“Where did you learn that name?”
Seeing Pettus’s change of expression, all three visitors knew that something might be wrong with that name.
Roland was about to speak the truth, but Cage said first, “I overheard it from some mercenaries in a tavern in Winterwind. I’m rather curious.”
Staring at Cage, Pettus smiled and said, “That’s impossible. The regular mercenaries are too illiterate to even spell ‘elf.’ How can they know anything as mysterious as ‘Arcane Windrunner’?”
“So you do know it?” Cage looked at him.
Pettus nodded and put his cup down. He tapped the table more and more heavily, and the tension was building too.
Eventually, Pettus stopped his movement. He stared at Cage and tried to speak as calmly as possible. “You haven’t answered my question yet. Where exactly did you learn that name?”
Frowning, Roland was about to talk again.
But Cage leaned against the back of the chair and said lazily, “Like I said, I overheard it from some mercenaries. What’s wrong?”
Pettus glanced at Roland and Andonara, before he focused his eyes on Cage again. “We’ve been friends for years. You must be responsible for what you say. That name couldn’t have been known by random people.”
“I said that I overheard it. If it represents something scary, you can just tell it to me. There’s no trouble that we can’t share, is there?”
Pettus stared Cage in the eyes for a long time.
Cage looked back at him without giving in at all.
A moment later, Pettus slightly lowered his eyes and smiled. “Okay, I’ll answer it since you asked.”
Then, he stood up and said, “Follow me. You two juniors, come with me too.”
Andonara and Roland looked at Cage, asking him what to do with their eyes.
Cage nodded.
They followed Pettus through the manor. In the end, they passed a dark trail, climbed circular stairs for a long time, and walked through a black wooden door, before they were embraced by light again.
Before their eyes were blossoming flowers and green grass. Many two-meter-tall trees had been arranged in a circle. At the center of the circle was a cottage with many potted plants around it.
Faint music was coming from the cottage.
Roland took a deep breath and couldn’t feel more comfortable.
He raised his head, only to see a high wall behind the trees. Behind the wall was the sky.
The wind roared and raged above their heads, but it echoed with the music from the cottage, creating a weirdly quiet, harmonious atmosphere.
Cage looked around and said with a smile, “I’ve never been here before. I didn’t know that you had a paradise hidden here.”
“This is where Sejuani rests. Of course I have to make it nice.” Pettus smiled and said, “You know she doesn’t like the tumult of our world.”
As he spoke, the music from the cottage stopped. Very soon, the door opened, and a female elf walked out.
She looked at Cage and said, “It’s been a long time.”
“It indeed has.” Cage sighed and said, “I’ve always been curious about how you could’ve endured the human world for so long. But I get it now.”
Chuckling, Cage gestured at the environment.
The female elf replied with a gentle smile and pointed at the few wood stools before the cottage. “Let’s talk there.”
Everybody went over. At this point, Andonara approached Roland and asked in a low voice, “Which one is prettier, me or her?”
“You, of course,” replied Roland without hesitation.
Andonara immediately giggled in delight.
Roland was telling the truth.
This female elf was indeed beautiful, but she was not even as pretty as the previous Andonara, not to mention the present Andonara, whose Charm had been further improved after her family bloodline was accessed.
Besides, the elves were generally… skinny, whereas Andonara had attractive curves.
So, in conclusion, Andonara was much more charming than this female elf.
They sat on the wooden stools.
Cage spoke to the female elf. “Sejuani, this is Andonara, my niece. You may call her Anna. This young man is her man.”
Then, he introduced her to Andonara and Roland, “This is Sejuani. She was a partner when I worked as a mercenary. By the way, Pettus was my partner too.”
Roland and Andonara were both slightly surprised that the mayor used to be a mercenary.
In her bright green dress, Sejuani was slightly confused. “Pettus, you’ve never brought an outsider here before. What happened?”
“They asked me what ‘Arcane Windrunner’ meant.”
Pettus was quite grave.
Sejuani had been quite relaxed until she heard this phrase. She then became somewhat nervous.
“Where did you learn that phrase?”
Cage immediately replied, “I overheard it from a mercenary.”
Pettus snorted. “You’re still not telling the truth? Do you not consider us friends at all?”
Sejuani also said, “That’s impossible. Whoever knows that phrase is either involved or dead.”
As he spoke, Sejuani laid her eyes on Roland and said gently, “I can sense an elven vibe in you that is just like mine. It must be you who want to know what it means, right?”
Cage hesitated, but in the end, he simply scratched his head and didn’t say anything.
Pettus chuckled and stared at Cage.
Cage did not look back at him.
Seeing that Cage “flinched”, Roland said, “Yes, that’s what I wanted to know.”
“It would be weird if Cage, a pure human, asked that.” Sejuani looked at Roland with approval and said, “But since you carry the elven bloodline, I can basically understand why.”
Roland sensed enormous natural magic power inside the female elf, but the power was rather queer and different from what Roland simulated.
Of course, Roland wasn’t sure that the natural magic power he simulated was correct.
After all, she was a legit elf with a pair of long ears, and her natural magic power should be authentic. Roland’s was only counterfeit.
Roland said, “I only heard the phrase from a strange being. My instincts tell me that there’s something more behind Arcane Windrunner. I actually caught another name as well: Destructive Druid.”
Pettus seemed slightly surprised.
Sejuani also looked at Roland in surprise. Then she said, “If you know about Destructive Druid, you are indeed qualified to know this.
“The so-called Arcane Windrunners are traitors among the elves,” Sejuani said solemnly. “If a pure-blood elf discovered an Arcane Windrunner or a Destructive Druid, they would attack them so crazily that they would rather die together with those traitors.”
