"We're here!" the butler announced. We finally reached the reception room. It was empty for now. The three of us sat down, and soon Lady Altima came in.

She looked about 40 or 50 years old, with a pretty face and a fancy noble dress. She had clearly dressed up before coming. As soon as she entered, she frowned and asked us, "So, which one of you is in charge?"

Though her words weren't very polite, she was still quite well-mannered for the mistress of the house.

"It's me!" I stood up right away and sat across from her. I had wanted to reveal my angel identity from the start, but I decided to test the waters first. So I deepened my voice and pointed at Cyra, explaining, "We switched roles mainly for safety. That's why he's pretending to be the driver."

Cyra's mouth twitched a bit. She seemed to want to remind me of something but held back because of the situation.

"Haha, no worries, I understand! I don't really care about that. I just hope we can have a nice chat," Altima said unexpectedly, opening her fan and laughing. Then she clapped her hands. The door opened again and some maids came in, bringing us tea, water, and fancy snacks.

This was good treatment! After serving tea, the other maids left. Only the shortest one at the front stayed. She looked like a young girl of about 10 years old. She stood straight behind Altima with her hands behind her back, eyes lowered, not even glancing at us. Seeing this, the mistress quickly introduced her.

"This is the head maid of our mansion. She takes care of me best, and I can hardly be without her. You don't mind if she stays with me, do you?"

"Of course not..."

I didn't mind at all. My attention was on the snacks on the table. There were several I'd never seen before, and I wanted to try them. But Cyra suddenly poked my waist and whispered in my ear.

"Hey, don't you think there's something odd about that head maid? She looks so familiar. I'm sure I've seen her somewhere!"

"Huh?"

Her words made me pause. Could we meet someone we know in such a remote place? I looked at the maid again carefully.

Indeed, though the head maid always kept her head down, hiding her face, I noticed her light element aura was very different from normal people. If she wasn't a highly skilled light mage, then she could only be...

"Elder Gwendolyn?!"

I suddenly remembered and blurted out. Her small figure and chubby short legs had left a deep impression on me before!

Elder Gwendolyn was one of the three great elders of the angel race, and she often lived in the human world! If I hadn't been distracted by the snacks earlier, I would have recognized her right away.

"..."

But the head maid didn't respond to my call. She stood still behind Altima, as if the name I called had nothing to do with her. This situation confused me. Why wasn't she answering? Had I made a mistake?

"Hehe, looks like you were right. They really are angels!" Altima covered her mouth and laughed again. She elbowed Gwendolyn behind her and kept urging, "Hey, why don't you say something? Your people have come all this way here. Shouldn't you welcome them properly?"

"Didn't we already welcome them?" Elder Gwendolyn still didn't raise her head, refusing coldly. "My main job here is head maid, and a very professional one. Angel business usually has nothing to do with me. These two probably came here on some mission. Unless Elara tells me directly, there's no need for me to get involved! As for their fake Koromidos merchant identities, you can ignore that and just kick them out!"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Ah... but... you're making this awkward for me!" Altima laughed nervously and turned to explain to us. "I'm sorry, our Gwendolyn is always like this. She takes her job too seriously. Please don't mind her! Since you're all from the same race, make yourselves at home... Come on, have some tea and snacks!"

"Mmm, it's fine. We're already eating," I mumbled, stuffing a mung bean cake in my mouth. What else could I say? I was speechless at the relationship between these two. Since we'd been found out, Cyra and I dropped our disguise magic and showed our true faces. It seems our identities were exposed as soon as we entered the castle. What a waste that I tried to keep up the act earlier!

Honestly, from their attitudes, you couldn't tell Gwendolyn was a servant here. It seemed completely reversed. I began to doubt if this Altima was real too.

"From what you're saying, this Gwendolyn... Elder... is an angel too? If so, we've found the right person! Actually, we didn't come here for trade. We came to ask for help..." Adrian, not knowing the complications within the angel race, could still see something was off. He quickly explained why we were seeking help.

"Oh, so it's about the military base at the border..." The topic got serious, and Altima finally became more solemn. She sighed deeply, looking very troubled, and started complaining.

"There's no one else here, so I'll be frank. As the lord of this small place, we've long disliked how those imperial troops behave. They always cut down and destroy the forest, making many wild animals run into the city. And recently, the 8th Legion has been forcefully recruiting in Sifur, completely ignoring our interests. You've seen the situation in town - people are unhappy, but we can't do anything! Everyone knows how the new emperor behaves. We can only follow his orders. As for whether there are any weaknesses in the base that you're hoping for, I really don't know. I'm just a woman and can't get involved in military matters. Usually my brother deals with that, but he's not home now..."

"I see..."

I felt a bit disappointed, but from what she said, it didn't seem like she was just brushing us off.

The imperial lords were nobles who owned land and ruled like little kings in different parts of the country, but they also had duties and obligations. Although the new Emperor Reider had weakened the lords' power after taking the throne, these obligations remained. Leading the response to national calls and joining various wars was one of them. Facing the long standoff at the Crestvale Republic border, and with the old lord here seriously ill, Altima's older brother had stepped up to take on the expedition duty.

Our main goal was to go in and rescue Reed. Altima didn't seem to oppose us causing trouble behind the scenes - she even seemed a bit pleased about it. But unfortunately, as a family member left behind in the castle, she really couldn't have access to any useful information. It was normal that she couldn't help.

"So what should we do? Do we really have to force our way in? Is there really no intelligence at all?" Cyra was a bit dejected. We had to rescue Reed, but fighting without good intellegence would put us at a big disadvantage. We had no idea what the situation inside the base was like!

"Speaking of intelligence, shouldn't you know a little? I remember there were always some living in that forest..." Hearing our words, Altima seemed to remember something and suddenly turned to ask the head maid behind her.

"How would I know? I'm just a maid in this castle. You know I rarely go out. How could anything about the imperial army have anything to do with me?" Unfortunately, Elder Gwendolyn still shook her head firmly, refusing to admit anything. This put the matter at a dead end, with no way forward.

"I'm very sorry we can't help you with this. But it's already so late today. Why don't you at least stay the night here?" Altima could only change the subject with an awkward smile.

"Don't mind Gwendolyn's grumpy face. She was actually very happy when she first saw you. She secretly told me that the blue-haired disguised driver must be Feliciana. She said only Feliciana has such unique hair color among the new generation of angels, and is an excellent junior. She's always been quite pleased with her. It's just that they only met briefly once before, so they're not very close. She's probably just feeling shy now."

"What? No way! Don't make things up!" The usually cool head maid suddenly lost her composure. Her face turned bright red as she kept denying it.

"Absolutely not! You're spreading rumors! Don't forget I'm an Elder. Do you know what that means? In the empire, it would be a very high official position that could scare people on the street. How could I possibly feel shy?"

"Alright then, we'll trouble you for one night. Thank you for your hospitality." Adrian and I looked at each other with wry smiles. Seems we'll have to find another way.

Actually, when Elder Gwendolyn first learned that Reed might be trapped in that military base, we could all see she was a bit anxious. But no matter how urgent this matter was, there was nothing we could do now. We might as well go scout out the base area tomorrow before deciding what to do next.