“Well that’s because the room they were in had a bunch of magical arrays installed that could transmit images and sounds.” Paliseth broke into a cheeky grin as she said that. “You have no idea how much effort I had to go through to get those arrays from the Wood Elves…”
“So you’re saying that you were there with them from start to finish…”
Paliseth merely nodded to that, and I couldn’t help but answer with my own silence as well.
I had to admit, her way of thinking was borderline stalker, and she even succeeded too…
“Wait, so why didn’t you stop them then?”
“Why should I stop them? Letting Jezsere out into the world might even cause her to mature.”
“I…” I just want to say: that’s awfully big-hearted of you. But I guess she did come back in the end, I can’t deny that. In that case, she’s kind of right…
“I also dispatched some of my elite spies to tail them. They were equipped with magical tools to help disguise themselves when they infiltrated the Western Human Realms so the surveillance wasn’t an issue at all. I even told them to pretend to be pursuers and periodically leak out rumors of their pursuit. All to simulate a sense of urgency. They even faked a few fights to reinforce this point too. Later on, I learnt that the two of them came to a rest at a human village. That was when I had the spies halt their antics for a moment, seeing as they seemed to have taken a liking to that place.”
I… I… Those spies you keep talking about… aren’t they assassins? The world famous Dark Elven assassins that were rumored to be able to kill anyone below the level of a Demigod? So you sent a bunch of world-class assassins to stalk your kids…
Naturally, saying that the assassins groomed by the Dark Elves could kill anyone below the level of a Demigod was slightly exaggerating. Killing an Overlord level target was still an extremely difficult task. If an assassin was tenacious and proficient enough, there was bound to be a time when even an Overlord would let his guard down. However, that didn’t mean they would want to do that either. The fact of the matter was that Overlords were extremely powerful beings. If the Dark Elves routinely hunt down such beings, it would easily earn them the collective ire of every other Overlord.
“My little son, Reyage, is definitely a genius, but he still isn’t strong enough to stand up against an Eight-star assassin, and certainly not a whole squad of them.”
That remark was to remind me that if she really wanted to hunt them down, there was no way they would ever survive for over a year like that.
To be honest, ever since coming into contact with the Shadowhunter Clan, I was starting to realise how unusual Reyage and Jezsere’s stint in Plateau Village was. Given how efficient and merciless these Dark Elves were, there was no way those siblings could ever hide out in a single spot for so long without being found. In fact, I was starting to suspect that Reyage realised this as well, and only Jezsere was still in the dark about this. Why else would that sister-loving Dark Elf allow his beloved little sister to return to the Underdepths so easily, even if they had my medium.
Now that I had grasped the basic facts of their journey in the Western Human Realms, it was time to answer another burning question of mine.
“There’s another matter I would like to ask about as well.” I looked Paliseth right in the eyes and said, “why wasn’t Jezsere the one conducting my summoning ritual?”
“Well… I might have gathered some information about your holiness’s strangeness amongst Devils, but I still wasn’t too comfortable with letting her take this risk…” She smiled apologetically at that point. “My intentions were to first subjugate whatever Devil it was that came out, then hand it over to Jezsere. I ended up summoning your holiness in the end and the rest is as your holiness knows…”
‘The rest’ referred to me being turned into a sacrifice for Lolthe and somehow ending up as her godson… no wonder there’s a saying: nothing is certain in life. Anyway, even if the story isn’t exactly as she says, there’s no way for me to tell at this point. So there’s no point wracking my brain over this matter. But how exactly is Jezsere going to deal with being a Matriarch? Putting aside the question of the Clan’s future development, there was a more basic question of whether or not she is even safe in that position.
“I know what your holiness is worried about, but Paliseth has actually made plans before coming to this decision.” While I might not have said anything yet, she could tell from a glance what my next question was. “In actuality, I had already planned for Reyage to do the actual management once Jezsere takes up power. To that end, I’ve groomed a number of trusted subordinates that can support Reyage.”
Support Reyage? Don’t you mean Jezsere? I get it now, so your plan is actually to have Reyage be the true clan leader!
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