After emerging from the Sette Family’s territory, Elliot walked along the path with a heavy heart. A deer-drawn carriage had already been prepared by his servants, but he wanted to walk while he contemplated some matters.

  At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded behind him. “Please wait, Family Leader Elliot.”


  A hint of surprise flashed through Elliot’s eyes, but he still stopped in his tracks as he put away his dejected expression. He forced a smile onto his face as he turned around to find Vincent making his way toward him. “Hello, Family Leader Vincent. I didn’t get a chance to greet you during the meeting; what a coincidence that we’ve bumped into each other here.”


  “It’s not a coincidence; I came here to seek you out, Family Leader Elliot,” Vincent replied with a shake of his head.

  “Oh? What business do you have with me, Family Leader Vincent?” Elliot asked with a surprised expression.

  Due to the marriage agreement between Sally and Blour, the relationship between the Brewster Family and the Baibilly Family had become a little awkward.

  Elliot was unable to dissuade the elders of the family from establishing this marriage agreement for the sake of the Brewster Family.

  However, not long after that, Helena suggested to the queen to make Sally one of the candidates to become the elven princess, and she was also the likeliest candidate to fill the role among all of the chosen ones.

  As such, the Brewster Family’s status immediately enjoyed a meteoric rise, making it a family that was comparable to the Baibilly Family. If Sally were to become the elven princess or even the elven queen someday, then the status of the Brewster Family would continue to rise, cementing them as the number one family of the elven race.

  Sally had already run away from home as she vehemently opposed this arranged marriage, and the Brewster Family still had yet to track her down.

  Due to the fact that she’d become the likeliest candidate to become the elven princess, the elders were no longer forcing her to marry Blour. Instead, they simply wanted to find her and get her to return to the family.

  Elliot was naturally very loving and protective toward his only daughter, so he naturally couldn’t bear to see her marry someone she didn’t love. As such, he had wanted to revoke this marriage agreement long ago, but doing so would inevitably create bad blood between the two families, so he didn’t know how to raise the issue with the Baibilly Family.

  Even during the meeting earlier, he had been intentionally avoiding Vincent, but who would’ve thought that Vincent would come to him?

  Just as Elliot was contemplating how to bring up the matter, Vincent glanced around at their surroundings before taking a step toward him, and then asking in a low voice, “Among the two elves that ambushed the mercenary squad outside the Wind Forest, one of them was Young Mistress Sally, right?”


  “Wha……” A stunned look appeared on Elliot’s face, but he quickly recomposed himself before giving a dry chuckle. “Surely you jest, Family Leader Vincent. My daughter has gone to visit her aunt outside the forest recently. Besides, she’s always been quite an obedient girl, so there’s no way she’d do something like that.”


  “This is one of the arrows that we found at the scene; I’m sure you’ll be quite familiar with it, Family Leader Elliot,” Vincent said as he pulled a section of an arrow out of his sleeve before offering it to Elliot. There was an elegant “Li” character engraved on the black metal arrowhead[1].

  Elliot looked at the arrow in Vincent’s hand, and his expression abruptly changed drastically. This morning, he had received an arrow with the same character engraved onto its head. He had commissioned a craftsman to craft this batch of custom-made arrows for Sally, and all of them had the same character engraved on them. They were also a unique batch of arrows in the Wind Forest.

  All of a sudden, a ball of red flames erupted from Vincent’s palm, and the arrowhead was melted into a tiny puddle of molten metal that dripped onto the ground amid a faint sizzling sound.

  Elliot was quite taken aback by this development. He had thought that Vincent would use the arrow to blackmail him into supporting Sally’s marriage with Blour, or perhaps extort him for even more than that, but who would’ve thought that Vincent would destroy the arrow right in front of his eyes? A hesitant look appeared on Elliot’s face as he asked, “What are your intentions, Family Leader Vincent?”


  Vincent waved a hand toward a deer-drawn carriage parked beside them, and he wore a grim look on his face as he said, “Please come with me, Family Leader Vincent. There are some matters that I must speak with you about in private.”


  Elliot hesitated momentarily, but still nodded and got onto the carriage in the end.

  Half an hour later, within a quiet and closed-off room, Elliot stared at Vincent with an incredulous look as he exclaimed, “You’re telling me that Sally is in Chaos City, and that the two elves who ambushed the mercenary squad two days ago were none other than her and Blour?”


  “That’s right. I’ve received reliable information from Yngwie over at Chaos City that Blour and Young Mistress Sally had taken these elves to Chaos City. There, they were granted residence by the city lord’s castle, and an announcement was made, stating that these elves would be protected by the city.” Vincent wore a complex expression as he said, “I only wanted Blour to go out and see the world, but I didn’t think that he’d get into so much trouble. Now, our two families are basically in the same boat. If Borg were to hear about this, both of our families would most likely be destroyed.”


  “You sent him out to see the world? You must’ve known that Sally was in Chaos City well in advance, right, Family Leader Vincent?” A wry smile appeared on Elliot’s face.

  An apologetic look appeared in Vincent’s eyes as he replied, “Rest assured, Family Leader Elliot. I won’t force a marriage between Blour and Young Mistress Sally, but this news will spread sooner or later. Even though they were never seen with the rescued elves, nor did they reveal their identities to those elves, there’s always an avenue through which news like this can escape.”


  Elliot took a moment to compose himself before asking, “What do you suggest?”


  A dark expression appeared on Vincent’s face as he said, “That Borg is an extremely ambitious man who’s aiming to overthrow Her Majesty and replace her as the monarch of the elven race. If he really does become the elven king, and then decide to turn on us, then both our families will be in dire straits. If he really is already more powerful than Alex, then no one will be able to stop him from disabling Irina. When that time comes, whether Her Majesty and Mistress Helena can control the situation will determine the state of the elven race. As such, we should……”
……

  “I really am ok, Princess; it’s just a little bump, and you already treated it for me. Let me go and cook for you. The sun is so bright today, and the Tree of Life is also really happy…… Let’s…… Let’s not go the starry sky cave……”


  Within a spacious cave, Firis’ face was quite pale as she carefully tugged on the hem of Irina’s clothes with a beseeching look on her face.

  “No one can touch you as long as I’m still alive.” Irina looked at the deathly pale Firis, and thought back to when she’d returned to her cave two days ago. Back then, Firis had been lying in a pool of her own blood, and if she’d returned any later than she did, Firis would’ve died from excessive blood loss. That was not some small bump; it was a lethal hole in her chest.

  “Firis, you belong to me, and I’ll kill anyone who dares to touch you.”


  Irina pinched Firis’ cheek in a playful manner before exiting the cave with purpose and killing intent radiating from her body.

  [1] The name Sally in Chinese is spelled Sha Li, the “Li” character is essentially the second half of her name, an initial of sorts.