Chapter 57
Chapter 57
They said he cut off the head of the elf representative who had come to ask for help.
It was shocking, yet at the same time it felt very much like something Calix Krauvel would do.
“When we first met, I told you, didn’t I? That if you provoke His Lordship’s temper, your head could fly off. You could say that incident is the representative example.”
Calix Krauvel’s story was chilling enough, but Noah Roheim calmly smiling while telling it was even more frightening.
Like lord, like aide.
“They’re not exactly afraid.”
The elf’s voice suddenly rang out.
Startled, both Noah Roheim and I looked around.
But no one was in sight.
What?
I definitely heard a voice.
“Over here.”
The voice sounded again, and the elf jumped down from the large tree beside the terrace.
“What were you doing up there?”
Noah Roheim asked cautiously.
“I think you misunderstood. I was here first.”
The elf brushed leaves off his clothes as he spoke.
“I was taking a nap in that tree, and then you two arrived.”
“In that case, you could have at least made your presence known.”
“As I said, I was taking a nap.”
He walked over to the table, picked up the teapot, opened the lid, and drank the tea directly from it.
The action lacked even the slightest hint of elegance, but perhaps because he was so handsome, it didn’t look unpleasant at all.
“And for the record, we don’t fear the Lord of Belheim. We simply consider him… a somewhat troublesome opponent.”
That sounded like the same thing to me.
“And it’s not because of the incident from ten years ago, either.”
This elf had a remarkable ability to gently reprimand people while speaking in a soft tone.
“It seems I misunderstood. My apologies.”
Noah Roheim stood and bowed his head in apology.
“It’s fine. Anyone can make mistakes, regardless of race.”
The elf replied with a faint smile, as if he understood everything.
“Ah, my introduction is late. My name is Eirenos Miron.”
That name was both hard to remember and hard to pronounce.
“My name is Noah Roheim. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Eirenos Miron.”
I felt impressed hearing Noah Roheim pronounce that name so clearly.
I decided I’d just remember him as Miron.
Here, unless you were close to someone, you only addressed them by their family name, so there was no reason for me to use his given name anyway.
“More importantly, there’s something I’m curious about.”
Miron tilted his head and looked at me.
“That magical device on Miss Aileen’s arm.”
So he did know my name. During the meeting, they kept calling me “human woman,” so I assumed he didn’t.
Ah, wait—that was a different elf.
Anyway, the magical device on my arm…
Did he mean this metal ring?
When I pulled the metal ring out from under my sleeve, Miron examined it carefully from several angles before letting out a short exclamation.
“I thought I was mistaken, but it’s the same one Love used to wear.”
Love? Was that a person’s name?
“Then does that mean Miss Aileen is Laelion’s new pet?”
…Pet?
“To think Laelion keeps not only magical beasts but even fellow humans as pets now. I knew he was eccentric, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
The words were bewildering and impossible to follow.
“M-Mr. Miron!”
Noah Roheim called out in clear alarm.
“She is not a pet.”
“But that collar is identical to the one worn by Love, whom Laelion used to keep.”
“They may look the same, but their purpose is completely different.”
Noah Roheim glanced nervously at me before continuing.
“More importantly, this item was made by the Master of the Magic Tower at His Lordship’s request.”
“Ah, so she’s not Laelion’s pet, but Archduke Krauvel’s pet?”
“I said she’s not a pet…”
Noah Roheim let out a sigh so deep it seemed the ground might collapse.
“Once again, Miss Aileen is not a pet. She is an administrator of Belheim. And besides, the idea of humans being kept as pets is absurd to begin with.”
“How interesting. Humans readily turn monsters and other races into slaves or pets, yet say it’s absurd when the same is done to humans.”
“Well, that’s…”
“Excuses aren’t necessary. I already know humans are a selfish race.”
Miron chuckled lightly and vaulted over the terrace railing.
This is the third floor.
Instinctively, I leaned over the railing to look down.
Miron was already walking away calmly as if nothing had happened.
He jumped from that height and is perfectly fine.
I had already suspected he was agile when he jumped down from the tree earlier, but this was impressive.
Maybe that was simply what elves were capable of.
“Miss Aileen.”
While I was staring curiously at the retreating figure of Miron, Noah Roheim called out carefully.
“You don’t need to pay attention to the strange things that elf said.”
“What strange things? That His Lordship put a pet collar on me?”
When I asked bluntly, Noah Roheim groaned.
“The original purpose of that item made by the Master of the Magic Tower was indeed to serve as a protective collar for pets.”
So that suspicious man was the Master of the Magic Tower.
I knew he was a mage, but I didn’t realize he was that important.
“However, His Lordship gave it to you for a completely different reason. So please don’t misunderstand.”
“I wasn’t thinking much about it, but now that you say it like that, I might start misunderstanding.”
“What? Ah, well…”
“I’m joking.”
Even without his explanation, I already knew Calix Krauvel hadn’t put the metal ring on me because he wanted to keep me as a pet.
It just bothers me that it happens to be a pet collar.
And he didn’t even ask for my permission.
The more I thought about it, the more irritating it became.
Since I didn’t want to pretend everything was fine and just laugh it off, I left without even saying goodbye.
Treating it like a vacation was fine for a day or two.
But by the fourth day, I was incredibly bored.
I had nothing to do.
So today, I decided to go out and explore Nubiar.
Noah Roheim offered to come with me, but when I mentioned yesterday’s incident and said I wanted to go alone, he agreed without protest.
I had already visited the area around the Raed River and the workshop district last time.
So today I planned to see somewhere else.
First, I headed to the museum and exhibition hall that Nubiar’s officials had recommended.
They said it was a must-see destination for tourists, so I had high expectations.
But when I actually got there, it wasn’t very interesting.
Then again, even in the real world I never liked places like this.
After briefly glancing at a few exhibits, I left and headed toward the residential area where Nubiar’s commoners lived.
The houses in Nubiar spread out horizontally and had long eaves.
Probably to block the sunlight.
The walls were thin like paper, and there were many windows to allow airflow.
The outer walls were mostly painted bright colors, likely to reflect sunlight.
“It’s definitely different from Belheim.”
Then again, it made sense for houses to be built differently depending on the climate.
Personally, I preferred Nubiar’s open architecture over Belheim’s closed-off housing style.
“Whew. At least it’s cooler outside.”
While slowly walking through the alleyways and looking at the houses, I heard people talking.
“Seriously. Even with every window in the house open, there’s no breeze. I feel like I’m suffocating.”
“Yeah. If it’s already this hot now, what will summer be like?”
In front of an old multi-family house, people had gathered under a large tree.
“At least we can come outside during the day to get some wind. But what are we supposed to do at night?”
“Exactly. The children can’t sleep because it’s too hot.”
“It wasn’t like this last year. I don’t know why it’s so bad this year.”
There was plenty of wind outside.
Yet they said no breeze entered the houses.
[New Sub Quest has appeared.]
While examining the multi-family building and its surroundings because something seemed strange, a system window appeared before my eyes.
Now it even notified me when a sub quest appeared.
That was convenient.
I immediately checked the sub quest.
New ones were marked with [NEW], so they were easy to spot.
All of the new sub quests were related to Nubiar.
[Q. Identify the cause of the heat suffering experienced by the residents of Nubiar Building 6-2.]
[Reward: 20,000p]
Building 6-2…
That was this building.
If the task was merely to find the cause rather than solve the problem, it wouldn’t be difficult.
And since I had just figured out why the wind wasn’t entering the building, I immediately walked toward the residents.