Chapter 240 : Chapter 240
Chapter 240. The Dead Rise Again
After eliminating the target of her trip, Fulan saw that inside the pit where the Necromantic Skeleton Mage had been staying, there was a deep-blue chest placed within it.
And it was emanating a kind of fluctuation that felt extremely familiar to Fulan—the same strange fluctuation she had once sensed beneath a fiery red tree.
“Wow! What is that?! It looks like something valuable.”
Fulan immediately turned to the side and saw Anna cautiously drawing closer to her. At this point, there was no need to keep pretending anymore.
Fulan instantly pointed her longsword at Anna. A brilliant white light began to shine from the tip of the blade. That light was tolerable to Fulan, but for Anna, it was rather painful.
Enduring the blinding radiance that nearly kept her from opening her eyes, Anna stopped and said helplessly,
“What are you doing? My elven kinswoman...” Seeing that there was not the slightest change in Fulan’s expression, Anna knew that trying to use their shared background to close the distance was not going to work.
“All right, kinswoman. Let’s put the swords down and talk properly...”
Anna was the first to set her weapon down, along with her shortbow and arrows. Though she knew that if Fulan was truly prepared, then even if she picked them back up, she still would not be able to beat her.
But what Anna needed now was not anything else, but to make her position clear. She had no intention of resisting any further.
Fulan still did not lower her longsword. Instead, she raised it slightly higher, then let her gaze flick toward the two corpses lying on the ground—the ones Anna had taken care of.
Anna knew that Fulan had definitely noticed something. The fact that she had directly killed those two former teammates was still enough to keep Fulan from fully trusting her.
Just then, Fulan said,
“On my way here, I heard that the lord of White Dragon Harbor seemed to have lost something. That was why he specifically hired a large number of mercenaries to come here and search for it.”
“And it seems that the Church of the Goddess of the Currents is after that thing as well. Do you know anything about it?”
Anna raised both hands to show that she had no intention of attacking before slowly saying,
“All right. I was one of the members of the party that once stole that item from the lord of White Dragon Harbor. The thing in your hands is exactly what those mercenaries—and the people from the Church of the Goddess of the Currents—are searching for...”
“My joining that party was an accident. You know, as an elf, under normal circumstances, there was no way they would have let me join.”
“In any case, it was the one who’s already dead now, the member of the party who died, who invited me in when I had nowhere left to go...”
“After that undead creature temporarily took away the stolen item, I knew that our party could never transport it to the designated place and exchange it for the promised reward.”
“And if those mercenaries or the people from the Church of the Goddess of the Currents got their hands on it, then in order to conceal the truth, they would use Divination to track down all the ‘thieves’ and their families, then kill every last one of them.”
“That’s why I kept urging you to call for support from the Northern Society. Only if the Alliance gets its hands on this thing will we ‘thieves’ and those families be safe.”
Fulan still did not lower her sword, though she let it dip slightly before asking the question that concerned her most.
“Why do you say that if they knew you were an elf, they would never have let you join that party?”
When Anna heard that, her eyes widened, as though she had heard something utterly shocking. In disbelief, she said,
“How do mages from the Alliance not even know this... Actually, I suppose you really wouldn’t. Sorry.”
Anna calmed her tone a little, then slowly continued,
“I disguised myself as a mercenary in White Dragon Harbor for three years. All that time, I used a special method to make my ears look like those of an ordinary human. Only that way could I avoid being driven out immediately.”
“You only need to know that outside the Alliance, elves are generally regarded as omens of misfortune. That goes even for the Free City-State of Bohan. Only certain special elven tribes are allowed to enter.”
“I exposed my elven ears directly so that no one would stop me. Mercenaries would never try to stop an elf who suddenly appeared out in the wild.”
In truth, when Anna had first seen Fulan, she had not reacted much at all, because she knew that if an ordinary person saw an elf being besieged, they would absolutely never step forward to help.
Instead, they would get away as quickly as possible, and might not even dare to attack.
Ever since she had begun exposing her elven ears, she had grown used to such treatment.
She just had not expected Fulan to step in and help her immediately. Fulan had even displayed Elven Swordsmanship, something Anna ordinarily did not dare reveal casually herself, for fear that others might notice something wrong.
After Fulan had explained some of the details, Anna had thought that Fulan must have known she possessed Elven Bloodline, and that was why she had come forward to greet her.
But it turned out that Fulan seemed completely unaware...
Now that she thought about it, Fulan had probably noticed from the very beginning that something was off about her, and had deliberately pretended not to know about her Elven Bloodline in order to get closer and sound her out.
And Anna, because she knew Fulan was an Alliance mage and had been pleasantly surprised by that fact, had failed to notice the flaws in Fulan’s behavior...
“Tell me exactly what this thing you stole actually is.”
Even now, Fulan still did not know what this object actually was. She felt that most of the hired mercenaries and the majority of the Church of the Goddess of the Currents’ followers probably did not know either.
After all, as expendable pawns, they only needed to find the thing. They had no need to understand what it actually was. In fact, knowing what it was might even be harmful to them.
Fulan had just inspected it. This chest was only a containment device. What those people truly wanted was the thing inside it.
But when Fulan checked just now, she found that the chest was protected not only physically, but magically as well. If she did not spend some time on it, opening it would be very difficult.
Right now, she wanted Anna to confirm what exactly was inside the chest before deciding whether to pry it open by herself or call for support.
Fulan’s longsword lowered completely, slanting toward the ground, making it seem as if she had placed some trust in Anna.
That made Anna let out a sigh of relief. Truthfully, now that things had reached this point, she was no longer afraid that her plans would fail. What she feared was that Fulan might suddenly run her through with a single sword thrust.
Judging from what Fulan had shown just now, she absolutely had that ability. Anna still did not want to die.
Fortunately, it seemed that her status as Fulan’s fellow elf, or something like it, had still been somewhat effective.
Just as Anna was about to speak, a sudden sense of danger flashed through her mind, making the hair on her body stand on end. That spell fluctuation was not Fulan’s—
It was...
“Watch out!!” Anna shouted loudly, her gaze snapping toward the corner where her former teammates had died.
There, a man stood back up, his entire body deathly pale and bloodless, with an arrow still lodged in his neck.
A terrifying spell fluctuation radiated from him, and his eyes looked as though they wanted to devour the two of them whole.