The Elf Journey In The Western Fantasy World-Chapter 159: The Banquet and the Truth Behind the War

As the king of the elven race, his teacher carried immense responsibility.

Even though the Elven King wasn’t required to manage too many affairs personally, he still had to attend various important occasions.

As a result, every time his teacher had to leave the house, he would always wear an expression as though he were in unbearable pain.

His teacher once told him that forcing a shut-in to go out was like trying to make a sow climb a tree—utterly unreasonable.

He figured that Eoryun probably felt the same way.

From the corner of his eye, Illiya caught sight of Eoryun, who had visibly relaxed.

In his heart, Illiya understood that he had already accomplished half of his objective.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Illiya finally brought up the real reason for his approach.

"I barely managed to escape from all that, only to find you hiding in a corner without a care in the world. I have to say, I’m more than a little jealous. So now, out of pure jealousy, I’m going to drag you into the crowd. Everyone’s being surrounded and bombarded with small talk. As one of us, there’s no way you’re getting out of that."

Once he finished speaking, Illiya didn’t give Eoryun any time to respond.

He simply grabbed him and started walking toward the center of the banquet.

Eoryun was startled by Illiya’s sudden movement, but he quickly regained his composure.

At this moment, he finally relaxed completely.

He was now certain—nobody had noticed what he had done earlier.

That meant he didn’t need to be so on edge anymore.

All he had to do now was act as he normally would and stay calm.

"Hey, hey! Illiya, do you really have to do this? Can’t you just let me hide in the corner and rest in peace? Illiya, you don’t love me anymore! You only smile at the new ones and ignore the old ones crying in the shadows!"

Although he was grumbling, Eoryun made no real attempt to resist.

It was obvious that he was happy to be treated like this by his close friend.

And so, the two of them made their noisy way into the center of the room.

After successfully pushing Eoryun into the middle of the banquet and watching as person after person came up to talk to him—until he was utterly swamped—Illiya quietly put his hands behind his back and made a subtle hand gesture toward the people standing farther back, signaling that everything was fine.

Once he had done all that, Illiya turned around with an air of ease and walked away, politely turning down every demon who approached him out of curiosity to strike up a conversation—leaving behind only the elegant image of his retreating figure.

After the banquet ended, Illiya had been following behind the Demon King Anos, ever since.

He never initiated conversation with anyone else and simply stood there quietly, like part of the background.

All his actions had received tacit approval from the Demon King, so every demon who saw this scene didn’t ask questions.

Instead, they all cooperatively pretended not to see the golden-haired elf standing silently behind their king.

More days passed like this, with Illiya serving as a kind of spiritual wall-hanging.

One day, Anos could no longer hold back and finally spoke to the "background decoration" standing behind him.

"You mean to say... you didn’t know about the war between the Demon Realm and the world that happens once every fifty years?"

Illiya nodded, indicating that he did know about it.

Upon seeing this response, Anos nodded with satisfaction. The matter that had been weighing on his heart for so long finally had someone he could talk to.

He couldn’t help but open up and start venting. "You should all know where I come from. I do have a sense of responsibility, so on my very first day in the Demon Realm, I went straight to the library to research everything I could about this place."

"You have no idea—when I saw that the Demon Realm and the world had this agreement to go to war every fifty years, I completely lost it."

"After learning about this so-called agreement, I was extremely anxious. After all, I was born in a time of peace. I’ve never experienced anything like war in my life. It was so overwhelming. I felt like my biggest challenge as the Demon King wouldn’t be how to become a good ruler, but how to safely survive the war."

"As someone who is very self-aware, I knew from the start that I wouldn’t be much help. There are tons of demons in the Demon Realm—surely there must be people who actually know how to fight. So, following the steward’s advice, I opened a book called A History of Demon Realm Wars, hoping to find records of past battles fought by the demons."

"And let me tell you, good heavens, I was shocked. The earlier records were fine. Sure, there were a few losses, but most of them were victories. But the further I read, the more wrong things started to feel. Especially after the previous Demon King disappeared—wars between the Demon Realm and the world started becoming increasingly bizarre. Starting from five hundred years ago, the win ratio shifted to three-to-seven. The Demon Realm: three. The world: seven."

"I could still understand that, to a certain extent. After all, who can guarantee they’ll always be on the winning side? But when I looked deeper into it, I discovered that a lot of these wars didn’t even begin before they were over. Because the demon side voluntarily sent over spoils of war as a sign of surrender."

"And in the past five hundred years, hardly anyone has ever taken the initiative to lead the demon race into battle."

"I didn’t understand it, but I was completely stunned. So I asked Sebastian about it, and he told me that this was totally normal. Because the demon race was never a united people to begin with. Taking on the role of a leader is way too difficult for demons. It’s far simpler to just send over some goods and be done with it. The people the world sends over are all too weak, not even worth fighting. It’s a total waste of time. Better to give them a few things and send them away—after all, they’re only here for profit."

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