CH 3

“I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

When Merlin apologized, Katlena Agreta smiled for a brief while before reaching out her hand with a stern expression. 

Merlin immediately handed her the stack of papers. 

They were on their way to meet the administrator’s new officers. She was about to go through all of the paperwork one by one. 

Katlena took a few steps forward and lowered her gaze to the documents.

“So, how’s the preparation going for the party?”

They were discussing the party in celebration of Schaurillin Inborgia’s return, which was why her mind was always wandering elsewhere.

It was also due to the fact that Katlena Agreta picked Count Agreta’s former mansion as the party location. 

The mansion, which had been sealed and untouched for a long time, was being trimmed by Katlena Agreta’s direct administration. 

Even her aides were agitated by the odd choice of location. 

‘Was that absolutely necessary? Or was there some malicious plot in the work?’

It was a reasonable suspicion. 

However, it’s not the moment to raise such a doubt, and it would probably not be an issue if a third-party subordinate does so first. But it was actually reckless.

Contrary to public opinion, Katlena Agreta was a person that was very difficult to anger. 

She wasn’t the type to react coldly to a single blunder. It was, however, necessary to fix what she had warned about. 

Merlin made a quick report after attempting to eliminate these thoughts.

“As you’ve instructed, we chose the old Count Agreta’s mansion as the party location. The tough blood stains were removed with magic, and the arches, which we’re decorated with colorful flowers and white cloth-cover, were now placed on the road of Piazza of the Circle.”

“The scenery would be wonderful under the autumn sun.”

“Yes, as you stated, we are now working with costume specialists and city planners to ensure the most magnificent sunset, however…”

“However?”

“I advise that the old Agreta mansion’s a place where the memorial services were not properly held, I wonder if he might get angry.”

“I don’t believe in ghosts.”

Katlena Agreta gave a cold answer and went over a few documents and looked through the data on dress codes, catering, sponsored ornaments, and municipal plans. 

She muttered lazily after taking a thorough look at the data and pointing out some areas for improvement.

“What about the three who said they’d quit?”

“I offered them an ‘appropriate’ reward and because we needed personnel to prepare for the party, we announced the recruitment of new staff without delay.”

“Good.”

Katlena’s dark eyes briefly bent like a rainbow curve and widened quickly when she remembered the three Alves who were questioned, with pale expressions, how humans knew the ‘mark’. 

Satisfaction burns brightly in her heart. She raised her head slightly, her demeanor unmistakably kind and gorgeous.

“By the way, you’ll need to arrange a substantial meat menu.”

“As instructed, we prepared mainly vegetarian-oriented meals to suit the tastes of the elves, but we also set up a meat menu for the others at the same time. We also paid attention to the seasoning so that the meat menu’s scent does not spread too much, and if you let me know any more problems, I’ll talk to the chefs about it.”

“It’s best to leave meals with strong spices, you can’t design a menu that reduces cooking to a minimum by relying on the raw flavor, elves are sensitive to blood. If we go on like this there’s no reason to cut down on meat.”

“Was it true that elves don’t eat meat because of it’s bloody odor?” Merlin asked.

Humans were unfamiliar with heterogeneous peoples such as Elves, Alves, and Delphines. 

Katlena Agreta was familiar with the heterogeneity, either as a result of her childhood connections or Rosetta’s education, but her aides were not. 

They were always dealing with heterogeneous people only as per Katlena’s instruction and also by paying attention to, and coordinating what she pointed out.

Katlena glanced at Merlin, who had been thinking about a truly peaceful race, with a gentle expression and then smiled briefly. 

It wasn’t really an appealing smile. She immediately wiped it off her face. With cold eyes, she lowered her gaze.

As the season changed, the green trees began to slowly change. 

Looking at the lavish garden of Count Agreta’s mansion, she answered coldly.

“Of course, maintaining composure in the presence of the stench of blood would be difficult, they are those who spend their entire lives slashing throats on the battlefield.”

“What?”

“To say that elves are a peaceful race is nothing more than a fairy tale, to say that they’re connected to animals and plants, and that they are gentle because they care about nature is nothing more than a human fantasy, Merlin.”

Katlena Agreta shook the tapestry’s ornamental with her fingertips as she gave various instructions after receiving urgent estate news from other counselors who had just arrived.

“In my life, I’ve never encountered such violent and aggressive tribes.”

“Then…”

“This.”

Merlin tried to ask back, but her words were drowned out by Katlena Agreta’s “sighs” which seemed to indicate that she had discovered something. 

Duchess Agreta waved her hand and offered Merlin a little smile.

“Oh, I almost forgot. The simple color composition and qualities of the decorations to be placed on the center fountain were known ahead of time, the shapes of the surrounding decorations must have been prepared accordingly, right?”

“Yes, of course…”

“The decoration will be delivered this afternoon, so please go and receive it properly.”

‘Was her description of the elves’ ferocity a result of personal oppression?’

Merlin kept a simple thought, and didn’t say anything, and simply answered “yes” and received the documents back.

Merlin, who had been silently staring at Katlena Agreta, was asked one more time to handle the decoration with care.

“Was it because it’s a gift from some noblemen?” Merlin asked.

“It’s a symbol of a peace treaty.” Katlena answered.

That was enough to explain everything. Katlena Agreta, on the other hand, provided a more detailed explanation.

“It’s a gift from Ilinai Nuetta Higgin, the Alves King.”

•••

“Crazy…”

A hissing sound and intense taste of blood flowed from his throat. 

The uncovered moan was caught in a hazy breath and got entangled around his chin. 

There wasn’t enough mana left to keep his human appearance. The man’s earlobes gradually expanded and became pointy.

After a long chase, a distinct ‘mark’ engraved on the back of his hand began flashing loudly. 

The patterns that distinguished their qualities and associations, represented how God ‘engraved’ the fairies from birth, flashed as if they felt the danger. 

He had to recover his mana. As the pointy-eared fugitive hurried around the corner, a strong wind blew in front of him.

It was at that point that he instinctively bent his head. A strong gust of wind clawed the back of his head, and a violent thunderstorm ripped through the city’s walls, leaving a scar as if engraved on the wall, chasing him down to blow his head off. 

A black-clad man holding a sword that was deeply curved was striding after him.

It had the appearance of a ghost. However, no matter how he looked at the aspect of his body or shape, he was clearly human. 

The black-clad man’s power was so terrifying that it made the fugitive think otherwise. 

The fugitive had the impression that he was dealing with a high-ranking Alves.

The black-clad man has magical scars on his face, as if he was copying the minds of elves.

The black fairy, who was grinding his teeth, finally faced the man.

“How dare you…”

“What do you mean?”

Two assassins wearing black clothes finally pushed the fairy into the wall and muttered indifferently.

“May you be grateful to those who give you the honor of ending your lowly life by tearing it apart with the wings of Lupus.”

The lightning, which squeezed the last mana left of the fugitive, began to flash in the hands of the Alves men in a deep lead-colored light. 

The cold lightning, which he never thought would be useful against human assassins, began to rip through the outskirts of Roschodur’s capital.

•••

In the distant past, God made a promise to man and said,

“I will build your kingdom in the sky to avoid the suffering of the earth. As a token of that, I will send you a fairy as my messenger.”

•••

According to old literature by the sky continent of Camamita, there are ‘white fairies’, ‘black fairies’, and ‘gray fairies’ on the sky continent. 

The white fairy living in the Carpenta forest was called the Elf, and the black fairy living in the rocky mountains in the wilderness and glacier adjacent to the forest was called the Alves. 

Finally, although there’s no frequent interaction with humans, the gray fairy living in the water is called Delphine.

People called the elven race as the people that heard the voice of God. 

They are said to have pointy ears to listen to the voice of God, and have grown taller to get closer to the sky. 

However, this was only a legend, and according to promising scholars, it’s presumed to have originated from a race of completely different origin from humans.

Regardless of the origin, the elves use trees and forests as their home, and build sacred places by stacking stones. And living by protecting the Holy Land was their mission and only moral ethics. 

All races in wartime, which exclude invaders and strangers, are now based in adjacent territories.

In other words, the elves were on alert with humans and were hostile to Alves and Delphine.

Therefore, high elf Schaurillin, who abandoned his mission of protecting the Holy Land and ran into the human world, was a traitor for a long time within the Elven society. 

Aside from the fact that a four hundred-year-old Duke was viewed as a sign of peace that represents an Empire’s well-being, Miro Rosway would not be able to respond and would remain silent if asked what his essence was.

For the fifty-year-old half-elf, Miro Rosway, who spent most of his life in human land without ever having experienced proper communication with the elves, the principles of elven society were just an incomprehensible story. 

However, even in such a maze, he only knew Schaurillin was living an ‘out of the norm’ life. 

As the name suggests, Schaurillin was living a life out of standard.

A life that seems to have no intention of being defined by anything.

And even before finding a magic item to contact the Alves King, Miro Rosway had to respond to an unexpected guest who came and felt the same impression as when dealing with Schaurillin.

It was Katlena Agreta.

Katlena Agreta sat elegantly while sipping tea, with an authoritative and faint smile that seemed to have been painted by herself in the room of Schaurillin Inborgia.

‘Shouldn’t that be the case?’, ‘What are you thinking?’. These thoughts crossed his mind. 

Miro Rosway, who was restless and waiting for Schaurillin to come, was greeted by Katlena Agreta kindly.

“Sit down, Miro. It’s not even the first time we’ve met, so there’s no need to be nervous.”

“Do you remember me, Duchess Agreta?”

“Of course.” Katlena Agreta replied softly. “How can I forget?”

Miro Rosway called out Schaurillin’s name three times after hearing that and Schaurillin Inborgia appeared in the room in time. 

He seemed embarrassed when he heard the guest’s name, but there was no embarrassment left on his beautiful face when he came out of the living room. 

Miro glanced at Schaurillin for a moment then stepped back awkwardly. 

He wanted to run away. In this relationship, which was only mud, the main character was not a maze so it seemed like he could run away.

“I didn’t expect you to come, Duchess Agreta.”

Katlena Agreta smiled confidently and greeted Schaurillin Inborgia lazily as he greeted her with his typically friendly tone.

“I’d wanted to see you.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. I have feelings from the past.”