The King's Bizarre Garden and the 88 Elves
Throughout the meal, King Bardorf boasted about the World Tree Garden he had crafted in imitation of the World Tree itself, and after the banquet we were personally guided to the World Tree Garden by him.
“Right there.”
“......”
The moment we stepped out of the palace corridors, another world unfolded before us...
No...
A garden that looked as if it had simply transplanted the entire elven forest into existence stretched out in front of us.
Trees and plants that grew only in the forest were transplanted here exactly as they were, making it believable that this place was truly an elven forest...
“How is it? Hahaha, it took ten full years just to create this. The cost was enormous, so to me it’s like Treasure Number One.”
It was indeed a magnificent sight, as grand as the World Tree itself.
Although it was not the real World Tree, in the center of the garden stood a single tree that resembled the World Tree very closely,
and around it, an artificial stream had been created by channeling the clear water straight from the nearby mountains.
Moreover, the trees planted throughout the garden displayed tools and garments actually used by the elves themselves,
and I wondered whether I should ask the King of Bardorf why such items were here, but his face was twisted with an eerie, lascivious smile as if someone had bewitched him, making it impossible for me to inquire with a bad feeling.
“Lady Lowell, how do you like it? Living in such a garden isn’t a bad idea, is it?”
In accordance with his words, standing in this garden itself felt as comforting as having returned home after a long time, which was not a bad thing at all...
yet for some reason, the very intent behind why he had built a garden like this in the palace made me suspicious and uneasy.
“Your Majesty, Her Highness the Grand Duchess is on her way to the Empire under the command of Her Imperial Majesty. Therefore, it will be impossible at the moment.”
“Ah! Of course! Once things in the Empire are settled, you should come visit sometime...”
There he goes again...
The sight of him blushing, grinning lewdly, and gazing at me with cloudy eyes while speaking of the future made me feel not just uncomfortable, but a chill ran down my spine, and I desperately wanted to leave this place immediately.
“Grand Duchess, are you feeling unwell?”
“Ah... No. I must be tired.”
Alex, who noticed my expression was off, asked me with concern...
“Lady Lowell! Are you feeling poorly? I shall immediately have the maids prepare a room.”
King Bardorf...
he was also fussing about, issuing orders to the head maid.
*
Upon entering the room prepared by the maids, I collapsed onto the bed from the exhaustion of travel.
Moreover, having seen King Bardorf’s disgusting face just moments ago, my stomach churned... I could not get up from the bed...
“Go wash up and lie down... Even as an elf, why are you so filthy.”
Splat!!
As I lay in bed, Cariel approached, and when she poked at me again, I answered with a honey-basted palm strike.
“I... don’t hit my head, okay? Ciiiii...”
Cariel stroked my head while glaring at me with her axe-like eyes, and I stuck out my tongue to add more insult.
“Huu... Ever since I arrived here, the elves’ stench keeps vibrating... What bad luck.”
“Are you talking about me?”
“No. Near the garden, there was a vibrating stench like you, a dirty, lowly elf. Couldn’t you smell it?”
At the word ‘elf’ that reached my ears while I was still considering another honey-basted strike, I dropped the idea and asked Cariel what it meant.
“What do you mean? Elves?”
“You really couldn’t smell it. At least fifty? Up to a hundred? Anyway, there were tons of them. The elves.”
“Are you saying there are elves in this palace?”
“Yeah.”
At first, it was strange to receive elven forest cuisine that humans could never taste here,
and the fact that all the plants in the World Tree Garden were ones that only grew in elven forests, combined with the presence of nearly a hundred elves in a palace inhabited solely by humans—without a single word to me—made the suspicion almost unbearable.
****
Moonlight streamed through the high buildings of the palace, making the dew-covered blades of grass in the World Tree Garden and the artificial stream sparkle...
King Bardorf, wearing only his golden robe, leaned his back against the artificial World Tree and waited for someone.
“Your Majesty, we have brought them.”
When the palace guards reported, through the door they had opened came women wearing identical slave collars...
These women had various hair colors—blonde, blue, green, brown, and more—diverse as could be,
and from the long side-swept hair sprouted long, pointed ears that made anyone recognize them as elves.
“Huhuhu... As always... Beautiful, no matter how many times I see them... Huhu...”
These elven women stood in a neat line before the King, arranged so that all of them could be seen at once.
They were the King’s slaves...
In the late hours when his lust peaked, they would come here and let him embrace them to satisfy his desires.
Of course, none of them wanted to remain as the King’s playthings,
but the slave collar around their necks controlled their magic, spirits, and even their very actions.
Moreover, if they tried to escape the King, the magic on the slave collar would bring them excruciating pain,
and so they could never stray far from the palace; they were quickly caught by the guards.
“Huhuhu... I hope the blondes are here today...”
Among the eighty-eight elves present, King Bardorf pointed only at the blondes and gestured for them to come forward,
and some elves came out on their own when called, but the blondes who remained silent were approached by the guards and forcibly dragged out.
“Please spare me!! I’ve only just passed my coming-of-age ceremony!!”
“What!? Then I’m even better! Khrhuh.”
At the words of a blonde elf, King Bardorf shot to his feet from his seat and forcibly yanked her hand to his side...
“Your Majesty... Th-that girl is the youngest among us elves... Please... another elf instead...”
None of the other elves wanted to be replaced by this young one and sent into the monster’s embrace.
But Cariel, who had stepped forward as their representative, approached the King’s side without hesitation despite not being blonde, in order to rescue the young elves.
“Tch, of all people, you again.”
Cariel...
the first elf slave he had purchased and the eldest among the elves here, who would gladly offer her own body if it meant protecting all of them.
Even now, upon realizing that the young elf who had only just arrived would be tonight’s opponent for the King, she willingly came forward and began undoing the dress strings, but his lascivious smile and already distant eyes suggested she had no chance of being saved.
“You stay there. I need to play with these two today.”
Cariel’s sister’s dream of saving the young elf had shattered, and she stayed in place desperately trying to catch the King’s gaze,
but ultimately, aware of the guards’ eyes, she returned to her position.
“Khrhuh... You two play with me today. Khrhuh...”
“W-we’re sorry. I’ll do anything... Please, let me go...”
“Anything? Then tonight you’ll be my bed partner.”
At this point, even if Cariel or the other elves wanted to save her, there was no other way.
This young elf, barely twenty years old...
even by human standards she might be an adult, but in the long-lived elf reckoning, she was little more than a child...
“Do you know who came to this palace today, pretty one?”
“Yes...?”
The King, who had been groping the flesh of various blondes, suddenly stopped and began to tell the young elf everything that had happened that day.
“An elf just like you came here. That hero party member Lowell. Khrha ha ha. No, wait. She’s a high elf, so she must be higher up than you guys, right?”
“....!!! ”
Hearing that the hero party member Lowell was inside this palace, the elves gathered in the World Tree Garden began to stir,
and even Cariel, their eldest, looked startled upon hearing the name.
“From the soft, shiny blonde hair to those glittering golden eyes and skin as white as melting snow... Sluuurp.”
As King Bardorf described the first high elf he had met today, the renowned hero party member Lowell, he wiped the drool from his lips and continued, sweeping the blonde hair of the elf beside him.
“If only you were Lowell... Huhuhuhu...”
King Bardorf was satisfied with the elf in his arms being blonde, but when he looked into her blue eyes, disappointment washed over him...
“Haaa... Lowell’s eyes were truly a beautiful golden color... Just like my personal slave, a beautiful golden color...”
He stirred his golden robe as he recalled Lowell’s eyes, and with every stir, the elves before him were forced to witness his hideous bare skin.
“Oh!!! Yes!!!”
Suddenly, a thought flashed through the King’s mind; he shot to his feet and hurled the young elf beside him aside like a toy.
“Hey!”
“Yes.”
“Where is the room Lowell is staying in?”
“The easternmost room at the end of the palace.”
“Really? Khrhuhuhuhu...”
The King’s face, which had been rigid when giving orders to the guards, slowly twisted into a lascivious smile upon hearing about Lowell’s room, as if he had some scheme up his sleeve...
“By now she should be sleeping. Khrhuhuhuhu.”
Muttering to himself, the King left the elves in the garden and began walking toward the room where Lowell was supposedly sleeping,
and the lascivious laughter he let out as he walked made even the guards escorting him shiver.