Chapter 307 New Hierarchy -7
Chapter 307 New Hierarchy -7
The dark elf encampment.
The commanders of the thousand dark elves stationed two hours from Waris were deep in discussion.
"That is no reason for us to go to him first. Enril of the Blue Flower."
"Your stance has shifted since we departed. Are you mocking me? Encamping forces this close to headquarters without sending word—that's more than enough to invite misunderstanding."
Enril, a dark elf Unique, delivered the words with icy sharpness.
The other three seated around her wore expressions of strained tension, but the one who had spoken against her remained composed.
"The realities of an army shift with circumstances."
"Then tell me what circumstances those are, Sudaro of the Green Tree."
Dark elf men were generally handsome, but this man, Sudaro, was different.
Half his face, centered on the left eye, was hideously disfigured by burn scars, to the point that an ordinary person would hesitate to look at him directly. The remaining half being well-formed only made the effect more grotesque.
Handsome yet made ugly by burns—Sudaro answered evenly.
"Intelligence reports say the elves who occupied Ringard are marching back. Word of our movements must have lit a fire under them."
...That dried-up apple core is doing something stupid.
Enril cursed inwardly.
But in the grand scheme, the distances were considerable, and what Enril had just done was not so different from Leticia's actions.
...Haa.
Seizing three cities according to plan had succeeded. The trouble began after that.
Dark elf society was structured around five clans.
As the foremost assassin of the Blue Flower Clan and a Unique, her opinion carried considerable weight. But when the other four clans spoke in unison, she could not simply ignore them.
The four seated before her were each here as representatives of their respective clans, and they insisted on seeing the Chief of the Red Union—Jiha—with their own eyes, and on bringing troops along, just in case.
Enril had tried to block it, but the argument that one must personally assess a new leader's character before pledging loyalty to his faction was not exactly wrong.
So she had obtained Jiha's permission and returned to the vicinity of Waris... only for them to halt here without warning, stubbornly refusing to go any farther.
"So, what does the elves marching back have to do with us? Whatever they're up to, shouldn't we simply carry out our own task?"
"What the elves will do upon returning is obvious. They'll try to ingratiate themselves with the master of this Red Union and seek to persecute us. If this man Jiha is swayed by their slander and treats us with contempt... is there any reason to join the Red Union?"
At Sudaro's words, the faces around him showed tacit agreement.
Enril narrowed her eyes.
"You planned this from the start. Sudaro of the Green Tree?"
"What do you mean?"
"Playing innocent? It seems you've been cultivating political influence while I was in Waris."
Enril spoke coldly as she studied the faces seated before her.
The five young standouts representing their clans—all familiar to one another. The three aside from Enril seemed persuaded by Sudaro's reasoning.
Young as they all were, they had been sent as each clan's representative. The decision reached here would be the dark elves' decision.
The animosity between dark elves and elves ran deep. Whenever elves entered the equation, emotion tended to override rational judgment.
But even taking that into account, they're listening to Sudaro over me. Black Rock, Brown Stump, Red Herb—have they all fallen in line behind him?
It appeared that while Enril had been stationed in Waris, Sudaro had gained significant influence within dark elf society.
"Even if the elves hadn't marched back, you'd have found some other excuse to stall. Am I wrong?"
"That's speculation."
"Just be honest. What do you hope to gain from this foot-dragging?"
Sudaro offered only an ambiguous smile.
On a face that was otherwise handsome, it would have been a charming smile, but the disfiguring burn scars turned it horrifying overall.
At the nightmare-inducing sight, Enril let out a snort.
"Smiling? Should I sear off the other half too?"
....
The atmosphere froze.
Those burns on Sudaro's face—the story that Enril was the one who had inflicted them was well known.
The incident had occurred before Enril became a Unique, and the details had never been properly disclosed.
Yet the Green Tree Clan had lodged no formal protest with the Blue Flower Clan, to which Enril belonged.
The prevailing theory, then, was that Sudaro had committed some grave offense that warranted it being covered up entirely.
Enril spoke coldly.
"We have begun a war, and I am following military orders. I am moving under the Chief's command... and what you're doing right now is a deliberate work slowdown—insubordination that undermines military discipline."
"The dark elves have not yet definitively decided to join the Red Union."
"So you're saying you seized three cities without authorization just to test the waters? Why don't you go explain that to Blue Seal?"
Sudaro smiled.
"What if we framed it like this? That we detected the Red Union's rise early and moved to protect those cities preemptively, to keep them from falling to a third power."
"That's not entirely false."
"For now, the initiative is ours, isn't it?"
The other dark elves nodded in agreement with Sudaro's proposal.
A cunning ploy—meant to play both sides. But it was a foolish gambit born of not knowing Jiha.
....
Rather than explaining, Enril assessed the other four.
Could she kill them?
Setting aside the political fallout. Evaluating only on combat capability.
She was a Unique. The other four were Rares.
A Unique excelled in prolonged combat, but she had no lack of confidence in a short, decisive battle either.
If I draw my blade, it's over. But would Sudaro not know that? With Waris so close, a fight breaking out here puts him at a fatal disadvantage. ...Does he have some card he's counting on?
As Enril weighed the odds, Sudaro spoke in a placating tone.
"Think carefully. Enril of the Blue Flower. What exactly changes if we cause a disturbance among ourselves here? I am merely suggesting we observe a while longer before deciding. Once we confirm that the Chief of the Red Union is a fair man, we need only pledge our loyalty."
"And that's precisely...."
"According to intelligence, the elves have proposed a Pure-Bond Ceremony to the Chief. By their standards, that is an extraordinarily bold proposal."
The other three opened their eyes wide in shock.
"A Pure-Bond Ceremony—that's something a non-elf can undergo?"
"I wonder if they even got the Council's approval."
....
Sudaro shook his head.
"I lack the details as well. But a human who was once a Common would certainly covet a Pure-Bond Ceremony—one that grants a lifespan of a thousand years. However, can we place ourselves beneath the elves?"
....
By this point, even Enril had no counterargument. All she could do was curse the elves and Leticia inwardly.
From the dark elves' perspective, Sudaro's reasoning was entirely sound.
If Jiha accepted the Pure-Bond Ceremony and became an elf, the dark elves would rather die than join the Red Union.
Bow their heads and serve the elves?
Even Enril herself felt deep revulsion at the thought of Jiha becoming an elf.
...But I only know Leticia proposed the Pure-Bond Ceremony because I heard her say it. How does Sudaro know? Has he planted an informant among the elves?
Enril swallowed the question and chose to concede ground.
"Fine, I understand. Sudaro of the Green Tree. Your suspicion that the Chief might accept the Pure-Bond Ceremony and become an elf has merit. Even so, sending a formal envoy to apprise him of our situation is the proper course. No—we should go and explain ourselves."
"That is what a sworn vassal would do. We have not yet acknowledged him as our master."
"You have no idea what kind of wrath you're inviting...."
Enril had spoken the words without thinking, but Sudaro seized on them sharply.
"The dark elves are joining the Chief who rules Waris—since the clan heads accepted your proposal, I won't dispute that point. In terms of results, the Red Union now holds twenty percent of Warsland, so it has been a success. Though admittedly, over half of that territory was created by our efforts."
"And?"
"But since your return, I have found it curious. You, Enril of the Blue Flower, seem strangely familiar with the Chief."
"...What?"
"As though you know him personally. You speak as if you understand his character through and through."
Enril was taken aback. Sudaro pressed on calmly.
"Rumor has it that you and the Chief are involved in a sexual relationship. Is that true?"
....
The other three sent her looks laden with suspicion.
Enril's haughty temperament, her notorious disdain for men—she didn't even regard males as people. And she had taken a human man as a lover?
Any dark elf would dismiss it as a baseless rumor.
Enril wrestled with how best to answer.
Hiding it won't last long. But the way Sudaro is speaking—he already knows. He laid this trap in advance....
Her brief hesitation, however, only fanned the others' doubts.
Before Jiha had tamed her, the old Enril would have considered such an implication an insult and spilled blood on the spot.
Sudaro laughed.
"Oh, so it is true? You stayed in Waris, fell head over heels for some man you met, and now you're trying to gamble our entire race without a second thought?"
....
Enril grasped the hilt of her blade.
Sudaro had orchestrated this scene precisely to force her to hear this in front of witnesses.
"Your aim was to undermine me and build your standing among the dark elves. Too bad. If your head comes off here, it all ends anyway."
"Are you truly going to do it? If it's a mere threat, I could overlook it as a poor-tempered display of Unique authority. But the moment you swing that blade at me, you make an enemy of the Green Tree."
"I already burned your face off. You think I'd hesitate to take your head?"
Just as Enril was about to move, sounds of a scuffle broke out outside.
Thwack!
Along with the sound of a blow, three or four dark elf guards tumbled through the tent entrance.
The five dark elves, who had been moments away from drawn blades, stared at the unconscious guards—then at the woman striding in after them.
"What made you think you could stop me?"
The small-framed woman sighed and dusted off her hands. The winged headpiece and the diminutive height—barely 140 centimeters—marked her as a Dirga.
Ignoring the stares fixed on her, Narsha looked straight at Enril and spoke bluntly.
"You're in big trouble."
"...What brings you here, Narsha?"
Flustered, Enril addressed her by name.
The others were thrown into disarray by this sudden intrusion and the appearance of a Unique.
Narsha Russellarms—a Dirga Unique and notorious for her abysmal temperament. But more importantly, she had shown up here alone.
Enril felt some quiet relief. With Narsha present, Sudaro aside, the other three would surely relent.
Narsha spoke flatly.
"He says if you don't all come running right now to explain yourselves, he'll kill every last one of you."
"That is an unreasonable threat. We haven't even sworn an oath of honor to him yet, and now he treats us as subordinates out of hand...."
"Oh my, a bold one, aren't you? A bit too hasty, though."
....
Narsha produced a whip instead of replying.
A Unique drawing a weapon was a potent warning. Everyone fell silent of their own accord.
"If you don't comply right now, I'll kill all of you except Enril. That works, doesn't it, Enril?"
For Enril, as a dark elf, eliminating her own kin—representatives of each clan, no less—would create tangled political complications later. But Narsha, being of another race—a Dirga—was fully prepared to handle it as though she had simply done as she pleased.
It would breed enmity between Dirga and dark elves, but that was a problem for later.
"I'll be in your debt."
"Ah, it's nothing. Better to kill you bastards than let thousands die."
The three dark elves' faces hardened at the exchange between the two Uniques.
They were discussing human lives as casually as brushing dust from a pouch—and the worst part was that it wasn't bluster.
How could anyone stand against not one but two hostile Uniques?
Sudaro, who had kept silent, rose from his seat.
"Understood. Let us go, then. The imposing authority that dispatches a Unique to deliver threats is worthy of admiration—let us meet him and speak."
"Ah, I wondered who that one was. So it's him. Enril, isn't he the one who tried to sneak a peek at you bathing back then?"
....
A different kind of silence fell over the tent.
The other three stared at Sudaro with naked suspicion. Sudaro's face paled as he cried out.
"What outrageous slander is this? If you do not retract it at once—"
"I heard it from a dark elf man who came to apply as one of my escort guards once. Said he was applying because he didn't want to end up like the guy who got his face seared off trying to peep at the dark elf who became a Unique. I turned him down since his skills were mediocre."
"A fabrication. Retract it now."
"I'd rather kill the other party than retract my own words. Want me to demonstrate?"
Sudaro fell silent, his already-ruined face twisting into something even uglier.
Narsha gave a derisive sniff and turned away.
"If you understand, get ready to leave immediately. You have ten minutes. Enril, talk with me for a moment."
Narsha stepped outside the tent and faced Enril.
"Ah, what I said to the burn-scarred one back there—I was just throwing it out. He was staring at you all creepy-like, so I guessed and poked. No problem, right?"
"He got seared because he was pestering me, so it's not a problem. But...."
Enril trailed off. The notoriously reckless Narsha wouldn't seek a private word without good reason, and there was only one.
Jiha's state.
"Yeah, he seemed angry. You know how he usually doesn't lose his temper, right? But this time he was dead serious. I came because it looked like things were about to blow up."
....
The color drained from Enril's face.
Narsha spoke with uncharacteristic maturity.
"Well, I'll back you up from the side too, so let's try to wrap this up with minimal damage. Got it?"
"...Yeah. Thank you."
Enril expressed her gratitude sincerely, but her vision had gone dark.
She was trying to minimize the fallout. The other dark elves, their pride wounded and itching to argue, were heading for Waris to confront Jiha.
None of them knowing that Jiha intended to use this incident as an example—to establish the Chief's authority once and for all.