"Hero, may I join your party?"

The fourteen-year-old A·Gedora heard the girl's question in front of him, and his gaze measured her.

Elegant attire, proper speech, and courteous demeanor—clearly indicating her noble status.

As a noble, joining my party, is that really okay? Does that really contribute to our battle strength?

For a brief moment, A·Gedora pondered this.

"What is your name?"

"Adriana."

"Your surname?"

"I don't have one."

A·Gedora was taken aback; he had thought this girl to be a noble, but without a surname...

Seeming to notice A·Gedora's confusion, Adriana smiled: "Hero, I was once a noble, but due to some family matters, I lost my noble status and no longer carry a surname."

"So, do you want to reclaim your surname?"

However, the girl in front of him shook her head: "Regaining my surname isn't something important, nor is it something I should strive for. The reason I want to join your party is that I want to kill the Demon King."

"Why?"

"Because of distortion."

Distortion?

This was indeed a puzzling statement.

"The Demon King is too powerful; their very existence distorts the world. If I were to give an example..."

Adriana snapped her fingers, and the tablecloth suddenly floated up, then a vase flew into the air and landed on the tablecloth.

The tablecloth involuntarily formed a depression.

"Just like this."

A·Gedora still didn't quite understand her meaning.

Several pieces of jewelry slipped from Adriana's hand, falling onto the tablecloth.

On the slope caused by the vase, the jewelry naturally slid down, colliding with the vase.

"Now, do you understand? The Demon King's presence is like that vase; all other things in this world are lighter, and with such a thing in existence, everything will ultimately break due to the Demon King's 'gravity.' Their massive presence impacts the world too greatly; we must remove the Demon King..."

Additional small items, like knives and combs, fell onto the tablecloth and began to distribute evenly with the jewelry, eventually forming a ring. It formed a perfect balance with the vase in the center.

No longer tilting towards that vase.

It was somewhat mystical, somewhat incomprehensible, yet perhaps it made sense.

"Alright, you can join our party."

A·Gedora agreed to Adriana's request.

...

Doro opened his eyes.

"I accidentally dreamt of old times... If that's the reason, as a justification for killing me, it's not unacceptable... but how to accept it?"

He knew such words couldn't convince himself. After all, if, as Adriana and others said, the Demon King's very existence exerts gravity that draws everything to collide—then what of this world? The Demon King has existed for so long, yet the world hasn't been destroyed.

I've become an existence similar to the Demon King, so is that a reason to die? Even if I and the Demon King are different entities, if we possess the same mass, does that lead to the same result? Perhaps it's so for the tablecloth, but can a world be likened to a tablecloth?

The relationship between people, between lives—while an analogy is fine, truly believing in that depiction is surely mistaken.

Adriana perhaps did ample preparation in this area; Mohe was unwilling to reveal what it truly was, which was inconsequential. However, knowing that someone might make a move, wouldn't it be more appropriate to evacuate people from the Ice and Snow Kingdom? If it's a conspiracy against me, I should face it alone.

He thought he came to save the Elf, but found the Elf was, in fact, implicated by him—his feelings were quite complex.

Although he didn't know the reason for the Elf's attack on the kingdom, persuading the Elf to retreat was clearly not easy. He was still unaware of the Elf's purpose in attacking the Ice and Snow Kingdom.

It's very difficult to sway an Elf's will with mere words, after all, she is a person with quite steadfast resolve. Moreover, there are many hidden truths that he himself is not aware of.

For a moment, Doro felt at a loss as to where to start.

He thought he might actually have gotten a bit foolish, because he had spent so much time with Mohe that he started to overly rely on Mohe's wisdom, on her seemingly omniscient ability, as if he could effortlessly get answers from her about anything. It has always been like this before, but now that Mohe was unwilling to tell him some things, he found himself at a loss.

How can one truly understand the inner heart of an Elf?

If he had a deeper relationship with her, would she tell him?

No... this might just be his wishful thinking, she wouldn't really tell him.

If she wanted to tell him, she wouldn't hide it at all.

Will the war continue tomorrow? Should he take action?

At the thought of war, Doro's heart was unsettled. This war was hard to say right from wrong—the Human Central Empire had its standpoint, humans had the human standpoint, and Snow Elves had the Snow Elf standpoint. If he took action, it would be tantamount to betraying humanity.

Of course, the Human Central Empire had long established that he had betrayed humanity, but then again, there are humans who betrayed him, but also many good people. For example, the residents of Baixi Town, and some of the goodwill he had actually felt during his years of wandering, being betrayed by some humans was no reason to resent the entire human race. It was an irrefutable fact that he himself was human.

But what have the Snow Elves ever done to wrong him?

He could try forcibly to end the war, but in return, the Snow Elves would still need to give the Human Central Empire an explanation, an account of this war, because after all, if from this war the Human Central Empire doesn't achieve the corresponding results, the possible outcome might be that numerous minorities unite and jointly launch an attack on humans.

At that time, even more tragic things might occur.

The Human Central Empire must rely on this war to demonstrate its strength to prevent being hunted by numerous 'small fry.'

What he could do was indeed limited.

And Mohe was not willing to give him help, nor lend him the corresponding wisdom, which was a very troubling thing.

Doro felt that there should be other options here.

The entire Ice and Snow Kingdom was very quiet. He left the Ice and Snow Kingdom alone.

Then he arrived among the troops of the Human Central Empire.

The distance from the troops' encampment was not far—Doro had just entered when he was surrounded by many soldiers.

He didn't conceal his presence at all.

Before he could say anything, a flash of lightning appeared, and a golden-haired "youth" with glasses stood in front of Doro.

"Hero A·Gedora, you have finally come."

"Thunder Emperor... I have something I want to discuss with you."

The Thunder Emperor stared at Doro intently: "If you've come to plead for peace, you should already know the importance of this war, the reason for my presence here. I admit you are strong, A·Gedora, but this war, even if two hundred thousand troops are buried here, cannot be stopped. A lion, once showing weakness, will be torn apart by hyenas."

"Maybe that's true... but, don't you want to talk to me?"

The Thunder Emperor was silent for a long time, he waved his hand, and immediately all the surrounding soldiers retreated, he said to Doro: "Come to my tent. Wouldn't it be rude not to entertain a distinguished guest?"

He thus invited Doro into the tent.

The soldiers brought over food that wasn't particularly luxurious, but quite decent, along with fine wine.

"From my point of view, even if I wanted to intervene in this war, I wouldn't know where to start, everyone has their own reasons, everyone has a reason why they cannot lose, and ultimately it can only manifest in battle. The result of war is everything." Doro expressed his intentions, "But knowing such reasoning in my heart does not necessarily suppress my feelings, can you understand what I mean?"

The Thunder Emperor held a wine glass, took a sip, and immediately frowned, clearly not good at drinking: "So, what you mean is, you do intend to act and suppress this war? Even if it means burying us all here... it really is frightening, Hero. Just from your words, I can already feel the whimsy that comes with the name of strength."

"Isn't that being whimsical?"

"If you think it's not, then it is whimsical."

What is he really talking about? Doro didn't want to argue these things: "As it stands, I haven't planned to intervene in the war, Ah Xion's action is due to the Demon King."

"Can you now separate yourself from the Demon King? I can only see it as the joint will of you two, speaking of which it's really terrifying, back then I didn't even participate in the final battle to defeat the Demon King, and now I have to face the presence of you two together, I actually want to ask if the Wise King sent me over here intending to get rid of me."

"I want to know more about the information regarding this war. About the Elf, I don't believe her action against the Ice and Snow Kingdom is beyond the Human Central Empire's expectations."

The Thunder Emperor seemed not very good at drinking, he had only a small glass and already looked somewhat drunk, he held up the wine glass with a teasing smile on his face: "Humans and Elves are friendly partners, a well-bonded alliance, who would have thought that one day the Snow Elves would suddenly take action?"

Elf?

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