Aiden was silent after what he told me. He gave me… time, once again.

And I’ve never been more grateful to him.

I have no idea how he knows all this.

I don’t know how he found this place.

I don’t understand…

But I trust him.

I don’t think he’s lying.

I know that everything… to the last detail is true.

That’s why I can’t stop being confused, I can’t shake the dozens of thoughts that pop into my head.

Why… why did Rian Laute want to kill his son just because he loved someone he didn’t want?

Why… did he kill his daughter-in-law, not allowing my father to live a peaceful life even after all he had put him through?

Why…

…

Minutes passed, over Aiden’s silence.

…

In fact… a whole hour.

…

And I… simply continued to think, to digest everything.

Finally, I slowly lifted my head and looked into his gray eyes, which were still just where they were.

“Aiden…”

He didn’t react, he didn’t even shake his head. His eyes… were fixed on me, that’s all.

“Thank you, for telling me everything. For… not keeping it from me after I found out, even though I’m not sure how… or when you did it.”

I took a deep breath, narrowed my eyes.

I kept my anger inside, tried to stay calm.

“You didn’t bring me here for nothing… did you? You could have told me all this… somewhere else, instead of my grandfather’s office.”

And… Aiden opened his mouth for the first time in all the time he had given me.

“I will destroy the Laute Family, Adrian.”

I don’t know why, but… even though he said it in such a simple way, it didn’t strike a chord with me. In fact… it was something I had anticipated, expected.

The Laute Family… although it was my origin, I had no connection to them.

Not only that, but after what I learned, every time I heard the name ’Laute’, I was involuntarily disgusted.

Especially the name Rian Laute.

“And not only that, my main goal in destroying the Laute Family… will be the first steps in wiping Saligia off the planet.”

He narrowed his eyes, looking quite calm as he leaned back in his chair.

“You have two decisions to make here.”

Yeah…

He didn’t bring me here for nothing.

“One… to leave here satisfied with what you have learned, to move on with your life… to do what you want.”

I didn’t comment, I let him continue.

But Aiden… waited a short while before telling me the other decision I could make. It was as if… he wanted me to think about it, not to jump straight to it.

“The second is… to wait for your grandfather to get here, to kill the man who is technically the murderer of your family with your own hands.”

I paused, my eyebrows raising slightly as something flashed through my mind.

Ideas about what Aiden was actually trying to do.

“I’m going to declare war on them, Adrian, by killing Rian Laute, one of Saligia’s biggest supporters. So… if you’re going to be the one to kill him, you’re going to be involved, whether you want to be or not.”

He hadn’t blinked once. His expression did not change even for a moment.

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“Do you accept this risk, Adrian? Or would you prefer to continue living in peace? The choice is entirely yours, I will not question whatever decision you make, our friendship will not be affected.”

I waited for a short while, letting the silence fall over us.

Then… a smile appeared on my face.

“I… didn’t know you at all before, Aiden. I didn’t think about what you were as a friend, I was simply… happy to have you around and hang out with me.”

I leaned back, as did he.

“But then, after that preliminary and the attack in our first year… I wanted to figure out the way you thought, what you were like, ’you’. I tried to watch you, to understand what you did. And… you were so complicated that I couldn’t figure anything out. You looked like a simple person on the outside, but in fact you were so different, that mask you wore hid so much that I realized I was wasting my time. Still, I thought I knew you a little, as a friend, after all the time we spent together…”

I raised my eyes, made eye contact like he did.

“But then, with everything that happened… especially when you came back from the war… I realized I was wrong. You were so different than I thought you were, Aiden. You… you’re the kind of person who plans constantly, relentlessly, and acts in such a way that every move you make turns out to be something for you in the end. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you’ve been deceiving me and you don’t really see me as your friend, I’m just saying… that I’m aware that there’s a hidden purpose behind your every move.”

I didn’t run away, I didn’t stutter.

“Since the moment you called me… you have been preparing me for this moment… The moment when you tell me there are ’decisions’ I can make. Even though you’ve given me a choice… you’ve been secretly guiding me to choose the outcome you want. Even my family… you told me about them for that, actually.”

I stood up straight, hiding my naivety and vulnerability.

“But… I know one thing for sure. As manipulative as you’ve been, you’ve never thought the worst of me. I am sure of that. I’m even sure that you would have done everything you’re talking about even without me. So… I don’t care what you do or try to do.”

I widened my smile.

“Even if you hadn’t told me all this. Even if you had simply… told me that we were going to do something dangerous, I would have been there, I would have helped you.”

His expression changed for the first time.

A tiny change… impossible to notice, maybe.

But it had happened.

His lips moved as if they were about to open but couldn’t. His eyes, normally squinted, were slightly opened, but then they went back to the way they were before.

“And I will do it again.”

I widened my smile.

“Because… you’re my best friend. The friend I can trust no matter what, the friend I know never has a bad motive.”

I paused for a moment, and then I couldn’t stop my eyes from twitching.

“I’m not ruling out the idea of killing my grandfather, of course.”

And I had nothing more to say, so I waited.

Aiden… just took a deep breath. He took his eyes off me and turned them to the ceiling, then closed them.

He waited like that for a while. Quietly, not moving a muscle.

And then…

“Thanks, I guess… And I am sorry.”

When he opened his eyes again, his expression still seemed cold, calm.

But, even then, he seemed a little more relaxed, this time.

It was like…

“No problem.”

He was happy, but hiding it.

Silence fell over the room again. I had nothing to say, I didn’t think we were in the mood for small talk here, so after a short while I found myself in an awkward situation.

But Aiden quickly broke it down.

“Now… your grandfather will be here in about a couple hours. He may sense our presence and become uneasy, but he won’t be able to see us thanks to the barrier I used to surround us. Shortly after he sits down at his desk, I will remove the barrier and we will start executing the plan.”

“Let me ask you something…”

Aiden paused, his right eyebrow raised slightly.

“Yes?”

“Didn’t you say Rian Laute was… the most powerful elf on the planet?”

He didn’t change his posture or even his tone of voice as he answered my question.

“Yes. I would estimate his strength to be equivalent to someone of SS or SS+ grade.”

Under normal circumstances, if it was someone else, I would have thought he was crazy or out of his mind.

Not because he said he thought this guy was SS or SS+ ranked… but because of how he could so easily talk about killing him when we were two people who weren’t even B grade.

“So… how do we kill him?”

“Oh, you don’t know anything yet… Right.”

Of course, I don’t know anything…

“I may have said he is SS or SS+, but he can’t unleash that power right now, or if he does, he’s dead. Rian Laute is already dying, Adrian. He was badly wounded in his fight with your father, Ethil.”

“Since we’re so confident… he must be down to the A’s, then?”

“Oh, no… he can still fight at around S+ to SS- grades without killing himself.”

He paused for a moment.

“Closer to SS-, though, probably.”

I was about to open my mouth and tell him to stop talking nonsense and tell me the full plan… but he beat me to it.

“I’ve sent Leonard Quie to fight him. He can’t possibly come out of such a battle unscathed. Leonard also has a poison in his sword that is powerful but not lethal. It will make him weak enough to take a beating even from us, if only for half a day. So as long as he gets a cut from the sword, and as long as it takes him a long time to get here for the poison to take effect, he shouldn’t be too hard to kill.”

“I see…”

Aiden tore his eyes away from me as I replayed what he said in my mind.

“There’s not much you have to do except kill him when I tell you to, don’t worry. We have plenty of time anyway…”

He put his hands on the table. And, again, a screen opened between us.

The only difference… this time, it wasn’t limited to one screen.

Aiden opened one screen after another, stretching slightly as he scrolled through them all.

“Now… let’s steal some information while we have the time. If we’re going to destroy the Laute Family, we can’t just stop at killing Rian Laute… I also have a few things I need to take care of.”

And, suddenly, he started working at a speed I had never expected from him.

For the next hours, he never stopped, his eyes and fingers were in constant motion.

Every now and then he did something with his watch. I saw him transferring data, downloading an app, but I didn’t question what it was.

Then, after a long time… he suddenly stopped and turned off all the screens. Slowly, he got up from the chair and put it back in its original position. Then, he turned to me.

“Don’t just sit there, you get up too. Come here.”

I swallowed as an idea of what was going on flashed through my mind, and I walked to him as he said.

The first minute passed in absolute silence.

The second minute was the same.

And the third…

But toward the end of the fifth minute, entering the sixth minute… the room, which was dimly lit, suddenly brightened up.

And the source of this brightness… was the door of the office.

I didn’t make a sound, I couldn’t even move because of my nervousness.

Still… I made sure to glance at the door out of the corner of my eye.

And what I saw… was a tall man standing with his right arm missing, covered in blood and dust.

He had silver hair, the same color as mine, and identical eyes. His pointy ears clearly identified his race. The wrinkles on his face showed his age, and despite his condition, his look made him seem quite… dangerous.

Rian Laute, I thought to myself.

There he was, my biological grandfather.

And also the actual person behind the murder of my father and mother.

My nervousness disappeared in an instant. I found myself wanting to jump on him, to ask questions as I grabbed him by the throat.

But I restrained myself.

There was a time for everything.

I wasn’t going to ruin Aiden’s plans like this.

So… I waited patiently.

And, after a short while, Rian Laute walked in, supported by his cane. He sat in the same chair Aiden had sat in a few minutes before.

“Come inside, close the door.”

When his deep voice echoed throughout the office, I was struck by how authoritative and dominant he was. The title of the most powerful elf on the planet… somehow, it fit his appearance, his voice, the poise he maintained despite his condition.

But my focus couldn’t stay on him for long.

Because after his words, the door that illuminated the office closed… and as the sound of footsteps echoed inside, a figure slowly entered.

And when I saw her… all my thoughts vanished in an instant.

My eyes widened and I just… stood where I was as if time had stopped. But she… kept walking, and when she got in front of the desk, she stopped.

Her expression was always cold and flat in the academy, but now… she looked extremely nervous, almost frightened, even.

But all that was unimportant.

The cogs in my mind clicked into place the moment I saw her, so many things connected logically.

The fact that she was an elf…

Her hair color…

Her disease I discovered, the medication she takes…

Her necklace which was exactly the same as mine…

The fact that she was only ten months older than me…

Alice…

The girl who’s been right under my nose until now…

She… was my sister, who I had only just learned existed.

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