Assassin's Chronicle

After walking two blocks, Anfey stopped and rented a carriage from a nearby shop. This was because the four elves walking next to him were too eye-catching. Even though elves were the most beautiful and brilliant creatures in the world, they had mostly retreated away from the spotlight and into the forests. In most places, elves were rare.

Due to the elves’ beauty and rareness, most people had come to desire elves. Perhaps because people knew that they were inferior to elves, they would capture and enslave elves out of retaliation. Because of this, most people did not treat elves with friendliness.

Luckily, this was Sacred City, where no one was who they seemed to be. No one wanted to start anything for no reason. Niya could do whatever she wanted because she was Saul’s daughter. Zeda could do whatever he wanted because his grandfather was Philip. It was a rare sight to see someone walking around carelessly with four elves. No one wanted to go near people with four elves, so Anfey made it to the carriage shop with no trouble.

This was proof that elves were no longer the most important species in the world, and instead were treated like slaves. If Anfey had four beautiful human women with him, he would not have attracted so much attention. This was because even though the human women were of low status, they were still human and had rights. Elves, on the other hand, would be considered properties. Killing a maid would be considered murder because she was a human, but killing an elf would be considered damaging property.

People with elves would always carefully hide them. Displaying elves the way Anfey did was very dangerous. According to official laws, if someone tried to attack the elves and Anfey fought back, he would not be charged. If he wasn’t there, however, he could do nothing about it. Anfey’s knowledge of this world was improving, but he was still ignorant of a lot of customs and unspoken rules. Unlike other people, he considered the elves to be human’s equal and potential allies. He did not grow up in this world and did not have the prejudice that people in this world held against the elves.

When he left the carriage shop, he noticed that the streets were emptier than before. After seeing him disappear into the carriage shop, people had figured out who he was. A lot of people had run off to talk to their friends about who they had just seen.

After he killed Zeda and Shamash, he had made a name for himself. It seemed like he would brutally murder the children of whoever offended him, and that made people afraid of crossing him. Plus, he was still alive and was made a count. This showed that he was supported by not only the archmage Saul but also the king, Yolanthe. Most people did not want to do anything to offend their king. It was better to just stay away from Anfey than to accidentally offend him and have their entire family murdered.

The carriage was stopped by the palace guards when it came up to Saul’s mansion. Anfey lifted the curtain and nodded at the palace guards. Seeing that he was authorized to be near Saul’s house, the palace guards allowed the carriage through. The servants in the courtyard all frowned when they saw the elves. Even in Sacred City, elves were rare, and they had never seen anyone foolish enough to display elves like that.

The old butler hurried over and asked, "My lord, they are...?"

"My maids," Anfey said. "Find some rooms for them."

"There are two empty rooms next to the lady’s room."

Anfey shook his head. "Aren’t there empty rooms on the first floor? Put them there." He did not know the elves and did not trust them. If they lived close to Niya, they could become good friends with her. Since the elves’ intention was still unclear, they might try to use Niya as an informant.

"There’s only one empty room," the old butler reminded him.

"Try cleaning it up. We can’t put them next to Lady Niya, can we? It’s not exactly safe."

The old butler nodded. "I’ll see it done."

"Where’s Suzanna?"

"In your room, I believe. And Lord Entos is looking for you. He wants to meet you in his room."

"Did he tell you what he wanted to talk about?"

"No, but he seemed troubled. He even ran into a maid today. Almost pushed the poor girl down the stairs."

"You sure he’s not just taking advantage of her?" Anfey asked with a smile.

"Lord Entos isn’t like that," the old butler said.

"I’ll go find him then," Anfey said. He saw the elves following him and waved his hand. "Go with him to clean up your room a bit."

"Come with me, my ladies," the old butler said, turning around and waiting for the elves.

The elves watched Anfey disappear; all four were frowning. None of them wanted to go to the human world. To these elves, just being around humans was degrading. However, they were pressured by their elders and had to sacrifice themselves. They had to learn more about humans in order to destroy humans and take back elves’ rightful place as the most intelligent species. They were frustrated and angered that the man they had to serve would not even spare them a glance. Anfey’s actions clearly did not help lessen the elves’ hatred for humans.

Anfey stopped in front of Entos’s room and knocked on the door. "Who is it?" he heard Entos ask.

"It’s me."

"Come in."

Anfey pushed open the door and walked into the room. Entos was alone in the room and was sitting by a table. "I’ve been waiting for you," Entos said.

"I heard you tried flirting with a girl today," Anfey said, smiling.

"Not true," Entos said. "Sit down."

"Everyone’s talking about it."

"Doesn’t make it true," Entos said. "I thought you’d be smart enough to distinguish the lies from the truth."

"Is she pretty?"

"That is none of your business," Entos said. "Just like it is not mine. I have to talk to you."

"Tell me," Anfey said. He wanted to disrupt Entos’s thought process and get more information, even though Entos was clearly not falling for it.

Entos frowned and said quietly, "I never thought magic and combat power could be a powerful combination. Do you really want to become a paladin?"

"Yes."

"I can teach you some of the things I learned about magic, especially about teleportation, but we have to settle two things first."

"What is it?"

"First, my methods are very extreme. You’ve only used teleportation once, so you won’t understand the pain of using teleportation dozens, even hundreds, of times a day." Entos paused as if waiting for Anfey to understand his words. "Of course, you can use other methods, but you won’t ever reach my level. I am confident to say that when it comes to teleportation, I am the best in the world."

"I see," Anfey said. "I don’t mind extreme methods. That shouldn’t be a problem."

Entos looked at Anfey, then nodded. "Call me curious, but if you want to be a paladin, why aren’t you practicing combat power? You have Suzanna and Christian, both of whom would make great teachers. But you aren’t practicing with them. You know another way to do it, don’t you? And you know that whatever way you’re doing it would be more powerful than combat power. Am I wrong?"

Anfey froze. He stared at Entos, shocked. He thought his secret was better guarded and never thought someone else would see through his lie so easily.