Chapter 368 - Elred's Gift
Alma POV 4/17
-----
Our second meeting included Elred gifting me a bunch of colorful flowers which were actually quite aromatic and of a way higher quality than the flowers that decorated my room. To be expected of the country named Flowerbed, they got to have nice flowers too, right?
And I believe most of them are also medicinal flowers, by using the Appraisal Ability on Dagger, I was able to see that each Flower had a special function and effect, and they always said in their descriptions that they were used for medicine, form curing headache, stomachache, to even be ingredients to make powerful health potions that could even heal wounds.
In fact, some of them can be digested directly for their effects to take effect, so I thought of it as a bunch of small potions instead, if things get to be bad, I might as well use them… maybe I will end up thanking Elred for giving me flowers.
"Oh my! Aren't they pretty? Thank you so much, Elred!" I said. As I gave him a cute smile, the boy ate my act incredibly easily, as steam began to come out of his ears.
"And this is also a gift for you!" He said, giving me the box covered in colorful paper.
"What might this be?" I wondered, as I opened the box and saw a beautiful pendant made of magical mithril. The mithril itself was reinforced hundreds of times over, and it emanated an aura of magical power. It was also decorated with several colorful jewels, all of them were incredibly concentrated Spirit Stones as if an alchemist synthetized a kilogram of them into a small jewel and put several of them over the pendant.
I checked the item through Appraisal as well, and it seemed to enhance all Elemental Resistance while equipped, alongside enhancing magic damage. It also brought the ability to conjure some lesser spells of other elements, something incredible by itself, it was more like a Magical Artifact than anything else.
However, I can't use its offensive capabilities because my mana would corrupt it, nonetheless, I appreciated the gift because it was honestly quite beautiful and gave me a nice defense against magic and elements. The artifacts I found were not really like these, simple accessories, but they were ugly things nobody would wear around naturally.
This pendant was different, I could actually wear it without bringing too much attention. Of course, a princess as refined and rich as me is allowed to wear cute accessories, right?
"It's so pretty, thank you so much, Elred! And it looks so interesting too, I feel like it was crafted very meticulously…" I said.
"Y-You can tell? Indeed! I had it custom-made for you, my nation's best crafters and alchemists worked on it all this time… This is why I didn't come earlier, I wanted to come back with this already done… I-I am glad you like it." said Elred.
"Can you help me wear it?" I asked.
"E-Eh? S-Sure…!"
Elred gently picked up the pendant, as he moved near me. I could notice that he was smelling the floral scent of my long blonde hair, and I couldn't blame him, I was really quite a pretty girl.
He gently placed the pendant around my neck, and then connected it once more, the effects of the pendant affected me right away, as if a natural invisible barrier of magic covered my body… this accessory's effect was passive, and didn't require my activation, or well, the defensive effect, I cannot use the active one that lets me conjure some lesser elemental spells for obvious motives.
Dagger got angry that I was using something else than him.
"(W-Why are you wearing such a thing? L-Let me eat it for you!)"
"(Shut up for once! I like it, and it's not a talkative idiot like you…)"
"(Hahh… Y-You're so unfair with me! But please, keep going!)"
Seriously, what's wrong with this pervert?
"How does it look on me?" I asked.
"I-It looks… you look very pretty…" said Elred, smiling cutely at me, his eyes were very in love…
And he was very close to me.
"Thank you for these gifts… It makes me frustrated that I cannot give you anything myself… I am often confined here so I cannot really get anything I want." I sighed.
"I-It doesn't matter! I-It is the duty of the man to… gift his wife pretty accessories so she can use them…" said the boy while blushing some more.
I petted his head and caressed his silky blonde hair.
"You're a fine gentleman, Elred. I am very glad you will be my husband."
"U-Uwah…! A-Alma…!"
Elred got even redder, I think I went too far there. I just want him to grow very close to me, so he won't betray me or something, later on, giving him these little "rewards" is the way to do it.
"N-Now, how about you go sit down for now? Let's enjoy some tea and snacks while chatting until lunch, after that, I got some plans. How about we go on a date together?" I said.
"D-Date?!"
"Yeah! We can go outside the castle and enjoy ourselves a bit." I said.
"S-Sure! Of course! I will be very happy t-to do so!"
Elred quickly sat down on his chair and I could notice his legs tightly shut and trembling a bit. He got very nervous out of a sudden.
"Rose, tea and snacks please."
"Understood."
Rose left the room as she brought tea and snacks after a few minutes. We enjoyed them while I asked him about his nation a bit more, I was very intrigued about it and what they did for a living.
He said they do all sorts of trades with various other nations and kingdoms, and even other continents. They're probably one of the richest nations in the entire continent of Alfheim.
Other continents… It seems that his nation uses flying vessels to travel to other continents, which are very highly advanced magic technology.
Interesting…
-----