“Well, thanks.” Stanley said in appreciation of Elisabeth's detailed explanation regarding the basilisk essence. Soon adjusting his position so he was holding the package between his hands.

There wasn’t much to say regarding it. Stanley trusted that the Narrator's request would lead to a decent result and that hopefully involved diverting any unwanted attention from him.

Even so, it doesn’t hurt to be careful with it.

Soon the corridor between Uncle Carlos' room and the outside ended, and both of them had stepped outside into the courtyard.

Although it made sense considering this area is private to Elisabeth’s Uncle, the entire courtyard was eerily quiet and empty.

Not a soul could be seen around. Nor could the chirping of birds or insects be heard.

As Stanley breathed in the fresh air of the courtyard, a thought occurred to him.

He turned to Elisabeth and inquired, “Was there any point in opening the package when we were disconnected from the system? You just explained what was inside the package when we were reconnected.”

Obviously, Stanley hadn’t noticed the eerily silent surroundings. His mind was still on the package and the future.

Elisabeth glanced around, clearing having noticed the surrounding silence, before answering his question. “The AI’s cannot report anything without definitive proof, such as the open package… Hearsay, or secondhand information from AI spying, is banned in courts and cannot serve evidence or even be reported to anyone.”

“Besides, owning basilisk essence is completely legal. Disconnecting from the system was done in the scenario that the item contained within had been illegal… That’s what tends to be in boxes warded against divinations after all.” Elisabeth clarified, walking toward the edge of the garden surrounding her Uncle’s grave. “Anyway, from the council’s perspective, killing and refining monsters is something to be encouraged. Thus, refined monster essence is not only legal, it’s subsidized and encouraged.”

She looked back and forth from behind the line of stones surrounding the garden and quietly examined the area before speaking further, “Of course, it’s still banned and considered a demonic act in almost every monster culture. Everything’s depends on perspective.”

Slowly digesting the information he’d received, Stanley pointed out. “You seem to know an lot about the laws of both people and monsters.”

“Intelligent races… They call themselves the intelligent races.” Elisabeth corrected as she moved back toward the grave and locked it with the key around her neck. “Despite how demeaning it is to monsters…”

“What?” Stanley asked, his face clearly displaying his confusion.

“People is a word that encompasses both the intelligent races and monsters in its description.” Elisabeth explained, while gesturing for Stanley to follow her, “Intelligent races refers to the broad assortment of races that evolved from animals and don’t naturally refine mana.”

Stanley followed after her while thinking about the information he’d been given. Before he softly replied, “That seems like a pretty arbitrary distinction.”

“Welcome to politics. Where the descriptions are made for convenience and the laws don’t actually matter.” Elisabeth grinned at his statement as they exited the garden.

After they’d stepped outside the garden, a guard that stood on the pathway and approached Elisabeth.

“Miss, we were monitoring them as you asked…” The guard began to speak before pausing and tried to phrase it as delicately as possible, ”A portion of the nobles in residence has disappeared.”

“Sorry, I’ll have to deal with this.” Elisabeth apologized to Stanley.

“It’s fine.” Stanley waved his hand in dismissal. If anything he should apologize for imposing on her.

“Which ones?” Elisabeth asked as she walked slightly to the side with the guard to talk with him.

After conversing with the guard for several minutes, the guard saluted and began to walk off.

Elisabeth called out to the guard walking away, “Hold on, who authorized the barrier surrounding the grave?”

“Captain Zorian authorized the use of the barrier to prevent any sound from disturbing the Ancestor.” The guard turned around and reported.

“Where is Zorian now? Bring him here.” Elisabeth demanded, tail flicking from side-to-side.

The guard had a puzzled expression, “Miss? You didn’t give him a secret mission?”

Elisabeth tightened her fist in anger and her mumbled quietly to herself in an unintelligible manner.

“Let’s wait two weeks before putting the missing nobles on the universal wanted list. As for Zorian…” Elisabeth decisively said before her expression turned complicated. After several seconds of silence she finally continued, “Put him on the bounty hunter’s list by the end of today. I want him alive.”

“Ma’am?” The guard voiced his disbelief. “But, Zorian...”

“I’ll be personally checking the list later today. I expect him to be there.” Elisabeth reiterated without explaining herself, “Is that clear?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The guard replied with a brief salute and wandered off.

Glancing toward Stanley, she sighed and strolled back toward him. “I apologize for the wait. While I had been expecting it to an extent, the number of traitors still managed to surprise me.”

“Is the problem resolved?” Stanley inquired, watching the guard walk away.

“Ha… If only it was that simple. If I don’t manage to capture the fleeing nobles in these upcoming weeks, I’ll be dealing with the political fallout of this for hundreds of years.” Elisabeth sighed with her white cat-ears dropping to the side, “...and that’s before rooting out the traitors in the guards and nobles who stayed behind.”

“Political fallout?” Stanley parroted in inquiry.

“It’s would take too long to explain.” Elisabeth dismissed his concerns, “The short version is that I would be forced to ask a favor from other monster species.”

“If it puts you at that much of a disadvantage, why do it?” Stanley asked curious as to the reasoning behind her actions.

“I don’t have a choice…” Elisabeth’s expression displayed helplessness and she elucidated her conundrum, “If I don’t capture them, my own faction would become unstable and I would lose even more political influence.”

“What about Zorian?” Stanley asked, thinking back to the guard’s hesitation. “Why did you-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Elisabeth interrupted him, cutting off the conversation before it could go further.

Stanley was stunned by her immediate rejection.

Her behavior had shifted too rapidly for him to comprehend the reason. A mere moment ago, Elisabeth had been happily explaining everything in the simplest way possible.

Coughing politely, Stanley avoided talking about the subject further, “Right… Well… Beside the teleportation beacon, do you have another method of traveling to the Residential Zone?”

Elisabeth frowned upon hearing the name, “Residential Zone? I haven’t heard of it before. What are its coordinates?”

“…” Stanley’s brain crashed at the question. Although it was not an unreasonable question, he was clueless.

Stanley usually just entered the teleportation beacon and it magically took him to a destination. Anything beyond that, he didn’t have a clue about.

Elisabeth stared at his clueless expression in disbelief, “You… you don’t know the coordinates? How have you survived this long?”

“Luck, mostly.” Stanley replied honestly, as for whether she believed him or not...

Furrowing her brows, Elisabeth seemed annoyed and concluded, “Without coordinates, it’s… difficult to help you.”

The situation became awkward.

It didn’t seem impossible for Elisabeth to help him get there, just… Stanley didn’t know where he needed to go.

Realizing that it’s possible Elisabeth knew the location under a different name, he tried to be more specific. “You know... the location the teleportation beacon takes you by default. I’ve never had to specify coordinates before.”

“That’s not exactly helpful… How am I supposed to know the default location? Why would anyone even use the default location?” Elisabeth said, pondering the situation as her tail swayed absentmindedly behind her.

Stanley scratched his head, “Well, if you don’t know any other coordinates or how to input other coordinates…”

“Honestly, I have no idea how you’ve managed to survive this long. This is going beyond impressive and heading toward borderline freakish.” Elisabeth sighed in exasperation, “What's the council even doing? Dealing with abnormal situations like this is supposed to be their job.”

Stanley furrowed his brows, “What is the council anyway? Why would it be their job?”

“Officially, it’s a group of elected leaders put forth by their own planets. It serves as the united front in any foreign conflicts along with dealing with the mediation of internal affairs.” Elisabeth explained with before frowning.

Stanley nodded at the concept, “That doesn’t sound bad…”

Elisabeth swiftly corrected him with the harsh reality, “Realistically, though, it’s a group of people who have bribed and blackmailed their way into power. Once they’ve successfully obtained it, they utilize their newfound political influence to accumulate even more wealth and influence.”

Groaning in disbelief of the reality of the situation, Stanley sighed in understanding. Corruption and other situations like that tended to happen without internal controls and serious consequences for those actions.

Still, Stanley attempted to look on the bright-side, “At least the concept behind its creation is noble. Even if it was abused in the end.”

Elisabeth paused, her face displaying her confusion and seemed distracted in her own thoughts.

Watching Elisabeth zone out, Stanley waved his hand in front of her face and interrupted her thought process, “Hello?”

Refocusing on reality, Elisabeth shook her head and dismissed her thoughts, “Regardless of corruption, it’s still their job to deal with abnormal situations regarding the intelligent races. They should’ve made arrangements to teach you basic information to keep up appearances.”

“Yeah… that didn’t happen.” Stanley replied, thinking back to when he’d first arrived in this universe.

Initially Stanley had been excited upon teleporting into this universe. He thought, ‘It had finally happened! An amazing isekai adventure awaits me.’

Thus, Stanley had chosen Hell Difficulty in his initial excitement. He believed choosing anything less would be an insulting to an isekai protagonist.

In retrospect, he probably should’ve considered the situation more carefully. If Stanley didn’t have the Narrator, he'd be dead a thousand of times over.

…and there was literally nothing amazing about this situation. It’s certainly gotten better over time, but that’s only because he’s gotten more powerful and resourceful in dealing with problems.

Still, that doesn’t change how odd it was.

They were clearly prepared for them to arrive… but nobody ever showed up to explaining anything.

No villain explaining their master plan. Nor did anyone show up to tell them they were heroes summoned to complete a heroic goal like a typical isekai.

They were just summoned, tossed into a death tutorial and promptly thrown out upon completion.

There was never any explanation, goal, or reason provided.

In fact, Elisabeth is the only source of useful information on the topic that he'd found and he doubted that Elisabeth had any involvement.

Reminiscing about the past and Stanley finally cleared his thoughts and said, “The entire situation too strange... Someone was clearly prepared for our arrival. Even if they weren’t responsible for our kidnapping, they knew we were coming.”

Elisabeth’s cat-ears twitched at the information, “Prepared for your arrival?”

“Mhmmm…” Stanley confirmed with a hum and replied, “We were instructed to choose difficulty levels, given abilities, and promptly sent into a death trap. So it certainly seemed likely they were prepared for our arrival.”

“Death trap? You survived a death trap?” Elisabeth raised an eyebrow in skepticism, “I cannot imagine it was very good one then.”

“Well, I don’t think the intention was solely to kill us. More to test or train us.” Stanley nodded, “Either way, an element of luck was involved in my escape. Although escaping that place didn’t actually lead to someplace safer…”

“Wait. This isn’t the place to be having this conversation.” Elisabeth interrupted his explanation, “We should head to somewhere more private.”

Stanley stared at her in inquisitive manner. The topic wasn’t that sensitive or important enough to keep secret. “Isn’t that just an excuse to head into your room together?”

“No.” Elisabeth answered with a straight face, however her reaction was too controlled. Her tail had completely stopped swaying from side-to-side and her expression had completely shifted from its normal expressive state.

“It feels like an excuse.” Stanley retorted, carefully watching her reaction for any suspicious activity.

Unless there was no other choice, he didn’t want to enter her room again.

Her face didn’t change and Elisabeth reiterated her previous statement, “It’s not.”

Stanley rubbed his neck, “Yeah, about that… I don’t believe you.”

“Tsk.” Elisabeth clicked her tongue in annoyance, “You’re annoyingly perceptive sometimes.”

Stanley rolled his eyes, deciding to leave this place, “Well, I’m going to leave for now. Once I figure something out, I’ll come back and inform you.”

Elisabeth expression turned dejected. “You’re leaving?”

“I can’t exactly stick around here forever.” Stanley explained, “Besides, don’t you have political stuff to take care of?”

“At the very least, let me properly thank you before leaving.” Elisabeth stated, brushing her tail against Stanley’s leg and attempting to grab his arm.

“As long as thank me doesn’t involve sex.” Stanley clarified, stepping backward to avoid her grasp and moving out of range of her tail.

He didn’t mind if she threw a feast or something as thanks. Repaying him with her body, though? That wasn’t something he wanted to deal with.

“Do you hate me that much?” Elisabeth questioned with a tearful expression, “Is the thought of sleeping with me so terrible?”

“What? No, of course not.” Stanley shook his head in refusal.

Although Stanley knew that she was trying to manipulate him, he still needed to clarify the situation.

“Is it because I’m a doppelganger?” Elisabeth asked, her cat-ears drooping and her voice seemingly on the verge of tears, “Do you despise the idea of sleeping with a monster?”

Elisabeth genuinely seemed depressed.

“That…” Stanley began before his voice dropped.

He had no idea what to do. Rather his reasoning for not sleeping with her was flimsy at best. Stanley feared the consequences that would result from it.

Stanley quietly replied, “Sorry, it’s a personal reason. I assure you, though, it has nothing to do with you.”

Tears fell from Elisabeth’s eyes and she shook her head in disbelief, “I don’t believe you. Why even bother to save me if you hate me that much?”

“I already told you, and I don’t hate you.” Stanley stated avoiding looking into her eyes, and he muttered under his breath, “Despite how annoyingly persistent you can be sometimes.”

Elisabeth’s cat-ears twitched at his statement, clearly hearing the entire thing. “So that’s it? I’m annoying? Fine. I’ll leave you alone.”

After making a fuss, Elisabeth stormed off… which left Stanley alone and feeling empty.

What… What just happened?

The change in her reaction had been too extreme and happened too quickly.

He had no idea what to make of the situation.

Stanley had only been planning on head out to ask Schrödinger about the coordinates.

Opening the system map, he absentmindedly searched around the map without a particular goal.

Despite attempting to use the map a distraction, his mind kept wandering back to his previous conversation with Elisabeth.

He didn’t actually find Elisabeth annoying.

While her actions were sometimes too pushy and persistent, he was comforted by her straightforward personality.

Although Stanley personally hoped she would be less… manipulative. He had trouble telling when she was serious or merely trying to elicit a reaction out of him.

Sighing at the overall depressing feeling inside that came with rejecting Elisabeth, Stanley began his journey back to the room provided to him earlier. He’d accidentally left his bag in his room when he’d rush to chase after Elisabeth earlier.

Thinking about the situation from earlier. Stanley had an empty feeling in his chest, he hadn’t wanted to hurt Elisabeth’s feeling by rejecting her.

Although he knew rejecting people was disheartening to the rejected party, Stanley hadn’t known that it could also feel depressing to the person rejecting them.

She had always seemed so upbeat and confident in herself, the her reaction to rejection had caught him off-guard.

Was it even necessary? Should he have just clarified his problems?

[Lost in his thoughts, Stanley had wandered throughout the mansion and had physically gotten lost without a clue to his location. Upon realizing that, he decided to search for a nearby doppelganger for help.]

Hearing the Narrator’s voice, Stanley blinked and looked around. He didn’t recognize this part of the mansion.

Sighing to himself in exasperation, Stanley searched the system map for a nearby doppelganger to question.

Hopefully, he hadn’t wandered too far in the wrong direction.