Edrick brought his new companion further away from the Underwood, lest he be spotted by more of the long-eared residents.

The Underwood Elf seemed frightened, and also quite confused about why he wasn’t dead yet. His expressions seemed to be quite a good match for those of a human, though a bit harder to read, as the bodies of Underwood Elves were very uniform in their colouration. It was the same dark-bluish skin tone throughout.

They were humanoid in shape, and seeing the changes in their facial expressions required one to get uncomfortably close. At least, in the beginning, until you got used to it.

Their piercing yellow eyes were accompanied by a black sclera and black pupil, really giving them the look of predators, especially since the yellow was quite bright.

Apart from these, which Edrick had already known, he analysed the elf in front of him from head to toe.

One thing Anoteros was a bit excited about was that it was said that most elven species tended to be very beautiful, and the real kicker was that it often applied to the males of the species as well. The soft features, lithe bodies and long hair made it so that many males possessed conventionally attractive features that you would expect from females instead.

This meant that the elf women were indeed often stunning, but honestly, Edrick had been seeing beautiful women everywhere since coming to this world. It was actually quite odd how pretty nearly every woman was. He didn’t even have to try to find one.

Ever since getting a taste of some foppoof, he had found it to be quite a shame that there weren’t more of those lying around. Anoteros was not very picky. He wasn’t even asking for a foppoof. Even just a male who was a twink would suffice for him. He could work out any kinks personally to make sure that the full potential was unleashed.

As such, the noble scion was a bit perplexed.

The Underwood Elf in front of him was indeed somewhat pretty, but that was just his face. Everything else was undeniably masculine. It wasn’t even somewhere in the middle. Being lithe, having soft features, and long hair was not everything. It was a collection of many traits that made a man appear feminine.

This one was not feminine enough at all to enter Edrick’s taste range.

“You are quite the unlucky guy. I would have shown you a piece of heaven otherwise” he said, and the elf shuddered despite not understanding a word, feeling like something sinister had just been avoided.

Since his dragon was not interested, the young noble simply reached out and grabbed the elf’s head. Amongst the crests Edrick had available, there was one that he had never put to use before--The lowest one, the servant crest.

The wife crest allowed for a lot of freedom and nurtured love, affection, and trust.

The maid crest was a bit more restraining, and instead nurtured dedication, obedience, and awe.

Those descriptions were oversimplified, but in essence, the crests made sure that the one bearing them fulfilled the role attached to it. The lower one went, the less flexible it became.

His wives could fulfil their roles in a plethora of ways depending on their personalities. The range of what was permissible was wide.

His maids, on the other hand, needed to stick more closely to the role their master assigned to them. Since Anoteros was not overtly strict, he allowed for some free range from them as well, which they used to try and find ways to serve him better.

As for servants…

It was the only crest that did not require Edrick to sexually dominate whoever or whatever it was placed upon. He simply needed to be in control of them. The Underwood Elf was bound and at his mercy. This fulfilled the condition perfectly.

The effect was immediate.

The elf attempted to resist it, but being an innate ability granted and created by the system, it was futile. The crest manifested as a huge purple circle that covered the upper portion of the back and featured tendrils of sorts that extended downward, as though wrapping around the spine.

There was no element of personalisation for this crest. Only Edrick’s influence showed upon it.

This one nurtured total subservience, blind devotion, and the inability to even question the master’s orders.

In fact, the strength of the lowest crest was such that the system had even referred to it as a ‘pet crest’ as well, for it was especially useful to bind beasts and any other creatures that lacked high intelligence. So in practice, this crest was a way to tame those branded with it.

If Edrick gave an order to one of his wives or maids, they were capable of not agreeing, though none had ever done this yet, for servants, this was impossible. Servants had no level of freedom inherent to the crest. They could only gain some if Edrick granted it…

In the first few minutes, the Underwood Elf was thoroughly confused, struggling to comprehend what was happening to him. His mind was being bent, despite knowing that there was no true reason to view the human before him as his master. He simply could not help it.

Anoteros undid the bindings, knowing that the crest had been successful, and attempted to communicate with his first servant.

Unfortunately, the crests were not wondrous enough to allow seamless dialogue. The language barrier was still present, but at least, the elf could sense the will of his master, even if interpreting it was not too simple.

By insisting and using some gestures, Edrick was able to get his point across. The first thing he desired from the Underwood Elf was the basics of his language, which should allow the noble scion to give orders more easily in the future.

Firstly, Edrick learned of his servant’s name.

He was called Daklaiel, and from what he was miming, he seemed to be a simple hunter of the younger generation. He didn’t have much talent apart from being a rather good invisibility cultivator. Though his stealth had been seen through by Edrick, had it not been for the silent environment, his approach would not have been noticed so early on, if at all.

“Alright, let’s get started then… Hopefully, the Underwood tongue isn’t a convoluted mess to learn” Edrick said aloud. Thankfully, he had Linguistics to assist him in that endeavour, so as long as he could get a grasp on it, with a native speaker to teach him, he should be able to at least get to a level high enough to communicate.

‘Mmh… I’ll have to bring Hui here eventually. That’s a language that’s never been documented as far as I am aware…’