Moonglade

"If you feel dizzy, get some sleep." Odovish's deep voice sounded by her ear. Elufiel softly acknowledged him and forced herself to fall asleep.

The mage glanced sideways at the elf, whose eyes were tightly shut, her long lashes trembling slightly. For the first few decades of his life, he had always been alone. He traveled alone, dealt with the Holy See alone, and experienced nearly every place in Kanado alone. Before Elufiel, it had been difficult for him to imagine that there would be someone—no, Elufiel was not human. She was an elf, a somewhat special elf, but what did that matter?—who would accompany him through all this.

Elufiel had a dream. She dreamed that she had gotten lost on Storm's Peak and encountered a fierce blizzard. The howling winds buffeted her up and down. She could not see what mount she was riding and could only grip the reins in her hands by instinct. Several times, she felt she was about to crash into a cliff, but at the last moment, some force always pulled her back.

"Eluer? Eluer, wake up." Odovish lightly patted the elf's shoulder.

Elufiel's eyes flew open. The startled elf quickly took stock of her surroundings. She was still in the cramped cabin, but the place she had been leaning against had changed—it was the mage's shoulder. It still bore the marks where she had pressed against it. Odovish's cloak had come half undone and slipped down with the elf's sudden movement. It was not difficult to imagine who that section of cloak had been covering earlier.

The tips of the elf's ears turned red. The discovery put the mage in a good mood.

The two soon disembarked and left the space the elf had described as "terrifying." The fresh, biting wind perked up everyone who had just gotten off the ship, but the elf felt nothing at all.

It was not because the wind elements had worked so hard to supply fresh air along the way, but because Elufiel had yet to recover from the fact that she had slept leaning against the mage.

After forcing a kiss on the mage, had she now forced him to sleep with her too?

Chapter 27: Moonglade

The northern shore of Lake Inoma was livelier than the southern shore. At the end of Frostmoon, the signs of early spring had gradually begun to show. Snow rabbits had yet to shed their thick fur, but they were more active than they had been during the cold winter. Withered grass sprouted fresh buds, and tender flecks of green dotted the earth, making it seem so full of life.

Large numbers of mercenary groups flocked here during this period. Some came purely to hunt, but more had been hired by alchemist employers to gather Ice Crystal Grass. This was the last chance to make a small profit at the tail end of Frostmoon. When spring came next year, the mercenaries could use the money to buy what they needed: sharp swords, sturdy shields, and whatever else they wanted. Or they could simply have a good drink to reward themselves for a year of hard work.

This was the life of most low-ranking mercenaries. They did things that seemed somewhat dangerous to ordinary people but were still manageable for them. The occasional accident might become a story worth bragging about—if they survived it.

When Elufiel saw a group of mercenaries hunting snow rabbits, she did not think they looked like mercenaries at all. "Look, even ordinary hunters can do what they're doing." The elf pointed at a snow-white rabbit sprinting wildly.

Odovish answered, "But not every hunter would travel so far and cross Lake Inoma specifically to catch rabbits. You should know that there are no other countries north of here. Moonglade is nearby, and many magical beasts above the third tier live there."

"For an ordinary able-bodied person, they might still have a chance against a second-tier magical beast. Against a third-tier one, even escaping is a luxury. As for first-tier magical beasts, they are no different from ordinary animals to you. Just like the snow rabbits you see, first-tier snow rabbits are merely a little faster than normal rabbits. Their destructive power is not even comparable to that of an ordinary wild boar."

Just as the mage was explaining Kanado's classification of magical beasts and profession ranks to the elf, someone dressed very much like a member of the Judgement Tribunal walked straight toward them.

Odovish watched the man, and a strange, intense sense of incongruity filled the air around them. The man stopped before them and greeted them somewhat excitedly. "You've finally arrived."

Odovish remained impassive, while Elufiel was much more direct. She held out her hand to the strange man. "Hand it over." The man placed a sphere in the elf's palm. The elf immediately turned to the mage and proudly showed it off. "Look, the Orb of Deception. It's a toy that can temporarily turn someone into a member of an enemy faction. If you used it, you'd probably all turn into something like him. What do you think? Isn't it hard to tell?"

Odovish looked at the orb before him and instinctively reached out to take it. To his surprise, the elf quickly pulled back her hand. The Orb of Deception vanished into her storage space. "You can't look at it, and don't ask me how it works, because I don't know."

"..." Odovish was speechless for a moment. How could he find the elf so adorable? She was clearly a little troublemaker, wasn't she?

"Um, it isn't safe around here." Eugene hesitated, but he still interrupted their exchange. There were simply too many Paladins near Moonglade, and it would soon be time for their routine patrol.

Once Odovish focused, his efficiency was astonishing. Under his arrangements—though the elf had no idea how exactly he had arranged it—a thoroughly ordinary-looking carriage carried them toward the depths of Moonglade. Elufiel lifted the curtain and saw the hunter-dressed driver joking around arm in arm with several stationed Paladins. After offering them a boar leg, they smoothly entered from the main road and were openly let through right under the Paladins' noses.

"This works too?" Elufiel looked utterly shocked. What was the point of such a garrison?

"The stationed Paladins you saw are merely ordinary knights bearing the title of Paladin. They are usually members eliminated during Paladin selection. The Holy See has plenty of such ordinary knights. Their so-called million Paladins count these ordinary knights as well. If they truly had that many actual Paladins, Italigis and Pandor would have been wiped out long ago. After all, the number of Arcane mages cannot compare with the number of Paladins."