74 Eliana Shadowsong (1/2)
Unfortunately, the elders did not take me up on my offer.
”It is quiet a generous offer, Mr. Maxwell, assuming that you can do what you have said. We are afraid that we have to decline, nevertheless. The longer we are to remain here amongst the living, the longer we must wait until we are allowed to be reunited with our Goddess. She has given us life, and it is only right for us to return it to her when our spirit is judged.”
Eliana points out. She seems to be the leader despite being the youngest elf in the room.
The other elders nod in agreement.
I shrug in response.
It isn't like I couldn't get what I wanted another way.
Thefts are not below me, especially when they don't really know what has been stolen. I can duplicate anything with my power, so it isn't really like stealing.
Plus, my power to freeze time allows me to have basically free for me.
”In that case, what do you want to talk to me about?”
I question.
”We only wish to know your intention, Mr. Maxwell. We remain very sceptical of what Elune has told us about you and your world. It is not unheard of for one of us to become a summon to others, but as children of the Goddess herself, we believe that becoming a servant to humankind, regardless of the human is heralded from is a punishment.”
Oh. I guess that makes sense. I take note that she specifically refers to humankind.
Elune is a very proud person, I mean elf, so she wouldn't want to be a summon of another, especially a human considering their very long and bloody history.
Our own bloody history indicates what usually happen when we come in contact with other humans, let alone a completely different species.
Furthermore, my time as Emperor of a Galactic Empire confirms that human is xenophobic by nature. It will be hard to change this ingrained perception, but I will take it slowly this time around.
I prefer not to commit genocide on a galactic scale again. Some of those aliens are very capable military commanders, and they are currently waiting for me to come and get them. I hope they all used their knowledge of the future wisely.
Despite not wanting to be a summon to a human, Elune really has no choice in the matter since her Goddess has demanded of her.
By her Goddess, I mean Terra.
The Goddess of Moon is missing in action for the last 5 millennia from what I am told.
I think the Goddess is either dead or imprisoned. I could jump back in time to check, but remembering what happened with the dragon, I rather not until I have the magic and spirit to stand up to an actual Goddess.
Gods and Goddesses should be more powerful than dragons in term of hierarchy. All I have to go on is stuffs I have read back in the prime universe and what Elune tells me.
Elune is not sure of how powerful the Goddess in term of scale that I can comprehend. She just knows the Goddess is powerful since she creates the world and the elves, not just the dark elves, the elves in general.
There are blood elves, night elves, high elves – yeah, basically Warcraft.
Although I can break the contract and set Elune free, I don't want to.
Elune is mine! For now! And for all of time!
I win her by right of combat. I have even asked Elune about the consequences of losing to me before I cut her in half with a laser beam. It is her fault for being too proud to admit to herself that there is a good chance that she might lose.
Besides, it isn't like I have treated Elune badly or anything of the sort.
Even if she resented the fact that she is my servant, in mind, body and soul, she will eventually come around to it.
I just need to know what buttons to push her.
Everyone has some sort of buttons that I can push. Most of the people wants wealth and power. Some just want someone to love them unconditionally like Sandra Bullock.
”My intention is to learn as much as I can about your world and your people. I am an explorer of sort, so I like to learn about new and wonderous thing. Since your people, the dark elves are only myth and legend on my world, it is quite surprising and interesting to me to learn about your people. Also, I am very interested in magic. Elune might have told you that my world doesn't have any.”
The elders confirm that Elune did.
We exchange a bit more information, mostly about my world and the magic of science. Although the elders aren't interested in building skyscrapers out of metal and glass since that would definitely hurt the land and mother nature, they are keen on learning about my society and how it has functioned.
”There are billions of people on your world? And they are all humans? How have they not killed each other already?”
Eliana question. She is very surprised by this fact.
Her world, Azula is filled with all manner of fantastical creature.
According to what I know of the geography of this world, there are only about a few thousand of elves living in the forest. Hundreds of thousands of humans in the surrounding Kingdoms and Queendoms.
There are total a few million of people in the entire continent, excluding monsters and subspecies like Goblins and Trolls.
Even adding them all together, the population of the whole continent doesn't even exceed a hundred million, let alone a billion.
I am unsure if there are other continents until I get some satellite in orbit or myself up there. I assume that there are, considering the gravity is close enough to Earth, meaning that the planet size is around the size of Earth.
”Good government and the fear of mutual destruction, I suppose.”
I response with a shrug.
There are roughly around 5.3 billion people on Earth right now in 1990s. Around 7.6 billion when I left the original timeline in 2019. My power manifests then, throwing me into the future and then having me nuked repeatedly.
Yeah…
By the dawn of the 31st century, the population exceeded 500 billion. That is on Earth alone.
Adding other planets and moons in the solar system as well as orbital stations and habitable swarms around the sun, the number is several trillions.
Humans do breed a lot. And universe is infinite, so we could never run out of space.
And as long as there are infrastructures in place to support the human population, humanity will grow exponentially. The only reason that this world is not packed with people is because there are just not enough foods to go around.
Even the elves are struggling with this since the forest only provide enough to maintain a population of a few thousands.
Furthermore, their longevity causes their fertility to be very low, so children being born are very rare.
The elves did not question their own biology since they believe in their Goddess to a fault.
But judging of the current political situation with the humans, the elves of this forest will be extinct in the next decade or so, either being killed off or being sold off by the humans.
Well, not really my problem, unless I get something out of it.
There are probably a lot of ways to save them. A bit of their genetics will help me understand why the fertility is so low. It also gives me insight to their natural longevity.
I talk to the elders a bit more, asking them if there is a way for me to cast magic like them.
”Unfortunately, we do not have an answer for you, Mr. Maxwell. Since the Goddess has blessed each of each with magical power from the moment that we open our eyes to her marvellous creation and the world, we never have to worry about being unable to us magic.”
Eliana speaks up.
”Perhaps the Arcane Academy in the nearby humans Kingdoms will have information on this. They are not gifted with magic in the beginning. They acquire it through… notorious means. Their magic is very unnatural.”
I nod and stash the information in the back of my mind. I will pay a visit to the Arcane Academy later, right after I learn everything I can from the elves.
”Is there a library that I can use, esteem elders?”
”It is remarkable that you have studied our language and even speak it with our tongue. Perhaps you are not like the other humans. I will grant you access to our archive. The books and scrolls there are written in our language. I hope that will not be a problem.”
”No problem at all.”