CHAPTER 454: THE ART OF APPRECIATING ARTISANAL BREAD (2/2)

“I…” She gripped down hard on the black bread to no avail. Her face, on the other hand, was decidedly twisted.

“I guess all that talk of holiness was just an act then.” As I said that, I turned towards Paliseth and gave her a deprecating smile.

“Elder Lanbael!”

The moment Lanbale saw that stern glare from Paliseth, she knew there was no escaping now. She either ate the bread… or she died. Should she go out with a bang or accept the bread?

Naturally, that wasn’t even a choice at all. She stuffed that bread into her mouth along with her shame and began chewing… and failed.

The art of eating such a… delicacy was clearly lost on her, seeing as this was the first time she had even touched the darn thing. For someone in such a lofty position as hers, eating the same food as a slave was just unthinkable. The mere act of doing so brought a tear to her eyes. Just from that alone, one could tell how much of a mental collapse she was going through now.

However, that only made me want to rub more salt in her wounds. “Don’t you like it?”

“I do…”

That’s right… absolutely delicious…

Now that the bread had found its proper home, I turned to look at Aishael. “Are you happy now?”

“Why did you help me?” Aishael asked with that same icy look on her face.

“I had a feeling that there was some enmity between the two of you. And I feel somewhat responsible for what happened to Aisha.”

“Mother… her fate was inevitable.” Just like before, her face was the picture of coolness, like her mother’s death was just another page in the book of her life. However, I knew her heart was wrenching from the pain right now.

To be perfectly honest, Aisha did not have to die at all. If I was only a little more decisive, I could have stopped the fight before that fateful stab to the throat happened. Yet who would have expected Aisha to choose death like that… all just to avoid being humiliated.

Just based on this short interaction with the Half-Elves, I was able to glean a fair amount of information. First, the Half-Elves were no better than slaves in the eyes of the Dark Elves. Aishael held a lofty position amongst these Elves. Next, Lanbael’s relationship with these Half-Elves couldn’t be any worse. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this animosity boiled over soon.

If I had to hazard a guess as to why these Half-Elves treated Aishael so specially, it would be because she was the granddaughter of the Matriarch. Even if Paliseth herself did not know of this granddaughter, the same couldn’t be said of the others in the clan. She could be the key to changing their treatment as long as they played their cards right.

Because of her position as their de-facto leader, Aishael would naturally look out for the interests of the Half-Elves. That immediately put her at odds with Lanbael who placed a heavy emphasis on blood purity. Normally, Lanbael could have just done away with such opposition, but given that this was the Matriarch’s granddaughter she was dealing with, even she had to think twice before acting.

The fact of the matter was that the blood of Paliseth flowed in Aishael. While Paliseth herself might have killed her own children on a whim, that didn’t mean Lanbael enjoyed that privilege as well. And even if Paliseth did not know of Aishael before, who was to say Paliseth wouldn’t just suddenly remember that she had a granddaughter? Like what was happening today…