The aloof elf (thanks to poorsen for the Alliance Leader support!)

Knock, knock.

"Anyone home? Anyone... oh, an automatic door."

Herbert knocked on the door, but before he could launch into his joke, the wooden door swung open on its own.

The room was scarcely brighter than outside, still lit by the fluorescent plants growing here and there.

He walked slowly inside, his gaze sweeping over the room's furnishings.

An enormous table was covered in bottles and jars filled with liquids of various colors. Some also held biological organs whose original owners were impossible to identify.

A huge eyestalk radiating an eerie aura, shriveled severed limbs, five red stomach sacs joined side by side, an eyeball with three pupils...

By all rights, the sight should have made Herbert's skin crawl and covered him in goosebumps. It should even have called for a SAN check.

Yet, for some reason, Herbert felt no fear at all. In fact, he found the scene somewhat... satisfying?

Was that right?

Just as Herbert began wondering whether something was wrong with his mind, the culprit spoke up.

["Mmm~ She really does have excellent taste."]

"Oh, so it's because of you."

Good. Mystery solved.

You're the little freak messing with my aesthetic sense.

["What? Don't you think these things are wonderful? These are all excellent specimens! And the techniques used to process them are superb. Their preservation is very professional!"]

"They're all excellent specimens...?"

Herbert stared at the three-pupiled eyeball for a while. When he realized it was staring back, the corner of his mouth twitched.

Fine, I'm unworthy. I know nothing about aesthetics.

He forced his gaze away and continued examining the room's decor.

Apart from the research table that occupied most of the space, the only other furnishings were a small round table and two chairs woven from vines.

One had only just been woven, with fresh young leaves still attached.

Overall, it looked like a workspace that doubled as living quarters, but there was no bed anywhere.

Did she never sleep?

"You seem to have some questions."

A slightly husky female voice sounded behind Herbert, making him raise an eyebrow.

When had she gotten there?

He had carefully checked his surroundings on the way in, yet he hadn't noticed her anywhere.

Herbert narrowed his eyes and turned, getting his first look at the Dark Elf Archmage.

"Oh? Archmage Svanney?"

"Yes. A pleasure to meet you, Warden Herbert."

In Herbert's stereotypical view, Dark Elves were generally less attractive than ordinary elves.

After all, dark skin wasn't particularly his thing. Skin tone alone had already cost them points.

But now he realized-he had been wrong.

So what if her skin was dark?

That wasn't a problem at all.

A gorgeous face trumped everything!

It wasn't that he disliked dark skin. He simply hadn't met a dark-skinned beauty he liked.

Svanney looked twenty-six or twenty-seven, no longer quite so youthful, but not overly mature either.

Her features were exceptionally delicate. Her somewhat dark complexion did nothing to diminish her beauty; instead, it gave her a distinctive charm.

Her blue-violet hair had been carefully braided, golden ornaments dangled from her earlobes, and golden patterns adorned her cheeks.

Of all the prisoners he had met so far, Svanney was the most impeccably groomed. She looked nothing like a prisoner trapped in a cage.

At the same time, she possessed a distinctive air-a coldness born of intellect taken to its extreme.

She stood right before him, yet looking into those golden eyes gave him the distant feeling that she wasn't truly there.

It was undisguised indifference that kept everyone at arm's length.

Herbert met Svanney's gaze for a while without flinching, then smiled and held out the skull.

"Here. Your delivery."

Svanney shook her head without taking it, gestured for him to set it on the wooden table, and sat in a vine chair. "Please have a seat, Warden," she said softly.

Herbert sat down and found the chair's branches shifting slightly, automatically fitting themselves against his back to give him the most comfortable seating position.

An ergonomic chair?

Living vine chairs were the way to go.

Herbert leaned back comfortably, showing none of the awkwardness of a visitor in someone else's home, and asked with easy familiarity, "So, who's this?"

"One of my people. Perhaps an agent sent by one of the families, prepared to die to deliver a message to me."

Svanney held two fingers together and made a slight pinching motion in front of the skull. An illusory soul about the height of a hand was pulled straight out.

The soul was dim, but he could vaguely make out a Dark Elf girl of eighteen or nineteen. Her lips opened and closed incessantly, as though urgently conveying something to Svanney.

Yet Svanney's expression never changed. After listening calmly for a while, she simply closed her hand and crushed the remnant soul in her palm.

Herbert raised an eyebrow and asked in puzzlement, "Hey, she came all this way to find you, and that's how you treat her?"

Dispose of her once she'd served her purpose?

Was she really that heartless?

Svanney shook her head and said slowly, "I was helping her find release."

"She died long ago. She could only cling to this world through the power of a Forbidden Being, and her soul had already been utterly tainted by [Sinful Desire]."

"Now that her task was complete, if I hadn't done that, her only remaining fate would have been to become that god's plaything."

The moment Herbert heard the honored name Sinful Desire, he understood why Brother Grass Carp had ended up looking like that.

"Oh, so it was because of that god."

The [God of Sinful Desire] was one of this world's most powerful Evil Gods, presiding over all depravity, sin, and lust.

Unlike Nenasya, a Harmonic God of unknown origins and strength, this was a genuine, insane Evil God-the thoroughly unhinged kind.

Becoming a follower granted one powerful forbidden abilities, but meant never escaping the god's grasp.

That god excelled at corrupting mortals and loved nothing more than turning followers into lunatics who knew only how to mate-regardless of how many partners there were, or whether those partners were even human.

"And her task was to deliver a message to me."

"My younger sister assassinated our grandmother and became the new head of the family. Some of the elders are dissatisfied and intend to send people to rescue me. They hope I will cooperate when the time comes."

Svanney recounted it indifferently, as though discussing someone else's affairs.

Herbert: ?

"Wait, you're just telling me all this? Is that really okay?"

Finding it rather strange, he asked with amusement, "I'm the warden responsible for keeping you here. Shouldn't you show at least a little respect for my profession?"

Were you really not afraid I'd report you?

"It's fine. You may deal with those people however you please."

Svanney toyed with the feeble soul in her palm and said flatly, "Because I have no intention of accepting their rescue."

"Oh? You don't want to leave?" Herbert blinked.

Now that was unusual.

What prisoner didn't want to leave prison?

Was it because everyone here spoke so nicely and was so talented?

Svanney said calmly, "I have no interest in power. As long as I can continue my research here, I have no reason to leave. Returning to the family would only mean letting them bother me."

That was her reason?

It did sound fairly reasonable.

"Speaking of which, you're more talkative than I expected."

Svanney calmly shook her head and said with a hint of disdain, "I simply do not wish to converse with vulgar people. That does not mean I lack the ability to communicate with others."

"Oh, I see!"

Herbert gave a little exclamation, a teasing smile curling the young man's lips as he said slowly, "Well, since you're so talkative... show a little more sincerity. Don't be so cold."

"When are you going to stop using an avatar and come meet me in person?"

He flicked the leaf he had been rubbing between his fingertips toward Svanney-the soft leaf passed through her body and landed on the floor behind her.

Herbert smiled and winked at the Dark Elf, settled fully against the chair's back, crossed his legs, and asked leisurely:

"How about it?"

"Arch... mage~ Heh."