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“Wait here for a moment,” Albert said as he left the room.

“Thank you for waiting so long,” he said upon returning to the room.

Of course, he wasn’t alone; he brought others with him.

“Wait, it’s only been a little while since you left…”

“If we don’t hurry, work is going to pile up. Anyway, these two are the individuals I’m entrusting you with.”

Albert brought in an elf and a fox beastman.

“So! Why am I stuck here? I only brought in a thief!”

“….”

The elf girl was yelling without holding back her emotions, while the fox beastman girl stood with her eyes closed and said nothing.

Those two were the favor that Albert wanted to pass on.

“Please allow these two to accompany you on your journey.”

“Two…?”

At Albert’s words, Alice tilted her head slightly.

Beastmen could usually be found anywhere, but elves… they were hard to come by in Procyon.

Perhaps due to the scorching desert, the area around Procyon was basically dry and hot, making it virtually impossible to find lush forests where elves might inhabit.

Thanks to this, unless they were exceptionally unusual elves, spotting one would be rare. Considering the fact that they appeared in such a place, it seemed they had to be quite peculiar elves.

“These two are… individuals whose judgment is ambiguous on our end. Therefore, we wish to leave them in the care of the Hero.”

In essence, they were trying to offload the ones with postponed verdicts.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

The elf girl’s name was Lily. Liliana Silvrea. A young elf from the Great Forest.

Still under 100 years old—though technically an adult, she was still considered a child within elf society.

As such, her curiosity about the outside world was vigorous; as soon as she got the chance, she escaped the Great Forest to travel the world.

Of course, during the time of the Demon King, it was unlikely that a young elf like her could venture outside… But having the Demon King defeated by the Hero and the Dragon Priestess, she was able to take her longed-for journey outside.

What she found outside, however, was far from the stuff depicted in books or tales.

A world devastated by the Demon King’s forces. A land suffering from brutal cold and dryness. Forests burnt to ash and rivers laid bare.

Unlike her safe haven, the Great Forest under the protection of the World Tree Yggdrasil, the outside world was a chaotic mess.

Seeing the outside world, if she were an ordinary elf, she would probably be disappointed and return to the Great Forest.

But Lily was different from typical elves.

‘Someone must restore this world to normalcy.’

She was a bit… no, significantly different.

‘If I was born during this time and left the Great Forest at this time… it must be because of such a fate.’

She was strikingly different.

‘I must set the world right and stabilize it.’

It might have been a childish vow from a young elf.

However, regrettably for her… she had talent.

An affinity for spirits unmatched by any other elf and remarkable skill with the bow.

Thus, she began to act in accordance with what she believed was right.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

The fox beastman girl’s name was Yurika. Yurika Dobel. A wandering fox beastman with no memory of her hometown or family.

In this era, she was a typical orphan.

The means she chose to survive was thievery.

Her first theft was just a small piece of bread.

She knew that stealing was wrong, but after days of having eaten nothing and only drinking muddy water mixed with dirt, she probably had no other choice.

Using her beastman agility, she managed to grab a small piece of bread and make her escape unnoticed.

That first stolen piece of bread was incredibly delicious.

It was hard to bite into, dry and hard, but that piece of bread allowed her to survive.

From then on, she became a thief.

Afterward, she engaged in a variety of activities. Sometimes she used her stealth skills and disappearance techniques, alongside dagger combat, to work as an adventurer; and occasionally, her main gig as a thief involved stealing expensive items.

Her skills were so highly regarded that she almost got drawn into a race war in Betelgeuse, but somehow managed to escape.

The change in her heart began when the Demon King appeared.

The upheaval caused by the Demon King’s army led to the tragedy of many losing their lives.

Amidst that tragedy, she saw orphans dying in the streets, having lost their hometowns and families.

In those children, who were dying like her past self without doing anything, she found reflections of her former self.

Unconsciously, she began helping starving orphans.

She helped children who lost their families find them, and those who lost their hometowns to find a safe place to stay, guiding them to the Church of Life.

Of course, the Church of Life couldn’t accept every child due to limited capacity, which resulted in many rejections, but she began to support the church with her own private funds, helping the children.

Thus, she started doing kind deeds.

Having engaged in such good deeds, she slowly began to think.

Even with hands tainted and sinful, she could help others.

Through thievery, she could also act kindly.

And so, she became not an ordinary thief, but a thief acting to help others… a vigilante.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

After placing the elf girl and the fox beastman girl back in the next room, Albert looked at Eric and Alice.

“Those two are individuals whose verdicts are also pending on our end. Well, I suppose if we could make a judgment, we could reach one, but… it wasn’t something easily decided.”

The elf girl was swinging her power around in her quest to restore the world to normalcy.

However, she was intoxicated by her power, acting with a short-sighted mindset. She ended up being used by those looking to gain from her abilities.

During those encounters, amidst catching vigilantes, she accidentally harmed many people.

She had good intentions but committed wrongful acts without realizing it.

The fox beastman girl was well aware that she had originally acted inappropriately.

However, by helping other orphans, she awakened empathy and learned to act kindly.

She committed wrongful acts by stealing for the purpose of helping starving people.

“Due to the ambiguity of their notions of good and evil, their verdicts have been postponed.”

Albert sighed lightly as he spoke.

“In such circumstances, it’s the Hero and the Dragon Priestess who have arrived; isn’t this the arrangement of the God of Justice?”

“Uh… is that so…?”

Eric couldn’t easily nod at Albert’s words.

Although he put it forth in lofty terms, in the end, it was just shuffling off responsibility.

Still, there was no reason to refuse.

“If you don’t accept the two of them, I suppose you won’t tell us where the God of Light is?”

“Well, that is the condition.”

Alice nodded at Albert’s words.

Ultimately, the two of them had no choice in the matter.

It was a request that wasn’t unreasonable, just to include the two in the party and travel with them.

After all, it was just that.

“Of course, we’ll need to talk with the two.”

“Right. Exactly.”

However.

“Ugh… elf… ear twitching…”

The dwarf girl, Pinna, who had joined earlier, looked slightly displeased.

“Pinna. I know the dwarves and elves have their rivalries, but just bear with it. Right now, we have no other options.”

“I get that, but I can’t help but feel unsatisfied psychologically.”

“Have you fought directly with an elf?”

“Uh, no, not really. It’s just… I’ve heard stories about those haughty and stubborn elves enough to have it ingrained in my ears.”

“That’s racial discrimination.”

Pinna seemed to be perceptive about such matters, but the longtime engraved stereotypes about races weren’t easy to wash away.

“I’ll try my best to make an effort to accept it, but… um… there were dwarves from Sagarmatha who got along well with elves… so… sigh…”

After Pinna reluctantly nodded, Eric and Alice accepted Albert’s proposal.

Thus, the elf girl Lily and the fox beastman girl Yurika joined the hero’s party.

If these two hadn’t joined the hero’s party…

The elf girl might have been struck down by a sword while waving her sense of justice recklessly somewhere.

The fox beastman girl could have continued her life as a vigilante only to be caught and killed somewhere.

Joining the hero’s party was surely a good thing for them.