Chapter 30: Ch. 30 - Earning the friendship of Elves
"You want to…get an audience with Lord Odin?" Sylphie tilted her head in confusion, not expecting such a request from me.
"Yes, there are some things I'd like to learn about from him." I politely explained, hopefully, my request isn't too much for her.
"This…well, it's not like I don't want to fulfill this request of yours, it's just that I don't think I'm capable enough to ensure you an audience with the God-King Odin himself. That is simply beyond my capabilities. After all, I'm just a princess, heir of the Queen, not the Queen herself." Hearing her answer made me quite disappointed.
I should've expected it, not everyone has the privilege to meet up with the wise God of Norse Mythology. If it was easy, I wouldn't have bothered making such a request.
"Since I can't fulfill such a request, I don't mind if you ask for a new one. Hopefully, it would be something within my capabilities this time."
Oh thank god, I still have a second chance, I thought she'd be petty and say that I already gave my request.
While sighing in relief, my mind was working on how could I take advantage of this favor.
Suddenly, my eyes lit up with a smile on my face as I stared directly at Sylphie.
"I think I already know what kind of request I want, Lady Sylphie."
"Oh, that was fast. What is it?"
"I heard Elves are very capable of wielding magic and even runes. If it is possible, I would like to learn magic spells and runes with Lady Sylphie. I'm sure this one is within her lady's caoabilities, yes?" I watched as a disturbed expression appeared on her face as she shifted on her tree root chair uncomfortably.
"Well, you're right, I could teach you but…"
My mind quickly went over the possible reasons why she was hesitant before voicing out after making a wild guess in my mind.
"Lady Sylphie, are you worried that I might use what you teach me against your kind or do bad things?" As soon as I said my words, Sylphie's eyes widened in surprise as she covered her head.
"Are you reading my mind?" Immediately, her fellow Elves behind me raised their weapons against me.
"Woah Woah Woah, hold on, I'm not doing anything. I was just making a guess!" I quickly raised my hands to show I was harmless.
Sylphie squinted her eyes and looked at me warily.
I gulped nervously as time ticked by before the wary eyes finally faded away.
"My apologies, it seems I was too cautious." She apologized.
"I'm fine now, ladies. Stand down." She then continued but this time, towards her subordinates.
Although hesitant, the elves begrudgingly laid down their bows and spears, though their glares were still lingering on me.
"Once again, I apologize for causing such trouble for you. Anyway, you are right, I am indeed worried about those things you mentioned but also about another thing. I was worried that you might share what I will teach you to your fellow devils. If such a thing happens, my mother will surely declare war against your kind, whether King Odin likes it or not." Her eyes then suddenly went cold as she finished her words.
I knew it. I guess it's time to bring out the big guns.
Do you ever wonder what Devils are truly known for?
Deals. Contracts, etc you name it.
And it is one of the things I learned during my stay in the underworld.
At first, I thought it was a useless thing since why would I divulge much in such a risky spell?
Well well well, guess what, it turns out it would be useful in this kind of situation. Thankfully, I learned it back then just in case.
Now, you might ask, what is a contract?
It is some sort of formalized exchange between a devil and the other party. These contracts will allow the devil to fulfill any desire of the other party with an exchange.
The exchange can be in any form such as material items or intangible services such as loyalty. The worst exchange there can be is the other party's soul, which is very unlikely as in this world, devils don't actually crave human souls.
The only reason human souls have value to devils is for research purposes, nothing more.
In my case, what I will be doing would be some sort of reverse contract. Because I would be the one requesting something from the other party while the latter would provide what I will request.
The conditions are merely add-ons.
With this idea in mind, I wasted no time and spoke.
"Lady Sylphie, I think I may have a solution to this problem." I proposed, getting her attention.
"My ears are open, Chamber."
"Have you heard of contracts?" I said. Sylphie's eyebrows quickly furrowed at the mention of contracts.
"I do have heard of it. But not in a good way. Why are you asking me that?" She asked confusingly, her fellow Elves from behind me also sharing the same sentiment.
"Well, I was to propose a contract with you. Since I killed the vampire that has been harassing you, you gave me a favor and I used that favour to teach me your knowledge about magic and runes, and some conditions will be written upon while I finish the contract."
"…Alright. But never, ever try to cheat me, because if you do, you won't be getting out of here alive." Unfazed by her threats, I simply nodded her head and prompted her to state her conditions while using my demonic energy to materialize the contract.
"My conditions are first, you won't use the magic I will teach you to harm my kind and anyone I deem as an ally. Second, you won't share the magic I will teach you to anyone, especially to your fellow kind. Last but not the least, you won't use the magic I will teach you to do bad things or anything that is deemed evil."
"May I revise your conditions?" I asked politely.
"Is there something wrong with my conditions?" Sylphie frowned as she spoke.
"No offense, but yes there are a few mistakes on your conditions." Surprised by my bluntness, I didn't give her time to respond as I continued.
"You see, those conditions you said not only benefit you but also put me in a very bad condition. Let me explain." Clearing my throat, I prepared for the long explanation.
"On your first condition, you said I can't use the magic you will teach me to your kind and ally. What if your kind and those allies of yours attacked me first? I can't just stand still and allow myself to be attacked, right?" A look of realization dawned upon her face and before she could reply, I cut her off, continuing.
"So I shall change the condition to not using the magic you taught me to your kind and allies unless they attacked or harmed me and anyone I deem as allies first. Does this sound okay, Lady Sylphie?" I waited for her response.
Thankfully, she seemed to understand what I was trying to imply, so she nodded her head.
"Now, for your second condition. It's actually fine but I would just like to ensure something. If I were to create magic whether it is a spell or rune and used your teachings as a reference, I want them to be out of the condition. So if I were to create a spell and use your magic teachings as a reference, I would still be able to teach the others with the said spell that I created."
Sylphie's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she seemed to be deep in thinking, probably pondering the meaning of my words.
After almost an entire minute of pondering, she finally nodded her head, albeit hesitantly.
"Now, for the final condition. Not being able to use your magic teachings to do bad or evil is fine however, if doing the evil thing is necessary for the better good of myself or others, it would not be counted as such. What would be changed in this condition is that I should not use your magic teachings to do evil things that are unnecessary or deemed with nothing but pure evil intention." This seemed to be the nail to the coffin as Sylphie once again fell into thinking.
However, this time, it was longer than just a single minute as her eyes also darted around her fellow Elves, probably asking for their opinions about the matter before finally agreeing.
"I see nothing bad from the revision of the conditions, so I agree."
"Thank you for the trust, Lady Sylphie." And with that, the ball of demonic energy that had been swirling on top of my palm for the last few minutes finally took shape and started materializing.
Much to the curious and surprised gazes of the Elves, a small parchment appeared on my hand.
"This is the contract, Lady Sylphie, all it requires is a drop of blood from me and you. The punishment for not fulfilling the request and conditions shall be by transferring all the knowledge and magic power of the violator to the other party and vice versa." After stating these words, I used my demonic energy to punch a small hole in the tip of my index finger and watched as a small droplet fell on the surface of the paper.
I offered the paper to Sylphie who did the same.
As soon as her blood dropped, the contract glowed in bright light before exploding into small motes of red light, indicating that the contract was now in effect forever.
Now, you might be asking why would I risk myself for such a thing.
Well you see, as the contract holder, I have quite a few benefits that only I know.
After all, the contract I created isn't exactly the same contract that is being taught to the devils but my self-created contract spell.
How did I create it? It was when Sylphie was explaining her condition. During that time, I was both listening to her and creating the contract spell.
Now, you may be wondering what was contained in the spell that made me so confident.
Because only I know that there are no punishments in the contract. I just made it up by stating it out loud.
Thankfully, Sylphie and her friends don't have any sort of lie detector, or else they might notice that the punishment one was a lie.
"Now that the contract is in effect, when do we start?" I asked.
"When it comes to learning the Elves' way of magic, it is very important to study in two environment conditions to maximize the learning. First is the early day and the night time. Only during those times can we maximize what you'll be learning. Not to mention, it is also during those conditions that our elven magic is at its peak."
Huh, I didn't know such a thing existed, good to know maybe I could develop a magic that doubles my demonic power during the night.
"Unfortunately, it is already past daytime and it would be bad to study at night time by skipping the early daytime training. So come back tomorrow and only then we shall start." Hearing her words, I saw no problem with it, so I nodded my head.
After bidding farewell to Sylphie and the rest of the lady elves, I used my teleportation spell to bring myself back to the farmhouse.
Only to sense a fist coming towards my way. Alert and cautious, I quickly caught the fist and prepared to launch a spinning demonic bullet towards my attacker.
"How could you leave me hanging!" Hold on a second, that voice is quite familiar. I think I've heard it somewhere before.
"Eh? Serafall?" What in the God's holy balls is Serafall doing at the farm house again?
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[Next Chapter: Ch. 31 - A Date during the 14th century]
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