The Lord Is Too Overbearing

After the brief "clash" that had happened between he and Basil, Cyane immediately went back to his Manor.

His second-in-command told him he had lost his consciousness for a couple of seconds, so it was really embarrassing for him to remain there. All of the soldiers under Basil's command gave him a sneer, and he couldn't do anything about it.

As stuck up as he was, he knew when to admit defeat, and how to accept it. He was unhappy, of course, but he didn't begrudge Basil in the slightest; he just felt the need to improve himself so he could surpass Basil soon.

"Don't worry, Lord Cyane. We have more troops than him. When things go south, we will be able to easily overpower him. Our troop's might, after all, is unparalleled!"

Sitting at the desk in his bedroom, Cyane listened to his second-in-command half-heartedly. Unlike him, his second-in-command didn't seem able to accept the fact that he had lost to Basil.

"Nothing shall go south, Giles," he retorted. "We are here to build a good relationship with the Elves, not to paint ourselves in a bad light."

"Of course, we shan't cause trouble in front of the Elves' eyes, Lord Cyane. I believe the other side also understands that well." Giles nodded his head. "Because of that, Lord Cyane, we have to be careful in the battlefield."

Giles was a young Noble—3 years younger than Cyane. He was deemed a genius by everyone, and became a Viscount after Cyane, who was already a Marquess at that time, made him his right hand.

Although he wasn't stuck up compared to Cyane, it was very hard for him to admit defeat. Being 22 years old and a Peak Stage Blue Core Knight made him rarely suffer defeat from his peers, thus the mindset.

Due to his boisterous nature and youthful look however, people liked to socialize with him. Whenever he acted obnoxiously, people would just take it as him messing around, typical to what youngsters normally did.

"Being alert in the battlefield all the time is a must; however, as I say, we are not here to reopen an old wound." Cyane shook his head faintly. "We don't need the second season of the war between Braxtein and our Kingdom."

"Ah, yes. I was just saying, Lord Cyane." Giles nodded his head vigorously. "That Basil guy looks too amicable to mind about such a thing too."

Silence descended upon the two when the conversation ceased. Giles excused himself afterwards, leaving Cyane, who was busy with his thoughts, looking through the window alone.

Confident as they might be in their own power, after their encounter with Basil, the two Knights couldn't help having a self-doubt. They hadn't seen his true power yet, but they could already tell he was going to be Braxtein's strongest powerhouse.

Braxtein Kingdom had, in fact, even considered Basil one of its powerhouses already. Their King often made a joke about Basil becoming the nightmare of the people in power, and now they understood that it wasn't a joke but a concern.

Basil would definitely become a nightmare to the people who crossed sides with him.

...

Another three hours passed, and the time to have the meeting came. The sun had already set, but Padeitophys looked just as bright as it was during daylight.

All of the guests had been served a heavenly meal an hour prior. The Light Elves even did as far as serving them meat, which was something they would never eat in their entire life ... The fact that they could cook it deliciously was a little bit uncanny though.

"Hmm... Are we going to be in the same room as that loser?"

"We, unfortunately, are."

"Well, sucks, doesn't it?"

Basil, Iliana, and Ione were in their way to the meeting room. They were escorted by twelve Elf guards, who were guarding them tightly as if a gap in the formation would instantly kill them.

It was actually a commendable service, but it was slightly annoying for the three Pacifers, who seldom needed someone to protect themselves. Being good guests they were, still, none of them complained about it.

"Geuh... He is here."

Basil and his company reached the meeting room at the same time Cyane and his second-in-command did. Basil and Cyane traded a light nod with each other, whereas their company traded a cold look with each other.

None of them showed any intention to cause a ruckus, fortunately, so Basil and Cyane didn't need to step in.

Thud!

When the door was pushed open, Tinuviel and three other Elves could be seen sitting at the oval table in the room. The three Elves had an ashy blonde hair and an old appearance, which could rarely be seen on Elves.

It was easy to conclude they were the Elders of Alphoetra Tribe.

"Thank you for willingly coming to our village and help us solve our problem," Tinuviel said softly as soon as all of the humans sat down. "Also, thank you for your great patience towards our tardiness."

"Why don't we cut to the chase, Lady Tinuviel?" Cyane stated with a light frown. "The more time we spend talking about useless things, the more severe the problem will become."

The three Elders leered at Cyane, but said nothing. Although they found Cyane's straightforwardness slightly unsavoury, they couldn't say anything for he wasn't wrong.

"Very well. I will just cut to the chase." Nodding her head, Tinuviel took out a Projection Talisman. "These are the cause of our problem."

Projected by the Talisman were the photographs of a couple of bisected bodies. All of them were cut cleanly, but the cut mark wasn't a normal straight line mark—it was slightly wavy.

Basil's interest was instantly picked—one could tell by his quirked eyebrow. As someone who knew this was actually caused by a certain Mythical Beast, he wondered just what kind of Beast he would be facing.

'He seems to have realized something,' Tinuviel thought as she furtively looked at Basil. Her heart was racing in nervousness, but she still looked calm from the outside.

"Thirty-seven... That's quite a lot of number of death considering how well it has been for the Elves for the past millennium," Cyane remarked. "All of them are Dark Elves though—I don't get the problem."

At that, Tinuviel pointed her finger towards the unique shaped cut mark. "We didn't do any of it, but this cut mark leads the other side to believe this was our doing. This is the cause of the misunderstanding."

'Hoh? A quite decent lie,' Basil remarked inwardly as he watched the conversation with a small smile. 'Now, let us see where she will take this lie to.'

"I am sorry, but I don't quite—"

Thud.

"Oh... What a predicament."

Cyane hummed at the sword that Tinuviel had just put on the table. It was a really unique-looking sword because its blade had a slightly wavy shape.

It didn't take him to be a supreme genius to instantly conclude it was the murder weapon. He was still curious, however, why possessing the murder weapon could result in the misunderstanding between the two Tribes.

"Swords like this belong to our high-ranking Warriors. We make sure no one other than our high-ranking Warriors can use it—not even our own Warriors can reproduce it."

"There is a loose cannon on your side," Cyane concluded. "You want us to help you look for him, bring him to the other side, and clear the misunderstanding. Is that about right?"

"... Yes, that is about right." Tinuviel nodded her head slowly, slightly baffled by how intelligent Cyane actually was.

"They seemed too ready to die in my opinion," Basil remarked, surprising the people in the room. "When you think about a loose cannon, you will think someone with a screw loose in his head."

No one knew where Basil was taking the talk to, so they waited for him when he paused. Tinuviel received a mild gaze from him, and it made her palms sweaty.

"That kind of person will do this kind of thing for pleasure. Surely, he will keep everything as undetected as possible, because he wants to do it as long as he can."

Basil pointed the weapons and the armour the dead Dark Elves had. "Judging by how prepared these Dark Elves are, I don't believe they didn't expect an ambush. They must know something is going to happen, which was why they geared up."

"What you are saying is...?" Tinuviel looked at Basil in curiosity.

"This isn't caused by a loose cannon, but a criminal organization that you don't know of. Both of the tribes have this organization, and they are actually the one having a conflict."

Tilting his head lightly, Basil sneakily winked at Tinuviel.

"You have the bodies of the dead Light Elf Warriors too, don't you? Let me examine them. I will be able to trace the people who had interacted with them before they died from the Mana trace. We can easily clear the misunderstanding afterwards."

'H-He has figured us out!'

Having lived long enough, the Elders knew they were already beaten in their own game. Their eyes widened in shock—they gulped dryly as they looked at Basil's faint smile.

Basil was suggesting the criminal organizations of the two tribes were the one having the conflict. He said it while smiling because he knew he was just twaddling: he knew the Elven Race couldn't hurt their own kin, unless they committed an unforgivable sin.

The Elders immediately understood Basil had reached to a conclusion that the two "organizations" were actually the Warriors of the two tribes working together to do something, but were met with an unfortunate event.

The third party was the cause of their death, and Basil was trying to figure out why both tribes were trying to hide this fact from them by making such a lie.

'W-We need to compromise. Your Highness, please do something!'

All of the Elders immediately turned to Tinuviel. Their reputation would be over if Basil called them out, so they hoped she would be able to figure out something with that brilliant mind of hers.

'H-He winked at me? ... I-Is that a secret call for mating?! What a perverted human!'

Unfortunately for them, their Tribe Chief was currently unable to utilize that brilliant mind of hers. She got the wrong idea, and she didn't even realize it.

"Kuhum! That can be discussed somewhere else, Master Basil," Tinuviel said stoically, doing her best to hide her blush.

"Very well. Let us discuss it somewhere else."

Much to the Elders' excitement, Basil agreed easily. 'Nice save, Your Highness! You sure are invincible in a tongue game!'

They thought their Tribe Chief had just managed to persuade Basil to compromise with them using her skill in negotiation, just like usual.

'H-He is that eager to look at the body! W-Whose body? M-Mine?!'

In truth, unfortunately, their Tribe Chief had just chosen to deactivate her brain.