My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

Chapter 40: Elder Everwood

The heavy cedar door clicked shut behind them, sealing the room in an oppressive, dead silence. The vanguard captain stepped forward, his boots quiet against the dark wood floor, and bowed his head deeply toward the emerald-robed figure by the window.

"Elder Everwood," the captain said, his voice taut with suppressed urgency. "We have a sort of situation from the southern border trail. We passed the council session on the vanguard captain’s authority. This matter requires your immediate oversight."

Everwood didn’t move for a long, agonizing beat. Then, with a slow, deliberate fluidity, he turned around.

He was a striking specimen of ancient elven nobility, carrying an aura that felt as heavy and unyielding as the roots of the world tree itself. His face was a mask of flawless, sharp angles, entirely unmarred by age despite the centuries of authority humming in his baseline mana. His eyes were a piercing, luminescent silver, reflecting the ambient starlight of the room like polished mirrors. A faint, intricate tattoo of golden thorn-vines crept up the left side of his neck, disappearing beneath a jawline that looked chiseled from marble. He didn’t radiate hot, volatile power; instead, his presence was a cold, dense gravity that seemed to siphon the oxygen straight out of the room.

The captain didn’t wait for permission. He reached out, his gauntleted hand roughly grabbing the collar of Vince’s cloak and pulling it down, forcing Vince’s head slightly forward to expose the side of his face.

"Look at his ears, Elder," the captain whispered sharply. "No mana core. No native signature. A magicless human, captured deep within our sovereign territory."

Vince kept his gaze steady, his purple eyes tracking Everwood’s expression with razor-sharp focus. He expected the typical reactions—the blind panic of the border guards or the fanatical disgust of the purists who had tried to burn him at the stake in his past.

But Everwood’s silver eyes didn’t widen with dread. He didn’t flinch.

Instead, a profound, chilling curiosity flickered across the Elder’s sharp features. His gaze narrowed, locking onto Vince’s curved ears with an expression of deep, ancient knowing. It was the look of a scholar finally seeing a theoretical catastrophe manifest in the flesh. He wasn’t surprised that a human existed; he was hyper-aware of the hidden mechanisms that governed their world. He knew exactly what this meant.

The ancient pact between elves and humans had just been shattered.

"I see," Everwood murmured, his smooth voice entirely devoid of panic. He looked away from Vince, his silver eyes landing coldly on the three vanguard soldiers. "You did well to bring him directly to me instead of causing a scene in the grand foyer."

"Should we prepare a maximum-security containment cell in the lower roots, Elder?" the captain asked, stepping back. "The Queen’s paladins—"

"No," Everwood interrupted flatly, raising a single, elegant finger to dismiss the thought. "Leave him here. Return to your stations at the checkpoint and speak of this to absolutely no one. I will take it from here."

The vanguard captain hesitated for a fraction of a second, looking at Vince’s heavy iron shackles, before bowing again. "By your command, Elder."

The three guards turned on their heels and marched out of the study, the heavy cedar door locking automatically behind them with a solid, echoing click.

Vince stood in the center of the room, the heavy iron chains jingling softly as he shifted his weight. He didn’t look like a prisoner facing execution; his posture remained completely relaxed, his cold, analytical mind already dissecting the layout of the office and the exact baseline metrics of the elf standing before him.

Everwood slowly walked away from the arched window, his emerald robes sweeping gracefully across the floorboards until he stopped exactly three paces away from Vince. He didn’t reach for a weapon, nor did he invoke a high-tier fire catalyst. He simply observed, reading Vince like a complex ledger.

"You don’t look like a spy," Everwood stated calmly, his silver eyes boring into Vince’s purple ones. "A spy would have woven a high-tier illusion matrix to conceal his anatomy. A spy would have had a baseline mana signature to blend into the market crowds. You walk into the throat of the capital’s defense lines entirely bare. Tell me, human... did you stumble across our borders by foolish accident, or did you deliberately throw a rock at the scouts just to secure a high-speed escort into my chambers?"

Vince’s lips curved into a faint, smile beneath the shadow of his messy hair. He let the heavy chains drop forward slightly, his voice returning in a cool, level deadpan.

"Walking here would be bad for my stamina," Vince replied smoothly, meeting the Elder’s piercing gaze without a single hint of fear. "A secure, high-speed transport seemed much more efficient. Especially since your southern borders are about to be turned into a graveyard in less than forty-eight hours."

Everwood’s brow ticked upward slightly, the curiosity in his eyes deepening. "An arrogant human. Bold words for a creature currently bound in mana-suppressing iron."

"These cuffs are designed to restrict a magical core," Vince noted, subtly twisting his wrists so the heavy metal clinked together. "I don’t have one. To me, this is just heavy jewelry. If I wanted to paint this room in elite blood, Elder, I wouldn’t have raised my hands on the trail."

Everwood intensified his Aura

[WARNING: Hostile intent detected]

" I strongly advice you to watch your tongue."

Everwood warned.

With the system notification and the cold chill Vince felt along his spine, he leaned forward just an inch, his purple eyes flashing with a dangerous, razor-sharp focus. "The Dread Commanders have officially crossed the southern provincial lines. They’re moving fast. You can waste your time questioning me, or you can wait here till you realize that this magicless human is the only tactical asset you have if you wish to avoid chaos or at the very least reduce the damage."

"Is that your pitch? Attempting to save your skin by empty statements about you being valuable?... don’t make me laugh"