"Oh? those two are members of your group, right, Lone? The Pixie and the... the..." Malt said with a confused look on his face, clearly trying to find the appropriate name for what Swind was.

"Lemurian." Lone threw the Wolfkin a bone.

"Right! Lemurian. Now that I take a minute to look, they are only wooden plates, huh? Not that I'm judging, but why are two people as weak as wooden plates in your group?" Malt asked curiously.

Malt's question was well justified since even if the new plate system was far fairer and allowed for people with lower strength to gain a higher graded plate, like with Lone, it was still widely acknowledged that generally, if you were a wooden plate, then you were an absolute beginner strength-wise since you hadn't gained enough achievements to be granted a higher ranked plate.

"Mmm, well, one's my Teacher and the other takes care of the group's chores," Lone vaguely explained. It wasn't exactly a secret that Eolande was teaching Lone how to smith and enchant, but he enjoyed being mysterious, so leaving out specific details and confusing people heavily entertained him.

"Teacher?" both Malt and Al'ka asked with a befuddled expression. What could a wooden plate have to teach a silver-gold plate like Lone and which of the two was he referencing?

At this point, the Half-Orc and his group of four other Half-Orcs were standing in Eolande and Swind's way, all of whom were steel plates which was only one rank lower than Sophie's dark-steel plate and two ranks lower than the Half-Orcs leader's silver plate.

Al'ka's eyebrows creased and he frowned. "Lone, now might be an opportune moment for you to interfere. I fear for your companions' safety. Half-Orcs are notorious for their brutality."

"That's true. It's amazing they aren't banned from most Demihumans cities. It's a real shame that they have intelligence.' Malt frowned when he thought about how easy it would be to hunt them down if they weren't protected by the Demihuman laws. "They rarely cause trouble, but when they do, it never ends well," Malt added.

Lone didn't even turn his head towards the happening commotions and took another sip of his drink. "My groupmates can look after themselves. I babysit them too much as it is anyway. They'll be fine."

"What?" Al'ka was shocked. Naturally both he and Malt could see how weak Swind and Eolande were, and compared to the Half-Orcs, even a miracle couldn't save them if the Half-Orcs got violent.

"Did I misjudge you, Lone? I know Foxkin can be selfish, but you seemed different," Al'ka said disdainfully. He then stood up. "If you shan't save your friends, then I shall."

It was at that point that the female Elf from Al'ka's group, who Lone had yet to hear speaking, opened her soft-looking lips. "Al'ka. Sit. Justice, not yours to take."

Al'ka's eyes opened wide and he turned to face her before lightly bowing and replying, "Yes, Your Highness."

Lone looked interested in this exchange while Malt just looked lost. Clearly, the Wolfkin hadn't understood the language spoken by the two High Elves.

'That wasn't an Elven dialect I'm familiar with, but I still understood it. Maybe it's a variation of the Elven language I do know? Interesting,' Lone thought.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Al'ka sat down once more and acted like nothing at all had happened. Lone had his gaze firmly fixed on the High Elf referred to as 'Your Highness' by Al'ka. 'Maybe I should inspect her?'

The Elven beauty returned Lone's gaze and gave him a challenging look, almost as if she was telling Lone to inspect her and see what he could find out.

Lone raised an eyebrow at this. 'Hmm... nah. Not my business. I guess I don't need to be nosy ALL the time.' Lone was shaken by her challenge. He'd made the mistake of underestimating a mysterious opponent before with Clicker the God and Bradros the Grey Elf, and he wouldn't willingly do so again.

Eolande looked at Lone and noticed that he had absolutely no intentions to interfere, making her click her tongue. 'Tch, that sneaky Fox. How am I supposed to deal with these Orcs without blowing my cover? Surely he doesn't plan to let me actually deal with these guys and then wipe everyone's memories? Just maintaining the illusions on my charm and power level are tough enough.'

"Em... can we help you somehow, gentlemen?" Eolande asked cautiously.

"Help us?" the Half-Orc snorted. "Sure, leave the ship. That should do it," he said as he gestured towards the door with his head, all the while a giant smile hung on his lips, accentuating his long protruding tusks.

'Damn it. They're really trying to cause trouble for us? Fine! I'll just use an illusion then, but it's your fault, Husband, if someone figures out that I'm stronger than I look,' Eolande pouted.

She then used a simple skill, that in their prime, every Tylwyth Teg could use, Thought Manipulation.

Skill: Thought Manipulation A magic skill under the Illusion attribute that allows the host to direct another user's train of thoughts to varying degrees based on mastery. Mastery: Master Level 10

Naturally, since Eolande had a master-level mastery in the skill, it was evaluated as gold-grade by the identification ability Lone's group had gained.

"Wouldn't it be smarter for you and your friends to just peacefully leave us weak wooden plates alone? We're not causing anyone any harm and our leader is super strong. Not to mention he gets angry reallllllly easily," Eolande sweetly asked with a flicker of her eyes, using what charm she hadn't suppressed to her advantage.

The Half-Orcs' eyes glazed over for a moment before the leader sluggishly replied, "Yeah... that sounds like a good idea..."

With that, they turned around and went back into their room. Eolande wiped the sweat from her brow and flew over to Sophie and Breena while Swind followed behind her.

"That was impressive-ss, Miss Eolande-ss," Swind complimented as he took a seat by the table Breena and Sophie were sitting at.

Eolande was looking a bit exhausted and it took her a few seconds to catch her breath before she replied. "We were lucky that those Half-Orcs were really stupid. Using my magic like that is risky when I have two powerful illusions active almost twenty-four-seven."

Sophie smiled a bit wryly upon hearing this. "Breena was going to use her fear magic to frighten them away, but Lone told me that we shouldn't interfere. He thought it was funny watching you bow your head to them at first."

Sophie looked apologetic, but to be honest, she enjoyed it too. She had no ill-will towards Swind, but Eolande was constantly trying to seduce Lone, so watching her suffer a little bit made Sophie feel all fuzzy inside.

Eolande smiled bitterly. Obviously, she knew that Sophie's words were empty. "Thank you for the concern. Maybe they would have forced us off the ship if my magic failed? Hehehe," Eolande joked lightly.

Swind looked pale at this. "Really-ss? The people in the overworld are very violent-ss. Why can't we all just knit and be friends-ss?" he asked with a deadly serious expression. 

Silence consumed their table and the girls all looked at Swind, Kyuubi included, before they all burst out laughing and Kyuubi lazily laid her head back onto Breena's lap where it was previously sat. Swind was confused. He wasn't sure if what he had said was perhaps a joke in the Human tongue that he'd been adamantly learning, but he was glad that the mood had lightened.