The Demon King’s Hero Of Light - Volume 1 Chapter 173 173 The Museum Of The Gnomes

“What, what is that ability?” asked Manyur as Aella set him down next to Alfred after teleporting them out of the odd tram.

“I can teleport, to an extent,” Aella said, watching as Frederik unwound himself. He still couldn’t stand up straight, but at least he wasn’t twisted into a knot.

“That is an amazing ability!” Manyur exclaimed, but Aella stopped him before he could get started asking more questions.

“We are going to leave this underground place. I worked far too hard to become king in order to escape the underground, and refuse to spend another minute down here.”

“Of course, of course. Right this way,” said Manyur, finally picking up on her mood.

They followed him as he quickly made his way up the stairs to the crowded street above. Gnomes were busy chatting to each other on their mechanical communication devises, and didn’t pay any attention to them, much less to each other. Frederik sighed in relief as he stretched his wings and arms to the sky.

“It will be quite a walk from here to get to the museum, but I guess it can’t be helped,” mused Manyur, starting to make his way down the street.

“Hold on just a minute,” said Aella. “Alfred, I know you don’t like to fly, so I expect you to keep up here on the ground.”

He nodded as Manyur looked at her in curiosity.

“What do you mean by flying?” he asked in excitement.

Aella realized he must not have seen her fly before and decided to enlighten him.

“I am going to carry you, as you show me where the museum is while we fly,” she said, snatching him up before he could refuse.

“We’re going to fly?” he asked again, sounding much more excited as Aella juggled him around to make both of them comfortable without crushing the bag her kitten was in.

Without responding, she zoomed up into the sky, with Frederik following close behind.

Manyur gasped in delight and started laughing.

“This is fantastic! Amazing! Weeeeee!!!!!” he cried out as she started getting higher to try and see more of the city.

It was amazing how far into the city they had already traveled. That tram thing must have moved much faster than she had thought.

“There’s the museum!” shouted Manyur, too excited to realize she could probably hear him just fine.

She saw the large domed building took up an entire block of the city, and started flying towards it. Frederik had no problems keeping up and she could see far below them as Alfred seemed to leave a line of light as he zoomed through the city.

Ignoring the childlike delight the gnome she was carrying was exhibiting, Aella settled down in front of the entrance to the museum and set him down.

“That was delightful! Could we do that again sometime?” he asked, panting from having screamed and shouted so much.

Alfred showed up before she could answer, and she turned to enter the museum without answering Manyur. The entire kingdom of gnomes seemed to have never left their childish natures when they hit a.d.u.l.thood. She couldn’t wait to leave this place.

Picking up on the fact she wasn’t happy, Manyur tried to tone down his glee as he ran to catch up with her long legs.

“This place is full of the many attempts we have made to build great and incredible things,” said the gnome.

Aella looked around at the many attempts the gnomes seemed to have made to create something that could fly. Could this reflect the fact they were assigned the Hero of Air? They may have forgotten that they had been given that hero, but something still drove them into the sky.

“Did your people ever succeed at flight?” she asked curiously.

“Unfortunately, the last attempt had a very high death toll and the council ordered all future attempts halted permanently. This is our most favorite thing to seek, which is why it is foremost in the museum. If we travel further into the building, you will see some of the other things we have managed to design.”

Aella nodded, slowing her pace to study some of the diagrams and exposed interiors of the devices around her. She itched to take it all back to her people. There would be so much her people could do with some of this, but she hesitated to steal it.

“Why are there not many people here?” asked Alfred, looking around the room.

“Most people come here during the school days when they are children. Once we are grown, we have seen it already and have other things to do. Schools are not in session today, otherwise the museum would be packed with children.”

Judging from the size of the city, Aella could only imagine how many children there were, but what was this about school?

“What do you mean by school?” she asked, stopping to look at something that was filled with tiny gears.

“You’re joking, right?” chuckled Manyur, but after seeing the head shake of Frederik before Aella turned her head to glare at him, he quickly continued, “Of course, well, school is where we send our children to learn all of the important things they need to know to become well educated a.d.u.l.ts. They start attending when they hit six or seven years old, and learn how to read, write, do math, experiment safely, and the history of our people.”

“Do they get to go home at night? Or is this a place they go to and stay?” asked Aella, wondering if it was something she could implement in her kingdom.

“We have both options. Some parents don’t want their kids to go away all the time, and others are too busy to raise their children,” said Manyur.

Nodding her head in understanding, Aella spied the carving, hanging on the back wall, almost obscured behind several other gizmos and gadgets. Making her way towards it, she saw that it had the non-human heroes surrounded by humans, and then below that it had a line of humans with the same symbols as the elven carving had for each of the elements beside them.

“Is that depicting what I think it is?” asked Alfred.

“It’s ancient history,” said Manyur before Aella could respond.

He gazed up at the stone slab with a bored look on his face.

“It’s been about to be taken down dozens of times over the years, but there’s some clause that says it has to stay on display forever. I don’t even know what it means anymore. I think the teachers mostly gloss over it, since it’s not important.”

“In that case,” said Aella, reaching out to touch it despite the sign with an ‘x’ over a hand clearly meaning not to touch anything, and sent it into her bag. “It will look nice in my collection.”

“But did it really show the humans taking all of the heroes?” asked Frederik, scrunching his brow.

“I believe so,” she nodded, turning to leave the museum.

She had no intention of remaining here in the gnomish lands any longer than necessary.

“Wait! You can’t do that!” cried Manyur, snapping out of his shock. “That’s property of the gnomish state!”

“Are you going to stop her?” asked Alfred curiously.

“I may not be able to, but I will definitely report this to the council!” he sputtered, stepping back as if Alfred might strike him down right there.

Really?” said Aella, thinking she might not want to leave on such bad terms. What if something happened in the future and she needed to come back? “Why don’t you just take me to the council now, and we can get this all straightened out immediately. I still have to visit the halflings before I can return home.”

Manyur nodded, still unsure if he should be satisfied by that or not, and hurried to lead them out of the museum.

“How far is the council building?” asked Aella, looking around at the buildings and wondering if the council building would be large enough for them to fit comfortably inside.

“Will you fly us there?” asked the gnome hopefully.

“It depends on how far it is,” she growled.

He nodded quickly and pointed to a tall pointed building at the end of the street.

“I am not flying you that far,” she said, shaking her head and turning to walk down the street.

Pouting in disappointment, Manyur followed behind them quietly.

Several heavily armed guards stopped them at the door. This was the first time Aella had seen any gnomes that didn’t look childish or immature.

“Halt, who are you, and why are you here?” asked one of the gnomes eyeing her and her companions.

“I am king Aella, Ruler of the Demon Kingdom, and I am here to discuss with your council about a stone carving in your museum that belongs to me. I was informed that I should talk with them before taking it,” she said.

“Do you have an appointment?” asked the other guard. “The council is very busy.”

“I am a visiting king from another kingdom,” she growled back. “I would imagine your council can find time to visit with me.”

“Wait here,” said the second guard sounding dubious. “I’ll check with them before we let you in.”