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124 – Lily’s Circumstances

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see this coming.

But I did think it was one of the many possibilities. Or perhaps it’s for this reason.

When she actually said it, however, I was still bewildered.

「Uh…」

I look at Fenix.

The dude just nods silently without saying anything.

Say something, man. Don’t just sit there and look at me like I know what’s going on.

「…You don’t seem surprised.」

Lily said unexpectedly. She’s a little surprised by my reaction.

「W-well considering that you asked to speak to me while all this was going on…」

Even she knows that I am the Demon King Army’s Chief of Staff.

If she wasn’t in a hurry, she could have waited until I had some free time. Since she told me that she wanted me to make time during quite possibly my busiest period, it’s only natural to assume that she has some reason.

As to what reason that could be, I can only think of so many.

「So you deduced my intentions through that?」

「No, not exactly. Since we were allies…I know that you are a serious person. I thought that maybe it had something to do with Suuri or…」

At that name, her brow curved.

The Faceless Archer Suuri. The Hunter of the fifth rank Scathach party.

「…That is exactly right. However, I’m fairly positive that I have never mentioned my distaste of him…but even Lark noticed it. Was it that obvious?」

「Everyone knew. We all guessed he must be an Elf or something.」

「…! Everyone knew that much…」

「Well, yeah…I mean, of course, we would.」

Lily left the forest and met us in the first town she went to and became our ally.

Later, when she learned of the existence of the Scathach party, she has blatantly shown her hate for him.

She isn’t the type of person who would one-sidedly hate someone she barely knows, so we figured that she must have a reason of some kind.

But after she joined the party, she and Suuri have never made contact.

Also when she was in the forest, the only people she was involved with would be the forest races. Since Suuri looks like a regular person from the neck down, he probably isn’t an Insect Human.

It’s hard to imagine that something happened between the time she left the forest and the time she met us.

If she hates him, he must have done something to her, but if that was the case, there was no need to hide it.

For example, she always gives her honest opinion about Alba’s bad mouth every time.

If she thought it was a problem, she would point it out.

If that’s the case, then we can rule out Suuri being some kind of criminal or someone who has hurt her.

He is most likely an elf who disobeyed the rules of the forest or their pride or something, and she doesn’t like that.

She doesn’t talk to us about her race’s circumstances.

We would occasionally talk amongst ourselves about whether or not that was the case.

When I mentioned this, she looked at me with a complicated look.

「S-so…everyone knew?」

「We had our assumptions, I guess.」

「…I have been careless.」

Her cheeks were slightly red.

the face of the usually calm and collected Lily turning red out of shyness. A rare sight.

Realizing that Fenix and I were looking at her, she purposely cleared her throat.

「Ahem…If you know that much, then that should speed up this discussion. Yes.」

The tips of her long pointed ears were twitching.

It would be an act of kindness to not bring it up.

「In other words, you wish to have a place where you can do battle with him, right?」

She nods to my confirmation.

She takes a swig of her drink as if to hide her face.

「I guess I shouldn’t hide more than what I’m asking. I cannot tolerate the way he is.」

Lily told us the story.

Lily and Suuri were from the same village. More precisely, her father taught him the ways of the bow.

Suuri said he had no intention of living out the rest of his days in the middle of the forest, so he left his hometown.

At that time, he seemed to still possess the pride of an Elf.

Several years later, Lily left the forest. At first, it was planned to be a journey.

She learned about the Adventuring business and also ran into Fenix, who made a contract with the Fire Spirit, her future was decided.

A journey is a journey, so she chose a life of traveling from Dungeon to Dungeon as an Adventurer.

And then she found him. She found her senior who inherited her father’s teachings.

He concealed the fact that he was an Elf and registered the ultimate in the art of Elven archery as Godspeed.

There are three people in the world who use Godspeed. Lily and Suuri. And one of Suuri’s party members.

If you consider Godspeed as a divine skill that originally combined Elven Wind Magic and archery together, you can see why the number of users is so extremely low.

「In these last few years, the harsh criticism towards Elves have weakened. Yet he still continues his charade.」

It was thanks to the precedent set by Lily that the existence of an Elven Adventurer was accepted.

You might think that it’s just a few years, but do you know how hard it must have been to survive as an Adventurer for a few years in an industry that didn’t acknowledge you at that time?

Certainly, she was fortunate to be able to work with Fenix.

Even in such a party, we had a discussion on whether or not we should hide her Elf ears with her Avatar when we took her in.

…Well, it was only Alba who told her to hide it, but that opinion is only natural if you think about the situation at the time. Alba wants to gain popularity, so it’s understandable that he wanted us to avoid walking on a thorny path.

Hardships always come to those who take the first step.

It requires the resolution to rip open a thorn wall with your bare hands to create your own path.

Lily had such a resolution.

This foolish young man who desires to be a hero despite being a Black Sorcerer did not want to deny her.

「I…see…」

Lily doesn’t seem to like anything related to hiding one’s race.

I understand her anger. It may be different from empathy, but I was able to understand after listening to her story.

At the same time, I also understand Suuri’s decision at the time to conceal his race. I mean, Lily is amazing, but in an occupation dependent on public favor, public opinion is very important.

The main reason why I had to leave the party was because, let’s face it, the party’s popularity was unusually low.

Well, in Lily’s case, I suppose she can’t forgive a fellow Elf who would continue as an Adventurer while lying about being the race that he should be proud to be.

「But Lily, wouldn’t standing in his way while pretending to be a Monster be the same thing?」

Said Fenix.

Based on the Adventurer setting, Normals get preferential treatment.

During the war, Elves stuck to their stance of non-intervention in the past.

So Elves fighting alongside the hero doesn’t fit the setting.

The sense of discomfort created a sense of resistance, which many fans developed into disgust.

Lily’s beauty, her powerful Godspeed skill, the Flame Hero’s trust in her, and above all else, her unshakable nobility in the face of all sorts of rumors.

She impressed the people with those.

「What’s important right now isn’t to win as an individual, but as an Elf. I wish to fight him as an Elf on the Monster side.」

I see.

She wants to fight as an Elf and win as an Elf.

I believe she plans on conveying something to him by doing that.

Actually, I did notice something.

When the Fenix party became the 4th rank and after the Scathach party went down to the 5th rank.

Lily paid attention to their movements.

In taverns or restaurants, she would watch the TV intently if they were on it, and when we’re on the road, she would be reading information magazines about Adventurers.

Surely, Lily has proven that she can move up in the world as an Elf. She wanted to tell him that there was no need to conceal your race, your ears, your beautiful blond hair and skin, and your pride as an Elf.

But Suuri continued to conceal his identity.

Lily didn’t wish to expose his secret. She probably wants to change his perception somehow.

She wants it bad enough to rely on me, for who she feels guilty about my withdrawal from the party.

「Once, I was saved by your and Fenix’s opinion. If either one of you were on the side of hiding my ears, I would have given up on joining you all. You have allowed me to fight as I am. In spite of that kindness, I thought of you as a burden and approved of your withdrawal from the party.」

「No, that’s a different story. You don’t have to overlook mistakes just because you are indebted to me. I made decisions thinking about the fastest way to get to the 1st rank, and it failed.」

「No, Bella was right. We should have noticed. Truthfully, I always held a sense of uneasiness. About how my arrows would find its mark far better than in training…This is embarrassing to say but, I interpreted it as me just being stronger in a real match. If anything, it was not difficult to convince myself, as it was so long ago.」

It is difficult to prepare a moving target during training for something like Alba’s Magic Sword. Even if it were possible, it wouldn’t be the same as a living enemy.

Lark’s practice partners were always either Alba or Fenix, but compared to those two, especially Fenix, most Monsters feel slow and their attack power is weak.

In addition, I was using my Black Magic in a way that no one would notice, so it’s understandable that they didn’t feel that something was off.

What I said about Alba could also be applied to Lily, but she was originally a resident of the forest. An experienced hunter.

If the process of shooting a target was slightly different between practice and in a match, she most likely noticed it unconsciously.

「My method wasn’t perfect either. I was so obsessed with winning that I robbed you all of your chance to grow and improve.」

「Without that imperfect method, what rank do you think we would be at by now? At the very least, we wouldn’t have gotten as high as the 4th rank.」