Great Unity (2)

“What nonsense is this? E-Elves have formally sent a delegation?”

Gireon, the city’s administrator, stuttered in bewilderment upon receiving his subordinate’s report. However, the report was true.

Several of his subordinates were already urging him to go out quickly. Surely they couldn’t all be lying or seeing things.

“Damn it!”

He hastily got up, adjusted his clothes, and rushed out. It was an unimaginable event, a shocking and urgent matter occurring in this quiet city.

‘Envoys from the Grand Council formed by elves from across the continent?’

That wasn’t all. Even he, a local of this region, knew about the not-quite-legend of some elves living somewhere near the city he governed.

However, he had never properly communicated with those elves, let alone heard even in legends about the scattered elves forming their own unified force.

“This can’t be. It was real…”

Afterwards, seeing the group crossing the city’s main street, he staggered without realizing it. Armed warriors escorted a mysterious carriage pulled by huge reindeer.

The warriors’ long, pointed ears were clearly those of elves. They were now seeing the largest number of elves in their lives.

“W-We’ve brought them as instructed, but what should we do now?”

The subordinates looked to Gireon for direction. They wanted him to give some instructions before the elves arrived.

“First, inform the lord about this. While I… entertain them.”

He instinctively knew this matter was beyond what he, a mere administrator, could handle. Even if the elves’ force was small, their mystique and assets were worth at least one territory.

In that case, if these were envoys sent by the Grand Council formed by all elf clans across the continent, it meant they should be treated as a country-level entity.

There was no need to agonize over it.

He just needed to pass them on to his superiors.

“A-Ahem!”

As they finally stopped in front of him who had come out to greet them, Gireon cleared his throat with a fake cough. After all, he had become part of a moment that might go down in history. Glancing to the side, he saw what looked like people from the media already observing this scene.

“Welcome to our city. I am Gireon, the administrator of this city.”

‘This should be good enough.’

He was satisfied with his own opening greeting. He was sure that the many people watching this scene would think he had given a decent first greeting.

“I am Ellua, elf of the Grand Council, bearing its edict.”

Ellua received his greeting as she opened the carriage door and stepped out. She was also nervous, but she had one unshakable foundation.

It was the mission that carried the fate of her people.

* * *

“So, from what you’re saying, the Elf Grand Council formally wishes to establish diplomatic relations with our kingdom?”

“That’s correct. This place was selected as the first to establish relations.”

After greetings, Administrator Gireon carefully invited the delegation to his residence. Though it was the administrator’s residence, as it wasn’t a very large city, it wasn’t particularly grand.

Anyway, disguised as a maid, I stuck close to Ellua’s side and could hear the conversation going back and forth.

“Such an important matter is not something someone like me can handle. I’ve informed the lord, so you should go there. He will likely welcome you grandly.”

“We roughly know how human society is structured. We also have guides.”

“Ah… you mean those adventurers.”

Talk of us naturally came up between the two. The administrator, who was about to send us to his superior, sighed in relief when Ellua said she knew the situation.

‘The official reason is to greet for diplomatic relations, but that’s only part of it.’

The delegation’s mission wasn’t simply to announce the existence of the Grand Council to the world and establish diplomatic relations with the outside world. They intended to take care of all their business outside while they were at it.

Contacting the Order of Light to find out about the holy water was also one of those missions.

“Please stay comfortably. If you wish, I can provide escorts and personnel to the lord’s castle.”

“That won’t be necessary. We’ll stay well for a day and leave.”

The administrator, not wanting to cause problems, was polite and prostrated himself, while Ellua showed appropriate authority while maintaining boundaries.

How could there be bad feelings between them when things went so well? Although not much important talk came out, it was a satisfactory meeting for both sides.

“I-I’m so nervous my heart is pounding. To think I talked with a human…”

“You did well enough. And get used to it. It’s for yourself as well as all of us.”

After the administrator left and we were alone, Ellua breathed heavily with a trembling voice. Seeing her act as if having an allergic reaction, I smiled bitterly and patted her head to encourage her.

The important matters hadn’t even begun yet.

“Today I visited the Order’s temple with Lina, Laila, and Arisa. We were able to meet a priest.”

That evening, Patrick, who had moved separately while I was following Ellua around, told us what he had done.

He had approached the Order to get the holy water and talked with the priest.

“He was quite flustered when he learned we were looking for the true holy water created by the first saint. He said it wasn’t something he, a mere priest, could do anything about.”

“That’s only natural. So what did he say? That it can’t be obtained no matter what?”

“He said the true holy water is strictly kept in the underground vault of the main temple. It’s treated as a sacred object used only in tiny amounts for special rituals. The priest added his opinion that it would be difficult even if the elves want it.”

The initial approach to the priest was to learn more about the true holy water. However, I snorted at the statement that it would be difficult to obtain. Who do they think they are when the world is ending or whatever?

“If we persuade them well, won’t they spill it out on their own? We’ll have to go to the main temple for now.”

I spread out a map and pointed to the city where the Order’s headquarters was located. It was on the opposite side of the continent. Whether the map was inaccurate or the terrain had changed over 10,000 years, the shape looked a bit different, but it was clearly the region once called Italy in the very distant past.

The location was also similar to where the Vatican used to be, making me wonder if stories passed down from ancient times had influenced it.

It’s extremely far from the city we’re going to, but that’s fine. As long as spatial jump points exist, we can use mado-civilization that transcends reality if we pay enormous usage fees.

“Tomorrow we’ll move to the lord’s castle using a jump point. You go there first and try to persuade the Order people. If the results aren’t good, we have no choice. We’ll have to move on to the next step.”

I gave them a mission. It was certainly my sincere hope that things would end well at their level.

‘News about the erosion has already started spreading to the world, and the elves have also come out after breaking their long isolation to cooperate by mentioning it. How could they refuse in this situation when everyone wants to work together?’

I thought I had prepared many weapons. With Ethan’s organization already moving, we clearly had no small number of cards to play.

Then I would naturally achieve my goals while hiding my identity. It couldn’t be more perfect.

“…What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

I was smirking, thinking it was quite a good plan, when I felt strange gazes. Lina, Laila, Patrick, and Arisa in the room were looking at me with bewildered eyes.

“When you think about it calmly, everything is falling into place one by one.”

Patrick opened his mouth with a trembling voice.

“After joining Ethan’s organization, was purifying the erosion near the city and contacting Professor Renia all intentional actions?”

“Using me to raise Ethan to an important executive position in the organization too!”

Lina and Laila covered their mouths as they recalled what had happened so far.

“As expected, Lady Isilia has awakened from a long sleep and returned to save the world in crisis!”

Arisa started talking nonsense again. Flustered by their reactions, I hesitated. Until now, I had only struggled to solve the problems in front of me.

I barely had enough room to look back on the past, let alone act with the future in mind.

“Don’t say such strange things. I’m not moving with such grand thoughts.”

I tried to explain. The problem is that none of them seemed to particularly believe my words. Why did they ask if this was how they’d react?

But I was sincere. I’m just doing what I can do. I firmly believed that truly saving a world in crisis is a task for those called heroes or champions, not for someone like me who can barely take care of themselves.