Hero or Villain, Both

"You want to lead the team?" Elder Arun narrowed his eyes as he asked me this.

Around me, Nimue, Rania, and Fae looked at me with the same concerned look.

None of them had expected to hear me propose this all of a sudden, but I didn't hesitate as I answered.

"I know the area around this place, so it would be best if I were to lead the way."

He narrowed his eyes even more after hearing this.

Though Elder Arun wasn't saying anything, it was clear that he was questioning me for this decision. It seemed like he wanted to know what I meant when I said that I knew this area.

"I've worked in this kingdom as a mercenary before, so I know the scope of the land. Compared to everyone else who has never been here before, it would be best if I were to lead the way. We don't want any mishaps."

Elder Arun's expression relaxed a bit when he heard this, but he still seemed like he was unsure.

He understood that I was right when it came to this, but there was the problem of putting me in danger by sending me with the squad.

That was why I added, "Is there a safer place than with the punisher squad? If I didn't go with you, where would I be in this human territory? Not to mention, it isn't as if the leader would be the one that will go in personally, right?"

This was the concession that I made.

It was basically me saying that I would stay out of the way during the operation and stay under the guard of the punisher squad.

Elder Arun looked at me with a bit of surprise when he heard this before he looked at me with a questioning look. It really seemed like he was trying to figure out what my plan really was.

"There's no tricks. The reason that I wanted to come here was because I wanted to make sure that there weren't any problems between the humans and the elves. I've worked as a mercenary before, so I have friends among the humans. I simply didn't want a war between the humans and elves starting." I said in a serious voice.

Elder Arun slowly revealed a smile before shaking his head to say, "You're thinking too much. Though it is a terrible thing that our brethren have been treated like this by humans, it isn't as if every human is responsible for this. Did you really think that we're so inflexible that we can't recognize that just like how there are different elves, there are humans with different personalities?"

I didn't say anything as I looked right back at him.

Elder Arun gave a chuckle before saying, "Well you're still young, so it's normal for you to worry about these kinds of things. Since that is what you want to do, then I'll play along with you."

His expression became more serious as he said, "But you have to make sure that you stay with the punisher squad. If you run off on your own, then I'll have to step in."

After saying this, he also looked at the three girls and said, "Make sure that you keep a close eye on him, there's no telling where he will run when the time comes."

Seeing the three of them nod in agreement, I couldn't help revealing a bitter smile.

But I didn't say anything in the end since I had achieved my goal.

Only by getting involved in this matter would I be able to convince them to let me meet the hero.

The next part of our plan relied on being able to meet the hero and having the chance to work with the hero.

From there, it would be far easier for us to control the path that both the elves and the humans took.

…

"Why are you here again?"

"You think that I want to be here? I'm supposed to be super weak, don't you know?"

The two of us didn't say anything, but we were complaining to each other in our minds the moment that we saw each other.

The last person that I had expected to see was Yulian Redmont.

It turned out that he was the person that had been chosen to lead the squad from the human side.

"Do they really want to keep me away from the hero that much?" I couldn't help complaining in our minds.

"I don't know either. They just suddenly told me to lead this squad, though Viscount Denoir has sent someone to watch over me just in case."

I could see the person that was standing behind him who he was referring to.

Based on the pressure that came from him, it seemed that Viscount Denoir really took care of his son in law.

"Then what do we do now?"

"The only thing that we can do. We just have to lead this team to take care of that idiot and perhaps that will convince them that the elves are trustworthy."

"Was he always this cautious in the game?"

"No, or else he wouldn't have been that famous. I don't know what's happening either. I've tried asking around and the hero has also asked the third princess, but it seems like no one knows. For some reason, Abel XIV is acting very strange…"

The two of us were both confused about this since we had never encountered something like this in the game.

Though it wasn't that likely for this event to happen in the game, something like this has happened before so we had been pretty certain that we would be able to arrange a meeting between the hero and myself.

But now Abel XIV was completely going against the normal script.

"Well, the only thing that we can do now is take care of this idiot and hope that everything will turn out alright."

"Right, so you take the lead since you're the high elf."

"No, you should since you're the leader of the human group and this is the human territory."