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Our highness’s Skeletal Mages have been sent through the dimensional rift to the new world. However, only dozens out of the tens of thousands of mages survived. Of those that survived, the highest level mages are only Two-star. Their subpar intelligence is unable to comprehend the laws of this new world and the strange energy they use… the only useful intelligence we’ve gathered so far is that there is a being here who is at least Five-star… we humbly request that your highness dispatches the Necromancer Apprentices over to the new world. With their human bodies, they might just be able to slip through the laws of the new world.

—– A report from the invasion of the new world

So what she’s saying is that, Lewell, who is also Jezsere’s older brother, was killed by Sarkath, another older brother of Jezsere… With that in mind, I turned towards Paliseth and gave her a strange look.

One of your sons killed another one of your sons… don’t tell me you don’t know about this. Are you so hands-off that you won’t even meddle when it comes to your children killing each other? What kind of mother are you even? Actually…probably the kind that just killed her own son. Maybe he was just an accident, maybe even the dad is unknown.

Maybe I’m the one that’s being too demanding here?

“Sarkath and Lewell were both fighting over the position of Sword Dancer at the time.” Reyage suddenly broke his silence to explain. “It was a fair fight that only ended when Lewell made a mistake and died. But Sarkath ended up seriously injured as well.”

A fight over the position of Sword Dancer? Is that position really that rare? I know it’s an occupation that performs for the gods, but is it so coveted that you would kill someone else over it?

“Are Sword Dancers rare?”

Hearing that, Reyage suddenly gave me an awkward look and fell silent for a good long while. “They aren’t, actually. It’s just male Sword Dancers are rare…”

The moment he said the word male, I understood immediately.

So Sword Dancer’s aren’t the panda bears of Dark Elf society… it’s just the discrimination against males is so bad that male Sword Dancers can be considered rare. I mean, why would their goddess even want a wretched male performing for her, am I right? If you’re going to worship your deity, you obviously have to use the best. That’s just common sense.

Speaking of deities, isn’t it my godmother they are worshipping?

With regards to the position of Sword Dancer, it was only natural that the competition amongst males was fierce. This was an occupation that performed sword dances for the goddess herself. In some sense, they were servants of the goddess.

Being a position that served the goddess, Sword Dancers enjoyed a wide array of opportunities other Dark Elves would not have enjoyed. After all, if there was someone the goddess should look out for first, it should be the ones who pleased her the most. Every sword dance was an opportunity to earn the favor of the goddess. This was an honor everyone else could not even dream of.

It was for that reason that the position of Sword Dancer would be so highly contested, and highly respected. The position itself had steep requirements for its holders. They had to be of good lineage, excellent looks, top-notch talent, and unquestionable faith.

The question then became: what were the benefits of the goddess’s favor?

The answer was laughably obvious… just look at Sarkath and his ability to transform into a black mist.

Strictly speaking however, not every Sword Dancer would be selected to perform for the goddess either. They had to first go through a rigorous selection before even being considered for the performance.

Either way, I finally understood why it seemed like male Sword Dancers were rare and why Sarkath even killed his brother for this position -to climb the corporate ladder!

What kind of man doesn’t yearn for higher office? A waste of space, that’s who! No, they aren’t even men at that point, they are just fish, salted fish to be exact.

“So what was the relationship between Lewell and that female human?” Now that one part of the mystery was solved, it was time to address the other.

“She should be considered Jezsere’s sister-in-law.” Jezsere answered in an unsure voice. Having said that, she threw a timid glance in the direction of her mother, as if she was afraid she would get punished for even saying that.

Sister-in-law?

I was stunned. Even though this possibility did occur to me, it was another matter entirely hearing it from her mouth. After all, the Dark Elves were extremely long-lived compared to humans. Assuming that Five-star female human did not advance any further, her lifespan would at most be a hundred or so. That’s not even a third of a normal Elf’s lifespan. Just based on that alone, it was hard for me to imagine how those two would ever fall in love. To borrow the words of a certain Sword Dancer, humans were wretched.

“You are sure Lewell married that human?”

“Even though their marriage wasn’t officiated, it was still a fact that Lewell had moved to the colosseum for her.” It was Reyage who answered in his sister’s place this time. “Mother might not agree with them getting married, but she did not directly oppose it either. Slave gladiators were forbidden from leaving the colosseum, so Lewell could only move there instead. They even had a daughter together…”

Having mentioned the child, Reyage’s lips couldn’t help but twitch a little.

“A half-Elven daughter?” That last part caught my attention there. “I remember the Dark Elves had a way to alter a child’s lineage, that’s how your race ensures that only pure-blooded Dark Elves are born no matter what nonsense of a mate they have. So how did they even have a half-Elven daughter?”

Reyage hesitated for a second, but finally answered. “The problem is that the person giving birth is a human…”

So that method only works on female Dark Elves? Or maybe they aren’t too happy about a lowly human giving birth to a pure Dark Elf?

Well, those are the only two possible explanations I can think of.

“Take care of her body, let’s go see this half-Elf daughter in the meantime.” Now that I had all the answers I wanted, I began giving command to Paliseth and the other attendants. Paliseth gave the attendants a look, to which they nodded and left swiftly. Seeing that was taken care of, I then turned my attention back to the cold, lifeless body of the female human, a hint of guilt flashing through my eyes in that instant.

I can’t do anything about your death, but I can at least take care of your daughter for you… No matter what the circumstances were, it was fact that I had something to do with her death. Therefore, be it out of curiosity or guilt, I decided to pay that half-Elf a visit. “Oh right, how old is she now? Where is she?”

“She shouldn’t be more than twenty this year…” Reyage answered in an uncertain voice, then thought about it for a second before giving me another more certain answer. “She is in the residential section of the colosseum.”

“Alright, bring me to her.” I signalled for our resident timid girl to help me along the way. She hurriedly rushed up to my weakened form before nodding to Reyage. “Lead the way.”

“Got it.”

Just like that, we departed from the VIP booth, Reyage in the lead while Jezsere helped me along. As for Paliseth… she quietly accompanied us from behind. Given her recent error, she probably wasn’t looking to stand out right now, lest I decided to make her take responsibility.

Following the stairs downwards, we quickly entered the inner sections of the colosseum. For the most part, the corridors in the colosseum were roughly five meters wide and five meters tall. For a party like ours, this spacing was just the right size, or it would have been, had I been more accustomed to underground life.

The outside of the colosseum definitely wasn’t an issue for me, seeing that the ceiling of the cavern itself had to be at least over a hundred meters tall. Now, when it came to the insides however, there was no denying that looming sense of claustrophobia right now.

As we continued onwards, I suddenly realised a serious issue that I hadn’t thought of till now: what was that female human’s name even? And what was her daughter’s name too? If I didn’t even know that, how was I to greet her?

“Errr… so who here knows the name of that female human?”

That question broke the awkward silence we had till now while also simultaneously creating a new awkward silence. Reyage couldn’t help but pause a second, unsure whether or not to proceed onwards. He clearly didn’t know what was the name of that deceased female human, let alone her daughter…

Just like her older brother, Jezsere was equally stumped by this question…

What the heck, aren’t you two her aunty and uncle? Are you telling me none of you even knows her name?

I then glared at a visibly stumped Reyage. If you don’t even know her name, how are you supposed to lead us in the first place?

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.