The st part got me curious… I thought that much, but I didn’t expeeone else would firm that for me. Most likely, the elder that hired the guy that I am hunting bought those unseen arrows to kill us. They didn’t know my identity back then, but they still khat I was an unknown factor that could put their pns in disarray.

  “They had a secret meeting with some underlings of other elders with the dwarves. It seems that they decided to move since a lot of other elders are pnning to work with the empire. They didn’t know why yet, but they predicted that they would lose their standing if the empire obtains too mufluen the nd.”

  It looked like some people were jumping the gun… Well, it was only obvious that such a thing would happen given the influence of the empire. The power and influence of all the elders would be diluted for a while, and the ones with lesser standing would suffer the most. Sihey didn’t know what the diplomats were talking with the other elders about, they imagihe worst.

  “They made an alliah the dwarves to make sure that they would have influence… Before I could hear more, I was found out and thetacked me. I did my best to escape, but they followed me for over a day.”

  “I see… it would have been easy for you to escape, but you didn’t want to risk guiding them here and discover our hideout.”

  “Thanks to that… I saw some groups surrounding the territories of the elves that alighemselves with the dwarves.”

  “I would guess that the cirvoyant of the empire informed them of that… at this point in time, things will escate pretty fast.”

  I had the feeling that the suspicious person that Ay followed was the same person that I was looking for, but I didn’t want to ask a involved in their situation. It looked like another war was brewing and I wouldn’t take part in it again. I would just kill my target and move on.

  her side in this mess saw me favourably, so I didn’t have to help either of them and that was for the absolute best. War was a great pce to gain experience fast, but I didn’t want to get stronger using those means.

  “I will send some scouts to check things in the area… I don’t think that we have much time before the flict starts, but it has to be done. You should rest for a few days.”

  “Uood… Thank you fing me here.”

  “Don’t thank me. Yic bag is mine now. You keep the money.”

  “... You should return to her side. This might bee a pretty nasty war aher side be trusted… someone like her will be likely taken advantage of. She is o a fault.”

  “She isn’t a damsel in distress. She might learn a thing or two with this that will put her on the right path.”

  “What if it puts her on the wrong path?”

  “That would be a pity, but such is life.”

  I more or less sidered Crice a friend. In her own clumsy way, she tried to help me. Things didn’t go the way she had envisioned, but I didn’t bme her. There were too many people influeng people around here. Too many iial people.

  Still, helping her would mean killing a lot of people… helping Arsn, her grandmother and that other womaher of whom I liked very much. They choose to cause more problems to me and align themselves with the empire and for that alone, I wao stay away from them. I could only hope that Crice wouldn’t have to make the same choiytime soon. I also didn’t wao betray her own people for me. I wasn’t such a great friend, anyway.

  “There is still a ce that other mediators will e aiate with the dwarves… pig a fight with them now would be too risky when a new rift is about to appear. However…”

  “There is a ce that the cirvoyant already saw the result of the iations with them and they will aake sure that the dwarves will be allies and not a problem. There is a high ce that they told the elves that the war is unavoidable using the credibility of the cirvoyant, even though this all could be just a sham to start a war and ehe dwarves.”

  The leader of the dark elves my words… Politics. The more I live, the more I e to despise that term. Politics is frequently associated with corruption, dishoy, and self-serving behavior. People see politis as prioritizing personal gain or partisan is over public welfare.

  Politics often exacerbates societal divisions by porizing people into opposing camps. This divisiveness strain personal retionships and create a hostile atmosphere. A ck of faith in the effectiveness or fairness of political systems leads people to view politics as futile or broken. The same was very true in this world as well…

  In one way or the other, the Aeloria kingdom will bee the battlefield of some sort of war, a verbal one or a physical one. As an unknown factor here, it was better not to get involved… I was worried about Crice, but if this cirvoyant was trying to track me dowing involved with her will cause more trouble than help.

  Now that Rowan died, and his new master is that mufluential, the empire will have even more excuses to hunt me down and kill on sight. Rayne has no long as mufluence as he had before to keep me alive and locked in.

  “I o get going. There is nothing for me here. Let’s go, G.”

  “Mew, mew, mew!”

  … …

  Those four watched Regulus leave the byrinth… it wasn’t like they imagihat a single person could ge the whole war, or even ge its end, but sidering what they had heard from the war in the Skarnash Tribends, a single arrow that he shot almost made the empire lose.

  If he truly itted to help one side, it was impossible to know what would happen. Perhaps that would expin why the cirvoyant couldn’t see anything about him.

  “What should we do about him, leader? We ’t leave him walking around and leaving traces that lead to our hideout.”

  “He didn’t know about us the first time he came, and he helped one of us when he came for the sed time and if he was that bad at hiding his traces, he would have been captured a long time ago.”

  The young dark elf didn’t seem that satisfied with the answer… but he noticed that their leader was lost in thought sidering their steps. He couldn’t bother him now.

  “It might be the right time now… for us to e out of hiding.”

  The other three looked at their leader and wondered if they should say what they were thinking, but they couldn’t. Deep down, they thought the same way as him… for turies, they had been hiding, not ging their situation or ging the world at all to make it better for everyone or for themselves… if they keep hiding, nothing would ge.

  The situation was dire for the dark elves, leaving them with a tough decision to make: maintaiatus quo and risk being overrun, or choose a side in the war that roag their nds. rality seemed an increasingly impossible stance. On one hand, the natural choice would be to align with their long-time beor, Nylian, the former leader of the Silver Bows. Nylian had always been a reliable partner, known for his sharp mind and strategic fht. He would undoubtedly find a way to fight alongside the dark elves and secure their collective survival, even in the face of future challenges.

  However, the Silver Bows were no longer under Nylian’s leadership, and the new leader roving to be an enigma. His motives and pns were hard to predict, and the subtle signals suggested that this leader did not share Nylian’s itment to long-term allianutual survival. The dark elves couldn’t t on the same support or solidarity that Nylian had provided. This uainty casts a shadow over their choices, amplifying the pressure to choose wisely.

  “We o discuss this with everyone and decide this as a group. I don’t know if there are other dark elves out there… we might be the st ones. So, if we fail, we might be erased from this world.”

  The dark elves suffered something very close to a genocide back then… by the hands of the elves at that. The history passed down by their says some of their aors tried to increase their influend were disposed of because people feared their abilities.

  The history among the elves says that the dark elves tried to take trol over the Aeloria Dominion after assassinating some elders… The current dark elves didn’t want to believe that, but their aors could have hidden some important facts from them. If they wao ge their image, they would have to prove it in this war.

  … …

  I was at a bit of an annoying crossroads… I wao avoid getting involved in this war, but my target was someone who was ected to it and he worked for one of the elders who wao take advantage of the chaos.

  ‘I ’t bme some elves for thinking that they might bee even more of a sed-css citizen if the higher ups bee true allies of the empire. The situation is truly dire if some of the big shots are being swayed, even that asshole, Arsn.’

  I didn’t experience much of that, but most elves truly hated those who weren’t elves. Only Arsn dared to show that to me. That was the entire reason for the existence of the silver bows and unseen arrows. That made me wonder how much of a good person Crice’s grandfather could be when those groups became iial under his leadership. It was weird given that the dark elves appear to trust him a lot…

  Perhaps this was the wrong way of seeing things… seeing people as good or bad was wrong because a person be both good and evil for different people. Everything was just a perspective… I didn’t have time to sider morality either.

  ‘I only think that those are ing after me, o be put down… that is all that I o know.’

  WritingMaeGun