‘I am Astraea’s guardian knight.’
Luo En thought so.
‘Now my beloved is in trouble. She is calling for me.’
Ron clenched his fists.
‘So I should go up and help her… right?’
Watching Astraea’s embarrassing display, Ron doubted his own guardianship for the first time.
Look at what he had been guarding!
Astraea had given up struggling and was just glaring angrily at Aiouwen, who was pinning her down with a smug expression.
“Ron?”
Astraea called out again. Only then did Ron reluctantly look toward Maximus.
He felt that with his own strength, he might not necessarily be able to defeat Aiouwen, who had lived for who knows how long. So he decided to see what the ever-expressionless Maximus had to say.
After all, it seemed the little elf hadn’t suffered any harm, so his duty as a guardian knight wasn’t exactly neglected.
Sensing Ron’s gaze, Maximus stepped forward. With one hand, he wrapped his arm around Aiouwen’s waist and tucked her under his armpit.
“Had enough fun?”
Maximus said in a clear voice.
Aiouwen, unusually, bared her teeth at the duke who had interrupted her. She cried out with a hint of grievance, “What are you doing!”
But though her attitude wasn’t very good, her body obediently stayed still.
Smack!
Maximus casually slapped Aiouwen on the bottom, producing a crisp sound.
Aiouwen’s whole body trembled, and a suspicious blush immediately spread across her face.
Astraea, who had been lying on the floor just moments ago, immediately flipped over and laughed mockingly: “Useless old woman, haha!”
Ron, veins bulging on his forehead for once, stepped forward and reached out to restrain the arrogant little elf.
“Huh?”
Astraea only had time to utter a confused sound, and then she felt her head being frantically petted.
“Calm down a little, okay? Teacher Astraea!”
“No, don’t do that! I’m just happy to see that old woman get punished. Anyone would feel that way, right?”
This time, Ron directly grabbed the little elf’s shoulders with both hands and lifted her up to spin her around.
Once the little elf was facing him, he moved his hands up to pinch her soft, tender cheeks and kneaded them continuously.
“Mmm… I’m sowwy… wet go of me…”
Only then did Astraea realize that Ron was genuinely somewhat angry. To avoid even worse punishment, she immediately decided to submit.
If worst came to worst, she could just come back and huff at that old elf when Ron wasn’t around.
“Are you sure?”
Ron asked, temporarily releasing the little elf’s face. The soft sensation was truly addictive.
Astraea nodded hastily. “Really, really, I swear on… myself!”
Afraid of attracting the attention of the gods, Astraea could only change her oath to swearing on herself, though it didn’t look convincing at all.
Nevertheless, Ron decided to trust his beloved. He reached out to smooth the little elf’s hair, which he had messed up, and then looked back at the duke.
Maximus had specifically instructed him to bring Astraea to meet this elf here. There must be a reason for that—it couldn’t just be to watch them huff at each other, could it?
By the way, did all elves huff at each other when they met? If so, how did elves manage to organize a society? Ron had never heard of elves having such a habit.
After scolding Aiouwen, Maximus adjusted her into a sitting position on the large bed in the dungeon. Now that she had calmed down, she actually had the air of a serene beauty.
“Let me formally introduce you. That one is Astraea Saienxier.” Maximus pointed at the little elf and said.
“Hmph, you brat… ah, I mean, nice to meet you, Astraea. I am Aiouwen Senthil.”
Aiouwen, who had originally intended to provoke, immediately swallowed her yet-unsaid provocative words upon seeing Maximus’s expressionless yet extremely dangerous face.
“Maximus asked me to teach you some magic, but I feel like I have nothing to teach you.” As Aiouwen spoke, she lifted her right foot, on which a heavy shackle was locked. “You should know a lock-opening spell, right? When you can unlock this shackle with magic, you’ll have graduated.”
Maximus just glanced at Aiouwen without raising any objection. He knew Aiouwen was simply giving the little elf a practice target.
As for the shackle… Aiouwen, the current most powerful assassin among the elves, could unlock it herself.
But every time she unlocked it and escaped, she would be caught by Maximus within two hours. After many attempts, Aiouwen had given up on the idea of running away.
It wasn’t that freedom was bad, but every day here she could experience the ultimate pleasure.
Or, looking at it from another angle, she, Aiouwen, could ‘devour’ the little duke every day. So how was this her being imprisoned? Clearly, she was defeating the human duke every day!
Astraea looked at the shackle on Aiouwen’s ankle and then raised her hand to cast a lock-opening spell.
But the shackle only made a clicking sound and then nothing else happened.
That was the situation. Maximus had brought Aiouwen to give the little elf some pointers. He didn’t want Astraea to become Ron’s weakness, so he was trying to improve the little elf’s strength.
A powerful henchman with no weaknesses—that was what he wanted.
“If you play magic like that, you’ll probably need a few hundred more years to unlock this lock.” After watching the little elf’s entire casting process, Aiouwen rolled her eyes and criticized mercilessly.
Of course, she had that right. For an elf who had lived for hundreds of years like her, Astraea’s casting method was as immature as an elf baby’s.
Ah, that’s right, Astraea really was an elf baby.
The little elf didn’t huff at Aiouwen. She just blushed and waited for Aiouwen to continue.
“I won’t even mention that you still need hand gestures for casting. You’re probably not old enough to do without auxiliary tools yet. But tell me, why don’t you manage the output unit after releasing the spell?” Aiouwen pointed at the shackle locking her ankle. “Are you expecting those unconscious elements to automatically unlock it for you? Who taught you the lock-opening spell? Tell me, and I’ll have a nice talk with them about their educational philosophy later.”
“No, no, I figured out this spell myself…” Astraea lowered her head and said a little guiltily.
That wasn’t wrong either. The education she had received in the Elven City-State, if converted to her previous life, was equivalent to kindergarten graduation.
What profound things could kindergarten teach? Her daily task was just to play happily. If it weren’t for the Great Human Expedition, the elf auntie who had been taking care of her probably wouldn’t have bothered to teach magic basics to a bunch of elf babies whose ages weren’t even as big as her shoe size.
“Wait, how old are you this year?”
After hearing the little elf’s defense, Aiouwen, who had only roughly sensed the little elf’s physical stage, suddenly had an ominous guess.
‘Even if she’s a toddler, she should be eighty or ninety years old, right? Letting such a small child out, what is the City-State doing?’
Aiouwen grumbled inwardly, but the little elf’s next answer made her jaw drop.
“Twenty, well, maybe almost twenty-one.”
Aiouwen immediately looked at Ron and Maximus, who were standing aside, with an extremely contemptuous gaze.
Maximus, on the other hand, subtly stepped back, pushing Ron, who was much shorter than him, to the front.
“What a beast, this human knight.”
Ron felt his scalp tingle under Aiouwen’s gaze, but the words of defense got stuck in his throat.
What could he say? The truth was already so, even though Astraea had never told him her age.
Ron had always thought the little elf was just a bit young. Now he knew that “young” might be an understatement.
Ah, so excessive that he had committed an unforgivable sin. Ron tried to recall how the Kingdom would judge such a case…
“In our Elven City-State, a beast like you who lays hands on a child would be and then beaten with rods. Tsk tsk tsk.”
“Ahem, let’s talk about magic instead.”
Seeming to feel a bit sorry for Ron, Astraea interrupted Aiouwen’s condemnation.
Honestly, she didn’t think there was anything wrong with Ron making a move on her. Although from an elf’s perspective it was a bit perverted, she wasn’t born as an elf.
Oh no, she was born as an elf, but before being an elf, she had been a human for over twenty years.
Besides, by the age of twenty, an elf’s necessary growth had already matured. It was just that their psychology might be a bit childish.
Astraea thought that the elves from the same batch as her were probably still playing house right now.
So Ron shouldn’t be blamed too harshly. At least he wouldn’t become more excited after knowing her age group, right?
In any case, Astraea’s mind returned to learning magic. Compared to elven ethics, she felt improving her strength was more important.
Seeing Aiouwen’s breathless state, the little elf quickly assumed an attitude befitting an elf baby: “Miss… Miss Aiouwen, can the output unit also be interfered with?”
Aiouwen weighed it in her mind, then swallowed the words she hadn’t yet cursed out. Instead, she ignored the two knights.
“Your mental strength isn’t enough yet. When you reach forty, you’ll naturally understand.” The old elf showed full patience. She no longer called her a brat, because now that she thought about it, Astraea, who could independently study magic while other elves her age were still playing house, was a complete genius. In her own time, someone like that would have been elevated and sent to the Guardian Mage Corps for advanced training. So why was the little elf in the Human Kingdom now?
Were the elves really at the point of having to send children to fight?
As for the Kingdom’s navy attacking elven territory… Aiouwen subconsciously dismissed that conjecture. She felt that mere humans couldn’t possibly surpass elves at sea either, could they?