Translator: Pink Tea          Editor: Ryunakama

The robot swiftly dispatched the soldiers, while Mea and Torraine were running away with the surprised elves.

Apparently, the elves also understood that Mea and others weren"t enemies.

Seeing that image, I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back on the chair.

「Looks like it somehow went well.」

「Indeed. However, with this, other teams have lost leeway in time…」

I nod with a wry smile to Ayla"s remark.

「Yeah. Well, to begin with, we planned to do all of this fast so the Emperor won"t catch a sniff of it.」

While I covered with those words, inside I was a little nervous.

If in the worst-case scenario, the Emperor will hear of this in a week, it means that we have only seven days to identify whereabouts of all elves in the capital.

While it seems that Aifa had ideas about whereabouts of almost half of them, Ditzen and Yuri were yet to produce much results as they basically were fumbling in the dark.

Luckily, each elf seemed to be engaged in some sort of work, so they are often seen moving around, surrounded by soldiers.

In other words, with good timing, we might discover them right away.

「It all depends on luck now.」

Whispering so in a very quiet voice, I sighed.

【Elf】

Strong wind blew.

Clouds of dust rise, followed by the sounds of crumbling stone walls.

It was already after the imperial troops were defeated that we managed to confirm that sight.

「B-brother…!」

Being unable to properly respond to the trembling voice of my little sister and the sensation of having my clothes pulled on the hem, I put my hands on my sister"s back.

After all, in front of us was a golem that looked like a misshapen square box. The golem, completely unlike his previous movements, gently stopped and slowly turned its face towards us.

Two human figures appeared from behind it, with their faces covered by robes. Being obscured by shadows only small parts of their faces could be seen, but most likely both of them were women.

Without a doubt, the creators of this golem.

「…Y-You are…」

「Nevermind that, just run!」

Who? The moment I tried to ask that, a woman, running forward, shouted that in a strong tone.

Young. The voice felt very young, almost childish. And it also seemed to have no hostility.

「…Understood.」

Answering briefly, I pull sister"s hand.

Maybe they didn"t expect that I would immediately agree, but a bit of confusion could be felt from the women.

「…Then, follow us!」

However, the woman immediately came back to her senses and ran ahead without even glancing at us. As she ran past us in no time, sister and I involuntarily looked at each other, but the person who was running behind her called out to us.

「This is a request from Aifsan. Please, follow us.」

Being told that, I was convinced.

「…! Brother!」

My sister spoke in a very excited voice.

「We act, at last!」

After saying that, we also go after the woman.

Finally, this time has come.

It would"ve been easy to get away by ourselves, but it undoubtedly would"ve brought troubles upon other clansmen. And while thinking so, we spent quite a long time unable to move or act in defiance.

Only because everyone was a precious family, were we able to understand that everyone else had the same thoughts. And because of that, it was even harder to act.

From the conversations of the soldiers, I knew that Aifa, an excellent magician, was elected as a court magician.

When I heard it for the first time, two thoughts ran through my mind. First, is that whatever was the reason, Aifa who obtained certain status, will be able to save everyone.

And another one is that Aifa probably knew that well enough himself, with deep sympathy for him being bound by chains known as duty, mission and obligation.

Were I in the same positions, I probably wouldn"t be able to spend my everyday calmly.

If you don"t move quickly, then your family might end up living away from each other, as the tools of the Empire.

If you don"t move quickly, then the elderly might end up dying among the stone jungle, unable to return back to the woods.

If you don"t move quickly, then the family might end up getting tortured by that emperor, who is so fixated on the Sacred Tree.

Those dreadful images would gradually, day by day, erode one"s mind, quietly killing oneself.

And so, I found a great delight in Aifa finally taking action, and even if it were to fail I wouldn"t think of blaming him. What I should be doing is discerning what Aifa is trying to do and acting according to his plan. If anyone were to die, that would remain as a scar for Aifa"s entire life.

I cannot afford to die and cannot allow others to die.

「Let"s do it, Shall.」

「Yes, Brother!」

My sister is of the same mind as well. And after nodding to each other, we began to run along the road paved with stone.

【Violette】

Running my fingers along the soft and pleasant for touch bedding, I look out the window. A deep blue sky, impossible to see from the ground.

Clean beds, a variety of amazing devices and astonishingly delicious meals.

Such unbelievably comfortable conditions. Up in the sky, unreachable for anyone, the peaceful days seem the same as promised.

However, because of that, compared to the surface no thrill can be found here.

Heavenly Country where quiet and peaceful time flows, without wars, criminals or famine.

In that room, I narrow my eyes and sigh.

「…What a boring country.」

Said that I rose up from the bed and approached the window.

Gazing at the island outside of the window, I naturally leaked a sigh. The unchanging scenery of beautiful white houses and trees.

「Different cultures, different races, different sorceries… On the surface, there must be many countries still unknown to me.」

Saying that I open the window.

Sniffing of this peaceful time, I opened my mouth.

「Subduing various others and plundering from them… What can be more fun than that.」

As I said that, gentle breeze, which did not seem to belong up there in the sky, gently touched my cheeks.

Almost like comforting my rotten heart, which in turn irritated me even more.

「…Looks like it would be hard to escape by myself, huh.」

The person named Taiki appears to be pretty soft, but with the current situation, I can"t expect him to go easy on me. Fighting with the golem, that had that air battle with Aifa, can"t be called clever.

「After all, the most plausible way to attain freedom would be to deceive someone capable of freeing me.」

In other words, Taiki. Luckily, at the moment Taiki is manipulating several golems simultaneously, so his concentration should be far below normal levels.

「The question is, will I be able to get out of this room?」

Muttering that I head towards the door and open it. There was a figure of a golem, standing on the opposite side of the corridor.

「…I want to see Taiki-sama… Just what the h.e.l.l am I doing.」

For some reason, I called out to the golem and now was groaning from embarra.s.sment.

「I have to think of some other way… Eh?」

I was about to return to my room but then I noticed that the golem was turning around, and stopped.

Golem turned its side to me, facing the corridor.

「…No way, that"s…」

Saying so I took a step into the corridor, leaving the room.

At the same time, the golem began walking down the corridor.

Looking at its back in a daze I opened my mouth.

「…Looks like they will let me meet him.」

Really, common sense does not work in this country.