My Raphtalia, My Queen (Raphtalia x male reader)

Chapter 41: The Front

You panted like a dog, setting Raphtalia down and falling to your knees. Muffled gunfire was heard outside. The iron gate that separated you from that hell, from danger to safety, hung high above your head. It loomed over you like a metal giant. An "ahem" was heard from in front of you, making you pick up your head.

"I must say, that was quite the achievement. Not many run through a battlefield quite the same way you did" spoke a large figure. You blinked for a few moments. An elf stood before you, in a white lab coat and glasses. "An...elf?"

"Yes...is there an issue?" asked the elf

"No! No I just...I didn't expect elves to be here" you muttered.

"Is this some sort of joke? Why would we NOT be here?"

"I...Wait, no please look I'm sorry to offend you but please can you send her to a doctor? She doesn't have long" you stammer, struggling to pick yourself up while carrying Raphtalia's limping body. The elf took a long sigh and made a waving motion to his hands. Quickly, two dwarves approached carrying a stretcher.

"Place your girlfriend on there, and then we'll get back to more important matters."

You gently placed Raphtalia onto the stretcher bed. Like clockwork, the dwarves rushed her beyond the sandbags and barbed wire. That's when you took in the city. It was an underground fortress. The Capital under Rock and Stone. The cave walls stretched high, but that didn't mean they were absent from life. There was so much verticality, with buildings stretching into the air, sprouting on the sides of walls or hanging from above the ceiling. Streets and alleyways were packed together, and airships flew up above. Smoke from factory work rose into the air and was funnelled into a dwarf-made filtration system. In front of you, however, was a barren battlefield. Well, barren in the sense of no buildings. However, lines of defences were laid out. Sandbags, machine gun placements, sniper towers and barbed wire dotted the landscape. Sprawling cave networks sloped around the mountain at the sides, with railway tracks accompanying the carved out paths. From the left side came a platoon of fresh soldiers, arriving in a set of minecarts. These were mainly dwarven, except for a human and an elf. In fact, there was a sprinkling of many different races with a gun in their hands, and a determined will to defend their home.

"Excuse me! Is he deaf?" asked the elf sarcastically.

"Oh, no sorry. My name's (Yn) (Ln), and I'm here on very important matters."

"Very important matters? Yeah, I don't buy that. Aside from your horrendous grammar, your timing couldn't have been more coincidental. Arriving JUST as the enemy attacked? And with barely a scratch on you no less - oh no I see your leg has a hole in it. Pro tip: might want to get that checked out."

You gritted your teeth and bit your tongue to hold back strong words. This man was going nowhere. "Look, I'm very sorry at the trouble I caused-"

"Trouble? Oh, there's no trouble at all. You helped us kill hundreds of enemy soldiers. And yet...wasn't that too easy? Why would so many monsters go after you? It seems to me that we're on good authority to detain you." said the elf, narrowing his eyes.

"Ok, I'll be honest: I'm...not from around here."

"Yeah, clearly" scoffed the elf.

"And I'm on very important, and more importantly very private matters. But I understand you're in a crisis, so I'd like to help you out in any way I can. Provided I get help from you in return." 

"I don't think you're in much position to bargain. But I don't mind letting command deal with your scrawny ass." The elf turned to his second-in-command. "Escort him to the higher-ups. They'll probably want to hear about him."