And just like that, three days passed by in a flash.

Ever since that day, I had not seen Laura or the King, and neither did Aelua. No matter where I tried to look for them, it was impossible to find them. It was frustrating because I had no idea what would be happening that day, and I could not stop it.

All I knew was that there was a deal that was made between the elves and the demons.

For the past three days, I had not done much. I had stayed with Aelua for the most part, showing her what Aether was and how it worked. I also explained to her where it came from.

She had obviously never heard of such an energy, and she was clearly confused at first. But when I told her that this was the only energy that could hurt the children of the Demon King, the whole atmosphere had changed.

To be honest, the only reason I decided to tell Aelua about my skills was actually quite simple. I knew that with her skills, she would have ideas to help me progress in the use of Aether. With her knowledge of alchemy, I knew that she must have seen something similar to this energy in the past.

And who knows? I thought that she would be able to find a way to increase my damage output using Aether.

So, that’s what we have done for the past three days, trying to find a way to make my damage output much higher than it was in the past.

However, we still hadn’t found anything. But we were getting closer with each passing day. It was just that today… well, there was this deal.

“Do you really think that we will learn of what the deal consisted of?” Aelua muttered. “I don’t think the Demon King would be stupid enough to make it so painfully obvious.”

“Who cares? The moment that stupid king of yours is alone, I’ll torture him until he tells us everything that we need.”

Aelua didn’t say anything as she agreed with my actions, even if she thought that they were somewhat harsh and violent. Still, she knew that it was necessary. If the Elven King, Aldin, had truly betrayed them, then the only thing he deserved was death.

“Do you really think that he formed an alliance on behalf of the elven territory?” Aelua couldn’t help but ask.

“We’ll find out today.”

That was the only kind of “deal” that I had been able to think of over the past few days. Nothing else seemed to make sense in my mind. After all, there hadn’t been any weird movements from within the territory apart from Laura and the King. The rest of the population hadn’t even noticed anything, which made me think that there wasn’t some kind of hidden attack being launched against another territory.

Also, taking such a drastic approach to the war would make things awkward for the demons when they have the advantage right now. The advantage of being able to blend in and take any appearance they desire.

It was a dangerous ability that had fooled the whole world for more than seven years…

A whole seven years… that was the time the Demon King had to think about his strategy in how he would conquer the world. There was no doubt that his plan would be much better than mine, which basically consisted of fighting head-on against anyone I would meet. However, ever since I had lost in that spar, I knew that it was no longer a solution to winning this war.

There were two things that I had thought of doing over the past three days.

The first one was asking for help from the Gods so that we would also have Divinity behind us. However, I only knew a single human who could contact Gods, and for all I knew, she could be dead, as I had not heard of her for more than three years.

The second one was to break the curse from the Ancient Tribe.

I still remember the gaze in Zale’s eyes as he told me that he believed I could free them.

However, there was only one small problem with the second option. I had literally no idea how to break that curse. I didn’t even know how to see curses… that’s why the first option was certainly the better choice. Though, I was still stuck at the very step since I had no clue where I could find her.

Still, I knew where I could find hints of her whereabouts.

Anyway, those thoughts were useless until I managed to find Amelia again. I didn’t want to leave her with the demons, even if I believed that they wouldn’t be stupid enough to try anything on her.

“Let’s go,” I suddenly said, dismissing my thoughts. “It’s time to figure out what kind of deal those two bastards made.”

As I said that, I headed out of the room as a letter fell down from the door right this instant.

‘Hm… who put this there?’ I thought.

After all, ever since I had learned of Laura’s true identity, I had always been on guard, spreading my senses to the limit. However, the fact that there was a letter in front of my door could only mean one thing, someone had managed to fool my senses…

“What does it say?” Aelua asked right away as she was dying to take that letter away from my hands.

Anyway, I opened it and started reading its content, making sure to pay attention to every single word that was written. But… because of how short the message was, it didn’t take me long to comprehend the message.

[I hope you’re ready for what’s to come. Come to the throne room. :)]

“That bitch.” Aelua clenched her fists just thinking of her. “Who the fuck does she think she is.”

“There’s no need to get mad over this. That’s exactly what she wants from us. It doesn’t matter anyway; she knows that we can’t stop her; otherwise, we would have already done it.”

Aelua shook her head. “I still don’t know why I didn’t ask for help from the human kingdom. They would have helped prepare against whatever is happening today.”

“Whatever, let’s go to the throne. The king will finally make an announcement there. At least, that’s my guess.”

It took a little over five minutes, but we managed to find our way to the throne room after some time.

There, almost all the nobles that I had seen when I had first arrived were present as they were glaring in the direction of the throne where three people could be seen.

Laura, the Elven King, and someone wearing a strange mask that closely resembled the one of Zero.

It was only a guess, but I could feel an ominous energy from the masked person. I had a strong feeling that he was another one of the Demon King’s children.

‘Just how much did this guy even fuck that he has so many kids?’ I thought.

It was honestly ridiculous how many children he had around this age. However, what was even crazier was the fact that they were all so powerful for no reason.

My thoughts were cut short as the Elven King stood up slightly from his throne with a bright smile.

The murmurs from the nobles died down right this instant as everyone bowed out of respect. Well, apart from both Aelua and me, who took this opportunity to stare down the traitor that was before us,

There was no longer any doubt in both of our minds. This man had betrayed us and had decided to side with the demons.

‘He probably thought that it was the right decision for his people in the long run…’ I thought.

Actually, I knew that was what had gone through his mind. There were two reasons why anyone would side with the demons.

Survival.

Power.

Those were the two things that could make someone side with them.

Other than that, there was literally no reason to do so.

“You may rise,” Aldin muttered as he moved his hands upwards, indicating that everyone should rise.

“Everyone of you must be wondering why I called you here. Well, the reason is quite simple, I have a grand announcement to make.” Explore hidden tales at empire

‘The Demon King wouldn’t be stupid enough to announce to the world that the elves have betrayed the world, right?’

Because if the elven king was really about to say what I thought he was about to say. Then, this was one of, if not the dumbest strategy that I had ever seen in my life… telling everyone who betrayed them to talk about being stupid.

Still, I was just assuming things, so I continued to listen to what the Elven King had to say to me.

“You must have noticed that I am next to Laura Virdi, the woman who managed to defeat Caedrel Stuart, the man who discovered the return of demons in spar. However, every one of you must be wondering who is hiding behind this hood, right?”

The Elven King smirked in my direction, as did Laura, as they talked about the masked man.

“I am here to announce to all of you something that will greatly increase our military forces,” Aldin said as he pulled off the mask from the person.

And what was revealed was unlike anything that I had imagined.

It was Zero, standing right there… on the stage for everyone to see.

However, there was something strange. It didn’t feel as if he was there… the look on his face was unchanging, and the life in his eyes also seemed nonexistent.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep