Eliron did not know how to react to the crowd's excitement, so he just waved at them, then he glanced at Artie and smiled.
When she saw his smile, something flickered in Artie's heart.
She could feel a warm feeling spreading through her chest, and her face was slowly flushing pink, so she quickly averted her gaze, staring at the ground.
'Huh? Why does my chest feel so light?' she thought, a small chuckle escaping her lips.
But as she laughed, a necklace slipped out of her shirt and dangled right before her eyes.
The moment Artie saw the necklace, her entire demeanour shifted.
'What am I doing?' she thought.
"Lady Artie? Maybe you made the right move, Lord Eliron is truly impressive!" Terra said, but Artie was too deep in her thoughts to listen.
'Why did I run to the village square? Why was I so concerned about if he was alive or dead?'
Artie's gaze darkened.
Eliron was simply a means to an end, a figurehead she could hide behind while she pursued her goals…
Artie's fingers tightened, and she gritted her teeth.
She was making the same mistake she did two decades ago.
'There is only one thing you live for, Artie, you must kill that man!'
The high elf who had taken her elder sister away from her, the man who had mercilessly murdered her in front of the entire village.
An unpleasant memory flashed in her mind…
The memory of the day she had been cast away by the people she called her family, the day they prioritized their lives over the life of her sister.
Artie had made an important realization that day.
The world was not real.
The smiles, the laughter, the joy, friendships…
Everything was fake, a visage people had to put up with to live their everyday lives.
And Artie… she wanted no part in it.
Maybe she was wrong, Artie knew very well that that might be the case. But her poisoned heart would not see past the fog.
Since that day, every action, every sweat she broke, every word she uttered was aimed toward that goal.
Feeding the children? She could care less about that.
Defending the city against monsters? It was needed to hone her skill.
What she needed was to build her reputation in the village and seize power for herself.
With that power, she would wage war against the high elves and kill that man in the mess that would ensue.
That was until Eliron came around… now all she had to do was follow his lead, and make the right move just when the time was right.
It didn't matter how many elves had to die.
They had killed her inside already.
Why did a dead person have to care about the living?
Terra grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. "Lady Artie?"
Artie glanced at her hand, her demeanour shifting, and her voice turning deathly cold.
Terra immediately dropped her arm and took a step back, sensing the shift in her mood.
She had experienced it enough times to know what was going on. It had been a little different for the past few days, but now, the old Artie was back.
Artie sighed. "I am done here," she said, her eyes lifeless as she spoke in a monotonous voice as she turned to leave.
Terra nodded.
"Yes, my lady."
She knew not to follow her.
•••
Eliron jumped down the carriage and instructed the hunters to take the meat off the carriage.
Ash was still beside him, sticking to him like glue, while Yennefer tiredly walked away, mumbling something about needing a bath.
"So, how did the carriage do, my lord?" Ash asked while looking at the behemoth.
Eliron tapped it with a smile on his face. "What do you think?"
The carriage had worked perfectly, the ride here was by no means perfectly smooth, they had to contend with the rough forest trail after all.
But it was just smooth enough. The wheel did not break once, and the speed was reasonable.
The carriage had been everything he had expected.
Eliron scanned the crowd. "Where's Artie? Has she already left?"
"She probably had work to do, my lord. Artie had been preparing for the hunt for the past few days."
"I see…"
Eliron stretched.
Crack! Crack! Pak!
His back sounded like a faulty Mercedes from the 1900s.
'It must be all the stress, I guess I haven't really slept well in the past few days.'
Eliron yawned and then turned only to see Ash and a bunch of other elves staring at him wide-eyed.
"What?"
"This can't do, my lord!" Ash's hands were trembling in front of him as he stared at Eliron.
Eliron raised a brow. "Huh?"
"The hunt is in two days! We can't have you any less than in perfect condition! What is wrong with your back??" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Oh, it's just stress—"
At this point, Ash wasn't even looking at him anymore.
"Where is she?" he mumbled under his breath, then his expression shifted when his eyes landed on a woman.
"Aha, Terra, please come over here."
Not too far away from them, a woman was staring into the distance, looking lost.
But when she heard her name, she jolted and hurried over to where Ash was, an unsettled expression on her face.
She had golden blonde hair the color of the morning sun, deep hazel eyes with bits of red, and freckles scattered around her nose like specks of gold dust.
But when Eliron glanced at her ears, he couldn't help but blurt out in shock.
"S-she's human?"
Terra flinched when she heard him, bowing her head even lower so that her hair would fall past her ears and cover them.
'Hmm…'
High elves had pointed ears that inclined upwards, wood elves were a little different because their ears fell slightly, but humans… humans were different.
It was the first time he had encountered a human since coming to this world, that is, apart from the fools he fought on day one.
Ash nodded. "Not fully though, Terra is a quarter elf, so she's more human than elf."
Terra remained quiet. Since coming here, she had not spoken a single word, just quietly observed.
It was strange…
Elves were free with him even knowing he was their lord because that was how elves were.
Her reaction and Ash's words were enough for him to understand what was happening.
'She's being bullied, isn't she?'