After the court session was dismissed, the Queen headed over to the royal study and to start with her duties for the day, planning to submerge herself in work to fend off the sombre mood from before.

"It's me." as she was mindlessly going through the small mountain of scrolls on her table, a sudden knock on the door alongside a low, deep voice brought her back to reality.

"Come in." the Queen said in a tired voice.

"Sorry for disturbing Your Majesty." the visitor deeply bowed towards the Queen and stood in wait.

"Elder, please don't address me like that here, you're only making me feel more uncomfortable." the Queen replied with a bitter smile as she looked towards the aged general standing in wait before her.

"Hahaha, you never change Sofia." a rumbling laughter resounded across the room as the general went to grab a cup of water from the side before making himself comfortable on the couch with experienced motions, clearly not his first time doing so.

Of course, this was hardly surprising for him, having served in the palace through the reign of three different Elven Kings before the current Queen until his current age of a hundred and twenty-six years old, one of the oldest members in the court.

"Elder, thanks for helping out earlier." Sofia solemnly thanked the elderly general for his display of anger before, knowing that he was doing it to help her.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing. I was just pissed off seeing Balk acting so cocky." the general casually dismissed it with an exaggerated wave of his hand, acting as though he hadn't intended to help her.

"You haven't changed as well, you're still as bad at lying." Sofia chuckled lightly as she saw the general's reaction, instantly seeing through his pretence.

"Haa, why can't you be more like Alvin, he never doubted me no matter what I said." the general's movements froze awkwardly at being called out, letting out a deep sigh as he complained with a reminiscent smile on his lips.

"I'm sure my husband was also able to tell, he was probably just acting in front of you." Sofia said as she chuckled again, but moisture could be seen on the corners of her eyes despite her laughter as she spoke.

"Sofia, are you really just going to leave it like that?" after a brief silence, the general finally cut to the chase and asked the question that had been resting in his mind since earlier with a serious expression.

"What else can we do? Kill him?" Sofia responded with a bitter smile on her face, knowing what matter the general was referring to.

Although she wasn't serious when she added the last part, a bloodthirsty light shone through the general's eyes as he heard the words, tensing his body entirely as though he were going for battle.

"Elder, stop it! I was only kidding!" Sofia's eyes widened with shock as she noticed his reaction, hastily screaming to stop him from thinking deeper into it.

"Sofia, my time is already about to come, I can feel it in my bones. If there's anything this old bag of bones can still do to help th---" the general ignored her words and continued to speak with a strong resolve burning within him.

"Elder, please... stop. Besides... even if you were to try, how will you ever succeed? That coward is always surrounded by guards. Mighty as your blades may be, they cannot reach him. I do not want to lose even you...Please." the Queen pleaded to the general in tears, dissuading him of the idea.

"Sofia, don't cry. I was also just kidding, this body of mine can still last many more years." the general's expression softened as he looked at the child in tears before him, letting out a hearty laugh as he tried to console her.

"Yes... I'm sure you will continue living for a long, long time!" Sofia looked to the general with a sorrowful smile, not choosing to reveal his painfully blatant lie this time, but instead choosing to place her hope in his words.

"Since it makes you unhappy, let us not talk about this matter. There's another thing I wanted to ask you, what is your plan with that elf you spoke of, Alz was it?" the general decided move over to the other topic he was interested about.

"It seems like Aura has really taken a liking to him." Sofia replied with a tone of worried and helplessness, seemingly not answering the question.

"I heard." the general however wasn't lost by the sudden flow of the conversation, replying to her with a furrowed brow.

After all, Sofia deeply knew the position of the elf before her, who was superior in some ways even when compared to her husband back when he was still around, much less herself.

Although she could instruct Ada to hide certain details before the crowd, she couldn't command her to lie before this elf whom had personally taught all of them how to fight, an elf whom they deeply respected from the bottom of their hearts.

"Can he be trusted?" the general asked.

"I'll have to see for myself, I sent him an invitation to the palace for when he recovers." Sofia shook her head lightly as she replied.

From Alz's background and the observations Ada reported of him, there was nothing much to doubt about him. Despite this, she still couldn't fully set her mind at ease without meeting him personally, wanting to judge with her own eyes.

"What do you plan on doing with him?" the general nodded in affirmation at her reply before raising another question.

"...I don't know. The southern captain report stated he that he has intentions to leave ...but I hear that he also likes to read." there was a slight delay before Sofia returned an answer, glancing down at the stack of scrolls on her desk towards the end.

The general's eyes widened with shock, his mind blanking out momentarily as he was caught off guard by Sofia's unexpected answer.

"Are you sure?" he couldn't help but ask again in a concerned voice, but Sofia only responded wordlessly with a bitter smile on her face, wearing an expression that was filled with pain and guilt.

The elderly general let out a heavy sigh as he looked towards the frail, fatigued elf before him with deep grief contained in his eyes, recalling the blissful expressions he had seen on their family of three back when the King was still here, days that had been gone for over a decade.

Even though he had obtained the answers that he came for, the general didn't immediately depart after this, staying to engage in a pleasant conversation with the Queen.

With the initial topics out of the way, the conversation that followed proceeded smoothly and brought smiles to both elves as they it continued, allowing both of them to temporarily set aside the problems brought about by the North.

However, their conversation suddenly took a weird turn about twenty minutes later, with the general hastily taking his leave from the royal study after he had unknowingly revealed a piece of information to the Queen.

Unlike with the Queen, Ada was being entirely truthful about the matters when she recounted it to the general, partly also because she didn't expect him to share that section with the Queen, but things clearly didn't proceed how she had intended.

"Still, I didn't think you would let him off so easily after he saw and touched Aurelia's bare body, even if it was to treat her." the general randomly brought up a topic during the conversation, ending off in a hearty laugh.

"A-Ah, yes, but it was to save her after all, so why would I blame Alz for this?" Sofia's expression paused unnaturally as she heard this, but she didn't reveal anything on her face as she immediately asked.

"What matters the most is that Aurelia is still alive, and he did indeed do a good job when treating her, so something small like this shouldn't matter." the general nodded several times as he spoke, agreeing with her words entirely.

Yet, when he looked ahead again, an instinctive chill began to spread across his entire body as his eyes met with the seemingly gentle smile on Sofia's face that somehow felt unnatural no matter how he looked, even though he couldn't pinpoint the reason why.

"Yes, it is a small matter, of course... it doesn't matter." Sofia smiled 'gently' at the general as she spoke in an emotionless voice, causing the warning bells to ring harder in the general's mind as cold sweat started to drench his back.

"M-My Queen, I think it is about time for me to excuse myself." he hastily tried to leave, receiving a light nod from Sofia with the same, unchanging smile on her face, not even correcting his sudden change in addressing her.

"General, can you please call Ada over when you leave?" as the general was about to close the door behind him, the Queen's emotionless voice spread into his ears, bringing a bitter look to his face as he walked away.

"Sorry, Ada."

"Ada, the Queen is calling for you." the elderly general naturally didn't disobey the Queen, moving to call the unsuspecting squad captain over while apologising to her inwardly as he rapidly made his way out of the palace.

---

"Ada, was there something you left out in your report?" the Queen looked at her with the same 'gentle' smile she showed the general before.

Ada froze in terror upon entering the room, instantly understanding the reason she was suddenly called for.

---

Meanwhile, Alz was busy flipping through the wealth of scrolls he had picked out from the shelves when his body suddenly shook uncontrollably for an instant, feeling a weird sense of unease rise within him.