Night fell, the moon bright and the stars sparse.
The overall atmosphere of the elven race slowly began to improve. It was much better than a few days ago. Even at night, the streets and alleys were still brightly lit. The barrier of the Guardian Forest had yet to recover, and many armored elves were patrolling through the woods.
The artificial lake at the center of the royal court was like a mirror, reflecting the clouds and moon above, forming a vivid ink-wash painting.
A gentle breeze drifted in. The water did not ripple. The heart felt unusually calm.
Aislin arrived very late for her appointnt with Vieya. She had originally been uneasy, worried that at such a late hour the other party might already be asleep. But just as she passed the intersection, she saw a white-haired loli slumped on a reclining chair in front of the door, drinking wine and admiring the moon, muttering strange things under her breath.
“It seems that an unhatched dragon really is different from a fully grown one. There are pros and cons—can’t move, but can play dead. Sigh, can’t you generate a little heat on your own? Do I really have to incubate the egg myself? Then you’d have to call Dad again... actually... Mom would work too? Uh, that feels a bit perverted.”
“What are you mumbling about?”
Aislin, who had co to keep the appointnt, suddenly stepped in front of Vieya and looked straight at her.
Under the pure moonlight, Aislin’s long eyelashes trembled slightly. A figure was reflected in her eyes, light seeming to flow as they moved. There was a breathtaking beauty on her gentle face.
Vieya froze for a mont, apparently not expecting Aislin to co «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» at this ti—nor to approach her so silently.
Aislin also seed to realize it was inappropriate. She straightened her slender body, coughed once, and deliberately changed the topic to cover up her own embarrassnt.
“Cough. Are your injuries healed properly? Why are you sitting here alone, drinking and catching the wind... oh right, where’s that maid of yours?”
“I sent her to keep an eye on Jasmine while she sleeps. You know how it is—she sticks to all day long, nagging nonstop. This I can’t do, that I can’t do, managing everything. Sigh, she nearly sent off this afternoon.”
Vieya sighed, then casually asked,
“You look a lot better than you did this morning. Has the matter of the elven royal court taken a turn for the better?”
“About the sa.”
Aislin answered sowhat dejectedly. It seed the complexity and difficulty of the elven queen’s work had already exceeded her imagination.
“And you? Was your... forr wife rescued?” Aislin hesitated for a mont before continuing, “...What are your plans going forward?”
“I guess you could say she was rescued?”
Vieya thought about it, feeling there was no harm in talking about it with Aislin.
“Sigh, anyway, she’s just stiff and rigid, doesn’t talk to at all—like a plant egg.”
“Ah?”
Aislin was slightly startled. Did that an the resurrection had failed?
And indeed, over these past days she had never seen the sli’s so-called forr wife. Not a trace of her anywhere among the elves. As for what a ‘plant egg’ ant, it was probably similar to how every elf, upon death, would turn into an elven tree within the Guardian Forest.
Plant egg = elf turned into a tree = sothing lost that can never return.
Once the equation was laid out, the elven lady suddenly understood.
In short, the unfortunate little sli had fallen short at the final step, wasting all those years of effort, only to end up with nothing but an empty dream.
No wonder she had just seen a pitiful sli hiding away to drink alone... Seen this way, the reason Vieya had asked her to go for a walk at noon also beca clear—she had wanted comfort.
If only she’d known earlier, she would have rejected the prairie High Priest’s application, delayed it a few days, and prioritized the sli’s needs instead.
Seeing her good friend in such misery, Aislin naturally tried to comfort her.
“It’s okay. You can stay in our elven royal court for as long as you want.”
Vieya paused, then replied, “I was planning to stay here for quite a while anyway—at least until the Elven Forest stabilizes.”
With the elven royal court in its current state, if she left and sothing went wrong imdiately afterward, that would be a disaster.
“Until we stabilize?”
Aislin quietly repeated the phrase. She suddenly beca curious about Vieya’s definition of the word ‘stabilize’. Did this an that, to so extent, Vieya might stay here indefinitely?
She continued asking, “What if I give it my all and still can’t lead the elven race back to its forr heights?”
That was a real concern. After all, Aislin was a newly enthroned elven queen—she lacked experience, and she had even run away before completing the queen’s pre-service training.
Now she had returned to inherit the throne, but the ntors who could guide her were lying in sickbeds, their lives and deaths uncertain.
“Then we just wait slowly,” Vieya said lazily. “It’s not like I’m short on ti.” While waiting for the elven race to return to normal operations, she could quietly incubate her egg. Perfect.
“What if I still can’t do it? After all, I’m so stupid...”
Aislin’s voice suddenly trembled.
Vieya thought, how could it be impossible? With the current speed of elven infrastructure reconstruction, in less than half a year they would recover to an even better state than before.
Of course, the elves who had died in the invasion war would never co back, and the elven race’s cycle for cultivating new elves was long.
“If you can’t manage it, that’s fine. Before your mom wakes up, before your dad pulls himself together, I’ll help you out during that ti.”
Another long, long silence followed. Aislin suddenly felt flustered and unsettled. She thought this sli was far too bad—clearly saying she would leave soday, yet still able to say such attachnt-inviting words with a straight face.
Their walk was very calm, even sowhat boring.
But that was normal. With the wife-egg still inside her body, silently watching how everything unfolded, Vieya didn’t dare show off any fancy moves by using the thods Flaviel had once taught her to comfort girls on the elven lady in front of her.
Besides, Aislin wasn’t that easy to fool. If Vieya said anything out of line, Aislin would imdiately flee like a startled young maiden, and then this whole operation—ant to soothe and boost Aislin’s morale—would lose its aning.
“Oh right, who did you go et at noon today?” Vieya proactively started a new topic.
Aislin paused, snapping out of her daydreams, and answered, “The High Priest from the prairie. He talked with about how the elven race and the prairie tribes should coexist in the future, and he said he wanted to et you as well.”
“The High Priest?” Vieya frowned. “Didn’t I hear he was dead?”
“He’s not dead.” Aislin shook her head and organized her words. “He said he wanted to enjoy his old age, but couldn’t let go of the prairie, so he faked his death and hid in the shadows to help the prairie return to peace as soon as possible. And he seems very confident in his successor, believing that his student can handle everything on the surface of prairie affairs.”
“Tch... that old geezer really knows how to lie. He pulled off a cicada-shedding trick right in front of all the nomadic tribes of the prairie—not only fooled his student, but fooled too.”
Vieya kicked the stone by her foot, then looked up at Aislin and asked,
“Did he say what he wants to see for?”
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