Wrecking Fantasy with Technology

Alfheim, Ain Continent:-

Eteri and her mother walked into a large room.

There were ten people already sitting inside.

These were the queendom’s Elders; High elves that were older than the queen but worked as her ministers to help in the governance of the queendom.

And today was just one of their routine meeting to give their queen updates and decide the future course of the queendom.

“Greetings, Elders.

I hope I didn’t make you wait for long…”

The queen greeted the Elders in her usual well-mannered way.

“Greeting, your majesty.

You may not worry.

It was us who came early, so naturally, we would have to wait.

No part of it is your fault…”

‘Ah, the usual reply…

But I guess it is pretty rude to point out your ruler’s mistakes like that...’

Eteri was used to this scene.

Whenever her mother got late for these meetings, the Elders used to take the blame on themselves instead of pointing out her mother’s fault.

It made sense though.

Even though they were older than the queen, they were still her ministers and below her in terms of political authority.

And it would not be good for anyone if they went around pointing their queen out for her every little mistake.

Not only would it look rude towards the queen and damage their reputation, but it would also harm the queen’s as well since she would be seen as a clumsy person and hence, an incompetent ruler.

But even so, Eteri knew that they didn’t know her mother’s real face.

Because if they knew, they would stop caring about trivial matters like damaging their reputations and focus more on fixing their queen.

Eteri was pulled out of her thought by the sounds from the starting of the meeting.

Several of the usual topics were discussed.

Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary anywhere in the queendom.

The people were happy, animals were happy, mana levels were high and no concerning conflicts were going on.

Elves were like that only.

If there was no external interference, they didn’t go around making any trouble.

Alfheim would probably remain this way for a long time.

But this is something that Eteri knew her mother wasn’t too fond of.

Peace wasn’t bad, both Eteri and her mother would agree.

But her mother wanted fun.

The main reason that Eteri’s mother was lazing around all day was that there seemed to be nothing for her to do.

Eteri herself had some amount of this quality but she never felt the need to do anything major, other than going around with her friends and teasing some people for fun.

Next came a somewhat surprising suggestion from her mother.

“I feel that it’s a good time to open up our borders to other people. What do my wise Elders think of this suggestion?”

Even though Mzia had said this like a humble-looking suggestion, Eteri knew otherwise.

For her mother to say such a thing openly could only mean that she was already sick of waiting and wanted something new fast.

“But your majesty! This is something that cannot be done!

This was a rule we took to protect ourselves and I don’t see any harm being done due to it.

And even if we did open our borders, who would we allow?

Those vile demons? Or those barbaric beastfolks?

Because I don’t think that even you would allow the humans in after what happened last time!”

All the Elders instantly began refusing her suggestion and stating arguments in their defence.

Eteri looked at her mother’s calm expression.

She looked as if she had realised her mistake and didn’t want to push on with her plans.

But Eteri knew different.

For a very tiny fraction of a second, her mother’s expression had changed before instantly changing to normal before anyone could notice.

Even Eteri could only catch a blurred afterimage of the change and not the actual expression.

But after thinking about the current situation and her mother’s usual thought process, it was obvious to her that Mzia had something like annoyance or depression or something similar flash on her face in that instant.

The others in the room didn’t pay attention to this.

The meeting continued for a few hours more.

No one else noticed, but as Eteri saw, her mother’s eyes didn’t seem too interested in the discussions any longer.

From the moment her idea had been rejected, her eyes started looking very bored and distracted.

She did not let this show on her face and continued maintaining her usual calm expression.

Once the discussions were over, the others decided to get up and leave, leaving behind Eteri and her mother who continued to sit.

But the moment the Elders left, Mzia took off her “disguise”, leaving Eteri quite surprised.

It turned out that her mother hadn’t even bothered to dress up properly.

All she seemed to have done was to apply several layers of high-tiered magic on her body to make it look like she was wearing proper clothes when she was still sitting in her nightgown.

For some reason, she found it easier to perform a large number of high-tiered spells instead of simply just changing her clothes.

Now, if asked for a reason, she could throw endless streams of reasons for her behaviour.

But for Eteri, all such “logical” reasoning was nothing but useless excuses and she could never understand her mother’s obsession with lazing around.

“I don’t like those old men!

They’re no fun!”, declared her mother in her normal childish manner.

“Mother, they’re only thinking about Alfheim’s good.

The last time we tried to allow others to come into our country, those people started disrupting the daily life of our citizens!”

“But that was years ago!

And why are you going against your mother!?”

Eteri could only sigh at her mother.

This was her regular drama.

She would always try to suggest doing something crazy to Eteri and Eteri would decline it straight away.

And this was followed by Mzia complaining how her daughter doesn’t love her or how her daughter has no sense of filial piety.

Today seemed to be no different.

“Mother, before making any further messes, how about we take this discussion to our room?”

The least Eteri could do was to ensure that no one else noticed them and damaged her mother’s reputation.

The moment Eteri’s words reached her mother’s ears, her mother made a face as if she gained a sudden realisation.

‘Wait! This useless hag hadn’t even realised that we weren’t in our room!?

Just how is she a queen!?’

Eteri saw as her mother got up in the blink of an eye and reapplied her disguise spells the very next instant.

“Well then, my dear daughter, shall we proceed to take rest in our room?”

And Eteri’s mother was back in her “perfection” form within 5 seconds.

Her voice, tone, clothing, body language and face, nothing seemed to be anything similar to the actual mess she was underneath her magic.

The two of them rushed back to their room.

And now began the real stuff.

Eteri saw her mother jump towards their bed.

She transformed back to her messy self mid-air and landed on their bed.

If one were to compare it, it would be like a magical girl’s transformation, only in reverse.

Whenever Mzia used to transform to her private appearance, it was her habit to make it as flashy as possible for some reason.

Eteri figured that it might be to make any onlookers look away due to all those flashy lights and give her time to check her surroundings.

Back in her comfy but messy appearance, Eteri’s mother started complaining again.

“I hate my life!”

“Mother! Just calm down for once!

Then let’s just talk it out, okay?”

Eteri saw as her mother relaxed a little after taking a few breaths.

“You good?

Okay, now talk.”

“I want some fun in life…

Being a queen in this place is very boring…”

“But mother, Alfheim is at peace.

Everyone is happy with their lives and all of us are prospering in this forest.

What’s so bad about that?”

“Well, my daughter, I think of the long term.

Sure, we are prospering right now but what about the future?

What if the other races develop a lot in the next 15-20 human years and declare war on us?

We need to go out there and form good relationships before such a tragedy can befall Alfheim!”

Eteri was quite shocked by how her mother actually made sense in what she said this time.

If they just stayed shut like this, who knows how strong the other races might in the meantime?!

And if those guys come knocking, how many lives would be lost before Alfheim get back to its current prosperity?

Or if Alfheim could survive at all?

“Woah! Mother, you’re right for once!

I didn’t think about this!

If those people attacked us, I don’t think we might survive!

Oh, God!

I really need to s-

WAIT A MINUTE!

My useless mother is suddenly sounding so wise?

How is this possible?

Mom, you got 10 seconds to fess up your real motives before I throw you out of this room!”

Eteri knew her mother.

And that woman placed herself before her people.

There was no way in Hell that she would be the kind to spend so much time thinking about how to save the country.

She’d rather use that time to find more ways to laze around or try to sneak out for some mischief.

“Ah, you caught me…

But daughter, being queen is really very boring in this country!

Everything is normal.

There is nothing for me to do!

And because of my image in the eyes of the public, I can’t enjoy myself in the large amounts of free time I have!”

“Oh, is that so?

Then, mother, how would you enjoy yourself if you could?”

“How would I enjoy myself?

Ah, I’m glad you asked!

I’ll go travelling a lot, I’ll try doing new things, meet new people, maybe have an affair or two on the side and…”

Eteri’s mother looked excited.

“And… What?”

“And stuff lots of meat into my stomach!”

The queen started salivating as she said the last line.

‘Yup!

There’s the mother I know!

She might be the role model for many citizens, but deep down, she’s a sucker for non-vegetarian food!

An elf eating animals like that…

I don’t even want to imagine!’

Eteri felt like throwing up just imagining that scene.

Her mother seemed so addicted to meat after having it just once in her life that Eteri started seeing any animal product as some cursed substance.

‘There was no way that anything that can reduce my perfect mother to this horrible state is something good!’

Eteri started cursing non-vegetarian food while she looked at her mother.

Mzia seemed to be in deep thought as well.

Then she suddenly spoke up.

“I have decided!

I am running away right now!

Away from this useless ultra-perfect land!

Eteri, you can come with me if you want, but don’t you dare stop me!”

“What in the world are you saying!?

What do you mean by running away!?”

Eteri was used to a lot of the crazy things that her mother had done over the past but this was something entirely new.

Not answering her daughter, Mzia stood up and started doing some high-speed chants under her breath.

Her high-speed mouth movements looked very similar to Yuki Nagato’s.

And after a few seconds of chanting like that, she finally spoke up.

“All right!

All my preparations are done!

I stuffed my valuables and clothes in a pocket dimension, strengthened the defences of Alfheim, left messages for those old farts to help them manage this place and packed a bunch of food for my journey!

Time to go!”

Mzia looked very pleased with herself.

But Eteri was anything but pleased.

She was very, very scared of the ginormous repercussions that her dumb mother’s actions would cause.

“HAVE YOU GONE INSANE, YOU CRAZY OLD HAG!!!

YOU WERE ALREADY PRETTY BAD IN THE HEAD, BUT NOW YOU’RE RUNNING AWAY!!??

HAVE YOU EVEN THOUGHT JUST HOW CATASTROPHIC YOUR ACTIONS WILL BE!!!???”

Eteri had finally lost it.

Her mother had gone insane.

She was planning to flee from her own country, a country that she ruled!

There was no way in Hell that such a person could be anything but insane!

Seeing her reaction, Mzia’s eyes softened up.

She looked like her past self, back when she wasn’t so lazy and useless.

“Honey, look…

I very well know exactly how badly I’ve behaved so far.

And I’m very, very sorry for all the trouble I gave you…

But I have to do this.

Everyone here is too relaxed and no one is thinking of the repercussions of the closure of our borders.

They think that everything is fine but I’m sure that the day will come when all other races have grown stronger than us and will come to eliminate us.

And we won’t be able to do anything to stop them.

That’s why I need to go out there.

I might be able to form some relationships with other countries and get help from them in case war breaks loose.

And those Elders also need a wake-up call…”

Eteri looked at her mother in shock.

Because this time, she felt that she wasn’t lying.

“Is that the truth?

Or is this another one of your elaborate lies to escape and run somewhere else where you can eat non-vegetarian food?”

“Uhh…

I’ll be honest, that is a reason too, but what I said earlier still holds!”

Eteri could only laugh at her mother’s words.

“All right, fine! You can go right ahead and run off!

But on one condition!

I’m coming along!

There’s no way in Hell that I’m staying here to face the disaster that’s going to come!”

“That’s my daughter!

…And done!

I’ve modified the message I’m leaving for those guys and packed your stuff as well!
Now gimme a hug before we teleport out!”

“Hell no!”

And the two teleported out of Alfheim while arguing for a journey on foot.

The next morning, the message was found and a lot of chaos was created.

The country didn’t collapse or anything, but it wasn’t smooth sailing for those Elders…