Chapter 343

Le-o-ric-k.

Those three syllables pierced my heart in a way that was particularly unsettling. Was it fate? Or an instinct?

Some animalistic sense was foretelling something.

This story will end with me aiming for his throat.

However, I still had something to worry about.

It was the fact that Benedetta was being overly cooperative.

She was a woman who, immediately after her defeat, was prepared to give her life in defiance. Now, it was hard to understand why she was so freely sharing information.

Tap, tap. My index finger began to tap the table a few times.

Could she be lying?

But no cracks were visible in Benedetta’s expression.

It didn’t seem like she was lying.

Of course, there was the possibility that Benedetta had undergone special training. For instance, preparing to mix in false testimonies in case she ever became a prisoner.

That was why Neoris was standing by my side.

She had received professional training as a spy.

She would surely be able to catch subtler signs better than I could.

So, I signaled to Neoris with my eyes, but the result was negative.

That meant she hadn’t picked up on anything unusual either.

In that case, I had no choice but to take Benedetta’s testimony as the truth for now.

Trying to determine its authenticity right away would just be a waste of time. Anyway, Benedetta’s testimony was scheduled to pass through the imperial princess’s review.

“The Eyes of the Dragon” reveal the psychology of others.

There is no more suitable ability for determining authenticity than this.

That thought resolved, my voice deepened.

A signal that I was about to begin the real interrogation.

The first question was concise.

“…Leorick? And the offering?”

“Yes, Lord Leorick… Didn’t you know? He’s of human origin, and he once belonged to the Urjina Army.”

Her answer was tinged with mockery.

The content was so absurd that for a moment, I thought Benedetta was playing a joke on me.

An involuntary snicker slipped out.

“So, he’s your enemy, isn’t he?”

There was no immediate answer to my pointed remark.

Benedetta simply clenched her lips and glared at me silently.

It was still an eye filled with hatred. Though she was cooperating with me for some reason, it meant that resentment against humanity still lingered.

Even so, using the honorific “sir” for a human who was once her enemy puzzled me.

“What do you think of our elves?”

“An innocent group from the northern region whose communities are plundered and troubled, a group of murderers. And recently, they’ve even resorted to eating their own kind.”

An insulting retort delivered with the vehemence of vengeance.

And this was also a widely spread perception within the empire. Through the long war, humanity and elves crossed a river that could not be returned from, now immediately killing each other upon sight.

Benedetta would most likely know this.

But the second jest I threw at her seemed unexpected, as she flinched slightly.

It was the first sign of unease I had seen from her.

Almost immediately, she distorted her face and tried to explain hastily.

“T-that’s a misunderstanding…”

“I don’t care about misunderstandings or anything else. Just tell me about this Leorick person and the offering.”

Of course, I had no intention of listening to her elaborate explanations.

Benedetta gave me an exasperated look, dissatisfied with my difficult attitude. But there was no way I was going to listen to her complaints.

Eventually, the elf woman had no choice but to sigh heavily.

She realized that she was dealing with someone who wouldn’t be swayed by her stubbornness.

Only then could I get more detailed information from her.

“You must see us that way. Us, stealing your living grounds, the filthy demons invading you… But that’s just the false name you’ve pinned on us.”

“Is the proof Leorick?”

“Yes, when we initially found the unconscious military priest… honestly, I thought about just killing him. Everyone was on edge after a battle.”

“And yet, you didn’t kill him.”

“Because we gave him bread.”

It was an answer that was difficult to follow.

My rebuttal, which had been flowing smoothly, momentarily slowed. Instead, I leaned back, folding my arms, and let out a small sigh.

Thankfully, Benedetta seemed to have a good sense of things.

Judging that an additional explanation was necessary, the woman added a more relaxed account.

“It’s a long-standing tradition among elves… ‘Bread for bread, dagger for dagger.’ It means repaying kindness with kindness and hostility with hostility. And the reason Lord Leorick was unconscious was because he rescued one of our elf children.”

“So you repaid the kindness?”

“Yes, because we’re elves.”

There was a strange tone of pride in her voice.

I almost instinctively mocked her but decided against it.

There was no reason to provoke her unnecessarily.

Instead, I inquired about something I was curious about.

“But why would that priest need an offering? There are plenty of monster corpses around. Why bring in rare monsters all the way from the southern region?”

“It’s a special ritual.”

“Special ritual?”

I quietly stored that piece of information in my mind. I planned to ask the Lady Virgin Saint and Emma about it.

Priests of the Heavenly Deity Sect sometimes needed to offer sacrifices. Mostly to invoke miracles that are beyond their abilities.

Wasn’t I the living proof of that?

I have faced the brink of death numerous times. And each time, I survived because the Saint offered precious sacrifices to bring me back to life.

So, there was no issue with her testimony regarding the need for an offering.

But I wasn’t sure if there was such a thing as a ‘special ritual’ that required unusual offerings. That was something to confirm with the Lady Virgin Saint.

Moreover, there was the matter of Abiyang’s condition.

The biological modifications inflicted upon her fell under the domain of alchemy. Thus, there was no guarantee that this ‘special ritual’ wasn’t connected to alchemy.

We were fortunate that Senior Elsi had discovered something related to the dual sword.

Silently thanking Senior Elsi in my thoughts, I asked again.

“Is Leorick the only one capable of performing this special ritual?”

“Yes, he is also the one who effectively leads the elves of the Coniferous Forest.”

“Why is that?”

A fundamental question.

Another piercing question, and Benedetta stared at me blankly.

“What kind of power does this special ritual have? How can someone who is essentially an outsider rise to become the actual leader of a species—it doesn’t make sense.”

“Didn’t you already say that?”

Benedetta grinned slightly as if questioning why I had to ask that.

For a moment, it seemed like the tongue of a snake was flicking behind her.

My brows furrowed naturally.

“Consume their own kind… Yes, I see, you could say that.”

“Did you hear? About how elves use the disabled or elderly as offerings to ‘pluck their fruits’… wasn’t it disgusting?”

“Disgusting.”

Benedetta chuckled weakly.

A faint, hazy light flickered in her eyes.

A fragment of bitter despair was reflected in the swirling emotions.

“Have you ever starved? We elves have suffered from hunger countless times. During our lives that span hundreds of years… our bodies become powerless, our blood dries up, and eventually, we lose consciousness. And all the while, we don’t even realize what atrocities we’ve committed.”

“So you killed your own kind?”

“Kill?”

With an expression of genuine confusion, she replied in that tone.

There was some sort of fire burning deep within her eyes.

Madness.

“You don’t understand… hundreds of years… for hundreds of years, we’ve endured this suffering! We didn’t know, we thought living was merely good. That it was a favor from the World Tree… but one day, Lord Leorick came to us.”

Her voice began to rise unexpectedly.

Drenched in that fervent confession of faith, it quickly reached its peak. With a loud sound, her hands, bound by the restrainers, slammed onto the table.

Senior Neoris was startled and almost rushed to subdue her, but my stoppage prevented it from happening.

Before long, Benedetta’s eyes were bloodshot.

“He taught us… that we were arrogant… life was not a blessing. It was rather a kind of prison, and we live to die.”

“So you killed.”

“Call it ‘liberation,’ please.”

The faint smile on Benedetta’s lips seemed genuine.

I suppressed the wave of emotion rising within me and expressed it in the most refined words.

“It’s an exaggeration. If death were so wonderful, why not just a mass suicide? Why sacrifice the weak to continue this cruel life?”

“We said it already, life is punishment… What happens to a prisoner who escapes before their sentence is over?”

A cowardly justification.

Because they’re the weak, they should be saved first.

Their argument was that they use their own special ritual to liberate from the prison of life, allowing the survivors to endure the harsh life ahead.

A patched-up, inconsistent logic that’s mixed with exaggerations here and there.

But faith doesn’t exist within the realm of logic.

Benedetta insisted strongly.

“Do we look pitiful and wretched to you? If so, then you who made us this way… do you have the right to criticize us?”

“Not everyone becomes cowardly just because they’re driven to the edge.”

“We weren’t like this initially.”

With a deep sigh, Benedetta released her tightly wound body.

And leaning against the backrest, she gave a sorrowful smile.

A lamentation for her own fate.

“Lord Leorick was a good person. He cherished the rescued girl as if she were his adoptive daughter. He quickly adapted to the elf village and eventually became the village’s only priest.”

“What exactly happened to someone like that…?”

“It was because the elf girl passed away.”

I halted my words.

Our gazes intersected in the void.

The elf was looking at me with a look of resignation.

“It was because you burned down our village, resulting in a lack of food. We endured for a long time, but the northern winds always took the weakest first.”

The faint reproach in those words made me grit my teeth instinctively.

A growling sound escaped my throat as if scratching at my neck.

“The empire doesn’t strike first. Destroying villages happens because you attacked us first.”

“Well, believe whatever you want to. But… remember this: bread and dagger.”

With that, Benedetta leaned forward with a tired face. A powerless laugh escaped her lips.

“I gave you bread today.”

“What are you saying?”

“You saved Matiss, right? Thank you. It might be indistinguishable to you, but Matiss is still young. He still has a lot of life ahead of him.”

It was an extremely contradictory statement.

She had said death was ‘liberation.’ Yet, she was thankful for saving Matiss?

I was about to lose it over the inconsistency in her logic.

The elf gave a sorrowful smile.

“That’s why I answered you sincerely at the end. There’s not a single lie. I could swear on the World Tree if you wish.”

Though it seemed like a welcome response, her tone was oddly grating.

I forced back a hollow laugh while trying to make a joke.

“‘At the end’? I still have so much more I want to ask.”

“If you’ve accepted bread, you should also prepare to receive the dagger.”

It was a calm statement.

But it had an odd certainty to it, so I paused for a moment.

My eyes fixed blankly on Benedetta.

It felt like time around us had stopped.

An extremely slow flow of time made the hairs on my arms stand one by one.

A heavy pressure settled on my chest.

“Well, let me ask you one last question.”

Benedetta shook her head, seemingly unwilling to answer further.

She smiled faintly and faced me.

“No, I already said it, didn’t I? This is the end…”

“What have you done.”

Halt. Benedetta’s breathing stopped.

Staring at her vivid green eyes, which now revealed no trace of emotion, a strange sense of urgency surged within me just as I was about to press her again.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? It feels like I become someone else when night falls.”

With a “wee,” Benedetta opened her mouth, extending her tongue.

There, nestled in a grotesque mass of flesh, was a horrifying eyeball, fused with mucous membranes and blood vessels.

The moment Benedetta closed her mouth, it disappeared into her throat.

She gave a faint smile, as beautiful as one would expect from the race of beauty.

“It’s a tracking device. You should’ve killed me sooner, as that old man would say…”

Her words didn’t finish.

Blood and flesh exploded, staining the clothes and furniture. But I had no more energy to care about such details.

Biting my lip, I stood up. Senior Neoris also turned quickly and rushed out of the tent.

The long cry of the horn echoed.

A signal of battle from the northern region.

Whether it was an advance or a surprise attack, it meant the same.

“The elves have launched a nighttime assault!”

The time of blood and death had arrived.

A rapid current was sweeping me away, beyond my control.