They were in the bath right now and Anastasia was puffing out its cheeks in frustration as Azel scrubbed its back methodically.

His muscles had gotten noticeably better defined after the bloodline awakening, the transformation clearly defining his upper physique with lean efficient muscle.

He'd tied an excessively long towel around his waist to maintain some modesty while he worked.

He remained silent as he carefully did Anastasia's hair, working shampoo through the long silver-green strands with practiced movements.

Anastasia didn't like the oppressive silence at all, the quiet feeling heavy between them.

Azel was probably mad at it, and the reason was obvious.

For not trusting him when he'd said that Merek was currently inside Yggdrasil and had somehow managed to recruit Sylvia to work for his schemes.

'How am I supposed to even believe something like that…?' Anastasia thought with internal conflict.

On one hand, it trusted Azel's judgment and honesty but on the other hand, when its father had died centuries ago, Merek had been sealed away through a spatial portal to an unknown dimension.

Anastasia had even directly questioned Yggdrasil multiple times about the chances of Merek being sealed anywhere within the great tree's domain, and the answer had always been the same: zero chance.

The tree would absolutely know if something that powerful was imprisoned within it.

And according to Azel's claim, Merek and Sylvia had somehow held a secret meeting inside the trial space within Yggdrasil, which should be completely impossible given the tree's awareness.

But Anastasia finally exhaled with resignation.

"Fine." It said while looking back at Azel over its shoulder.

Azel lifted an eyebrow questioningly.

"I'll personally question Sylvia thoroughly after tomorrow's trial concludes, and I'll do more extensive investigation to verify your claims." Anastasia said seriously. "You mentioned that your ghost familiar was discovered before they had discussed specific details about how they planned to proceed, correct?"

"Mhm." Azel confirmed with a single sound.

Anastasia's ears twitched with irritation. It absolutely didn't like the curt one-word replies he was giving her… It felt cold and distant.

"So we don't have much concrete evidence to work with… but I'll pursue this investigation anyway since it's you making the accusation, alright?" Anastasia asked, trying to get more response from him. "Just please talk with me mor— Ow!"

Azel suddenly tightened the front braid he was working on, pulling it taught. "Oh, so that's what you were worried about this whole time… I was simply tightening your braids properly. They seemed to have been pulled apart and become loose."

"I see… while I was standing in that stationary position for hours waiting, the wind spirits were probably playing with and dragging my hair around. That's most probably why it became disheveled." Anastasia said, feeling slightly foolish for assuming.

Then it paused before continuing more seriously. "I have something important to confess to you."

"Go on." He said as he picked up a wooden bucket of clean water and poured it over its back completely, dousing the soap away.

"I have fallen for you…" Anastasia said with absolute certainty and no hesitation in its voice.

Azel raised an eyebrow, though his expression suggested he'd half-expected this confession. In truth, he had thought all his careful efforts at connection might have been for nothing, so this was validating to hear.

"However, I have a significant issue which does not fully allow me to fall completely in love with you yet." Anastasia continued, its voice becoming troubled. "I do not know exactly what this internal issue or blockage is, but I must find out and understand it for myself before I can move forward."

Anastasia continued explaining only to suddenly feel a soft towel hit the top of its head gently.

It looked up to see Azel carefully cleaning its hair, then moving to dry its body with care and surprising tenderness.

"That isn't much of an issue in the grand scheme of things. We have enough time to find out about it together." Azel said calmly, his tone reassuring. "Since I'm a half-elf now after the bloodline awakening, I'm sure my lifespan has increased dramatically so we'll be seeing a whole lot more of each other for potentially centuries."

Anastasia could not control the surge of emotion that statement triggered.

It leapt upward suddenly and hopped onto Azel's body without warning, wrapping its arms around him and burying its face in his bare chest.

"You don't know how incredibly happy that made me feel." Anastasia said as its heart physically thumped hard in its chest.

That golden glow appeared again, surrounding its internal organs and spreading warmth through its entire being… only to die away again moments later, fading like a candle being snuffed out.

"I will find out what's blocking me… and I will fix what is wrong with me." It said with determination.

"Okay… okay… Calm down." He said soothingly as he patted its head with one hand. "Now let me take my bath properly, then we can have dinner together like yesterday."

Anastasia reluctantly left the tub, climbing out and wrapping itself in a robe. Azel climbed inside the warm water and was about to remove his towel for a proper bath.

However, Anastasia floated upward using magic, hovering above the tub with a bar of soap clutched in its hands.

Its cheeks were noticeably pink.

"Let me… wash you." Anastasia said with endearing shyness. "Just like the way you've been washing me so carefully."

…

The next morning arrived quickly, and Azel found himself seated in an office environment that had materialized around him.

He was positioned behind a large wooden desk covered with official documents and case files.

Sylvia was seated next to him at an identical desk, her posture was perfect but her energy was tense.

She glanced at him with a careful look.

'He seems very different today.' She thought, her usual words of "darling" and other affectionate terms hadn't been able to get any reaction out of him since morning, so she'd finally given up trying. 'Does he know about my plans?'

Azel glanced at her briefly.

This was currently the third Trial that The Elf King had designed for the participants: The Trial of Judgement.

Each elf team was responsible for dealing with a set of three separate criminal cases, evaluating evidence and rendering fair verdicts.

It was actually one of the most annoying trials in the original game because you needed to listen extremely carefully to every detail and judge the cases perfectly based on subtle contradictions and evidence.

Fortunately, he already had all the correct answers memorized from playing through this section multiple times, so he would need to pace himself strategically to use his meta-knowledge for the win.

As for why he was still helping Sylvia despite knowing her treacherous intentions, he was primarily using this trial as more quality time to spend with Anastasia afterward.

"If you wanted me to do something for you… you should have just asked me directly instead of scheming." Azel said coldly.

With that pointed statement, he picked up the case documents from the table. Sylvia trembled immediately at his words.

'He knows… He knows… He knows.' Her thoughts spiraled into panic mode. This was approaching worst-case scenario territory.

She had worked so carefully to make sure that Azel didn't find out about the fact that she was manipulating him, because while he probably wouldn't kill her or physically hurt her given their partnership, he could easily choose to withdraw completely from the Elf trials.

That would grant her an automatic disqualification since teams needed both members.

Or worse, she would lose his trust entirely for any future endeavors they might have together, and his cooperation was valuable.

'I would be panicking endlessly if this was truly my main plan.' She thought, trying to calm herself. 'However, Merek's awakening and our greater scheme is much more important than this trial.'

She had already devised a concrete method to steal that specific ring that was currently on Anastasia's finger, the one containing the seal.

She just needed to complete a few more trials and wait patiently for the final trial where all of the participating elves would be gathered together in one location.

That was when she would release Merek from his centuries-long imprisonment and let him fulfill his side of their mutually beneficial deal.

She had even signed a magically binding soul contract with him to ensure that he would hold up his end of the agreement and not betray her.

"I'm sorr—"

"Shut up." Azel interrupted her curtly, and she visibly flinched while glancing at his newly pointed ears.

While most participants who had passed the previous trials got various magical items as rewards like her Moonstaff and Feliora's enhancement crystal, two or so noble families had been completely disqualified already when they failed the Mirror Trial through poor judgment.

Just then the heavy office door opened with a creak, and two Elven soldiers in formal guard uniforms brought in their first criminal case.

The accused was bound in enchanted metal cuffs that suppressed magic, and was roughly dragged between the guards.

As they entered and positioned the prisoner, they dropped him unceremoniously on the floor.

As one of the soldiers saluted professionally to acknowledge the judges, the other guard instead blew Azel a flirtatious kiss with exaggerated lip movements.

Azel flinched slightly, not understanding what that unexpected gesture meant at all. The door closed firmly behind the guards as they exited.

What he couldn't see was that the guards were merely magical illusions that had vanished the moment the door shut.

The real orchestrator of that blown kiss was Anastasia, who was currently blushing furiously in its observation seat in a different room entirely.

"You may begin your trial proceedings." Anastasia's voice echoed through the office space, magically amplified.

It was watching over all of the different trial participants through an array of enchanted mirrors from the comfort of its private chambers.

These offices were actually just repurposed spaces within the castle itself, and the Trial of Judgement simply required participants to correctly judge three criminal cases based on evidence and testimony.

It wasn't impossibly difficult, but it also wasn't easy since the criminals were skilled liars. Anastasia focused its viewing mirror strictly on Azel's office though, largely ignoring the others.

…

Back in the office, the criminal staggered awkwardly to his feet with his hands still bound.

He had long spiky hair that stuck out in multiple directions and prominent dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, looking every bit like a stereotypical criminal.

"So your name is… Thalanor Vessaro." Azel read from the document.

"...Yes." The guy confirmed groggily, his voice rough.

"And you are here to answer for the following crimes." Azel cleared his throat and began reading the charges formally. "You committed fraud against the Crown. You were officially assigned a mission to deliver rare mana-silk to the Elven treasury, however you purposely filled the shipment with lower-grade inferior silk and pocketed the substantial price difference. You then forged three official signatures to pass the fraudulent inspection."

He turned to the next page with a rustle of paper.

"You also secretly formed an illegal network with two other merchants who have already confessed to their involvement. Together you artificially raised prices in the capital city of Elun'varis by controlling and manipulating the supply of healing herbs and mana bark, which created a fake shortage that hurt the poorer elves who depend on affordable medicine."

He turned another page, continuing the litany of crimes.

"Additionally, to smuggle a prohibited shipment to the Dwarven kingdom, you bribed a border officer with enchanted jewelry worth approximately fifty thousand ares. You lied about where your caravan had been traveling, and you altered the official transport records to cover your tracks."

Azel looked up from the documents, meeting the criminal's eyes directly.

"What do you have to say for yourself in response to these serious charges?"

Azel braced himself mentally for the lies that were about to flow.

He knew from the game that this man was an exceptionally skilled expert at lying convincingly.

The only way to exact proper judgment against him was by reading carefully between the lines of his fabricated testimony, catching the small logical mistakes and contradictions that revealed the truth.

"I am not guilty of any of these accusations!" Thalanor exclaimed with passionate conviction as his voice rose. "Honored Judge… I swear on the sacred name of the Ever-Blooming Goddess herself, I committed absolutely no fraud against the Crown whatsoever."

He placed his bound hands over his heart in a gesture of sincerity.

"The mana-silk I delivered was the exact same silk I purchased directly from the reputable merchants at Port Loom on the thirteenth night of last moon, and I remember the date clearly because the caravan I hired departed at dawn on the thirteenth." He said, his tone earnest and detailed. "My route never changed from the planned path. I rode straight from the Loom directly to the Treasury with no stops, no exchanges, and absolutely no opportunity to tamper with anything in the shipment."

He shook his head sadly.

"If the silk was somehow of lesser grade than expected, then the fault lies entirely with the Loom's weavers and their quality control, not with me as a simple merchant. I have served this kingdom faithfully for thirty years… I would never dare stain my reputation and name with such blatant deception and dishonor."

Azel's brows creased immediately the moment he heard the obvious contradiction embedded in the emotional speech.

'He explicitly said he bought the silk on the thirteenth night… but then claimed his caravan left at dawn the same day? That's impossible.' Azel thought, parsing the time. 'Dawn comes before night in any day cycle. He couldn't have purchased something after he had already departed earlier that morning. It's the exact same logical trap as in the game.'

The contradiction was tiny and cleverly hidden inside an emotional, respectful speech designed to play on sympathy but to Azel with his meta-knowledge, it was a flashing warning light that screamed deception.

"Are you completely sure of your statement and timeline?" Azel asked, barely hiding the knowing grin threatening to spread across his face.

"Absolutely certain!" Thalanor nodded vigorously, doubling down on the lie.

Perfect. Thalanor had just lied… and with that he sealed his fate.

'Time to get two more lies.' Azel thought while rolling his shoulder.

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