Chapter 210: What the Hell Is Going On Here

The walk back to the palace was, to say the least, uncomfortable for Mark.

Not because of the distance or the road itself, but because of the emperor’s constant effort to strike up a conversation with him.

Throughout the entire journey, Joseph didn’t stop talking.

He asked about the kingdom’s weather, the quality of elven wines, the city’s architecture, his impressions of life in the capital, and a dozen other topics that Mark suspected Joseph didn’t actually care about at all.

Every question came accompanied by a wide smile and a carefree tone that felt extremely forced.

"And tell me, how are you finding life as a ruler so far?" Joseph continued as they walked. "I imagine the change must have been overwhelming. One day you’re a... well, whatever you were before, and the next you have an entire kingdom on your shoulders."

"It involves more paperwork than I expected..." Mark replied dryly.

Joseph burst out laughing as if Mark had just told the best joke in the world.

"Ha! The paperwork! How right you are," he said, patting his shoulder. "Nobody warns you about that when you dream of power, do they? You imagine yourself giving grand orders and conquering territories, and the reality is you spend half the day signing documents."

Mark didn’t respond.

’Does this guy ever get tired of talking?’ he thought, keeping his pace without looking at him. ’He’s been talking nonstop for fifteen minutes.’

But fortunately he didn’t have to endure it much longer, because the palace was already rising before them.

And at the main entrance Ely was waiting for them, accompanied by a group of royal guards lined up on either side.

"Master!" Ely said with a smile upon seeing him approach.

"Ely," Mark replied, stopping in front of her. "Has the beastman delegation arrived?"

"Yes, they arrived a good while ago," she confirmed. "Emilia is entertaining them in one of the halls to buy time, though from what they told me, the princess who came was already getting a little impatient."

"Princess?"

"Yes, it turns out the delegation is led by a princess of the beastman kingdom herself," she explained. "And she came with only one companion."

"Great..." Mark murmured, rubbing his eyes. "Exactly what I needed, another royal I have to walk on eggshells around."

Then Ely looked over Mark’s shoulder toward the group following him, and her expression shifted slightly.

"Master," she said in a lower tone. "Who are all these people coming behind you?"

"It’s a long story..." he replied with a sigh. "But to summarize: they’re visitors from the Eldia Kingdom. The blonde in front is none other than their emperor, and apparently he came to join the party. He’ll be attending the meeting with us."

Ely narrowed her eyes, looking at the group, and then something in her memory clicked.

She leaned slightly toward him and lowered her voice even further.

"Wait a moment..." she whispered, narrowing her eyes. "Those armors... aren’t those the ones from the camp we massacred a few weeks ago? The slavers?"

"The same ones..." Mark replied quietly without turning around.

"And you brought them to the palace just like that?"

"Believe me, it wasn’t exactly my idea..."

Ely nodded slowly, though she kept observing the people accompanying her Master.

Then she noticed that the emperor, his assistant, and the few guards with them couldn’t take their eyes off her.

The disbelief on their faces was impossible to hide, and Ely knew perfectly well what it meant.

"Master..." she whispered even lower. "It seems they recognized me."

Mark let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

"Yeah..." he replied just as quietly. "And Alice too. They found out at the docks a while ago."

"..."

"But it doesn’t matter now," he said with resignation. "People finding out about you two was something that was going to happen sooner or later anyway... I couldn’t keep you hidden forever."

Ely reflected for a few seconds and then made a suggestion.

"What if we kill them all?"

"...Huh?"

"It’s the simplest solution," Ely explained calmly. "If we eliminate them all right here, nobody can leak the information that Alice and I are in your service. Problem solved. Clean and quick."

Mark ran a hand over his face and let out a sigh.

"Ely, we can’t just kill an emperor and his entire entourage at the entrance of my own palace."

"...Why not?"

"For starters, that would be more of a problem than letting them leave," Mark replied. "How long do you think it would take them to send us an army if we did something to them? Besides, we just stabilized the kingdom and the last thing we need right now is to start a war."

Ely considered it for a second.

"...You’re right," she admitted finally. "I hadn’t thought of it that way."

"I know."

"But," she added, glancing at him sideways with a small smile, "if at any point you change your mind and decide you’d rather get rid of them, just say the word. I’ll take care of them in the blink of an eye."

Mark let out a tired laugh and then turned toward the emperor.

"Well," he said out loud. "It seems the meeting already started a while ago, so we’d better not waste any more of their time."

Joseph, who had been watching the whispered exchange between Mark and Ely with poorly concealed curiosity, recovered his smile instantly.

"I agree, my friend, it’s rude to keep others waiting."

"Very well, follow me," Mark said, turning and beginning to walk into the palace.

Joseph and the rest followed close behind.

But as they passed Ely, both the emperor, his assistant, and his guards couldn’t help turning their heads to look at her one more time, still unable to believe that the woman standing before them was who they thought she was.

Ely, for her part, ignored them completely.

She didn’t spare them so much as a glance, maintaining her posture by the entrance with her eyes straight ahead.

That only seemed to unsettle them further.

As they made their way through the palace corridors, Joseph leaned discreetly toward his assistant, who walked beside him with a folder of scrolls firmly tucked under his arm.

"The more time we spend in this place, the less I understand what the hell is going on here..." the emperor murmured, and for the first time since his arrival his smile faltered for an instant.