They had put on an act from the start.
When they arrived, they had acted unfamiliar with and resistant to Free City, all to gain leverage in the negotiations that followed.
Who said elves weren't schemers? Olmedo thought.
Even if they were no match for humans at scheming by nature, centuries of life could still give them a formidable wealth of experience.
Who said elves weren't schemers? Annan thought. An elf over a thousand years old had pretended to be young to win me over. The hunter and the prey had switched places.
The elves had arrived overland, but they planned to return by ship.
Plenty of ships in the Harbor would pass through Wilhelm. Annan chose the most reputable merchant ship with ties to Free City and arranged for the Free City fleet to escort it.
In theory, no one would be foolish enough to attack the delegation. But who knew if someone might try to take advantage of the confusion?
Annan accompanied the Elven Envoy Delegation to the Harbor. Ellie waved as she and Kailanzhuo boarded. When it was Feiolia's turn, she suddenly spoke.
"I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"You've taken in many nobles who've done terrible things... How can you trust them to become good people?"
Annan told her a story. "One day, the wind and the sun made a bet about which of them could get a farmer to take off his clothes. The wind went first. It blew hard, but the harder it blew, the tighter the farmer wrapped his clothes around himself. The wind failed, and then it was the sun's turn. It came out and shone for a while, and the farmer took off his clothes on his own."
"Are you saying you're the sun?"
"No. I mean that a person's environment