After ascending the throne, Valindra became the Elvish queen, but the country and the citizens she had to rule were broken and poor.
She was only eighteen years old at the time, but she had to become an adult and start thinking on behalf of her subjects.
So the first thing she did was announce that taxes were to be lowered to 0% until everyone had a house to live in and food to eat.
She also stated that the royal treasury that was filled with money would be used to pay for all the repairs and food for the citizens.
The people rejoiced that they finally had a ruler that cared for them, so they did everything to help.
Everyone was willing to lend a hand, and with Valindra paying everyone with not only food but also money, the repairs were being quickly completed.
Houses were built, the soil in the fields was fertilized, and new crops started to flourish.
Every city became clean, and people slowly started to get back on their feet again.
All of this seemed to happen in an instant, but it took years of hard work for the Elvish continent to become functional again.
There were some elves who didn't agree with this, though.
They were the city governors that enjoyed abusing their citizens and taking extremely high taxes from them, but Valindra quickly dealt with them.
Some were jailed for the rest of their lives, and some tried to use their small army to fight Valindra, but because she was extremely proficient with her spear, she destroyed everyone that stood in her way.
Legends slowly started to spread about Valindra, who was effortlessly fighting against armies.
But what really made her famous was when she went to deal with other continents' armies, who made camps on the Elvish continent, hoping to take their resources once the elves fell.
There was a human army of a thousand men that had orders to fight and not retreat.
Valindra also had a huge army that could steamroll the humans, but she chose to fight alone.
Was it foolish? Maybe. But she needed to show the world that the elves weren't to be bullied and kicked around anymore.
She wanted to show the world that there was a new Elvish queen, and she wasn't afraid to step over the bodies of her dead enemies that would dare attack her or her country.
So one day, the human army charged at her, but with one swing of her spear, she killed tens of men, and because her swings were extremely fast, she kept slicing through the army like a hot knife through butter.
Her swings were powerful and quick yet extremely precise, making her out to be the Goddess of Death in her enemies' eyes.
Just like that, "the battle," if you can even call it that, was over, and Valindra singlehandedly disposed of an entire human army.
After destroying the human army, she also dealt with a goblin army, which had more numbers but was a lot weaker compared to the humans.
Once everything was over, her allies respected her and her enemies feared her.
She became the symbol of power for the elves, and every child wished to be like her when they grew up.
The other races started calling her Valindra the Fearless because even they wouldn't start fighting an army of a thousand men if they weren't sure of their victory.
So everyone automatically thought that Valindra was living the dream now that she was the strongest elf and her power only grew every day, but that couldn't have been further from the truth.
There was a problem that she was facing, and it was that she didn't have a source of happiness in her life.
The maid Bella became really busy after Valindra became the queen, so they stopped meeting each other and slowly stopped talking to each other all together.
Her teacher, Raeran, was now weaker than her, and as he didn't have anything else to teach her, he also stopped talking to her.
This may have seemed pretty sudden and illogical, but Raeran's scars were given to him by royal elves, and he has always detested the royal elves for it.
Valindra wasn't like the other royal elves, but every time he saw her hair, his trauma would resurface, and that was also a big reason they stopped talking.
Her siblings were all dead due to either the massacre she had orchestrated or because she had the ones that had survived executed because they tried to start a small rebellion against her, so now she was the only living royal elf.
She also didn't have her parents because they were killed by Morrsath, and even though she had managed to kill him, her parents didn't return to life, so she remained alone.
Another thing she could try was falling in love, but she felt like she didn't deserve to do so after manipulating the love of her brothers to make them kill each other.
And even if she did want to find someone, there wouldn't be almost any elves that were willing to be her husband.
She was respected and loved by her people, sure, but most men didn't want to date a woman who was stronger than them, or they were just straight up too scared to be with her.
Valindra was loved as a queen but feared as a woman. So her life was anything but joyful, and it didn't help that she had to put on a mask every day.
If she was giving a speech, she had to force a smile. If someone important died, she had to show sadness and tears. If something worrying happened, she had to be the one to always keep her cool.
This made her slowly start dissociating with her real self.
Sometimes she didn't know if what she was feeling were her emotions or if it was just another mask, she put on her face to please those around her but forgot to take off.
Valindra didn't give up, though, because her subjects still needed her.
She gave her entire life to her people and continued to be the queen they wanted her to be.
---
One day, she was walking to a brightly lit hall with a round table. This was a meeting hall where the leaders of the different continents would meet each other every ten years and discuss politics.
Of course, not every race had a seat at this table, but most of the intelligent races did, and the elves were one of them.
There were already many different people sitting around the table when Valindra entered, and they all turned to look at her.
"So, it is really true that Morrsath was dethroned! What a shame. He always provided me with beautiful women!"
A blue goblin with a golden crown on his head licked his lips as he stared at Valindra, who was wearing silver armor.
They weren't allowed to bring their weapons, but Valindra enjoyed wearing armor the most, and as those weren't banned, she chose to wear it.
"Weak die. Strong live."
A deep voice sounded from a five-meter-tall green giant.
He was the Orc king, and with his huge muscular body and red tattoos, he looked extremely intimidating.
But nobody was scared of him because everyone that sat around the table was the strongest or the second strongest in their entire race.
Valindra ignored the goblin king's comment and went to take a seat in her chair.
All the chairs were wooden, and they had race names carved into them.
"Let's start the meeting."
A pale woman with two sharp teeth sticking out of her mouth knocked twice on the table.
She was the vampire queen, and even though her body looked like it lacked blood, her beauty could make a man kneel down and start worshiping her.
Everyone quieted down after hearing her knock and looked at her.
First, they started talking about a sea monster destroying trade ships and thus lowering some of the races' finances, but Valindra didn't care about any of this, so she just stayed silent.
"I think we should talk about how the new Elvish queen destroyed my army without even talking to me first!"
Suddenly, the human king, who looked to be in his forties, shouted and pointed at Valindra.
Valindra didn't plan to bring this up as it didn't concern the other races, so when she heard the human king, she raised her eyebrow, and a soft chuckle came out of her mouth.
"Pffft..."
"You think this is funny?! You also killed around five thousand of my people!"
The goblin king also joined in, and all the other races decided to remain neutral since they weren't part of the armies' conflict.
"I do. I think it is funny to see the leaders of two races not knowing what shame is."
Nodding her head, Valindra calmly replied.
"How dare you!"
The human king stood up while shouting, but Valindra just shrugged her shoulders.
"Your armies were trespassing on my continent, and the moment you decided to do that, I was free to deal with them as I wished. You wouldn't let a stranger into your house and then keep him there, would you?"
She smiled while looking at the human king, who was turning red from fury.
"Do you think that just because your country is now functioning again, you can be that confident! Don't forget that we are much more powerful than you are!"
The goblin king was also starting to lose it as veins started to appear on his forehead. Not only was the new Elvish queen strong enough to destroy his army, but she also had a silver tongue.
"Confident? Don't misunderstand."
Valindra stopped smiling and placed her elbows on the table.
"I know that I can destroy you. After seeing how weak your men were, I can confidently say that there is no way that you would win a war against my nation."
She then leaned forward while narrowing her eyes.
"Don't think that just because I am young, I will be easily pushed around. You already sent your army to my continent once, so go do it again if you dare, but be prepared to pay the families of the dead soldiers."
Her cold voice echoed throughout the hall, and the two kings that were never planning to attack her became slightly flustered.
All they wanted was to scare her and make her submit to them, but they also didn't want a war because they knew just how powerful Valindra was.
They had their pride, though, and after being openly challenged like this in front of the other races, they couldn't just stand down.
So the human king walked over to Valindra and looked at her.
"Have a duel with me! If you win, I will forget everything and sign a peace treaty with you, but if I win, I want you to apologize to me on your knees and give me 50% of all your resources."
He proposed a match with a frown because all arguments that the leaders had in this hall were usually settled with a duel.
"Sure. Why not. But the peace treaty will last for a thousand years."
Readily agreeing, Valindra nodded her head as if already knowing the outcome.
"…Five hundred."
"This is not negotiable."
Seeing her confident smile, the human king tried to negotiate, but he was quickly rejected.
"…Fine. You will lose anyway!"
Hearing the human king agree, Valindra stood up from her seat, and because the hall they were in was very large, they had a lot of space to duel each other.
She accepted the deal because she preferred that her country remained peaceful, and signing a peace treaty was a good way to ensure that.
The human king was a powerful magician, so she also had an advantage because spells took time to cast.
Meanwhile, the other races were excited to watch this fight because they wanted to see Valindra's strength with their own eyes.
"Begin!"
The vampire queen shouted with her melodious voice, and the human king immediately started chanting a devastating spell, but there was a slight problem with his calculations.
Valindra never let any of his men survive, and the only thing he knew was that they were all killed, so he quickly assumed that she was also a magician, and she ambushed them with a powerful spell, but alas.
SWISH
As soon as the fight began, Valindra pulled out her spear from her spatial ring, and with an extremely fast movement, she propelled herself forward.
The tip of her spear then stopped only millimeters away from the human king's neck, and it would have cut him if he were to swallow the saliva that was accumulating in his mouth from how nervous and scared he was.
And with that, the duel was decided.
The human king wasn't by any means weak, though. He was even the strongest human during his reign, but Valindra was an opponent that directly countered the fact that he needed time to summon his spells.
He did have spells that he could cast quickly, and he also had barrier-type spells, but due to him not being informed about Valindra's style of fighting, he lost terribly.
"The Elvish queen wins."
The vampire queen announced Valindra's victory, and the human king accepted his loss with a bitter expression.
They then signed a peace treaty, and the goblin king also decided to forget about what had happened after witnessing Valindra's strength.
After the meeting was concluded and all the leaders went back to their countries, they all understood one thing.
Before, when Morrsath was the Elvish king, they had a chance to attack the elves, but now that Valindra was the queen, they would need to sacrifice countless of their men and risk starting a rebellion in their own country because of it if they wanted and dared to start a war with her.
She was so strong that no one dared to challenge her, but there was still one enemy that she couldn't win against.
No matter how hard she tried, Valindra was met with a foe so strong that even she began to lose, and that enemy was… loneliness.