Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 87

Creating Retainers to Build a Human Empire 89

What is Human?

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On a hill at the city’s outskirts, where the light-devouring fog couldn’t reach, two elves sat, leisurely observing the city below.

“It’s working well,” the blue-eyed elf said, smiling as she watched the darkness gather around the city.

“It is. I wasn’t sure it would,” the black-haired elf replied.

“Can’t we make a few more? I want to use it on the dwarves, too.”

“It’ll be difficult. The wolf [likely a reference to a powerful magical being or entity] seemed to expend quite a bit of power creating it.”

The black-haired elf clicked her tongue. “Tch, that’s too bad. I wanted to get one over on them.”

“It wouldn’t be very effective, even if you did.”

“Why?”

“That thing only obscures vision and causes hallucinations, right? Don’t you know they work without lights when they’re mining? They work even with their eyes closed, thanks to the guardian deity in each city. Do you think that would work on them?”

The black-haired elf sighed. “Ah, that’s true. Well… if it were that easy, this tiresome standoff wouldn’t exist.”

She shook her head. Currently, the elves and dwarves were locked in a hostile standoff.

A dispute had arisen over who was to blame for the damaged seal of the Four Dragon Tiamar [a powerful, potentially world-ending entity], and emotions had escalated into inter-racial conflict.

“That prince, really… I wish he’d temper his temper.”

“He’s still young. It’s his prime.”

The Four Dragon was once an entity that almost destroyed the world. A broken seal meant that disaster could strike again.

Naturally, the responsibility was immense, so any nation or race even slightly involved strongly resisted taking responsibility. In the midst of this, the elven prince Raeragon took drastic action.

“It feels like it’s getting worse. There was no need to draw a sword this time, was there? Is something mortgaged to Tiamar? Why is he making such a fuss?”

Raeragon drew his sword in the council hall. He didn’t actually cut anyone.

The problem was that he suddenly blamed the dwarves and continued to make intimidating remarks, so the situation changed from ‘Why and how did the seal get damaged, and whose fault was it?’ to a matter of pride between races.

“Wasn’t it just because he hates dwarves?”

“Well… maybe.”

In fact, the two races had rarely *not* fought in their nearly ten thousand years of history. They were races competing for world hegemony, so there had been countless incidents that started more trivially and escalated more significantly.

Therefore, Raeragon’s sudden intimidation of the dwarves wasn’t a special event. At best, it was just a matter of not being able to suppress his youthful spirit.

“The problem is the timing. This isn’t the first time this has happened. It was going to fizzle out soon anyway, but the monkey [a derogatory term for humans] started to run wild, taking advantage of this.”

He clicked his tongue. “That’s what the representative system [a governing body or alliance of powerful races/entities] is for. But look at how things are going now.”

The role of the representative system was to coordinate the balance of the world. If a significantly powerful force emerged among humans, or if they acted against the plans of the representative system, suppressing them in the early stages was also a balance that the representative system had to coordinate.

However, the current actions of the representative system were far from their intended role.

“There are only two votes against it: Lord and Mosquito. There are also two abstentions: us and the dwarves. Did everyone take drugs or something?”

Lord said Tiamar’s power remained.

Vlad said excessive intervention was not good.

The elves and dwarves were in a standoff.

They moved lukewarmly with all sorts of excuses.

Even that lukewarm movement was a disaster for humans.

“All they’re doing is trying to erase what the monkey leader is aiming for before he gets his hands on it? This is child’s play.”

The blue elf scoffed. “If we’re not going to intervene directly, that’s the only way, isn’t it?”

“It’s frustrating. I don’t like how the representative system is acting these days. Especially Lord. His judgment has deteriorated a lot as he nears death. He says Tiamar’s magic remains? There’s almost none left now, is there?”

The black-haired elf took out a palm-sized leaf from her pocket. The fresh green leaf smelled refreshing, as if it had just been picked. She put the leaf to her nose, smelled it, and smiled.

It was a leaf from the World Tree [a source of immense magical power and life]. An invisible force caressed the elf.

“At this point, you didn’t even need to bring the leaf.”

“Well… I heard it doesn’t just mess with the flow of magic. It’s always good to be careful, just in case.”

“That’s true.”

With a smirk, the black-haired elf pointed to the city. “The monkeys are pitiful, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s pitiful that they live under Tiamar’s influence.”

“Monkeys are insensitive to magic. They’ll be less affected.”

“Saying they’re less affected… I wonder if something will happen to them, too.”

“I don’t know.”

The blue elf tilted her head. She shrugged, as if she wasn’t very interested.

“It’s all over anyway.”

Tiamar’s magic that covered the land had almost disappeared. There was no reason to leave the fertile land for livestock. Soon, there would be discussions in the representative system. The time had come to lift the ban on this land.

“Ah, but it’s a little disappointing,” the black-haired elf said to her companion.

“Serdet. He was such an obedient guy that there was even talk of handing over the next throne to him. We actually gave him a lot of benefits. But he’s going like this.”

“The prince said he must die. And he gave him a chance. He said he would leave Serdet alive if Edar, that monkey, died, and if he survived after killing those who sent him to the Great Plains.”

The blue elf laughed out loud and pointed to the darkness with a gesture. “After using that?”

“Is one city disappearing a big deal? Look at how much land they have.”

The blue elf stroked his chin. “How many will die?”

“We should be counting how many will survive.”

They chuckled and made bets. And soon, they looked up.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

The magic flowing from the darkness that had swallowed the city changed. It was a different magic than the magic flowing from Horbid and human souls.

The elves recognized the owner of the magic.

“Tiamar?”

That couldn’t be.

They mumbled, stunned. There were no signs. Why Tiamar’s magic?

“The seal… wasn’t it fixed?”

“What were we feeling until just now?”

They had just said that Tiamar’s magic had almost disappeared. The magic they felt now felt even stronger. Those who came into contact with the magic felt dizzy and touched their foreheads. They staggered and got up from their seats.

“We, we have to inform the representative system.”

As they turned to leave, blades flew towards them.

*Thwack!*

“Cough!”

The blue elf collapsed. A dagger that flew from behind pierced his heart accurately. The elf tried to get up, supporting himself on the ground, but collapsed.

“When did they…?”

Three humans surrounded the remaining elf. The retainers were hiding in the bushes right behind the hill. Among the retainers stood Hassan-i Sabbah, Nuadir [likely a leader or significant figure among the retainers].

“You monkeys!”

The elf lunged at the retainer in front of her. The retainer immediately raised his sword to block her downward attack, but the elf cut the retainer’s body in half along with the sword.

She was an observer directly dispatched from the representative system. If discovered, she had to kill the witnesses to leave no trace. She had to be a powerful figure that humans could not dare to approach.

*Slash!*

But that was all.

The gap she created by killing one retainer was enough time for Nuadir to kill her.

Nuadir’s dagger cut her neck from behind.

“······!”

The elf slowly turned her body, clutching her severed neck. She widened her eyes and opened her mouth to say something. However, all that came out instead of words was the sound of air escaping.

*Thud…*

The elf soon fell to the plain.

Nuadir confirmed her death and looked at the city, at the light emanating from the highest point of the city covered in darkness.

A smile spread across his face as he looked at the light.

“Entering the city.”