Chapter 76: What truly happened (1)


    "Uh..." I froze on the spot, confused about what to do.


    "Waaaah!" As she cried harder, Jeanne continued to give her a few pats on her back, while general Emilio started to look mildly annoyed and impatient.


    "There, there... You can cry, let it out." Jeanne uttered softly into her ears, patiently waiting for her to calm down.


    "Uhhhh, shall we... Continue walking while we talk?" I scratched my cheek nervously. I mean, we kinda need to hurry, didn''t we? General Zhang might be struggling to keep up with those elves right now, no?


    --------


    "Have you calmed down now?" Jeanne said as she offered Firiell another sheet of tissue to wipe her tears away.


    "Yeah..." She said with a cracked voice. Well, it was better than sniffles and sobs, I guess...


    "It''s alright. It must''ve been hard to lose someone you care a lot about." Jeanne stroked the little girl''s hair affectionately, while looking down to the ground. She was smiling, but her eyes looked dim.


    "Mom, she was unjustly driven to suicide..." Firiell started to exin.


    "What exactly happened, Firiell?" I asked as we continued to march to the burning forest. We were still quite far, and yet the smoke had already reached all the way over here. Ugh, we were probably going to need some masks.


    "Everything uncle Ioriell said was true... I''m half-elf and half-human." Firiell replied, still wiping her tears with the tissue Jeanne gave her, while holding hands with Jeanne.


    "Yep. Kinda figured that out already," I nodded, "but what''s up with everyone hating your mother?"


    "She did nothing wrong, though, I don''t understand why they hated us so much..." She started to get teary-eyed, and Jeanne immediately shook her head at me, and mouthed ''go easy on the questions''.


    "Ah, sorry, I didn''t mean to... Um, if you don''t mind me asking, what exactly went on that made the royals like this?" I cleared my throat and asked another, much milder, question.


    "It''s because of my dad. I care about him a lot, but he''s not exactly the nicest person." She replied, and this time she managed to look at me without crying, which was great.


    "I see. How so?" I questioned withoutmenting too much.


    "Well, ording to what my mom told me, she met my dad by chance when she found my dad barely alive in the forest, in our previous vige''s outskirts," she started to exin, "and then, out of pity, my mom rescued my dad and even called the pce doctor for him."


    "Wow, your mom sure was kind." I mean, letting a stranger into the castle? I would rather drop him off at a town''s doctor or something, but hey, I wasn''t a nice person, and she was.


    "She was! She was the kindest woman I''ve ever met!" Firiell said, her voice was a mix of excitement and sorrow, "and that was how my they started to talk more and more."


    "They talked?" I raised an eyebrow. I thought she would be too busy as a royal princess or something, but I guess not.


    "Yeah, my mom often checked up on my dad, and my mom said that she found my dad surprisingly funny and schrly," she continued, "that part is true, though! When my dad was still with me, he was able to make usugh every day! And he told me so many things about the outside world!"


    "Oh, that''s great. What did he tell you about?" Jeanne asked with a smile.


    "He told me about his vige, about his friends," she beamed, "and she also told mom even before I was born, and mom said that was why she let his friends into the vige."


    I sneaked a nce at Jeanne, whose face started to tense up. I guess both of us realized the same thing. Wasn''t that just an invasion with extra steps?


    "They were nice to us, though... Before they suddenly start burning our vige and piging everything."


    Man, that went from a sweet love story about a princess and a lost hunk to a straight-up historical war story.


    Jeanne opened her mouth to say something, but ultimately decided to refrain from doing it.


    "Ever since that day, after they burned everything to the ground and left us, he had never, not even once, came to visit me and my mom," she continued, "then uncle Erundiell rose up to take the throne."


    "Ah, and I assume the part where Ioriell was forced to watch the assassination took ce on the same day as the piging, am I right?" I pped my hands together, finally, some light on this situation!


    "Yes. At least, that''s what mom told me... I wasn''t there during the assassination, my father told me to gather some fruits outside the vige." Although Jeanne was shocked to hear my questions, fortunately Firiell didn''t seem to mind me asking.


    Anyway, so that douchey dad still had the dignity to keep his daughter out of harm''s way, huh? Notpletely, though.


    "Man, I can''t even imagine how shocked you must be when you came home..." I frowned.


    "It felt surreal at first, honestly. I almost managed to convince myself that it was all just a dream, but at the end of the day, reality is reality." She chuckled a little, although what she said was as far as it could be from funny.


    "Yeah, your dad was a scumbag. No need to care about him, even a little. He chose that path, he wasn''t forced to." I let out a long sigh.


    "Dad... I never expected him to betray us..." She looked down in sadness.


    "Is it betrayal if he never intended to be on your side from the start?" I clicked my tongue in annoyance.


    "You''ve got a point... He fooled everyone though, not even uncle Erenduill expected that."


    "Silence. We''re going to sneak from here on out." General Emilio suddenly spoke, stopping our conversation.


    "Oh yeah, what''s your n, general Emilio? Surely you have a n after agreeing to that, right?" I asked as I readied my rifle.


    "I do. But it''s best to not discuss it here," he replied while he took out his spear, "let''s get his crest first. Our n starts after that."


    "Cool, cool." I nodded and followed him towards the forest. Ugh, the smoke was getting thicker now.


    "How are we going to take his crest? Our magic didn''t work on him." Jeanne asked.


    "Hmm, probably physical attacks will work? Ah, did we try using other elements, though? What if his barrier only works against my fire element?" I threw some ideas.


    "We''ll go with physical to be safe. That shield probably negates mana." General Emilio dered.


    "Uh-huh. Sounds good." Ah, that meant my rifle wouldn''t be useful. Such a bother. It seemed like using psychokinesis to drop stuff on him would work, though... But again, he could easily counter that using his strength, too. Ugh, I hateplicated stuff.


    As I proceeded to whip up several ns,plete with its backup, inside my head, I noticed Jeanne staring at me.


    "What''s wrong, Jeanne?" I tilted my head to the side.


    "No, I just find it admirable that you managed to keep your calm in a situation like this." She smiled at me.


    "Hey, same goes for you. I see that you''re also quite calm." I giggled lightly. Even in this situation, she still managed to find something positive to look at.


    "That''s because I''m a general, and that''s what a good general should do." She answered with a determined grin.


    "And because I''m your party member, I should trust a good general, right? So it makes sense if I could keep my calm." I replied.


    "Yes. Thank you for trusting us."


    Hmm, I wasn''t lying, but I wasn''t telling theplete truth, either. Sure, it had been drilled into my mind ever since I was a kid that ''yourmander''s words are absolute'', and that was partly why I agreed so easily to general Emilio.


    But well, that was in the past. Now I was able to think with my own head. In a way, I agreed because I was sure that general Emilio and Jeanne were experienced leaders. If not, then the Vanguard would surely be in ruins by now, right? They were generals for a reason, after all.


    Aside from that, my most important reason would be that I n to steal that crest for myself.


    As for the ''how'', it could be sorted outter. Perhaps Firiell would know a thing or two about transferring crests. If I ended up not being able to use it for some reason, then I''d just sell it through my shop system and get some power-ups to defeat that elf king.


    No way would I trust his deals. He wasn''t a man who operated based on mutual trust, rule, or dignity. If it benefitted the greater good for him, he wouldn''t hesitate to act on it, even if it meant stepping down as a king, if someone more suitable were to appear.


    If we were to hand him the crest, our value would disappear for him. No matter how thankful he might be to us humans for ''reducing'' the number of elves, he wouldn''t hesitate to dispose us if we had no more use for him.


    "Jeanne, you''re quick on your feet, so I shall entrust the responsibility of delivering the finishing blow to you." General Emilio stated.


    "Yes, sir!"


    "I shall pretend to do an assassination attempt while they''re busy dealing with general Zhang," he continued, "that way they won''t suspect a second assassination attempt. I shall tank and pull their attention to me and general Zhang."


    "...What about me?" I questioned and pointed to myself.


    "You..."