Chapter 225: We Built a New Mansion (1)

"He's too much. Really."

Sieri was flipping through the documents with a sullen expression. She was uncharacteristically annoyed. Eve knew the reason she was angry. It was because Lucius had been dragged away by Erina the moment he returned from the Eastern Plains. Eve spoke.

"I said I'm sorry. That bitch was spouting bullshit about having to go quickly, so it couldn't be helped. I didn't know my husband would return that day either."

"Still, the church and the mansion aren't that far apart. He could have waited just a little bit......"

"Ah...... What should I do? I mean, I just didn't think of it. Okay?"

Sieri had heard the inside story in her own way, so she didn't get openly angry, but she still couldn't hide her displeased expression. Eve had no experience in soothing someone who was angry like this, so she was at a bit of a loss. Originally, with her personality, if someone got annoyed at her, she would either compensate them with money or just kill them. But Sieri was a person who didn't fall into either of those two categories.

"Ms. Eve probably didn't have bad intentions when she didn't call for Ms. Sieri."

Eve's lifesaver was Aira. Aira took the documents with a smiling face and organized them in order. Sieri nodded her head at Aira's words but still looked displeased. Accepting it with her head and accepting it with her heart required a different level of understanding. The words 'It could happen' lingered inside her head, but a feeling of disappointment was surging in her heart. When Sieri's expression still showed no sign of softening, Eve spoke.

"You said you went to the same school as my husband, right?"

"Yes. I did."

Sieri nodded her head. She seemed to feel a bit better as she reminisced about the past. Thinking this was the way to go, Eve started asking her about stories from the past.

"What did you learn there? Do priests learn something special?"

"We don't learn anything special, just the conduct of an Archdeity Church Member and the procedures related to rituals. If someone branches off entirely into presiding over rituals here, they become a Ritual Presiding Priest, and the ones with the best character and grades among the trainees immediately become a Trainee Priest. The rest have to go through a 4-year completion course."

"Then did my husband become a Trainee Priest right away?"

Sieri nodded her head. She smiled shyly as if she was happy just recalling her days as a trainee in the Archdeity Church.

"Yes. My Lord had the best grades among the trainees at the time, so he was appointed as a Trainee Priest right away. After that, his devout faith and excellent good deeds were recognized, and he went through being a priest to rise to the position of Southern High Priest."

"What? Then is my husband super young? From what I heard, my husband grew up entirely at the Archdeity Church Headquarters."

Sieri nodded her head at Eve's question.

"He would be incredibly young among Elves, but he probably isn't that young in age. Usually, after graduation from the school within the Archdeity Church, one enters as a trainee once they become an adult."

"How did you end up entering early?"

There was no underlying intention behind Eve's question. She was simply curious about the circumstances since Sieri said she entered early. However, upon receiving that question, Sieri put on a puzzled expression and began to ponder seriously. Eve was almost flustered by the sight of her frowning for a long time. Eve called Aira over and asked in a quiet voice.

"Did I just ask a discourteous question? Is this, like, a highly discourteous question to the parishioners of the Archdeity Church?"

Aira also shook her head with a flustered face and spoke.

"I-I don't know. I'm not a parishioner either."

While the two non-believers were arguing back and forth about what they had done wrong, Sieri lifted her head and spoke.

"Now that you mention it. Why did I enter early? Because my parents told me to enter early? I think so, but I don't really know either."

"What's up with that."

Sieri's statement, which came out after much deliberation, brought a more lukewarm aftermath than expected. It seemed to be a serious concern for her, but to Eve and Aira, it just sounded like blank nonsense. Eve shook her head side to side with a disappointed expression.

"Let's work, work. Who cares whether you went early or late. Your parents probably thought you were a prodigy and sent you early as a trainee. It looks like that just by glancing at you, right? There's no one who suits the Archdeity Church as well as you do. All the priests there are trash, you know."

"T-There are many who aren't like that."

"I fully understand that you can see it that way, but to me, about half of the priests are trash. Except you. You're an angel. An angel. You know?"

"E-Even if you say that......"

Sieri protested. However, those words didn't work at all on Eve, who had witnessed the corruption of the priests with her own two eyes while going through her slave life. The reason she didn't act sarcastically towards Sieri's words wasn't because there was truth to them, but because she didn't want to fight with Sieri. Sieri twisted her body at Eve's sudden outburst of praise before barely calming her mind and focusing on the documents. Aira took the documents Eve handed out, reviewed them once more, organized them, and put them into a booklet.

As the conversation between Eve and Sieri cut off, silence fell upon the office. Eve really liked this time of silence. It was because when she focused peacefully on her work, she felt a sense of affiliation to this territory. While looking at the office desk, she couldn't even see her scaled legs.

Knock. Knock.

"Fuck."

However, that good atmosphere was shattered by a single knock. Eve spat out a swear word and stood up from her seat.

"What is it. Come in."

"Excuse me. I am Knight Edgar."

A blond-haired knight opened the door and entered. He gave a salute to Eve and continued speaking.

"I will give you a report. Someone has come from the royal palace, and they are urgently looking for My Lord. They said to bring the Lord himself, not the acting lord. What should we do?"

"Fuck, what is it? What kind of bullshit is this?"

Eve suddenly burst into annoyance. It was because the words about not treating the acting lord properly reminded her of the catastrophe that had occurred previously. The knight looked a little surprised at Eve's anger, but this wasn't the first time she had thrown a seizure like this. The knight maintained a resolute attitude and began his explanation.

"I do not know."

"......I'll go take a look."

At the knight's brief situation explanation, Eve calmed her anger and prepared to head out. She put on her coat and looked down from the office window to see a luxurious carriage parked outside. The official who stepped out of it had grown a long moustache, and his face was as skin and bones as an old dead tree. Because it was a physiognomy that looked like it would hate mermaids just by glancing at him, Eve decided not to bring her scimitar. She felt like if she brought it and lost her temper, she would just slice his stomach open on the spot.

The official was stroking his moustache and tapping his foot on the ground. He looked around the territory's surroundings with a face full of evident discomfort and clicked his tongue. When the main gate opened, his expression brightened for a moment, but as soon as he realized the fact that the person who opened it and came out was Eve, he was overtly disappointed again. Eve spoke.

"What brings you here?"

It was her own practiced tone of noble formality. Raising the end slightly while maintaining a gentle tone of voice was the key aspect. The official, a true noble of the royal palace, perhaps thinking that Eve's attitude was mocking him, frowned even more and spoke.

"Where is Lord Peta Lucius?"

"He is not here right now. Due to him going on a brief business trip......"

"He should have returned from the Eastern Plains just the other day, but another business trip in just one day? Where on earth did he go? Because this is a very urgent and important matter, the Lord himself needs to be here......"

The official flicked his moustache and grumbled as if he was in a difficult situation. Surprisingly, he didn't show much sign of caring whether Eve was a mermaid hybrid or whatever. Eve spoke.

"He was summoned due to the internal circumstances of Ahildern."

"If it's a matter of the Elf Kingdom, there's no room for me to interfere. Then it can't be helped, but because the matter is urgent, I will deliver this to you, the Acting Lord, Ms. Peta Eve. Hey!"

When the official shouted while pointing a finger, two servants popped out from inside the carriage. They took out a small box and placed it on the official's palm. Then, standing next to the official, they unrolled a large piece of parchment and held it up so the official could read it comfortably. The official lifted the box resting on his palm with both hands again and held it out towards Eve as he spoke.

"Heum, normally we skip this, but since this is a kind of event officially bestowed by His Majesty, etiquette dictates that you must kneel."

"L-Like this?"

Eve bent her waist as if she was about to kneel on both knees in front of him. The official shook his head and spoke to the servant following him.

"Show her an example."

"Yes, sir!"

The servant answered in a booming voice and then demonstrated the posture of kneeling on one knee. Only then did Eve nod her head and take the exact same posture the servant had done. The official lifted the box onto his palm again and began to read the decree the servants were holding.

"In the recent Delmon Territory Child Exploitation Case, the details of the crimes of Ahriman Mark, the Lord of the Delmon Territory, have been fully revealed. Ahriman Mark has committed terrible evil deeds, such as secretly exploiting the people within his territory and smuggling out children from the slums who could not pay their taxes to sell them off to the outside.

Therefore, the kingdom strips Ahriman Mark, the Lord of the Delmon Territory, of his title and sentences all his family members to beheading, and has thus searched for a new owner for the Delmon Territory."

Eve was looking up at the official with a sullen expression. Not only was it content she already knew, but it also had no connection to them whether a new owner came to the Delmon Territory or not. It was Lucius who reacted sensitively to it. Eve really didn't care who became the Lord of her neighboring neighborhood. As long as it wasn't a mermaid skin collector.

"However, among the nobles within the royal palace, there was difficulty in selecting a successor as everyone was reluctant to be appointed as the Lord of the Delmon Territory. Therefore, it has been decided that the Delmon Territory shall be bestowed upon Peta Lucius as a reward for serving the kingdom in various ways. It is hereby announced that the Delmon Territory will henceforth undergo annexation into the Peta Territory governed by Lord Peta Lucius, and the territory residents and soldiers affiliated with the Delmon Territory shall be brought into subjugation as territory residents of the Peta Territory."

"Fuck?"

Eve stared at the official with a flustered face. The official glared slightly at Eve, who had spat out an impious word in the middle of a sacred ritual. However, it wasn't the time for Eve to care about such things right now. She wondered if she had heard incorrectly. The Peta Territory and the Delmon Territory were being combined right now? So the size of the territory was doubling?

The official spoke.

"Then we shall proceed with the territory handover procedure. Do you know how to do it?"

".......No."

The thought that they were screwed passed through the minds of both Eve and the official equally.