Publisher's Synopsis
It was late autumn in the city of Aragon. It was raining as usual, and there was a certain acrid scent coming from the water canals. Efforts had been made in the past to clean then, but they just got dirty again. These days the Lord did not bother wasting resources in a problem that did not seem to have any possible solution. In one of the many ancient sewers that fed into the canals, there was a farmer digging a tunnel. The tunnel led to one of the castles of the previous Lord of Aragon Lio. The man was alive and well, but nobody could even trust him with their slippers. It is a curious saying. The whole slipper thing was based on a folk story of the region. There once was a shoemaker and his son. One day, the shoemaker had to go on a quick errand. He left his son to keep an eye on the slippers he was making. What did the boy do? Well, he played with the slippers with his dog. With the shoes ruined, the family entered the poorhouse, and the dog was dissected to recover the diamond pieces he had swallowed. Ever since then, the slipper story was used to describe people's level of untrustworthiness. Regardless, the farmer boy was digging away. He figured that in the old castle there must have been a basement. In the reconstructed site, there was only a memorial for those who died in a freak accident that nobody seemed willing to talk about. As the boy progressed with his tunnel, his pike eventually struck a solid surface. The walls he had previously broken through had runes and elaborate floral patterns. After smashing around with more force, the support wall caved in and down fell before the kid a coffin. The child was only familiar with wooden coffins. For that reason, he imagined that the coffin was actually a coffer. The chains around it also helped to sell this idea. On top of the coffin, there were some faded words in Common, which was now called English. "...have meal ready should I wake..." The child thought nothing of it. After bashing the coffin, a bit, the chains gave way. With much effort he removed the lid, and he beheld a thing of beauty. No, the creature inside the coffin was not Rimaru, rather one of those primordial elves. This one in particular had lost his light millennium ago, and now required blood for sustenance. After being parched for an untold amount of time, the creature rose from the coffin and embraced the small child. With fangs glistening in the darkness like shinny steel, the elf lightly graced the neck, before pushing back the kid. Frowning he said, "When I asked for a meal, this is not what I had in mind."The kid not bothering to see what else was to occur ran for his dear life. Frowning, the elf said, "What a bother." The elf walked a bit through the corridors. With his nose finally working, his insides were starting to twist in a knot. He would have thrown up, had he any matter inside his form. After walking for what seemed like an eternity, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, in a literal sense. As a dark elf, he detested the sun. He did not have photo sensitivity like the Alfasir elves. Still, the sunlight was not something he enjoyed. It made him particularly thirsty. He saw the flowing water and it made him shiver a little. After looking about a bit, he saw a ferryman. He gestured to the man, and he said, "Kind sir, I met with an unfortunate fate, would you be so kind as to take me to dryland."The ferryman saw the fellow, and where he exiting from. The man drew nearer when he noticed that the man was wearing noble attire. In the end, the ferryman erred on the safe side, and ignored the elf. The second time a boatman passed he also went on his way. The elf was quite distressed by his situation. As soon as the third boatman made eye contact the elf, the fellow had hypnotized him. The elf said to the boatman, "You will take me to dryland.""Yes, I will take you to dryland," said the boatman drawing nearer. ...
