Hero or Villain, Both

"Why am I here?" I couldn't help asking Viscount Denoir who had specifically called for me to come.

He looked at me with narrowed eyes before saying, "It's your friend that arranged all of this, so of course you have to be here."

"All I did was tell him about what was happening in our kingdom and that our kingdom was willing to work with the elves to solve this problem, how is it us arranging all of this?" I said with a bitter smile.

After all, it was impossible that two juniors like us would be able to arrange anything.

The only ones that could do something like that were the seniors of the two races.

Viscount Denoir just said, "It doesn't matter, you have to be here."

"You want to use us as a sign of friendship between the two races?"

Viscount Denoir didn't say anything after I asked this.

But even though he didn't say anything, I said with a sigh, "What about the hero? Wouldn't he be much better suited for this than me? I'm nothing more than a simple noble's son. Even if I have a friend who is a high elf, it doesn't mean that I'm high enough status to represent the Abel Kingdom like this."

"The hero is unavailable." Viscount Denoir simply replied like this.

I knew that he was lying.

It was impossible for him to know more about the hero than me since I was the hero, or rather the hero was one of my avatars.

When we share senses and minds like this, it is impossible for us not to know what was happening.

The hero was currently sitting in the castle, in a place that the king had arranged for him.

It seemed that they were quite cautious in that they didn't want to let the hero meet with the elves right away.

I already knew that they wanted to link the hero with the elves, which was why I had created this opening for them.

I just never thought that they would be this cautious when it came to letting them meet…

"Fine, I'll be your scapegoat for now. However, you have to get me some rewards when this is all over." I said with a sigh in the end.

There was no way out of this for me since they were the ones that had arranged everything. Even if I wanted to say something, it wasn't as if I could say anything.

Viscount Denoir gave a simple nod before saying, "A promotion is already in place for you. After everyone sees this demonstration, that'll give the perfect opportunity to promote you since you're someone who is close with the elves."

I didn't say anything in response since there was no point in saying anything else.

…

"Welcome to the Abel Kingdom."

Though they were cautious, it seemed that King Abel XIV had taken this quite seriously as the prime minister had been sent to welcome the elves.

The elves weren't here in an official capacity since the issue this time was a bit sensitive. However, the Abel Kingdom still sent out the prime minister which was something that would take quite a bit of effort.

The prime minister wasn't that free, so it was even harder to have him sneak around like this since there were many people that interacted with him on a daily basis.

"Thank you for your welcome. I am elder Arun of the Verdant Forest."

The moment that the Abel Kingdom side heard this, they couldn't help being surprised.

After all, they knew that for someone to be an elder in the Verdant Forest, one of the largest elven settlements out there, they would have to be a high elf as well.

Other than the high elf that had come as a friend of the one that had informed the elves of this matter, one of the elders had come personally.

Was this how much the elves of the Verdant Forest cared about this matter?

"They're thinking too much. It's all because he's here as an escort." I thought to myself as I watched all of this.

This Elder Arun was the leader of the punisher squad, but it wasn't as if he would come on every mission. It was only the most important missions that he would come out on and retrieving elven slaves wasn't one of those.

The reason that he had been sent was all because of the four high elves that came along as well.

Seeing my avatar standing there being surrounded by the three beautiful high elf girls, I couldn't help revealing a bitter smile.

It wasn't as if I lacked beautiful women, it was just that it was a bit hard for me to play with them right now. It was all because of Debora Denoir that I couldn't play right now.

They had brought me to the capital and had been keeping a close eye on me.

My parents sided with them since they thought that Debora was a good match for me.

As such, all of the maids that had served me previously had been kept back on our domain.

It wasn't that they would do anything to the maids since these were maids that served me, but I just couldn't see them right now.

Though when it came to the high elf girls, it wasn't as if Aragon had done anything with them.

I knew everything there was to know since we did share senses.

In the end, he and I both came forward to meet.

When the two of us met, it really was hard to keep the awkward smile from our faces.

After all, the two of us were the same person and we were having a conversation with ourselves. If it wasn't for the fact that we were in two separate bodies, then it really would have been an awkward sight.

After the introductions were over, Elder Arun took the lead in asking, "How are we going to do this?"