“As you expected, I was the one who led the downfall of Testarossa.”
A chilling silence fell over the conference room.
Around Sion, currents of magical energy surged, *tick! tick!* making the air tremble.
Her aura spoke louder than words. Anyone could see she was on the verge of exploding.
Seeing this, Rohan hastily opened his mouth.
“Let’s continue the conversation. I’ll keep my promise.”
“!!”
The Grand Elder and Sion each interpreted Rohan’s words in their own way.
Grand Elder Levin Maxwell, as mentioned earlier, took it as a statement that he would take full responsibility under Hex’s name.
Sion, on the other hand, recalled the promise she had made with Rohan in the dormitory.
“…”
Sion, who had been glaring at the Grand Elder, rolled her eyes and shot him a sharp look.
When she saw Rohan, who had spoken up, and Clara sitting beside him, a sense of calm washed over her.
She reined in her surging magical energy and let out a long breath.
*’I’ll hold back now. I must hold back.’*
If she lost her composure and acted impulsively here, she might never get the chance to hear the answers she sought.
Sion silently thanked Rohan in her heart for stopping her.
“Of course, from Your Highness’s perspective, you must have many doubts. The awkward questions you’ve been asking us elders have become increasingly diverse lately.”
“…”
“Time is short, so I’ll only share the key information that connects everything.”
As Levin Maxwell spoke, he glanced at Rohan as if seeking his approval.
When Rohan nodded, Maxwell began to reveal a past unknown to Sion.
“You must be wondering why I and the elders who follow me acted as we did, and how we dealt with Weber Testarossa, who ruled Tigroba as its sovereign until Lord Seolho appeared.”
The Grand Elder, acting as Hex’s messenger, was tasked with confessing the truth and demonstrating the vessel’s mental strength.
Maxwell spoke in a firm tone, mixing blunt words into his sentences.
Sion clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, suppressing the emotions threatening to burst forth at the blatant admission of harming her father.
“Your Highness’s father, Weber Testarossa, even after losing all authority in defeat, felt no shame. He was delighted, saying that Lord Seolho would grow Tigroba into a powerful nation.”
As Sion remained silent, trying to cool her boiling anger, the Grand Elder continued.
“After that, he gathered us and proposed that we work together with the new ruler, Lord Seolho, for the prosperity of the nation. He even excitedly told us that Lord Seolho had asked the elves of the coniferous forest to stay in Tigroba and take key positions.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Maxwell emphasized this as the most critical point, but Sion couldn’t understand what the problem was. It seemed like an ideal progression, even after defeat.
“Your Highness. Elves cannot be ruled by beastmen.”
“There isn’t.”
“Why? What’s the reason?”
The Grand Elder let out a soft laugh as he watched Sion, who was questioning him just like Weber Testarossa.
Until now, he had been careful with his words when speaking to the princess. Thanks to Hex’s messenger, he could now reveal his true intentions transparently, and it even excited him.
“How can you even ask that? Noble elves are not beings meant to be ruled by lowly humans. Isn’t that obvious?”
“…Grand Elder. Have you lost your mind?”
Sion’s barely contained anger seeped out, filling the conference room with a heavy atmosphere.
But the Grand Elder, trusting Hex’s messenger, remained confident.
“Our guest is watching, so please refrain from extreme remarks. I am perfectly sane. Don’t you see how many elders have agreed with my stance?”
Levin Maxwell gestured to the elders crawling on the floor.
Though they had been beaten by Rohan and didn’t look normal, none of those still conscious objected.
There wasn’t even a hint of remorse in their eyes.
Rohan silently watched the Grand Elder and Sion.
Levin Maxwell’s tendencies were being expressed more blatantly and aggressively than in Abyss City.
‘Crazy old man.’
An extreme sense of superiority and stubbornness, traits of an elf who had lived too long and developed a closed mindset.
Rohan had known the old man’s values from the start, but now that he had a shield, his mouth had become even more reckless.
The Grand Elder was still talking non-stop.
It was almost disgusting how much he seemed to enjoy revealing everything to Sion. Perhaps that very disgust was what had drawn the Reverse Flow Praise Society to him.
“We submitted a petition stating that we should not be entangled with humans, but it was not accepted. The divergence was, in fact, already decided.”
“Then what should my father have done instead?”
“Instead of being complacent with a good ruler, he should have challenged again to reclaim sovereignty.”
“You speak so easily, having never fought yourself.”
“Princess, it is the duty of a ruler. The difficulty is irrelevant.”
Sion realized something clearly.
No matter how long she talked with this old man, they would never understand each other.
“Look at Tigroba’s strength and Lord Seolho’s reputation now. My father made the right decision for the situation. His only mistake was not removing the trash from his side.”
Even as Sion growled and spoke aggressively.
The Grand Elder, as if it didn’t matter, continued to lay out the facts of the past. He knew that as long as he poured out this part, he couldn’t lose the argument.
Sion would be twisted just from listening.
“Let me continue. Even if his health was not intact due to defeat. What power did we have to harm Weber Testarossa?”
“…”
“Weber Testarossa was truly strong. Even to my eyes, which know nothing of battle, it was hard to believe he was the same kind of being. He was a figure worthy of the term ‘one against a thousand.'”
“You guys… you’ve joined hands with someone, haven’t you?”
“Yes. The higher-ups from the Reverse Flow Praise Society stepped in for us.”
No need to deny it, he just spilled it all out casually.
Sion had never heard of this group before, but now she could guess who the Grand Elder thought Rohan was.
“If that’s the case, you should’ve just killed me too. Why deceive me and bring me all the way here?”
With her question, the elf girl glared at the Grand Elder as if she could pierce right through him.
Her voice dropped so low it reminded one of a beast ready to tear out a throat.
“It’s simple. Because you, Princess, were the condition of the deal.”
“The deal…?”
“Think back to what you’ve been taught all this time. Haven’t you worked hard to become the bullet that will bring down the ruler of Tigroba?”
For Sion, there was no need to think deeply.
Because the memories came rushing in immediately.
“Was it also part of the deal to brainwash me into thinking I had to kill Lord Seolho and reclaim Tigroba, while instilling in me the idea that humans and beastfolk are beneath us?”
“It’s both a deal and the common sense of the world.”
“Ha…! Grand Elder, didn’t you pick the wrong backers? They seem pretty cowardly to me.”
Sion’s words finally hit a nerve.
The Grand Elder’s wrinkles and eyebrows twitched.
“Princess, watch your tongue.”
“Look at the situation. It’s just the truth.”
Sion had figured out the general flow.
It was clear that Lord Seolho was a thorn in the side of the underworld figures, and the Reverse Flow Praise Society didn’t have the confidence or merit to directly take him out.
So, they were nurturing potential blades like her, pushing them to challenge endlessly until results came.
She had a feeling they were pulling other strings too.
‘Because of scum like this, my parents…’
More than the realization that her life had been wasted, the faces of her parents were vivid.
Knowing the truth, she wasn’t just angry—she was utterly dumbfounded.
“Grand Elder. You turned your back on your own kind, gave up a life of luxury, and holed up in this ruin to train me as a weapon. What did they promise you in return?”
“I was promised many things. But the most notable one, of course…”
The Grand Elder’s face turned ecstatic just from imagining it.
He pulled back his robe, revealing an arm that was unnaturally smooth and elastic, without a single wrinkle.
“Youth.”
“What?”
Did she hear that wrong?
A voice of disbelief escaped Sion’s lips.
“Princess, as you know, I am not a warrior. Born as a long-lived species, I would naturally live longer than humans. But compared to those who honed their martial skills, my life would still be short.”
“…”
“That’s why it was so sweet and tempting. The opportunity to be young again.”
“So you were fooled by some nonsensical sweet talk. Betraying your own kind and selling them out, all to defy the natural order…”
“Eating? Aren’t you ashamed?”
“Hex’s power is no joke. I believe it because I’ve seen it with my own eyes and experienced it firsthand.”
Levin Maxwell remembers it clearly.
The ability of Hex, a member of the Reverse Flow Praise Society, who toyed with an elf, repeatedly making them young and old until they died.
The power that briefly returned him to his youth as a “taste,” the remnants of which still linger within him.
“…Grand Elder. You’re crazy. Completely insane.”
“Princess, you wouldn’t understand this terror. It’s not children or fiery youths who fear death the most. It’s the elderly who stand at the brink of the end.”
Rohan clicked his tongue as he watched the Grand Elder ramble on, recalling his past encounter with the Reverse Flow Praise Society.
Because he knew the truth.
Hex’s ability isn’t as flexible as it seems. There are many issues the person themselves doesn’t even mention.
“…”
Sion realized that further conversation was pointless.
The person before her was a madman.
Now that she knew the truth and the group behind it, there was only one thing left to find out.
“One last question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Where are the kin you said you helped escape to other countries?”
Levin Maxwell paused for a moment, as if trying to recall something he had forgotten.
Then, in an extremely casual tone, he told Sion.
“If you dig around Tigroba, you’ll probably find some bone fragments.”
She had heard enough.
Sion left the room with a crackle of lightning.
*Thud!*
Sion’s kick.
The Grand Elder, still seated, was sent tumbling over the other elders sprawled on the floor.
“Ugh!”
If it weren’t for the robe he was wearing, that strike would have surely killed him.
That’s why he was panicking.
Was the messenger, who promised to protect him, slow to react?
“Grand Elder. Right now, I don’t feel like I’m hitting a person. It feels like I’m hunting a monster.”
“!”
Sion walked closer, step by step.
The Grand Elder moved his gaze to Rohan, seeking help.
But Rohan just sat quietly in his chair, watching him.
