Aeren started walking without any destination. After taking a few steps, he saw an Elf floating in the sky, her cold eyes staring at him. The sky behind her made her look more like a goddess.
Aeren stared back at her, Aeren looking up while standing on the ground like trash in her eyes.
Aeren didn't say anything and started walking again, ignoring her and thinking, Should I just annihilate them? Let me understand them first—I may learn something from them.
As Aeren walked forward, she descended to the ground and stood opposite him. Aeren stopped and looked at her.
She looked at Aeren for a few seconds and asked, "What are you?"
Aeren didn't answer immediately. He paused, still staring at her. "What are you?"
She was surprised by his question returning her own. She stared at him and thought, He doesn't look like an elf and has no beauty, but he resembles our species. He looks intelligent from his language, meaning he's not from an animal species, but he looks suspicious. What should I do?
She started glaring at him, her instincts telling her to kill him.
She drew her sword and placed it at his neck, glaring at him.
"If you won't tell me, I'll slice your head off."
Aeren paused at this, and silence fell for a few seconds. A tree leaf traveled between them. Aeren and Olivia locked eyes with each other as Aeren's lips trembled.
"I'm a 'Knowledge Human' species, and I'm the only one of my species alive in this world—no others exist. If you kill someone like me, you get everything from me: talent, skill, memory, and more about my entire lifestyle."
Aeren went silent after revealing this about himself, but nothing changed. She still locked eyes with him, though his gaze didn't waver. Olivia thought, Why would he reveal something this sensitive? Should I kill him and test if he's lying or not?
Olivia controlled herself and stabbed her sword into his shoulder. Aeren looked at her sword and screamed in pain: "AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHH!"
Olivia saw through Aeren and guessed he was acting. She hadn't even done much, yet he was screaming like she'd done something terrible.
"Stop acting. Tell me the truth."
Aeren calmed himself down, breathed deeply, and showed her a pitiful look, but she didn't move. Then Aeren showed her a sad expression and started explaining:
"I'm sorry. Our human race is in danger, and I came to ask for help. You've already sensed other species in this world. You know now that you're not alone, right?"
Olivia thought about Aeren's concept and nodded. She could see he looked genuinely worried for his race—it showed in his eyes, and he looked pathetic. But they appeared to be similar species, so helping them wasn't a bad idea.
However, Olivia wasn't satisfied with his answer and still doubted his previous story. "Why didn't you say this earlier instead of talking nonsense? What if I had killed you? Then what?"
Aeren smiled, put his hand behind his head, and looked at her with a blush on his face, giving her a creepy look. "I was testing you. If you had killed me, that would mean you'd never help me anyway."
Olivia didn't expect this guy to be this smart. He's right. If I killed him, that would mean I'm not the right person and only care about myself, and maybe they would become a liability that makes it harder for people to get support.
She was satisfied now and thought, This species must survive. If someone lowly like him knows this much, what about someone more capable? Or is he the only intelligent one? Should I ask?
Olivia paused and thought more before finally asking, "Are all humans as intelligent as you?"
Aeren looked at her face without showing any expression, then an awkward smile appeared. He showed her his kindest smile after the awkward one, then looked at the ground with sadness.
"No, I'm the most average among them. That's why they sent me here—I don't have power. They gave me a chance to get help from anyone around, and I came here. I arrived here by coincidence and wanted to find anyone who could help us."
Aeren showed sadness on his face and displayed attachment to his species while staring at the ground.
She studied him and could sense all his sadness, awkwardness, and weakness. She examined his body language and could see Aeren wasn't lying to her. She could also sense the destruction around the world and tell that war was happening everywhere.
She nodded. "What is your name?"
Aeren showed a surprised face, his eyes brightening and shining as he looked excited.
"I'm Aeren Drevin. I was born as the lowest noble rank child."
Olivia saw his face and didn't understand why he was getting so excited. She had just asked his name and hadn't said anything about helping them. Does he think we're going to help him?
Olivia read Aeren like a book and made her assumptions, but she didn't explain this to him.
"Listen, Aeren, you need permission from our empress to accept your request. If she gives a positive answer, you'll get help from us. Otherwise, you'll have to leave this place."
Aeren's bright smile disappeared as all his good emotions shattered and turned to sadness. He started looking desperate.
Aeren showed all the sad emotions on his face, but he was also feeling those emotions he displayed to Olivia. This meant Aeren wasn't just showing emotions—he was genuinely feeling them, which made his emotions look more real to her.
"Let me go to your empress to meet her, or we'll be too late to protect my species from unknown creatures."
Olivia twitched her eyebrow and thought, How dare a mere servant want to meet our empress? Did he lose his mind or something?
Olivia was silent for a few seconds. "That's not possible."
Aeren was shocked by her statement and didn't understand her meaning. He had done everything to convince her, but she was saying she couldn't even take him to the empress. Then why had she bothered asking all those questions?
"Then tell me what's possible that would let me meet her."
Olivia was shocked by his words. Doesn't he understand my meaning? Is he that stupid? Did I misjudge him?
"No, I mean you need to tell your ruler to come meet personally with the empress, or you're not allowed."
Is she stupid or something? If humans are at war, that means they can't send their ruler and instead send their lowest warrior to find supporters. But supporters are idiots who think their pride will be damaged by meeting some low-grade warrior and won't help them.
Aeren calmed himself down. A few seconds of awkward silence passed between them as neither said anything. Both knew there was nothing more to speak about and had lost all hope.
Aeren turned back and went to find a place to sit. He found a stone, went near it, lay down on it, and looked at the blue sky with white clouds traveling through the air.
Olivia saw this and was confused by Aeren's decision. She waited there for him, but Aeren didn't come back to argue with her and left her there.
Olivia felt anger seeing this for no reason and wanted to kill him. But she controlled all her lust for killing and didn't show it outwardly.
Olivia went to Aeren. Unable to take it anymore, she reached him. "What are you doing here? Why don't you leave to inform your ruler about us?"
Aeren didn't notice her and didn't reply.