“You were unusually quiet.”
Veyra glanced at him.
“Was I supposed to speak?”
“No.”
He looked at her for a moment.
“But you were listening.”
“I was admiring the furniture more…” She glanced around.
“It’s amazing how luxurious these rooms are.”
“What nonsense.”
She said nothing.
Eryndor’s gaze lingered on her.
“So?” A faint smile appeared on his face—not a kind one.
“Did you get the information you wanted?”
Veyra remained silent.
His smile widened slightly.
“No?”
His eyes narrowed as his smile faded.
Veyra couldn’t deny that she felt a little pressure.
The sudden silence only made it worse.
“Hmm…” She glanced away.
“It seems your kingdom is having a bad week?”
Eryndor stared at her for a moment.
Then he turned away.
“Perhaps.”
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Eryndor sat on the throne, his head resting against one hand.
Despite the bored posture, there was something distinctly annoyed in his expression.
Three figures emerged silently from the shadows and stood before him.
“Your Majesty.”
“Report.”
The Shadow Guards lowered their heads.
Cold sweat beaded on their faces.
“We found nothing.”
“Nothing?
After an entire week of observation?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.
She hasn’t done anything unusual.”
Eryndor’s expression remained unreadable.
“Has she attempted to contact anyone?
Sent a message?” He paused.
“I deliberately left her alone several times.”
“No, Your Majesty.”
Silence settled over the throne room.
Eryndor’s eyes narrowed.
One of the Shadow Guards continued.
“She never tried to approach the guards.
Never searched for a way out.
Never attempted to send anything beyond the palace.”
Eryndor stared at him for several seconds before his voice echoed through the empty throne room.
“Perhaps she knows she’s being watched.”
“Perhaps, Your Majesty…
but…”
The Shadow Guard hesitated.
So another one continued instead
“We believe she only knows someone is there when we move.
That was the case the first time. This story is hosted at g.com.
When she approached you on the bed, we moved closer so we could react immediately if she attempted anything.”
Eryndor said nothing.
“So we remained completely still the other times,” the guard continued.
“But she still did nothing.”
The words hung between them.
“Do you believe she is hiding something?”
Eryndor’s gaze hardened.
“I believe everyone hides something.”
He leaned back slightly.
“But I’m beginning to wonder what she could possibly be hiding.”
The Shadow Guards remained silent.
“She has had an entire week,” Eryndor said.
“A week surrounded by information she should have been desperate to exploit if she came here with a purpose.”
“And yet she hasn’t.”
Eryndor’s gaze shifted toward the darkened windows.
“Either she truly has no intention of harming us…”
He paused.
“Or she’s far more patient than we thought.”
The third Shadow Guard finally spoke.
“Should we leave her unmonitored for a while?”
Eryndor looked back at him.
“That would be dangerous.”
“She has already heard a great deal.”
A faint, humorless smile touched Eryndor’s lips.
“I let her hear it.”
The guard fell silent.
“I let her hear all of that when I tried to have her killed in the first place.”
His gaze sharpened.
“If she intended to send information to someone, she has already heard enough to do it.”
the Shadow Guardspoke again
“The only unusual thing she does is with her food.”
Eryndor’s gaze shifted towards him..
“She always throws it away whenever you don’t eat with her.”
Another guard continued.
“We suspected she might believe the food was poisoned, so we had one of the servants taste it in front of her.”
“And she still threw it away,” the third guard added.
The guards exchanged hesitant glances before one of them finally spoke.
“There is something else, Your Majesty.”
Eryndor raised his eyes.
“We believe the portal she arrived from wasn’t a magical one.”
“There was no magic circle, no fluctuation in the mana around it…
not even the slightest sign of magic.”
Another guard continued.
“The color of the portal was strange as well.
Half dark green, half black, merging together at the center.”
He paused.
“Magical portals are always blue.
That is the color of mana.”
The third guard spoke next.
“Your Majesty, magical portals also remain still.
But the one she came through appeared beside you on the bed and kept moving upward, leaving her sleeping body behind.”
He hesitated.
“It was…
strange to watch.”
“Even the way it disappeared was different.
It swallowed itself instead of vanishing dust like a magical portal.”
Eryndor’s expression hardened slightly.
“If it was magic, I would have felt it before it happened.”
‘That’s right…
There is no way The Mgician Of The Century wouldn’t have sensed something as simple as a portal.’
Eryndor remained silent for a moment.
She had slept beside him for some time before waking, and when she finally opened her eyes, she had seemed genuinely confused about the place.
‘If she had been pretending, why?
When no one is watching’
He had still been pretending to sleep.
There had been no reason for her to keep acting when she believed herself to be alone.
‘And how could someone who had entered enemy territory simply remain asleep there for so long before waking?’
Silence settled over the throne room again.
Then Eryndor spoke.
“What about that strange cube?”
“That silver one?”
“Yes.”
“We still don’t know what it is, Your Majesty.
The carvings covering it glow blue, but the metal itself is unfamiliar.
We have no idea what it does.”
Eryndor’s eyes narrowed.
“Did she search for it when it wasn’t with her?
or Did she ask any of the servants about it?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
Eryndor fell silent.
His gaze lowered slightly as he considered the answer.
“If she didn’t even search for that cube…”
He muttered,
“Did whoever sent her send it at random…
or was it some kind of test?”
Eryndor was silent for a moment.
Then an idea crossed his mind.
“Let her question the scouts.The ones captured at the eastern border.”
Eryndor’s gaze remained steady.
“Bring them before her.
Let her be the one to interrogate them.”
One of the guards hesitated.
“Your Majesty…
that may be too cruel.”
Eryndor’s eyes turned toward him.
“They may not belong to the same kingdom, but they are still humans.”
He lowered his head slightly.
“Forcing her to interrogate her own kind would be unnecessarily harsh.”
Eryndor’s expression hardened.he was even slightly angry
“And where would this kindness get us?”
The guard fell silent.
Eryndor leaned back against the throne.
‘Kindness’
The very unreasonable one ….
It was one of the traits that had been alive with them for centuries.
Elves were not naturally war-like.
They avoided conflict whenever possible, preferred peace over conquest, and rarely sought bloodshed unless there was no other choice.
‘Yet in every age, there was always one who stood apart from the rest.’
The one chosen as king.
Their way of thinking had always been different—closer to humans than to their own kind, though without their cruelty and greed.
It was the same in every elven kingdom.
The elves survived because their kings were willing to think differently from the people they ruled.
Otherwise, their survival alone would have been a miracle.
‘Humans had existed for long enough to make their extinction seem inevitable after all’
And yet the elves remained.
Eryndor let out a quiet sigh.
The Shadow Guards lowered their heads.
None of them spoke again.
Even a few words about what you think about the story can make a huge difference.(◍•ᴗ•◍)♡