443: Chapter 429 Frederica

All the elves present looked at the elder who stepped out of the line and stood opposite the Elf King.

"Why is it unfair?" the Elf King asked him.

"Her Highness Sined suffered backlash from a Magic Array not long ago and is still bedridden with serious injuries. Sending Her Highness to the forbidden grounds at this time..."

The Elders pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.

About a month ago, Sined discovered a Magic Array in a certain book that had the function of restoring vitality. The activation conditions were extremely harsh; a member of the elven royal family had to personally serve as the Magic Array Core.

With a trial mindset, Sined set up the Magic Array under the life tree.

Of course, she considered that an untested Magic Array had a high probability of danger and instructed five Elders to be on guard outside the array.

Afterward, an accident occurred as expected. The Magic Array's structure collapsed, and surging magic power surged wildly. The five Elders acted together to save her, but she was still seriously injured.

Her body was so badly injured that she was bedridden and couldn't move. Let alone letting her pass the trial a step ahead of Frederica, it would likely be difficult for her to even come out alive.

"I will personally heal her," the Elf King said.

"With injuries of that severity, even the King..."

"I will use a Secret Technique."

The elder countered, "But, King, using a Secret Technique will leave you weakened. If the withering of the life tree is irreversible, the Magic Array will also stop functioning. At that time, foreign enemies will surely invade. I think..."

"Lady Anna," Frederica, who had been silent since the start of the meeting, took a step forward. "You might as well speak plainly."

Elder Anna looked at her: "Princess Frederica, I think you might have some mis..."

"I'm telling you, speak plainly."

She lowered her head in silence. After a few seconds, she raised it again: "I propose that you should be the one to make the sacrifice."

"Reason."

"You are the source of the disaster, and you must take responsibility for it."

"Anna! Do not be rude to Her Highness!" an elder scolded sharply.

Another elder also stepped out of the line: "Anna, there is no evidence for this..."

"What more evidence is needed?!" Elder Anna suddenly screamed, staring at Frederica with resentful eyes. "Why get involved in the humans' war?!

I opposed the expedition back then, but you insisted blindly, even at the cost of losing your eligibility for the throne, just to lead the legion to war!"

No one present responded as Anna continued shouting to herself.

"How many elven lives were sacrificed for today's peace? Why has our clan lived in seclusion for tens of thousands of years? Hasn't the Elf Clan suffered enough?!"

The Elders looked at Anna, who had lost her composure, and complex emotions grew in their hearts.

Frederica didn't know what they were thinking, nor did she care; she was simply lost in thought.

After a while, she said to the panting Elder Anna after her outburst: "Please provide evidence that the disaster originated from me."

"There is no such thing! And no such thing is needed!

The disappearance of the jela flowers began right after you and the legion left the forest!"

Frederica tilted her head: "That's not enough to prove the disaster originated from me.

Furthermore, based on your logic, I could also say that you timed everything for when I left the forest to do something bad to the life tree."

"What nonsense are you talking about?!"

"Since no evidence is needed, why can't I say it?"

"Ignorant little girl, you—"

"Anna!" Frederica's voice suddenly rose. A scolding filled with warning and the majesty of a superior echoed in the hall.

In that instant, Anna was completely stunned, as if she saw the shadow of the Elf King in her—the posture of a sovereign.

Frederica walked forward slowly, stopping only when she was less than a fist's distance from Anna.

"Do you understand what you are doing?"

Anna's lips moved, but before she could speak, Frederica continued: "You are slandering a Crown Prince."

"You... you are no longer the Crown Prince. You voluntarily gave up your status in exchange for temporary military power. You are now just..." Her face was pale as she tried to fight back.

"This matter was a verbal agreement between me and my father; it hasn't been officially announced.

True, according to the agreement, I will not compete with my sister for the throne. But, until my sister succeeds it, I am still the Crown Prince."

Over a year ago, the gods sent down a divine oracle, judging Zhang Mu and Lake as heretics. When Frederica learned that Zhang Mu wasn't dead and was being surrounded, she planned to go rescue him.

She didn't think of saving Lake, only planning to rescue Zhang Mu and hide him deep within the Forest of Spirits.

As for why she wouldn't save Lake, first, she didn't care about his survival, and second, her ability was limited. Lake's enemies were the entire continent; even if the whole Elf Clan helped, it would be futile.

Frederica knew her father wouldn't agree to her leading a legion to save a human, so she fabricated a pretext—currying favor with the gods.

The Elf Clan were sinners before the gods. Using the divine oracle to crusade against Lake might win the gods' favor.

A very reasonable excuse, yet the Elf King rejected it directly. The reason was the long distance; Lake and Zhang Mu weren't strong, and by the time the Elf Army arrived, they would likely have been eliminated.

Frederica didn't want to give up and proposed using her eligibility as the heir to the throne as a bargaining chip for temporary command over an elven legion.

The Elf King was shocked, not understanding why she was so persistent. After careful consideration, he chose to agree.

As a father, the Elf King showed his paternal love. This matter was not announced in a formal setting; it was just a verbal agreement between the two.

Theoretically, if the Elf King "accidentally forgot" about it, then the matter wouldn't exist.

So Frederica's statement wasn't a quibble, but a fact.

She was still the Crown Prince.

Anna understood that she had lost control of her emotions and acted foolishly, so she silently lowered her head.

Frederica did not forgive her for this, staring at her coldly: "Slandering the Crown Prince—according to the laws of the Elf Clan, what punishment should be imposed?"

An elder stepped out of the line, hoping to ease the heavy atmosphere: "Your Highness, Anna was just acting on impulse, please..."

"The Crown Prince is holding her subject accountable. Even if you are an elder, you have no right to interfere."

The elder met her eyes, saw the coldness in them, and knew that saying more would implicate himself, so he shut his mouth and retreated back to the line.

Frederica's gaze returned to Anna.

"Look at me and answer."

Anna kept her head down for a long time before finally not raising it and kneeling on one knee: "According to clan rules, stripped of the position of elder and exiled."

Frederica turned and walked back to the throne: "This is your first offense, so I will waive those two punishments. However, you cannot go unpunished.

Three days of confinement. Find yourself a room after the meeting ends."

"As you command."

She looked at the Elf King: "Father, you may continue."

"Mhm." The Elf King, who hadn't intervened in her actions from start to finish, scanned his people. "The duel will begin in five days. Any objections?"

The elves remained silent.

"Meeting adjourned."

The clansmen filed out in an orderly fashion. Once they were all gone, the nineteen Elders also left their seats.

The Elf King sat back on his throne, intending to chat with Frederica for a while, but she pretended not to see his open mouth. She left a sentence, "I will inform Sined of the meeting's results," and then walked straight out of the hall.

...

After Frederica came out of the hall, she didn't return to her own palace. She walked down the corridor in the opposite direction, arrived at a room door, and raised her hand to knock.

"Come in." A voice full of youthful girlhood came from outside the door, and she pushed it open.

It was a single room with simple furnishings. A wooden table in the middle, a bookshelf filled with books against the wall, and a bed at the far end where a girl elf who looked about seventeen or eighteen was lying.

She had long brown hair, different from the hair color of ordinary elves. Her face was small and delicate, and she wore pink pajamas bought from Boni City.

Seeing Frederica, she sat up excitedly: "Oh, sister, you're here?"

Sined sat up too quickly, which aggravated her injury, causing her to cough incessantly.

"Lie down quickly."

Frederica ran to the bedside, helped her lie back down, and then held her hand resting on the quilt: "Are you feeling better?"

"I'm fine. I drank moon water; I'll be fully recovered in a month at most."

"It won't take that long. Father will personally heal your injuries. Hmm... you'll be completely fine in five days."

Despite the good news, Sined wasn't happy. Instead, she gripped her hand uneasily: "Impossible.

My Magic Crystal Core is damaged. Even Father couldn't heal it in five days, unless..."

"Yes, Father has decided to use a Secret Technique."

An ominous premonition surged in Sined's heart.

She guessed something but didn't want to believe it, showing a forced smile: "The caster of the Secret Technique will be weakened for a long time. The clan is going through a crisis; Father wouldn't..."

"It's exactly as you guessed."

The smile on Sined's face suddenly froze, and the color in her cheeks quickly faded. She anxiously tried to sit up, but was held down by Frederica, so she had to speak while lying down.

"Sister, go find Father quickly and tell him I'll find a way!" As she spoke, she reached out and slapped the magic book on the nightstand hard. "Trust me!"

"It's too late."

Sined's hand froze in mid-air. After a moment, she seemed to have accepted reality and slowly retracted it into the covers.

"Sister."

"Hmm?"

"Are the Elders blaming the withering of the life tree on you?"

"Mhm." She nodded calmly and then said with a smile, "Maybe it really is so. After all, the disappearance of the jela flowers started from when I—"

"It's not!" Sined spoke so forcefully that she coughed a few times. After stopping, she said, "The jela flowers were already disappearing before you even proposed the expedition to Lake."

Frederica was somewhat surprised: "Is that so?"

"Yes!

I just didn't care at the time, thinking magical beasts had eaten them. When I explained later, the Elders and Father didn't believe me, thinking I was lying."

"Haha—" Frederica laughed a few times. "It's not important anymore."

"It is important!

I won't allow them to wrong you, sister!" She coughed a few more times.

"Stop talking and rest." Frederica helped soothe her chest. Once the heavy panting subsided, she stood up to leave.

As she reached the door, Sined called out to her: "Sister, why did you go on the expedition to Lake?"

"To follow the divine oracle."

"Liar."

Frederica turned around and stared at her intently.

"Aunt Alice told me everything."

Frederica's eyes narrowed: "What did she say?"

"She said you fell in love with a human man. I guess you went to Lake for..."

Under the warning of her dangerous gaze, Sined tactfully changed the subject: "Sister, I'm going to sleep. You should leave."

The time, place, and situation were not quite right; otherwise, Sined's little bottom would likely have suffered.

Frederica gave an instruction, "Don't stay up late reading magic books," and pushed the door open to leave.

She didn't return to her palace immediately. She stood in the corridor for a while and then walked toward Alice's room.

On the way, she thought about what Sined had mentioned—the jela flowers had started disappearing a long time ago.

Actually, when Frederica returned to the clan lands two years ago, she had also noticed it.

On her way through the outskirts of the Forest of Spirits, she noticed that compared to when she left, the distribution of jela flowers was sparser.

After entering the Magic Array, she asked her clansmen about it. However, they didn't feel the same, jokingly saying she had been traveling too long and her memory was failing her.

It wasn't an urgent matter, so Frederica ignored it.

Now it seemed it wasn't her imagination. Presumably, the number of disappearing jela flowers wasn't large at the time, and since the clansmen patrolled the forest every day, it was difficult to detect such subtle changes.

"What's going on?" Frederica whispered to herself, wondering what the root cause of the jela flowers' extinction and the withering of the life tree could be.

She didn't believe the claim that the gods had sent down punishment.

It wasn't to exonerate herself, but rather, if the gods hadn't even personally punished the heretic Zhang Mu, would they care about the elves who failed in their crusade?

The Elf Clan had exhausted their entire strength and still couldn't find the specific reason. It was clearly impossible for Frederica to reach a conclusion through her brief solitary reflection.

Arriving at the door to Alice's room, Frederica woke from her contemplation and knocked.

The room was unusually quiet; no one responded.

"Does it take this long to go to the life tree?" she wondered to herself.

Before going to the meeting, she had instructed Alice and Saldari to go to the life tree to investigate certain clues. The residential area wasn't close to the life tree, but it wasn't that far either; a few hours should be enough to go back and forth several times.

Just as she was wondering whether to look for the two, Alice's voice suddenly came from behind her: "Your Highness, didn't you go to the Council Hall?"

Turning around, Alice was walking toward her alone. Frederica, who had been worried that the two might have met with an accident, felt relieved and stepped forward to meet her: "Why are you only back now?"

"Saldari and I searched around the life tree for a long time but couldn't find the thing Your Highness mentioned. We were about to return to the residential area when we saw an elder walking toward us from a distance."

"You ran into the Third Elder?" Frederica recalled the Third Elder saying at the start of the meeting that he had gone to the life tree before attending.

"If we had been spotted, we would be dead!" Alice showed a relieved expression, patting her chest. "Saldari reacted quickly and pulled me behind the life tree. The magic power around the tree is chaotic, so the Third Elder couldn't sense us.

Afterward, we waited for him to leave before rushing back."

Knowing that the two had made it back safely, Frederica stopped questioning and turned her thoughts to her purpose for coming here.

She affectionately put her arm around Alice's shoulder—preventing her from turning and running if she saw things weren't going well.

Alice felt confused; Her Highness hadn't been this close to her in a long time. Why today...

"Alice," Frederica said with a smile.

"Your Highness?"

"I just went to Sined's place, and she told me that you talked to her about some... private matters regarding me, is that right?"