It was already morning
Auel and Rikka were still sleeping in their room when the door suddenly burst open
"Hey, wake up, you two!" Gill shouted
Rikka nearly jumped out of bed
"W-what happened!?"
"Breakfast is ready"
"That's it?"
Gill Grinned
"Aww man" Rikka Groaned
He got out of bed while Auel slowly sat up, his eyes still half-closed
The two washed their faces and headed downstairs
The inn's bar was full of people, most of the customers weren't elves
There were beastmen, lizardmen, dryads, and even a few races they had never seen before
Not a single elf was sitting among them
It seemed the inn owner was quite famous for accepting outsiders
Auel and Rikka sat at their group's table
Everyone was already there and ate their food
"So, how was your sleep" Gramm asked
"It was great" Rikka said
Auel remained silent, and no one asked him as they already knew what the answer going to be
"So, where is Veyn?" Auel asked while eating
"I don't know" Helen said "we have not seen him since this morning"
"Let's just wait for him" Gramm continued "Maybe he is still trying to convince the Cardinals"
"And, what are you doing here?" Auel asked to someone across the table
Sitting directly in front of him was Sylffie
The only elf in the room besides the inn owner
"Nothing" She replied casually "I just want to keep an eye on you guys"
"You're still suspicious of us?" Rikka asked
"Not really. I just want to make sure nothing bad happens to my guests"
"My guest?" Rikka frowned
"You're in my country, aren't you?"
"By the way, I'm Sylffie, what's your name?" She stretched out her hand toward Auel
"Why should I tell you?" Auel said
The smile on her face twitched
"Is it wrong to ask for a name?"
Auel was silent for a moment
"Auel" he answered without accepting her hand
Even with that cold answer, Sylffie simply withdrew it and smiled
"Nice to meet you, Auel"
Eventually they finished their breakfast, but Veyn still hadn't shown up
"Arghh… where is Veyn" Rikka Complained "we've been waiting forever"
"Hmm, why do we looked at the Elf country instead of waiting here?" Helen suggested
"But, didn't we said that we are going to meet him here, and what if when we were outside, he came here and found no one?" Ashley said
"Then what about we are taking turn to traveling around the Elf Country?" Helen said
"Are you sure it's fine to wandering around the Elf Country?" Ashley said
"Sylffie, can you be our guide?"
"I don't mind" She answered
"Then it settled, the girls will travel around the Elf Country while the boys wait for their turn here"
"Hey, that's unfair, why the girls could travel first?" Rikka protested
"Because it was my idea" Helen answered
"No, I want to get out of this inn, the boys should be the first one traveling"
"Do you think we didn't get bored?"
"You two, stop fighting like a child" Ashley stopped them "Why don't we settle it with rock paper scissors?"
"That's sounds fair" Helen said
"Fine by me" Rikka added
Then both of them did rock paper and scissors
Rikka pulled out rock, while Helen pulled out paper
"What!?"
"Victory, let's go girls, we are going to look around the Elf Country" Helen said
"Have fun waiting!"
The girls went outside the inn to look around the Elf Country while the boys kept waiting there
Rikka grumped and sat back, Auel had already put his head on the table from the start of their fight
"Arghhh… it's boring, and the rock paper scissor is unfair"
"And who's bad luck, is it?" Auel said
"Arghh"
Gill laughed
"Hey do you think it's fine for them to walk around the Elf Country?" Gill asked
"It should be" Gramm answered "I mean Sylffie is with them, so it should be fine"
Outside, the girls started to wandering around the Elf Country while Sylffie explaining every building there
The Elf Country was separated into 2 main sectors, the Royal Sector and the Living Sector
The Royal sector was the place where all governmental things, and the place where the royal palace located
While the Living Sector was the place where the elves usually lived in
As they walked, Sylffie explained each building they passed
Then Erin suddenly stopped
A small souvenir shop had caught her attention
Inside was a white hairpin decorated with three feather motifs and a small green crystal
She picked it up carefully
"That's looks cute, why don't you try it?" Helen said
She tried the hair pin and showed it to the others
"How do I look?"
"Amazing, you look so cute" Helen said
"Yeah, totally" Ashley continued
Erin smiled
Then she looked toward the shopkeeper
"Umm, excuse me, how much for this hair pin?" She asked
The elf merchant stared at her
"10 silver coins"
"What!?" Helen shocked
"10… just for a hair pin?" Ashley blinked
"Yes" the seller said with a cold tone
Sylffie's expression immediately darkened
"You raised the price because they're outsiders, didn't you?"
"If you don't like it then go away"
"What did you say" Sylffie stepped forward and grabbed the front of his clothes
The merchant looked startled
Before anything could happen, Erin quickly stopped her
"H-hey, don't do that" She said while picked some coins from her pocket "Here's 10 silver coins"
She handed him the money
The merchant accepted it and quietly clicked his tongue
"Hey did you just-" Syllfie tried to confront the seller but again, Erin stopped her
"L-let's get away from here"
Sylffie glared at the merchant for several more seconds before finally leaving
"Why did you buy it, the seller obviously scamming you" Sylffie said while crossing her arms
"Ummm… I just don't want to argue with people"
"But he clearly looked down at you" Sylffie's voice rose "It's fine if you're rude to these kinds of elves"
"B-but why?"
"Because they're the ones being rude first"
Erin tilted her head
"But… why did he act like that?"
Helen sighed
"Because most elves look down on other races" Helen answered "Especially humans"
Erin looked surprised
"Elves hates humans, why?"
"You didn't know that?" Ashley said
She slowly shook her head
"N-no this is the first time I heard that"
"Hmm… do you know the story of the hero?" Helen asked
"Yes, I always read that with my brother when I was little"
"So, do you remember the members of the hero's party"
"Umm… it's the Hero… Elf King… King Draco… Sea King… a Nephilim… and a Oronith, right?"
"Yes, you're totally right, and because there is no human race in the hero's party the elf looked down at us"
"No human? But isn't the hero from human race?"
"No one actually knows"
"Umm… You remember that the Hero is an orphan and was found in the orphanage, right?" Ashley continued
Erin nodded
"Well, that's the problem, no one ever know if the hero is actually human or not"
"Other races said that the reason that the hero has human like appearance is because he was found first by human race" Ashley said
"That's right" Sylffie added "So if somehow the baby hero was found in front of elf orphanage, then he is going to be elf, that's also works with other race"
"That's why other races said that the hero is not from human race, but instead a Demi god which take human race as its appearance" Helen said
"Demi… God?"
"Yes, so if we think that the hero is demi god, that's mean the hero's party doesn't have any representative from human race" Helen continued
"And that's why the Elf always looked down at human" Sylffie added "Because the Elf king is being part of the hero party while human is not"
"Well, elves don't only look down at human, but other races that doesn't have any representative in the hero's party"
"Yeah, and what makes things more ironic" Ashley added "Human is the largest population compared to other races, but somehow doesn't have any representative in the hero's party"
Erin frowned
"I still don't get it" Erin said "Why do people have to look down on others?"
"I-I mean what the benefit from it, why don't we live without looking down at each other?"
"Well, I don't understand either"
"That's always be a problem in the Elf country, even the Elf King always tried to make the elves to accept other races for centuries"
"He wanted the elves to accept other races"
She smiled bitterly
"But nothing changes, they keep looking down at other race" Sylffie said
"And now the Elf King is gone"
She looked back toward the busy street
"You can find this kind of elf easily"