Ch.174174. Face to Face (1)

“If you don’t immediately lower the bowstrings you’re daring to aim at these noble guests, I will not forgive you.”

At Friel’s quiet words, the elves in the trees began to exchange glances.

The elf standing beside Dienne nodded at Friel’s words.

Following a gesture where he briefly scanned behind him and lowered his hand, the elves’ arrows were withdrawn and their vigilance relaxed.

The sharp hostility that had been subtly pricking my skin disappeared.

Finally, Diolia lowered her stance slightly and loosened her grip on the handle of her sword, which had been ready to draw. It seemed she too had been on guard against the elves as a knight protecting her master.

‘Diolia probably knows the true face of elves pretty well from what Ainel told her.’

A wise judgment.

Like monkeys watching humans who had wandered into their forest by mistake. Not only were they gathered in the trees looking down at us, but some of those pointy-eared ones had actually been cleverly aiming their bowstrings at us from places that weren’t easily visible.

‘Well, even if she’s a bit late, Friel is here now. She’ll handle this.’

It seemed Friel’s words carried considerable weight. She would likely resolve this situation quickly and allow us to resume our lunch or get the carriage moving again.

After scanning the treetops like Diolia had done, Friel spoke.

“I assume Dienne is here for cleanup. If you’ve finished clearing the area, could I ask you to escort our carriage?”

“Hmm… we were about to return and switch with another unit anyway. I’d be happy to escort you, Lady Friel, and—”

Dienne shifted her gaze to the humans behind Friel.

After carefully examining me and the cotton ball, her pupils now reflected the image of Sione Sianella. Dienne scrutinized Sione’s bow and the short sword at her waist with a penetrating gaze. Unusually, Sione met the elf’s stare with a haughty expression.

“…We will escort the noble guests who have come from far away at the County.”

“Good. Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Dienne bowed her head slightly and climbed back up into the tree using magic. Then she began explaining something to the soldiers who appeared to be her subordinates.

“There’s quite a bit to clean up after the recent commotion… Well then, shall we head back now?”

In the meantime, Friel Arielt addressed us with a small smile.

As she suggested, we couldn’t just stand there indefinitely, so we returned to where we had set up for lunch.

Some of the soup containers had already been overturned, soaking the ground, and tools completely damaged from being caught in the battle were easily visible.

“It’ll take forever to clean all this up. I guess we won’t be able to have lunch and leave, huh?”

Sione couldn’t hide her disappointment seeing that all the soup prepared for us had been spilled.

Seeing her reaction, I took out the snack pouch I now always carry from inside my clothes. Since I had filled it before leaving the carriage, before lunch preparations, the pouch was bulging with various sweet treats.

“Would you like some cookies?”

“Hmm… soup is lunch, cookies are snacks. It feels a bit wrong to replace lunch with cookies.”

“Then I guess there’s no helping it. The cookies can wait for—”

Thump!

Just as I was about to put the snack pouch back inside my clothes.

Sione grabbed my wrist.

“Still, they might help with hunger. Give me a few.”

“……”

Instead of taking out a reasonable amount from the snack pouch, I handed her the entire pouch. It wasn’t that big anyway, and Sione would probably exercise some restraint.

Meanwhile, I helped the other servants finish cleaning up. Though it was annoying, this time even the knights proactively helped with the cleanup, so it didn’t take too long.

During the process, I sent Sione to the carriage first, and as I was finishing the final cleanup and about to board the carriage myself—

“Ray.”

Friel, who had somehow approached from behind, called out to me. With her arms crossed and without her usual smile, she was showing me an unusually serious expression.

“Our city is just ahead now, so you’ve had plenty of time to think.”

She was probably referring to when I had just left the County. She had asked me to form a close relationship with her family, House Arielt, and help cut off the demon’s head.

Since she seemed to want an answer to that request, instead of readily opening my mouth to respond, I looked into her deep teal pupils that were cast downward.

Eyes are the mirror of the soul. However, her emotions were now perfectly restrained, and no fragments of feeling could be found in those eyes. There was only someone standing there, devoid of emotion, seriously demanding an answer to her request.

“The most favorable house to you all is naturally our House Arielt. House Ianet won’t welcome you warmly… and the other remaining house, House Chelnis, won’t show as friendly an attitude as we do until you prove your abilities.”

Friel’s words were filled with certainty, as if she knew more about Houses Ianet and Chelnis than anyone else.

Especially when she brought up House Chelnis, she finally broke her expressionless face and frowned slightly. Even such a small change in her reaction was worth remembering clearly.

“Ray, I look forward to seeing what choice you and the young lady will make.”

With those final words, Friel finally showed her characteristic gentle smile once more before returning to her carriage.

Not long after, the carriage began moving forward again, wheels turning by the power of horses, now with the escort of elves who had joined us along the way.

* * *

“Lady Dienne, the atmosphere seems heavier than usual.”

The woman who was always by Dienne’s side observed her complexion. As she said, Dienne was emanating quite a solemn atmosphere as she watched the carriage passing slowly through the forest path.

“Is it because of those humans from earlier?”

“Yes, Jena.”

Dienne nodded at Jena’s words.

“The ones the Grand Elder mentioned were indeed the young lady of Sianella and that man who serves as her attendant.”

Dienne’s voice grew low and deep.

She recalled the impression of the two figures she had briefly observed.

The woman had quite beautiful moonlight-colored hair. She remembered vaguely hearing that House Sianella was a house of knights who had once fought demons alongside them, a house that still walked the path of the sword.

‘Yet that young lady was carrying a bow?’

She had been firmly gripping her bow. Instead of a knight’s sword, she only had a small blade as secondary armament typical for archers. She could also see that the woman had clear, resolute eyes, which made her somewhat interesting.

‘And that man beside her.’

The man standing proudly next to her was even more curious.

Despite being human, he had a deep elemental spirit scent about him, and spirits were actually following him. Men naturally have less mana. This is true even for elves.

Therefore, contracts with spirits, which require a lot of mana, are nearly impossible even for elves if they are male. They can only communicate with spirits thanks to their innate affinity.

But that man seemed to have completely succeeded in contracting with spirits. He was someone worth watching.

“I should definitely report about them to our House Chelnis.”

With her word on it, House Chelnis would pay even closer attention to the two nobles who had come to the Great Forest.

* * *

The carriage finally entered the heart of the Great Forest. Around the time we could feel the massive World Tree getting very close, a city gradually came into view in the distance.

Beyond the long walls surrounding the city, small wooden buildings clustered together became visible. Spirits freely flying through the air around the village and elves who accepted this as part of daily life—the local residents showed interest in our carriage.

‘We’ve finally entered the city.’

Right in the middle of a city full of elves. I could only sigh, wondering what would happen next.

I just watched Sione, who couldn’t take her eyes off the window, fascinated by the elven city.

“Wow…”

I heard Sione’s small exclamation.

Certainly, even though elven buildings weren’t particularly tall, they had an elegant quality and were built to harmonize with their surroundings, making sightseeing quite an enjoyable experience. The problem was the nature of the elves living inside those houses.

Kind elves and damn pointy-ears. Unfortunately, as expected, there were naturally more damn pointy-ears than kind elves, so I couldn’t just enjoy the sightseeing.

After reaching deep into the city, we finally could step on the ground and look around. In front of a high wall where large mansion roofs could be glimpsed, Friel approached as Sione and I got out of the carriage and stood before the wall.

Sione was the first to speak.

“Um… where are we?”

“This is the main residence of our House Arielt. You’ll be staying at the Arielt mansion for a while.”

“The Arielt mansion? I’m looking forward to it.”

Friel smiled slightly at Sione’s words.

“I’ll have the servants unpack your belongings… Please change into the clothes I’ll show you to your rooms.”

“Clothes, you say?”

“Yes, please wear something as formal as possible. The first thing you must do upon entering the Great Forest is to meet the head of House Arielt and—”

Friel’s smile deepened, filled with intense expectation.

“The High Elf, our Grand Elder.”

It seems that Sione and I not only have to meet the head of a noble house but also the Grand Elder who is a High Elf.

Somehow, I can already foresee the chaos that will unfold during the remaining half of this day while the sun is still high in the sky.