Chapter 603 The Elvish Capital Church
The night quickly passed by, and the morning came. Tens of full carriages lined up at the village's entrance, getting ready to travel across the land to the elvish kingdom.
"Why the elvish kingdom?" A man sighed, his breath freezing in the cold.
"Baron's Arad wife is an elf, that's why," A woman replied, "They said he's going to take care of getting us there and back."
"Can he really move us all?"
****
As the people talked, they saw Arad walking out carrying a massive mirror, reflecting the faint sunlight coming through the clouded sky.
"What is he doing?"
"Who knows?"
Arad walked toward the street and looked back. Gojo walked after him with a massive shovel, pushing the snow out of the way with one scrap.
Thud! Arad put the mirror down, making sure to push it down until the lower frame got completely buried.
"The wooden frames are here," Jack walked in, dragging long wooden beams.
"Hold a minute." Arad pushed the mirror even deeper into the ground, making sure it sank at least 0.3 meters [One foot.]
He then tapped its corner, causing it to flash with a blinding light and turn into a shade of grey.
Jack pushed one of the wooden beams into it, and it went in without a problem. He then sat the beams on the ground to make something the carriage wheels pushed on so they wouldn't break the frame.
"Do we really need to do this?" Gojo tapped the frame with his hand, "I doubt I could crack it."
"It's not that much work, and I don't want to risk it failing," Arad replied, helping Jack line the beams as Gojo held the Mirror in place.
After lining all the beams, they quickly build a frame to support the mirror's back, "It's read! Drive the carriages into it, and you'll get to the elvish kingdom on the other side." Arad called with a smile, waving his hand.
The people stared at him with skeptical gazes, unable to believe it. They heard of teleportation magic, but that thing was too expensive and consumed a ton of mana that it was out of commoners' use.
"Are you serious?" A man mumbled, "Even so, won't that be illegal? Going to another country without passing a checkpoint?"
"Don't worry. There is a checkpoint at the other side." Arad tapped the mirror.
At that moment, an elvish woman donned in plate armor extended her head out of the window. "Holy lemons! It really works," She gasped, "This place is so low on..." She noticed Arad's face beside her, glaring at her.
"Hello, Baron Arad." She said with a scared face, looking back at him with sweat dripping across her forehead.
"Didn't I tell you it's dangerous to go through if carriages are about to pass?"
"Come on, Baron Arad." She tried to explain, "It was just set. There would be no one..." At that moment, Dalla poked her head out beside the elvish soldier.
"You're here? I found a nice slapable butt on the other side," Dalla stared at her with a smile. "Get back to your post before I slap you,"
"Yes!" The elvish soldier cried, rushing back to her post.
"Just got here. Everything is clear on the other side so get them to move."
"I know. Make sure no one gets in the way," Arad nodded as he approached the carriage.
"One after the other, drive through the mirror. On the other side, you'll find yourself at a checkpoint by the elvish soldiers. You don't need any identification, they'll just scan you with an appraisal orb that detects criminal acts like the one used by the church." He clapped his hands.
"Don't worry about the result as the orb has been modified to only give a beep when a certain threshold of crime has been detected. Even the apprising soldiers won't know if you stoke a bag of rice ten years ago or not."
The people looked at each other.
Arad waved his hand, "Hurry! I want to start the ceremony as early as possible. In compensation, I can bring you back at any time you want for the next two weeks."
"Wait," A young adventurer who was going to the ceremony with his family gasped, "So we can go to the ceremony for today, then spend two weeks there before returning if we wanted."
"That's right, but I also hope you'll make time to attend the other weddings as well," Arad replied to him.
"I needed a new sword. And I heard the elves make amazing rapiers." He smiled, "I need to check them out."
"Man!" A woman cried, "Hurry and bring the money! We aren't wasting this chance,"
Arad looked at them as they panicked. He thought, "Won't this make me money later?"
"It will," Jack replied, "We need to talk about it with the elvish queen, but we can make a safe instant link between the human kingdom and the elvish kingdom for trade and tourism using this mirror. The money would flow like rivers."
"I would still need to pay a part of it to the elvish kingdom for the upkeep of the checkpoint and their share." Arad replied, "I'm sure I'll have to do the same here, but since it's on my land, I'll be paying myself."
"I'm sure Luminance would ask for a share." Gojo added, "Still, I think it's a solid investment for passive income."
"I'll give Roberta a monopoly on the trade and Sara a monopoly on the underground trades." Arad added, "The elvish queen suggested that the illegal market should be controlled by the royal court to make sure it doesn't get out of hand."
"Trying to block people from it will always lead to more black markets appearing everywhere." Jack sighed.
"So it's better to go with it," Gojo smiled.
****
The carriages rode past the mirror, landing at the checkpoint where the elvish knights stopped them for inspection. It was quick but not without trouble.
A husband was found to have cheated on his wife five times with their neighbor's wife. Funnily enough, she was also caught cheating with the same neighbor. They both cheated on each other with the same neighbor and his wife, who was also caught in the inspection. This revelation almost sparked a fight at the checkpoint, but the two families decided to keep it down and solve it later so they were allowed through.
A man who murdered his brother fifteen years ago was caught and sent back for trial in Alina.
Arad was appealed by how the orb worked. It checks the person's soul for guilt first, and if it detects it, it then cross-
references it with the land spirits to see to which god the person in question believes. The god will then respond to Sylph, the elvish goddess who made the orbs with the man's deeds.
Of course, their god can refuse to answer or lie. Which usually causes people who believe in evil gods to pass with flying colors. The god of murder for example won't count murder as an evil deed, but that one is dead, so the murderer got caught.
As the guests fully moved to the elvish capital, the soldiers led them toward inns where they could stay for the duration. As most of them can't speak elvish, a knight was left with each family, making sure they got around without any troubles.
Zephyr flew out of Aella's mansion, stretching her arms as she flew around, looking for Arad, who left earlier.
A man saw her. His screams filled the whole capital. "It's the wind spirit!"
Elves rushed from all of the capital toward Arad's mansion, seeking to see the spirit.
"What's going on here?" Aella looked out of the window.
"I'll go check it out," Eris walked out to the garden, seeing Zephyr hiding behind the fences.
"What's going on here?" Eris asked, and Zephyr stared at her with a sad face. "Humans rarely remember me, but elves who lived for hundreds of years never forgot me. Each time I'm spotted, it ends like this."
"I'll call the guards to kick them out," Eris took Zephyr back inside the mansion and called the guards.
****
Arad walked into the main church of the Elvish capital, seeing people rush around with the preparations. Some cleaning, and the other setting of the stand and rails.
A halfling dangling from the goddess's statue hand, cleaning it with a towel.
"Sir Arad," The head priest approached him, "As you see, we're almost done with the preparations. We can hold the ceremony afternoon."
"It's a beautiful church," Arad said, looking at the engraved marble walls, and the massive colored glass window behind the giant opal statue of the elvish goddess. He especially liked the high ceiling, which was almost twice anything that he saw in any other place.
"It is," The priest replied with a smile on his face. "This church was built five hundred years ago by the goddess herself in the divine war." He looked at the statue with the sunlight passing through the windows behind it.
"Yggdrasil, the world trees keep growing. With each passing year, it blooms with emerald flowers, and if we're lucky, it sprouts fruit." He took a step forward, "Sometimes, it's a Miko, and other times, it's a really sour lemon or a lime."
"Why lemon and lime?"
"Yggdrasil was a lemon tree, mimicking the golden hair of the elves. Until the goddess thought it would be funny if it sprouted a green line like the Elves' eyes. And so the tree started doing that." The priest explained.
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