Arcanum: Chaos Path

Chapter 440 Let's try to salvage the Elf race
"Although the Elf Queen may not know much about the Western Continent, it doesn't matter. It's just something I did on the side anyway..." Roland muttered to himself. His main purpose in targeting Kavituva this time was to get a high-sequence marionette for Little K and to take over the resistance forces of the Five Seas. As for the rest, they were not important to Roland.

With this mindset in mind, Rowling leisurely finished the special drink from the City of Generosity that Little Amon had brought back. Then, he went with Little K and Little Amon to the rebels' secret stronghold. Using his extraordinary abilities, he sneaked in and took some things related to Kavituwa. After that, they arrived near the elven ruins located in the real world.

At this moment, the elven singer Shatas stood at the entrance of the ruins with a complicated expression. Her eyes were unfocused, filled with reminiscence, longing, and sadness.

Mobert paced anxiously beside her, his expression hesitant, clearly wanting to offer comfort but unsure of what to say.

"Good afternoon, Mobert, Shatas, thank you for waiting!" Rowling greeted them warmly.

"Good afternoon, Jack." Mobert Zoroaster breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Rowling and the others. He then looked at Rowling and said, "Jack, little Amon told us about your plans. It seems you want to use this ruin to locate the position of another ruin."

"More or less!" Roland smiled, then looked at the silent elven singer, Shatas, and asked, "Shatas, did you obtain the 'Book of Calamities' from this ruin?"

Upon hearing this, the elven singer Shatas's eyes sharpened instantly. She turned to look at Rolin and said, "So you knew all along."

She didn't tell little Amon about the existence of the Book of Calamities, since the book clearly came from the Elf Queen, and the Elf Singer Shatas was still very loyal to the Elf Queen.

“Of course I know. You don’t need to look at me so warily. I have no designs on it, nor do I need it.” Roland didn’t care about the elven singer Shatas’s attitude and said with a smile, “I have no ill intentions towards your queen. On the contrary, perhaps she needs my help more.”

Rolin raised his eyes, met the wary elven singer's gaze, and said with a smile, "Now that you understand the situation of this era, do you think you or the elven queen alone can guarantee the continuation of the elven race?"

The elven singer, Shatas, fell silent. Although she longed for the elven queen, she was not foolish. She had long since learned about the world's situation and the current state of the elven race.

So even if the elven singer Shatas didn't want to admit it, she had to admit that the elven race had long since declined and was even on the verge of extinction.

This situation is beyond her or the Elf Queen's ability to resolve.

"...And what can you do?" The elven singer, Shatas, asked without looking away, staring directly into the other's emerald green eyes.

"There's not much I can do, but at least I can ensure that the Elf race no longer has to worry about being hunted and can continue normally. Of course, the premise is that you can live in harmony with humans. If you secretly do things like enslaving or killing humans, then don't blame me for being ruthless."

Roland smiled and said that although he was basically on the side of humanity, it didn't mean that he had any prejudice against non-humans. After all, the idea of ​​extraordinary races enslaving humans was ancient history from thousands of years ago. Later, with the fall of the ancient gods of various races and the decline of extraordinary races, the grudges of that time had basically been settled. Now, the new generation of extraordinary races had basically no enmity with humans, and even if they did, it was because they were suppressed by humans.

Just as he could accept the existence of vampires, as long as they obeyed the law and didn't cause trouble, Rolin wouldn't mind helping the elves.

Moreover, the original elves were all transformed from Easterners, so for Roland, they were a sort of substitute, giving him a certain degree of affinity. This also served as a check and balance; Roland knew very well that although Storm Pigeon hadn't yet bowed down to the Sun God, it was only a matter of time. And once Storm Pigeon knelt, three of the seven major churches would be staunch supporters of the Sun God.

Of the remaining four churches, the Steam Church can be considered part of Rolin's faction because of Roselle, Lilith has also boarded Rolin's pirate ship because of the Mother Goddess, and the Church of the God of War will be swallowed up by the Goddess of Night sooner or later.

Although the Goddess of Night is allied with Rolin, she cannot be considered part of Rolin's camp. After all, the Goddess of Night also has a good relationship with the Sun God, so she stands on both sides.

In terms of power, it can be said that Roland is currently evenly matched with the Sun God.

In this situation, Roland naturally had to consider how to deal with the Sun God's underlings if they were to fall out one day. This is called being prepared for any eventuality.

There's nothing more to say about the Eternal Sun. Having received treatment from Rolin, it's certain that if Rolin wanted to, it wouldn't even be able to make a ripple.

Herabergen is a clever dragon, and because of his cleverness, he is, in some ways, easier to deal with.

As for the Lord of Storms, being the most notorious of the old pigeons, and being a Sequence 0 with a fiery temper, he is the one who gives Rolin the biggest headache.

But it doesn't matter. As the saying goes, fight fire with fire. It's likely that the hot-tempered elves and Storm Pigeon will have a lot in common.

As for whether the elves will break free from Rolin's control in the future, Rolin is not worried about that. If he can't even control a declining elf race, he might as well go home and continue to outwit and outmaneuver Nyarlathotep.

“You’re overthinking it. Elves may be short-tempered, but we’re not bloodthirsty. As for enslavement… I don’t deny that such things did exist in the past, but times have changed, and such things will never happen again.” The elven singer, Shatas, shook her head, her smile tinged with self-mockery and bitterness.

During the Second Age, the Elves did indeed enslave humans, or rather, humans of that era were essentially dependent on various extraordinary races for survival. Among these, the Elves were considered one of the more benevolent extraordinary races towards humans; at least they never ate people and even protected those under their rule from attacks by various monsters.

This was actually a common characteristic of several humanoid extraordinary races at that time. Compared to humans living in the kingdoms of demon wolves and dragons, humans who depended on elves and giants for survival, although they lived a more difficult life, still had a certain degree of guarantee for their survival.

The reason for this is simple: both the Elf King and the Giant King were once human. They were ancient gods transformed from humans. Although they were half-mad, they still had some feelings for humans, but these feelings had become very thin.

Perhaps for this reason, after the Sun God defeated all the ancient gods and led humanity to rise, the extraordinary races such as elves, giants, and vampires, although severely damaged, did not nearly perish like the dragons and dire wolves. Instead, many of them integrated into the human race. Therefore, there is actually a considerable number of mixed-race individuals among the humans today.

For example, Alger the Hanged Man of the Tarot Club has some elven blood.

(End of this chapter)