An orc from the Shadow Snake tribe.
Isabella’s expression changed slightly.
Ever since the Spirit Cat tribe was dispersed by the three major tribes, the northern Orc Continent had entered a state of pseudo-unity—the three major tribes had formed an alliance, using their military might to force smaller tribes to assimilate into their own groups.
The orc tribes were unifying at a rapid pace, a piece of news that put the Empire on high alert.
Based on the troop deployment for Windwhisper Fortress that Tyron Hawke had shown her, the Empire had already begun to pull soldiers from other fortresses to reinforce it, and even the Imperial Marshal was prepared to be called into action at any moment.
Among these three orc tribes, the one that caused Isabella the most trouble and concern was the Shadow Snake tribe.
Unlike the typical orcs who excelled in Douqi and physical melee combat, the Shadow Snake tribe was extremely proficient in the four elements of water, earth, wood, and darkness, as well as the poisons created by fusing the first three elements.
Whether it was on the battlefield or in a one-on-one duel, the poisons of the Shadow Snake tribe were their pride and joy.
Especially on the battlefield, the toxins of a high-ranked Shadow Snake were a devastating blow to any army.
Every time the Imperial military clashed with the orc tribes, soldiers would lose their lives to the Shadow Snake tribe’s poison.
In this orc delegation, there were 3 Shadow Snakes, but only one of them was a Black-Tail—Azman Veris, who specialized in neurotoxins.
His strength was that of a War Guard, equivalent to an 8th-rank warrior of the Empire.
‘How did I run into him here?’
Isabella felt a headache coming on.
The orc tribes were even more backward than the Elves; not even 10 percent of orcs were literate, and those who could actually write books were at the level of great masters.
It was hard to imagine that these illiterates would one day come to the Historical Archives, and it appeared there was more than one of them.
Isabella could clearly sense three other dangerous gazes lingering on her besides Azman, all of them filled with murderous intent.
“Ha, did I strike a nerve, leaving you too afraid to even refute me? Is this the level of the Empire’s current royal family?”
Seeing that she hesitated to reply, Azman slithered forward.
A shushing sound came from his snake tail rubbing against the floor, and a faint, cloying scent seemed to permeate the air.
Something is wrong!!!
Realizing the danger, Isabella did not hesitate for a second and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Wendy! Arns!!!”
“Slash!”
Before the words had even faded, Azman felt a dangerous sword aura approaching the back of his neck.
He immediately bowed his head to evade, utilizing the flexible nature of his snakeman body to whip his tail around and turn in an incredible posture, happening to collide with a spell that had already been charged.
For no reason, he smelled the scent of danger.
“6th-rank Magic—Wind Trace!”
Winnidith had attended the Royal Academy of Magic and studied the orcs; she knew that lightning-element magic would be especially effective against the Shadow Snake tribe, and Wind Trace was the strongest lightning-element magic she could use in a short amount of time.
Although it was only 6th-rank, it was magic cast by her, and the enemy was a Shadow Snake.
Winnidith was confident that the power of this move would be among the strongest, even among all 7th-rank spells.
In her expectations, even if this strike couldn’t defeat Azman, it would at least severely wound him and make him afraid to act rashly again.
But things exceeded her expectations.
Before the lightning could strike Azman, a black shadow suddenly blocked the path in front of him, neutralizing the blow.
The lightning dissipated the moment it touched the black shadow’s palm, not even making a sound of explosion, as if it had never appeared at all.
‘Who could this be?’
Winnidith and Arns, who had already reached Isabella’s side, were terrified, and the thought of fleeing already crossed their minds.
“Fighting is prohibited within the Historical Archives; violators will be sent to the confinement room as a warning.”
As the lightning elements returned to the environment, the shadow blocking Azman revealed its true form.
It was a golden-haired, blindfolded Elf.
Given the gold bow emblem on his white robes, his identity was not hard to guess.
He was the Guardian of the Historical Archives.
The three humans and the snakeman immediately grew quiet.
Before this Elf appeared, none of them had sensed his presence.
This could only mean one thing—his strength was far above theirs.
“Another 9th-rank. Heh, has the 9th-rank of the Elf race fallen so far that they must guard a bunch of waste paper?”
Azman stood up straight, gradually backing away from the Elf who had just saved him once, while continuing to tempt him with words.
“But as long as you join our tribe and become our War Lord, power, wealth, beauty—everything you can imagine, we can give you. How about it? Why don’t you consider it?”
Hearing this, the three of them, who knew the current state of the Elf race, remained silent.
‘Trying to tempt a controlled puppet? Interesting…’
As they expected, faced with Azman’s temptation, the blindfolded Elf remained unmoved, merely repeating the same sentence.
“Fighting is prohibited within the Historical Archives; violators will be sent to the confinement room as a warning.”
Azman was not surprised by this answer.
In the two days he had been in the Natural Forest, he had already understood that these Elves had lived for so long that they had lived away all their desires.
By doing this, he was merely sucking back the poison he had released into the air.
Now, he had successfully recovered it all.
“In that case, I beg you to capture these three sinners who have violated the rules of the Historical Archives.”
Azman spread his hands wide, his tone innocent and pitiful, as if he were the true victim.
Shameless!!!
Winnidith’s small face flushed red in anger.
What a villainous move to file a complaint first, yet she had no way to refute it.
The spell she released had been genuinely blocked by the blindfolded Elf, but she hadn’t actually felt Azman’s attack; she had only reacted to Isabella’s scream by instinctively treating Azman as the enemy.
She activated her Elemental Vision and discovered that the water, wood, and earth elements inside the library had been dispersed by the overly intense lightning elements around her.
This was the first time Winnidith felt that having too high of an elemental affinity was not necessarily a good thing.
The blindfolded Elf seemed to actually believe Azman’s words.
He didn’t use any words or movements, but Winnidith, who maintained her Elemental Vision, could clearly see the wood elements around him beginning to rise.
‘Is he going to attack?!!!’
Winnidith grew increasingly nervous.
It was true she had a 9th-rank spell in her possession that could severely wound this Elf, but it required time to construct the spell circle, and doing so would drain all the mana from her and the Sea Blue Bracelet.
Without that, she would only have a little pet that bullied the weak and feared the strong for protection.
‘Spiritual power probe… spiritual power detects the guy in front is a threat… spiritual power goes back to sleep.’
Winnidith, who clearly felt the pet’s movement, was so angry her face turned purple.
But there were more important things to do now.
The blindfolded Elf had begun to mobilize his mana, the sinister look on Azman’s face grew more intense, and from unseen positions, there seemed to be the snarling of beasts.
“Please wait a moment.”
Just as Winnidith was wondering how to break the stalemate, Isabella’s calm and steady voice suddenly drew everyone’s attention.
Except for the blindfolded Elf, who was still charging his power.
Seeing this, Isabella sped up her speech.
“Officer, fighting is prohibited within the Historical Archives, but Mr. Azman is not carrying any weapons. Therefore, the dispute between us does not count as a fight.”
Hearing this, Azman frowned, unable to understand why the Imperial Princess would say such nonsense at this moment.
Could she really think a single sentence could save them?
The next moment, something shocking occurred.
The blindfolded Elf actually stopped increasing his mana; Winnidith even saw the elements gathered around him begin to churn in chaos.
This indicated that the master of the magic had fallen into a state of indecision and could not successfully execute the spell.
‘That actually worked?’
Winnidith stared at the scene in a daze, while Isabella felt quite proud of it.
These were all just puppets that followed rules rigidly; as long as one could find a loophole in their rules, one could do whatever they pleased.
Actually, thinking about it, these Elves were similar to most Royal Knights.
Except, the royal family used loyalty and benefits to control their knights, while the Sacred Tree used a much more intuitive and brutal method to control the Elves.
Arns looked at the blindfolded Elf, who was acting as if he were caught in a loop, and shook his head in sympathetic solidarity.
“I can’t believe you actually found a way to get saved.”
Seeing the situation破解 in such a dramatic fashion, Azman’s expression turned extraordinarily ugly.
But snakes were animals skilled in lurking, and this was only a sudden strike.
Next time, once the snake was fully prepared, he would surely drag the Empire into the vortex of war!
“In that case, let us have peace. Your Highness, I hope our next meeting is more “pleasant”.”
Azman pulled a smile that made Winnidith feel incredibly uncomfortable.
“If only he could help us deal with this snakeman.”
Winnidith pulled at her long hair in frustration.
Her voice was not loud, but it was just enough to drift into the ears of the logically confused, blindfolded Elf.
The next moment, a magical thing happened.
The conflicted Elf seemed to receive a higher-level command; his mana climbed rapidly, and the elements around him switched from wood to wind in an instant.
More importantly, he faced Azman, who was hiding behind him!
‘Something is wrong!’
Every hair on Azman’s body stood on end.
A layer of fine, dark-gray scales covered his entire body.
This was his strongest state, and he carried the blessing of the War God from this journey; even against a human 8th-rank warrior, he was confident he could engage in a long struggle!
But regrettably, his current enemy was a 9th-rank Mage.
Before the blindfolded Elf’s attack, his prideful snake scales were as fragile as paper.
Until the invisible wind blade severed his neck, the Shadow Snake, known for his intelligence among the orcs, never understood why he had been attacked.
Winnidith hadn’t expected it, and neither had Isabella or Arns.
The archives grew a little quiet for a moment, leaving only the heavy sound of Azman’s corpse hitting the floor.
Others were stunned as well, but their discipline was clearly much higher than Isabella’s.
As soon as Azman’s corpse fell, they ran toward the exit like madmen.
They had to tell Lord Gareth that the news of an alliance between the Empire and the Elf race was true!
“Wendy! Don’t let the other three orcs get out!”
At the critical moment, Isabella was the first to react, sternly warning that there were three other orcs left in the archives.
They absolutely could not let them escape and leak what happened here!!!