Chapter 938: Act 111 – The True Identity of the Sprite
The starry night was quiet and colorful, the forest was silently still. Two shadows passed over the trees, transforming into humanoid forms on the grass bathed in moonlight. The one who landed first was Queen Gwendolyn, looking as dignified as a noble lady, followed closely by Modest, who seemed ready to ask a question but hesitated after seeing Gwendolyn’s stern expression. This subtle change in emotions caught Gwendolyn’s attention, and she said, “If you have something to say, just say it. Do you fear I might devour you like those mortals?”
Modest flushed with embarrassment, feeling a bit irritated. Of course, she wasn’t afraid of being devoured; she feared Gwendolyn because she was stronger than herself. This was a truth that even someone as proud as Modest found hard to admit. Frustrated by Gwendolyn’s straightforwardness, she replied, “I just wanted to ask why you let them go.”
“Because I sensed the presence of someone. I feared drawing her attention,” Gwendolyn answered. “So, I had to let those little mice go.”
“Who?”
“Erlandta.”
Modest was startled and exclaimed, “How can it be her? Isn’t that woman still in the Garden of the World Tree?”
“That elf bears leaves from the World Tree. Erlandta always monitors this world through her flora. When I used Tiamat’s Grip, it startled her.”
“Damn it, has she discovered us?”
“Unclear, but don’t harbor false hopes. From now on, we need to handle the mess in Anziluwa quickly. You go tell Marlaxias not to return to Anziluwa; he should rush to assist Natasha in capturing the Emerald Claw Fortress to let the Lionmen in. I suspect our secret won’t remain concealed for long; we must seize the initiative,” Gwendolyn said, her eyes reflecting the eerie light from the dark forest.
“Are we going to act?” Modest asked, a bit taken aback.
Gwendolyn nodded slowly.
“What about those little mice? Don’t forget Misreale is with them. If she returns to the Valley of Dragons, we’ll be in trouble.”
“I know they plan to head to Lune and take a ship from there. You just need to burn the boats at that port ahead of time. Once Moshaque captures Yasar, the lizardmen will naturally send people to besiege that port. Without naval support, they won’t last long.”
“Me?” Modest replied hesitantly, “But what if Erlandta appears?”
“She won’t appear. As long as we don’t personally get involved in this war, this is a dispute between the Jotungrund and the Cruz. She has neither the inclination nor the reason to intervene.”
“But haven’t we already drawn her attention?” Modest cautiously asked, fearing it might be a trap forcing her to confront the sage who had lived for over a thousand years.
“She has motives but no justification. This is Cruz, not Erlandta. The Cruz will not turn a blind eye, and we won’t even need to lift a finger; the Temple of Fire will naturally lodge a complaint. We have our little queen; she will find ways to deal with the sage. Even a high-and-mighty sage must abide by the rules of mortals and cannot act arbitrarily,” Gwendolyn quietly replied. “Of course, all of this assumes we will act before the showdown. After that, the barrier between mortals and ‘gods’ will lose its significance. So, you must act quickly.”
Modest’s expression turned grim as she reluctantly replied, “Should I find Marlaxias first or go to Lune?”
“You find Marlaxias first; have him lend you the dragon beast army.”
Modest paused slightly, realizing the other’s intention—if they couldn’t act themselves, then the dragon beasts would be the best substitutes.
“Hmph, cunning one!” this female dragon thought to herself.
…
“So…”
In the open terrain south of Silverstream Valley, the hills began to flatten out, but along the northern edge of the Lokos Highlands, rolling hills and vast forests were still scattered. At this moment, Erluin’s embassy was hidden in such a forest. After nearly a day of fleeing, everyone was exhausted and had to stop to catch their breath and enjoy a precious meal, but starting a fire was out of the question; the northern plains were fully occupied by the lizardmen, and any oversight could lead to a massive encirclement.
In the center of a makeshift camp—which was essentially just a cleared patch of forest—many people were gathered around a young girl, as if they were observing some rare creature. The girl looked frightened at the human man before her, puzzled at why he knew so much after she had only said one thing. At that moment, the man said, “You are the daughter of Aikwisha, right? Your name is Phoenix or Mulin?”
“Mulin is my sister…” the young sprite replied softly.
“So, you are Phoenix then?”
The sprite puffed out her cheeks.
Brendel lightly chuckled, thinking to himself that this girl seemed to have exposed herself; this little troublemaker still wanted to challenge him. In fact, he had returned to the embassy several hours earlier. Throughout the journey, he had been trying to ascertain the identity of this sprite girl, but she stubbornly refused to speak the truth—she was the epitome of troublemakers. If he treated her gently, she would start babbling nonsense as if lies were free, and as soon as he was stern with her, she would immediately tear up, unable to say a word.
Finally, he had no choice but to patiently test this little sprite with one name after another since he had previously visited Fanzan and was familiar with the Ten Cities and Greyhus. Moreover, the wild elves along the Emerald Coast east of Erlandta had a close relationship with humans, and many wild elves had detached from their tribes to work as mercenaries in White City and Ten Arms Port. Therefore, knowing some of the circumstances in Erlandta wasn’t any secret to him, and he was relatively acquainted with the dignitaries among the wild elves.
Ultimately, when he mentioned the name of Aikwisha’s head guard, Fredetheca, the little sprite finally revealed her handle because he had used the name Martina, to which she quickly rebutted, “Mother’s head guard isn’t named Martina.”
With that one sentence, she completely gave herself away.
And thus, the previous scene unfolded.
Now, Brendel finally understood who this little girl was—Phoenix, the daughter of Aikwisha, the elder of wild elves. Once he deduced this, he paused in surprise, realizing that he wasn’t seeing this sprite girl for the first time; this troublemaker was notably famous in the history of future Vaunte. About sixty years later, during the Year of the Running Wolf in historical records, she would act as Erlandta’s representative to the Saintly White Plains, becoming the unfurling of the task to eliminate Echis. Anyone who had experienced the First Era in Amber Sword would hardly not recognize her.
Yet, he couldn’t help but look at this little troublemaker again, finding it hard to connect her with the gentle and noble elven girl known in history; this discrepancy was too vast. How had this little sprite’s life path veered so wrong?
He patted the little sprite’s shoulder and asked, “How old are you?”
“Sixty-two,” the sprite replied, still not having graduated from a young girl to a maiden, so her age didn’t seem to be much of a secret to her. She proudly puffed out her little chest and loudly proclaimed— as if stating not her age, but revealing some important and sacred matter—until she finally added, “I’m already quite big!”
Elves come of age at one hundred twenty; being sixty-two, she was obviously still acting like a little troublemaker. In human terms, she was even younger than QiYala, and no wonder she was so mischievous. Brendel thought that the elder Aikwisha was rather irresponsible to let this child roam freely. Moreover, wild elves were naturally curious—except for Flora—thus, they often integrated into human society to quench their curiosity. However, typically, even adult elves would only hang around White City. This little sprite had made her way all the way to Cruz, which was a several thousand-mile journey. How on earth did she manage that?
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but curiously ask, “How did you get here?”
The sprite said nothing and merely glanced at the sky.
Suddenly, Brendel remembered something, the Path of Floating Clouds of wild elves, which was somewhat like the Flame Gate of the Temple of Fire, but they functioned differently. The Path of Floating Clouds was a genuine artifact enabling people to traverse channels left by divine servants atop clouds since ancient times, transporting them to other places. This artifact had several fixed teleportation points in Vaunte, including the Loop of Trade Winds south of Toniger. However, if he remembered correctly, this artifact didn’t have coordinates in Cruz.
He couldn’t help but look at her.
The young sprite felt uneasy under his gaze and finally mumbled, “It was Xainne who insisted on pulling me over to see as three dragons were fighting, and as a result, we got shot down.”
“You are the one who wanted to see! I only warned you to be careful not to collide with them!” the draconic lady on her head screamed angrily. “Sprite, if you keep evading responsibility, I won’t care about you anymore!”
The sprite pouted, displeased and refused to speak.
Brendel instantly understood who the real conspirator was.
But never mind; now was not the time to pursue that responsibility. The key was knowing the identity of this little sprite had finally put him at ease. Aikwisha was one of the three great elders of the wild elves and was the closest person to Erlandta. It seemed reasonable that the natural affinity emblem of this little sprite was indeed reliable. With her around, at least it would deter Queen Gwendolyn and Modest from acting rashly.
Of course, that was not his greatest concern; what he worried about more was that the unreliable little sprite’s ambiguous identity might lead to new troubles for them. Anziluwa was already a tangled mess, with wind sprites in the north, lizardmen from Toquinin in the south, and the Jotungrund along with the Hallowed Temple of Earth, not to mention the three dragons. If they stirred in the Nature Sanctuary, this place would become a powder keg. Although placing a powder keg within the empire wasn’t a bad idea, the problem was that right next to this powder keg was Erluin. Not to mention, he was still here, and Brendel had no urge to blow himself up.
“So, Miss Phoenix, how do you plan to get back now?” Brendel remembered another question. The Path of Floating Clouds seemed to be a one-way transport, confirming that this young sprite had sneaked out on her own.
He initially thought she would be flustered, but surprisingly, she retorted with dissatisfaction, “The sprite isn’t going back; Mama is wicked and wants to send the sprite to school. The sprite aspires to be the best nightingale in the world and doesn’t want to go to school.”
This answer made Brendel realize that troublemakers indeed could not engage in normal conversation. However, since even the sprite herself didn’t mind, he naturally had no reason to worry. In fact, he hoped this little sprite would stay; he understood well why Queen Gwendolyn had retreated. With this sprite in their ranks, it functioned as a personal charm. As long as she was around, the three dragons would not easily appear.
After confirming the sprite’s identity, the gathering crowd naturally dispersed. Most of these individuals were comrades of Brendel’s faction, and he definitely didn’t want to reveal Phoenix’s true identity just yet to avoid causing complications. Nevertheless, QiYala and Romaine had already guessed the sprite’s identity to some extent during the big hive incident; as for QiYala, Brendel was not worried. Though she looked young, she had an exceptional maturity. However, he did worry that Romaine, who appeared muddle-headed, might blurt something out. He repeatedly advised her until she shot him an annoyed glare, realizing that this business lady was also aware of the gravity of the situation.
After sending everyone else away, only a few people remained in the open area.
Among them were the yawning representative from the Siphai family—Miss QiYala—and the Merchant Miss discussing tactics quietly with the sprite Xainne—obviously exchanging experiences typical among troublemakers. The rest were the seemingly solemn Charles, the weary-looking commander of the female mercenary band, Juliette—who had led that day’s escape, depending on her command—which was no small feat, although Nemeses and Medisa also played critical roles. Still, Juliette was the captain of the embassy’s guarding force and had exerted the most effort, now nearly on the verge of collapse, about to fall asleep with her eyes closed.
Besides these, there were those who had either truly escaped with Brendel before or had met Queen Gwendolyn—none being Cruz except for Princess Margadale, Dierphir, and other members of the embassy—like the mountain of meat, Duke Karasu’s son; Duchess Oni, and Judy, along with Aike and Marjory, the officer from Yanilas.
Lastly, there was also the lady from the dragon race, Misreale.
Among this group, only QiYala and Romaine had an inkling of what Brendel was about to say, while Charles was here as Brendel’s advisor and confidant—typically, in Toniger, this role was usually filled by Antinna. Meanwhile, Juliette was currently the captain of the embassy’s guard, making it impossible for Brendel to avoid her. As for the last two, he did not need to worry about Misreale being surprised by these matters concerning mortals, as for internal dragon matters, he had to request her presence for this secret meeting.
Truth be told, Brendel knew full well that even if he hadn’t invited Misreale, if she wanted to, there wouldn’t be a whisper in this forest that she couldn’t hear.
As for the other members of the Erluin delegation, Brendel had mixed feelings about them. As nobles, they were most closely related to the Cruz nobles, and he indeed needed their help to pacify those nobles currently caught in war. Yet, on the other hand, he was concerned that what he was about to say might scare these folks enough to cause them to make some reckless moves.
On this matter, he had thought long and hard before deciding to keep them there.
Firstly, he felt that Duchess Oni had a point; he indeed should try to trust them. Secondly, the war of the Cruz people wasn’t particularly relevant to the Erluin people, and perhaps what he was about to share wouldn’t be as influential as he had imagined. Lastly, at this moment, they Erluin people had no choice but to stand together.
Apart from those mentioned above, Brendel had also specifically kept Princess Margadale behind—
He kept this nun princess for special reasons.
Most of those considerations stemmed from her unique identity—since he wasn’t sure how reliable QiYala’s analysis was and didn’t know how the Temple of Fire would react if this situation were true. As someone closest and most familiar with the Temple of Fire within the embassy, Princess Margadale was undoubtedly the best candidate.
After everyone left, the forest returned to silence. Brendel’s gaze swept across every face present, and the remaining individuals also somewhat understood that this Lord Earl certainly had something important to say to them. Aside from Misreale, the vast majority present realized the secrecy among those remaining: other than Princess Margadale and the sprite, there wasn’t a single Cruz person left.
From this, it could be inferred that what was to be discussed next was closely related to this war of the Cruz, and was even particularly important.
However, the members of the Erluin embassy felt somewhat puzzled. Theoretically, this Earl seldom discussed such ‘confidential’ matters with them; he had a trusted circle.
Just then, Brendel cleared his throat lightly.
…
