Chapter 73
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Reunion (4)
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Following Ellis to her organization's hideout.
Suddenly, a question popped into my head, so I leaned close to her long ear and whispered softly.
"Ellis. But is it really okay to openly use the name Ellis Family? You're a wanted criminal, after all."
"Huh... Yeah, I've bribed the more prominent nobles, so it's actually safer that way. It's also my way of saying I won't hide from their gaze."
"Aha?"
"And they won't be able to lay a hand on me for a while."
"Why's that?"
"Because the imperial succession dispute is in full swing."
"Succession fight... Come to think of it, you said you unified the capital's underworld."
Naturally, in a contest for the next emperor's throne, fair play wouldn't be the only thing happening.
Assassinations... might not go that far, but all sorts of dirty tricks that couldn't be shown openly would run rampant.
And as a blade they could wield without dirtying their own hands—and discard if things went south—nothing beat the underworld.
Especially now that someone had unified it?
"Indeed. So it doesn't matter if you're from Calypso Territory or a wanted criminal."
"Right. Because I'm even more useful than that."
Ellis shrugged. As expected, her mind worked sharply. Everything had been calculated.
"But what do you plan to do after the imperial dispute ends?"
"Huh?"
"What you're saying is you'll become an existence too awkward to hand over to anyone else and survive by staying neutral. But once the succession race is over, the new emperor on the throne will see you as a thorn in their side."
Judging by how she'd fully taken control in just a few months, it wouldn't be on Calypso Territory's massive scale... but crucially, its location was none other than the capital, Elisium.
If there was a gleaming blade right under their chin, they'd want to pocket it out of unease... or break it if that wasn't possible.
"Complete neutrality is impossible in the end. Especially since you have so many weaknesses, Ellis."
A wanted criminal from Calypso Territory, and on top of that, her entire family had been branded as traitors entangled in political infighting.
I didn't know the full details... but roughly, her father had been executed, her mother had committed suicide right in front of her, and the young Ellis had been exiled to Calypso Territory.
Whether they harped on her wanted status or dragged her parents into it, Ellis came with perfect conditions for the imperial family to eliminate her.
Martial prowess? That was her weakest area by far.
The imperial family's bloodline ability was on another level entirely.
But for some reason, despite my concerns, Ellis just wore a pleased smile.
"What? You're that worried about me, Enoch?"
"Of course. With my current position, I could handle the wanted criminal thing somehow... but getting on the imperial family's bad side is tougher."
Of course, if it came to the absolute worst, I'd curse up a storm and throw down. But avoiding that scenario altogether was best.
Ellis blinked rapidly at me as I let out a deep sigh.
"I have some ideas for that too, so it's fine... Come to think of it, you're the Grand Duke of House Zahav? Looks like we've got a lot to talk about."
"Yeah. It's only been less than half a year since we last saw each other, and yet so much has happened."
I shook my head briefly. Our eyes met, and we both burst into laughter at the same time.
"Ahaha. We're almost there. See? Starting from over there."
Ellis poked the ground with her cane sword and tugged my hand.
Following her through a narrow alley, a somewhat gloomy street soon came into view before long.
My first impression of Elisium had been its vibrant colors.
But what about this place? The buildings were dilapidated, rusted in spots here and there, and the eyes of the passersby were shrouded in deep darkness.
A familiar stench wafted faintly.
Violence, vigilance, fear, resignation, regret, and death.
The familiar reek of the slums. Less intense than Calypso Territory, but still.
Those who had been glaring at the unfamiliar outsider scattered in all directions the moment they spotted Ellis's face, or bowed their heads and averted their gazes.
I could tell instinctively. On this street, Ellis reigned like a queen.
Everyone feared her while also admiring her.
Amid these conflicting gazes, the place we arrived at following Ellis was a shop brimming with rare vitality amid the drab buildings.
It was a casino.
Shouts and screams echoed from everywhere, along with the clinking of coins. We headed to the room in the deepest part.
Thud.
The moment the door closed, the outside noise was cut off. The soundproofing was thorough.
"Should be safe up to here. Sit somewhere comfortable, Enoch."
"Yeah."
I plopped down on a nearby spare chair, and Ellis brought over a bottle of liquor and glasses from a shelf close by.
She sat across from me, poured the drinks, and handed one over.
"I know you don't like alcohol much, but I bet you'll like this one, Enoch."
"What is it?"
"Fairies' Embrace. It's made by the dwarves up north, and because it uses such premium ingredients, it's practically a medicine. No mana enhancement effect... but it strengthens your mana circuits."
"...The one I wanted to try back then?"
Back in my Calypso Territory days. What I needed most was a fundamental solution to the side effects of my experiments, and a way to manage the energies from the elixirs I'd gulped down haphazardly as a desperate measure.
I blew every coin I earned on rumored health boosters, and whenever I heard black mage or assassin guilds had some, I'd smash them up and take the spoils.
Fairies' Embrace had been one of the must-haves on that list.
Because of the overflowing mana, I'd occasionally tangle it myself and faint while vomiting blood for a whole day.
Now I knew, thanks to Igni, that it wasn't just tangled mana—mana beyond my capacity had started rampaging, and my body had actually adapted to it.
At the time, though, with no way to handle it and no one to teach proper aura cultivation, I'd searched for ways to toughen my mana circuits.
It was a truly crude idea, but my options were that limited in Calypso Territory.
Anyway, Ellis must have remembered those days and prepared this Fairies' Embrace.
...Believing we'd meet again someday.
Gulp.
I took a light sip, and a hot yet refreshingly cool aroma filled my mouth.
I swallowed it down, and the coolness spread through my esophagus to my whole body, adhering perfectly to my mana circuits and settling in.
I didn't know the exact mechanism, but my mana circuits definitely felt sturdier. Half a bottle would probably yield noticeable results.
My internal mana had already surged from Jevella's recent dishes made with all those elixirs she'd bought... This would let me draw out far more aura, much more stably.
Perhaps noticing how much I liked the Fairies' Embrace, Ellis grinned and slid the rest of the bottle my way.
"Drink the rest. I just wanted a taste—I don't need it that badly."
"Won't say no. ...Thanks."
While I emptied the remnants in my glass and refilled it,
Ellis, who'd been sipping her own glass unlike me, spoke up.
"To continue what we were saying earlier... You don't need to worry about after the throne race ends. Because in the meantime, I planned to find you and leave the capital."
"...Hm?"
"Swallowing the capital's underworld whole wasn't for its power—it was for the intelligence network."
"To find me somewhere in the empire?"
"Exactly."
Ellis propped her chin on the back of her hand and gazed at me at a slight angle. She let out a sigh laced with the scent of alcohol and continued.
"After you vanished. Rusty, Mare, and I argued for a long time before finally reconciling. If we hadn't fought among ourselves, you probably wouldn't have left without a word."
"Well..."
Even if I'd bitten on the House Zahav offer, I could've at least left a note.
But I hadn't... because my house had been wrecked, and I was pretty pissed.
Of course, if I'd known they'd suffer this much, I would've given some kind of heads-up.
"Then I decided to leave Calypso Territory and scour the continent to find you."
"So..."
"Yeah. I figured the underworld outside Calypso Territory would be relatively manageable, so I headed to the capital. ...I didn't expect it to be like this, but anyway, I was just about to start searching for you when we ran into each other first."
"Lucky, then. I was planning to send people out separately to find you all. What about Rusty and Mare? Where'd they go?"
"Rusty said he's heading north. Lots of beastkin there, right? He said he'd knock them all flat and use them as minions to hunt for you."
"...That's Rusty for you. And Mare? Being mage-like, did he go to the western magic tower? No, he would've met me first if so."
"He did go to the magic tower? Then the rumors about Wild Hunt being practically crushed are true. Anyway, I don't know where Mare went either. He didn't tell me his destination. But he left a note saying whoever finds you first should contact the others."
Ellis pulled something from her bosom.
A black, sticky branch-like object. I'd used it a few times before. Break it, and it transmits a short message through another branch. Something like a magic tool.
"Guess we'll use it right now."
"...Mind waiting a bit, Enoch?"
"?"
"We can contact them anytime, right? More than that, I want to hear what happened to you. What's this about you being Grand Duke Zahav?"
She stared at me pointedly, as if urging me to explain quickly. I chuckled and nodded.
Fair enough. I'd been asking all the questions I wanted answers to.
"It's not a big deal. Not long after my house got wrecked, some people from outside Calypso Territory tracked me down. ...Turns out I'm the previous Grand Duke Zahav's illegitimate son."
It felt a little bad lying to Ellis, who was one of the orphan crew.
But I'd decided to live as Enoch Zahav for the rest of my life.
I slowly organized in my head everything that had happened to me—or rather, everything the House Zahav people had mistaken for happening to their own.
I recounted it all while steadily sipping the Fairies' Embrace, and Ellis chimed in with appropriate reactions each time.
She even shared tales of how she'd unified Elisium's underworld midway through.
With alcohol flowing, an old friend reunited, and fun stories exchanged, time flew by before we knew it...
"Huh?"
When I opened my eyes, I was lying in an unfamiliar bed. Topless, no less.
As I blinked and looked around,
Whoosh—
An acrid yet fragrant smoke—somewhere between tobacco and incense—tickled the tip of my nose.
Following its source with my gaze, there sat Ellis on the edge of the bed, pipe lit.
For some reason, in her underwear with only a man's coat draped over her shoulders.
Despite the dangerously revealing outfit, she showed no sign of covering up and spoke in a calm tone.
"Last night was fun. Right, Enoch?"
"You mean the conversation was fun, right?!"
I reflexively yanked the blanket up to cover myself.