Human World

"What happened to the true female lead? She was still a saint of the neighboring country..." To the transmigrated Luciel, everything seemed to be fictional. But to him, every world he had been to, albeit unreasonable sometimes, was very real to him, except for some of the first worlds he had been into.

The saint ran into Angus when she escaped from the church entourage preaching the god's teaching. She somehow got into a carriage that helped her cross to the Aether Empire and lost in the Northern city. Due to her being in a new environment with no money to spend, she retreated to the forest nearby and lived with the animals that were calmed by her holy aura. That was when Angus found her as he was chasing the people from the Demon King cult. He mistakenly thought that she was one of them and captured her back.

"Such an exciting love story, how could a fake marriage compare?" Aeson clapped excitedly knowing that no one was watching him. The original Aeson was a quiet and serious person who was devoted to finishing the given tasks and hardly socialized with others. So the current Aeson could not act as a lively person which could rouse people's suspicion.

"Is the saint still in that forest? Is she content living there?... I should check anyway." Even if it was not his business, he needed to check if the plot was hiding something due to them always being written in a way that favored the leads.

It had been one month since Luciel came to the elf village. And it took the original Aeson three months to meet her due to the tight security around her.

At this point in time, Luciel should have been building her relationship with Angus with the big royal banquet in the capital.

"Thanks to this body's identity as an assassin, I can freely leave the village to gather information. Hm... I should check if the Elf King is that man first." That man was not the male lead of every world he entered, like Zheng Guozi, so he had no choice but to check everyone that was mentioned in the plot first.

Following Aeson's habits, he rarely used the doors to go out, it was more of a decoration. So Aeson left through the balcony and jumped from one branch to another. It was a refreshing experience running through the tree and inhaling the fresh air of the forest. Due to his elf nature, he could feel the power of the World Tree wrapping him, providing him strength with each breath he took.

Soon, he arrived at the biggest treehouse in the village. But instead of knocking on the front door, he circled to the back and met with two elves guarding a small door.

"I wish to have an audience with the King." Aeson's was expressionless, which was nothing strange for the elves.

"My apology Aeson, the King is not available at the moment." The female elf answered with only her eyes moving.

"I see, thank you." Aeson bowed at the elves and jumped up the branch again. His eyes never wavered even when standing in front of the elves that were taller than himself with more than one head.

As soon as he got far away from them, he stopped on the branch and turned his head back in the King's treehouse direction. His expressionless face dropped and revealed a bitter emotion with puckered lips.

"I'm... really short..."

Most of the elves were fairly tall but Aeson was the shortest among the elves of the same age. He sighed, feeling inferior to his kind.

He could only meet Kiirrion another time, wondering what the King was doing. Even though he was one of Luciel's fish, he did not appear a lot except for his occasional gifts to her.

"It was quite weird too that the elves didn't do anything with Aeson's death..."

There were many suspicious points that needed to be considered. During his assassin duty, he usually informed the leader before he took any major actions. Therefore, he sent to the leader about his encounter with Luciel for sure. And it became the last of their communication, wouldn't it be weird not to notice? And even though Aeson was originally exclusive with the elves in the village, their bond and dependence on each other were in their genes. That was how Aeson got adopted into the village.

"Ugh! Plot holes because this was a damn romance plot!!!" Aeson scratched his head in frustration. He should find out what Kiirion was doing and where the saint was. Then he had to separate the Duke of North and Luicel. And he needed to see the progress of them dealing with the Demon Kind. He also needed to find his husband...

Aeson just plopped on the tree branch, pressing his temples because of discouragement. So many things to do when he had just arrived in this world. He needed to replenish his energy to nourish his soul again.

As he was suffering from a headache, his ears twitched slightly like a cat. A strange sound transferred into his ears. It was a frequency that only the elves could hear, with the message of gathering the squad at the meeting point.

Aeson swiftly put on the expressionless face again as he headed deeper into the forest. While coursing through the trees, he came across a lake where he finally saw the appearance of his body.

"..."

If Sun Gui was a gorgeous beauty, he became an adorable cutie. One look at him, no one would have thought that he was an assassin. His hair was platinum blond and at shoulder length, to make it less messy he tied it up with a blue ribbon. His half-opened lids revealed a lazy look and the blue jewels shone brightly, accompanied by the set of long lashes. His face had not lost its baby fat yet which gave him an illusion of being younger than his age. His cute button nose and pink full lips made him even cuter.

This appearance actually helped him gather a lot of information as the people he talked to would drop their guards against him, and spilled a little bit of information here and there.

He moved his eyes away from the lake reflection and continue jumped through the trees until he saw a distinctive green leaf stuck on a branch. He stopped and landed on the ground then walked ten steps to the right. His hand reached inside a hidden compartment on his pants and took out a signet.

Ancient elven incantation was chanted and the surrounding started to twist and swirl weirdly before a gate appeared in front of him. He bowed his head and walked inside.

"Aeson, rank A, team 3, reporting for duty!" Aeson stood straight like a trained soldier and his sight never moved from his current position.

Inside the gate was like a cave, rocks, and stones were everywhere. There were several tents set up deeper inside the cave. Just in front of the cave was a huge vacant space with flags lining up symbolizing different teams. The cave was illuminated by numerous candles as well as some floating light particles known as Elementals.

The squad leader nodded his head lightly after the report and turned to sit at a wooden table. Several minutes later, all the teams were present and lined up in straight lines.

"Team 1, I need you to continue supervising the rear of the forest and report any presence trying to enter the forest! Any presence! Understand?" The leader was a burly elf with tanned skin and dark brown hair. Several scars were seen on his face and body, telling him a formidable warrior among the elves.

"Sir, yes sir!" Team 1 responded without missing a beat.

"Team 2, continue with the village renovation and check on the village defensive array!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Team 3, this mission is incredibly important! Rank As, report to me immediately inside the tent!" The leader, Hamon Sardithas, turned his back and entered the largest tent, followed by five elves including Aeson.

"Rank A, team 3, reporting for duty!" All five elves shouted as they stood inside the tent. Their line of sight was straight, showing their disciplines.

"...After the monthly visit to our Mother Tree, the elf elders found that... one of the World Tree fruits is missing." His brows furrowed as he leaned on the table.

The five elves were standing straight with Aeson being the shortest. No visible emotions were shown on their faces, but they knew best that their insides were in turmoil. Who dared to steal from the World Tree?! That person had some guts!!

The World Tree fruits carried the essence of life, it was extremely valuable as materials for alchemy, magic, and even holy magic that people kept poaching the World Tree. But the fruits had long been blessed to the elves by Mother Nature, to help them keep the ecosystem of the forest and to improve their fertility. Elves were not materialistic and greedy so their duties as the World Tree guardians were perfect. Meanwhile, humans were volatile creatures so they were not as trustworthy.

"That's why you five will need to inquire about the fruit's whereabouts. Here is the list of the creatures that have been near the World Tree in the past month. Divide your work and report to me any findings." Hamon threw some pieces of paper onto the table and all the elves, one by one, took a piece of it.

'No surprise, I got the female lead just as the plot dictates.' Aeson looked at the piece of paper with a few names on it. His face was still serious at all times.

Knowing who the culprit was, Aeson did not even bother checking other names. All the teams were quickly dismissed and they all returned to their rightful post.

Aeson went back to the treehouse, packing all essentials for his journey. To be honest, he was unsure of the female lead's location at this period of time because there was a time skip in the plot... So he decided to travel to the cities and find her on the way! Maybe he could just go to the magic tower later when Alfred, the mighty wizard, received the fruit from Luciel. Even if he was powerful, it would be hard to process the fruit immediately.

"Maybe I can meet my husband on the way too! Hm~ What if he's the Elf King? Or the Duke?... They all have affection for Luciel already... Let's see." The more Aeson thought about it, the more he hated it. The plot usually flew normally before his involvement like how Zhong Guang met the female lead in the zombie world and felt more trusting toward her than him initially. If that happened... his husband could wait a bit.

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"Ugh! That feeling came again!" The person exclaimed as they felt chills all over their body.

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Aeson had to travel to the human world so he had to hide his distinctive ears somehow. So, he sprinted to the second floor and found a chest. He ruffled through it and finally found a wooden box with a lock shaping like a leaf. He flipped it open and saw a necklace with white translucent marble.

"Hehe, this world is awesome! I don't need to use the damn system shop anymore!" He quickly put on the necklace and his ears had a faint white glow before they turned rounded like human ears.

As he touched it to make sure it felt like human ears did he restarted packing his stuff. After finishing with it, he put on a brown cloak and left the elf territory.