As the night dragged on, the bar slowly emptied. Some adventurers staggered out, supported by their party members, while others remained behind, caught in the haze of alcohol.

  I observed the dwindling crowd, contemplating my next move.

  <”Aza, do you think they'll notice if I appraise them?”>

  【Both of them appear quite perceptive, especially the cat.】

  【However, it should be safe for the elf if she’s at least three rows behind. For the cat, she needs to be at the very back.】

  I surveyed the tables, silently measuring the distances.

  Three rows back meant about 75% of the bar's width—a good enough buffer.

  I decided to wait until Sis Esta moved into position before discreetly activating Appraisal.

  The Status Window materialized before me.

  And then—I froze.

  ? STATUS WINDOW ?

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  Name: Esta

  Age: 145

  Race: Elf

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  ? Essence ?

  Vitality: 8710 (Fake: 1710)

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  ? Attributes ?

  Strength: 8070 (Fake: 1570)

  Agility: 8584 (Fake: 1870)

  Dexterity: 8808 (Fake: 2008)

  Status Points: 11317

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  ? Element Affinity ?

  Wind, Heat(Locked)(Hidden)

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  *You need the target’s consent to manipulate their status.

  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

  …Huh?

  <"What… the hell is this?">

  I stared at the screen in shock.

  Her stats were far beyond my father’s—no, even beyond most B-Rank adventurers. And yet, there was something even stranger.

  ‘Fake’ status?

  I had never seen this before.

  <”... Firstly, why is there ‘fake’ written on the attributes? No, rather than that, since I can see two sets of numbers on each attribute, doesn’t it mean the left one is real, while the right one is fake? Why could I see both her real and fake status?>

  【Analyzing.】

  Even the all-knowing Wik*pedia Aza had no immediate answer.

  I waited, tension gripping me.

  【Analysis complete.】

  【Master’s ‘Status Manipulation’ talent is directly linked to the target’s status. This allows Master to detect both their real and fake values.】

  <”Wait, so that means… anyone trying to deceive others with fake status can’t fool me?”>

  Stolen novel; please report.

  【Only if they are not hostile.】

  <”What?”>

  【If an individual is hostile, your ability will not bypass their deception. But, Master would still be able to know whether the target’s status were fake.】

  <”... Are you sure about that? It’s about my talent, yet you don’t know about it until now, right?”>

  【Sorry. It is my mistake. I missed fake status as a variable when analyzing Status Manipulation for the first time a few years ago. I added it just now.】

  Alright, fair enough. It’s not her first mistake, and it's not fatal either. Understanding her as a living being, I don’t mind.

  <”Alright, fine. But Aza… why the hell are her stats so high? You said she was stronger than Matias, but this is ridiculous.”>

  【She has been concealing her strength. If a slave like her displayed such power, it would only bring trouble.】

  【But, since I estimated that elf status is not far different than that cat’s status, then that cat probably faked her own status too.】

  That made sense. A reckless owner like Matias wouldn’t hesitate to exploit her strength for his own gain.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that she and Sis Hazel must have been holding back for years.

  <"And what about all these status points? She has over eleven thousand stored up! Even Dad only had around a thousand before I distributed them.">

  【Based on historical data, elves are only permitted to leave their villages at the age of 150. Since she is 145, these points should not originate from her homeland.】

  【Additionally, since she joined Matias only two years ago, she could not have accumulated such an enormous amount from fighting under him.】

  【Probably she only got at average 200 status points each year, because fighting against a single monster just gives less than one point unless that monster is C-Rank or higher.】

  <”... It means she got that amount from before she joined Matias, but after she left her village.”>

  【Correct. The remaining 11,000+ points must have been earned before she was enslaved by that red-haired adventurer.】

  I felt a chill crawl up my spine.

  <”She said she became a slave 20 years ago. What happened in 18 years before she joined Matias…?”>

  <”Wait… Does it even make sense? If we assume an average gain of 200 points, then her status points should be around 2000 points for 20 years, right?”>

  Aza answered with a single word.

  【Murderer.】

  <”...Huh?”>

  *Smack*

  I was surprised at her unexpected answer and made my hand, resting against my cheek, jerked down and struck the table.

  It wasn't loud, but it was enough to draw attention from the people around me.

  “Are you okay, Freed?”

  Kenya, standing nearby, glanced at me with concern.

  I forced a smile, waving him off. “Ah, it’s nothing. I’m just a bit sleepy from doing nothing.”

  Kenya frowned, but nodded. “Then you should go back to your room and rest. There are only a few customers left. It’ll be over soon.”

  I turned to glance at the remaining tables. Five still had people at them.

  One group near the back was getting up to leave, and Sis Hazel happened to be clearing their table.

  I activated Appraisal on her as well, intending to check it later.

  “I guess you’re right,” I finally said, stretching my arms. “Alright then, I’ll head back.”

  Kenya grinned. “Yeah. Honestly, I was terrified when that adventurer started showing off his aura. You must be exhausted after standing so close to him.”

  “Yeah… probably.”

  Before leaving, I turned to Sis Esta and Sis Hazel, calling out to them.

  “Sis Esta, Sis Hazel, I’m heading to bed. Sorry, but it looks like I won’t be able to walk you back to your inn tonight.”

  “Huh? You wanted to accompany us?” Sis Esta chuckled. “That’s sweet… but don’t worry about it, Freed.”

  “That’s right, nya! Just knowing you care is enough for us, nya!”

  I hesitated. “But… you’ll have to wear those shabby clothes again. And it’s already so late. It’s dangerous for girls to walk at night.”

  “Fufu.” Sis Esta smiled. “You’re such a gentleman, Freed.”

  “Are you really worried about us?” Sis Hazel asked, giving me a suspicious look.

  I opened my mouth, but before I could reply—

  Suddenly someone poked my head from behind. It’s brother Greg.

  A firm finger jabbed the back of my head.

  I turned to find Brother Greg standing behind me, shaking his head.

  “It’s alright, Freed. Tian and I will walk them back.”

  “Huh?”

  Sis Sasa chimed in, grinning. “That’s right! And Morin and I are coming too! It’s been a while since we had a good night walk.”

  I turned to glance at Brother Tian and Sis Morin—they both nodded.

  With a sigh of relief, I nodded back. “I see. Okay then. Take care, everyone.”

  “Sleep well, Freed.”

  “See you tomorrow, nya!”

  And with that, I left them behind and walked toward my room.

  I stepped into my dimly lit room, closing the door behind me.

  For a moment, I simply stood there, staring at nothing, my mind replaying Aza’s words.

  Murderer.

  My hands trembled slightly.

  If Aza was right…

  Then for eighteen years, before falling into Matias’s hands, Sis Esta had been…

  A killer.

  Why? Who did she kill?

  And also—why was her second element hidden?

  I had no answers yet. But as I sat down on the bed, one thing was clear.

  I was only starting to unravel her past.