Wonderful life of a maid

Chapter 21: Day of epidemic (3)

Above the palace, dark clouds are gathering and with the gloomy atmosphere, it really make people feel uneasy. The crown prince of Rowoon is no exception either. Although with many stacks of work papers on the table, Alver's mind still wander somewhere else.

"Haaa..."
Place the paper on the table, Alver sighs out loud and massages the bridge of his nose with a frown.
Clink.
A cup of tea is being placed on the messy table.
"Is something on your mind, Your Highness?"
A dark elf servant looks at Alver with concern. Not as long as Tasha, but he's also one of the dark elves who volunteered to help Alver for quite some time now, so Alver feel comfortable enough with him to let he temporarily takes over Tasha's job when she's not around.

The prince murmurs a soft 'thank you' and sips the tea.
Another sigh, Alver gently swirl the cup and look deep at his reflection in the tea with clearly distress.

"Maybe I'm a little overthinking now but... somehow I feel worry about aunt and the others.."

They had been gone for almost two days, which was actually not a very long time, but none of them call him to report the situation or.. well... just call him.

"Hm.."
The dark elf closes his eyes to think for a second then pats his chest with faith.
"I'm sure that there is nothing you have to worry about. Tasha, Mary and the rest are very much strong and reliable. Furthermore..."
The man grins.
"Aren't your most trusted friends already there?"

Alver's face heat up a little when he heard the word 'friends', the other dark elf noticed that and held back a laugh.
*Cough cough..*
Alver lets out some awkward cough but his eyes soon become serious again. Glance through the window, Alver take another sip of his tea.

"You're probably right.. There is nothing to worry about. They will be alright.."

.
.
.

"Well, this is not alright at all"
Look at the unconscious bodies on the ground, [____] thinks back what had happened..
...
Actually, she has no idea what happened.

According to the plan, [____]'s team have to investigate the back of the village. But when they arrived, a explosion containing dead mana suddenly erupted. To be honest, that explosion isn't really that big and powerful, it's almost like mana smoke burst out with a 'puff' sound, and the dead mana doesn't even affect dark elf.

"So why is everyone..." - Mumbling, [____] poked an unconscious dark elf with a stick. - "... all fainting here.."
The forest had a gloomy atmosphere, not even a breath of wind. [____] glanced around to see if there was anyone suspicous but...

"...I-It seems like the most suspicious person here is me.." - She held back a sigh.

After all, there was no one else here besides her and the unconscious dark elves, and there was also the explosion of dead mana smoke just now. What would the others think if they saw a dark race standing in the middle of this chaos?
Of course they would suspect [____] first.

It was ridiculous that even though they were both dark races, people always trusted dark elves more than cannibals... Then again, dark elves didn't harm humans like cannibals.

"Haha.." - [____] laughed to herself

Actually, for [____], whether people believed her or not normally didn't matter to her. But this time it was different, being suspected by 'those two' made her quite displeased.

[____] raised her hand and the bodies of the unconscious slowly lifted up. With a gentle wave, she arranged them to lie next to each other in a more comfortable position than before. If it weren't for the dark elves' chests still moving, they would have looked like a mass massacre.