Chapter 187 - Greinif (3)

Gillan, Philian’s younger brother, was now known as Duke Merkillan. Normally, he should have been at the ducal estate—managing the domain, of course.

Several years had passed since Duke Comalon’s Outer God incident, and all the damage from that time had been repaired. Yet the issue of the ducal succession, carried out in such chaotic haste, remained.

The duke’s sudden death had prevented a proper succession process, leaving Gillan without a complete transfer of power. Even now, some vassals remained outside his sphere of influence.

Moreover, the fact that Gillan was the second son made him an inviting target. No matter how firmly the eldest son, Philian, acknowledged his position, it still provided a valid political pretext for sinking their claws into the weakened ducal house.

At any rate, this string of circumstances kept Gillan quite busy. Normally, he should have been hard at work wrestling with paperwork at the ducal estate today as well.

Normally, that is.

“Hmm. Duke Pallatio is away for a while?”

“From what I hear, he’ll be gone for over a month.”

Duke Merkillan was currently visiting House Pallatio, on Shtalian V’s orders.

[“Go and ascertain Marquis Pallatio’s true identity.”]

It was a rather absurd command, one that would make anyone ask what on earth he meant. Worse still, that was all he had said. There had been no detailed explanation.

A royal command left him no choice but to obey, but Gillan could hardly be anything but bewildered. Besides, hadn’t Shtalian V been helping him ever since the affair with Duke Comalon?

That made refusal all the more impossible, and so he had come to the marquis’s estate. Not alone, either, but with an ink-black knight whom Shtalian V had begun keeping at his side at some point.

‘What on earth am I doing here...?’

Gillan—Duke Merkillan—sighed, but waited for the knight’s answer. Incredibly, Shtalian V had also ordered him to treat the knight before him with courtesy.

‘... Who on earth is this?’

He understood none of it, from beginning to end.

The ink-black knight considered for a moment before speaking.

“Hmm. We’ll wait a little, then.”

The duke asked in return, “You intend to wait?”

“Yes. Having come all this way, shouldn’t we at least find out?”

There was a hint of amusement in the knight’s voice.

Gillan sighed in resignation. In truth, from the moment he had received Shtalian V’s orders, there had been nothing he could decide for himself.

“Let us do that, then.”

By now, he could no longer contain his curiosity.

“Still, might I ask you something?”

“If it’s something I can answer.”

“... I was ordered to ascertain Marquis Pallatio’s true identity.”

“And?”

“Does that mean Marquis Pallatio isn’t actually human? A nonhuman concealing his identity, for example, or perhaps a monster—”

“Bwahahahaha!”

“?”

The knight burst into uproarious laughter at the question. Duke Merkillan’s brow furrowed slightly.

“... You find this amusing?”

“Ah, my apologies. Hearing that out of nowhere rather tickled me.”

Chuckles continued to issue from within the helmet that hid the knight’s face.

“Obviously, if the marquis were a nonhuman or a monster, there would be no need for me to come in person.”

“Then what, exactly, is the marquis?”

The laughter abruptly stopped.

Then came the answer.

“A god.”

“... What?”

That single word rang vividly through the air.

“A god. I am here to determine whether Marquis Pallatio is a god.”

At those further words, Duke Merkillan’s jaw dropped.

“Marquis Pallatio—”

As though he had heard something utterly impossible to believe, he asked, “... Did you say he was a god?”

“Of course, it isn’t certain yet. I haven’t verified it myself. But, well, almost.”

The duke’s jaw could only drop farther.

####

Even without Recon’s warnings, Alon already knew to some extent that elves were generally very hostile toward humans. Playing Psychedelia, one learned a little of the elves’ lore upon meeting Perion.

Of course, it never properly explained what had made them hate humans. Still, the important thing was that elves hated humans far more than one might expect.

And yet...

“... You were waiting for me?”

Alon was thoroughly bewildered by the situation.

“Yes. We have been waiting.”

The young elf wore a kindly smile. No, it went beyond kindness to outright deference.

Could an elf really be this friendly to a human?

... Something was clearly very, very wrong here.

‘Could they be mistaking me for someone else?’

Even so, Alon was human. Surely they couldn’t be mistaking him for another elf...

As he ran through all sorts of theories without finding a plausible one, the elf said, “Let us head inside first. You are expected.”

“No, wait—”

Alon waved a hand at the elf, who persisted in trying to obligingly(?) lead him inside.

“?”

The elf looked puzzled.

But from Alon’s perspective, blindly following this elf felt wrong for several reasons. What if the elves realized their mistake after he entered their kingdom? Things would be much harder then.

‘Do I have any choice?’

He was worried about their hostility, but he would have to clear up the misunderstanding from the outset. Sometimes the straightforward path was the shortest.

“What is the name of the person you’ve been waiting for?”

‘... There are at least a hundred of them.’

Preparing for any eventuality, Alon formed a seal with the hand he kept in his pocket. His mana, its molecular structure slightly dispersed, seeped into the surrounding space in amounts too minute for anyone to notice.

Perhaps realizing Alon’s intent, Evan also tensed his body, keeping both hands raised while readying himself to draw his sword at any moment.

Then the elf answered.

“Why, naturally—Marquis Pallatio.”

“... Huh?”

Alon unwittingly released his seal.

Evan reacted much the same way. He even let his raised hands fall limply, then looked at Alon with an expression that said, Why would your name come up here, my lord?

“You were waiting for me?”

“Yes. We have been waiting for you, my lord.”

For him? Why? What for? Had the elf really said his name?

All manner of questions flashed through his mind, but before he could organize his thoughts, the elf seized his hand again.

“Let us go first. You are expected.”

“...”

With that cryptic assurance that someone was waiting, the elf led him inside.

####

After they boarded a carriage escorted by elves, Alon quietly whispered, “My lord.”

For once, surprise showed on his face.

“... Go on.”

“Well, my lord, until now, I haven’t really been surprised by any of it—where you go, what you find, what enemies you deal with. Things like that.”

“But?”

“... This is astonishing, no matter how many times I think it over.”

“I’m astonished too...”

Evan looked as though he didn’t believe a word Alon said.

Alon felt wronged. Whatever else might be true, this time he genuinely had no idea what was going on.

‘I haven’t even played the DLC in the first place.’

His private indignation was short-lived.

“We have arrived.”

As the carriage door opened, Alon slowly stepped out, watching his surroundings warily.

“... Oh.”

An exclamation of wonder escaped him unbidden.

An enormous tree filled his vision. It wasn’t merely large; it was so colossal that it could easily have covered an entire domain.

As Alon stared blankly at the tree for a moment, strange words reached his ears.

“Congratulations on your return.”

Alon offered no reply. Instead, he became all the more certain that, whatever was going on, they were laboring under a spectacular misunderstanding...!

They weren’t mistaking him for another elf or some other person. They even knew perfectly well that he was Marquis Pallatio.

He couldn’t begin to guess what they had misunderstood, or how. Had he even had time to do anything that could be misunderstood(?) in the first place?

“... When did you visit the elven village?”

“... Do you think I’ve ever been here before?”

“Well, certainly not.”

Even as the elf guided them into the magnificent royal palace beneath the World Tree, Alon kept hearing the murmurs around him.

“Wow...! That’s the primordial elf—”

“Indeed—”

‘... The primordial elf?’

Only then did Alon find a piece of the puzzle behind this utterly incomprehensible situation.

It wasn’t enough to work everything out, but it was a tiny piece that gave him a faint idea of what sort of misunderstanding had arisen.

As Alon pondered it blankly, a thought struck him.

‘Surely not.’

He recalled the staff worn on his hand, which the primordial elf had once used.

Before that thought could develop any further, he was guided to the most lavish part of the palace.

“The queen is waiting for you.”

There, an elf awaited him.

“... It has been a long time.”

She radiated a brilliance on an entirely different level from any elf he had seen so far. Welcoming Alon with looks so breathtaking that she could literally be called the essence of beauty was the elven queen.

####

Without even a chance to properly determine why the elves had misunderstood him, Alon had been swept straight into an audience with the queen.

After some deliberation, he slowly spoke.

“... Before we begin, there is one thing I should tell you.”

“What would that be?”

The queen answered with a gentle smile.

... In truth, what he was about to say was not something Alon necessarily needed to bring up. No, quite apart from whether to bring it up, he didn’t know exactly why or how the elves had come to such a misunderstanding.

But if he continued speaking with the elven queen like this, there was no telling when or how the worst might happen.

“... I’m sorry, but I believe you have misunderstood something.”

“In what respect?”

He decided to tell the truth.

“You seem to be mistaking me for the primordial elf. I am no such being.”

And yet...

“I see.”

“...?”

The response was utterly calm.

Looking bewildered, Alon asked, “... Did you, ah, understand what I said correctly?”

“Yes. Did you not say that you aren’t the primordial elf?”

“Yes.”

But once again...

“Yes, I understand. I’ll take it as something along those lines.”

“... Along those lines?”

“Yes, along those lines.”

“...???”

At her still-composed(?) response, Alon became acutely aware that something about this conversation was fitting together very strangely.