Chapter 206: The Kukkoro Male Knight and the Rowdy Elf

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The day after the long-awaited report, it was finally the day of the second meeting with the New Elfenia Empire. Since the previous meeting had been held suddenly in the forest—an elven home ground—it had been decided that this time the conference would take place in our own Lord’s Manor in the city of Carrera.

That said, they were still the barbarians who had caused all manner of trouble throughout the Liseben Territory. Considering the feelings of the citizens, we could not make this meeting public yet. We asked Lady Dalaiya and her group to disguise themselves and guided them to the manor with their distinctive bamboo-shoot-shaped ears hidden.

“Uru, haven’t you gotten a little fat?”

As soon as Lady Dalaiya stepped into the conference room, that was the first thing she said to the subordinate who greeted her. After all, ever since Uru arrived in Carrera, she had been stuffed with hospitality and feasts day after day. Of course she would become a little rounder. Well, considering her body had originally been rather on the scrawny side, she actually looked healthier now.

“It’s your imagination, gwaasu.”

“Is that so.”

After glaring at Uru with half-lidded eyes, Lady Dalaiya sighed and sat down.

“By the way, Lord Albert. I brought the attendants as planned, would that be acceptable?”

Lady Dalaiya had brought four subordinates: one crow beastkin and the rest elves. The crow beastkin was about the same build and apparent age as Uru, but the elves were more varied.

Some looked like young girls, while others had the appearance of mature older-sister types. Their common traits were that every one of them had fairy-like refined beauty, and all of them had rather flat chests. As expected of a race adept with the bow. The reason bows were oddly unpopular in the Galea Kingdom was probably because so many dragonewts there had large chests…

“Of course, no problem. You are all welcome.”

Smiling, I called a servant and asked them to prepare herbal tea for everyone. But then one of Lady Dalaiya’s subordinates, a tall elf who looked about my age, interrupted.

“Lord, tea ain’t bad, but I want food too. I—we’re starvin’, so hungry my back and belly are about to stick together from the back to the front.”

They suddenly demanded food. So Uru wasn’t the only bottomless pit. If what Lady Dalaiya said was true, these elves were also in service to that New Elfenia Empire, right? Seeing how deprived they were made me uneasy. The elves’ food shortage might actually be at a pretty dire level.

But leaving that aside, this accent! A woman so fantastically beautiful she would take your breath away if she stayed silent suddenly spouted such rough, heavily accented speech. The gap was incredible. It felt like my eyes and ears were arguing with each other.

“Hey! Ilda! What kinda thing are you sayin’! They’ll think you ain’t got manners, you hear!”

Lady Dalaiya shouted sharply, her face souring. But the elf called Ilda just grinned and slapped her own stomach.

“But ya can’t fight on an empty stomach, that’s what I’m sayin’!”

“We did not come here to fight!”

“Dalaiya-don, you soft or what! To take and to be taken, that’s the way elves live, ain’t it?”

Lady Dalaiya looked ready to argue back, but before she could, another elf suddenly stood up with enough force to knock over her chair. It was a girl-like elf.

“Don’t talk nonsense, Ilda-don! You young brat oughta sit quiet in the back and listen!”

“Did you just call me a young brat!?”

And thus the argument escalated. Ilda also stood up roughly and approached the girl-elf. Judging from their exchange, the girl-elf was actually the older of the two. The elven race truly had no correlation between outward appearance and age…

“Yeah! You’re a young brat, all right! If bein’ called that makes ya mad, that just proves it!”

“You fossil elf! Lived forever without dyin’ in battle or bearin’ kids… Don’t think you can swallow back what you just spat out!”

Ilda grabbed the hilt of the wooden sword hanging at her waist and roared. The girl-elf’s face turned red with rage and she put her hand on her own wooden sword. The atmosphere was explosive.

Don’t start infighting in the middle of diplomatic negotiations! 

Everyone on our side was staring in stunned silence!

“Do we seriously have to negotiate with people like this?”

That mutter came from Gilberto. Honestly, I agreed completely. They were way too hot-blooded. Give me a break.

“But if we throw away the option of negotiation, all that’s left is war. I don’t like negotiating, but I don’t really want to fight either.”

Sonia said with a complicated expression, letting out a small sigh. Gilberto held her head in exasperation. 

“That’s true as well. Ahh… my head is starting to hurt.”

“What a coincidence, mine too.”

My head and stomach were both starting to hurt. I looked toward Lady Dalaiya, silently begging her to do something, and she bowed deeply with a genuinely apologetic expression.

“Enough already, you lot! Cool your heads a bit!”

Then she glared at the two elves who were still shouting. Raising a voice unbefitting her small frame, she yelled at them.

Do elves counter rage with greater rage?

Then her words shifted into a strange, musical-like chant—the incantation of magic.

“Gwaaah!”

“Gwaaah!”

A localized gust of wind blasted through the room, sending the two elves flying straight out the window. They were the only ones affected. Everyone else, even the cups of herbal tea on the table, remained untouched.

Normally, if someone created a gust strong enough to blow people away, the aftermath would have wrecked the entire room. The fact that didn’t happen was simply because Lady Dalaiya’s magical power and spell control were unbelievably precise. And she had cast it incredibly fast, too. As expected of a thousand-year-old veteran. Her magical skill was enough to send chills down my spine.

“My apologies, Lord Albert. The young ones sure are too hot-blooded… I wish they would learn from me…”

Sighing, Lady Dalaiya took a sip of herbal tea and then, a cute little growl came from her stomach.

“…I do not support that fool’s words, but it is true that I am hungry. I am sorry, but… Could you prepare a meal for us?”

Lady Dalaiya’s face turned bright red and her shoulders trembled as she said that. I almost laughed, but honestly, it wasn’t funny. If even the respected elder was in this state, what was going on with the New Elfenia Empire’s food situation? Even a famine had its limits…

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