Chapter 144: The Man
Chapter 144: The Man
Night.
The elves who had been crushed by Jiha and seen Leticiacia snatched away before their eyes gathered indoors.
They had originally used the Round Table Council Hall, but with it smashed to pieces by Jiha, they had no choice but to gather in a shabby place like this.
Quority Rosen, seated at the head of the table, ground his teeth.
"We must eliminate that bastard, no matter what it takes."
Having been thoroughly beaten by Jiha right in front of the other elves, he kept gnashing his teeth furiously.
He'd recovered after pouring a fortune into healing magic, but now whenever he opened his mouth, he did nothing but rant about killing Jiha.
"But how on earth...."
"I've been looking into suitable candidates, but none are forthcoming."
Even though they met three times a day, the conversation was always the same.
Seated at the lowest seat, Guason Lochek sighed inwardly.
He was the young elf who had, when Jiha arrived, remained relatively calm, addressed him with respect, and asked questions.
"Instead of going on like this, why don't we convene the Waris Species Council? If we inform the Dwarves or other species and ask for help beyond ourselves...."
"Have you lost your mind?!"
"Are you suggesting we reveal such a disgrace to outsiders? Lochek! Have you gone mad?"
All six others protested at once.
Quority in particular gnashed his teeth with a shudder.
"To have a female elf taken by that lunatic—this is a disgrace that will last a millennium! We must take revenge by our elven power alone!"
"......."
Guason was dumbfounded.
Everyone was judging the situation as Leticiacia having been kidnapped against her will.
'...There's no way. She's a Unique.'
Even if the seven of them gathered here combined their strength, Leticiacia could settle things in an instant if she set her mind to it.
Yet the other six were defining it as a case of a frail elf woman abducted by a human man.
'No, I mean... does it make sense that a Unique got her wrist grabbed and was dragged off without resisting? Even if a dark elf was beside her, they're the same grade—she could have put up a fight. At the very least, you'd have to assume some prior agreement or pre-existing relationship.'
Guason kept mulling it over internally, but he didn't voice it.
The Lochek family was the weakest faction among the seven here.
They weren't even a family that could attend the Elf Council.
Guason tried a roundabout approach.
"From what I've investigated, Leticiacia... I hear she still shows up for work at the Purple camp, you know."
"Call her Yormun. Where do you see a woman using her own name? The family name comes first."
Quority tsked in displeasure.
In elf society, being called by one's personal name was the privilege of the firstborn alone; it was an old custom that other sons and daughters were called by their family name.
Even after the Thousand-Year War ended and an era of female superiority arrived, producing many outstanding women,
The conservative elves found that exceptionally objectionable.
'What's more, the Rosen family finds Leticiacia especially irksome.'
The young heir of the Rosen family: Pamin Rosen.
Once her fiancé, he'd been nothing but her nominal betrothed for over a hundred years and had never even been promoted to Super Rare.
At the Yormun upstart family's complete disregard, the traditional and prestigious Rosen family was secretly fuming and grinding their teeth.
Guason cautiously continued.
"So, even if she was kidnapped, couldn't she be able to move around somewhat freely...."
"Then that's a ploy to keep up appearances. Because she's afraid the kidnapping will be exposed later!"
"......."
At Quority's words, Guason was at a loss.
Still, driven by the conviction that he was the only one among the seven thinking properly, he forced the words out.
"Perhaps Leticia...."
Seeing Quority frown, Guason hastily corrected himself.
"Have none of you considered the possibility that Miss Yormun is cooperating with this kidnapping?"
"What insane...."
"Have you lost your mind? Lochek?"
The other six tsked in disbelief.
Quority wore a smirk.
"Everyone, let's calm down. Young Lochek here is still too young to know how the world works, it seems. Look here, Lochek. If that were true, then Yormun has turned the entire elven society into her enemy. Because that would mean she colluded with a human man to stage her own kidnapping."
"......."
"If that were true, then the bitch has absolutely lost her mind. Gone crazy! How could anyone do something so insane?"
Guason sighed internally.
'From what I see, it's you all who look like you've lost your minds.'
Leticiacia, if she put her mind to it, could overturn all of elven society.
The others seemed to take her lightly, but Guason had once seen her lightly exercising from a distance.
He'd been overflowing with confidence as a Rare Grade, but he'd realized that even with fifty of himself, he couldn't beat Leticiacia.
By combat ability alone, Leticiacia could overturn not just this gathering, but the Council as well.
But people cannot live by fighting alone.
They need a community to belong to, a society they can mingle and live within.
For Leticiacia, that was elven society.
All elves naturally belonged to elven society and adhered to its values and codes of conduct. That was only natural.
That's why the men in this room looked down on Leticiacia, who was a Unique far stronger than themselves, and treated her lightly.
For the single reason that she was a woman.
"In any case, we absolutely must get rid of that bastard...."
Quority was gnashing his teeth.
In inverse proportion to their disdain for Leticiacia, their fear of Jiha had grown immensely.
"If we don't cut off the head of the wretch who smashed the Round Table, we'll have no face to show the Council."
"But seeing that he came with a dark elf, he is clearly that dark elf's right-hand man."
"Those wicked dark elves, taking the clever approach of sending a proxy to insult us. How impudent!"
"Who else but dark elves would play such filthy games!"
"No, but that's...."
Guason couldn't hold back and started to speak, but when everyone stared at him coldly, he shut his mouth.
'Strangely, it looked like that dark elf was watching the human's mood, too.'
It was just a gut feeling, but the dark elf Unique, Enril, seemed unusually conscious of Jiha's words and actions as well.
Like a subordinate watching their superior's mood.
"It's nothing...."
But this was just a gut feeling, there was no proof.
Even if proof existed, these people wouldn't believe it.
That such a haughty dark elf would bow her head to a lowly human—they could never believe such a thing.
"Actually, I've come across some good news. I hear that Blue Seal's Dirga escort guards have entered Waris."
"Dirga escort guards? What kind of people are they?"
"They are individuals acting as bodyguards to obtain Dirga weapons, and they're all said to be highly skilled. Thinking it would be good to meet them, I went ahead and put in a word."
"Oh, is that so. That could be useful."
"Then let's all go together. We each just pick a representative, is that it?"
While the others marveled at this clever plan, Guason was dumbfounded.
'They say they can't tell other species, but now they're begging help from others—from the Blue side, no less—and they don't even have the nerve to make contact alone, so they're all going together. I'm an elf too, but this is truly pathetic....'
Lacking in ability, yet full of pride, and poor judgment to boot.
He had to try to manage a grand strategy with people like this.
Guason was sighing heavily to himself when Quority called out.
"What is it, Lochek. Do you have some complaint about this decision?"
"......No. I'll follow along."
Guason replied reluctantly, racking his brain.
'I want to find out more about this human called Jiha... but there's no suitable place. What should I do then?'
As he thought hard, Guason suddenly recalled something.
'Why has Pamin Rosen suddenly gone into seclusion and isn't moving? Because of that, his engagement was broken, and now Quority is throwing his weight around as the acting heir....'
Something was strange.
Guason resolved to go visit Pamin.
"Then it's decided that we all meet the Dirga escort guards and select representatives, correct?"
But first, he'd have to move according to the will of this group lacking in judgment.
＊＊＊
Night.
Enril returned home.
"Huu...."
Walking through the garden toward the mansion, Enril sighed.
It was an excessively large mansion for living alone; though Mayan lived with her, so it was technically two people, but still large.
Enril stopped in her tracks and gazed at the mansion, her feelings growing complicated.
"Why am I like this lately...."
A soliloquy, unlike her.
Standing there blankly, Enril slowly shook her head.
Was it because Leticiacia was staying at the Blue Seal barracks, making them run into each other often?
No, lately Enril hadn't been the first to spit venom at her, either.
Ever since she'd seen Leticiacia so openly disdained by the other elves, she'd felt somewhat bitter.
Seeing Leticiacia, who never lost a verbal sparring match with her, actually being mistreated by her own kin right before her eyes had somehow made her furious.
"No, that's not it...."
The discomfort wasn't about Leticiacia's problem.
It was a man.
"......."
That's right, a human man.
Jiha.
Enril had never taken an interest in males before.
One day she would marry and build a home, and naturally, the partner would be a dark elf man.
She'd always considered it a carefully considered choice for the future of the species.
Love? Romantic feelings? It would be the best choice for the survival of the species, not some trivial emotion like that.
As the Unique representing the dark elves, that was only natural.
If she had any wish at all, it was the slight hope that her child would inherit Unique potential and carry on the line?
"......."
But for some time now, that human man kept circling around in her head.
Because they forcibly mingled bodies?
No, if it were only that, she wouldn't be like this.
If she'd been careless and suffered a rough time, she could just grind her teeth and watch for a chance at revenge.
She was particularly adept at covert ambushes.
No one can maintain a state of alert 24 hours a day, every day.
If you keep watching for an opening, the moment will definitely come.
"But...."
Lately, she hadn't even felt the urge.
At first, she'd tried to steady herself by thinking she was just stunned by the human man's unpredictable actions and quick thinking.
But at some point, she realized that even when she was alone, she was thinking about him.
The moment she'd definitely become aware of her own heart was when he'd stepped up in the red-light district.
When Enril was trembling with humiliation, hadn't Jiha stepped forward and cleared everything up?
He was the first man to step up and solve a problem for her.
Or rather, no man in Warsland existed who could do that for Enril.
Wasn't she a Unique?
Men were the ones watching her mood; conversely, this was the first time she'd ever been protected.
That resonated strangely, painfully in her chest, and forgetting she was in someone else's house, she'd lost herself in their physical entanglement.
She'd gladly accepted Jiha's touch, which desired her.
"You just dozed off in a daze afterwards."
A fresh lament.
Whenever she got tangled up with Jiha, she came undone.
Now, when he's not around, she's curious, she wants to know what he's doing right now.
"......."
She tries to suppress it, but the secret feeling only grows.
When she learned he was using Mayan, her close aide, when Mayan came to report and ask for permission, she'd been inwardly pleased.
Because she could find out how he was getting on through Mayan.
Leticiacia and Jiha getting involved in her office?
She'd been furious beyond measure... but right after, Jiha came to find her and her heart had calmed down.
Those words thrown out so suddenly, saying she was lovely—hadn't her heart pounded incredibly hard?
Enril hadn't missed the way Jiha had mumbled and averted his gaze, as if it had been a slip of the tongue.
It was a truth the man couldn't hide either.
"......No, this won't do. I keep thinking strange thoughts."
It was futile.
Enril cut off the continuing thoughts.
"He's a man who doesn't even keep his own word anyway...."
His remark about coming to her home was, as expected, something said just to tease her.
She was a fool to have gotten her hopes up over every little thing.
"Just why was I so happy about it...."
Unable to understand her own heart, Enril trudged across the garden path.
She wanted to soak her body deep in a hot bath and drink a cool glass of liquor.
If she could forget everything and fall asleep, this mood would probably be gone by tomorrow.
Sighing, Enril knocked on the front door.
Rap rap!
Quick footsteps sounded, and Mayan opened the door.
"Young mistress, right now...."
Mayan tried to tell her something urgently, but Enril shook her head and pulled her into an embrace.
"Ah, young mistress?!"
"Just for a moment...."
She was lonely and struggling.
It felt as if an empty hole had opened in her chest.
"Y-young mistress. Wait a moment. If you do this...."
"Just stay like this."
Shaking her head, Enril held Mayan tight.
She just wanted to hold onto someone, anyone, and lean on them.
Even if it wasn't the person she wished for.
As long as she could endure tonight.
Sighing, Enril blinked and then froze stiff.
The human man sitting on the lounge sofa was staring at her in amazement.
The face she had been longing to see opened its mouth.
"You're here now?"
It was Jiha.