Lumeria returned to her seat and then leaned back, her eyes saying she was ready to talk now.

"My daughter has said that you wanted to speak to me. I found the timing great, seeing as I wanted to speak to you as well," she said.

"Yes I did, I’ve come to plead for help," Ken replied.

"Help? Help for what, if I may ask? I believe I have an idea of what it might be, but I want to be certain."

"An army of demonic humans and maybe a few demons are headed for my town, they plan to use there as a place to enter the Kingdom of Vermilion," Ken said, speaking clearly and right to the point.

"Hmm, I see, and I am guessing that you want our help for this situation."

"Yes I do, in as much as I would love to handle every issue I can by myself alone, this goes beyond what I can do alone," Ken said.

"It’s smart to always know when we are at a disadvantage, but I do have a question, why have you not contacted the Kingdom of Vermilion? It is your town after all," she asked.

"Well that’s simple, I find it very hard to believe that the kingdom does not know about something like this. I don’t know all that much about them, but I know that they are at war with the demons and demonic humans.

It would only make sense that they have people actually watching these towns to ensure that the demons do not use this route to enter their kingdom.

But if they are going to act or do something, they’ll definitely not start from my town but rather from somewhere that’s more important, and rather use my little useless town to make the demons believe they are getting away with what they are doing, to give them the illusion of victory, and then they attack and take them down." He explained his thought process in depth.

Lumeria listened to everything that he had to say, and she was stunned to hear him. He spoke like someone that most definitely knew how it worked.

"You are extremely smart I have to say. You know that they’ll not defend your small town, so you want to do that yourself."

"That’s the short of it," Ken replied.

"My lady, you cannot consider what he is asking for. This would force us to meet humans and help them, the same race that has hated us for so many years," the guard said in anger.

"For a good reason," Lumeria responded.

"It has been hundreds of years, the past is the past, we cannot change that and they have refused to allow us to change that," he said, her anger rising even more.

"Sigh, I haven’t said I’ll allow it Sierra, but we cannot shut him down already, so for my sake, let’s talk this through properly," Lumeria said.

"I understand my lady," the guard said.

Lumeria turned back to Ken. "I believe that Mira spoke to you last night, she told you that I have a proposition for you, and if it’s possible, we might be able to work with you," she said.

"Yes, Mira did come, and she spoke to me. Told me that you wanted me to stand beside Luna who is meant to be used as the first step to merging and fixing the issues with both races.

I understood everything, but I have one question, why me?" Ken asked.

"Well that’s simple, you are human and the first person that Luna has trusted so much. It’s a short time, but I have been watching and one thing I’ve seen and known about you is your pride.

Your pride is so high that if you agree to a thing, you would rather die than allow it to fail, so I know that if you agree to this, there is surely no way you would allow Luna to get hurt. Beyond that, Luna trusts you to no end, and I trust in her judgment extremely." She explained in compelling detail.

"Hmm, I have to be honest, that does make a lot of sense. I am willing to accept whatever terms you want, not because of anything, but simply because Luna is a friend, a dear one, and protecting her is something I’d do whenever," Ken said.

"There’s that pride that I was talking about, thank you for accepting. I have already had a full discussion with the elders of the tribe, but they do have a little thing that they want first," she said.

"Hmm? What’s that?"

"You are to have a sparring battle with a guard of ours, to see your competence at least, they said the person that travels with Luna must have the strength to defend her," Lumeria explained.

"Ahh, I see, no need to worry, I’m up for whatever, I’d like to fight against an elf," he spoke like he had been waiting for the opportunity, "so who would my opponent be?" He casually asked.

"That would be me," Sierra stepped forward.

’Haha, should have seen that coming from a mile away.’

He turned and looked at the guard. "So when will this spar hold?"

"Today, now," she declared.

"Sierra, do not try to bully him," Luna said in anger.

"No it’s fine, we can have it now, there is not much difference if we push it off, and I need your help as soon as possible," Ken said.

"I’ll not be going easy on you, after all, what’s on the line is us exposing ourselves to humans and also letting you leave with our young mistress. If you are to get your way, it must be through blood and sweat," Sierra said.

"I would not have it any other way," Ken replied with a calm smile.