Chapter 122: A Bad Feeling (1/2)

“… come with you?” I ask, confused.

“Yes, I want you to come with me to my country. Surely, you must want to see the glorious Elf kingdom with your own eyes, right?” Ilyrana asks.

“Are you serious!? I mean, of course, I do, but…” I falter.

… but I only have two more days left to live. So, unless we leave right now, I don’t think I will even reach halfway to the Elf country, much less see it in person.

“But?” Ilyrana asks.

…

“But I don’t understand, why do you want me to come with you? Are you inviting anyone else like this as well?” I ask with a frown.

Princess Ilyrana’s smile widens, but she doesn’t reply immediately. It appears like she’s thinking about something.

“Yes, I am inviting two more humans,” She finally answers.

“That girl, Debbie Sherman, who shares the first position with you in the mock duels and Aria woods, who’s the third-best after you two.”

“So, this invitation is only for the first three rankers, huh?” I ask.

“Well, if you want, we can take some of your family members and friends as well— but yes, this invitation is only for the top three contestants of the mock duels,” she tells me.

“And did Debbie and Aria agree to go with you?”

“You’re the first one I’ve asked,” Ilyrana simply says with a shrug.

“I see…”

Pink, what do you think?

[Hmm… Seems really suspicious to me.]

Yeah, same.

“So, does the school know about this?” I inquire further.

“Mr. Winde does. Though I would like to request you not to reveal about this to anyone— not yet, at the very least— or things might get a bit difficult for me,” Ilyrana says.

“Anyway, can I get your answer, please?”

“I… I need some time to think about it,” I say, shaking my head.

More like, if I survive the glitch, I might give this a thought.

“Very well, I think the tournament will last for around three to four days, so all-in-all, I have a little more than a week left here. I will expect a reply before that,” she says.

“Fine…”

“Well then, this was all the time we had. I should get back to the stadium. Once again, thanks for coming to meet me, Jacob,” Ilyrana says, giving me a single nod before starting to move towards the door. Her bodyguard follows.

“Hey, wait! Can you tell me just one last thing?” I ask, stopping Ilyrana on her track.

“Aren’t you a curious one? Go on.”

“Why invite us to your country at all? I mean, it’s not like you have anything to gain from it,” I say.

“But I do— no, we, the Elves, do. I think you’re forgetting something,” Ilyrana says, raising her right hand and tapping her wrist meaningfully.

Oh…

“The Core Stone?” I ask.

“Yes, the bracelet which stabilizes these Core Stones are invented by the Elves. Through you and those two girls, we would like to record the performance and result of our invention. Though unfortunately, we cannot do that here in your country. Honestly, it won’t take much time, just an hour or two every day for the duration of your visit,” she answers.

“Wait, didn’t Principal Winde said that the Humans stabilized the Core Stones? Elves just helped a little bit, didn’t they?” I ask with a frown.

At this, Ilyrana gives a small sigh.

“I shouldn’t say this, but well… Did you really believe your principal, Jacob? You never wondered how Humans, one of the most inferior beings when it comes to magic, managed to create such a strong magical device?” she asks.

“Eh… No,” I say with a slightly red face.

Now that Ilyrana is asking this, it really doesn’t make any sense to me.

“Don’t worry, none of your fellow students wondered about this either, most of them were so excited to finally get to use magic that they ignored these small contradictory details in Mr. Winde’s speech,” She tells me.

“But well, that doesn’t mean that the Humans didn’t contribute at all, you know? To tell you the truth, I don’t think there’s anyone in the Elf kingdom who couldn’t use magic— all of us level up. We needed Humans to test this particular device of ours.”

…

“Hey! But doesn’t that mean that you take us as your—”

“I thought that was your last question, Jacob?” Ilyrana asks mildly.

“I know, but—”

“Sorry, but I really need to leave now. If you accept my invitation, we will get a lot of time to talk again. You can ask as many questions as you want then,” she says, giving yet another smile.

Ilyrana starts walking and the bodyguard rushes forward to open the door open for her. Though before exiting the P.E. storage room, she stops once again and turns around.

“And please, don’t forget that I asked first.”

Huh?

Before I could ask her what she means by this, Ilyrana and her bodyguard are gone.

“I still cannot believe it,” Kate says, shaking her head.