Chapter 776 - 775. System Error (1)

[Error Detected.]

[Recovery process has encountered an unexpected obstruction.]

[Mana Recovery Progress: 57%.]

[Recovery progress has ceased.]

[Troubleshooting... Please wait...]

"The hell is this?" Reina muttered as she stared at the notifications floating before her.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes on the fifth morning in Edrisyl was the Error Detected notification, which instantly soured her mood.

She didn’t even need to look down at herself to realize that she hadn’t returned to her adult form.

She was still stuck in this weak and vulnerable child’s body.

[Physical Restoration: Incomplete.]

[Adult Body: Unavailable.]

[Dragon Form: Unavailable.]

[Estimated time until recovery: Unknown.]

Reina’s eye twitched.

"How can there be a damn error in you? What are you, human-made software?!"

[Unexpected error detected. Troubleshooting finished.]

Reina blinked.

"What is it?" She demanded.

[System Update Required.]

"System update?"

[Anomalous changes have been detected within your Authority Structure.]

[Existing System Parameters are insufficient to process the changes.]

[System Update initiated.]

[Recovery Process suspended at 57%.]

[Estimated completion time: Unknown.]

Reina stared at the notifications.

"So, I’m stuck like this because you’re updating?"

[Affirmative.]

"And how long will it take?"

[Unknown.]

"What exactly do you know?!" Reina almost shouted, exasperated.

[...]

"And where are my Patrons?"

[Goddess of Wisdom says she is presently busy preparing for something.]

[Goddess of Wisdom is offline.]

[Defender of Divine Glory is unavailable.]

"Are you guys hiding because you don’t want to answer my questions?!" Reina’s anger grew so much so that her face had turned red.

[Giver of Gifts asks you to calm down.]

"What the hell is this update?" Reina asked.

[Giver of Gifts explains that since none of the previous candidates had come this far and achieved the feat of becoming the World Tree’s guardian the system is facing issues.]

"So, it’s basically because of me that your system crashed?" Reina crossed her arms at her chest.

[Giver of Gifts says it’s not your fault but the system’s inflexibility that caused this error.]

Reina exhaled loudly and surmised, "So, because of the system error I have to be in this form with no mana or strength for an indefinite amount of time."

[Giver of Gifts believes that the system will be fixed soon.]

Reina glanced at the message and then ran a hand through her hair.

"What would I do meanwhile? There’s still so much to be done."

[Goddess of Wisdom suggests that you could assign work to your people.]

"So, you are around." Reina spoke.

[Goddess of Wisdom claims that she is busy but she makes time for her.]

Reina sighed, there was no point in arguing about the things that were out of her hands but, since she had at least completed more than 50% of her recovery and also the requirement of staying close to the World Tree for 5 days so, she had already had the preparations made to return to Sestia. And since she was to return, Fior and Yttriva were going with her. Davian had also been staying at Edrisyl with her so, she had let him be and interact with the natives.

She was a little surprised when she heard from Fior that Davian had befriended all of his Dark Elf friends, Davian didn’t have many friends apart from being close to the people within her circle so knowing that he made new friends was a good news.

Regardless, there was another good news. Since Reina had talked the Pure Mana Elf children into getting to know and befriend the Dark Elves, the kids had been coming to her and telling her all about their new friends and how the Dark Elves were quite goofy and not scary at all.

Reina was relieved to see the beginning of the reconciliation between the two Elf-kind. Since she couldn’t stay around for a long time, she at least wanted to achieve what little she could by trying to bring these two kinds together without the use of force or intimidation.

Reina got out of bed and Yttriva helped her get dressed into a beautiful yellow dress with pink flowers before she brushed her hair.

Yttriva had never attended to anyone before but she was careful with Reina since the young girl despite looking and being in a child’s body was a Supreme Dragon. She had seen various Elves live and die before her eyes, including her own son and daughter-in-law, she had even seen the Supreme Dragon of Flora who had been on Edrisyl for a brief while in past but never a Dragon who felt so vulnerable.

Yttriva was a little clumsy but she tried her best. She brushed the Young Dragon’s long snowy white hair noticing the strands of aqua blue appearing like a beautiful blue lake that reflected the moonlight.

Yttriva tried to gather Reina’s hair into two sections, carefully tying them into twin pigtails. Unfortunately, the long, silky strands refused to cooperate.

A few strands slipped free from her fingers. Then a few more.

By the time Yttriva was finished, the supposedly neat twin pigtails were sticking out at odd angles, with loose strands escaping in every direction. Some had somehow ended up across Reina’s forehead, while others stood out from the sides of her head as though they had developed a will of their own.

Reina lifted her eyes, feeling Yttriva’s hands stop, and stared at her reflection for a moment.

She was speechless.

Her hair looked as though she had just survived a hurricane.

One of the pigtails was noticeably higher than the other. The other had somehow become twice as thick, while several stubborn strands had escaped entirely and were now framing her face in complete disarray.

Yttriva stared at her handiwork. Reina stared at Yttriva through the mirror.

Neither of them spoke.

Finally, Reina slowly raised a hand and touched one of the strands sticking straight out from the side of her head.

There were faint ripples in the air before the Supreme Dragon of Wind materialised.

"Are you still not ready?" He asked as he shook the long sleeves of his pale violet robe and then looked at Reina.

For a moment he didn’t say anything but then he covered his mouth and started laughing.

"I... apologize, Master..." Yttriva spoke lowering her head and Reina hummed not caring about Caelthir laughing his head off in the background.

She slowly undid her mess of a hair and then brushed her small fingers through the long strands trying to get them all together. But with her small fingers she couldn’t get all of them.

Suddenly, she felt the long, warm fingers brushing over her hair.

She met Caelthir’s eyes in the mirror as he smiled deftly brushing the long white, blue strands in his hands. The pink ribbon that day on the vanity suddenly floated in the air and Caelthir caught it in his fingers before trying up Reina’s hair in a ponytail.

"There done." He spoke with a triumphant smile.

Reina turned her head inspecting his work, he had indeed managed to get it done well.

"I didn’t know you were capable of hairdressing as well." Reina said and Caelthir shrugged.

"There’s nothing that I can’t do." He said and Reina resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Five days ago when Caelthir had popped up on Edrisyl claiming that she owed him two favours, Reina had accepted one of them without any thoughts but it was starting to turn into an annoyance.

Caelthir’s first wish was that he wanted Reina to let him stay by her side and accept him as her Guardian until she recovered. She thought he only wanted to entertain himself by following her around but he started showing up every morning in her room and then carried her around the places he wanted to visit while talking her ear off. Moreoverz he and Davian had even gotten into several fights because Caelthir wouldn’t leave her alone.

"Now that you’re ready, let’s go." He said and Reina looked up at him as he stared down at her.

It was almost routine now.

She lifted her hands and he scooped her up sitting her on his arm.

It wasn’t like he didn’t take care of her, he was very careful when he was carrying her around and even shared her when they were out in the afternoon sun.

"We’re returning to Sestia today." Reina said and Caelthir hummed.

"Sure,"

He strolled out of her room with Yttriva in tow, Fior had been standing outside with Davian. Both of them were talking when the doors opened and Caelthir walked out carrying Reina.

Davian’s face instantly brightened looking at Reina but then soured noticing Caelthir who beamed at them.

"Morning, human. You’re still here."

Davian felt a vein pop in his forehead as he glared at Caelthir.

"Of course, I’m here. But, why are you still carrying her around?!" He shouted pointing at Reina.

Caelthir tilted his head, "Well since she’s still like this, I’m going to carry her around. You can’t expect her to walk with her tiny and feeble legs."

"They’re not that tiny and feeble." Reina corrected but Caelthir wasn’t listening.

"If that’s the case, I’ll carry her today!" Davian said stomping over to Caelthir.

Reina sighed, this had almost become an everyday thing. The first day, Davian tried to take Reina away from Caelthir made him use his Dragon’s Presence on Davian and despite the strong pressure Davian wouldn’t budge until Reina had nearly plucked a strand of Caelthir’s hair to get him to stop.

"Don’t start fighting now, we need to check things here one last time before we leave." Reina spoke up.

The two men surprisingly obliged and then Davian looked at Reina properly.

"But why are you still like this? Didn’t you say in five days, you’ll be back to your adult body?"

Reina averted her eyes, tempted to curse at the system again but she simply shook her head.

"The recovery is taking some time, it might take more time."

"How much time?"

"I don’t know."

Davian frowned a little, he was concerned, "Are you feeling all right?"

Reina nodded and his shoulders relaxed a little.

Reina then looked at Fior who seemed to be waiting to say something.

"What is it?" Reina asked him.

"The Kings and everyone else has gathered near Kalpataru to see you off." He reported.

Reina nodded, "Then let’s head there."

She looked at Caelthir who looked at her, she stalled for a moment but then sighed as she added sounding like a child, "Take me to the place where they are gathered, please Kin Caelthir."

Caelthir beamed, "Good girl."

Davian gave him a nasty look but said nothing as he started walking behind him while Reina just hoped that it would end soon.