My Servant Is An Elf Knight From Another World

The pizza was left unfinished. There was still over half left portion-wise that was going cold, and stale… and in general, it was just the saddest state a pizza could be. Neglect to this extent should be a crime, honestly.

But nothing could be done about it. Everyone's appetite seemingly vanished throughout the course of a couple of fleeting but illuminating minutes.

Everything felt a little heavier after that too; the air in my lungs, the walk back to position. Even a simple blink felt like I was doing pull-ups with my eyelids hooked up on a pair of anvils. The trepidation… funny how something you can't even see, touch, could feel like the weight of an entire galaxy on your back.

Irene was doing another examination on me again; the usual touchy-feely electrifying buzz of her hands all over me was just as intense as last time, but compared to the wait, the anticipation… well, let's just say there's nothing left of my frame of mind for her to send into disarray.

Seriously, I felt like a kid about to take his first needle jab in the arm all over again.

"Heart's beating fast again," she observed, her gaze briefly latching onto mine as she cascaded her hands down my shoulders. "Is that because of me again, or…?"

"We'll just say it's you," I muttered back. "Makes me feel loads better if it's the case."

"You're too stiff here," she gave my forearms a squeeze. "At best, you'll give yourself a cramp. Worst case, you'll constrict the flow of your magic, tampering with the results—could you loosen them, please?"

"I'll try, but—"

"But?"

"I dunno," I shrugged limply. "It's not like I'm reluctant, it's just… well, it's not every day you just go and give up your free will, y'know?"

"Relax. You let a vampire bite you every day, okay? This is practically no different from that."

"Is it?"

"We'll just say it is," she replied, lightly, soothingly, straightening a crease in my shirt before pacing back. "It'll make you feel much better."

Taking her place approached Adalia, her walk toward me slow and staggered. I tried to take comfort in the fact that it was her. That it was someone familiar, someone close… trusting myself with her was as easy as breathing.

And yet the beating of my heart still failed to recede. Guess that's just primal instinct doing its work… in the face of mortal peril, even when you yourself know there wasn't any… how the hell else was the body supposed to think?

If she noticed my apprehension, she wasn't mentioning it. There's no way she doesn't know though, she usually loves pointing stuff like this out. So I'm left only to guess that she's simply doing me the kindness of keeping quiet about it.

"So how is this all gonna work, exactly?" I asked her, trying to channel out all my unease with words. "When Amelia bit me, all I remember is you and me in that dreamscape, then waking up… and that's pretty much it. Same story here?"

I wasn't exactly sure what it was I wanted to hear her say. Words of comfort? Or at least just something that'll get the last 10% of me finally on board hopefully.

Adalia began to skirt around me.

"You will… be bitten…" she said, her fangs showing in the slightest glimpse through the movement of her lips. " You will be… controlled… and then… you will wake up…"

As straightforward as ever. She didn't stress, she didn't soothe, she just spoke. In a way, that kind of aloofness was reassuring.

"Great," I breathe in, feeling a bit lighter. "Anything else I should know before we get on with it?"

"I am… uncomfortable with this…"

Not so aloof now.

"So you've said."

"Controlling people… is for enemies… for protection…" she continued. "...not for you… even if it is… to help you…"

"You have my consent, my permission. And I want you to do this," I said. "There's nothing for you to feel bad about."

In a weird twist, suddenly I'm the one trying to reassure her instead. Funny how that works.

"Did it… hurt you…" she slowly asked. "...knowing… about my failed… conversion…?"

"It did, yes," I answered. "Why?"

"When you… look at me… when you remember… my condition… does it hurt you… too?"

With how close we were, it was hard to find anywhere to look but right at her. The unending white in her clouded stare, her unruffled brow, the rigidly straight line of her lips. Absolutely nothing at all, and yet simultaneously, it was everything that she could give.

"Sometimes," I answered again.

Adalia blinked back, a slight swirl in her gaze giving life to her eyes, if only sparingly.

"When I bite you… for a while…" she said. "You will be… even worse…"

I didn't know what to say to that. It was then I understood precisely what I was asking her to do. I sympathized before… but it was only after hearing that that I finally knew, and I knew there was nothing I could say. There are no comforting words for a notion like that.

"Promise me… you won't ask me… to do this again…" she requested.

"Yes. Promise," I said without hesitation. "It's just this one time… just to know how strong I am and then no more."

"How strong… you are…" she repeated back, her voice like a fading echo in a distant horizon. Inches apart, I then felt the cold of her touch lightly tilt my chin up. "Strength… is not… the only measure… of strength…"

I had to pull my eyes way down just to look at her again. I always forget how short and petite she was. In an upright position, her face just barely reached the upper half of my chest. It has its upsides though.

All the countless times she coiled her entire body around my arm, and the shade my lanky stature could provide her from the afternoon sun. I also remembered how easy it was to sweep her off her feet during that one game on Christmas day having to run away from a volley of snowballs being hurled at us from Irene's minions.

Never occurred to me that there could exist a downside, or that it would even present itself right at this moment. Adalia couldn't reach my neck. She had to push her feet up, impel herself forward, exert herself even more past what she was already unwilling to do.

And then, I felt it. Through the light bristling strokes of her silver locks, the chill of her breath on my skin—that familiar sting, pinch that I've felt so many times before. Then, for some reason, as time seemed to freeze at that single instance, all I could think about in my head was how I could've made it so much easier for her if I just slouched a little more.

I blinked.

Nothing. No pain. No sensation.

Nothing.

I blinked again.

It really did seem like the world was frozen in place; that we were frozen in place. I waited for things to thaw, for something to happen. Something was supposed to happen, wasn't there?

And yet, nothing.

I blinked.

There was wind in my hair. Blue in the sky. And gradually, a scorching in my eyes.

I blinked again, and I could feel some tears welling, my eyelids were squinted—shielding my pupils from the sun in the sky. That was when I first noticed I was no longer standing.

"Do not… move…" whispered a voice, closer than close yet also sounding further away beyond measure. "Rest…"

The back of my head was resting on something soft and cold. Slowly, Adalia's face began to loom over me directly from above. I shifted my head a little and I felt her thighs shift right along across my cheek. She had me on her lap.

I was confused for a moment before it finally clicked. Whatever was supposed to happen had already happened. Just like that. In the blink of an eye.

"Adalia…" I croaked, dazed, numb, and heavy all over. "What—?"

"It… is done…" she answered the question she interrupted. "You are… strong…"

"Super," I heaved. But that only answered half the question. I needed more than that. "And just how strong was the—"

"An earthquake?"

There was a giggle. A lovely, calming giggle, and the sound of someone pacing in the dirt could be heard from close by.

"Funny joke, Ken. Come on, when was the last time you ever heard of an earthquake happening around this area?"

Irene's voice was light, flippant—the total opposite of the hectic scrunching of grass I was hearing from her.

"Oh, just fess up, won't you?" She said with a simper. "You're just using an excuse to come see me again, aren't you? Really miss me that much? You know, it's not good to be too overly attached. Girls aren't really fond of that. Lucky for you, I'm more understanding than that."

Despite the lack of cooperation from my bones and muscles, I managed to turn my gaze toward her direction, and immediately, I felt a hard clench in my chest.

Everywhere I looked, it was the same rattling scene of destruction. Untethered from their roots, splintered from their branches, or just outright collapsed onto the hard earth; rows and rows of forestry standing in utter shambles.

Bushes rustled with the constant scurry of rodents. Up above, birds of every kind flocked to the sky, chirping and cawing their distress.

Then there were the lights; pillars of pitch-black emerging from fissures in the dirt and shooting up into the sky extending far and wide, beams of darkness breaking through even among the most distant canopies.

"Yes, yes, Ken, really, we're all fine and dandy just right where we are, you don't need to come. You're miles away. I wouldn't dream of doing that to you."

And then there was Irene, standing amidst a jagged ring of those sharp shafts of magic, my magic… their stark ethereal glow illuminating the sweet smile on her face as she continued speaking to the phone against her ear.

"Don't worry about a thing, alright? If there's anything wrong at all, trust me—you'll be the first to know."