The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 124

#124.

The First Negotiation Day.

I had quietly finished all the preparations to slip away from the negotiation site with Ella.

For the first negotiation session, only Zakary and Jerarkiel attended the meeting initially.

They still don’t know why they brought me along, so they intend to figure that out.

Thanks to that, I was planning to easily escape and go out.

Moreover, unlike what I expected, Jerarkiel, whose obsession I thought would be a challenge, acted like he was missing a screw somewhere.

He was often spacing out but busy following me around like a chick.

I was worried about his somewhat anxious appearance, but now is the time to focus on the goal in front of me.

I glanced at Ayla, who was stuck next to me instead of Jerarkiel.

She was knitting earmuffs for me, who gets cold easily, and was even humming a song.

Even if she’s off guard like that, the moment I move, her eyes turn to me like a ghost.

It’s as if she has eyes on the back of her head, how agile she is.

But there’s no way I wouldn’t have anticipated this situation.

I deliberately yawned loudly to attract attention.

“Haaah.”

As expected, Ayla put down her knitting and approached me.

“Are you sleepy?”

“Yeah. I think I need to take a nap.”

When Ayla tried to follow me as if it were natural, I hardened my expression and said.

“Freeze.”

“Yes?”

“Ayla, I’m a full-fledged adult now. How long are you going to treat me like a child?”

Ayla looked embarrassed at my sulky reaction.

“Oh, that’s right. Was it? Hehehe, you were just a little lady until recently, when did you grow up so much?”

Then she looked at me with a wistful face. It was like a mother looking proudly at her grown-up child.

I quickly headed for the door, lest she follow me to my room, and shouted.

“I’m going to sleep alone, so Ayla, knit hard.”

“Yes. Call me anytime if you need anything.”

Ayla watched me head to my room without any particular suspicion.

Thanks to my overly sensitive reaction whenever she treated me like a child these days, she didn’t even dare to follow me anymore.

Hehehe. That’s why a person’s usual behavior is important, right?

Having safely arrived in my room, I closed the door tightly and took a deep breath.

Then, I carefully slid the rug on the floor, and there was a large pit where an adult beastkin could enter.

‘Nice, Mr. Jonathan!’

I cheered inwardly and quickly lowered myself into the pit.

Thanks to Jonathan, who had scouted the area in advance, I was able to escape easily.

I moved nimbly like an agent on a secret mission.

I had to hurry to get back before the negotiation ended.

Just in case, Ella had already left for the village, and now all that was left was to follow her.

As I rounded a corner, I collided with a beastkin who suddenly popped out, and I let out a small scream.

“Oops.”

Thud-!

And with a tremendous sound, the beastkin I collided with fell to the ground.

It was because the other side hadn’t even noticed me, so they were pushed over by the force.

I was startled and reached out to the beastkin I had collided with. It wasn’t a hard collision, but looking at the other person’s skinny body, I thought I knew why they had fallen.

“Oh, are you okay? I’m sorry. I had something urgent to do, so I was in a hurry…….”

“No, it’s okay…….”

And it was the moment when the other person raised their head to take my hand.

“Ah…….”

“……!”

The woman recognized me and let out a soft exclamation. As soon as I saw her face, I recognized her at first glance.

Would I look like that if I aged?

The silver-haired woman looked so much like me except for her blue eyes. Enough to be considered family by anyone.

“…….”

“…….”

We stared at each other for a long time. And the other person spoke first.

“Baby.”

My eyes started to shake violently at the unexpected affectionate title.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ella secretly slipped out of the Ludem Temple and moved to the village.

The name of this remote village hidden in the northern snowfields is Dane.

It was a place where the families of the priests who served the Ludem Temple used to live in groups.

After the Ludem Temple was dissolved by the Hebel Temple, it had long been transformed into a refuge for people stranded in the snowfields.

Now it was hard to see it as a village of priests, but the families who guarded the temple at that time still lived on from generation to generation.

Today, she had come to meet the beastkin of that family.

“Why aren’t they coming yet?”

Ella, who was waiting for Cheresia at the entrance of the village, looked at her watch anxiously.

She had to hurry to get back before the negotiation ended. Cheresia’s figure was nowhere to be seen.

‘If I’m too late, it means I failed to escape. Go in and check first. I’ll try to follow as much as possible.’

Ella couldn’t just keep waiting because Cheresia had asked her to do so.

“I can’t help it.”

Eventually, Ella decided to enter the village first and inquired about the shaman’s house.

And the shaman’s house she arrived at. A mysterious woman who covered her face below her nose with a thin cloth greeted Ella.

“What brings you to this place from afar?”

“Are you the shaman?”

“Yes, I am the chief of this Dane.”

Ella felt her body stiffen as the woman smiled.

The shaman was young and beautiful on the outside. Her glossy black hair and deep, dark black eyes that were impossible to fathom created a noble atmosphere. Just making eye contact made her feel like she was seeing through her thoughts, so she naturally lowered her gaze.

It was true that the shamans of Dane aged relatively slowly. Ella knew that she was quite old even though she looked like that, so she introduced herself politely.

“Hello, elder. I am ‘El,’ who sent you a letter before. Do you happen to remember?”

‘El’ was the name she used when she hid her identity and acted. It was a nickname that only Heathcliff used to call her in the past.

Now that the existence that would call her that nickname no longer remembered her, she was just using it.

The shaman smiled faintly and said.

“Ah, you’re the young man who was curious about the ‘Evenseve’ that is passed down in our village.”

“Yes, yes, that’s right.”

The legend they called Evenseve was a story presumed to contain the story of the ‘Opal of Nothingness.’

It was said to be a story passed down through the priests who guarded the Ludem Temple.

Moreover, it was said that the chief of Dane was chosen from the family of priests from the Ludem Temple for generations.

So the woman in front of her was the one who knew the most about Evenseve.

“That’s unexpected. It’s just a stuffy story that only we know now. Thank you for taking such precious steps. My name is Yanua.”

The shaman, who introduced herself as Yanua, the chief of Dane, brought Ella inside.

Ella felt relieved at the strangely familiar face, even though it was her first time seeing her.

The story began right after she sat down and poured tea.

“The Evenseve Scripture is a legend related to the stone that we in Dane considered sacred. Evenseve is named after the cursed saint.”

When the Divine Beast descended on the Amitaras Continent. There were two beastkins living in Hebel.

Larien and Evenseve.

Larien was the saint chosen by the Divine Beast, and Evenseve was her sister.

Evenseve was not a saint, but she was free to humanize even in Hebel because she was Larien’s family.

The story about her was the Evenseve legend and the scripture that the Ludem Temple guarded.

If Larien was light, Evenseve was like a shadow, so it was a story that was not well known.

Ella said.

“I’ve never heard of another saint during the Divine Beast’s descent. Usually, they only deal with Saint Larien.”

“That’s right. Hebel does not recognize Evenseve as a saint. She is the one who was cursed by the Divine Beast and turned into a stone because she was jealous of her sister.”

Indeed, a temple that celebrates a cursed saint. Doesn’t it seem strange somewhere?

“In a way, the story passed down here is like a forbidden book in Hebel. The decline of the Ludem Temple is also due to such differences in beliefs.”

The Ludem Temple was destroyed by Hebel a long time ago. Now only the site remains and is used as a negotiation site, but in the past, it was said to be a temple with quite a few followers.

Ella said politely.

“Actually, the person I serve wants to read the Evenseve Scripture.”