While the work of replicating agricultural magic machinery was in full swing, Ina received a letter from Vilanthe.
Vilanthe had been in Flemington for some time now. She now had some ability to protect herself and was legitimately the heiress of the empire. After she had escaped from the capital city years ago, her engagement was naturally annulled. The scandal of a princess eloping was not a pleasant thing to hear, so the church had given a decent enough reason which did not affect Vilanthe's takeover of Flemington.
As a fiefdom that Vilanthe's father had held before he became the emperor of the empire, Flemington was not as deeply influenced by the church as other territories. It was a frontier land, adjacent to a small duchy and the Silverleaf Forest of elves. The church's reach did not extend this far, which was why Vilanthe's father had handed over the lord's token to Vilanthe. This was the only place in the Orlan Empire that could provide her with shelter.
Another interesting fact was that, even though Vilanthe had half-blood of a different race, the people of Flemington had the least resistance to her. This was not because they occasionally saw elves who embodied all good qualities, and thus did not have terrible fantasies about other races, but because the storm of ethnic cleansing that had swept the country years ago did not affect Flemington.
Even if they happened to venture deep into the forest and encountered elves, the people of Flemington would only avoid them from a distance, without hatred or fear.
Ina could guess some of the reasons, which also explained why the human empire did not intend to send elves into the ruins of the Old Gods back then.
On the one hand, elves would not leave their mother tree, and the Old God Ruins, no matter if they were filled with gold, held no attraction for them. On the other hand, there was a secret that few people knew about. The World Tree's body was growing in the Silverleaf Forest.
The human race would be doomed if they really angered the elves, although this probability was very low, but the elves could really ruin everyone.
Ina opened Vilanthe's letter. The letter was delivered by a mechanical hawk Ina had given to Vilanthe, which would absolutely not make a mistake in protecting the privacy of the letter.
The letter was written on calfskin paper, sealed with wax after being folded. The color of the ink on the paper was even, and the subtle mineral luster could be seen. It was ink made with special materials that would keep the handwriting from fading. Vilanthe was living quite well in Flemington, at least she was not being stingy in her expenditures.
Vilanthe wrote in the letter that the financial situation of Flemington was even better than she had expected. However, this was not due to Flemington's prosperity and richness, but her father frequently transferred a large amount of money privately to support the army of Flemington, which was several times larger than that of other counties. But the money arrived later and later each year, and with the rapid deterioration of the health of the Orlan Monarch, it was still unknown whether it could be received this year.
Vilanthe also wrote in a relaxed tone that the reason why Viscount Savio, who controlled the army, quickly handed over the account book of the whole territory, was to prove to Vilanthe that Flemington could afford to support her, the princess of the empire.
"From my current observation, the Viscount is loyal to the royal family, especially to my father. This is indeed a good thing. My father is indeed planning to do something, which may not be successful while he is alive, but I will personally tell him in front of his grave."
As for Viscount Savio's behavior of treating Vilanthe as a rose in a greenhouse, wishing he could bring all the flowers and jewels of Flemington to Vilanthe with a kind of indulgence of an elder to a junior. Vilanthe did not refute anything. Ambition should not be on the lips, action will prove everything.
Hopefully, Viscount Savio will not hold on to the army and make the two stand on opposite sides eventually, Vilanthe wrote.
She seemed to have a good impression of the older Viscount Savio. After systematic learning, Vilanthe has awakened some of the talents from the Tree Guardian of the elves. Like her mother Aihela and Atlica, she has the ability to sense emotions, which is very beneficial for her to become a leader.
Vilanthe also raised another problem that Flemington faced.
"Most of the food here is purchased from other territories! This is absolutely not okay. If the church orders other territories to stop selling food to Flemington, we will immediately be traped. But there is too little farmland in Flemington, I have to find a way..."
Reading this letter, Ina felt that Vilanthe was gradually losing her innocence and becoming more thoughtful, showing the foresight of a leader. She found a map of the area around Flemington, carefully colored a certain area, rolled it up and tied it with a ribbon, and put it into the hidden box under the wings of the mechanical hawk.
———
The general store and restaurant in Silverleaf Forest were now managed by Atelika. She was enthusiastic about everything and could handle both shops by herself. There were no customers gentler and easier to talk to than the elves, who wouldn't be agitated due to long waiting times or argue endlessly due to the lack of certain goods.
Because the elves would bring in exchange for food or goods either mithril ores, which are difficult to measure, or various ingredients whose values are hard to determine, Atelika spent a lot of time figuring out the exchange ratios for several items that were often traded. With Ina's reminder, she added a point system, making the price of each product more intuitive. For example, a regular-sized piece of mithril ore is 100 points, a large bottle of glue is 1 point, and a Trajectory Planet Lamp is 50 points while buying magic crystals separately for the planet lamp is 10 points per piece.
Actually, this pricing is somewhat hasty and not very reasonable. But both the buyers and sellers didn't mind. Sometimes, the elves would bring a piece of mithril ore but only buy very few things. At this point, Atelika would need to remember how many points they have used and how many they haven't.
Atelika couldn't write, but she had a special way of remembering things, like this.
"Alfred, how many points does this elf named Selene still have?"
After a moment of silence, a sigh of resignation came from the spiritual network between Atelika and the Tree Keeper, "68."
Atelika, with a clear voice, said to Selene who was waiting at the side, "The goods you bought this time are worth 25 points, so you still have... um..." She hesitated, stumped by a two-digit addition and subtraction problem.
Alfred sighed again, "43."
"You still have 43 points left. Welcome, next time~" Atelika shamelessly copied the answer.
Alfred and Atelika have reached a temporary agreement. Given that Atelika indeed had no intention of running out of Silverleaf Forest, Alfred wouldn't stop her from doing business with the elves. However, he was still concerned about Atelika's interactions with those humans.
"That's my salary," Atelika argued. Yes, Atelika's wage, in addition to room and board, was to have someone come and tell her a story one day a week. Last week it was Anty, next time it would be Lesley's turn.
While savoring the story, Atelika put a square pastry into her mouth and sat on the platform outside the treehouse, swinging her legs.
"Hey, Atelika, what are you eating?" Cicely called up from below the tree.
Atelika looked down at her, "It's a kind of dessert. A layer of red bean paste, a layer of glutinous rice cake, and sweet, cool ice cream wrapped in a crisp skin made of egg and flour."
Cicely had already jumped up, "Can I have one?"
Atelika had just turned around when a sharp whistle echoed through Silverleaf Forest. Recognizing the melody in the whistle, Cicely trembled all over and jumped down from the treehouse without hesitation. "The forest is on fire!"
Atelika shoved the red bean glutinous rice ice cream into her mouth in two or three bites and followed her down. "Alfred, where's the fire?!"
"The west side," Alfred answered calmly.
Hearing Alfred's calm tone, Atelika comforted herself in her heart, it wouldn't be a big fire.
Alfred dispelled her illusion:
"It's big, bigger than the ones that have burned before."
———
By the time Ina arrived, the fire had spread to a large area. Those jumping, reckless, surging flames swept over the trees and shrubs. The popping sound of burning oil in the trees and the screaming of the flames mixed together, there was no sound more terrifying than this. Animals were fleeing in panic, but even the birds could not escape the pursuit of the wildfire, finally becoming a scorched lump of black meat that fell heavily.
Ina stood at the edge of the burning forest. The speed at which the fire grew exceeded everyone's imagination. The wind-aided flames quickly sucked the moisture from the grass and trees, making the trees as flammable as paper.
She shook her wings and flew into the fire. The air here was extremely dry, breathing was as painful as inhaling a large chunk of charcoal. Of course, the elves would not let the fire take their homes. They gathered together, summoning water elements to wet the trees about to be scorched, hoping to slow down the speed of the fire's invasion.
The fire was fierce, and the water elements in the Silverleaf Forest were already so thin that the elves had to abandon a large part of the forest and chose the Mel River as their position. If the fire could be eased, they would soon counterattack, but the situation looked very bad. Cicely could only pray to at least they could still retain half of the forest.
If a human came to the Mel River at this time, he would surely be amazed by the sheer number of elves - almost all the elves in the Silverleaf Forest had gathered here. But at such a life-and-death moment, the Elf King was still absent.
The one who took his place to issue orders was the high priest of the elves, Lofir. Even among a group of beautiful elves, he stood out like a bright moon among stars. He had a pair of amazingly beautiful eyes, it's hard to find words to describe such a green, like a deep and cold emerald.
Now his eyes were reflecting the raging fire. Lofir raised his arm, a soft glow gathered in his palm, the water of the Mel River churned and floated into the air, turning into water arrows to pierce the leaping flames.
For a short while, this indeed had some effect. But soon, the flames would roll back. And there would be a time when Lofir's spiritual power would be exhausted. By then, everything would be futile.
Ina folded her wings and landed beside Lofir, "Lofir, I think I have a…" Before she could finish her sentence, the noble and cold-looking elf priest rushed at her.
Savi's eyes widened, watching the two figures tangled up in a fight, "Why are the priest and the restaurant owner fighting? They didn't even say a word!"
Whether it was time to help out or mediate a quarrel, the most important thing now was to put out the fire. The elves hesitated for a moment, looking at the evenly matched pair, and decided to leave them behind and prioritize the fire.
Ina, using her strength advantage, pressed Lofir against a tree trunk, firmly restraining his right hand used for casting spells. "Lofir, it's been centuries and you're still as hot-tempered as ever. Did I provoke you?"
The elf priest's white cheek was stained with a smudge of black ash, looking pitiful, but his words were full of gunpowder: "Didn't you set on fire ?"
Ina was taken aback: "Why would I set on fire ?"
Lofir knew he had thought wrong, but he stubbornly refused to admit it: "Don't you people like to start fires everywhere?"
Ina suddenly understood what Lofir was saying: "When have I ever been among those who set on fire?"
She let go of Lofir's wrist: "You sure know how to repay kindness with ingratitude. I worked hard to help you guard the World Tree, fought against the black dragon, then slept for more than three hundred years, and as soon as we met, you accused me of being an arsonist."
Lofir didn't want to deal with Ina's reproach. Although he was quite puzzled about why Ina had turned from a human into a dragon, it was not the time to reminisce. He still had to hurry to extinguish the forest fire.
"I have a way."