Chapter Ninety-Five: Song of the Azure Sky

“Your Majesty, how is the banana?”

As they stepped out of the infirmary, a crowd of nobles immediately gathered around Linley. They had no idea why that giant banana mattered so much, but since His Majesty valued it so highly, they had to show concern.

“Alas... the situation is not encouraging...” Linley sighed heavily. “It’s a magical creature. Treating it will require top-grade mana gems...”

The nobles brightened at once. Look at this—the chance to make a contribution had finally arrived!

A single top-grade mana gem cost at least a thousand gold coins. Though it stung a little, this was the perfect chance to show generosity and leave Linley with an excellent impression.

“Your Majesty, we have mana gems!”

“Right! Just tell us how many you need!”

“I love how loyal you all are!” Linley said with touching emotion. “Then let’s start with a hundred.”

The nobles sucked in a sharp breath, their legs going weak at the number.

Half an hour later, Linley walked through the royal palace with a healthy flush to his face and ran into Eve, who was carrying a stack of documents.

“Eve, you’ve worked hard.”

“Young Prince, how is the banana doing?”

“It’s a little troublesome.”

Linley spoke with a grave expression. The banana was a very special creature, but the botanist who had created it was already dead, and no one knew how to save it.

Still, by every means he could think of, Linley had finally stabilized the banana’s injuries. As for the next step in treatment, he had no idea yet.

“This time we took a loss. The banana got hurt, and the monster got away.” Linley took some of the documents from Eve, and the two of them walked side by side.

Linley had not taken part in the battle at Grand City. The forest elves and the night elves would not allow him to join the fight; the Twin Moon Wheel was bound to him, and getting too close to those monsters was far too dangerous.

Still, after several days of battle, the monsters in Grand City had basically been wiped out. Only the first one had vanished—and its disappearance proved that it was indeed connected to the demons.

The forest elves and the night elves had already joined forces. Compared with letting the monster be destroyed outright, the demons’ decision to relocate it and turn it into a hidden threat could not have been more shrewd.

Linley had already ordered searches for the monster across the world. But for the moment, the two kingdoms’ more urgent task was to draft the many agreements as soon as possible. Elven unification sounded simple, but in practice it was anything but.

“Thank you, Young Prince.”

Linley helped Eve carry the documents into the study. After thanking him, she took the initiative to hold his hand. “Since the banana’s problem is temporarily settled, you can stay here and help!”

With astonishing speed, Linley yanked his hand free before Eve could even react.

By the time she turned around, he was already gone from the study, moving at a shocking pace.

“I have extremely important work to do. I’ll leave these matters to you!”

His shouting figure left Eve grinding her teeth in frustration.

With such glorious weather, how could Linley possibly waste it in a study?

He returned to his room, shut the door firmly, and did not emerge again until evening.

“Eat, sleep, sleep, eat... this kind of life is the most comfortable after all...”

Humming to himself, Linley strode into the dining hall.

A group of old men were seated inside, in the middle of dinner.

Linley blinked, then hurried over with great enthusiasm and shook hands with them all.

“Welcome, welcome!”

“You’ve had a hard journey!”

“So you’ve finally arrived!”

His warmth left the royal magicians somewhat flustered. Why had this little prince suddenly become so friendly?

“Did you bring the divine artifact my father gave me?”

The next second, Linley’s eager expression made the royal magicians instantly understand.

Of course. How could this little prince possibly be treating them so warmly for no reason?

“Here you are, Your Highness. This is yours.”

A white-robed mage handed Linley a box. Linley opened it and found inside a dagger that looked like a lump of charcoal.

“This is the divine sword?”

Linley was stunned. He pinched the dagger between two fingers.

It was only about the size of two fingers pressed together.

The appearance of this divine artifact was far too low-end!

“You didn’t switch it on me, did you?”

Linley looked at the royal magicians suspiciously. They all shook their heads.

“A shard of the Song of the Azure Sky...” came the voice of the Twin Moon Wheel all at once. “I never thought I would see it again.”

“What? It really is a divine artifact?” Linley became curious. “You know it too?”

“Of course. It is our parent.”

The Twin Moon Wheel’s voice was filled with reverence. Unlike it and the Staff of Wisdom, the original form of this dagger had truly been an invincible existence.

The history of the Song of the Azure Sky began with the birth of the Primeval Elves.

The Primeval Elves had been born from a crystal called the Song of the Azure Sky. That crystal was the heart of the planet, and all energy within it came from that very core. When the crystal reached the end of its life, it exploded; the power it released formed the ley network, and the scattered seeds became world trees, giving rise to all things.

The Primeval Elves were the crystal’s first children. They loved their mother deeply, and after the explosion, they turned her original body into a scepter.

That was the Scepter of the Song of the Azure Sky, wielded by the Elf Queen, symbolizing their supreme mother.

Later, over an unimaginably long span of time, the Primeval Elves found the other crystal fragments scattered by the explosion and forged them into another weapon: the Greatsword of the Song of the Azure Sky.

Whether greatsword or scepter, both bore their mother’s name, yet their powers were utterly different.

“The scepter inherited the crystal’s power. It could easily tear open the sky and shake the earth. Beneath the sun, it constantly changed color, its radiance brighter than sunlight itself.”

The Twin Moon Wheel’s voice was full of admiration.

“But the greatsword was like an illegitimate child. It could sense danger and protect the race—yet the Primeval Elves never valued it.”

Five hundred years ago, the Primeval Elves had been unimaginably mighty, with no living creature capable of threatening them.

The Queen was disappointed in the greatsword and felt it did not deserve to be placed beside the scepter, so she bestowed it upon her chief minister—the last Elf King.

The Queen paid the price for her arrogance.

When the world was plunged into darkness, the minister raised the Song of the Azure Sky. The greatsword blazed brilliantly, and only then did the world first see its true form.

“It cut the Queen’s scepter in two,” the Twin Moon Wheel exclaimed. “It was the strongest weapon of all.”

And yet this strongest of weapons was cursed for having pierced the Queen through. Later, its master broke it into three pieces, and now it was nothing more than an ordinary dagger.

“Its power may be gone, but its ability remains,” a royal mage told Linley. “The Song of the Azure Sky is the embodiment of the crystal’s will to survive. It can identify danger for its master.”

Linley turned the dagger over in his hand, unable to see any special ability in it at all.

“Hm? It’s glowing?”

Suddenly, Linley saw the Song of the Azure Sky flash with golden light. It slowly melted into his body and vanished.

“Congratulations, Your Highness. It has acknowledged you.”

“The scabbard of the Song of the Azure Sky is its master.”

The royal magicians said joyfully. Unlike the Twin Moon Wheel, the Song of the Azure Sky would merge with its master and only part from them at death.

Linley suddenly froze. As he looked at the royal magician standing before him, a strange and profound sensation rose within him.

“This man is a threat to me...”

He had an intuition that this royal magician could kill him—and, in the same way, he could kill that man too.

“Does Your Highness understand now?”

The royal magician noticed the subtle change in Linley’s expression.

Linley frowned slightly and looked over the other mages. Each of them gave him a different feeling.

Among them, the thing that threatened him most was the Twin Moon Wheel. When Linley looked at it, his intuition told him that the Twin Moon Wheel could easily kill him, though some power was sealing it away.

“This is survival instinct.”

Linley understood the greatsword’s ability, but it was... far too abstract.

Couldn’t it at least give him a number?