Elyra finished recounting everything she saw inside and outside of the dungeon for the Elf Queen, and her complexion was already getting pale from standing close to Arwen's aura.
Other than Elyra, no one approached the Elf Queen, but even from afar, Seth could see some people breathing hard and sweating a lot. Other than him and Rina, pretty much everyone was affected by her Evergreen Essence.
The people in contact with her aura, felt a heaviness they couldn't explain, weight down on their bodies. Some of them were already feeling weak on their knees.
It was obvious that the Elf Queen noticed that her Evergreen Essence was affecting everyone, since this has been a problem that accompanied her from the time that she received the World Tree Replica blessings.
"This is enough. I can somehow understand the big picture now. Elyra... You did a great job. After everything is resolved, I want you to meet me at the castle."
"I am honored to receive the Queen's compliment, but I didn't do things alone. That human male has been working together with me since the beginning. He has helped me gather all that info, using his mysterious abilities."
"I will take note of that." The Elf Queen dismissed Elyra and went towards Seth and Rina.
Seth had some time to reorganize his thoughts and push the memories of them together to the depths of his mind. He straightened his posture since he saw her approaching.
The Elf Queen stood right in front of them and said: "So, it seems the both of you already know each other..."
Seth didn't want to lie to her, so he opted to tell her the truth. However, he forgot that Rina had secretly fled from her home at that time.
"Well... We met each other the first time on the forest outside of the Ereinrith City."
Rina felt her mother looking towards her and refrained from doing any eye contact.
Seth realized his mistake after witnessing their behavior and almost face palmed. This entire situation has happened so quickly that he seemed to be stunned until now, making his thought process a mess.
"..." The Elf Queen chose to ignore it for now, since there were more important things to do.
"Seth, I want you to follow me for a bit."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Mother, he..."
"You don't need to worry. What we are going to discuss is not related with your situation."
"A-Alright."
Rina gave Seth a last look and walked away from there. She initially thought that her mother would do something to Seth, but it seemed they would be discussing about other things. However, that made her start to get curious, since her mother has never shown interest of talking with anyone.
The Elf Queen used her energy, making both of them disappear from that area very quickly. When Seth noticed, he was already standing far away from everyone. He looked towards the queen and didn't know how to properly react.
"Your Highness..."
"You can call me Arwen. I don't want to have man which I had a relationship with, calling me like that."
The Elf Queen was a very direct person, she went straight to the matter, bringing Seth's memories of them together back.
Seth was speechless, since most women would never bring themselves to talk about things of that topic, but the Elf Queen was someone very different, very straightforward.
"Sigh... Arwen. I never thought that you would be the Elf Queen." Seth released his worried and started to talk normally with her.
"If you knew, would you give up courting me on that day?"
"Hah! If I knew you were the Elf Queen, I would have made sure to cling to you and never release your thighs ever."
"Oh?" Arwen never expected to hear something like that.
"Heh... Who would ever let the opportunity to stay with such a gorgeous woman like you pass by?"
"After I inherited the Evergreen Essence and became the Elf Queen, I'm pretty sure no one dared to take that opportunity you say any longer."
"Heh, didn't know that elf males were a bunch of fools..."
"Fools, you say? Well, everyone got away from me, since they feared for their lives more than anything else. I kept receiving respectful stares from afar, but none had the courage to step in. Totally different from you..."
Seth noticed that she was trying to get somewhere with her words.
"You pushed things forwards, even though you already knew that I was not normal. You would've certainly not known about my real identity, but I have a hunch that you knew that I had a very powerful poison aura all along. Am I wrong?" The Elf Queen narrowed her eyes.
"Ahaha... You're a very intelligent woman. You're right, I knew about your poisonous aura, however, I didn't connect it to your real identity, since that aura in my eyes is very weak."
"Weak? My aura killed Rina's father in a single week. He was a Mana Sovereign cultivator that had inherited the strength of a poisonous beast..."
"Sigh... What should I say? In my eyes, your Evergreen Essence is not potent enough to do anything."
"..." The Elf Queen needed to understand some things, so she chose to expose Seth's secrets.
"Is that because of that crimson energy that you possess?"
"!!!" Seth didn't expect that she would know about the corrupted energy.
"How do you know about it?"
"At that time, one of the reasons I agreed to sleep with you, was because you were able to withstand my aura and that alone was incredible. However, I was the Elf Queen after all. Haven't you ever asked why did I invite you to participate in the Wild Games?"
"That is something I have always wanted to know." Seth replied.
"Very well, then I will tell you." The Elf Queen took out the crystal that had the droplet of water she used to test Seth's power at that time.
"The water inside this crystal is the dew that rests over the World Tree. It is something very pure, very clear, and therefore, very prone to get dirtied with some energies. That is why we store it inside these crystals. They are able to protect it from getting dirtied. However, that crimson energy is able to bypass the layer of protection and infect the water, turning it into this red water you are seeing right now."
"So, you mean that at that time, you already knew about my..."
"Yes. I already knew you possessed the energy that is infecting everything. We Elves call it "The Plague". I wanted to investigate more about it and that is the reason I invited you."
"Wait... How did you know about me, in the first place?"
"Paeris... His disciples carried a crystal similar to this with them. They were able to discover your irregularities at that time."
"Sigh... So, what do you want to know?" Seth couldn't believe he was so easily found out.
"You could start by telling me about your resistance to poison..."
Seth looked deeply towards the Elf Queen. He felt that these topics were very important to her, but it was very important for him too. If he told her anything, he would be inevitably exposing some of his most important secrets. He had to make a choice right now. He could trust her or not...
Seth closed his eyes and remembered everything he heard about her. He remembered the respect people had for her; how Rina described her and how was his first interaction with her.
At the end he decided to take the risk.
"My resistance to poisons is something I acquired after getting poisoned by that Synthetic Evergreen Poison. At that time, I was unconscious for some time, paralyzed by its effect. But when I woke up, I was already almost immune to everything."
"What kind of story is that, how is that even possible?"
"I don't know what happened or how that was possible. What I know is that it was a developed resistance, rather than a mythical thing. However, the method to develop that resistance is closely related to that crimson energy."
Seth closed his eyes and stimulated the Seed of Tyranny slightly. A crimson aura radiated from his body and at the same time his heart started to beat faster. He quickly undone that aura, since he felt, he was not prepared to use it yet.
"This is what you call "The Plague" right? However, I can tell you that it is not a plague or a disease. It is something else, something that I can't even describe properly to you. I can use it, but I can't control it. It's more like something vivid, something that wants to corrupt the being. Yeah... I would rather call it corruption."
The Elf Queen was paying attention to his every move. She even sensed his fears when using that ability. When he tried to tell her about it, she felt he probably didn't know what it really was.
Seth continued: "I was forced to inherit this energy, but I don't have idea what it is yet.. So, that is probably everything I can tell you."
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m