Chapter 159: Elf Kingdom (Part-4)

Looking a bit nervous and scared, Layla watches me as I leave the throne room along with everyone else. Even I am a little worried for her.

Why would the Elf queen want to talk to Layla privately? No matter how hard I think about it, I cannot figure out the reason. We couldn’t even ask the queen in case it might sound rude. And obviously, telling her ‘No’ was not an option.

But still, unlike what I expected, she didn’t even converse with me directly— much less ask me to stay back like Layla. I wonder why…

Meira leads us outside the throne room through a different door. I thought we would be leaving for a hotel now, but she doesn’t take us outside the tree-palace. Instead, upon entering a wide passage right outside the throne room, we walk up to an open lift that’s operated through magic. It’s basically a giant wooden disk that’s floating in the air with green-colored magic barriers around its circumference.

As we get close, the barrier parts itself, allowing us to enter while looking at it in awe.

“Floor 2,” Meira softly says after making sure that everyone is properly inside.

Smoothly and silently, the lift rises up. And in just a few seconds, we reach the second floor. Here, only Ilyrana, Leena, Zakira, Naomi, and Mia get off. Ilyrana’s room should be on this floor, and I guess there must be some VVIP rooms for the rest as well.

Anyway, it’s clear that the rest of us peasants cannot stay here. We will probably get some plain-ass rooms. Well, not that I mind it. Zakira will probably give me a tour of hers if I ask.

“Floor 97.”

This time, as we’re going to a much higher floor, the lift gets time to pick up speed. But the problem is—

Fuck! It is too freaking fast!

I almost lose my balance and start feeling dizzy as the lift starts to slow down again. Fortunately, we aren’t going down or… I don’t even wanna imagine what would’ve happened.

“Sorry, the default speed of the lift was set with high-level beings in mind. We lowered it a lot so that you guys could use it, but I guess we need to lower it further,” Meira says apologetically.

“No need! That wasn’t too bad at all! We can handle that much speed easily,” Debbie says while flexing her muscles proudly.

“Speak for yourself, idiot!” Aria snaps, glaring at Debbie hatefully while rubbing her butt. She’s the only one among us who actually fell down.

Going much slower now, the lift finally stops at the ninety-seventh floor. As we enter the corridor in front of us, Meira speaks again.

“You can find your names outside the room. Your luggage is already inside, so please make yourselves comfortable. And yes, do remember to come down to the second-floor half an hour later. Princess Ilyrana will be showing you around the city and she will also give you a tour of our renowned Magical academy,” she informs us before giving a polite bow and leaving through the lift.

…

“I am scared for Layla. Why do you think the queen asked her to stay?” Maya asks anxiously as everyone starts to search for their names.

Like almost everyone else, she looks quite intimidated after meeting the White Elf Queen and her attendant— two of the most powerful beings alive.

“No idea. We will have to wait for her to come and tell us,” I say, shaking my head.

Maya slowly nods before going ahead to look for her room as well. I follow behind her.

Hmm… there are two names in front of every room. Looks like everyone will have to share. Now, where’s mine…

After looking for a few more seconds, I finally find my room. And it doesn’t come to me as a surprise to see only my name written in front of it. As there are only three guys in our group— me, Leo, and Ryan— one of us was bound to get a personal room. And I guess I got lucky this time!

From the inside, the room looks similar to any other fancy hotel room. With a sizable bed in the middle, a large flat-screen T.V. mounted on the wall, a couple of wardrobes, a couch, and even a mini refrigerator— it is definitely not a plain-ass room as I was expecting.

Hehe… and here I thought they would make us sleep on a pile of leaves and whatnot.

As Meira said, my luggage is already here. But as I feel too lazy to change my clothes, I simply take off my shoes and lay down on the soft bed.

Sigh…

[Man, that Elf queen sure was pretty rude, wasn’t she? Though I have to admit, she is on another level power-wise]

…? What are you talking about?

{I somewhat agree with Pink, master. The queen was a bit rude, but I don’t think it was necessarily bad. Actually, it was fairly understandable.}

Huh…? That isn’t right. She was a bit odd, yes, but not rude. In fact, I think she was pretty polite with us.

[Oh, we’re not talking about how she spoke to you guys, buddy. It’s the fact that she secretly inquired into everyone’s systems.]

…

She did what!?

[Yup. You remember when she was staring at everyone one-by-one, right? Well, she was actually reading the details of everyone’s system. I think she much have a skill similar to your Beast System Read— but a lot more powerful.]

Wait, so she knows everything about my system now!? Is that why she raised her eyebrows while staring at me!?

{Not really, master. Pink and I managed to hide all the information before she could see anything. She probably got surprised because she couldn’t see it.}

Phew… I see. If it was right after the System Ceremony, I would’ve given anything to get someone like her to look at my broken system. But now, I have a strong feeling that it would be a bad idea.

By the way, for her to ask Layla to stay back after reading everyone’s system— doesn’t that mean that there’s something wrong with her system?

[Not necessarily wrong, but yes, I guess there must be something going on. If you want, you can ask Layla about it inside Rebecca’s barrier, or you can even use the System reading skill on her.]

{Hmm… I suggest you do the former, master. The System reading skill needs to be upgraded to level 2 before it can show you all the details. You might miss out on something.}

Yeah, and I kinda don’t want to look at my woman’s system without her permission. But if Layla refuses and things seem serious… well, let’s wait for her now.

To pass some time, I casually grab the remote from the nightstand and turn on the TV. An Elven news channel opens up. Not in the mood to listen to the news, I try to change the channel but the reporter’s frantic voice stops me—

<… very hard to believe this is happening! Another emergency USDCA meeting has been called! What makes this a very concerning matter is the fact that the last emergency meeting was called just over a month ago. The official statement says that the objective of this meeting is to discuss the recent changes in the WST, but people everywhere are growing more and more worried—>

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

As I was listening to the news so attentively, the sudden knock on the door makes me jump up in surprise. Though before I can even get up from the bed, the door opens up with a bang.

And standing there, looking absolutely panic-stricken, is Zakira.

“My dad is coming here tomorrow.”