I had no idea why, but there was an elf who had decided to pay Aelua a visit. I wasn’t sure if Aelua knew her, but from the look on her face at the moment. That didn’t seem to be likely.

As far as I could tell, she was here not for Aelua but to see me… which was definitely strange and not something that I would have expected.

“Hi! I’m Laura Virdi. It’s really nice to meet you, sir!”

“Ugh… yes?” I wasn’t sure what to tell her. “Why are you here?”

But before this conversation could even continue, Aelua got in the way of the two of us.

“I don’t know who you are. But it’d be good for you to leave; otherwise, you might lose your noble. You see how the discussions here are private. It’s by no means something that you can listen to.”

“Is that so?” The unknown elf answered with a frown. “I just wanted to meet with the man who discovered the demons again! I’m a big fan, you see!”

As she said that, a blush formed on her face, and she looked down. She was unable to meet my eyes. It was similar to the behavior Ava had when we first met each other.

“I see, thank you. But Aelua is right. You should leave. This is a private conversation.”

The girl nodded. “Just make sure to remember my name, okay?”

I nodded. However, I didn’t have too much trust in myself to be doing so.

Anyway, quickly after that, Aelua shut the door and turned in my direction with a slight frown.

“What?” I asked, seeing her behavior.

“That girl, something is weird about her.”

“Do you know her?”

Aelua seemed hesitant. “Kind of, I heard of her achievements here and there. But that’s not what I meant. There was something weird with how she behaved with you. It was as if she knew very well who you were.”

This time, I wasn’t too sure what Aelua was trying to say. I thought that everything had gone quite well without anything strange happening.

“You probably didn’t notice, but it’s how she looked at you… it was as if she knew everything about you. And you must know just how weird such a thing is, especially when it comes to you. Practically no one knows about you… Well, now they have learned just a little from those articles. But that’s it. So for her to come all the way here to see you, there is definitely something fishy; I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“Hm…is that so. Who is she anyway? A princess?”

“Yes, but she didn’t become a princess like you may think. She’s not a daughter of the king; she became a princess through her achievements.”

“That’s a thing?”

That seemed pretty weird just thinking about it. To become a noble and a princess through your own achievements. It did make sense in a way, but I didn’t think that was a thing in a place like the elven territory. It might explain why there were so many families of novelty.

“Yes, there are two ways to become a noble. Through birth and through your achievements. You might think that the latter is simple, but it isn’t. Your achievements need to be truly incredible to become a noble. That girl you just saw was a one-of-a-kind genius within the elven territory. She was unlike anything anyone had ever seen in the past, which is why… I think she’s strange. There is something that she’s hiding, but I can’t tell what it is.”

I nodded. What Aelua said made sense; however, I didn’t think that it was enough to doubt that girl.

“You think she’s linked with Perdere?” I asked.

“Possibly. I’d have to look into it.”

“Meh, no need to waste any time. Let’s go and see her right now. We’ll get the answers out of her.”

Aelua’s eyes widened. “Weren’t you planning on searching for your friend? Why do you go see her right away… it’ll just make things more complicated with her. She’ll hide her true personality even more.”

I looked at Aelua dead in the eyes. “Do you really think I give a shit? I’ll make her tell me everything she knows. And if she’s a demon, then we will simply gain some time in finding my friend since she will be able to guide us to their hidden lair.” Discover hidden stories at empire

With those words, Aelua didn’t know what to say and just agreed to follow me.

I asked around a little in search of a certain Laura, and sure enough, we found our way to her room.

I gave a few knocks.

“Laura, it’s me, Caedrel.”

Instantly, the door was swung wide open. “Ah, you’re here already! Perfect, come in, come in!”

She was smiling brightly as she grabbed my hand and pulled me right into her room. Then, her gaze switched toward Aelua, and her expression distorted.

“Ugh, you didn’t come alone?”

She seemed disgusted as she uttered those words.

“No, Aelua wanted to come with me, so I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Is that fine?”

Her expression returned to a smiling one right away as she said, “Of course! Of course! Come inside.”

Then, we sat inside her room, and she even brought me some tea. However, she didn’t bring any to Aelua, making it clear that she did not like her presence whatsoever.

“I have a question, actually, if I may?” I started off with.

“Of course, ask me anything!”

“Why are you such a big fan of me? As far as I know, those are the only articles that were released about me. There should not be any other information out there.”

She looked flustered, blushing slightly. “Well, I just thought it was amazing how you announced their return to the world. It was amazing… and so dramatic! I loved it.”

I activated my skills to see if she was telling the truth, and it seemed that she was. However, her response was… how to say? Very strange. She looked absolutely crazy in the head.

“Hm, glad you liked it. I hadn’t actually planned it. It just sort of happened.”

A slight cough came from my right, where Aelua was sitting, as she wanted me to speed things up from the looks of it.

“Anyway, I had some other questions if you would be interested in answering.”

“Sure, go ahead. I already told you, but you can ask me anything!”

“Alright, I was curious about you. Aelua told me that you became a noble through your own achievements. I was interested in knowing how much time it took you to become a noble.”

I knew of the timeline when demons had appeared in the world, so depending on her answer, it would tell me if she really was a demon.

“How much time did it take me to become a noble?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh… it’s been two years since I became one, and I’m twenty. You can do the math.”

My eyes narrowed. She had just answered the question indirectly… and when people did that, my skill, which would tell me whether the person before me was telling the truth or not, would malfunction.

It was as if she knew of its existence.

“Hm… I’m not really good at math. Could you tell me the number?”

“Hahaha! Stop joking with me… since I was born; it took over 18 years for me to become an elven princess.”

Her response came out as the truth, which was strange. However, since she had answered the question directly. There was little to no doubt she was really telling the truth.

“Hm… is that so? Then, I guess there’s no point in the rest of my questions. Thank you for your time.”

“Oh, are you sure that you can’t stay a little longer? I want to learn all about you!”

“Hm… I got something to do. I might come back at another time.”

Just as I was about to head out with Aelua, I felt her hand holding me in place. “Wait, can I ask you a favor since I answered your questions?”

“Uh… depends on what it is.”

“Sure, I promise it’s nothing too complicated.” She smiled brightly. “I just want to have a spar against you… I want to see just how strong the person who discovered the demon’s return truly is. What do you say?”

I looked over to Aelua, and she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seemed to encourage it.

After all, if I fought against her, I would have even more opportunities to see if she really was a demon.

With those thoughts in mind, I accepted her offer. However, she told me that she needed to prepare a little bit for the fight, so she wanted to do it tomorrow, and I agreed.

***

Tomorrow quickly came as I arrived at the elven training grounds, and for some reason, there were a ton of people in the stands. It seemed the word had spread that I would be fighting against Laura Virdi…

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