The morning sun rose, but his cell didn't have any sunlight as there were no windows in the underground dungeons. He got the feeling that it was morning outside, because the guards switched their shift. With the little light the cell had, he could barely see that the mother-daughter pair had returned to their usual position. The daughter was sleeping on her mother's lap, while the mother was just staring at the ceiling with a blank expression.
Seeing their state, Jin-ho felt a sharp pain in the left side of his chest, as if someone had stabbed him again. But he knew this was no knife. He was feeling pain from seeing the mother elf just lay there, as if her emotions had died from the hardships of yesterday.
Suddenly, Jin-ho snapped out of his thought, realizing he couldn't waste time anymore. The more time he wastes, the more suffering they have to endure. He began practicing again with this newfound motivation.
He could practice some interesting magic using his Matter Manipulation skill, but having to share the cell and hiding his powers even with the slave collar on was quite tough as it was. So he decided he needed a partner—a cover ally—who could help him hide his abilities from others and maybe teach him more detailed knowledge about this world. He could only think of one person when considering such an ally: none other than ELSA. If she became his ally for this mission, the weight on his shoulder would reduce significantly. But the problem was how he would convince her to help him with his ridiculous requests. Not to mention how he was going to explain his system ability to her. Obviously, he couldn't say he was an otherworlder. Unless he want to exposs his body stealing.
'Hah. This is going to be tough.'
"Umm. ELSA. Can you come over here, please?" He thought it would be better if other people were not close to them when he proceed to recruit her.
After coming to a corner of the cell, as far as her chain, which was pinned to the wall—allowed her to come, she replied, "Yes, EON. What do you want to say? Does anywhere hurt? You can tell me, you know." She showed her genuine concern.
"No, ELSA, I am not hurt. I just..." After some pausing, he began to speak again. "It's just, after yesterday's conversation, I thought about magic all night, about how it would be if I could use magic to help everyone to have a good life. Right until the moment I was asleep, I thought of these things you know. Then, in my dream, I saw a Goddess saying she wants to give me a part of her power to save our elven kingdom. She said to seek your help if I need it. After that, I woke up." As he was saying this, Elsa had a face that was screaming that she wasn't buying any words coming from his mouth.
"But if it would stop at that, then I wouldn't have bothered you with this."
"You see, when I woke up, I tried to imagine myself using magic to bend things like this chain on my leg, and it seems I can manipulate matter as I wish. See..." As he said that, he showed her a demonstration of how he could bend the metal rings on his legs.
As soon as she saw that, she let out a gasp from her mouth. She instantly covered her mouth to stop the sound from escaping.
"EON. Wha, What is this? Are you really the one who is doing this? This isn't a trick or something, right?" Elsa had a look of disbelief on her face.
" See I told you. It was real."
"But you have the slave collar on your neck. How can you use magic without burning out. No mage has enough mana to cast the magic you did without any spell cast. Not to mention the slave collar. It is basically impossible to anyone to use magic with these conditions. But how can you do it?" Elsa had a disbelief look on her face.
"You are the expert, Elsa. What do you think? Can any trick make metal bend on its own?"
Elsa had no answer to his words.
"EON. Do you understand the gravity of this situation? Can you even imagine how big this can be? If this is true, then all of our life could change with this." Elsa's face suddenly took a serious turn; it was clear that if this was a prank, she would kill him for sure.
Seeing her facial expression change suddenly, even Eon became shocked for a moment. Then he understood that she might have been too much depressed than he thought, from yesterday's conversation about how messed up their life had become compared to the past—and how it could never return to the way it used to be. She must have had a realization that their reality could never change. But now he was showing her that there is hope, and she should not give up on it.
Of course, she would be cautious and serious about it, as her future and that of their entire elf race depended on it now.
Thinking this he feared if he might have made a mistake or not, by saying it was from the goddess herself. He might just have to live his whole life acting out a fake drama about being the Goddess's Chosen One. Even thinking that kind of life feels suffocating.
'Wait. It can be a blessing, too. Now I don't have to convince everyone to trust me on everything. Seeing Elsa's reaction, they might just believe everything I say and do what I tell them to do. I might just gain an army of loyal followers without even trying hard. This whole plan escaping from here, could go so much easier with this.' Thinking this, Eon decided to go with this route.
"Yes, I do know. The Goddess herself has given me this ability to save our race. She also told me to seek help from you. That makes us the chosen ones to save our kind from humans you know. This is a huge responsibility."
"Yes, it is. It also means Goddess Luna didn't abandon us. She must have always been watching over us. Haha. This is the best news I have heard in a long time. We should celebrate Eon. Let's tell everyone." As she was about to turn around with a big smile on her mouth, Eon blocked her way.
"Hey, what are you doing? Do you think it will take long for humans to notice us if they found out we all started to celebrate out of nowhere? No, they will torture everyone just to know the truth. We can't tell them about this yet. At least, until we are sure no word will reach the humans, and even if it does, we must be capable of handling ourselves."
She was a little thrown off hearing him say that. But instead of opposing him she was surprised to hear such wise words from his mouth as it was out of his character, as if he had suddenly become another person overnight.
She couldn't refute his words. He had a point. They cant take any risk. Not with this. With a determined expression, she finally said, "Okay, I won't tell others. But I think at least Vera should know this. She has the most knowledge about the Human Kingdom and its weaknesses. She also has some friends inside this noble's house.
We should have as many allies as we can get." Saying this, she glanced toward a woman who had a girl lying on her lap. It was the same woman who was taken with her daughter last night. She was still looking at the ceiling as if her head and eyes were stuck in time.
Hearing her suggestion, he considered it for a second. Then he nodded. 'Elsa wouldn't have recommended her if that woman was a nobody. Let's take her advice this time. I also need someone from outside to carry out my plan; I might need her connections sonner or later. So the sonner I get her on my side, the better.'
Seeing him nod, Elsa had an extremely happy expression on her face. Her smiling face looked so beautiful that Eon couldn't describe it in words. He had never seen such a beautiful face in his whole life. Even though she was in rags, covered in dirt, with disheveled hair, and bruises all over her body, her beauty was unmatched among all the women in this cell. 'Elf's are sure gorgeous. If she had a proper living condition, she might have been the reason people would wage wars for.'
As he was admiring her beauty, Elsa had already gone next to the elf mother.. After some convincing, they both came to his side.
The daughter was now lying on the empty ground.
"EON. She is Verra. Can you please show her your ability. She won't believe until she sees it with her own eyes." Elsa asked Eon to demonstrate his ability.
Without hesitating, he gathered a handful of water droplets and combined them together to form a water ball. He then waved the water ball toward Vera's face and gestured for her to drink it.
Verra was awestruck after drinking the floating water right from the air. It was the purest and cleanest water she might have tasted in her whole life. It was sweeter, but it also had a unique taste which she couldn't exactly pinpoint.
Tears began to form in her eyes. She was so close to bawling out that Elsa had to literally jump forward and force Vera's mouth shut with her hands.
"Shhh. What are you doing? Didn't I tell you nobody can know about this until later? This is the most important secret we have to safeguard in our whole life. We have to protect Eon, even if it meant sacrificing ourselves. You got it? So be quiet." Elsa was now scolding Verra.
'Haha, it certainly is a lovely scene, Elsa scolding Verra. If only they weren't in those rags and filth covering their body.'
"Okay, ladies. I need your attention, please." After they both turned toward him, he began to speak again.
"As of now, we are only three people in this. But as time goes on, our numbers will increase. However, before we share my abilities with more people, we need to establish greater stability: stability in our strength, our plan, our external connections, and ultimately, stability in our mental state. We now have a mission to save our entire race on our shoulders, so we can't be laid back now. The Goddess gave me this ability. But she can take it away, too. So we have to be very careful about this. I hope we agree on this matter." Eon had a commanding look.
Both of the women nodded as if it was the natural thing to do in his presence.
'Phew. Somehow, I made it through with a childish story I made up on the spot. I didn't think it would be this effective. Now I just hope they won't get suspicious of this later.'
After establishing some more rules, he ordered them to distract the others so that nobody would pay attention to him and he could practice without fearing that others might find out seeing him practicing magic as it is small room.
***
Eon was now practicing in the same corner he had practiced yesterday, and Elsa and Vera were chatting amongst themselves, sitting between Eon and the other cellmates so that nobody could see him.
"Elsa, don't you think Eon has changed completely after his memory loss? He sounds so grown up and has a commanding aura about him," Verra said to Elsa in a low voice.
"Yeah. He has changed. But I like this version of Eon. He couldnt always stay that timid boy, clueless about how the world works. Losing his mind might have done him good," Elsa replied.
"That's not a very good thing to say, though.", Verra said with a displeased look on her face.
"I can't help it, you know. He just seems so cool now."
'Yeah. I get it. It feels like he has become a different person overnight. I have never seen this level of transformation in somebody in such a short amount of time. But I don't hate it for some reason.' Vera had a warm smile on her lips as she said that.
The two began to chatter as time went by.
Author Note: From now on, Jin-ho will be referred to as Eon, as he himself is starting to accept himself as Eon the elf.
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