379 Unexpected (1/2)
Dark Elves were troublesome. Yet more troublesome than the elves themselves was how people discriminated against them.
A large crowd was gathered in front of our horse-drawn carriages. When the Bardi royal knight drew his sword and asked me about the Dark Elf, I furrowed my eyebrows.
”Is it Victoria or Diana? Didn't I tell them not to go outside for the time being?”
My thoughts naturally moved to the two Dark Elves under my command when I heard that this commotion was about a Dark Elf. I had told them not to leave the embassy hotel precisely because I wanted to avoid trouble.
Unfortunately, neither Victoria nor Diana were the type to listen to orders. The Town Security had plenty of examples where they both violated the rules together. When I thought about how they caused trouble yet again, I became rather angry.
”Dark Elves are so troublesome…”
It was normal for people to have stereotypes and discriminate against others. This was all the more so as transportation and communication was very inconvenient.
Once people formed ideas and cemented what they believed to be ”common sense,” they would be obdurate in their beliefs—it would be practically impossible to change their views. Some remote districts were known for their archaic customs from around four centuries ago.
Lorci had perished, but this didn't mean that the Dark Elves were now viewed in a good light. The great majority of human kingdoms treated Dark Elves the same as demons—they typically captured them and burned them at the stake without caring about evidence of any crime.
If this was some other place, such as Auland or the Northlands, the people would at least pay me some respect. But here…
”What happened?”
I had the knights clear the way and push through the crowds. And, as I expected, I finally saw that familiar dark skin.
”Dian—eh? Who are you?”
Alright. It would appear that I too had stereotyped Diana and Victoria. This time, the individual surrounded by an angry crowd was an unfamiliar male Dark Elf. His grayish-black skin was covered in light burn wounds. It was obvious that he hadn't undergone the Moonlight Ritual to become a Gray Elf.
He was collapsed on the ground, unmoving.
”…I…I only wanted to live a peaceful life in the city. I didn't do anything at all!”
His pleas were treated as nothing more than falsehoods. Pitchforks in their hands, the Bardi citizens looked at him with fear and hatred. Far away were naughty children chucking stones at him. Close by, people were evidently even considering tossing torches at him.
Lorci's mark wasn't on his body, but nor was there a single Good God's mark on him. He either hid his own faith or was one of the rare few elves who didn't believe in the Gods.
”I saw him concocting poison in his wooden house! He even dared to sell his poison! If it wasn't for the fact that he forgot to wear his evil magical mask, we'd still be fooled by him today!”
A brown-haired, freckle-faced young man pointed at him and shouted angrily.
”…That's only medicine for common injuries. Haven't you used it before? You even praised this medicine for being excellent.”
It would seem that this Dark Elf had succeeded at living in secrecy in the Bardi capital but accidentally ended up exposing himself.
”Yes, but you didn't mention the nasty side effects! Although my external injuries were cured, I had diarrhea for three days straight and was heavily weakened. This medicine of yours is evil—an evil one that sucks people's lifeforce! Ptui! I was so blind to have believed that you were a good person!” A strong-looking man had an expression of disgust.
”I've lived here for ten years without committing a single crime! If I did anything…”
The moment the Dark Elf said this, things turned for the worse. Originally, there were some watching on the sidelines, not caring about what happened. But when everyone heard that this Dark Elf had actually been living here for ten years, they thought about how Dark Elves were supposed to be evil and boiled up in anger.
”…No wonder so many people have gone missing in this area. This darkie must have kidnapped them for his experiments.”
”Only yesterday I had been thinking that there's been a lot of thefts recently. He's probably the one responsible!”
”…Could it be that this evil Dark Elf also used some vicious magic on me, making it so that I haven't gotten pregnant?”
Although this sounded quite ridiculous, this was how reality was in this generation. Even the Middle Ages of my technologically-advanced original world was no different in terms of discrimination.
If some child was rumored to be cursed, then even a pig giving birth to a deformed piglet would be blamed on the so-called cursed child. This was the inevitable result of foolishness and discrimination.
”If that child was Beifeng, then that wouldn't be discrimination.”
”Don't even mention it. I also thought about this possibility. Forget it, let's not discriminate against Beifeng—he's quite pitiful. I've asked him before, and he said he's not interested in pigs.”
”You actually asked him such a question? And do you really believe what he says? Beifeng also calls himself a normal person… By the way, if we keep chatting like this, the Dark Elf will get beaten to death.”
It was unknown who made the first move, but now the crowd was attacking the Dark Elf with pitchforks and a shower of rocks. This elf would have already died if he hadn't had a decent power level.
”How odd. He's not fighting back? Does he have a death wish?”
The will of a powerful individual would be within their bloodline. Just a powerful individual's anger alone would be enough to make an ordinary person tremble in fear. This was something common to all warrior job class members at the Gold rank. And it wasn't strange for this male Dark Elf to be a Gold-ranked combat class—he had arrived here ten years ago, after all, and survived all this time. He was obviously no novice.
But the strange part was that he let himself be attacked and didn't fight back at all. Nor was he even trying to escape. It made me wonder how he had survived so long in the surface world.
I looked around me and confirmed that this was unlikely to be a trap, so I decided to intervene. However…
”Make way! Please make way!”
A relatively handsome young man dressed in extravagant clothing pushed his way through the crowd. His fiery red hair was combed quite neatly, and the sword scar on his face didn't disfigure him—it made him seem rather heroic.
Judging by his aura, this man's power level was somewhere between the peak of Silver and the beginning of Gold. From his age—he appeared less than thirty-five years old—he could be considered a genius among humans.
Clad in extravagant golden armor which was more decorative than practical, he had a Myth-ranked equipment at his waist. Following him were two subordinates, who were, at minimum, at the Silver rank.
”The Twenty-Seventh Prince!”
”It's Prince Mills!”
From everyone's reactions, it was apparent that this individual who suddenly joined in was actually a prince.
Also judging by everyone's reactions, he had quite a good reputation. At the very least, the citizens in this business district seemed to really respect him.
Of course, since I was supposed to be here for diplomatic affairs, I had done my homework beforehand. This Twenty-Seventh Prince Mills always kept a low profile and was ranked low among the adopted princes. According to me, however, he would be one of the top five princes most likely to succeed the throne.
To gain advantage in the conflict for the crown, some princes reached out to the royal army and some princes allied themselves with the major merchants. Most princes, however, naturally allied themselves with major domain lords. Twenty-Seventh Prince Mills was one of the more outstanding individuals among the princes. He had racked up numerous combat achievements in his younger days, causing Orloss to personally adopt him as a prince.
Unlike the other princes who mostly tried to curry favor with other major factions, Twenty-Seventh Prince Mills instead walked the path of currying favor with the citizens despite his natural advantage of being a military man. He often appeared whenever there was a commotion in the city and would typically deliver judgement to wicked villains as if he were a Holy Knight hero. Sometimes, he would act like a prince from legendary knight stories, saving damsels in distress or delivering justice to evil merchants. Streetside bards often sung about his legendary deeds.
That's right—legendary deeds. This wasn't the Underground where Legend-ranked individuals walked around everywhere. A Gold-ranked grandmaster who wasn't even forty years old was more than sufficient to accomplish heroic deeds that everyone would sing praises about. In fact, some citizens even organized parades for Twenty-Seventh Prince Mills and requested Orloss to choose Mills as the crown prince.
But in my eyes—no, I should say that in many powerful individual's eyes— Twenty-Seventh Prince Mills wasn't nearly as pure as he appeared on the surface. Most of the bards singing his praises had secretly received financial assistance, while the paraders typically had relatives working for him.
And one must ask: just how did he have such excellent luck that he could always appear right when a damsel was in danger or suddenly see through everything right before a wicked scheme came to fruition? Why was he always able to overturn the situation?
”He either arranged all these incidents himself for him to act in, or he has a huge number of spies in the capital waiting at all times for an incident to occur so that he can improve his reputation.”
Considering the fact that the other princes wouldn't allow him to keep faking scenarios for him to improve his reputation, I felt it was more likely that the Twenty-Seventh Prince possessed a large number of spies. Judging from the situation, it appeared that he was here yet again to improve his reputation.