“So, you actually stopped drinking until you black out and went out to train?” Saori was the first to speak after Gael revealed himself to be Muraina’s actual mystery guest and we had to introduce him to Ellaine and Grimnir.

Gael nodded, relaxing on the sofa. “Well, I was kinda lying low before that whole incident we experienced together in Firwood, but that isn’t the case anymore. At the very least, I thought I should be fit enough to defend myself from the bottom feeders of my old crews. Plus, I need some money right now, so I need to work more.”

“Then shouldn’t you be working for Farron? You are his vice,” I argued. I hadn’t interacted with him as much as Saori or Tasianna, so I only knew him as an arcane trickster who acted as Farron’s shadow.

“Lady Hestia, I am his spymaster. As long as I keep sending him interesting tidbits of information, it doesn’t matter if I’m sleeping on my couch, haha!” He was certainly casual as always. After having a good laugh, he then turned around to Krymdar. “Anyway, why did you guys bring me out? I thought you wanted me not to be seen?”

During the entirety of our discussion with the two elves, we hadn’t noticed Gael hiding inside Muraina’s safe room, despite how effective Saori was at acting as an anti-stalker machine. Muraina explained that she had her entire safe room enchanted to block nearly everything from outside the room, to the point that not even air could enter it. It was her panic room, in a way.

The elves, after learning our party wanted to speak with them, shoved Gael into the room for some reason they didn’t want to discuss. Apparently, Gael was also another of Muraina’s acquaintances from when he first started traveling with Farron and Yorshka. Considering how young Muraina looked, it seemed that the ageless beauty of the elves was as true as ever.

Then again, I know too many people who looked younger than what their age would suggest. Tasianna is a prime example.

“Gael, could I ask you to help Krymdar with a request in the undercity? It’s to find a noble boy named Jonathan, the brother of Ellaine Helvas over here.” Once again, they mentioned something about an undercity without further elaborating on it.

When Gael murmured, “The undercity, huh?” I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anymore and asked them about it. Gael turned around, scratching his head. “Well, you can say it’s a constant reminder of Artorias’s past, no matter how much the royal family would like to get rid of it. A cage made for slaves turned into a sewer and then turned into what we locals now call ‘Shaturein.’ Or, how I liked to call it, ‘home.’”

Cage?

“Wait, a moment, could you elaborate on that! What do you mean there is an undercity in the sewers?!” Ellaine exclaimed, looking at Gael with doubt. “I know there is a slum around the red light district, but it would be impossible for an entire city to be constructed underground!”

“What do you mean ‘impossible,’ lass?” Grimnir spoke up. “We tazongs build all our cities in the embrace of Crustacia. Our entire civilization is pretty much always under the surface or next to mountains!”

“Hmm, true, there was that ancient dwarven hold close to Rashan Village. Remember when we told you about that one, Ellaine?” Saori agreed.

Ellaine looked flabbergasted when she was corrected, deciding to stay silent to allow Gael and Krymdar to finish explaining.

“Don’t be too harsh on yourself, Lady Ellaine. As I said, the royal family wishes to forget about that part of the city. Some of the upper nobles know about it, but I can guess that nobody wishes to teach you about it. If you don’t visit the slums once in a while, you would never know that it exists.” Gael then patted Krymdar on his shoulder, earning the rogue a stern look. However, the elf then sighed and proceeded to explain the undercity’s history to us.

“During the Leosfalt Kingdom’s reign, the slavery of beastmen was just as rampant here as in most other human kingdoms during that time. The ‘undercity’ was a prominent slave market used by the nobility to buy slaves of any race those insidious merchants were able to acquire. Well, until us Saelari arrived to stomp the kingdom into dust.” Krymdar clenched his hands into fists and bumped them together, before miming an explosion. “Many of the slaves were freed during the war when we invaded the city, killing their previous masters and destroying anything related to slavery. Like rats, they established their homes there while scavenging whatever they could from the ruined city.”

“You’re speaking as if you were there yourself, Krymdar,” I stated, only to have it confirmed by Muraina.

“Krymdar lived through the war, but he only read the reports on the invasion. I, on the other hand, was one of the invaders. The blood of countless human soldiers is on my hands and Whisperia’s arrows.” Muraina then turned her head around to Ellaine, causing her to flinch. The elf then smiled pleasantly. “Not to worry, it’s been over 200 years now. My attitude towards humans has… relaxed. Although you sometimes do act similarly, the humans of today aren’t the same ones I fought back then.”

It was a bit chilling to hear an actual war veteran who witnessed the War for the Faefolk, an event that caused such a major shift in Artorias’s and Saelariel’s past. From how she seemed more comfortable around humans compared to Krymdar, and how she was friends with Farron and Gael, I would have never thought her past would be like that. Also, she’s fucking old!

Urgh! A chill ran down my spine as Muraina suddenly glared at me. Is she a damn mind reader, too?!

“Anyways,” Krymdar changed the subject back to the founding of “Shaturein.” “After House Artorias took over the northern part of the defunct Leosfalt Kingdom, they forbad the act of slavery, even forcefully freeing any slaves still in any noble’s or commoner’s hands. To hide the old undercity, the newly crowned king finally committed to the previous king’s promise to build a sewer, using the plans they got from the Empire.”

“But, the people who took over the slave market didn’t take too kindly to that,” Gael continued instead of Krymdar. “I heard they began ambushing the builders and guards, since, you know, they knew the place better than anybody else. Hippogryphs and griffons hate caves, so the knights couldn’t help. Soldiers were worthless when they couldn’t pinpoint a leader. It got to the point where the King had to strike a deal with those ‘rebels,’ promising that the royal family would leave them to their own business. As such, the sewer was built in the end, but it also made for the perfect place to build a whole ass town.”

It now made sense. Prestrodus, the Lycerepth judge I met at the ball, mentioned something about this “cesspool” underneath Griffonpeak. As I had no idea about this undercity, I couldn’t piece everything together. Gael then mentioned how this place was currently ruled by a bunch of criminal syndicates and gangs, turning this into Griffonpeak’s black market.

If this place was a haven for criminals, it would make sense why a Lycerepth judge would go there to “purge” people. If somebody from there were to kidnap Jonathan and take him somewhere, it would be there. However, if Jonathan truly did wander off on his own, then he would have no better place to hide than in Shaturein. If he had left the city or was hiding in the lower city, his family would have found him eventually.

Ellaine bit her lips, having understood this possibility. If Krymdar and Gael were to start searching anywhere, it would have to be the underworld of Griffonpeak while leaving the skies and the surface to Arcanuess Helvas. It also was surprising to hear Gael being born there, although, at the same time, it wasn’t since Yorshka told me he grew up as a criminal. From our current allies, he would be the best one to lead this search party.

Gael clapped his legs, standing up. “There is actually a base of the Yanderu Elusuess down there. They are actually one of the major syndicates in Shaturein. Do me a favor and don’t make yourself too conspicuous, alright? The boss ruling that place is somebody you don’t want to mess with, and I personally know how strong you three girls are.”

“That is probably going to be impossible,” Saori retorted, earning Gael a hearty laugh.

“Haha, I guess you’re right, Saori. My little birds have already heard about your concert, Lady Hestia. You pretty much promoted it to everybody through your restaurant, so I wouldn’t doubt that my old gang is interested in your party. Especially after what Saori and Tasianna did.” Gael hinted at the Davison accident, where Saori and Tasianna fought against and killed a few members of that black mercenary company.

One of them even met and fought Saori’s students. I even heard the Yanderu were responsible for supplying Davison with the faefolk for his experiments. I turned to Saori and Tasianna, noticing how they both had sharp glints in their eyes. There was apparently still a grudge.

In the end, Gael accepted Ellaine’s request to find Jonathan since he was planning to go down to Shaturein anyways. As Krymdar was leaving with him for work, he told Tasianna to come over to the guild tomorrow, mentioned that he would put her through an alchemist boot camp and warned her he was a strict teacher.

“Alright,” Tasianna answered casually, earning her a laugh from Krymdar. “Until tomorrow, Miss Aifli,” he said. He also suggested that she bring the materials for Saori’s and my catalysts tomorrow, as he would create them for us with Tasianna’s help. Taking advantage of this, Saori handed Krymdar a wooden slate from her storage, asking if he could try to create what was written on it. He left the room with an interested smile.

Since we came and said what we wanted, our party was about to leave when Muraina stopped us. She asked us for a bit more of her time. “Now that we are alone… Lady Hestia, Miss Saori, Miss Tasianna, would any one of you be so nice to inform me what happened in Firwood?”

“… Shouldn’t you know through Farron or Gael?” I replied. Muraina suddenly asking about Firwood couldn’t be a coincidence, she should know about the whole Davison incident from start to finish.

Yes, we continued talking about Firwood during our stay here, but we never outright mentioned Davison or the faefolk he captured. Only Gael mentioned something about the Yanderu Elusuess, but that wasn’t a reason to ask us about it, since Gael could probably give a better explanation.

Muraina didn’t mention Ellaine, despite her being a noble from the Greenveil duchy, living close to the Sirus march. Muraina didn’t even need to specify Saori, Tasianna, or me, since she could have simply asked the whole of Aurora. She specified us three since she knew Grimnir wasn’t there in Firwood and that Ellaine couldn’t speak about the Davison incident since she had her kingdom’s own interest in mind.

Saori and Tasianna had the same idea, keeping their mouths shut since we didn’t know if we should confirm what she wanted to know. Muraina raised a brow and leaned back on the sofa. “Tasianna, even if I hadn’t known that you had [Elvenization], I would have still known that you were a fairy. Can you guess why?”

Tasianna, hesitating a bit, responded after scratching her neck nervously. “Because you are a faemancer, Miss Muraina. Whisperia, the treant on your shoulder, is actually a spriggan inhabiting a ‘fruit’ of Saelariel, correct?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I did think that treant was weird, but it was actually a spriggan inhabiting a tree bird?

The last faemancer that I met was Silva, a wind elf who helped us with calming the onnikais in the ruins outside of Firwood. Since Tasianna hasn’t given Muraina the same greeting as she did Silva, as wind elves and fairies were the patron races of Zephira, Muraina had to be a high elf, the first of the three elven races. Silva promised not to say anything about Davison and the onnikai but could she have gone back on her word?

“That is correct, Tasianna. Not a fully initiated one since I cannot perform any of Goddess Zephira’s rituals, but I am able to see all the spirits who followed you into my office.” Tasianna then pointed at specific spots on her body, although all we could see was air. “Yup, exactly. Anyways, in Farron’s report, he kept the details of Firwood itself minimal, so when I inquired about it, he remained vague and told me to investigate it myself.”

Muraina paused and went over to her desk and pulled out some parchment, placing it on the desk for us to see. “Well, when I went to Rashan village after looking into the situation, the lesser fae I met there were suspiciously reluctant to speak with me about something. It was as if somebody told them to stay quiet. Since you acknowledged the spirits around your body, Tasianna, you must have the [Fae Talk] skill, correct?”

There were three types of faefolk — lesser fae, fairies, and elementals. Although Tasianna was a faefolk, she was one born with more intelligence than the other two. Similar to how a human and an ape couldn’t directly communicate, Tasianna couldn’t do the same with her “cousins.” She couldn’t even see most lesser fae like spirits or spriggans who were too weak.

As such, she acquired the [Fae Whisperer] to learn [Fae Talk], enabling her to see and speak with lesser fae. Most of them were unreliable and were not worth talking to; they were like mischievous children according to Tasianna, so we had to treat their assistance like so. Sometimes false, sometimes true.

If Muraina couldn’t receive any information from the spirits around Rashan village, and most of them were former onnikai purified by Zephira, then Silva actually helped us! Why the hell did I mistrust her? Damn!

Muraina continued, “Farron was once a knight of the Lionheart order, and he has patriotic tendencies for his adopted nation, so I was sure he was hiding something that wouldn’t benefit Artorias if I knew about it. Gael can’t speak because of Farron. I could ask King Drangleic about this, but I don’t trust that man, unlike his father.”

“You don’t? He seemed nice enough.” It was a bit surprising to me. King Drangleic seemed like an upstanding man to me.

Muraina shook her head. “I am not speaking about his personality, in this case, I would describe him as a good and competent king who has the future of his kingdom and people in mind. But that is exactly why I cannot trust him to be truthful. As an arvisian with griffon blood, his family can live longer, a fact that everybody knows since his grandfather was the founder of Artorias. Due to an incident involving the isolationist faction in Saelariel and his father, King Drangleic only wishes to reform the relationship between our nations for his father’s sake, but has been wary of us elves ever since.”

“That cannot be true, Lady Muraina!” Ellaine objected. “His Majesty has supported every measure Duchess Morgiana and Duke Myrrdin suggested to mend our bond with your people from Saelariel.” Ellaine might be part of Aurora, but she was a patriot with a sense of justice, so hearing somebody badmouth her king must have not felt good.

“As I said, King Drangleic is a good king who has the benefit of his kingdom in mind. If there is an opportunity which will aid his kingdom, he will grasp and run with it.”

Muraina’s words made me understand why King Drangleic appeared before me after the ball, even admitting how he wanted to break his vassalage with the Empire to restore diplomatic relations with the dwarves and the elves. He even asked me to help him form a coalition between the northwestern nations, knowing full well what my status as a princess of Kargryx could provide him.

Muraina leaned forward, forming a peace sign with her right hand. “There are currently two factions involved in Saelariel’s foreign diplomacy with the humans — the isolationists and enforcers.”

Muraina gave us a quick breakdown of what the two factions represented. The isolationists were the elves who preferred to cut off all connections with the human kingdoms and the beastmen coalition in the fast east. On the other hand, the enforcers wished to keep up trading and other interactions to prevent the humans from doing anything insidious to the elves or the faefolk once again.

Krymdar and Muraina were both members of the latter group. Krymdar acted as an “honorable guest” for the Empire, using his station as an imperial alchemist to keep the scheming of the Empire against the elves and their allies under control. Muraina, on the other hand, became the hunter’s guild master for Griffonpeak to aid half-elven and elven adventurers during their stay in Artorias, while being there to act as an elven representative for the king to speak with.

“I am of the personal opinion that this relationship can never function without full trust between both parties. King Drangleic does not trust us Saelari, and vice versa. Without this trust, it won’t get anywhere diplomatically, especially if this secret is damning. I must know, so I can assess the situation.” We then looked over to Ellaine, the one person who cared the most about this situation. As none of us tried to convince her, Ellaine remained unsure. We knew Muraina and Krymdar were helping us with Jonathan, but the information we have will be problematic since King Drangleic is actively keeping it behind doors.

With no progress, Muraina sighed. “I see… Well, then let me ask you another question. Actually, I want to ask Tasianna about this.”

“Huh?”

“Tasianna, how do you feel about humans? As you could guess, the death of the late Princess Schuri of the fairy’s royal family was also a tragedy for us Saelari. I might have learned about it while I was in Artorias, but I too mourned for her. When your family name ‘Silverpond’ came up, I was able to piece the puzzle together. Tasianna, you were Princess Schuri’s maid, correct?”

Fairies, outside of the royal family, weren’t born through the conventional means like a human, but were born by the concentration of mana. Meaning, none of them were related to each other. As such, in the fairy village Tasianna came from, newly born fairies were adopted into families, and the Silverpond was one of them. If you were in any way familiar with Tasianna’s village, you would be able to figure things out.

Still, Muraina digging up Tasianna’s past made me annoyed with her, especially since this was a pretty touchy subject for Tasianna. I knew she blamed herself for being unable to prevent Princess Schuri’s death, and that this guilt caused her to develop a severe hatred for humans. She even tried to kill the first human we met when we came to Artorias, Lorena, a friend I made in Carine village.

However, Tasianna was stronger than I thought. Her mouth did slouch downwards, but she didn’t break down. “… I can understand what you mean, Miss Murana. I… did despise humans, very much so. But, after traveling with Lady Hestia and Miss Saori, I came to understand how my hatred was aimed at the wrong people. Despising a whole race simply because of the action of a few and their terrible history with us faefolk, while dismissing the good in those deserving friendliness… I saw the absurdity in that.”

She then took a deep breath, most probably to steel herself for what she would say next. “However, that doesn’t mean that I have forgotten Princess Schuri’s death. As Goddess Kronnaz is my witness, I will track down the person involved in Princess Schuri’s death. Fae hunters are not allowed to exi…” She paused for a moment. “They are not allowed to exist. The atrocities done to us faefolk as a whole cannot be allowed to continue.”

She then looked over to Saori and me, showing us her fired-up spirit. Saori taught her how revenge could consume you in its rage, but it seemed Tasianna was directing her anger at a more righteous goal. We knew she wouldn’t forget her grudge and we were willing to help her with it. What she said didn’t change, but the way she said it made Saori and me unconsciously smile.

She grew.

“How interesting,” Muraina interrupted our thoughts. “Most fairies are rather uninterested in most matters, since they are a carefree race. Even fairy adventurers are only a bit more serious, in fairy terms. On the other hand, Tasianna, you are certainly different. I wonder how many of the isolationists who used you fairies as an argument would change their mind if they ever met you?”

Tasianna turned around to Ellaine. Although Tasianna still found it hard to warm up with humans instantly, through our travels together, she and Ellaine have befriended each other. In the past, she probably wouldn’t have taken a human’s opinion, but now, she knew this was something important to Ellaine.

“Ellaine, I know your feelings about this, but I believe Miss Muraina’s decision is correct. Trust cannot be created if even one side holds animosity towards the other. I wouldn’t be like this if Lady Hestia and Miss Saori hadn’t helped me warm up to you humans. Please, allow me,” Tasianna pleaded.

Ellaine gulped. As a noble, she had to think about the safety of her house, and if she were to give Tasianna permission, she would have essentially betrayed her own kingdom. From her indecision, I guess she understood the importance of her next words.

“… Not here. I cannot agree to this if we speak about it here… but, I do agree, the truth must be spoken. However, I cannot agree to it behind His Majesty’s back. My family has enough to deal with, I do not wish them to stress out because of me as well.”

Tasianna nodded, having anticipated Ellaine’s answer. “Miss Muraina, as such, I would suggest we speak with King Drangleic personally. If you speak of how trust must be created, then the first thing we have to form is trust between you and the King. To speak about it here, when he was so gracious enough to keep Lady Hestia’s secret would be us breaking his trust.”

I clapped my hands, smiling at how smart Tasianna’s idea was. “That is true! It would do you no good if you learned this new information from us, Muraina. King Drangleic would be furious, and that will do nobody any good, especially us. I can make the appointment after we come back from your job, right?”

“Good enough, Lady Hestia,” Muraina showed us a content smile. “As long as I finally learn this secret, I can allow my curiosity to wait a bit longer. So be it.”

And with that, another plan was made. It was part of doing my job as Aurena’s champion, so it fitted our goals.

After saying our goodbyes to Muraina, we left her office and went down the stairs. To our surprise, instead of cheers and laughter, the guildhall was filled with people cursing and complaining.

“Damn, those fuckers! Fuckin’ pricks, all of them!”

“Oh, look at me, I’mma fancy fuckin’ manablood adorsed by the cathedral. I bought out some adventurers and had them form a party with me and now I’mma B ranker. Fuckin’ hell! Why is the damn guild master not doing anything about them?!”

“Ah, shut yer trap, man. Sure, the four guys the manablood hired were former wyvern slayers, but you should have seen the manablood perform during the C rank test. He ain’t dead weight, he actually got some skills.”

Confused by the uproar and, as the person in question wasn’t around, Saori went over to some calmer hunters and asked them about them. “Ooh, wait, aren’t you guys the ones from that weird restaurant? Wow, shit, been missing your food! When are you opening up again?”

However, he was thinking through his stomach.

Saori, however, ignored it and acted professionally. “Soon, I promise; however, if you want some good food and entertainment, please, come to Lady Hesia’s concert on the sixth. I promise you some good food. Anyhow, what is everybody complaining about?”

Excited at what he just heard about the concert, the hunter’s mouth opened up and spilled what we wanted to know. “Some manablood, Charleslyt, or something. He came in to do something at the reception, but he also fuckin’ began to prance around with his party about how they will make it to A rank soon and that we should bow to him. He shouted he wanted to kick out the guild master! Ha, arrogant whoreson. Muraina will send an arrow through his eyes before he can even come close to someone like her.”

Having heard enough, we then left the guild and went back to Ellaine’s home. On the way back, we also learned that this “Charleslyt” was the second son of Duke Equevanna, and that he was currently something similar to a rockstar among the nobles. As a B rank adventurer who was given armor blessed by the cathedral’s cardinal, he was on his way to make it to A rank.

Huh, so that was why all those noble girls at the academy were so excited about him. Can’t remember if I met him, though.

After making it back to the mansion, we directly went over to where Ellaine’s parents were and told them everything we learned today. At first, Marianne was outraged at the very notion that Jonathan might have left willingly, but Arcanuess Helvas quickly stopped her from shouting. Along with Saori and Grimnir, he seemed to have had his own suspicions when he read the letter, but didn’t want to admit it.

Both parents were incredibly proud of Jonathan and had the highest opinion of him. Doing something this excessive was the greatest surprise since they found out Ellaine wanted to join Aurora.

“I will send my own spies down to Shaturein. The more ears, the more we can finally find Jonathan. I will also leave some around the entrance in the red light district, to make sure he isn’t hiding somewhere in the lower city.” Arcanuess Helvas then turned to his daughter. “I apologize, Ellaine. This information is something we parents shouldn’t be telling our children. A blight on the prestige of Griffonpeak should not become common knowledge.”

“It is alright, father. The knowledge of this information has only reassured me that Brother can be found, allowing me to calm down a bit. I know I shouldn’t be too complacent, so I will put this time until Brother is found to good use.”

“Well said, Ellaine,” the Arcanuess nodded, smiling. “There is still much we need to do until Lady Hesta’s concert. Too much, actually. There is also your training, you still need to become stronger to control that creature.”

[“It will be fun to meet you in private once again, human. Hope your wife doesn’t mind.”]

“… Goddess, please, keep my son safe in your light.” Arcaliess Helvas prayed, ignoring the demon.

What a family.