Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 122: Dryad

Chapter 122: Dryad

"Your Majesty, have you ever heard of nymphs before?" Alwin began with a question. He was probing her and gauging her reaction.

"Nymphs? I’ve read about them in books," Arabella tried to look as innocent and neutral about them as she could.

"Do you believe they exist?"

Ferdinand and Raymond observed her every move as Alwin asked questions. It made her nervous. It felt as if she was being judged right.

"I don’t know. I have only ever heard about them in stories. Some of the elders in Lobelius did say they do exist, so perhaps they do. If I get to meet one, then I’d start believing they do exist," she honestly replied since they might be able to tell if she lied with all of them carefully watching her. She hoped they wouldn’t notice her nervousness.

Alwin, Raymond, and Ferdinand glanced at each other at her words.

[She’s fine with meeting one?]

"The thing is, just as monsters exist, nymphs exist too, Your Majesty."

Alwin gave her a chance to react and their eyes could probably bore holes in her skull with how they were looking at her.

{Why did you have to relate them to monsters?! Now she looks somewhat nervous and scared.} Ferdinand frowned at Alwin.

Arabella tried to look as calm and relaxed as she could. She probably looked scared because of how nervous she was.

In the end, she was still nervous though. It was nerve-racking with all of them waiting for her answers and using them to decide how to treat her in the future.

If she failed here, they might decide to keep their identities a secret from her again.

{My apologies, milord. I will do my best to clear it up.}

[Right. To most humans, monsters and long-lived races are all the same. They categorize all of as us monsters. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. It was as if I was saying that nymphs are also monsters. Then all of us in Estrella would be labeled as monsters as well.]

Arabella eyed the three Estrellians with her right now. They didn’t look like monsters at all. They were all attractive and strong with a unique aura about them. They didn’t look like monsters at all.

Recalling Ferdinand’s dragon form, his size did look terrifying. But he looked more mighty and powerful than scary.

But it was true indeed that in the books she had read; dragons, elves, and nymphs were mostly categorized as monsters because they were not human.

Dragons were always evil and violent creatures in the books she had read. They set fire to cities, eat humans and livestock, and destroy things whenever they want. They are beings that humans must kill in order to have a safe and peaceful life because dragons are a threat to them.

Now that she thought about it, the typical reaction of humans to meeting a dragon was to be terrified. She should have been scared of Ferdinand when she learned that he was a dragon.

All the dragons she had read about before in storybooks were terrifying, evil, and mean. But she probably wasn’t scared because she had been with Ferdinand in human form for years and she was assured he wouldn’t kill her.

Moreover, she was more concerned about Fermin. With Fermin, a half-dragon as her own son, how could she possibly be scared of him when she loved him so much?

Meanwhile, elves have a bit of a better reputation but they were also said to be powerful, selfish, and vengeful beings who only care about themselves and dislike humanity. They hate humans and thus they are enemies and should also be eradicated or else they would wipe out humanity.

Arabella does not dislike elves though since they were always portrayed as too divinely beautiful. Rather, she liked elves no matter the stories about them. She realized she did have a bias toward good looks.

On the other hand, nymphs were portrayed as beautiful ladies but they were said to be dangerous beings who lure humans into dangerous encounters and turn them into food and nourishment.

Arabella had nothing against nymphs but young boys were usually taught to run away from beautiful ladies they encounter in a forest or else they will lose their lives.

All in all, the long-lived races generally had a negative reputation among humanity so most humans do not welcome their existence. They were feared and were considered a threat to humanity so they were treated the same as monsters.

"They exist? Have you met one, Alwin?" Arabella acted dubious but was open to hearing more about them.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I have met a lot of them. Nymphs are nature spirits so they are everywhere."

"Everywhere?"

’So they are still here with us humans and not in Estrella?’

"Trees, forests, lakes, rivers, springs, and so on. There are many places where nymphs exist as long as nature was bountiful. Their population had been growing less and less and we rarely find them in densely populated cities but they still thrive," Alwin explained.

Arabella listened attentively since she wanted to know more about them for a chance to get to know more about Ferdinand as well.

[Humans are usually scared of other existences aside from theirs. Her Majesty doesn’t seem to be scared of them nor is she denying their existence the way other humans would have done. I can continue.] Alwin was observing her every reaction.

Ferdinand did too with a glint of hopefulness in his eyes.

[She wouldn’t deny the existence of other races, would she? She wouldn’t be scared or hate it, right?]

She could tell Ferdinand was also nervous as he observed her listen to Alwin’s explanation.

"Esmeralda, Safiro’s guardian deity is a nymph. Specifically, a dryad. Dryads are tree nymphs. Their physical bodies come in the form of trees but they can also take human form. Judging from her tree, Esmeralda is probably more than a thousand years old and her roots are all over the whole of Mt. Esme and even to the former fertile lands of Safiro."