Cocotte's eyes darted around awkwardly as she let out two dry laughs.
Then she forced a stiff smile onto her face.
Honestly, what Vinia said wasn't funny at all.
Marry Viktor?
How was that even possible? She and Viktor were comrades-in-arms, the best kind at that. Viktor was practically her boss!
Besides, she'd heard childbirth was incredibly painful. No way was she doing that.
But using "I'm scared of pain" as an excuse felt like something she'd get mercilessly mocked for.
So all she could do was laugh awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
Liya merely smiled without speaking.
Her gaze drifted between Cocotte and Vinia, carefully sizing them up, a hidden sharpness concealed behind her smile.
It almost looked like she was considering how to dispose of the two elves.
Only Vinia herself seemed completely unaware that there was anything strange about what she'd said.
As an elf priestess, the first thing she considered was naturally the problem the elven race was currently facing.
Although the Forest of Elves also had a World Tree, in the future, large numbers of elves would inevitably live among humans.
It would be impossible for every elf to return to the Forest of Elves just to give birth.
Which made whether Cocotte could reproduce elves an extremely important matter.
And if, in the human world, marriage between a man and a woman was necessary in order to produce offspring...
Then as the Father of Elves, wouldn't all their reproductive problems be solved as long as Viktor married Cocotte?
"No, no, no!"
Cocotte shook her head nonstop like a rattling drum, firmly rejecting Vinia's proposal.
Could this even be called a proposal?
It was completely unreliable.
Cocotte raised a fist to her mouth and coughed lightly a few times.
That immediately drew both Liya and Vinia's attention toward her.
"Don't forget, Viktor already has a fiancee."
Hearing that, Vinia tilted her head, pure and innocent confusion filling her eyes.
"What's a fiancee?"
As a nature elf, she had very little contact with human society.
She didn't understand many human customs.
Looking at the utterly puzzled Vinia, Liya slowly explained, "If Viktor has a fiancee, that means he already has a marriage arrangement with another woman. It means he's promised to marry someone else."
Vinia thought for a moment before asking curiously, "Can humans only marry once?"
"Can't a fiancee be replaced?"
Those two straightforward questions left both Liya and Cocotte stunned into silence.
Silence.
A long silence.
After a while, Liya pressed a hand to her forehead and laughed bitterly.
Elven values really were something else.
Though thinking about it that way, it actually wasn't strange.
Elves lived such long lives that by the time humans died, elves would still look young.
So if an elf married a human, maybe they really could marry several times over the course of their life.
Seeing that Liya hadn't answered, Vinia continued, "Miss Liya, have you ever considered marriage?"
"Uh… well…"
This time, the awkward one became Liya.
She avoided Vinia's gaze and looked up at the ceiling awkwardly, unconsciously circling her finger.
She really had never seriously thought about it before.
But Vinia didn't let up and kept asking, "According to human customs, if you don't get married, then you can't have descendants, right?"
"Well… it's not exactly… impossible…"
Liya's voice grew softer and softer. By the end, her muttering was so faint that even Vinia, who was closest to her, couldn't hear clearly.
She coughed a few times, lifted her head, and looked at Vinia again.
"You obviously can't treat something like this carelessly. If two people aren't suitable for each other, then forcing it naturally won't work."
"Exactly, exactly! If they're not suitable, then they definitely shouldn't get married!"
Cocotte hurriedly chimed in from the side.
For a moment, she and Liya actually shared a strange sense of understanding. The two exchanged glances and nodded.
But what Vinia said next struck both of them like a direct hit to the soul.
"So Miss Liya means that you and Lord Viktor aren't suitable for each other, right?"
"Huh?"
That single sentence instantly crashed Liya's brain.
"Uh… I-I didn't mean that…"
"No, that's not it, we're just… just not… not suitable…"
Seeing Liya on the verge of spiraling into confusion and panic, Cocotte quickly stepped in to save her.
"What are you talking about, Vinia? Viktor is Liya's older brother! How could the two of them possibly be together!?"
After hearing that, Vinia hesitated briefly before nodding.
"I see. I think I understand now."
Even though neither of them had any idea what exactly she had understood, Liya finally let out a sigh of relief.
She sincerely hoped this overly knowledgeable elf would stop asking questions already. The things Vinia kept bringing up were far too sensitive. If this continued, Liya felt like she'd be the first one to lose her mind.
Then Vinia started a brand-new round of questions.
"Miss Liya, I have one final question."
"Since you and Lord Viktor are siblings, does that mean your parents are the same people?"
That question at least sounded relatively normal to Liya. She fell silent briefly before answering,
"Mhm. Normally speaking, yes. Though our father should be the same person…"
"But our mothers aren't."
———
"No one has ever seen your mother. Not even me."
A deep, heavy voice rumbled above Viktor's head.
Viktor followed behind Helnarson's gigantic body, as though trailing behind a moving mountain.
Helnarson held a burning torch in one hand, its wavering firelight casting brownish illumination across the surrounding trees.
Farther into the forest floated endless, murky darkness.
Even though there wasn't the slightest trace of living creatures nearby, the silence of this forest still gave the unsettling feeling that terrifying beasts were lurking somewhere within.
Viktor's footsteps snapped branches beneath him, the crisp cracks mixing with the rustling of leaves.
Mist drifted through the forest, though the airflow circulating around Helnarson blew away all fog within several meters.
One in front and one behind, the two continued deeper into the forest.
As they walked, Helnarson's powerful voice rang out once more.
"When the former family head brought you back, you were already one year old."
Viktor's sudden appearance had enraged his grandfather.
The old man had blown his beard out in fury, pointed at Viktor's father's nose, and cursed him endlessly.
He cursed him for disregarding the bigger picture, for acting recklessly, for lacking even the slightest dignity expected of a true Clavenna family heir.
Before even getting married, he had already brought back a child.
The Clavenna family's reputation would plummet instantly because of this unexpected child.
After all, people loved gossip.
Especially when Viktor's father had been one of the emperor's most trusted subordinates at the time, and one of his closest brothers-in-arms.
So who exactly was this child's mother?
No one knew.
Then, after the emperor ascended the throne, rewards and glory were showered upon the loyal faction that had supported him.
By all rights, the long-glorious Clavenna family should naturally have shared in those immense merits earned through supporting the emperor.
As long as the Clavennas had chosen to remain in the royal capital and steadily develop for several decades...
Perhaps the Calencia Empire would now have two dukes instead of one.
And yet, the family head at the time, Viktor's father...
Perhaps in order to prevent the secretly brought-back child from becoming the subject of public discussion, chose only a single territory from among the emperor's rewards.
The Clavenna family thus faded from public view and withdrew to Braeston as mere viscounts.
Even though the Clavenna family, with its tremendous achievements, could have risen much higher, he instead chose to lead the family into seclusion.
Many of Viktor's father's old comrades believed he was a man with no ambition, someone who desired nothing more than temporary peace and comfort.
At the time, the emperor had only just taken the throne and desperately needed capable aides.
Yet Viktor's father returned to Braeston ahead of everyone else to quietly enjoy life.
"After that, the former family head casually married a woman and, when you were five years old, gave birth to the current Miss Liya."
"But you probably knew nothing about any of this."
That woman had been found by the family head in a relatively remote region of the empire.
She had never once come to Braeston in her entire life, nor had she ever visited the Clavenna household.
Even Helnarson had never seen Liya's mother.
In fact, after the former family head passed away, Helnarson had even tried sending people to search for that woman.
As Liya's mother, and as Viktor's father's legal wife...
Even though she had never come to Braeston, she was still the family's mistress in name.
But she had vanished from the world as though she'd evaporated into thin air. No matter how Helnarson searched, he found nothing.
Whether it was Viktor's mother or Liya's mother...
It was as though they had made an agreement. Neither of them had ever appeared.
At that moment, Viktor, walking behind Helnarson, slowly spoke.
Viktor followed behind Helnarson and slowly said, "Helnarson, do you know about that mirror?"
Helnarson walked ahead in silence.
Viktor continued, "That mirror was dug out from our family's mine."
"It's a living being, and it knows Liya's past."
"And the thing that left the deepest impression on me was one sentence it said."
At last, the dark forest came to an end. Without the cover of trees, a cold wind swept across the sky and brushed past Viktor's body.
His black coat swayed in the wind, the fabric snapping sharply against itself.
The fur on Helnarson's body was blown backward as well, but he stood motionless.
In front of Viktor and Helnarson stood an enormous gravestone.
It was nearly as tall as Viktor himself, covered in a thick layer of dust.
The surrounding area was a wide stretch of open ground, marked by countless traces, though most had been buried beneath overgrown grass and could no longer be clearly seen.
The cold wind swept through, lifting the dust from the gravestone into the air.
Viktor's obsidian-like eyes stared at the small words engraved upon it as he said calmly, "The Clavenna family is a cursed family."
"Which is why no mage will ever appear within this family."
The instant those words fell, six small magic circles appeared behind Viktor.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
They flashed briefly in the air before gradually dimming.
Just before disappearing completely, they flashed again, repeating endlessly.
Their light illuminated the words hidden beneath the darkness on the gravestone.
[Soul Messenger Wandering the Border Prison]
Tisnato Clavenna.
"So both you and I already know the truth, don't we?"
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