Castle

I'm sprinting northward in the direction of the cross in the sky, as I had been for over a month. Day in, day out, it's all spent sprinting. Ever since I arrived on this island, all I've ever seen are the pesky Raging Rats and ruins with skeletons from one of the now probably extinct races.

It's lonely being the only person on an island of monsters. All I've done since I've arrived is sprint, sleep, and kill Raging Rats. There isn't any variety, making my life boring.

What am I supposed to do anyways?

Oh, what's that?

Off in the distance, a tall structure distracted me from my thoughts, grabbing my attention.

"A castle!"

I haven't seen any Raging Rats today either. Maybe that means this castle hasn't been damaged!

A once in a lifetime opportunity. Exploring a castle that belonged to a now gone race. How exciting!

The castle was twice as tall as Gabriel's mansion, standing tall up in the sky. Along with that, the castle was surrounded by four walls, a tower in each corner. What a stereotypical castle. Oh well. The castle was also extremely large. It would take me five minutes of running at top speed to run the distance of a single wall.

I ran up to a gate that stood in the main gate. It was a large wooden door in the middle of a stone wall that surrounded the castle. No way am I going to risk breaking it by pushing it open with force. I'll just hop over the wall instead.

I crouched down low, getting in position for the jump, then quickly sprang upwards as I pushed hard with my legs. It didn't take much effort to send myself flying right over the stonewall and onto the other side.

I froze as I landed on the other side, not daring to move a muscle. On the other side of the wall... was people.

Well, technically not people, but they looked extremely similar. They had long pointy ears and blonde hair. That was the only trait that they all shared with each other.

Elves?

They were all spread out, doing work amongst themselves. Some were gardening, others were taking care of animals, and the rest seemed to be guards maintaining the peace.

After a few moments of awkward silence where I quickly glanced from person to person as they all stared at me, they finally reacted.

"Who the hell are you!?"

In an instant, they all entered a battle position, glaring me down with their many eyes. Thankfully, they weren't aggressive towards me, as they haven't become red dots on my map. They must just be cautious.

I raised my hands above my head so as to not worry them about what I may do, and then I answered the male Elf's question.

"My name is Estelle. I'm a traveller from a far off land. If you don't mind me asking, could you tell me where exactly I am?"

"You are trespassing on the territory of Princess Elizabeth. Why are you here?"

"Like I said, I am a traveller from a far away land. As I was travelling through these Raging Rats infested lands, I came across this castle and decided to search for anything useful. If I had known there were still people here, I wouldn't have dropped in unannounced."

"People? We aren't people. We are Elves. Wait, you aren't an elf! What are you!?"

"I am a human."

"A-a human?"

Hearing my response, a look of shock, confusion, and fear shot through all of the elves, but none of them moved from their aggressive stance. If anything, they tensed even more for battle.

Slowly, a few red dots popped up on my mini map. Only three, and they were right next to each other, but that is still worrying. If just knowing I'm human makes them that afraid of me, what is going to happen next?

"What do you want here?"

"I don't want anything. If you wish for me to leave, I can leave right now. I promise I won't bother you again."

"No, we have no way to trust you. Humans are notorious for going back on their word. That's part of the reason these lands are infested with Raging Rats."

Humans did that? Damn.

"Well if you won't let me leave, what do you plan to do with me?"

The Elf stood there while seriously considering his options before finally coming to a decision.

"We shall escort you to Princess Elizabeth. She shall decide what we do with you. You three, restrain her."

Damn, the three he asked to restrain me are the ones who are aggressive on my mini map. They all approaches me with utmost caution as one of them pulled rope that had been hanging from a belt on his waist.

Once they had reached me, The first one began to tie the ropes around me. Once they were secure, he looked both of his comrades in the eyes, as if to send a message I couldn't hear. Unfortunately for them, I could tell what they were thinking.

Get her.

In the next moment, a sword was unsheathed from one of the female elves and she swung it down towards my neck. The other two had bows strapped to their backs. As soon as the sword was drawn, they both reached for their bows along with arrows.

Well, this probably won't end well for me, but I have two choices. Take the swing and risk a serious, but probably unlikely injury, or defend myself. While taking the hit probably wouldn't do anything to me, I'm still not willing to take that risk.

As the sword was only ten centimeters from my neck, I used my fire magic to burn the ropes around my wrists to ash, using air magic as a shield to protect myself from the flame. Once the rope had burned off, I grabbed the sword with my bate hand, stopping the swing in an instance. As for the arrows, I created a stonewall between me and them through the use of my earth magic, stopping them in their tracks.

I increased my grip on the sword until it snapped before I let go. The lady elf shuddered in fear as she realized my true power, but I didn't do anything. Instead, I only turned to look at the male elf I had been speaking to.

"So, where do we got to meet Princess Elizabeth?"