The Devil's Cursed Witch

Once they got rid of the uninvited shapeshifter, Erlos remembered why he came to his master in the first place. He was there to report something.

“Sire, Melion is waiting to have an audience with you in your study.”

Since Draven already knew what it was about, his gaze turned grave. ‘So it finally started.’

Simply nodding in response, Draven disappeared from his chamber and reappeared inside his study where a small winged person in pure white robes was waiting for him. It was a dirty blond young man with thin gossamer wings on his back, his delicate size small enough to fit a person’s palm.

“Melion.”

Upon Draven’s arrival, the fairy bowed to him before transforming to a size similar to an adult human.

“Your servant greets King Draven, the ruler of Agartha,” Melion said in a smooth, almost musical voice.

A great majority of the ordinary palace servants serving under Draven were elves, but that didn’t mean the other races were not working within the palace. Many of those holding official roles were creatures who travelled around the kingdom, as they had special responsibilities entrusted upon their shoulders by the King of Agartha.

One of them was Melion from the Wind Fae, a fairy of the wind-attribute serving as an aide, advisor and messenger of the King.

As a spirit born out of the Wind, Melion was one of the fastest supernatural creatures who had the ability to circle the entire Kingdom of Agartha in a blink of an eye, fusing his body with the essence of the wind itself. His speed was perhaps only second to Draven, who had the ability to teleport.

Melion was famous for his great communication skills and impartiality, thus it became his role to bring messages back and forth between the King and the members of the council spread across the different territories of the kingdom.

Draven sat in his armchair behind the desk and gestured for his aide to talk.

Before saying anything, Melion placed one scroll on the King’s table for him to read while he stood quietly waiting for his king to finish reading it.

Draven simply glanced at it before tossing the scroll to the side of the room as if it was nothing important. He returned his gaze to Melion.

The King’s messenger was not surprised with that attitude as he knew the King already knew those were signed petitions from the various elders from all throughout the kingdom. It was more an annoying formality than anything, and it was nothing new for him to see the King throwing those scrolls directly outside his study to be burned by the servants on cleaning duty.

Melion cleared his throat and said, “Sire, the news of you bringing the human to the palace has spread around the kingdom, even to the human villages at the outskirts of the kingdom. Instead of sending her to the human territory, we are keeping her in the care of the Wood Elves. This action of yours made the inhabitants of the kingdom believe you are turning soft towards the humans.”

Melion waited for his king’s reaction, for him to say something over this claim or at least deny it, but Draven simply stared at him as if telling him to continue.

“Aside from the fact that you broke the agreement, many of the people are talking about how this means it is your intention to allow humankind to enter and interact with the supernatural clans. This is one of the biggest causes of headaches for the council members. Not only that, even the humans are now demanding fair treatment.”

“Fair treatment?” Draven repeated, as if in disgust.

The male fae schooled his expression. “The leader of the humans has requested that they too be allowed to leave their villages and enter the other parts of the kingdom freely just like the other races. They don’t want to be neglected as a territory of the kingdom. Their leader also requested to have a member from the humankind be present as part of the council, basically giving them all the rights of a proper citizen of this kingdom.”

Though Melion was saying these words calmly, if the other aides and servants of the King were present to listen to his words, they would definitely be angered. However, the fae continued to explain the intelligence he gathered.

“The last time they requested that they be allowed to enter a neighbouring territory had been two decades ago when the water from the river was unusually low and caused their harvests to yield lower than normal, but we didn’t allow that since it would cause conflict with the elves. Now that they heard elves are allowing a human in their city, the humans in the villages feel indignation. This incident seems to have awakened the dissatisfaction they were suppressing. They are demanding equal rights.”

Draven’s eyes darkened, “Those ungrateful creatures! Seems like it’s time to wipe them from this kingdom. It’s been so long I haven’t heard the screams of those creatures as they burnt to ashes.”

Melion simply lowered his head without saying a word. He knew it was not a difficult thing for his king to exterminate the human refugees living in the villages, and it reminded him of the battle with the human kingdoms centuries before. The Wind Fae sure didn’t want to see the King in his devil form as whenever he appeared in that form, there was nothing but disaster following it.

“Sire,” he hesitated, “may I say something in this regard?”

Draven moved his gaze filled with murderous intent towards his aide.

“The time has changed, Sire” He started, “We should not handle this matter the way we did in the past. Now decades have passed and all the clans are living in harmony in this kingdom. We can not exclude humans from being a part of this kingdom. it will show pure violence rather than harmony. After all, these humans did not sin against us. Will it not be wrong to punish them simply for being born as a human?

Nothing could be gathered from Draven’s expression. Still, Melion continued to talk.

“If we opt the old way and all the humans vanish from the kingdom, though other clans as well support you in it, it will cause their trust in you to break. Other clans will think if they oppose the king for anything, the king will do the same with their clan as he did with innocent people. The trust will break and suspicions will rise. It will only lead to the destruction of the peace in the kingdom. What we have worked on for centuries will be meaningless with only one wrong decision.

“The unity among the clans will break and it will again put the supernaturals into danger against the humans. If the news of humans being killed in this kingdom reaches outside human kingdoms, they will think we are trying to rise against them and they will once again prepare for the war. 𝙛𝔯𝒆e𝔀e𝗯𝓷𝗼𝘃e𝚕.𝒄𝗼𝗺

“Though we will win the war with the abilities Sire has, it will still cause great massacre and damage and once again we have to spend another century to rebuild this kingdom. Though other clans still trust you and follow what you say, there is that one thing which is still stuck in their hearts: that just because of Sire in the past the massacre happened and we lost so many things and our people. If it happens again because of you, they will never trust you or anyone.

“All the supernatural clans might fight among themselves to take over the power and over other clans thinking this is the way to keep their clan safe. The day unity among the clans will break, the existence of the supernatural on this continent will come to an end.”

“The day our people stop trusting you, our king, the existence of the supernatural beings on this continent will be in grave danger once more.”

Melion was not just a messenger but a talented aid of the king who always tried to advise the king in the best way possible.

Draven knew what Malion said was right. Though Draven was powerful, if other clans started fighting among themselves, he won’t be able to stop them as using his powers there won’t be of any use. They won’t be scared of dying when it comes to protecting the existence of their own races.

“What are you thinking, Sire?” Melion asked, trying to figure out if what he said made sense to the king.

“I will find a way,” Draven replied.

The way where he could keep the human in the kingdom but it won’t disturb the peace.