Elf Ranger

"Do you know him?" Roy asked in surprise.

Sabrina narrowed her emerald-green eyes and leaned closer, her translucent long ears nearly brushing Roy's face. A faint fragrance wafted from her.

"He's Jefferson's friend, though the two of them aren't particularly close. Pelius usually does petty theft in the Lower District, and Jefferson occasionally has him do things for him. I've seen him a few times. Moira, do you remember him?"

Moira leaned in as well, her delicate face looking exceptionally youthful.

If she had been a human girl, she would probably have looked only fifteen or sixteen!

There was even a faint layer of soft fuzz on her lips and cheeks, visible only up close. The way she pouted was utterly adorable.

"I haven't seen Pelius, but I've heard his name."

Moira shook her head as she spoke.

Sabrina immediately looked suspicious and asked, "Why are you looking for him?"

Only then did Roy explain, "On the morning the Holy Grail went missing, I saw him jump over the temple wall. I didn't think much of it at the time, but later I heard that the Holy Grail had been stolen. I suspect he was the one who took it."

"You suspect he stole the Holy Grail?" Sabrina found it hard to believe.

Then she realized that she actually did believe it a little, because Pelius was a Dark Moon Elf with three hands...

"Yes, it's only a suspicion. I'm not really sure, and I don't have any evidence." Roy admitted frankly.

Only then did Sabrina realize that the three of them were sitting far too close together. She quickly straightened up and moved her head away.

"You should report these clues to the Elf Rangers of the City Defense Guard," she said to Roy.

Roy scratched his head and said:

"It's only a suspicion, and I don't even know him. I can't exactly tell the Elf Rangers that I saw an elf jump over the temple wall that morning, while knowing nothing else about him. How useful could that be? I might even end up being summoned around by those rangers all day."

"Besides, I didn't know the temple had been robbed that morning. I can't claim he definitely stole the Holy Grail just because there were a few basil leaves stuck to his trousers..."

"I don't want trouble, and I don't want to falsely accuse a good person."

As Roy said this, he secretly glanced at Moira's suspender dress.

Compared with her sister Sabrina, Moira's skin looked somewhat duller, but it was even smoother.

"So you wanted to find him, confirm that he stole the Holy Grail, and then report him?"

Moira's eyes were very clear, still lacking that sort of wariness between men and women...

"No. I only wanted to give the portrait to the Elf Rangers and provide them with a clue," Roy said.

He had actually considered telling High Priest Reed about it, but thinking of the possible danger during the investigation, he decided to leave it to the Elf Rangers of the Guard Squad instead.

Only after hearing Roy say that did Moira relax. She nodded in agreement and said:

"Mm, don't take risks by yourself."

Her voice was soft and gentle.

Roy took the portrait home.

He planned to go to the Guard Squad the next morning and report the matter to the Elf Rangers.

Before going to sleep, Roy practiced Holy Blessing in his bedroom. Unfortunately, this elementary divine art was far more difficult than Holy Light Art.

Even by the time he fell asleep, he had failed to improve his casting success rate...

Priest Theodore advocated using magical items to simplify the procedures for casting divine arts and improve their success rate.

After suffering countless casting failures, Roy suddenly felt that Theodore's words made quite a bit of sense...

Lost in wild thoughts, Roy wrapped himself in his bed sheet and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, the drifting Holy Light Particles around his body were always seized by an invisible tentacle and swiftly absorbed into Roy's body.

A ray of sunlight passed through the window and fell on the wooden wall beside the door, leaving behind a patch of light.

The sea breeze blew open the cottage's gauze curtains. Accompanied by the cries of seabirds, Roy struggled out of bed.

When the weather was clear, Castleton Harbour resembled a magnificent sapphire.

Roy walked into the living room and discovered that Ms. Belinda, dressed in her nightclothes, was sitting at the dining table drinking a cup of flower tea brewed with dew.

"Why are you up so early? You could sleep a little longer..."

Belinda said to Roy.

"I couldn't sleep. I'm planning to head out early!"

Roy sat down opposite Ms. Belinda and replied.

Looking at the Tree of Life Sap in the cup, he felt that what it held was not merely a nutritional drink, but also Ms. Belinda's weighty love.

(This was a typo earlier, where it was incorrectly written as World Tree Juice. In fact, the previous chapter mentioned that there was only one five-thousand-year-old Tree of Life in Castleton City, in Chapter Three.) "What are you looking at? Why don't you drink it all at once?"

Ms. Belinda asked Roy with an indulgent expression.

"This cup of Tree of Life Sap was originally part of your allotment. I've always been drinking the Tree of Life Sap that belonged to you..." Roy said.

"Oh my! Is that all? Tree of Life Sap merely makes elves appear to age more slowly, but it doesn't actually extend one's lifespan. No matter how much sap I drink, how much younger could I become? But you're different. You're growing very quickly—you'll be an adult in half the time other children need. I don't want your childhood to pass in such a hurry. You still need to learn at Elf Academy. You can't look so much more mature than the other children."

Ms. Belinda explained to Roy.

Her tone was soft and exceptionally gentle.

Just as Mother Belinda had said, if the two of them went out together now, people would believe Ms. Belinda was Roy's older sister.

Though she was already an elven mother, no matter how one looked at that sweet face, it simply did not seem like it.

Roy held the cup filled with Tree of Life Sap and tipped his head back, draining it in one gulp.

After leaving home, Roy ran all the way out of Brown Street.

There was no City Guard station on Brown Street. The nearest Guard Squad station was on the docks of Castleton Harbour.

Roy needed to take a detour to the docks and hand Sabrina's portrait to the Elf Rangers there.

The docks were bustling in the early morning, filled with noisy voices.

Hundreds of vessels of all sizes were moored here. Some large Three-Masted Sailboats were docked side by side in the deep-water area, while even more large ships lay at anchor out on the sea surface, since the harbour could not accommodate so many ships.

The Guard Squad station was located by the deep-water harbour, likely to prevent those foreign sailors from causing trouble again.

At the fish market on the other side of the docks, several small fish stalls had been set up. Apparently, the tide had not yet come in.

When Roy arrived at the entrance of the Guard Squad station, he felt slightly nervous.

It was a two-story building beside the dock warehouses and the Grocery Store. Just inside the entrance was a tall counter, even enclosed by a wooden fence. There were probably rooms upstairs as well.

An elven woman in leather armor stood behind the counter and asked Roy, "How may I help you?"

Roy approached the counter and sat on a round stool. He first steadied his breathing, then introduced himself. "My name is Roy. I live at Brown Street Number Fifty-Seven. On the morning of last Saturday, I went fishing by the sea and happened to pass the temple... Later, I heard that the Holy Grail in the temple had been stolen. I suspected it was the elf who jumped over the wall. I still remember his appearance very clearly, so I asked my neighbor's older sister to draw a portrait."

Roy gave a rather detailed account of what had happened.

At that moment, several Elf Rangers entered from outside.

Whenever they saw Roy, they gave him an extra look.

The elven woman reorganized the sheets of paper in her hands, read through them carefully once more, then shook out her aching hand and replied to Roy, "I have recorded everything you said exactly as it was. But you must be responsible for your words. Are you certain all this information is true?"

"I'm certain." Roy pressed his right hand to his chest.

This was the gesture elves used when swearing an oath. Of course, the gesture alone had no effect like a Magic Contract. To make it binding, one needed a contract formation or a scroll.

The elven woman nodded, accepted the portrait from Roy's hand, and said, "Very well, leave the portrait with me. Thank you for providing this information. If we discover anything based on these clues, you will receive a reward."

Roy had not expected that providing information might earn him a reward. It was an unexpected delight.

"If there's nothing else, may I leave?"

"You may..."

The elven woman raised her head, glanced at Roy, and answered.

This was Roy's first time making a report. He was a little nervous, and his palms were sweaty when he walked out of the Guard Squad station.

Once the sea breeze blew over him, he felt much more relaxed.

Roy had two major classes at Elf Academy that morning: literature and history, and geography.

Each of these three subjects only had four classes per week. There was no Elementary Martial Arts Training today, while there would be no geography class tomorrow.

Roy had enrolled in Silver Moon Elf Modern History. Because he had gone to the Guard Squad station, he was a little late when he arrived at the academy.

By the time he ran all the way to the classroom, it was already filled with young elven students.

Seeing the classroom's layout, Roy finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At last, he saw what a normal classroom was supposed to look like. It was a large lecture hall, with all the seats arranged in rising arcs from low to high. At the lowest point of the room stood an arched lectern.

Roy entered the lecture hall through the side door. Seeing that the seats at the front were almost entirely occupied by young elves, he could only climb the steps toward the back.

He found an empty seat in a corner of the back row, then sat down, panting.

The Half-Elf beside him nodded at him but said nothing.

Roy hurriedly nodded back...

Roy then noticed that there were especially many female elves in the literature and history class, and most of them were Silver Moon Elves. The Half-Elves occupied only a corner at the back of the classroom.