Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 13

The hour passed in relative silence, and then Elincia asked Loki to recast the illusion that had been placed over them. Now looking once again like a middle-aged couple, they wandered downstairs and into the tavern, which seemed even more rowdier and crowded than it had been before. It seemed as if every nook and cranny was filled with men and women who were enjoying themselves.

"I don't know if there's a place to sit..." Elincia said through the bond.

Caspian tried not to grimace as he grabbed her hand and pushed forward. "Let's at least look around a little."

It took some time, far longer than he would have expected it to, but they did eventually find a place to sit. Further away than Caspian would have liked, the two of us sat at a table near a corner of the room. This allowed them to see everyone. However, it was harder to hear from where they were. That said, given how loud it was, Caspian wasn't sure how successful he would be at picking up individual conversations.

"Can you hear anything, Ele?"

Elincia cocked her head to the side, and Caspian imagined her elf ears wiggling as she strained them to listen. Her hearing was far better than his. As an elf, Elincia was capable of hearing a pin drop from over 100 meters away. He didn't know if that meant she could listen to separate conversations in this crowd, but her hearing was definitely better than his.

"It seems most people are simply talking about the latest news." She bit her lip. "It appears... I'm still the latest news. They are talking about how I turned out to be an elf."

Caspian winced. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Elincia smiled and shook her head, causing her currently russet hair to sway. "It's not as if this is your fault. Besides..." she cocked her head once more and wrinkled her nose in concentration. "It seems a lot of people are on the fence. There are a lot of people who are saying hurtful things about me, but there seem to be a few people who are at least willing to hear me out. Hmm... it seems some of them were at the Sorceress' Knight's Tournament when it was attacked by the murakumos."

Which meant they were there when Elincia had summoned Bragdi and set up a first aid station. Those people were aware of Elincia's incredible kindness and weren't the sort to believe someone was evil just because they weren't human. It was too bad he couldn't thank those people.

"Is anyone talking about the marquis?"

"No..." Elincia's right eye twitched a little as she struggled to listen into more conversations. "There isn't anything about the marquis, but..."

"But what?" asked Caspian.

Elincia stopped trying to listen into the conversations happening around them and focused on him instead. "It seems there have been a slew of unusual people docking in the port town. Um, the person talking about it said they were 'unscrupulous individuals who didn't seem to have a reason for being here'. I'm not sure what that means, but he also talked about how these people had several large crates loaded onto their ship and wouldn't let anyone inspect them..."

"But inspections are standard procedure." Caspian frowned as he ran a hand through his hair. "All cargo is supposed to be inspected to ensure the people who are doing business in Dorumhold aren't smuggling anything inside or outside of Arcadia. Did he say why he couldn't inspect the cargo?"

Elincia shook her head. "No..."

Caspian sighed and crossed his arms. There were few reasons why someone wouldn't be allowed to inspect the cargo of a docked ship. Actually, he could only think of one reason.