic Princess
Level: ???
HP: ???
Currently under the status effect: [Light Spirit's Blessing.] (The spirits of light are bending light around the bearer of this blessing changing the perspective of those who look at them.)
[Necros' Blessing is Neutralizing this minor effect]
Ludwig knew it, there were elves in this world, and his eyes didn't lie to him, this was the same that happened with the Succubus teacher Cymoria Azmiralis.
"What did the elves do for the relationship between Lufondal and them to be this… bad?" Ludwig asked.
"What didn't they do," Hoyo said, "Besides the fact that they planned a full on rebellion against the former emperor, killed two of the royal princes of the last generations, basically the uncles of the current Emperor. Created havoc through the land, arson, murder, rape, kidnappings and more and more. They're a hostile race that even the spirits don't want to associate with them, they're a race comparable to demons. Even halflings are considered utter and complete dregs of society because they share similarities with elves."
Something caught Ludwig's attention in Hoyo's words. That the spirits wouldn't want to associate with elves, but didn't that girl have the blessing of a Light spirit?
Ludwig moved alongside Hoyo until they an inn, it looked like a simple inn where adventurers gathered in and around, several people moved about, carrying their weapons in the forms of swords strapped to their belts and armor donned down, while others had bows and spears nearby, though even with all these weapons visible in broad day light, there was no sign of any form of hostility or aggressiveness from the people here, there was an amicable air of venture and passion visible on the faces of everyone near the inn.
The plank on top of the door displayed the inn's name in a fashionable and quite interesting way. The name Last Adventure was written in bold letters and next to it was a mug of ale with a skull sitting right next to it, where some cobwebs seemed to cover parts of it.
"Truly fitting the name of Last Adventure," Ludwig muttered.
"Yeah, this is a place famed for serving adventurers who have quite the job or on the fences, it's actually the best place for newer adventurers to come in and learn the craft from old and veterans. And they're very friendly toward the Five Towers."
"All five?" Ludwig asked.
"You'll see," Hoyo said as the two of them entered the inn.
The inside was massively different compared to the outside simple look. As there were dozens of tables all over the place where several adventurers were chatting with each other. Some displayed their muscles boldly and flexed them to flex on other adventurers and garner some appeal of laughing female adventurers. While other tables had an eerie calm to them, as the people who were sitting there seemed to want to drink their ale without uttering a word. The air around those people was slightly suffocating as they seemed to be worn and torn adventurers, either missing limbs from old battles or scarred and burned beyond what's humanly tolerable. Yet they still couldn't lower the ambiance of the inn itself.
Ludwig's eyes scanned the crowd until it landed on a group of people roughly their age sitting at a corner. The people were wearing similar clothes to Ludwig and Hoyo, the only difference was that their clothes were White in color.
"Damn… I didn't want to meet those guys this early," Hoyo groaned.
Just as Ludwig was about to ask Hoyo on why he was so annoyed with meeting other people.
"Ah, The Crows are here! No wonder the beer tastes like shit," the voice of a rude and arrogant-looking brat sounded from their table.
"It's the White Tower Academy…" Hoyo muttered for Ludwig's ears only.