Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Nell Bailey opened her eyes and gazed into the darkness that appeared as though daytime for her. She was beset by hunger and cold because she hadn’t eaten for days. As the second daughter of the third family in Carlesodar City, she wasn’t unfamiliar with this feeling. The Dark Elves were a race full of betrayal and conspiracies, where every family member craved to step on others’ shoulders and corpses in order to climb their way to the supreme throne—the number one family title and the position as the matriarch. These were the goals of the Dark Elves.
However, Nell wasn’t one of them because she was a ‘defective product’.
In history, Dark Elves escaped from the cruel Creation War and headed into the underground world. They broke off all their relations with nature, but their pride disallowed themselves to toy with soil and rocks like the Dwarves. They inherited keen magical senses from their distant relatives on the surface and still used the powers. However, this also brought them unimaginable situations.
The dark energy flowing in the deep underground merged with the Dark Elves over a long period of time, which caused their skin to lose the fair Elves appearance and be tainted by dark colors. However, none of this was important to them because it wasn’t only their skin that was tainted, but also their hearts and souls.
Using the strength of dark energy, the Dark Elves developed their unique magic civilization, which was evil, sinister, yet powerful. They were the closest users of dark energy and its most humble servants. Almost every family had powerful Mages as backing and only the females with the most powerful magical powers and keen dark energy stood a chance to become the matriarch, and they would then lead their family to the peak of glory. It was due to this that almost every female Dark Elves was a natural spell casters who grasped the energy of darkness and death.
Almost.
Because not every female Dark Elves possessed such talents.
Nell was one of them, unfortunately. She was evaluated to be without magical talents when she was born and she couldn’t sense the flow of dark energy. Not only that, but her skin also wasn’t as pitch-black as the other Dark Elves. On the contrary, her skin was pure white and this color had given her endless pains, where almost every Dark Elves ridiculed and mocked her. If it wasn’t for her mother and matriarch treating her as a curious plaything, perhaps she would have been offered as a sacrifice on the day she was born.
But she survived until now.
Due to this reason, she trained insanely. She didn’t possess magical powers, but she still had a pair of hands to work her way through. Shortly after, she rose above others and became the most outstanding warrior in her family. If it wasn’t for the fact that there were no precedents in the history of the Dark Elves, Nell was confident that she would replace that foolish male and become the first female martial arts chief.
But she was also aware that it was impossible.
In the society of the Dark Elves, magic was everything. Sword-brandishing warriors would never be respected and only the lowly male Dark Elves would take on this duty. They were merely the blades and shields to the females and mothers in eliminating threats. On the other hand, a female Dark Elf like Nell who had the blood of nobility flowing in her wouldn’t degrade herself to join the ranks of the lowly slaves even if darkness abandoned her.
She grew stronger, but realized that she wasn’t compatible with the society of the Dark Elves. She wasn’t respected for her strength and was mocked and humiliated by other Dark Elves just like when she was young. She was furious and often tossed about in bed imagining herself slashing the throats of those who looked down on her and hearing their dying howls.
But in the end, her revenge failed. Perhaps sensing the disharmonious flame burning deep inside her daughter’s heart, Nell was offered as a part of the transaction to the Undead Creatures by her mother, where she represented her family and led several male Dark Elves to the surface and became the humble subordinates of ‘The Spirit Chaser’ Balende. This was almost the first opportunity for many Dark Elves to reach the surface. The nobles in the Country of Darkness looked down on the losers who hid in the deep underground and treated the Dark Elves as allies that could be utilized. On the other hand, the Dark Elves were also aware that if they disappointed the Undead Creatures, all the hard work that they had established in the underground would vanish in a puff of smoke. Therefore, in the dark underground world, almost every Dark Elves family sought assistance from the Undead Creatures on the surface in order to secure their positions. Nell’s family obtained the ruling rights to Carlesodar City because they were the servants to one of the four legendary generals. However, her living experiences in theCountry of Darkness made her aware that all these weren’t important. If one brought more benefits to the four legendary generals, the latter definitely wouldn’t mind swapping their supporters. There were many times when the undead families encouraged their supporters to massacre one another in order to serve themselves better.
Living in the Country of Darkness wasn’t any better than the underground for Nell. In the underground, at least some of the Dark Elves were terrified of her as the second daughter of the third family and simply ridiculed her. But she learned what the true meaning of actions speaks louder than words in the Country of Darkness. The flowery speech between the Dark Elves was a waste of time to the undeads and they lacked the desire that all living beings had. Nell couldn’t comprehend their train of thought at all. She witnessed some of the female Dark Elves who were loved by their families slaughtered and turned into Corpse Slaves by the Liches, Vampires, and even Death Knights. Everything was simply because they didn’t adapt quick enough to obey the undeads due to the arrogance that they had developed living in their families. When they realized that they made a huge mistake, it was all too late and their flowery speeches to spare their lives was meaningless to the undeads.
Whenever the slaughters happened, Nell watched quietly from the side because this was a common punishment for the pampered ‘princesses’ who thought that they came to the surface as important allies and peacemakers. But in fact, they were nothing more than slaves and humble servants to the Undead Creatures and died because they couldn’t understand this point. However, Nell would never be one of them. She had learned to live humbly in the underground, which was why she adapted to the life in the Country of Darkness and earned Balende’s trust quickly.
Nell came here only for one mission—the overlord of this territory had enraged Balende and killed his subordinate. Although this wasn’t a huge problem, this piece of news had spread in the Country of Darkness and embarrassed Balende. Therefore, he sent Nell to kill the young overlord in order to warn others not to doubt the four legendary generals’ prestige.
But, she failed.
It was apparent the enemy was ready for her. When Nell led her men and sneaked up to the fortress, she was bombarded by earth-shattering magic spells before she had even thought of a way to enter and the four elites that she brought along died instantly. The two Mages were too powerful. Even though they appeared to be ordinary, fragile, and lowly human females, Nell was sure that even her matriarch wasn’t as powerful as them.
Nell almost died to the magic spells too. However, her skin color saved her life. After discovering her fair skin from under the cloak, the two young ladies were astonished. Then, they captured and threw her into the cell. Nell didn’t know what kind of treatment she would receive. In the Country of Darkness, she heard a lot of rumors regarding the residents of the Light Mainland. They were kind (this term definitely wasn’t commendatory in the Darkness Mainland), foolish, cowardly, and at the same time scheming and despicable. Nell recalled the history lessons that she attended in the Dark Elves school, where it talked about the shameless surface Elves forcing the current Dark Elves into battle in order to save pure Elf bloodline. In the end, the current Dark Elves broke free from the enslavement of their companions and went into the underground to live the life that they dreamed of. However, Nell had never forgotten the cruel, evil acts of the surface Elves, which had forced them to escape from the ugly surface engulfed in flames.
That was a price that they had to pay.
So what about the humans?
Nell heard rumors about humans and also saw several human slaves in the Country of Darkness. They were indeed fragile, naive, and full of desires. But now, she had fallen into the hands of this shameless race, which left her extremely anxious. She puckered her brows and waited for her sentence. Even though she didn’t understand the customs of the Light Mainland at all, the meaning of prison, manacles, and leg-irons were the same everywhere.
At this moment, she heard footsteps as though a group of people were coming toward her cell. The footsteps became increasingly louder and finally stopped behind her door. Then, the door opened and glaring torches hanging on the wall shone into her pitch-black cell.
The bright radiance forced her eyes shut and she turned around…
