Luciel Roth maintained an elegant but cheerful attitude as she received the heart-warming welcome from the elves. Not all the elves present knew about the real purpose of her visit, they all thought that the King really invited her to pay back the life debt.
Next to her was the face paralysis Duke with no change of emotions in his eyes. Angus was there as Luciel's husband and an honored guest to the elf village. Following behind was the first fish Luciel acquired, Gaius from the slave trade.
Gaius with his fluffy grey hair made him look harmless, but Aeson knew that this man was similar to him, harmless-looking but deadly. This one was in a beast-fighting arena after all. Gaius had his head down all the time but his eyes were dashing around vigilantly at the villagers, he always looked out for danger in a brand-new environment.
Luciel had a warm smile on her face with her eyes squinted to express her joy. But in actuality, her pupils were sweeping through the crowd because of the strange palpitations in her heart. Her irises slightly dilated when she spotted the figure that she knew but never met, Liliana the original heroine. Her eyes did not linger in Liliana's direction for too long, for fear of raising suspicions.
Unfortunately for her, Aeson witnessed all her micro-movements from beginning to end. He wanted to see if this heroine was actually innocent in all these matters. She had not done any substantial damage that he could see yet, except for how she was involved with the life and death of the World Tree. Her actions were just quite petty as of now in Aeson's opinion.
He did not just observe Luciel but also Liliana, who suddenly burst out in cold sweat the moment the entourage entered the village. Her face was pale and her eyes were shakily looking in Luciel's direction. She bit down on her lips and lowered her head, hiding her incomprehensible expression.
'Is it because the true heroine meets the false heroine? Their interaction is quite strange. Especially Liliana, the saint shouldn't have met Luciel before.' Aeson analyzed their interaction in his heart, there was definitely mutual enmity between the two.
Angus saw the familiar people among the crowd but his eyes only swept through briefly. But as his eyes landed on the platinum hair, those eyes lingered for a while. Luciel noticed his movements and her eyes slightly squinted before they returned to normal. Her hands were hidden behind inside her back where she pinched her fingers with her nails.
'Even if I became his wife, is it inevitable? I cannot replace their true love?' She tried her best to maintain a friendly demeanor but she knew how bitter and sour she felt inside her heart. 'So unfair...'
She really tried her best to build her relationship with Angus but for some reason, they could never communicate that could pass the acquaintance line. But it didn't matter, she still had other people by her side. Thinking about that, a smug appeared on her face and her smile became arrogant as she glanced at the shivering saint.
About the wizard, he hid inside Aeson's house to avoid any suspicions.
All the main cast was present at this elf village. He wondered what plan did Kiirion have to stop Luciel Roth. His knowledge was limited to the plot line and the original body so he only provided the plan to lure Luciel to this place.
The crowd began to move from the gate into the village. In the middle of the village was an empty space that had been filled up with tables to welcome the guests. To make the invitation more convincing, the elves spared no effort in decorating the welcoming party with flowers and plants. The food was also cooked in a way to fit human's appetite.
There was a table that was specially designated for the important guests, the duke, and the duchess. They were all escorted to the table and seated as instructed. It was an atmosphere full of celebrations and chatter. Kiirion was especially attentive to Luciel, making her feel more flattered and flattered.
Aeson looked at the scene with a slight frown. He minimized his presence and walked behind the saint that was still filled with confusion on her face.
"This should be the first time you meet her, right?" Aeson whispered only enough for Liliana to hear.
"Eek-" Liliana jumped at the sudden appearance of Aeson.
"Shhhh..."
"S-sorry, you scared me. How did you get all the way over here?" She swore that he was just at her opposite, separated by all the tables. Well, Aeson was an assassin, after all, not to mention that he had a lot of combat experience after all those worlds he went through.
"Doesn't matter. Do you know her?"
"No, not at all. But..." Liliana tried to shake her head but she remembered that Aeson was being sneaky and secretive at the moment.
"But...?" Aeson hoped she could just finish what she wanted to say quickly. The crowd was starting to get louder and he had to focus hard to listen to what she said.
"I feel really uneasy about her. When I first came to this village, I could feel an abundant energy of life behind this village, it should be the World Tree that you all mentioned. And it is true that it is getting weaker. When the Duchess entered the gate, I felt the same kind of energy on her..." Liliana frowned, she could tell that this energy was unique. And this information Aeson already knew, what surprised him was the next sentence."Insider her, there is another energy, it is so sinister. Such contradictory, how could her body survive?"
"Sinister energy?" Aeson could not tell which energy was which because this body was not the same as the other main characters of this world.
"... I guess that because I'm a saint, I can feel all this. I don't know... she's somewhat scary..." Liliana shivered and her eyes lingered on that one table. "Ah!!! This, this energy!"
"What? What's happening?" Aeson frowned.
"The, the house! Do you remember all those cloaked people?! The circle!! The energy is faintly similar!!"
'The demon cult and Luciel? What?' Aeson's brain felt like being fired. He never expected more connections would appear. He wished to be in those mindless love plots again.
After having a faint idea of the Duchess's presence, Aeson sneakily got back to his house and searched for Alfred.
Jumping through the dense trees of the village, he landed on the balcony fence of his house. Meanwhile, Alfred was looking through Aeson's collection with interest.
"Dear." Aeson called out to Alfred, who turned back immediately.
"Baby... Did you eat?" Alfred reached his hand out with a bright smile on his face. Aeson lightly put his hand on Alfred's and got pulled down into a deep embrace.
He happily squinted his eyes and hugged the man's waist, enjoying the little moment of peace. Alfred lowered his head and kissed lightly on the crown of his blond hair. The overwhelming feeling of peace and dependence washed over both of them, both of them were each other's home.
But there was still important business to be discussed, Aeson lifted his head to give a light kiss on Alfred's lips and then gave out a sigh.
"What's the matter? Are you hungry?" Alfred looked at Aeson endearingly but worried at the same time.
"No, I'm not hungry... It's just that Luciel..." Aeson shifted his gaze to the balcony that he just got down from with a far-away look.
"Hm? Luciel? I thought that your king is handling her. Did she have any suspicious behavior?" His eyes squinted, with a flash of annoyance.
"Ha... Liliana said that Luciel has some traces of the demon cult energy that we encountered before. Is she related to the Demon King? Am I overthinking?" Aeson really hoped that he was overthinking, but that theory was not impossible. Aeson just had never dealt with a plot with different branches like this.
"Demon King? That girl? Hm..." Alfred fell into deep thoughts as he heard Aeson's share of information.
"Do you know something?" He rested his cheek on Alfred's broad chest, listening to the heartbeat of the man. It helped him calm down and thought more about the problem.
Firstly, that girl transmigrated into this world and became Luciel Roth, this was nothing strange because he was also a transmigrator. Secondly, her power source was strange because she somehow absorbed the World Tree energy of life. Thirdly, she was somehow related to the Demon King cult.
"..." How did those three relate to each other? The demon cult was sacrificing people to summon the Demon King, but how did sacrificing people work? Their blood?... Their life span?! Everyone had a little energy of life as long as they were alive, so maybe those circles were sucking the energy of life? No wonder there were so many poachers recently! Thanks to the protection of the elves, poachers were unable to get close to the World Tree so the cultists had no chance to approach it, so they resorted to human lives. Maybe Luciel had some kind of means to suck the energy of life without the demon magic circles...
"Baby, I think Luciel is the daughter of the Demon King."
"!!!!!" Alfred finally spoke up and it snapped Aeson out of his thoughts spiraling. "What? What? Daughter?!" What was this load of information?!?!
"Actually, it was just a legend back then. Before the Demon King disappeared, there was a rumor that the Demon King was nurturing a seed to create a new host body. But no one had ever found the seed for so many years so they all dismissed that idea. Or maybe the Demon King had already used that seed body."
"So there was something like that too... Such a headache..." Aeson frowned and sighed. Seeing his distressed appearance, Alfred was also feeling uncomfortable so he lifted Aeson and put him on a chair. Alfred circled behind and started massaging his head.
"Thank you, dear..." He closed his eyes and enjoyed the service, at the same time, he was thinking more about the new information.
To be honest, it did not seem like Luciel remembered anything about being the Demon King if Alfred's last point was correct. But examining the plot, the Demon King cult did kidnap Luciel and she was unharmed all the way until the end. Did they already know about the relationship between Luciel and the Demon King?
The more Aeson theorized the more headache he got, but he could also feel the plot collapsing at the moment. He didn't even do anything yet... Maybe this would be one of the worlds that would solve itself without his intervention.
"You don't have to think too hard about it. That king of yours surely knew something, he's not simple. Let's discuss this tonight with Liliana to make sure the energy she felt is actually the same as in Luciel." Alfred coaxed the little elf, brushing his fingertips to loosen the knitted brows and feeling a little bit hateful toward the troublesome Duchess.
"Ha... You're right, there are so many people here..." Even if his and their purpose were not the same but they had the same goal. He often forgot that he was no longer bound to the system's prompts and actions so he rarely relied on others except his man.
He felt quite helpless. Had he been too dependent on his lover? Even so, he felt no distaste but a warm sensation of having someone to actually share the burden together.
Aeson's gaze softened and leaned his head back to look at the love of his life. Alfred's hands stopped and his eyes were stunned at the star-filled eyes of the little elf. His breath hitched and he felt like in those eyes, he was the little elf's world, the little elf's universe...
Alfred leaned down and gently kissed the soft lips. It was a kiss full of tenderness and love.