The Sword and The Shadow

I Hate This World

For the rest of the meeting, Annelotte, Wesley and Angelista were caught up in a lengthy discussion about spatial magic.

It was mostly gobbledygook to Leguna, but the gist of the discussion was if they used spatial stones to create a special formation to sustain the connection points between planes, they could increase the speed of transfer across the planes. However, it would be limited to the transportation of inanimate, soulless items. The transfer limit for humans and dark elves would remain.

But that didn't matter. After all, all it had to do was to establish a means by which trade between Darklight and Hocke could be facilitated. As long as both sides found it agreeable, Leguna couldn't be bothered by the details.

As for the details of the trade and the agreed-upon prices of the goods, those were Andro and Larwin's problems. He didn't have to bother himself with that.

So, after Leguna and Annelotte returned to Melindor, it was time for Andro and his ambassadors to head to the Dusk Zone. They would head to Darklight and negotiate the trade terms with House Elvin and other interested parties.

Leguna had never seen Andro treat him well before all this. When he told him of the trade, Andro beamed with a smile so bright it was uncharacteristic of him.

It wasn't completely unexpected, however. The financial state of Hocke in the past two years had been horrendous, yet the war with Stok didn't seem to be ending anytime soon. If they couldn't keep up in terms of supplies, Hocke was at risk of extermination.

Lately, Andro had wracked his brains over gathering the much-needed supplies of the soldiers for winter. Just as he was circling about in his home, agonizing for a solution, the godsend deal came down and slapped him on the face. Hocke could probably buy its military gear from the dark elves and didn't even have to spend gold coins!

Andro's second son Kanjiras remembered seeing his father blank out for a whole minute after hearing that news. Then, his eyes gradually grew brighter before he danced and howled like a madman. The howls reminded Kanjiras about the time when he was chased down the streets of the imperial capital by his father for his indiscretions and felt rather conflicted.

While Leguna had left Melindor this time around mostly to deal with his personal matters, he didn't think he would manage to solve a matter which troubled even the emperor so much.

It didn't matter how Andro's negotiations in Darklight went. Leguna has already achieved a great deal for the empire.

When he returned to Melindor, he ignored the large stack of documents Xeno wanted him to look through. "Deal with it however you see fit. Just write a brief report to me about it later."

The reason he was in such a rush was Innilis and Eirinn.

While he knew they were doing well through Annelotte's communication magic, he wouldn't calm down until he saw them in the flash.

After he called Annelotte to the Dusk Zone, he had given Annelotte a note to pass to Xeno. He instructed him to take good care of Eirinn and ignore everything else about the magic academy's infirmary.

Even so, he still didn't feel completely assured. In the end, Annelotte had to make a personal visit to Myr to ask him to protect them. Only then could Leguna sleep well at night.

Currently, Annelotte and Leguna were heading to the court magi association with Angelista.

The old Myr was quite happy to be asked to do a rare favor for Annelotte. He had a short meeting with Larwin and called Eirinn and Innilis to the association's headquarters.

Apart from that, he also promised he would give Innilis some guidance. While the little girl was quite sick, she didn't dare to slack off on her studies one bit.

When Annelotte said she was going to leave Melindor to help Leguna, the girl was down, as she had been taught one-to-one by Annelotte lately. If she left, then her studies would be impacted.

However, Innilis didn't say anything about it. After all, what they were doing concerned her own and Eirinn's safety. How could she throw a childish tantrum for that?

Myr, on the other hand, could see the raw drive to learn in that girl. He believed that while Innilis's talent paled in comparison to Annelotte's, her dedication was something to behold. So, he decided to take Annelotte's place as her magic teacher during Annelotte's absence.

Myr was considered to be one of the titans of magic in Hocke and perhaps even the whole of the Chino continent, so his prestige was unquestioned. While Annelotte was much more creative than he was, in terms of experience and magic application, Myr was quite some ways superior to even the glacial empress.

As such, when Innilis heard who was going to be her replacement teacher, she smiled so wide that she found it hard to close her mouth back.

"I wonder how Innie has been doing lately…" Leguna said worriedly. Though he had transferred the antidote back through Annelotte's transference spell, he still worried for her at the thought of how weak she looked when he first left Melindor.

"Don't worry. With Grandmaster Myr and Eirinn looking after her, she'll definitely be fine," Annelotte consoled..

Angelista nearby seemed a little puzzled. The reason they brought her along was that she had pledged to serve Hocke. No matter how mad she was, she knew that she wouldn't be able to live on her own power alone in a plane dominated by another race. So, she chose to side with Hocke. If joining the court magi association could save her some trouble, then she was more than willing to do so.

As for Linq, he came out of the whole thing quite lucky. Due to the deal, Brani turned her attention out of the Dusk Zone and onto the base plane. So, she agreed to let Linq leave home, but on the condition that he had to report any information he heard every half a year, and as matriarch and a 19th-stratum priestess, she had her ways of making sure he followed up on his words.

Linq had no choice but to accept the arrangement with a bitter smile. Though he had many of his thoughts, he was still vulnerable to the whims of others due to his lackluster power. Either way, he still managed to achieve his starting goal. He decided he would cross the next bridge when he came to it.

As Myr had mentioned Annelotte didn't need to inform him before a visit, the three just walked into Myr's residence.

Before they entered, Leguna heard a high-pitched voice coming from Myr's small body. "Lass, why don't you consider it?"

"I'm really sorry, Grandmaster Myr," Innilis said, "While I am honored to have been able to learn from you, I already have Sis Annie as my master. It would be a slight to her if I became your disciple too."

"Sigh… why's this geezer here having such a hard time getting disciples?"

"Sorry for interrupting, Grandmaster, but what Innie needs now is rest," Eirinn said.

Leguna stood there blankly for a moment before running towards them. "Innie! Eirinn!"

"Big Bro Leguna!"

The two girls' eyes lit up as they leapt at him.

Leguna closed his eyes and anticipated the fragrant hug, but nobody had come even half a minute later. He opened his eyes and saw the two had stopped midway, looking hurt and betrayed.

Leguna didn't know what was going on. At the very least, they looked healthy, much to his relief.

"Sis Eirinn," Innilis said darkly, "Big Bro broke his promise again!"

"Yeah, he's infuriating," Eirinn chimed in.

"Hey! What's going on?"

"That should be our line," Eirinn said. She pointed at him with a slightly flushed face, "What's that about?"

"What?"

"Not you! Behind you!" Innilis cried.

"Behind me?"

He turned around and saw Angelista striking a seductive pose at him with her skimpy magus robe.

Leguna's eyes darkened immediately.

"Listen to my explanation!"

"No need!"

"It's the same every time!"

"Last time you hooked up with Sasha and that One. I thought we told you not to take a female dark elf back from the Dusk Zone this time. But you did it anyway! You're too much!"

Innilis swung her little fists at him angrily.

"That's right! I wondered why you sent me back to Melindor. So you had that in mind!" Eirinn pouted.

"Sis Annie, why didn't you watch him? How can you let him do that?"

"Annie, help me explain this, will you?"

"This was my bad," Annelotte said, relishing in schadenfreude.

"Hey!"

He felt his tears welling up already.

"Huh! How else are you going to excuse yourself?!"

"Even if Sis Annie can tolerate this, Sis Eirinn and I can't! You better snap out of it, Big Bro!" Innilis bared her fangs.

"Angelista! Say something!" Leguna placed the last of his hopes on the dark elf.

And reality came to prove never to bet one's life on the judgment of an insane person. The only thing that awaited that was death.

Angelista smiled and approached him before putting her arm over his shoulders intimately.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Angelista!" she said in the human tongue clumsily.

"I hate this world!"

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