“Aria, can I keep following you too?”
“…To Sahelrn Duchy?”
Three days since the Helraig Duchy’s support was confirmed, and just one day before deployment, Lavina suddenly came to find me, and I hesitantly replied.
“Yes. Is that okay?”
From her expression and tone, it felt as light as “Wanna grab a bite together tomorrow?” If someone had overheard it casually, they might have mistaken it for small talk and given a vague response.
She’s been inconsistent for three whole years, and I still can’t wrap my head around her.
Saying this might sound harsh, but if things had gone as they were supposed to, Lavina’s involvement should have ended when I decided to help the Sahelrn Duchy and left the Underground City.
There’s the minimum trust that kept her from killing me and leaving the scene after discovering my identity, but we aren’t close enough to promise to meet again in this harsh world.
At the very least, she seemed more like a member of the dwarf group to me, so it was quite the surprise that she chose to follow me to the Helraig Duchy, and what’s ahead is also different from anything we’ve faced so far.
“This time, it’s really a war. Do you understand?”
Even knowing that Lavina wasn’t the type to be foolish, I couldn’t help but ask.
Diving into Helraig Duchy with just four of us was already risky enough, yet that was nothing compared to the dangers ahead.
Although the outcome had turned to failure, there was a chance that this time, negotiations could be carried out more gently. At the very least, if it came down to a fight, the conditions were lopsidedly favorable with a time limit until daybreak.
But now, it’s different.
Unlike the conflict three days ago, where violence was a means for dialogue and negotiation, there’s no room for compromise in the war between humans and vampires.
It’ll continue until one side can’t take it anymore and starts falling like flies. Moreover, this time, we’re the ones carrying the penalty of the sun.
Is there any need to explain how dangerous this is?
Of course, Lavina’s skills in both knowledge and power were proven just three days ago, but I had no clue why she would put her life on the line in this war when she’s not even a vampire.
Would the opposing side voluntarily offer a deal that benefits only me? Absolutely not.
I wasn’t naive enough to unconditionally trust a good deal that only benefited me anymore.
“Yes, I do. Although it’s my first time engaged in a war of this scale, I have some experience hiding from humans.”
“And the dwarves?”
“Actually, I talked to Bolton before I left. I told him that I might leave with Aria just like this.”
What is that? This is completely new information to me.
Regardless of whether it was confirmed or not, the fact that discussions about me becoming a benefactor took place in my absence is quite a surprise.
“If you’re worried about the dwarves, there’s no need to worry. I’m basically in a position like a guest, and I shared the secrets I had for inventions that are essential for daily life—like fertilizer and plant lights—over ten years ago. Bolton was a bit sad, but he told me to do what I wanted.”
I had always thought of Lavina as a citizen of the Iron Grave, or to put it more accurately, an immigrant, but was she closer to a landowner status than that?
Yet, that wouldn’t give her any reason to involve herself in a vampire war out of the blue.
To be honest, I was bewildered. If it had been someone I’d never seen before proposing such a thing, I would have immediately labeled them a scam artist.
But since it’s Lavina… Given that she had helped me, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to listen to her reasons.
“Let’s hear a detailed explanation.”
“Thank you, Aria. Do you know how long elves usually live?”
“…I’ve heard it’s around a thousand years.”
When I hesitantly replied to that unexpected question, Lavina’s eyes glinted like a crescent moon.
Her laughter, belonging to the cheerful side but different from Plona’s, wasn’t surprising, but today, her calm smile felt a bit out of place.
*
“That’s right. We usually live for about a thousand years. And I’m 226 this year. That means I’ll probably live for another 800 years, assuming nobody kills me!”
Lavina nodded, pretending to be cheerful enough to lighten the heaviness of her statement.
How ridiculous was that?
When she was expelled from Albresia, when she first met humans, or even when she led a four-person strike just three days ago, who could have guessed that she would be this nervous over something like this?
But she had to speak up now.
Praise for a gem that has already been processed is something anyone can do.
Aria is currently an uncut gem, set to be reborn as craftsmanship that many desire. And before Lavina’s genuine feelings turn into cheap flattery, she had to convey them.
“I’ll stop beating around the bush. To get straight to the point… I hope you’ll accept me. Just like Plona and Eleonora.”
Aria’s eyes narrowed. The moment Lavina mentioned the names of those two, her crimson eyes glowed with a sharp light.
‘I’m envious.’
In her gaze was a clearly determined will, suggesting that she wouldn’t tolerate any jokes concerning those two. Lavina felt that sense of emotion.
That meant Aria cared deeply for them.
What a peculiar relationship it was. A vampire, a dragonkin, and a human who had once been a knight but is now a retainer.
Those who should never be together genuinely regarded one another as family and shared a bond stronger than blood.
It was something that couldn’t be dismissed as false or temporary after watching them for three years.
“So you’re saying that you can believe me when I say I want to help with this war… is that right?”
At Aria’s calm inquiry, Lavina quickly nodded.
It’s not always the case that only honest truths prevail in human relations.
Acknowledging that there had been calculations behind her actions might not have been a suitable topic to bring up openly before the other party, especially if she wanted to maintain a friendly relationship.
But maybe three years wasn’t just some frivolous time. Seeing Aria remain calm and composed, which wasn’t usual for her when someone brought up Plona and Eleonora, gave Lavina a bit more courage.
“Living with the dwarves in Iron Grave wasn’t bad, but I can’t stay with them until the end. Their lifespan is only 300 years.”
In truth, she had thought that staying with Bolton and his companions until they died wouldn’t be bad at all.
Having been distant from normalcy since birth, Lavina had been a floating existence even among elves long before being expelled from Albresia, and until recently in Iron Grave, she thought it was fine to do only magic research and disregard everything else.
Lavina’s change of heart came only after Aria and her companions arrived in the Underground City.
Initially, it had only been simple curiosity.
The Progenitor of Vampires—a one-of-a-kind being—and the chance to research dark magic, something she had never had the opportunity to encounter before, were more than enough to ignite her curiosity.
Her scholarly interest had boiled over. The possibility of exploring the unknown was, as always, enticing.
“But it turned out that what was unknown territory to me wasn’t just limited to that.”
The first time she touched dark magic research surely was enjoyable. But as her time spent living with them increased, she began to notice other things.
“It was fascinating. I was chased away even by my own kind.”
A bond that transcended even the differences in their species. That was a strange concept that Lavina, despite her success in many things, had never grasped.
It shone brightly. Perhaps if she had been entirely oblivious, it wouldn’t have mattered, but within her heart, a longing for what she had never possessed began to sprout.
“And just recently, Albresia finally burned down. Now, my birthplace… is gone. Nowhere to be found.”
Even though she had been banished, Lavina’s spiritual home had always been Albresia.
Elves live long lives.
Waiting a hundred or two hundred years wouldn’t be a problem. Even if it took three or four hundred years, she wouldn’t mind waiting. Elves were like that—good and bad in similar measures.
It was the moment Lavina realized that she too harbored such tendencies when she heard the news of Albresia’s fall to humans.
“I thought I wouldn’t care at all, even being exiled. But when I heard that news, I thought this: Ah, I’ve completely lost my place to return to.”
A place to return to. Despite being exiled, Lavina unconsciously realized she considered Albresia her return destination.
Elves live long lives. Even after the exile, who could guarantee that she wouldn’t get the chance to set foot on her homeland again in a few hundred years if the opportunity happened to arise?
From the perspective of short-lived beings, there’s an eternity of extension, allowing Lavina Vercheria to remain indifferent.
“I was not okay being alone. Until now, I didn’t receive understanding, but I could keep my spirits up, thinking that someday someone would come to understand. So in reality, I could keep calm without facing the truth.”
It had been a vague form of escapism. By burying the potential that might exist in an uncertain future, Lavina comforted her mind.
However, the irony was that her refuge still resided in Albresia.
Even if they were those who had exiled her, while she would claim to have no care for her kin anymore, she couldn’t help but not change that.
In the end, the only ones who could share life with a thousand-year-old elf were other elves.
But Lavina’s internal defense mechanism, of which even she wasn’t aware, shattered like glass the moment she realized through the fall of Albresia that that potential in her subconscious could never be realized.
When Lavina faced the reality she had desperately turned away from, the only choices left in her remaining 800 years of life were a lonely existence of loss or a miserable and early death.
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