Even after completing her registration at the Adventurer’s Guild and being fitted with a collar by Luo En himself under the strange gazes of everyone inside, Astraea couldn’t figure out how things had ended up like this.
Or rather, in her current state, she couldn’t figure out anything at all.
“With this, Teacher Astraea can move around outside openly.”
Luo En nodded in satisfaction and launched another head-pat attack on the little elf.
All-Father above, who would have thought such soft, silky fur could exist in this world?
Astraea felt the strange looks from the guild members. She didn’t dare make a sound, only tugged at Luo En’s clothes, signaling him to take her away quickly.
This feeling was too unpleasant—like the whole world was against her. In such an environment, she couldn’t find any sense of safety at all.
No, she found it soon enough. Amid the surging waves of hostility, Astraea realized that Luo En beside her was like a blazing torch, constantly radiating light and heat.
The little elf clung to Luo En tightly, like a frightened child.
She held on so hard that Luo En could clearly feel the beating of her two hearts through her pressed body.
Luo En felt something strike deep within him, an unprecedented throb.
‘Damn it, so my feelings for you aren’t some god’s twisted joke after all!’
—
The Human Kingdom—a behemoth sprawled across the continent, a rising nation that had surged to power in just a hundred years, an evil land that slaughtered lives, a…
Well, there’s no room for all that here.
In short, such a vast nation naturally dealt with countless political affairs every day, especially now during the Great Expedition.
Letters of military supplies from the front flew in like snowflakes, disturbing the young king seated on his throne, leaving him hardly a single day of peace.
“Regent Duke Maximus.” The young king greeted the duke who had entered his study as usual. “When will I be free of these damn official duties?”
The young king sat behind the desk said to have been passed down from the All-Father, which was piled with documents nearly obscuring him.
His expression had never been good.
Maximus, who had pushed the door open, replied courteously to his king: “Your Majesty, today is the third day of your direct rule.”
The young king stared into the regent duke’s eyes, as if trying to find ambition in them.
But unfortunately, there was none. The king couldn’t read any emotion from the duke’s eyes—only a glimmering light of reason.
Ah, that wasn’t an exaggeration. The duke’s eyes really did flicker with a faint glow. When the king was very young, he had asked this regent who had supported the kingdom for decades, and he still remembered the answer.
“This is a power bestowed upon me by the All-Father.”
The duke who, in the king’s memory, never panicked, overlapped perfectly with the duke standing before him now—no difference at all.
The king smiled. He casually set down his imperial brush, a few drops of ink staining an unread document.
A summary of affairs painstakingly compiled by the kingdom’s ministers was thus ruined.
But the duke’s expression still didn’t change. The king’s face suddenly showed disappointment.
“I lose, okay? Can we stop this damn expedition? Without those generals, I could sleep an extra six hours every day!”
“No, Your Majesty. Whether to end the expedition and how to end it is no longer something we can decide arbitrarily. The elves, dwarves, orcs, and all other heteromorphs will not let this go. They have been forced to unite. If the kingdom retreats, it will only allow the heteromorphs to return in full force.”
The duke still wore that unhurried expression, as if nothing could surprise him.
But the king’s face fell.
Damn it, he shouldn’t have brought up direct rule at all! How could he have ever doubted the loyal regent duke?
What a fool he was!
Thinking about having to spend over an hour just browsing the table of contents of political affairs, the young king shed tears of regret.
Damn regent, dealing with so many affairs every day without quitting—what loyalty!
“Your Majesty, you’ve already wasted five minutes. If you dawdle any longer, today’s work will pile onto tomorrow.”
Maximus mercilessly dragged the young king back from his escapism. Then, under the king’s ashen expression, the duke who had served the royal family for decades ordered the attendants to add even more fuel to the fire.
“Well then, Your Majesty, have a pleasant day.” Bowing respectfully to the king, Duke Maximus withdrew from the study.
Though his expression remained unchanged, his heart was churning with emotion.
Fifty years! Fifty years!
Did anyone know how he had spent those fifty years as regent?!
Every day, mountains of affairs awaited his attention. Twenty-five years ago, he had finally waited for the previous king to take direct rule, only to have him assassinated by a damn elf assassin within two days!
Looking at the baby pushed onto the throne, Duke Maximus’s face had been darker than anyone’s.
Speaking of that elf assassin…
She was quite smooth.
The regent duke quickened his pace. Now that he was finally freed from political affairs, he had to properly enjoy the elf he had kept for twenty years, and then make some plans.
Plans for what? Certainly not the throne. Fifty years as regent had made Maximus hate that seat more than anyone. If he could, he would rather be a carefree duke.
Pity he couldn’t. He still had a mission to fulfill.
Maximus didn’t stop. After leaving the palace, he immediately boarded a carriage and rushed to the duke’s mansion, afraid that if he lingered, the king would drag him back to handle affairs.
To be honest, the king hadn’t walked as far on the path of knighthood as he had. He probably couldn’t handle so many affairs.
The regent, who had decided to wash his hands, left a mature administrative team for His Majesty. He wondered if the king could manage them.
Maximus pondered these issues on the carriage. The knight’s path had greatly enhanced his physical body, and since the brain was also part of the body, it had naturally been strengthened as well.
If Maximus wanted, he could completely set aside those ministers and handle everything alone. In other words, those ministers were the ones he had cultivated for the king’s direct rule.
“Duke.”
The guard at the gate saluted Maximus. He nodded after stepping off the carriage and quickly entered the mansion.
This was Maximus’s residence in the capital. In the past fifty years, he had hardly ever left the capital.
The duchy under his command… he hadn’t returned to it in a long time. But affairs there were mostly handled remotely by him.
That wasn’t difficult. Through the communication magic array in the mansion, Maximus received the latest news from the far southwestern duchy every day. Compared to the entire kingdom’s affairs, the matters of his duchy—barely the size of a province—were just entertainment after dinner.
The duke, freed from kingdom affairs, was in an excellent mood. His steps were a few beats faster than usual. Thinking about what he was going to do next only improved his mood further.
Though it might seem perverse from an outsider’s perspective, he had already come up with an explanation for his behavior over these twenty-five years.
Simply avenging the previous king and fulfilling the All-Father’s expectations.
What? Did the All-Father expect him to sleep with elves? No, not that.
Maximus entered his personal dungeon. After instructing the two jailers not to disturb him, the duke—over a hundred years old yet showing no signs of aging—pushed open the steel cell door.
Though called a dungeon, it wasn’t dim. On the contrary, magic lamps engraved with miniature arrays kept the place brightly lit.
Aiouwen herself didn’t know how many years she had spent in this cell. She had given up keeping track two or three years ago. She knew she would never escape.
Of the assassination squad back then, only she, one elf, had survived. But in her eyes, it was all worth it.
A team of elf assassins traded for a human king and disrupted the Human Kingdom’s deployment. By now, the city-states must have taken the entire developed coastal region of the Human Kingdom, right?
The elf, hands and feet bound in heavy shackles, thought so. Shut up here for so many years, she had no idea what the outside world was like, only able to speculate.
That was one of her few daily pleasures. As for other pleasures… Aiouwen heard the familiar footsteps.
“Fancy meeting you here, Miss Aiouwen.”
The elf assassin lifted her head and saw Maximus strolling in.
“Is it evening already?”
No curses. After all this time, Aiouwen had grown used to this life.
She had exhausted all her insults in the first few years. If she tried to curse again, she couldn’t come up with anything new. Besides, most of the time after she cursed, this perverted human would only get more excited.
She was just curious why time had passed so quickly today. Before she knew it, she was seeing the duke again.
“No, it’s ten in the morning.” Maximus shook his head, denying the elf’s guess. He approached and scooped Aiouwen up in one motion.
Aiouwen didn’t resist, only snuggled deeper into the duke’s arms.
As a great knight, Maximus stood a full two meters and eighty centimeters tall, his body covered in solid muscle. Even though Aiouwen was tall for an elf, she still seemed petite before Maximus.
More terrifying was the duke’s astonishing stamina. Almost every time, Aiouwen experienced floating in midair.
Yes, no hands needed—just a single point of support could make an elf, along with her heavy shackles, float. That was the power of the knight’s path.
Aiouwen was already looking forward to it. She set aside all questions and simply anticipated the coming battle.
There was nothing to be ashamed of. Twenty-five years of combat had taught her one thing: the true nature of elves… seemed to be this depraved.
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