"Now that I've finished introducing them, I'd like to finally explain the truth."
Evangeline began telling the truth. To summarize it all, it seemed that Elizabeth was an illegitimate child of hers.
Evangeline was already married before she ran away from her home. Hearing this, Lucius finally knew the reason why Gorgon was gloomy all along. It seemed that Gorgon was told about this before Lucius and Elizabeth had entered the room.
Evangeline also explained that her relationship with Gorgon was solely due to her sexual frustrations at the time. She told them that she also had a massive fight with her husband, and that this was the actual biggest reason that she ran away.
After she forcefully got taken back to her home, she made amends with her husband.
When she tried to go back to retrieve Elizabeth, the council members prevented with various reasons. Her husband had also strongly disagreed with her decision to get Elizabeth back because he knew that she was the product of an affair.
She tried to forget Elizabeth by having another child with her husband, and she succeeded. Alea was born and she filled the empty void in Evangeline's heart.
But this didn't mean that Evangeline had completely forgotten about Elizabeth. She slowly began convincing the her close relatives, her nation's council members, and even her own husband that she needed Elizabeth back.
It took decades for her to convince them enough. Finally, her efforts bore fruit. Today's reunion was the proof of it.
After finishing her explanation, she began asking Lucius and Elizabeth about their relationship.
"So how did you to meet?"
To this, Elizabeth answered shyly.
"It's complicated."
"Fufu, I see. I shall not pry further then. But I am curious about your relationship. You are both married, yet you don't look like a couple. Was there no love behind the marriage?"
"Umm, it-"
"It was one-sided love."
Lucius suddenly interjected Elizabeth. This made her blush in panic.
"Oho? My daughter was one-sidedly in love with you?"
"Yes."
Lucius was smiling in a mischievous way. He was feeling particularly giddy at the fact that he could make Elizabeth flustered. Perhaps having her as a true lover would not be so bad, he thought.
"By the way, should I call you Mother-in-law? Or should I call you Mother?"
"Hmmm, you can call me Mom."
Evangeline smiled brightly. She liked the fact that there seemed to be true romance blooming behind the supposedly one-sided marriage.
"Then, Mom, is Elizabeth going to be taken away to your home country? You said earlier that you came here to retrieve her."
"Ah, don't worry about that. It seems that it's not needed anymore. But you both can come visit us whenever you want, I will always welcome you. And if you want to, I can even grant you permanent citizenship!"
"I'll need to discuss this with her first. But I do have a business proposal I'd like to make with you, if you're fine with it."
"Sure, as long as it's not too complex. We're still in the middle of eating after all."
"Ah, then let's do it after the meal."
****
The group was now relaxing in a private lounge somewhere in the castle. Lucius had recently made this room to be his personal place to relax with friends and family.
Elizabeth's half-siblings were busily chitchatting with her. Meanwhile, Lucius was talking business with his mother-in-law. Gorgon on the other hand had returned to his room because it was already late at night.
Lucius' business proposal was about selling refined metals to the Enrivier Empire. To his surprise, Evangeline immediately agreed to it.
It seemed that her nation was severely lacking in metals, seeing as it was an empire surrounded by a thick forest. Mines were rare in her empire, so most of their tools were made out of wood.
Moreover, the reason why they couldn't just mine the mountains was because it was outside of their territory. The reason was because the weather there was terrible, and that many strong monsters lived there.
The only reason why Evangeline had managed to reach Heimer all those years ago was because magic had still existed and she had been the top mage of her own country.
Now, with magic gone, instead of a direct path, the only way to reach Heimer was to detour through the sea and travel through a longer path through other kingdoms and empires. So as of right now, the current trade route from the Enrivier Empire was through the sea.
Nearing the end of their business talk, Lucius brought up something interesting to her.
"I want to clear a path through the mountains, and I want your empire to collaborate with us. We can use it as an special trade route between both of our countries. Both of our economies will flourish if this happens, don't you think?"
Hearing Lucius mention the Heimer territory as his own countries made Evangeline's mind wander, but she soon dismissed it and continued the conversation.
"Hmmm, that is interesting. But without magic, carving a path through those mountains would take centuries. I'm afraid it's simply impossible."
"What if it's not?"
Lucius said in a sneaky tone.
"Oh? Then how do you plan to do it?"
"Simple, really, we just have the technology to do it."
"You'd have to do a demonstration first. Seeing is believing after all. I will not allocate my nation's manpower for mere words."
"Of course. Better yet, I'll show it to you in a week from now. I hope you don't mind staying here for a little bit longer."
"Fufu, no worries. Me and my kids were planning to stay here for at least a month. We elves perceive time differently after all."
Hearing that last line, Lucius got a bit disappointed.
'Yikes, I guess living a longer lifespan has made them complacent with time. It makes me want to take over their empire and change some things.'
This thought process prompted him to make snarky remark.
"Hmmm, I think you elves are just lazy. I've lived longer than you, and even I know that wasting time is bad."
Evangeline raised a brow and questioned him.
"What do you mean?"
"Mother-in-law is 390 years old right now, right?"
"I've told you earlier to just call me Mom. But yes, I turned 390 this year."
"Pfft, that means that I am older than you, but somehow I know more than you that you should not let yourself catch the habit of wasting time."
"You must be joking. Aren't you just a human?"
Evangeline was slightly perplexed.
"Of course I am human. But I'm a human who doesn't age."
"But that doesn't make any sense. Even when magic was still possible to use, even the longest living humans never reached 300 years old."
"Oh come on, wasn't necromancy a thing?"
"It was, but the undeads weren't living beings after all. I will not believe your words."
"Suit yourself. Don't be shocked if I still look the same even after 50 years, haha."
****
It was currently way past midnight, and Lucius had finally finished his postponed work. Tomorrow was the day that he could finally announce his academy's opening date.
As it was way past midnight, the other elves had already went to sleep. But for some reason, Elizabeth hasn't yet.
She was currently waiting inside Lucius' bedroom for some reason.
'I have to do it now.'
She thought to herself.
'But where is he? I've been waiting for the past couple hours already.'
As of right now, she was wearing a sexy nightgown.
'Our relationship hasn't improved yet, so I need to push it myself. He did say that he was finally open to a real relationship, right? O-or was I hallucinating and it didn't actually happen?'
*CREAK*
The door handle creaked. Soon, the door opened, and Lucius had a perplexed look after seeing his room.
Elizabeth was wearing a black semi-transparent sexy nightgown, and her face was extremely flushed.
Scanning Elizabeth's look from top to bottom, he audibly gulped.
This scheme of hers wouldn't have any effect before the camp incident. And it sure wouldn't have worked at all prior to him confessing his true self and his intentions.
"...."
"...."
There was only silence. But both of them had their minds racing.
For Lucius, it was baffling to see his lust going this wild.
'Shit, what should I do? I thought I was already past the horny phase? My libido had died down after hundreds of years in solitary. And even the past 2 and a half years I've spent here didn't cause it to come back. So why now?'
For Elizabeth, she was getting more and more embarassed by the lack of reaction and the eerily silent atmosphere.
'Hnnnggg, why is he not moving or saying anything? I've prepared all my heart and soul for this. Don't tell me that he still won't accept me after all this time? Am I really that unattractive and undesirable? Did he lie about his true age? Is he now thinking that I'm just an old hag? He is a human after all.'
Suddenly, something snapped inside of Lucius. No matter how much he rejected the thought that love was overrated and superficial, his overwhelming lust contradicted his views.
Right now, his head was blank of other thoughts. His mind was only focused on one thing and one thing only, Elizabeth's body.