I returned in a panic at the bottom of the pool, reaching for the seen future I don’t ever want to be fulfilled, and heavily gasping for air as I resurfaced from the waters. “No…Not again…” Angrily slamming my fists onto the water’s surface at the thought of the possibility. “I won’t let it happen...I can't...” Slamming the water again as a promise to myself. Though completely startling me, a sudden sound of knocking came from behind, but I was quickly relieved to see it was just Shurtyrr standing in the doorway.

“Please excuse my intrusion, Lord Eyes.” Shurtyrr bowed as an added apology, “You were not answering to my calls from the previous chamber, so I worried the Waters of Tranquility dangerously caused you to accidentally fall asleep within them—though I am glad to see that is not the case.”

Brushing my wet hair back out of my face, I took a deep breath and calmed myself, saying to him “Thank you for worrying, but what were you calling for me?”

“I wanted to inform you that Verana and O’de have returned from the Courts, and with the guards beginning to disperse from around the House, I can finally make my way over to the Roots.” He replied, “And if you are in need of me again before the sun sets, Lord Eyes, you may find me staying in the biggest restaurant at the center of the Roots. Simply tell the owner that you wish to have a drink with the Poisoned Sapling, and he will gladly escort you right to where I am.” Bowing once more before promptly leaving me alone in the baths.

“A drink with the Poisoned Sapling? Is that like the password to enter the black market or something?” I wondered, stepping out of the pool and drying myself off in the changing chamber.

Arriving back on the 4th floor, I found Odelia and Verana eating the leftover food Amariina and I purposely saved for them; though when Verana saw me approach the dinner table, she immediately stood up and pulled out the chair at the head of the table for me. I told her that it was unnecessary to treat me like that, but she insisted nevertheless, and so I complied and sat down at the head of the table.

“Shur told us that you visited the baths, were they to your liking, my Lord?” Odelia asked, having cleared her plate.

“Too hot? Too cold? I would be more than happy to adjust the temperature if you would like, Lord Eyes?” Verana gladly offered.

“No need. The baths were absolutely perfect, and I wouldn’t change a thing—but that‘s besides the point.” Asking “ What happened with all the guards and stuff? And is the House already in trouble with the city on my first day as the Head of it?”

“It is nothing to worry about, Lord Eyes.” Odelia assured me, explaining “We ingeniously smoothed out the whole situation by throwing Ael completely under the bridge, revealing that he was the one who claimed the personal responsibility of informing the other Captains, the Tribunal, and the Council of the barrier; as he was our House’s court representative.”

“Okay...but if there’s nothing to worry about, why isn’t Aelthar here then?” I pointed out, remembering Shurtyrr never mentioned Aelthar being back.

“Well he does have work today, but I assume the real reason is because he is currently being heavily scolded and reprimanded by the other Captains and the Head Captain at the Barracks, and is surely regarding irresponsibly not reporting about such a notable matter beforehand.” Odelia figured, while Verana took a sip of some tea.

Their seemingly nonchalant attitudes towards the whole situation caused me to relax a little, but I asked to make sure, “So everything’s really okay?”

“It is, Lord Eyes.” Verana reaffirmed, “For this is not the first time our House has been in trouble with the city, nor do I expect it to be our last.”

Odelia nodded in agreement and continued, “We may be an unofficial House, but Verana and Ael together are highly respected by many throughout the city, and are not so easily condemned for many of their questionable actions—which in turn helps protect the House from incidents much like the one we had today.”

“Hmmm...I’ve already heard you refer to our House as ‘Unofficial’ multiple times now, why? From what I’ve gathered, almost all of you have some sort of influence within the city, so why are we an unofficial House?” I questioned, curiously.

Odelia let Verana answer, and she explained “After the First Trinity War finally ended 799 years ago, the Council of the Noble Houses discreetly convinced the surviving members of the Tribunal to wrongly strip our House of official recognition, as they surely feared us at the time for being far superior in power and influence than their own Noble Houses.” elaborating, “For the elven people had come to recognize our House’s pivotal role in protecting the Kingdom’s armies from the countless dangerous monsters they encountered during the 50 long years of the war; as well as the ones who volunteered to clear out the many dungeons that sprouted up during that time.”

“Slaying monsters and clearing dungeons. Sounds like I have more in common with the House than I thought.” And although I felt more connected to the place, I still wondered about the present, and asked “Does that mean I should be looking out for the Noble Houses then? Or do they no longer consider us as a threat to them anymore?” Recalling that Odelia didn’t seem to have any real issues with House Fre’Nddare yesterday.

“Actively avoiding them is unnecessary, my Lord, but you may find most of all the different members to be variously pretentious and entitled in their demeanours—which I know may lead you to avoiding anyway.” Odelia assumed, already understanding me a little. “And as for our House being considered a threat, well...” She looked at Verana who finished taking another sip of her tea to speak.

“I would not fixate on how the Nobles Houses perceive of us, Lord Eyes,” Verana advised, “for most of them will always resent our House’s ability to show that any can stand equal to them, regardless of blood.” Nodding in understanding, I left the table and allowed them to finish their breakfast without my distraction.

Waiting for Odelia outside of the House, I felt the slight chill of the cold morning air on my slightly damp hair—under my hood—and on my shirtless body under my cloak. “Dark Red.” I said to myself, changing the Cloak Of Colours to be a warmer colour than green. Then while I took in the view of the city in the morning, and our House’s new barely visible barrier, I remembered I wanted to send Lavie a message and opened up the Menu.

Lavie En Rouge Hey, do you think when you have down time you can make me some ordinary clothes? I’ll even pay you what you want for them?

To my surprise she replied right away.

Lavie- Sure, I was already planning on making some for myself and Dream anyway, but did you have anything specific in mind?

Not really, just like sweats and t-shirts to sleep in or something, cause I don’t think any clothes this world has would be more comfortable than those.

Lavie- Got it, but it’ll take a few days to make them, you know?

No problem, I’ll tell you how we can meet up later when you’re done with them.

Lavie- Alright, I’ll message you when they’re done then.

Closing the chat with Lavie, I also remembered I wanted to send a message to Tobias.

Tobias Casper Grim Hey, I want to hire you for an ongoing job. Are you interested?

Waiting about a minute, Tobias replied.

Tobias- A job? What kind of job?

I want you to find and steal any and all of the records for a teleportation circle’s True Runes, from wherever you can find them. Be it from the Transport Towers, the Guild, or anyplace else records of the True Runes are kept.

Tobias- Never heard of these "True Runes" before, but stealing them shouldn’t be too hard for me, after all I can pass through any wall with ease.

Well I wouldn’t be so sure about that.

Tobias- What do you mean?

I called it an ongoing job because I don’t think you’re a high enough level to complete it yet, as I’m pretty sure the people guarding the records must be at least Lv.50+. Specifically the Transport Towers that likely have multiple Lv.60+ Mages guarding them, which I know their magics can hit a ghost regardless of their form.

Remembering that Odelia mentioned they were stronger than Gryphon, who was Lv.60 at the time; as well as that Goblex stated that magic can fully harm ghosts.

Tobias- That sounds like a whole lot of unnecessary trouble, why exactly do you want this done? And what’s in it for me?

I want it so we can have a convenient way to travel, for knowing the True Runes of a teleportation circle can provide the means to be able to teleport almost anywhere around the world, free of charge. So consider the job for your own benefit, as well as our Party’s. Plus I’ll pay you for each one you bring to me.

Tobias- I’ll have to do some research on how dangerous this job could actually be, but I’ll let you know if I want to accept it.

Fine by me, I didn’t expect you to accept the job so easily anyway.

Tobias- I’ll get back to you with an answer in a few days.

Happy enough Tobias is even considering the job, I suddenly received a new message from Mako.

Mako Nomura

Mako- Drune is back, and when I told him about the suspicious man, he said that it is very likely to be an assassin hired to kill you. He also told me to warn you to be very careful and not to underestimate assassins, as it’s very likely there’s more than one after you, and explicitly stated to inform Odelia about this right away.

“I guess it is true what they say, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” I thought to myself, as almost right on cue, Odelia walked out the doors of the House.

Thanks for letting me know, and tell Drune thanks for me too.

After closing the Menu, I was about to warn Odelia about the potential assassins, but my mind vividly remembered the future, and I questioned myself "What if that's the reason she dies? What if I'm the reason?" thinking, "Knowing how unbelievably strong she is, there can't be another way...If I tell her, I'm sure she's gonna do everything in her power to protect me no matter what, even if it means sacrificing her own life for mine, and I can't let that happen." Mentally apologizing to her as she raised her hood to hide from the morning shine, "Sorry Odelia, but I'll deal with the assassins myself. You're not gonna be another person I lose in front of me." Deciding to keep the information a secret from her.

“I am sure Lady Myeyl must already be eagerly waiting for us to arrive, so shall we get going, Eyes?” Odelia delightedly asked.

“Yeah, definitely. But where exactly are we headed to?” I inquired, following her lead.

“Well if you look over there in the distance,” Pointing to the far left of us, “you will see where Ven’Thyl Academy stands at one corner of the peninsula.” As I could faintly see a white stone, massively large, and enormously tall building structure over in the distance. “But on the complete opposite corner of the peninsula is where the Noble Houses reside, and is where we will be headed today.” Simply pointing in the direction ahead of us blocked by the tall treeline.

“I think you mentioned you were a professor before, right? Does that mean you taught at the Academy?” Not letting the topic slip by as we rapidly dropped down the tree by Express Ropes.

Odelia hesitated to answer, “...Yes, and it was very fulfilling to teach and see all those talented students grow and develop, but that was a very long time ago…”

“I assume Myeyl and I are too old to be accepted as students, right?” A part of me kind of wanted to attend.

“Not entirely, but for the likes of you two, I could not see either of you gaining any benefits you would not already gain from being personally taught by myself. Well, maybe it would do you some good to attend the children's classes, Eyes.” Odelia playfully teased, as we reached the bottom of the tree.

I smirked at her cheeky remark, kind of agreeing with my lack of knowledge, but all I thought was “That’s too bad, but maybe I’ll get to visit the Academy some other time then.” Continuing to follow Odelia’s lead through the Soil.

Walking a few minutes down a nice stone road, I noticed that all the houses in the area were much nicer and larger than the ones closer to the Roots, but at some point the houses and trees around us became more scarce the further down the road we went, and eventually I couldn’t see any at all. However, once we arrived at the end of the road, I found us standing right in the middle of an intersection leading to 3 very different and distinct Noble Houses—each with a faint barrier surrounding them, each with their own unique orchards, and each fenced off from one another.

To my right was an orchard of black spiky trees, with crimson leaf tops, and red liquid oozing from the branches and leaves—dripping and staining the ground red. And right in the center of it all was a simple and small building made from dark grey wood, with a dark purple roof, and black tinted windows. I also took note of the two Lv.50 Dark Elves guarding the fence entrance, and the two more guarding the building's entrance—all wearing a uniform black and purple coloured armour.

Seeing me underwhelmed by the Noble House, Odelia commented “It may look like nothing from aboveground, but House Baen’Mtor is a House that consists entirely of Dark Elves, and so they have chosen to construct their great manor completely belowground.” Pointing directly below their land.

I nodded and thought, “I wonder if it’s as massive as that one.” while I looked to my left at the only Sky Tree in the whole area.

Ignoring the four Lv.50 guards at each of the entrances of this House too—with their uniform white and blue coloured armour—I took more interest in their orchard of birch-like trees, which had no leaves whatsoever, but that did have mana I could see flowing all within them. Then moving on, I also ignored their very similar, small, whitish wood, and blue roofed building at the base of the tree; and instead looked up at the tallest Sky Tree I’ve seen in the entire city.

One which had an expansive multi-floored mansion sitting on top, with separate buildings spread throughout the different levels of the tree, and all with the same white and blue colour scheme. It also looked to have much more branching and thick branches all along the trunk, giving the mansion more than enough space to build all around the whole tree top; and I could even see that there were parts of the mansion blocked from sight because they were built above the leaves.

“That is House Helvi’Ett.” Odelia informed me, with a bit of a sour expression on her face. “And most of them truly embody their High Elf stereotypes, as they even snobbishly live above the other Noble Houses, and both figuratively and literally look down upon them.”

Seeing a silver lining, I said “You're saying most of them are snobbish, but that means there's some that aren’t, right? So what are the chances of me meeting a non-snobbish Helvi’Ett?”

“Very unlikely .” Odelia replied bluntly, telling me “Even Gryphon cannot help being snobbish at times.”

Then we both suddenly heard yelling for us, “Odelia! Eyes! You’re here!” and we turned to see it was Myeyl running towards us, with Jhan closely chasing after her. She wore the same attire she wore yesterday, but now added a fully stocked quiver on her back, and a wooden longbow with strangely thick limbs. Before Odelia and I could even say hello, Myeyl already grabbed us both by the arm, and eagerly dragged us towards the large manor, “Now where have you two been? I’ve been waiting since dawn for you to arrive, you know?”

“I did plan for us to arrive earlier, but I had to deal with an unexpected situation.” Odelia explained, allowing herself to be dragged along.

Letting myself get dragged along too, I focused ahead at the orchard of ordinary looking trees, but that seemed to move unusually, as if strong winds were currently blowing through them, even though it was clearly a perfect windless day today. There was also the large and wide 4-storey manor straight ahead; built with simple brown wood, a few stone supports, a dark green roof, and was built in a symmetrical U-shape towards us.

“So these are the three Noble Houses of the Elves…” Giving each of them a glance one more time, “Now I wonder how they'll react when I eventually bring missing descendants here?”