CHAPTER 453: WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, THERE IS ALWAYS BREAD! (1/2)
Given how Aishael was able to lower the temperature of her surroundings in an instant, she had to at least be a Five-star Magister.
Since she found out that her foe was dead, she was back to being the same frigid little girl she was. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that she did not care about her mother’s death. However, I knew that it wasn’t that she didn’t care, rather it was that she was already prepared for her mother’s death from the beginning.
A slave gladiator either won, died or was humiliated. Those were the only options available to them.
Because of Aishael’s little episode, the mood was rather awkward again.
So far, out of all the people she had spoken to, only Reyage had gotten off unscathed. Everyone else was basically a victim of her acidic lashing. You could almost say that this little girl had talent in this field. Even Paliseth ended up with the short end of the stick after their exchange.
Naturally, that wasn’t to say that Paliseth wasn’t any less talented either. It wasn’t that she truly lost, she just knew my stance on this matter, and that stance was definitely in favour of Aishael. If the two of them were to ever get into an argument, I would clearly stand on Aishael’s side. This little girl was just too pitiful for me to consider otherwise. Not only were her parents all dead, she now had an uncaring granny to deal with as well.
Being the cunning old hag that she was, Paliseth smartly chose not to dwell on this matter, even if Aishael had angered her. In fact, she even put on a benevolent smile like an elder looking at her favourite grandchild.
All this was a result of Paliseth’s determined efforts at currying my favour. Whether it was the death of a son or swallowing her pride, nothing was off the table.
Because of the awkwardness of our current situation, some of the surrounding Half-Elves began to congregate around us. Slowly, they began to walk up to us, surrounding us in the process. And unlike those Half-Elves we saw at the elevator, these Half-Elves were unabashedly hostile towards Lanbael. Not that they were showing it openly, but they weren’t really hiding it either.
Seems like this Lanbael hasn’t been treating them well normally.
“Hey! What do you mongrels think you are doing?! Have you grown tired of living?!” Realising their intent, Lanbael swiftly yelled at the daring Half-Elves, every bit the practised tyrant of this little domain. “How dare a bunch of mongrels act so disrespectfully in front of his holiness! Treasonous, the lot of you!”
However, just as she had a smug smirk on her face, the Half-Elves rallied together once more and pushed forward a couple of steps.
“You… fine! Since you lot want to die that much, I’ll happily oblige!”
Having said that, Lanbael promptly took up a combat stance while the other Half-Elves prepared for a last desperate charge as well.
However, the impending clash never came to be. With just a simple sentence from Aishael, the entire situation was defused. “It’s alright. Stay back for now, I wish to talk to that old hag over there who claims to be my grandmother.”
Claims to be?
Even with Paliseth’s jadedness, that last bit rattled her quite a bit… Man, would it kill you to not provoke her?!
I hurriedly coughed to draw their attention towards me, then… nothing. Everyone was staring at me right now, but I had clearly not figured out what my next step was… awkward…
“So… what do you Half-Elves usually do?”
It was just casual chatter on my part, yet Aishael seemed to have been considering this question quite seriously. She paused for a good long while then looked me right in the eyes. “Guard the slave gladiators… and fight.”
Oh? So they take part in fighting as well then? But the equipment they are training with is really bad. Even those Half-Elves guarding the slaves seemed to be poorly equipped as well. And that was me being polite.
“And what do you guys eat on a daily basis?”
Still out of a topic to talk about, I asked the next thing that came to mind.