Chapter 107 Intermission Edelweiss

----------------------------------------

"Let there be light," Edelweiss whispered as her staff brightened the area.

"Thank You, Lord Edelweiss." Joseph bowed down in gratitude. He scanned the area and found Mattheus, Mark, and Rick with them. The cave-in also blocked their entrance, and there was nothing that they could do but find another way.

"Oh great." Mattheus sighed when he looked at each other. He knew none of the others here. Moreover, there were only tailfolk and elves here. He has no friends. Contempt was shown for a split second from others which Mattheus didn't miss. He was safe before because Lily was with them, but now, they could just leave him to die, and nobody would bat an eye.

"Well, Let us not forget he is on our side," Joseph commented.

"Follow us." Edelweiss glared at him but softened up as she sighed. She understood that he did not deserve the hatred, and he had helped elves a lot. However, her hatred against humanity still clouded her mind sometimes. It would still be a long way for her to treat even a good-natured human-like Mattheus without contempt.

"Yes, ma'am!" Mattheus gave a salute and obeyed his superiors.

"No need to be so mean. We are on the same side here." Mark commented while tailing Edelweiss.

"Yes. I am sorry." Edelweiss apologized, and the new party marched on.

The path was dark, but the group had no trouble navigating the area since Edelweiss was there. Mattheus was glad that their contempt stopped only at their eye and face. When a group of lizards and skeletons appeared, Mark and Rick followed him while Joseph protected the rear.

Soon they rested in a glowing cavern. Edelweiss made water for them to drink, and they rested. They got surrounded repeatedly, but Joseph always noticed them at the last minute. But he only focused on protecting Edelweiss. Mattheus and Mark already got hit multiple times with needles from the lizard.

His decision not to budge from Edelweiss has some logic to it. Edelweiss is the only healer at this party. Even when one of the lizards burned Rick's face, She could restore him to full health in less than a minute. But Mattheus grimaced at such cold logic. Unlike Joseph, however, Edelweiss tends to care for the wounded. Whenever a skeleton or salamander got close, she often screamed and rushed to their aid. Joseph usually blocked her from doing that.

"Man, we need to work more on our cooperation," Mattheus muttered.

"What?" Joseph looked at him. His eyebrows frowned as if he was looking at bugs.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Hey, human. You know you should keep your mouth shut. Lord Edelweiss is noble." Mark and Rick replied.

"Everyone. We should pursue on." Edelweiss said. Her hands trembled with fear. "We need to find the others."

"Mattheus, scout the area with Rick and Mark!" Joseph ordered.

"OK." He nodded and marched on by himself. The cave was splitting again, and they went to scout different caves. Fortunately, after only 15 minutes of walking, he was met with a dead end. As he returned, the walls cracked, and bunches of lizards growled. He took flight and escaped without delay. The 15-minute walk turned into only 5 minutes of running with everything he got back to Edelweiss and Joseph.

"Watch out. A swarm of monsters came out here!" Mattheus shouted.

"Here too!" Rick, the tailfolk mercenary, also shouted from a different cave.

A swarm of over ten lizards rushed us. We held them off while Edelweiss cast her spells and finished them off. There were no casualties, but the three received some burnt injuries and stab wounds, which Edelweiss later healed.

Thirty minutes later, Mark returned from the other cave, which led to a vast hall with several levels of pathways at the edges. He said Alistar was there, but he could not rendezvous with them because they were on the bottom floor while Mark was on the top floor of the room. Mark said it was suspicious because Alistar didn't speak.

"Really! Let's go there at once!" Edelweiss was elated.

"We should rest a bit. We are tired. We have been at this for several hours and were heavily injured…." Mattheus complained, but it fell on deaf ears.

"Joseph, You have been with Lord Edelweiss since forever, right? Could you tell me about her?" Mattheus whispered as the group followed Mark toward the hall.

"What about her?"

"I mean, Lily didn't behave like her a single bit. They both graduated from Synctail Academy, right? But Edelweiss seemed to have no idea how to properly ordered us. She didn't issue any orders and didn't shout when using spells which scared me a bit. She also positioned herself, unlike Rhander. She is too close to the front line. Lily was fine in that distance, but Edelweiss could not even dodge a single needle from the lizard, so you have to stand guard right beside her."

"Well, maybe I should tell you. Lord Edelweiss excelled in her magic lesson back in the day when Northlangard was still ours. However, she was bullied because she sucks at everything else. Her military lesson was so flawed that she was forbidden to hold a sword or command troops. She got ridiculed a lot because of that. She was a lord candidate, but at that time, she was just a minor lord. Everyone expected her just to graduate as a magician and manage paperwork. She got a job as a librarian after being forcefully graduated from the academy.

"Then We lost Northlangard. She became a prime candidate all of a sudden. Many people mocked her since she could not finish her military lesson. However, she got a blessing during that time. With her blessings, nobody could openly antagonize her. She originally desired to be reminiscence's Lord, but due to her poor military skills, she got sent to Regoia instead." Joseph explained.

"But why Regoia, She could just laze around like those four nobles Lily mentioned about."

"She didn't want to get close to those four. She preferred to go into some countryside city instead." Joseph tried to smooth things out with his word, but Mattheus still understood them.

"I see. That doesn't explain her weird posture and position on the battlefield, though."

"Well, that one ——"

"Why is it empty! They didn't wait for us? You told them, right?" Edelweiss shouted. It was rare to see the composed Edelweiss raise her voice. Mattheus stopped their chat and went to the empty hall.