There was a forest on the Norland Continent known as the Norland Eye, and it was widely renowned as the oldest and most beautiful forest on the entire continent. The forest was lush and scenic, and all types of birds were flying between its trees.The elves who embodied grace and beauty resided here, and they befriended the plant life here with their perfect affinity with nature. Those plants could even a.s.sist them in battle, and all of the other races were quite stunned by just how closely connected with nature they were.
Thus, the Tree of Life became the sacred tree of the elven race, and it symbolized the harmonious relations.h.i.+p between nature and the elven race.
However, many of the ma.s.sive ancient trees had since been felled for wood, and all of the small wooden huts and treehouses in the forest had disappeared. A series of tall spires and majestic palaces took their place, and the stumps of all of the felled trees told a story of tragedy and sorrow.
However, the elves that were traversing through these lavish palaces seemed to pay no heed to all of this, as if they"d already forgotten the sacrifices their forefathers had made to protect this forest.
It had been three days since the elven princess had returned to the forest, and the incident that had taken place outside the Wind Forest that night had not gone unnoticed. The forest was currently rather peaceful, but it was only the calm before the storm.
Within a grand palace, there were several elderly elves gathered together. If any other elves were present, they"d be stunned to find that the leaders of most of the prominent elven families had been gathered here.
"Dammit! How many times has Irina stepped in to foil our plans?! She killed Schubert, she changed the slavery laws, and even the slaves outside the forest have been freed! Does she even consider us when she does all these things? Does she think she"s the queen already?!" a portly elf yelled in an enraged voice, and the folds of fat all over his body tremored with his fury.
"Exactly! Those mercenary teams don"t even dare to deliver slaves to our forest anymore. If things continue like this, our supply of slaves will be completely cut off! I was looking forward to a few more young and beautiful female servants to warm my bed during the upcoming winter," a tall and thin elf grumbled in agreement.
Many of the elves in the palace wore furious expressions on their faces, and they were all cursing Irina for her "heroic" deeds.
In contrast, the elderly elves sitting in the main seats were quite calm and collected, and they didn"t contribute to the verbal denouncement of Irina. Only their tightly furrowed brows suggested that they were not feeling as placid as they looked.
"That"s enough," one of the tall and broad elves said in a stern voice, and the palace gradually fell silent as everyone turned their eyes toward him.
"What should we do, Master Borg?" an elf asked in a quiet voice as he looked at the tall and broad elf with a hint of fear in his eyes.
Borg Sette was the grand elder of the Sette Family and the number one war G.o.d of the elven race. During the war among species, he"d led the elven armies to many famous victories, and his influence among the elven race was second only to that of the elven queen. In the hearts of his personal guards, he was even more important than the queen herself, and there were rumors going around that his powers were close to comparable to the elven queen"s.
There was also a rumor circulating that the elven queen might have sustained severe injuries during the war among species, which was why she was in seclusion for most of the year. In that case, Borg was very likely to currently be the most powerful being of the elven race.
Irina had always been seen as the successor to the elven queen, which made sense considering she was the queen"s daughter.
However, Irina was extremely abrasive and extremely opposed to the new social hierarchy being implemented in the elven race.
She had always been trying to overthrow this new social system, and that made all of the elves who were benefiting from this new social model quite anxious. However, it would undoubtedly the case that Irina possessed insane apt.i.tude, and with the elven queen on her side, no one dared to do anything.
Three years ago, she"d given birth to Alex"s child, and this scandal was the catalyst for these elves to come out and try and shake Irina"s position.
Some elves tried to champion purer candidates as the heir to the elven queen. For example, Helena"s faction had been searching for a suitable candidate to replace Irina this entire time.
Meanwhile, there was also a small group of more radical elves that pinned their hopes on Borg.
Borg was only around 600 years old, so he was only just past the halfway mark of an elf"s lengthy 1000-year-long lifespan. If he could become the elven king, then no changes had to be made, and they could do whatever they wanted with reckless abandon.
The Sette Family was the most powerful family in the elven race, and they also received the largest number of slaves per year. Borg was also quite fond of picking his own slaves, and it was said that at least one young female elven slave was killed in the Sette Family per day.
Borg cast his gaze toward the elves before him, and said in a grim voice, "What Irina is doing has already posed a major threat to our way of life and shaken our control over the elven race. If we don"t crush her, then more and more incidents of a similar nature will take place. The forest that we fought so hard to protect and the families we worked tirelessly to establish will become a pile of loose sand once again. When that time comes, our families will be plunged into eternal torment and pain again."
The atmosphere in the palace gradually grew graver and tenser, and all of the elves had fury burning in their eyes.
"We must protect the new social hierarchy with our lives!" an elf urged through gritted teeth.
"Irina is a maverick princess. She gave birth to a human"s child, and she slew the mercenary squads that we hired. She released the traitors that we worked so hard to capture, and she poses a major threat to all of our families. That is not something that we can accept, so we must do something about it," Borg said in a cold voice as a frosty look flashed through his eyes.
All of the elves were spurred on by his words, and the atmosphere became quite heated. They had envisioned this scenario in their hearts countless times, but Schubert"s death was like a bucket of cold water that had abruptly doused the flames in their hearts. However, now that Borg was stepping forward to oppose Irina, the flames in everyone"s hearts were reignited.
"But we received news from Rodu not long ago stating that Alex is still alive. Not only that, but he slew six 10th-tier powerful beings, including Benson…" the leader of the Brewster Family, Elliot, said in a hesitant voice.
His words immediately dampened the fighting spirit of all of the elves present; many of them were quite fearful of the prospect of crossing the legendary man that was Mag Alex.
They did indeed denounce Irina for giving birth to a human"s child, but everyone knew that the child"s father was someone they couldn"t stand against, as he was none other than Mag Alex.
Three years ago, he had been confirmed to be dead, but he had reappeared just two days ago before slaying six 10th-tier powerful beings, including the patriarch of the Spatial Demons, Benson. It was nothing if not an emphatic announcement of his return.
Seeing as Alex was alive, and had saved Irina"s life two days ago, who knew if he would appear in the Wind Forest as well if they were to try and target Irina now?
Thus, the entire palace fell silent again as everyone looked to Borg for a decision.
Four years ago, he had once fought Alex to a draw.