## Chapter 156 – 156. Sylvia Mervis Winterbane (2)
#156. Sylvia Mervis Winterbane (2)
“Sylvia…?”
Iris stared blankly at the elf.
Her expression seemed to be half filled with delight and half with surprise.
“Your Majesty!”
On the other hand, that elf was 100% pure delight.
It was as if a haughty cat that would bare its claws at anyone who approached had instantly turned into a big retriever.
If she had a tail, she would have wagged it vigorously.
The elf, who had been smiling so brightly that I doubted if she was the same woman who had been trying to kill me just moments ago, stopped abruptly and glared at me with a terribly distorted face.
“You! Take your filthy hands off her this instant! Do you even know who she is?!”
A murderous aura enveloped me, enough to cause a heart attack in an ordinary person.
But strangely, I felt nothing. Was it because Iris was right next to me?
“…My wife?”
We hadn’t had a formal wedding ceremony, but I had introduced her as my wife when we entered the city, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.
Besides, I hoped that one day, sooner or later, I would have a wedding ceremony with Iris.
“Wife… Hyun-woo, really…”
Iris covered her face with both hands, seemingly embarrassed. Her face was so small that there was still space left even after covering it with both hands.
Taking advantage of the gap where Iris’s attention was diverted from the wound, I hurried to stop the bleeding with magic as much as possible.
It hurt quite a bit because I had to forcibly constrict the blood vessels, but it was the best I could do for now.
“W-wife…?”
The elf, who had been staring blankly at Iris clinging tightly to my chest with her face covered with both hands, widened her eyes as if she couldn’t believe it.
Her face momentarily stiffened, and the fingers gripping the sword hilt trembled slightly.
Her elegant smile crumbled, and her face was terribly distorted. The elf, who had been gnawing on her lips, finally lowered her head.
“…So that’s how it is.”
But rather, clear spirit energy bloomed on the silver rapier. Along with the spirit energy emitting a pure white light, even the elf’s aura changed as she looked at me.
No longer did the murderous intent flow out.
As if she had converted the refined murderous intent into magic, the spirit energy became much larger and clearer than before.
With my current barrier, even blocking a single blow wouldn’t be easy.
“Sylvia…?”
“Yes, I am Sylvia, Your Majesty’s loyal knight.”
A faint smile appeared on the elf’s lips.
“Please rest assured now, I will rescue you from that vile person’s mind control as soon as possible.”
“…Excuse me?”
“…What?”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the elf rushed towards me. Perhaps conscious of Iris, her speed was reduced compared to before.
But the weight of a single blow would be no less than the great swordsman I had faced earlier.
Just as I was about to embrace Iris and evade the attack.
“Stop!”
Iris suddenly broke free from my arms, ran to the front, and stopped the elf who was about to attack with her arms outstretched.
Thud! The elf, caught off guard by this turn of events, forcibly stopped herself as if she would plant her feet into the floor.
“Sylvia! Stop right now!”
“Your Majesty!”
The elf, who had been confronting Iris with a flustered expression, suddenly glared at me as if to kill me.
“Is this vile creature trying to use Her Majesty to escape the situation!!”
I didn’t say anything. Since she seemed to know Iris, there was no need for me to step in.
“Your Majesty, please step aside! I don’t know what that person has done to you, but you are not in your right mind!! That person is in league with those who kidnap elves and try to sell them at auction…”
“Sylvia Mervis Winterbane!!”
“?!!”
Iris’s resolute voice echoed through the hall.
The charisma as a queen, which spread out as if to dominate the surroundings, momentarily left her speechless.
“This is my final warning. He is my husband and will be the consort of Pelledeia in the future. To insult him is no different from insulting me. I will no longer tolerate any words or actions that tarnish his honor.”
The elf wore a hollow expression at Iris’s unwavering appearance.
Tuk, the elf moved her lips several times, but in the end, she couldn’t find the words and dropped the sword she had been tightly holding.
“Sylvia, do I really look like I’m under mind control in your eyes?”
I, who had been watching the situation from a step away, looked at Iris.
I couldn’t feel any sense of incongruity in her clear and transparent eyes.
The elf also seemed to feel the same thing, as she quietly lowered her head.
“…Please forgive my rudeness.”
“You’re mistaken.”
Iris pointed at me.
“Sylvia, the person you need to ask for forgiveness is not me.”
“…”
My eyes met the elf’s.
The elf, who wore an expression as if a myriad of emotions were crossing her mind, quietly sheathed her sword and slowly walked towards me.
Is this what an expression that shows the thought of ‘I’d rather die than do this’ looks like?
I could see humiliation and disgust in the elf’s face as she looked at me.
“…Please forgive my rudeness for not only causing damage with my rash judgment but also tarnishing your honor with various insults.”
With a small grinding of teeth, the elf lightly bowed her head with her fist placed on one side of her chest.
‘Is this the etiquette of this world?’
I glanced at Iris.
Iris simply nodded lightly and didn’t say anything else. She probably meant for me to do as I pleased.
“…Forgive your rudeness?”
My shoulders were clearly throbbing, but the corners of my lips kept trying to rise.
“Without anything in return?”
“…What would you have me do?”
By this point, I was worried about her dental health, but I wasn’t sweet enough to worry about the woman who had put a hole in my shoulder.
“Well… I’ll think about it and tell you later.”
“…Thank you for your graciousness.”
I had many things in mind right away, but the location wasn’t suitable for dragging things out.
I needed to leave before reinforcements arrived. It would be troublesome in many ways if my face were to become known.
“Oh, right. Can you hold my sword for me?”
Tuk, I threw Gilennium, which I had put back in its scabbard, to the elf.
“As you can see, my shoulder is a bit uncomfortable.”
“…”
When I tapped my shoulder, the elf accepted the sword with both hands without saying a word.
But I could see her shoulders trembling slightly. She seemed to be suppressing her anger with superhuman patience.
“Hyun-woo, your wound…”
“This much is fine.”
A hole had been made, but it wasn’t very big and there wasn’t much bleeding. Besides, if I used magic and inner energy at the same time, my wounds would heal quickly.
If I drank holy water on top of that, the wound would heal before long.
“Rather than that, you don’t look so good. Are you okay?”
“…I’m fine with this much too.”
“You’re lying.”
I took out holy water from my inventory.
“Drink this first. I’ll drink it too.”
“…Yes.”
We took some time to recover our bodies by drinking holy water together. Iris stayed close to me as usual and complained about this and that.
Like how I had left her alone at the inn, or how I had overdone it to the point of getting such a wound.
I spent time stroking her hair or hugging her to soothe Iris’s anger, whose lips were slightly pouting.
It was an ordinary routine for us, but I could feel a subtle murderous aura right next to me, as if she didn’t like the sight.
The elf, who was sitting on one side of the stage, was trembling all over and glaring at me as if to kill me.
I curled up one corner of my lips towards such an elf.
‘What can you do?’
The elf, who saw the shape of my mouth, grabbed the sword hilt, but in the end, she couldn’t draw the sword.
At that sight, I deliberately clung even closer to Iris. Iris’s face turned red at the touch of my hand stroking her abdomen, but she didn’t seem to dislike it as she subtly entrusted her body to me.
Then the murderous aura became even more intense.
“By the way, how did you find out about this place?”
“I followed Hyun-woo’s magic. But I couldn’t find the stairs leading down to the basement…”
“So you went through the ceiling?”
“…Yes.”
It was a violent method, but if it hadn’t been for Iris, either me or the elf would have been seriously injured.
“Good job, if you had come any later, the problem would have gotten bigger. But didn’t you say you couldn’t manifest a spirit in your current state?”
In order for a spirit to exert physical force in reality, it needs to manifest.
But because her power is limited by the seal, Iris is unable to manifest a spirit.
“It’s thanks to Jin paying the price for me instead.”
“A spirit? Is that possible?”
“Yes, of course, I have to pay her back several times later. So… that’s why, can I go find something that a spirit would like soon?”
“Go find it? Like you’re going to collect something?”
“Yes, spirits each like different things.”
“That much is fine.”
After chatting lightly for about 3 minutes, we headed to the underground prison.
Recovering from wounds and fatigue was something that could be done later.
Right now, the urgent priority was to escape with the elves.
“…Elves.”
Iris emitted a subtle anger as she looked at the elves imprisoned in the prison.
Although most of her magic was restricted due to the seal, if Iris was in her original state, the surrounding terrain would have changed even with emotional fluctuations.
Of course, this was just my personal opinion, but it was a thought I could have because I had directly witnessed the magic of a 7-circle mage.
If everything is settled and Iris is reinstated as queen, this city will have to bear the queen’s wrath.
We hurriedly left the underground with the drugged elves.
Due to the sudden attack and the fact that Iris had blown a hole in the middle of the building all the way down to the 2nd basement floor, the auction house was in chaos with terrified guests and staff.
Of course, the guards were all incapacitated, so there was no one to block our path.
We burst open the auction house door and went outside, where the city’s security forces greeted us.
‘I’m glad I covered my face with a mask.’
Iris had also changed her face with magic.
But the elf named Sylvia didn’t bother to hide herself.
Well, her hair color was already unique, so there was no way she wouldn’t be recognized even if she hid her face a little.
“Everyone! Put down your weapons and surrender!”
The man who appeared to be the captain of the security forces shouted, but we didn’t even listen.
There were quite a few of them, but they were just ordinary people.
Even if a few small dogs bark at a large magical beast, would the beast even blink an eye?
“Your Majesty, I will take care of this. So please protect your body…”
“Wait.”
I stepped in front of Sylvia, who was about to draw her sword.
“…What?”
“I’ll take care of this, so you take responsibility for taking Iris and the elves out of the city.”
If I left this to this elf who hates humans, there was a high probability that they would all be massacred.
I had made a promise, so I couldn’t just stand by and watch.
“Oh, if you’re going to leave, go through the north gate. I’ll let you pass even if you run into the guards.”
I whispered softly in a voice that the security forces couldn’t hear. Sylvia glared at me with eyes that looked at me like a bug, as if she didn’t like that.
“Didn’t you hear me say surrender!!”
“…Your Majesty, I will escort you.”
Sylvia quietly sighed and left with Iris. There was no way that a siege formed by the security forces, who were all ordinary people, could hold her back.
The flustered captain of the security forces ordered them to chase after them, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Since I just had to avoid killing them.
Countless magic circles were drawn under the stars in the sky.
“Magic Bolt.”
Over a hundred magic bolts fell on the heads of the security forces.
The next day, rumors spread among the citizens of Wavele that meteors had fallen last night.
And rumors also spread that a suspicious group was seen leaving through the north gate, but they were buried in the earlier meteor story and forgotten from people’s attention.
***
“Haa, I’m tired…”
Laura, a maid at the Wavele slave auction house and a slave of the lord, was busy cleaning up the chaotic auction house.
Last night, the auction house was turned into a mess, no, a wasteland, due to the attack by a lion-masked guest and an elf with pure white hair.
Thanks to this, the auction house’s operations would be suspended for the time being, and the lord would have to cover the losses with his own money.
Fortunately, I, who had been in charge of guiding the lion-masked guest, was not punished.
Even skilled people who had reached the level of Aura Expert were helpless.
No one didn’t know that it was natural that I, a mere slave, couldn’t do anything.
“Laura!”
Just as the cleaning of the area in charge was coming to an end, a fellow maid came to find me.
“What’s wrong?”
“A guest has come to buy you!”
“…What?”
Only then did I realize why my fellow maid had come to find me so excited.
All of the auction house’s maids are slaves of the lord and have not yet had slave marks engraved on them.
Then, when a guest comes to buy them, the slave mark is engraved and they become formal slaves.
Actually, it wasn’t something to be happy about. Everyone knew that life after becoming a slave wasn’t very hopeful.
But sometimes there were maids who were deeply immersed in third-rate novels on the theme of love between slaves and masters.
The fellow maid who came to find me was also one of those types.
“…Do you know what kind of person they are?”
“Um, they said they were a slave trader.”
“Ah…”
Laura quietly folded up the hope that had bloomed in one corner of her heart.
She pretended not to care, but she had been restless because of the lion-masked guest’s story last night and had a sleepless night.
-Don’t you want to meet your younger sister?
-Is that an answer as a slave? Or as a human named Nora?
-I lost my parents to war when I was 5 years old. I was left in an orphanage without any siblings or relatives and had to grow up there until I became an adult.
-What about you? Even if you don’t know if they’re alive or dead, you haven’t directly seen the corpses of your parents who have turned cold like me, have you?
There was no way I didn’t want to meet my younger sister.
I missed my parents so much.
But that’s why I’m a slave because it’s not allowed.
‘…If only I could know if they’re alive or dead.’
If only that were possible, I would have no regrets, but realistically, it was impossible.
Finding people required a lot of money and time. Especially if they were sold as slaves during the war.
But I had seen hope in the lion-masked guest. It was such a dazzling and beautiful hope that I couldn’t even think of reaching it.
Nevertheless, if I could only grasp that hope, could my life change a little?
I couldn’t help but think that.
‘…There’s no way such a novel-like thing will happen.’
Laura, who was extremely realistic, soon gave up thinking and followed her fellow maid to the reception room.
There, a man who was expected to become her master was sitting.
He was a man with the typical appearance of a slave trader, with a skinny physique. At that moment, even the last shred of hope that remained in one corner of her heart lost its light.
Although I couldn’t see his face, the lion-masked guest had a firm physique and clear eyes that would shine anywhere.
“Are you Laura?”
“…Nice to meet you. I’m Laura.”
I finished greeting him according to the etiquette I had learned so far and sat down.
The man exchanged words with the manager and handed over a pouch that was expected to contain cash and wrote a contract.
‘…Silver coins? It seems like too much.’
The manager, who had checked the pouch, shook hands with the man with a satisfied expression and left the reception room.
“Haa…”
The man let out a heavy sigh that had no meaning and headed outside.
I followed the man down the hallway and lightly greeted my fellow maids with my eyes.
I probably won’t meet them again for the rest of my life.
They were colleagues who had shared joys and sorrows for 10 years, so my eyes turned red for no reason, but I tried to hold back the tears that were welling up, as the man might find such a sight unpleasant.
Laura, who had boarded the carriage, quietly stared blankly at the auction house that was gradually moving away.
I never thought the day I would leave this place would come so suddenly.
“Hey.”
“Yes, Master.”
I straightened my posture at the voice calling me.
The man’s face had been looking like something was bothering him since the moment I first met him at the auction house.
“Are you from Aisha Village in the Palak Barony of the Lafria Kingdom?”
“…Yes?”
Words that should never have come out of someone else’s mouth popped out.
“Your family is your father, mother, and younger sister.”
“S-suddenly, what’s going on…”
“Tsk.”
The man who lightly clicked his tongue suddenly rolled up his sleeves.
“Can you see this?”
“…A tattoo?”
A skull-shaped mark was drawn on his arm.
“The reason I bought you is not to use you as a slave. It’s to find your family at someone’s request. Ha, I’m not an information broker.”
The man said that the skull-shaped mark drawn on his arm was a kind of curse.
A curse that would stop the other person’s heart immediately if it was judged that the promised matter was not fulfilled.
“I got caught by a crazy wizard… Aigo, what’s going to become of me…”
The man grabbed his head and complained of a headache, but that wasn’t important at all.
“Who on earth made such a request…?”
No way, there’s no way.
This world is full of all kinds of injustices.
Even if you pray to God, God only listens to the prayers of those who have made more offerings.
That was the truth of this world that I had realized over the past 10 years.
But no way.
“…Please tell them that the black tea was delicious, they said.”
Thump!
Laura, who heard those words, jumped up from her seat and leaned out the window.
The figure of the person she was hoping for was not visible on the street, which was crowded with people coming and going from the morning.
But I had no doubt that they would be somewhere.
Laura stared out the window without saying a word until the carriage left the city.
“…Thank you.”
It was a day when the sky was particularly beautiful.
