390 The Northern Border
Selma Payne’s POV:
The reason for Kaya’s transfer was simple, so simple that I could tell without anyone explaining – she was a capable officer. Although she had a bad temper, she was undoubtedly qualified to be a captain. It was time for her to shine and contribute to the elven race.
The reason Klein was transferred to be my temporary partner was simple – he was indeed a flower vase as he appeared on the surface. The soldiers’ contempt and disregard for him were not without reason. He did not even have a single permanent soldier under him.
In other words, my new partner was a light pole commander named officer.
However, this arrangement wasn’t meant to make things difficult for me. On the contrary, this was a tacit agreement between the group of elders and me. The elves needed a decent person to ‘monitor’ me, and I needed a ‘monitor’ who could let me do as I pleased. After weighing the two, Klein was pushed out.
As external help, my companions and I didn’t completely listen to the elves’ orders. On the surface, we were relatively free. Since the elves had set up layers of defenses in the western region where Azazel’s party and Leviathan followers were suspected to be active, I decided to focus on the relatively neglected northern border.
The northern border of the Elf Forest was close to the ocean. Compared to other areas, the population was sparse, and there were fewer city-states, so it needed to be more eye-catching.
Dorothy stayed in the elven kingdom to wait for her father’s arrival. “I’ll tell you as soon as I get news from the Elf King,” she said.
I pray that ‘synchrony vision’ would take effect. That way, we’d have real-time surveillance of the wanderers twenty-four hours a day, and the pursuit would undoubtedly be smoother.
In short, we silently set off toward the north at this special moment when the elven race was on high alert.
From the moment they set off, Klein had been silent. He was the opposite of Kaya and didn’t like talking unless necessary. But we were destined to work together for some time, and it was impossible not to communicate with each other. So, in the end, I was the one who broke the ice.
f𝙧ee𝙬ℯ𝐛𝓃𝐨𝚟𝒆𝘭. c𝒐𝓂
“So, you are a noble?” I asked when we were taking a break in the forest.
Klein looked at me in surprise as though he didn’t expect me to take the initiative to talk to him. After a moment of silence, he nodded. “Yes, my mother is the Queen’s cousin. She is from eastern Thousand Lakes City.”
The Queen’s cousin? This was a relative that I’d never expected. However, as the Queen’s nephew, how could Klein be doing so badly?
Although I didn’t ask, Klein noticed my doubts. He smiled bitterly and said, “You don’t have to worry about anything. Everyone who sees me has the same doubts. I don’t care about it anymore.”
Even though he said so, I wasn’t stupid enough to actually ask.
However, Klein poured out everything he knew. “Although my mother is the daughter of the mayor’s sister, my grandmother and her sister, who is my grandaunt, are not close, so my mother is not very close to Her Majesty. Moreover, ever since Her Majesty the Queen… After that, no one took an insignificant figure like me seriously. But even if I’ve always been treated as nothing, I’m quite satisfied with this life. At least I don’t have to be caught up in those bloody storms of power struggles, and my life is easy and comfortable.”
Klein said it so easily and didn’t seem worried about not seeing her. Obviously, he might have had a hard time in the past, but he had now let it go. His open-minded attitude made me change my opinion of him. Not everyone could bear to be ignored and looked down upon every day. To be able to be indifferent, one must have a broad mind that ordinary people couldn’t reach.
As for the Queen, who he did not elaborate on, it was a well-known secret among the elves. When I was with the werewolves, I heard rumors about the elven royal family, but I didn’t know if they were true. I had never seen the Elf Queen since I came to the elf territory as if she didn’t exist.
But I was not interested in the secrets of the other royal families. I was eager to know now where Azazel’s party and the Leviathan followers were hiding to discuss their schemes.
It took me almost a week to get to the Elven Capital City from the border because I had to scout for clues on the way. Although Cage didn’t have to go through so much trouble, as a wizard, he had to go through as many security checks as I did. As the best friend of the Elf King, he didn’t have any special privileges, so it would take him about three days to get there.
I kept in contact with Dorothy through my mind-link. She told me that her identity had been exposed through some unknown means. Now, quite a few nobles and mayors had secretly come to find her in hopes of ‘getting a glimpse of the true meaning of fate’. Even the Crown Prince, the chairman, and many other western powers had secretly sent people over. She didn’t accept any of them for fear of getting into trouble. However, she was annoyed by them.
I was immediately infuriated. ‘The moment I left, someone came to look for Dorothy. If this isn’t bullying the weak and fearing the strong, what is it?’
