Chapter 323: Not every secret room has to be placed secretively
I only realized how thoughtless it was after I saw both of their faces stiffened.
"I...I’m sorry," I lowered my gaze, feeling extremely awkward. "You don’t need to answer it."
"No, you must have been curious," Tiralein replied with a smile, taking my elbow and leading me down, back to the plaza. "I don’t know what kind of answer you were hoping for, but Valen," she looked up and stared straight into my eyes, "But we can not build it again; a palace, a city, a royal family," she looked at me apologetically. "The Royal Tree is no more, and even if we want to seize back the land...well, we had never been good at fighting."
"It is not our role to take on arms and hurt others," Amarein said, walking on my other side. "We are the shepherds of nature; our duty is to keep the land that Mother loves from being tainted with corruption. It is not in our nature to be... aggressive."
She said the last part in a lower tone, with a bit of hesitation as if she regretted it.
"Perhaps...that was exactly why they attacked us instead of the elves or the drows--who, as you know, more adapt to weaponry," she continued.
"Even though..." I frowned, remembering how powerful human elementalists were--and it was said that they had nothing on druids. Natha’s vassal had always said how powerful I was, although I never truly used my power to do anything or attack anyone. But in a world of sword and magic, typically, magic had always been seen as superior. "Even though you have magic?"
Tiralein seemed to be startled--and so was Amarein, although to a lesser degree, and immediately vanished from her face. "Valen," Tiralein said in a scolding tone. "Nature is not supposed to be used for violence. It is not supposed to be manipulated to give other punishment."
I was flustered, feeling like my grandma had just scolded me for being a bad kid. On the plaza, I could see Alveitya still floating around, and I came to a realization that yes...Valmeier had been using Alveitya as a spear, but while it had such a function, it was actually a scepter rather than a spear.
A scale to ensure a just punishment was of course different than a spear that could be used to harm someone indiscriminately.
Oh...