Chapter 21 - The Farm in Irttat

 

Chapter 21: Prisoner of Mirror Lake 07

After the two walked far away, Lucita finally let go of Violet's hand.

Here she was sulking on Violet's behalf, but Violet didn't care at all. She leisurely commented: "Pretty good. That high priestess is dressed so grandly. She'll definitely pay my bill without a second thought."

Lucita was almost amused by her train of thought. She simply said bluntly: "Then shouldn't I quote a high price? Hurry up and go with her. Once you're gone, I'll have loads of silver coins and eat meat every day."

"You dislike me that much?" Violet counted on her fingers, calculating item by item: "Look, although I can't cook, I'm strong and can farm and water the fields. If you want to build a sheep pen at home, the fields will be a bit small. I was planning to help you expand the yard toward the forest behind in a few days. And I'm very good at hunting, maybe even better than you. It's just that I'm recovering from injuries right now, so it's not very convenient. But I ate my fill today and replenished a lot of energy. My wound will heal quickly, fully healed in less than half a month. Then I'll be even more useful. And you only need to provide me three meals a day..."

Lucita actually found this quite reasonable and kept nodding along with her words. Finally, she suddenly came to her senses: "What? You're planning to freeload at my house and not leave?"

Violet: "How can this be called freeloading? You can hire me to work for you. Absolutely cheap and useful. You'd profit."

That was indeed true...

"But why do you insist on staying at my house? As long as you go back with the high priestess and be your elven king, wouldn't that be much better than staying here working for me? They're your subjects. I'm not, and won't go along with everything you want."

"They may not welcome me back." Violet sighed: "Besides, the elves have finally settled down. If I, a five-hundred-year-old antique, go back to interfere, what would that make me?"

She sounded bleak.

Although knowing she was eighty percent acting, Lucita was still touched and momentarily speechless.

Violet glanced at her sideways, laughter hidden in her voice: "You're not speaking, should I take that as consent?"

"You'd better think carefully about how to face the high priestess. She'll probably come looking for you soon."

Cecilia was preoccupied with Violet's matter. She didn't stay long at the festival before hastily leaving.

Javena sensed something was off earlier and didn't insist she stay.

Following Javena’s directions, Cecilia made her way to Lucita’s house.

By this time, the last rays of sunset had also dispersed, leaving only a faint pale red mixed into the dim yellow night. Shadows were indistinct as street lamps gradually lit up along the roadside.

The wind rose.

Cecilia pulled on her hood and walked steadily forward.

The farm's courtyard gate was usually left open. Cecilia pushed the door and entered. In the center was an old small wooden house with bright windows and silence all around.

She knocked on the door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The door creaked open. The one who answered was that young girl who had accompanied Violet today—thick black curly hair, red-striped top, primrose yellow trousers, looking naive and plain.

But her eyes weren't like a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl's. When those pitch-black pupils looked over, they were so calm that Cecilia felt she seemed to know everything.

Cecilia was about to speak when Lucita spoke first: "Hello. You're the elven race's high priestess, here to find Violet, right? She's waiting for you in the study."

Cecilia’s prepared opening was choked back. She wanted to say something but ultimately let it all go, only saying: "Thank you."

Lucita didn't want to get involved with the elven race's political struggles. After inviting Cecilia into the study, she closed the door behind her.

To avoid suspicion, she even went to the backyard to fish. From the study's back window, one could see her figure sitting by the pond.

As soon as Cecilia entered, she saw Violet sitting behind the desk reading a book.

It appeared to be a book she had casually taken from the shelf. Hearing Cecilia enter, she casually placed a bookmark, set the book aside, and nodded slightly: "Please sit."

Cecilia didn't sit directly. Instead, she placed her right hand on her chest and performed the ritual for an audience with royalty: "Your Majesty."

This single gesture expressed her attitude.

This was the result of Cecilia's deep deliberation before coming.

After losing the royal family, this ritual hadn't appeared for five hundred years. As high priestess, Cecilia was probably one of the few elves who still knew it.

The legend of the heroine King Violet single-handedly holding back humanity's advance in the final battle, preserving the fire of elven civilization, still circulated among the elven race to this day.

She was praised and depicted, transformed into stories and sculptures standing in the center of elven cities, an unavoidable chapter in elven history.

No matter what, she deserved the elves' respect and courtesy.

If Violet's original intentions remained unchanged, Cecilia would represent the ten priestesses under the divine throne to welcome back their leader, return power in its entirety, and henceforth let the elven race return to that prosperous era blessed by Mirror Lake.

But if five hundred years had worn away her original intentions, corroded her will, or even blinded her eyes with hatred, wanting the currently declining descendants to reignite the flames of war, then she absolutely wouldn't obey such a king.

Seeing her action, Violet's gaze seemed to look through her into the past, revealing a trace of fleeting loneliness. She repeated with a smile: "Please sit."

Cecilia pulled out the chair and sat across from her.

"I presume you already know my situation. I was rescued by that child from beneath Mirror Lake, what everyone calls the sacred lake. I won't say more. When the seal was lifted the night before last, I already placed Mirror Lake below the royal court. Well, if I'm not mistaken, that should be the current royal court. I can feel it's next to the temple, built very similarly to the former royal court, with many vigorous wishes concentrated nearby. Did you know about this?"

Violet had nothing she wanted and thus no desire to negotiate, so she simply took the initiative.

"Yes, I received a letter from the tribe this morning. I only just learned of it."

"I'm very glad you still established a royal court, even without a royal family." Speaking of this, Violet's tone softened considerably.

"The royal family's dedication and sacrifice should be remembered, especially yours, Your Majesty." Cecilia answered from the bottom of her heart.

Violet smiled and said no more, changing the subject: "I generally learned about the elves' current situation from Sophia and have formed some plans. But she's still a child after all, what she's seen is inevitably not comprehensive enough. I'm also too antiquated an elf. Perhaps some of my ideas aren't quite appropriate. If I say anything wrong, please correct me."

Not expecting this elven king to be so straightforward, Cecilia was also curious about what she would say. She fell half-willingly into her rhythm: "Please speak, Your Majesty."

"Sophia said that elves now have learned to live like humans, planting crops, cooking food delicately, even introducing many human facilities, like that... flush toilet that's been around for less than a century. Everyone has learned to forge and use a wide variety of iron weapons. Your own innate abilities have also been more deeply developed and utilized."

"You've established small schools, bringing the next generation of children together for education, learning basic history, divine arts, and how to systematically use innate abilities. Many attack methods have been developed and recorded in textbooks, passed down to the next generation. Is this correct?"

"Also, I remember Sophia's information only goes up to ten years ago. Perhaps there have been some new changes recently?"

Violet clasped her hands together, leaned forward, and sought confirmation with considerable interest.

"Yes, what Sophia said is basically the current situation. There haven't been any major changes in ten years. Everything is progressing steadily. Will you blame us for using human inventions?"

Cecilia carefully extended her first probing feeler.

Violet smiled and shook her head, encouraging: "Please continue."

Regarding these matters, Cecilia had organized her words before coming: "Besides what Sophia mentioned, I want to introduce you to the current power system. Although the royal family isn't here, the priestess system is still me—I mean, one high priestess leading ten priestesses. Everyone performs their duties, some manage agriculture, some education, some order... Each priestess has divine officials beneath them managing affairs, and finally I coordinate everything. Of course, every major matter in the tribe is decided by the priestesses' council vote before the divine, not by my arbitrary decisions alone."

At this point, she finally spoke the center of tonight's probe: "Now that Your Majesty has returned, these matters should be managed by Your Majesty, and I should return to my fundamental duty of serving the divine."

"I was just about to discuss this with you." Violet saw Cecilia's nervousness and smiled slightly: "I don't plan to return to the tribe. You've done very well. You don't need my interference. I hope you can maintain the status quo."

Cecilia had thought of many plans, but through all her calculations, she hadn't expected Violet not to plan on returning at all. She was stunned: "What did you say?"

Violet didn't pick up her words. Instead, she leaned back against the chair and said with slight nostalgia: "You wrote many epics to praise and record that period of history. Perhaps too much time has passed, making you only remember scenes of me fighting with a sword. It seems that era was very romantic, doesn't it?"

"What was it actually like? In that era, clanspeople lived scattered in the forest. Gathering and hunting every day, they could live very happily relying on Mirror Lake's blessings and innate abilities. Our luck was too good. Because food was sufficient, we didn't farm. Because hunting was enough, we didn't practice our innate abilities. Because our lifespans were long, we didn't systematically organize knowledge. We were carefree, and ultimately died from being carefree."

"Even the blessed long-lived race was therefore defeated by humans. Humans so fiercely occupied our homeland. Why, despite their short lifespans and weak strength, could they accomplish such a feat? Was it really only relying on those powerful mages? But in terms of magic, we were naturally powerful."

"It's because they always had worries. Facing hunger, they learned to plant and hunt. Facing threats, they learned magic. Facing their own weakness, they developed technology. Elves couldn't do these things, was it because we were stupid? Was it a racial defect? Of course not."

"At that time I understood, but had no time to prove it. And now, having lost Mirror Lake, your reproductive ability has greatly declined, innate abilities weakened, and you've even borne the curse of not being able to kill humans all along. But you still stubbornly survived and showed me elven wisdom. We aren't naturally weak, backward, and incompetent."

"Your Majesty..."

"Cecilia, my era has long passed. This era was created by you, and you've done very well. And I even need to relearn some common knowledge. How could I manage the new elven race five hundred years later? Perhaps my only use is Mirror Lake. I've placed it below the royal court. From now on, we'll shed that curse that's entangled us for five hundred years, multiply here, and become strong again. I believe you can do it, right?"

"And I, an image from history books, shouldn't appear again. Otherwise, it will undermine your authority."

Violet spoke very sincerely. Cecilia wasn't without feeling.

Deeply moved, she vowed: "Your Majesty, I absolutely won't fail your expectations!"

"It seems we've reached a consensus." Violet said with a smile: "Then, I have one favor I need you to help with."

"What does Your Majesty need me to do?"

"Ahem, you know, I've stayed here for two days and spent quite a lot of someone's silver coins..."

……

Before they knew it, a crescent moon had already hung on the pitch-black treetops.

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