Chapter 52: No One Said There’d Be This Calamity

Fun fact: sometimes getting your legs broken isn’t just hyperbolic phrasing.

Her limbs went weak. Seeing the newcomer, Astraea felt cold all over.

At this moment, she would rather face the dwarf army. At least…

“Quick, run!”

“And where do you think you’re running?”

The little elf trembled like a leaf, nearly kneeling to the newcomer.

Just an ordinary elf. Luo En was puzzled. In his eyes, the newcomer was nothing more than an ordinary elf.

No, perhaps not so ordinary. The knight carefully studied the elf approaching with a darkened face.

That elf was strikingly beautiful. Looking at her, Luo En felt the same awe as when he had first laid eyes on Astraea.

Moreover, there was a resemblance to Astraea in her brows and eyes—though compared to the little elf, she was far more alluring.

She was tall and slender, her long hair flowing in the breeze. The only place she fell short of the little elf was her completely flat chest.

But just as Luo En had once remarked about Lucius, flat had its own appeal—this was hardly a flaw.

Drawing near, the elf unceremoniously reached out to grab Astraea’s long ears.

“You reckless girl, you dare come back?”

The little elf nervously closed her eyes, not daring to resist.

But Luo En promptly stepped between the two.

“Madam, I regret that I cannot stand by and watch your actions.”

Though he didn’t understand why Astraea was too afraid to resist, Luo En couldn’t allow anyone to hurt her, no matter what. This was his oath.

The tall knight now stood before the little elf, his hand already resting on the longsword hilt at his waist. Having formally become a knight and received divine favor, Luo En now truly understood why there had never been tales of knights slaying enemies above their rank.

If the newcomer showed even the slightest hostility, he could draw his sword and complete a horizontal slash within a few hundredths of a second.

This power was simply on an entirely different level.

But strangely, facing Luo En’s terrifying aura, the elf before him showed no fear at all. She only seemed even angrier. “You dare bring a wild man back? Reckless girl, I see you’ve grown bold!”

Luo En furrowed his brow, immediately sensing that the newcomer’s relationship with Astraea was no simple matter—perhaps a relative of some sort.

But so what? He simply couldn’t stand by while someone struck or berated the little elf.

“Madam, please mind your tongue. This is…”

Luo En was about to put his verbal skills—honed through years of bickering with the village brats as a child—to good use. But before he could even open fire, he felt a tug on his leaf clothing.

Turning back, he saw the little elf looking at him with a frightened expression. “Luo En, let me handle this.”

Luo En hesitated briefly before stepping aside, though his hand remained on his sword hilt.

Taking a deep breath, Astraea stood before the fuming elf. He crossed his arms, as if waiting to see what tricks the little elf had left.

Astraea struggled for a long moment before dryly managing, “Um, Dad, can you not be angry first?”

She didn’t know how else to explain, so this was all she could say.

After all, what she had done was far too shocking for elves. Even if her parents usually let her be, if they could resist breaking her legs on the spot, that counted as having a good temper.

And Astraea was fortunate—the father before her had a temper famously gentle throughout the village.

Wait… Luo En stared uncertainly at the elf standing before Astraea.

‘That thing is a man?!’

‘That thing is a man?!’

He only felt as though something inside him had shattered. What was it? Ah, his common sense.

Such a trivial thing… couldn’t just break so easily! Luo En felt his common sense being subjected to a tremendous trial.

No matter where he looked, he couldn’t find any male characteristics on the elf Astraea called “Dad.” But the other was wearing leaf clothing too—if a gust of wind came by, he should be able to verify?

As if answering his wish, a breeze did sweep across the lakeshore. It wasn’t strong, merely making the leaf garments of Luo En and that elf rustle softly.

Luo En’s sharp vision immediately caught a glimpse beneath the other’s leaf skirt.

Alright, there was actually a loincloth. But Luo En did indeed spot a bulge.

The elf didn’t try to grab Astraea’s ears again, which relaxed the little elf somewhat. Still, seeing her father’s lingering irritation, Astraea felt a bit guilty.

“Is Mom doing well?”

“She’s doing fine. No need for you to worry.”

“What if I said I just went out for a stroll? Would you believe me?”

The elf said nothing, merely glaring at Astraea.

“Haha, the weather’s lovely today! Dad, why would you come to the Sacred Lake?”

Faced with Astraea’s stiff attempt to change the subject, the elf closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then reached out to grab Astraea’s pointed ears once more.

But his hand hung in midair for a long moment, unable to truly bring himself to pull.

What torment—she was his only daughter. How could he really bring himself to hurt her?

Then he turned and saw Luo En standing off to the side, looking as though his entire worldview had been shattered.

Astraea’s father kept his face expressionless. His hand finally did land on the little elf’s pointed ear. The little elf fearfully shut her eyes, but the pain she had imagined never came—she only felt her sensitive ear being gently tugged by her father.

“You, you!”

Astraea opened her eyes to find her old father looking at her with an expression of bitter disappointment.

It wasn’t that he resented her for not living up to expectations—rather, he resented that she had exceeded them far too early.

The scene was less a father scolding his daughter and more an older sister playing with a younger one.

Astraea’s old father felt he must have raised a fake elf. Look at that big fellow beside them—clearly not an elf—who had pressed a longsword to his neck at a speed he couldn’t even follow.

After all, other elves her age were still studying introductory magic theory. How had his own daughter disappeared for two years at the drop of a hat, then come back having snatched up such a big man?

“If you have any excuses, go argue with your mother.”

The old father paid no attention to the sword at his neck, as if it didn’t exist.

And Luo En, who moments ago had thought Astraea was in danger, now found himself too embarrassed to know what to do. At any rate, after seeing that the little elf had come to no harm, Luo En sheathed his longsword.

The old father’s expression grew even darker. She found a man, fine—but why did it have to be such a dim-witted one?

Hearing her father’s words, Astraea looked about to cry. “No, Dad! Would you really bear to see your own daughter’s legs broken?”

“I would.”

“You! You—you—!”

“‘You’ what? No respect for your elders.”

“I—I-I-I…” Astraea was so flustered she couldn’t even speak. She struggled for a long moment before forcing out the rest. “I’m saying, watch out behind you!”

“Behind?”

The old father turned to look and saw a tall elf whose chest size rivaled Astraea’s.

Her slender brows were arched in fury, her face burning with anger, giving the old father quite a fright.

But the next moment, he remembered that the one who had run away from home was Astraea, not him, and he immediately relaxed.

“Little Aya, where are you going?”

“Luo En, let’s run!”

In the end, Little Aya still crashed.

Luo En hadn’t expected there to be such a master among the elves.

The moment he heard Astraea’s “run” signal, Luo En grabbed the little elf and bolted backward at full speed.

He was certain the entire process took less than a tenth of a second.

But before he could even take a step, he felt himself hoisted into midair by vines.

Dangling alongside him was the little elf who had wanted to escape from the very beginning—they had already returned to the elven village called Saienxier.

Yes, Luo En and Astraea had been strung up on a treant’s branches for the entire journey, thoroughly opening the eyes of the sheltered elven children in the village.

Many elves of Astraea’s size chattered noisily around the towering treant. Luo En, fluent in Elvish, could make out phrases like “Sister Aya got hung up again.”

So this wasn’t the first time the little elf had been carried home dangling from a tree?

Looking at the elven children surrounding the treant—their ages impossible to tell—Luo En made a few threatening faces, but they only drew a chorus of “giggle giggle” laughter.

They really weren’t much different from human children. Luo En wanted to see Astraea’s current expression, but all he could see was a little head turned away from him. The little elf couldn’t turn around while dangling, so he couldn’t see her face either.

After what Astraea considered a torturous several dozen minutes, they finally arrived at the little elf’s home, which she had been away from for two years—a wooden cabin growing on a tree.

The treant’s branches flicked, and Astraea and Luo En, bound in vines, flew into the sky.

Elven manned spaceflight—you can count on it.

At the peak of the arc, Luo En could even see the leaves atop the tall trees.

His limbs bound, Luo En felt somewhat panicked, but when he looked back at Astraea, he found her perfectly composed, seemingly even a bit nostalgic.

It seemed those elven brats had been telling the truth.

Then came the descent. Luo En struggled to maintain his falling posture, ensuring at least that he didn’t land headfirst.

Astraea was far more relaxed. She let herself spin freely in the air, even letting out a yawn.

“Relax, nothing’s going to happen~”

Seeing how frantic Luo En looked, the little elf could even spare a leisurely tone to comfort him.

But Luo En’s heart didn’t relax. Astraea would have her parents to protect her—who would protect him here?

Sure enough, just as she was about to land on the treehouse platform, a gentle force caught Astraea, setting her down safely.

Luo En received no such treatment. He could only, expressionlessly, slam hard onto the platform.