Chapter 187 – Greynif (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Gillan, Filian’s younger brother, was now known as Duke Merkillan.

Ordinarily, he should have been at the ducal estate.

The reason was obvious.

He had a territory to govern.

Of course, several years had already passed since the Outer God incident involving Duke Komalon, and the damage from that time had all been restored.

Even so, one problem remained.

The succession of the ducal house had been settled in far too much of a rush.

The duke had died suddenly.

Because of that, the proper process of succession had never been completed.

Gillan had not received full authority.

Even now, there were still retainers who had not fully come under his control.

On top of that, the fact that he was the second son made him easy prey.

No matter how much the eldest son Filian acknowledged him, that fact still served as a political excuse for those who wanted to sink their claws into a weakened ducal house.

In any case, because of that whole situation, Gillan had been living an extremely busy life.

Under normal circumstances, he should have spent today as well wrestling with paperwork at the ducal estate.

Under normal circumstances.

“Hmm, Marquis Palladio stepped out for a while?”

“I heard he will be away for more than a month.”

Duke Merkillan was currently at House Palladio.

Because an order had come down from Shutalian V.

Go and verify the true identity of Marquis Palladio.

Anyone who heard it would have asked what in the world that was supposed to mean.

It was such an absurd command.

It almost felt hollow.

Worse, that had been the whole order.

There had been no detailed explanation at all.

It was a royal command, so he had no choice but to obey, but from Gillan’s perspective, it was impossible not to be bewildered.

Besides, ever since the days of Duke Komalon, had Gillan not received continuous help from Shutalian V?

That made refusal even less possible.

And so he had come to the marquisate.

Not alone, either.

He had come together with the ash-colored knight whom Shutalian V had started keeping at his side at some point.

What in the world is this supposed to be?

Gillan, or rather Duke Merkillan, let out a sigh as he waited for the knight’s answer.

Absurdly enough, Shutalian V had also ordered him to treat the knight before him with courtesy.

What exactly is this man’s identity?

From beginning to end, nothing made sense.

After a brief moment of thought, the ash-colored knight spoke.

“Hmm. Even so, let us wait a little.”

The duke looked back at him.

“You intend to wait?”

“Yes. Since we have already come all this way, we should at least confirm it.”

The knight’s voice held a strange trace of cheerfulness.

Gillan let out a helpless sigh.

In truth, from the moment he received the king’s order, this had ceased to be something he could decide for himself.

“Very well.”

At this point, he could no longer hold back his curiosity.

“But may I ask you something?”

“If it is something I can answer.”

“…I was ordered to verify Marquis Palladio’s identity.”

“And?”

“Is the marquis perhaps not human at all? Is he some other race hiding his identity? Or if not that, then some kind of monster…”

“Puhahahahaha.”

The knight burst into laughter as if he had just heard something hysterically funny.

Duke Merkillan’s brow twitched.

“…Was that amusing?”

“Ah, my apologies. Hearing something like that so suddenly put me in a pleasant mood.”

A low chuckle continued to leak out from inside the hidden helmet.

Then it stopped.

“Naturally, if the marquis were some other race or a monster, there would be no need for me to come here personally.”

“Then what exactly is his true identity?”

The knight answered at once.

“A god.”

“…What?”

That one short word rang clearly in the air.

“I came here to confirm whether Marquis Palladio is a god.”

At those words, Duke Merkillan’s mouth fell open.

“Marquis Palladio…”

As if he had just heard something completely unbelievable, he stared blankly.

“…Did you just say he is a god?”

“Nothing is certain yet. I have not confirmed it with my own eyes. But still… almost.”

The duke’s mouth could only fall farther open.

####

Even if Rukon had not warned him.

Alon already knew it to some degree.

Elves were fundamentally very hostile toward humans.

That was because a portion of the elves’ background had briefly been revealed when meeting Perion during a Psychedelia playthrough.

Of course, the game had never properly explained what incident it was that made them hate humans.

Still, one fact remained important.

Elves disliked humans far more deeply than people expected.

And yet.

“…You were waiting for me?”

Alon was plainly flustered by the current situation.

“Yes. We have been waiting.”

The young elf wore a gentle smile.

No, it went beyond gentleness.

He was polite.

An elf could be this courteous to a human?

No matter how he looked at it, something here had gone badly wrong.

Are they mistaking me for someone else?

Even if they were, Alon was still human.

There was no way they could be mistaking him for another elf.

He ran through one possible explanation after another, but none of them fit.

Then the elf spoke again.

“Please, come inside first. They are waiting for you.”

“No, wait.”

The elf still tried to guide him inward without resistance.

Alon waved a hand sharply to stop him.

The elf blinked in confusion.

But from Alon’s perspective, there was no way he could follow the man blindly.

If he entered the elves’ kingdom first and only then their misunderstanding was cleared up, the situation would become far more troublesome.

Can’t be helped.

He was worried about their hostility, but in the end he would have to clear up the misunderstanding from the start.

Sometimes the straight path was the shortest one.

“What is the name of the person you were waiting for?”

At least a hundred.

In case something happened, Alon formed a hand seal with the hand hidden inside his pocket.

The mana whose molecular structure he had lightly disturbed seeped into the surrounding space so subtly that no one noticed.

Evan, apparently sensing what Alon intended, kept both hands raised as if in surrender while tensing his body so he could draw his sword at any moment.

Then.

“Why, naturally…”

The moment the elf answered,

“…Marquis Palladio.”

“…What?”

Without meaning to, Alon released the hand seal.

Evan did the same.

He even let the hand he had been holding ready drop helplessly as he turned to Alon with a look that clearly asked, Why is your name coming up here?

“You were waiting for me?”

“Yes. We were waiting for you, Marquis.”

Me?

Why?

For what reason?

Did he really just say my name?

A storm of questions flashed through Alon’s head.

But before he could sort through any of them, the elf grabbed his hand again.

“Please come first. They are waiting.”

And with those unsettling words, he led Alon inside.

####

After boarding the carriage escorted by elves,

“Marquis.”

Evan whispered quietly.

His face held rare, unmistakable surprise.

“Speak.”

“I mean, nothing you have done up to now has really surprised me. Not you going somewhere to find something, or dealing with some enemy, or anything like that.”

“And?”

“…But this one is still shocking no matter how many times I think about it.”

“It is shocking to me too…”

Evan looked at him with an expression that made it very clear he did not believe him in the slightest.

Alon felt wronged.

In every other case, perhaps not.

But this time, he truly had no idea what was going on either.

I never even played the DLC.

He grumbled inwardly for a moment.

Then the carriage door opened.

“We have arrived.”

Alon stepped down slowly, still watching the situation carefully.

“…Oh.”

The sight made him gasp without thinking.

A tree so massive it filled his whole field of vision.

Not just large.

It was so enormous it looked capable of blanketing an entire territory by itself.

Alon stared blankly at it for a moment.

Then a strange phrase reached his ears.

“Congratulations on your return.”

He gave no answer.

Instead, that only drove the point home.

Whatever this was, they were misunderstanding something in a truly spectacular way.

They were not mistaking him for some random other elf or person.

They knew perfectly well that he was Marquis Palladio.

And even so, they were still misunderstanding him.

He could not even guess what they thought he was or how they had reached that conclusion.

In the first place, he had never even had the chance to do anything that would invite such a misunderstanding.

“…When exactly did you visit an elven village?”

“…Do I look like I have ever been here before?”

“Well, no, certainly not.”

Even while being guided by the elves into the magnificent royal palace beneath the World Tree,

“Wow… so that is the first elf…”

“It really is…”

whispers continued to follow him.

The first elf?

Only then did Alon finally find one small piece of the puzzle connected to the situation that had so completely baffled him.

It was not enough to deduce everything.

But it was enough to suggest, faintly, what kind of misunderstanding had triggered all of this.

…Could it be?

He thought of the gauntlet on his hand, the one the first elf had once used.

Before his thoughts could reach any farther,

“Her Majesty is waiting.”

He was guided to the most splendid place in the palace.

And there,

“…It has been a long time.”

an elf was waiting for him.

Her beauty radiated on an entirely different level from every elf he had seen up to now.

A welcome offered by the elven queen herself.

####

Dragged into an audience with the queen before he had even figured out why the elves were misunderstanding him, Alon thought for a long moment before finally speaking.

“…Before we begin, there is one thing I should say.”

“What would that be?”

The queen answered him with a mild smile.

In truth, from Alon’s perspective, this was not necessarily something he needed to say.

No, more than that.

Alon still did not know exactly why or how the elves had arrived at such a misunderstanding.

But if he talked with the elven queen in that state, he had no way of knowing when the situation might spiral into the worst possible direction.

“…Regrettably, it seems you have mistaken me for something.”

“Which part?”

He chose to tell the truth.

“You seem to be mistaking me for the first elf. I am not such a being.”

And yet.

“I see.”

“…What?”

The response was absurdly calm.

Alon stared at her in confusion and asked,

“…Did you understand what I just said?”

“Yes. Did you not say that you are not the first elf?”

“I did.”

But again,

“Very well. I will take it as that sort of feeling.”

“…That sort of feeling?”

“Yes. That sort of feeling.”

“…???”

Faced with that same placid response, Alon was forced to acknowledge something very clearly.

This conversation was not connecting properly at all.