Chapter 137: Treating Arthur Like One of Us
Cain turned to look at Airael, who had just brushed past him.
Although he had only caught a glimpse of her back from earlier until now, Airael left a deep impression on him.
A very mysterious impression.
Had it not been for Airael looking at him just now, he might have completely overlooked her.
After they walked further away, Cain muttered to himself, “Axi’s companion? She’s definitely something special.”
“Lord Cain!”
A middle-aged man nearby didn’t care about what Cain was saying and called out to him as he noticed Cain coming back to his senses.
Cain glanced at him and said, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back to freshen up.”
As he spoke, Cain frowned at the bloodstains on his clothes.
He wasn’t a cleanliness freak, but he also wasn’t someone who went around looking like a mess.
“Nothing else.”
The middle-aged man shook his head.
Hearing that, Cain left.
He then followed the footsteps of Airael and the others out of the Grand Arena.
On their way back to the inn, Airael turned to Arthur, who had been silent since they stepped out, and asked, “His strength isn’t weak. Do you really have the confidence to defeat him steadily?”
Time had passed for a while, and she was quite curious about this question.
She had witnessed Arthur’s might.
Very strong!
One could say he had reached the pinnacle of tenth rank, incredibly close to the eleventh rank.
Yet, Cain was clearly no slouch either.
His strength likely wasn’t far from Arthur’s.
“As long as you want to do it, you can always achieve it. If you don’t even dare to think about it, then it’s completely impossible.”
Arthur didn’t answer Airael’s question directly but shot her a glance and said.
Upon hearing that, a row of sweat droplets appeared on Airael’s face.
She understood the meaning behind his words.
It essentially conveyed a lack of confidence, but at least he had to give it a shot; you won’t know unless you try.
She didn’t expect Arthur to give her a riddle like this.
With the relationship they had, why couldn’t he just say it outright?
However, just as this thought crossed her mind, Airael’s face suddenly flushed red.
Ah—! What on earth was I just thinking?!
Airael felt quite unsettled at that moment.
She subconsciously started seeing herself together with Arthur.
Although they were indeed the closest people in reality, not everything could be just that simple.
After that, Airael didn’t ask Arthur about this anymore.
She herself had a bunch of worries to resolve.
This little interlude made her realize that after spending countless days and nights with Arthur, her perception of him was silently changing.
She was slowly being influenced.
This was contradictory to her original intentions.
She only wanted to maintain their current relationship for a child; Arthur’s genes were quite good, and she found him somewhat pleasing to the eye.
However, now she instinctively regarded Arthur as “one of her own.”
That “one of her own” was rather frightening.
You see, the relationship between humans and elves isn’t exactly marvelous at the moment.
Especially since she was the Elven Queen, while Arthur was likely to become the human king.
Arthur didn’t pay much attention to Airael’s transformation either.
He harbored his own thoughts in his heart.
And the most important thing right now was to defeat Cain and then recruit him.
Cain would undoubtedly be a significant asset in his upcoming plans.
It was all thanks to a certain system in this country—the electoral system!
While elections could be manipulated by people, there were still some aspects that couldn’t be controlled, no matter how hard one tried.
After all, human strength is limited; even the heavens can’t make everything absolutely perfect.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that a manipulated electoral system has loopholes in its rules.
These loopholes are quite simple to describe, but the key is being able to execute them.
With an electoral system, there must be choices.
And the reason those people could manipulate the elections was simply that they wielded influence in this country.
They held many critical points in this nation.
They could change the landscape in the blink of an eye.
However, even so, they could only act behind the scenes when manipulating elections and couldn’t bring it into the light.
After all, they devised this rule themselves; they can’t just slap their own faces.
And to break this cycle, one must bring things into the open and gain considerable attention to enhance their influence.
The earlier matters don’t need addressing for now; what he needs to focus on is what he is doing now.
Gaining attention and boosting his influence.
Participating in the Grand Arena matches is one of the methods, and fighting Cain, who just achieved victory, is also a strategy.
This will stir up a heated discourse, and naturally, people’s attention will heighten.
With increased attention, executing certain measures through hidden means will become exceedingly difficult.
Especially for those already challenging matters, it will be even harder.
In such a high-attention environment, he and Cain would only thrive.
Regarding this, Arthur had already concocted his own plans.
After recruiting Cain, he would head north to aid humans against the orcs.
He’d gather enough merits through battle.
This would further enhance his attention and influence.
By then, no matter how much those people work in the underground, there will always be some who know of him.
And that’s enough.
After returning to the inn, they exchanged no more words and each retreated to their respective rooms.
Airael also returned to her room.
As Airael entered her own room, Arthur paused at his door.
Celia and Aurora, who had yet to return to their own rooms, sensed something was off and stayed outside.
Arthur thought for a moment and knocked on Airael’s shut door.
The door swung open, and Airael stared at him, asking, “Is there something you need?”
Her attitude was a bit cold, which made Arthur quite uneasy.
His brows furrowed tightly.
“If there’s nothing, I’ll close the door.”
Seeing Arthur silent, Airael said.
“Ailia! Let’s talk inside.”
Taking a glance at Celia and Aurora watching from the side, Arthur stopped Airael from closing the door and squeezed into her room.
He then shut the door behind him.
Though Airael was a bit annoyed, she didn’t voice her discontent.
Celia and Aurora, seeing there was no entertainment to be had outside, exchanged glances and smartly retreated to their rooms.
It was best not to meddle in the affairs of this “couple.”
Inside Airael’s room.
Airael sat on the sofa, looking at Arthur, who was seated across from her, and asked, “What on earth is it? You can spill it now, right?”
