· Who Says Promises Must Be Kept?

Night, inside the palace of the Kingdom of Elven Gard.

Lax sat in the highest room of the palace, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, holding a glass of red wine as he looked down at the Royal Capital in the night below. Then he turned to Clammy beside him. By now, the two of them no longer looked anything like they had back in the conference room, when they had seemed utterly at odds.

And Feel was no longer wearing that simple, ignorant facade she had put on. She watched Lax with a smile, her slightly narrowed eyes like the surface of a calm lake, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

"Lax, what do we do next?"

At that moment, Clammy suddenly asked. Earlier, under the witness of the Covenant, several major races had formed an alliance, and Lax had even smoothly become the King of the Elven Gard Alliance, but right now they did not actually hold power over the entire alliance.

In fact, Lax had only been able to become King of the alliance because he and Clammy had appeared completely incompatible. Only that way would the other races feel at ease letting Lax become King of the alliance, and only a Clammy and Lax like that better served their interests.

And in today's distribution of benefits after the alliance's founding, Clammy and Lax's public performance had also perfectly matched their expectations. Throughout the day's meetings, Clammy and Lax had acted as if they could not tolerate each other at all.

"Do?"

Lax looked at Clammy and smiled softly, gently setting the wineglass in his hand on the table. He stood and looked out the window toward the places where the representatives of the other races were staying, the smile at