Chapter 223 - Politics

The last part got me curious… I thought that much, but I didn’t expect someone else would confirm that for me. Most likely, the elder that hired the guy that I am hunting bought those unseen arrows to kill us. They didn’t know my identity back then, but they still knew that I was an unknown factor that could put their plans in disarray.

“They had a secret meeting with some underlings of other elders with the dwarves. It seems that they decided to move since a lot of other elders are planning to work with the empire. They didn’t know why yet, but they predicted that they would lose their standing if the empire obtains too much influence in the land.”

It looked like some people were jumping the gun… Well, it was only obvious that such a thing would happen given the influence of the empire. The power and influence of all the elders would be diluted for a while, and the ones with lesser standing would suffer the most. Since they didn’t know what the diplomats were talking with the other elders about, they imagined the worst.

“They made an alliance with the dwarves to make sure that they would have influence… Before I could hear more, I was found out and then they attacked me. I did my best to escape, but they followed me for over a day.”

“I see… it would have been easy for you to escape, but you didn’t want to risk guiding them here and discover our hideout.”

“Thanks to that… I saw some groups surrounding the territories of the elves that aligned themselves with the dwarves.”

“I would guess that the clairvoyant of the empire informed them of that… at this point in time, things will escalate pretty fast.”

I had the feeling that the suspicious person that Ayla followed was the same person that I was looking for, but I didn’t want to ask and get involved in their situation. It looked like another war was brewing and I wouldn’t take part in it again. I would just kill my target and move on.

Neither side in this mess saw me favourably, so I didn’t have to help either of them and that was for the absolute best. War was a great place to gain experience fast, but I didn’t want to get stronger using those means.

“I will send some scouts to check things in the area… I don’t think that we have much time before the conflict starts, but it has to be done. You should rest for a few days.”

“Understood… Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Don’t thank me. Your magic bag is mine now. You can keep the money.”

“... You should return to her side. This might become a pretty nasty war and neither side can be trusted… someone like her will be likely taken advantage of. She is naïve to a fault.”

“She isn’t a damsel in distress. She might learn a thing or two with this that will put her on the right path.”

“What if it puts her on the wrong path?”

“That would be a pity, but such is life.”

I more or less considered Clarice a friend. In her own clumsy way, she tried to help me. Things didn’t go the way she had envisioned, but I didn’t blame her. There were too many people influencing people around here. Too many influential people.

Still, helping her would mean killing a lot of people… helping Arslan, her grandmother and that other woman, neither of whom I liked very much. They choose to cause more problems to me and align themselves with the empire and for that alone, I wanted to stay away from them. I could only hope that Clarice wouldn’t have to make the same choice anytime soon. I also didn’t want her to betray her own people for me. I wasn’t such a great friend, anyway.

“There is still a chance that other mediators will come and negotiate with the dwarves… picking a fight with them now would be too risky when a new rift is about to appear. However…”

“There is a chance that the clairvoyant already saw the result of the negotiations with them and they will act to make sure that the dwarves will be allies and not a problem. There is a high chance that they told the elves that the war is unavoidable using the credibility of the clairvoyant, even though this all could be just a sham to start a war and enslave the dwarves.”

The leader of the dark elves nodded at my words… Politics. The more I live, the more I come to despise that term. Politics is frequently associated with corruption, dishonesty, and self-serving behavior. People see politicians as prioritizing personal gain or partisan interests over public welfare.

Politics often exacerbates societal divisions by polarizing people into opposing camps. This divisiveness can strain personal relationships and create a hostile atmosphere. A lack of faith in the effectiveness or fairness of political systems leads people to view politics as futile or broken. The same was very true in this world as well…

In one way or the other, the Aeloria kingdom will become the battlefield of some sort of war, a verbal one or a physical one. As an unknown factor here, it was better not to get involved… I was worried about Clarice, but if this clairvoyant was trying to track me down, getting involved with her will cause more trouble than help.

Now that Rowan died, and his new master is that much influential, the empire will have even more excuses to hunt me down and kill on sight. Rayne has no long as much influence as he had before to keep me alive and locked in.

“I need to get going. There is nothing for me here. Let’s go, Glacien.”

“Mew, mew, mew!”

… …

Those four watched Regulus leave the labyrinth… it wasn’t like they imagined that a single person could change the whole war, or even change its end, but considering what they had heard from the war in the Skarnash Tribelands, a single arrow that he shot almost made the empire lose.

If he truly committed to help one side, it was impossible to know what would happen. Perhaps that would explain why the clairvoyant couldn’t see anything about him. 

“What should we do about him, leader? We can’t leave him walking around and leaving traces that lead to our hideout.”

“He didn’t know about us the first time he came, and he helped one of us when he came for the second time and if he was that bad at hiding his traces, he would have been captured a long time ago.”

The young dark elf didn’t seem that satisfied with the answer… but he noticed that their leader was lost in thought considering their next steps. He couldn’t bother him now.

“It might be the right time now… for us to come out of hiding.”

The other three looked at their leader and wondered if they should say what they were thinking, but they couldn’t. Deep down, they thought the same way as him… for centuries, they had been hiding, not changing their situation or changing the world at all to make it better for everyone or for themselves… if they keep hiding, nothing would change.

The situation was dire for the dark elves, leaving them with a tough decision to make: maintain the status quo and risk being overrun, or choose a side in the war that was approaching their lands. Neutrality seemed an increasingly impossible stance. On one hand, the natural choice would be to align with their long-time benefactor, Nylian, the former leader of the Silver Bows. Nylian had always been a reliable partner, known for his sharp mind and strategic foresight. He would undoubtedly find a way to fight alongside the dark elves and secure their collective survival, even in the face of future challenges.

However, the Silver Bows were no longer under Nylian’s leadership, and the new leader was proving to be an enigma. His motives and plans were hard to predict, and the subtle signals suggested that this leader did not share Nylian’s commitment to long-term alliances or mutual survival. The dark elves couldn’t count on the same support or solidarity that Nylian had provided. This uncertainty casts a shadow over their choices, amplifying the pressure to choose wisely.

“We need to discuss this with everyone and decide this as a group. I don’t know if there are other dark elves out there… we might be the last ones. So, if we fail, we might be erased from this world.”

The dark elves suffered something very close to a genocide back then… by the hands of the elves at that. The history passed down by their clan says some of their ancestors tried to increase their influence and were disposed of because people feared their abilities.

The history among the elves says that the dark elves tried to take control over the Aeloria Dominion after assassinating some elders… The current dark elves didn’t want to believe that, but their ancestors could have hidden some important facts from them. If they wanted to change their image, they would have to prove it in this war.

… …

I was at a bit of an annoying crossroads… I wanted to avoid getting involved in this war, but my target was someone who was connected to it and he worked for one of the elders who wanted to take advantage of the chaos.

‘I can’t blame some elves for thinking that they might become even more of a second-class citizen if the higher ups become true allies of the empire. The situation is truly dire if some of the big shots are being swayed, even that asshole, Arslan.’

I didn’t experience much of that, but most elves truly hated those who weren’t elves. Only Arslan dared to show that to me. That was the entire reason for the existence of the silver bows and unseen arrows. That made me wonder how much of a good person Clarice’s grandfather could be when those groups became influential under his leadership. It was weird given that the dark elves appear to trust him a lot…

Perhaps this was the wrong way of seeing things… seeing people as good or bad was wrong because a person can be both good and evil for different people. Everything was just a perspective… I didn’t have time to consider morality either. 

‘I can only think that those are coming after me, need to be put down… that is all that I need to know.’