The Elf Journey In The Western Fantasy World
Chapter 170: Unspoken Warnings

Chapter 170: Unspoken Warnings

"You must protect yourself," Drow repeated, his voice nearly a plea.

The expression on his face carried a sorrow that Illiya couldn’t quite read.

Illiya refused to dwell on it too deeply. He could only force himself to maintain composure.

"Is it because Yaguk Theocracy still has a hidden move left to play?" Illiya asked quietly. Right now, that seemed like the only explanation.

Drow nodded.

He had never doubted Illiya’s intelligence, and he wasn’t surprised Illiya had drawn that conclusion.

He wanted to explain the specifics of Yaguk Theocracy’s hidden schemes, but suddenly he found out that his throat had closed up, preventing him from saying a single word.

His expression darkened all at once.

A terrible suspicion crept into his mind.

A metallic taste of blood surged up in his throat, and his face turned an awful shade.

There had been no signs of this before—so why now, just as he was trying to confess something important, could he not say a single word?

It felt as though an invisible hand had gripped his throat, cutting off his voice entirely.

Any attempt to speak about it was met with suffocating resistance, as though the moment the thought crossed his mind, that choking pressure would return.

Illiya waited for a while, but no follow-up ever came from the dark elf. He was confused.

As far as he could tell, Drow’s sentence should have continued—so what was happening now?

When Illiya looked up and clearly saw the dark elf’s face, he couldn’t help but frown.

He could see Drow’s discomfort plainly.

For the first time, his expression was so openly distressed—completely unlike his usual reserved demeanor.

His brows were furrowed, his mouth pulled tight, the corners slightly downturned.

At some point, his eyes had closed, and his eyelids were trembling. His hands, hanging by his sides, were tightly clenched.

The whole elf radiated an air of repressed pain.

It felt like he was fighting something.

Illiya had a gut feeling—he couldn’t let Drow continue like this. Something bad would happen. Not to him, but to Drow.

Without thinking, Illiya opened his mouth to interrupt, "Drow, if you really can’t say it, then don’t force yourself. I’ll find out eventually. Wouldn’t it be more fun if I discovered it myself instead of someone else telling me?"

Illiya’s words were like a life-saving branch thrown to someone drowning.

They pulled the dark elf out of the obsessive spiral he was slipping into, away from the mysterious power that seemed to be overtaking him.

Once he gave up the urge to speak what was forbidden, that choking pressure around Drow’s throat vanished completely, and his body finally began to relax.

But still, there was a lingering sense of unwillingness in his heart.

Even though he’d been able to speak about it before, why was it now—of all times—that he couldn’t say a single word?

It felt as if someone were secretly manipulating everything behind the scenes, preventing him from speaking and interfering with a plan that was already beginning to take shape.

Wasn’t this just to ensure he couldn’t change the current trajectory?

Every time Drow recalled the moment in his previous life when Illiya had been ambushed by those people and severely wounded, his teeth clenched with rage.

It was nothing short of a provocation—and yet, he was powerless against it. There was simply no way to stop what was coming.

Even though he’d already avenged that event in his past life, in this one, he still refused to allow anyone the slightest opportunity to harm his soul-bounded partner.

Drow quickly reined in the turbulent emotions swirling around him, a trace of gloom flashing through his eyes.

He lowered his head, fidgeting with his fingers, and quietly repeated again, "Illiya, you must, must protect yourself. No matter what, you have to protect yourself."

Even if the Demon King of the Demon Realm is standing right next to you and is attacked too, you should still prioritize protecting yourself.

But that last sentence, of course, he did not say aloud.

They were on demon territory now—saying something like that would be asking to get assassinated by the demons.

He wasn’t foolish enough to make that mistake.

He knew better than to go against the local power. Although... to be honest, the main reason was probably that he still couldn’t beat the Demon Realm’s head steward. But that wasn’t important.

The key thing was: knowing when to hold back was necessary.

When Illiya heard Drow repeat the plea for him to protect himself, he fell into deep thought.

After spending this much time together, Illiya wouldn’t claim to truly understand this mysterious dark elf—but he could at least infer a thing or two.

Dark elves didn’t waste words. So if Drow was repeating this kind of reminder over and over, it definitely had something to do with the matters he currently couldn’t speak about.

In summary, the dark elf was convinced that Illiya would be injured—or more precisely, that he would be attacked.

The Demon Realm wasn’t exactly impenetrable, but the area around the Demon Palace was definitely tightly guarded. Even if they later followed the demons to observe the events at the Demon Realm’s border for the war, with the Demon King by their side, their surroundings should still be secure.

No—maybe not.

Suddenly, Illiya recalled the fallen demons he had encountered in Areuseon Kingdom before. And now, with the aggressive advance of Yaguk Theocracy’s Royal Knights...

Ah, it all made sense now.

Of course Yaguk Theocracy had such precise intelligence on what was happening in the Demon Realm. Of course they chose to strike when the Demon King hadn’t yet reached his full strength. Someone must have been passing them information—or worse, was colluding with them.

It wasn’t enough to merely root out the spies in the Demon Realm. The real threat was the fallen demons still hiding within.

And unless those fallen demons exposed themselves, it would be nearly impossible to identify them.