The knight disembarked from the airship as he arrived at the elven capital city. A wide variety of mixed expressions stared at him in his Imperial-style armor, with his round ears... a very unusual sight indeed, in the elven kingdoms. Some of the elves seemed amazed by the airship technology that, while increasingly popular in the Empire, was nearly unseen in these parts. Others regarded the human with pure hatred and contempt due to the prejudices of their kind towards his own. And still others... mostly younger females... almost seemed to be in love with him.
Of course, the elves had their reasons for all of this. The rapid expansion of the Empire since it was founded a mere half century ago was a subject of alarm to the dwarven, fae, and elven kingdoms located around its borders. Several elven kingdoms had already been assimilated into the Imperial population, and those that hadn't, stood in staunch opposition to Imperial expansion.
This was before the orc invasions, however. No one had expected the orcs to come together and attack in such numbers. No one, apparently, except the Emperor himself. Emperor Friedrich I had been quick to propose an alliance of mutual self-defense to the elves, and after losing several of their border villages, the elves saw that they had no choice but to accept this alliance in order to ensure their own survival.
Which led to the arrival of the Arcane Knight known as Parin. While the Imperial Airship Navy had been tasked with bombarding the orcs from the sky, Parin was tasked with assisting their elven allies on the ground. In order to do so, he was to team up with one of the elven forest wardens who knew the lay of the land, in order to push back against the orc intruders and drive them out of the forest. The knight headed straight to the castle in order to meet with his host.
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