After “greeting” eighteen generations of Lin Gui’s ancestors in her heart,
Elvia had no choice but to bite the bullet and face the situation alone.
She could only pessimistically believe that she still had enough value for Lin Gui to not truly abandon her completely.
But... even if she wasn’t abandoned, what of it?
Opposite her were two actual Low-tier Transcendents and four High-tier High Ranks!
And on her side, she only had Theia, a Transcendent Ranger who specialized in agility and long-range combat and was not suited for a frontal clash.
Plus, there was Lin Gui, a Low-tier High Rank mage whose mana was currently depleted—essentially a burden!
Despair wound its way around Elvia’s heart.
However, her survival instinct made her clutch tightly onto the only instruction Lin Gui had left.
Stall for time.
She quickly untied her hair tie, letting her golden hair cascade down like a waterfall, adding a touch of fragility and allure.
At the same time, she drew the honorary saber from her waist.
Not for battle, but to use the mirror-like blade to swiftly check her appearance.
Using her fingers, she rapidly wiped away the smudges on her face and smoothed her disheveled hair.
She brushed off the dust clinging to her dress.
Then, she made an unexpected move.
She kicked off her muddy combat boots.
Revealing a pair of fair and delicate jade-like feet, she let them dangle and sway gently by the side of the wooden crate.
She sat gracefully on the high wooden crate, slightly lifting her chin.
She struck a pose that displayed both vulnerable helplessness and noble dignity.
Under the light, she truly looked as beautiful as an angel who had fallen into the mortal realm.
But do not misunderstand; she wasn’t attempting some clumsy honey trap.
What she was showcasing was the royal majesty and poise etched into her bones!
Based on that half-demon’s description, she had roughly guessed the identity of the newcomers.
Being able to field two Transcendents meant they could only be that group of deserting Defense Force soldiers.
As long as the other party still possessed reason, they shouldn’t strike her down.
After all, she was royalty and knew the Golden Route; she had enough capital to open a dialogue.
Pinning the golden badge that symbolized the royal family to her chest, Elvia began to wait.
The heavy and disorganized sound of combat boots trampling over gravel grew closer.
Six figures stepped through the sparse trees and appeared before her.
It was indeed that group of Defense Force soldiers who had abandoned everything to escape from Caran City!
However, their current appearance...
Was as different as heaven and earth compared to the well-equipped and disciplined elite unit in Elvia’s memory.
Their armor was covered in cracks and dried bloodstains.
Their tattered cloaks looked like beggars’ burial shrouds.
Their faces were a mix of grime, scabs, and a near-maniacal exhaustion.
Their eyes were cloudy, yet deep within burned a hysterical, savage despair.
One could only imagine what they had endured while crossing the peril-filled hills and the Whispering Forest.
When they arrived, they might have had personal guards, family members, and carriages loaded with wealth in a grand procession.
They had thought they could escape hell and find a new life.
But the reality was a cruel demonic purgatory.
The screams of loved ones being torn apart rang in their ears.
The tragedy of their precious children being devoured unfolded before their eyes.
Back in Caran City, they had been the ones to lord over others, treating commoners like worthless weeds.
For the first time, they had tasted the feeling of being ruthlessly crushed by a stronger power and losing everything.
Those concubines, offspring, and riches they once held as treasures had all vanished under the demons’ claws.
This extreme loss had destroyed their reason.
It had turned them into the beasts before her, left with nothing but survival instincts and a crazed desire for revenge.
They were guarding this mandatory path from the forest into the rift.
Originally, they had held a glimmer of hope, waiting for two other Transcendent companions who might have escaped.
They wanted to gather their strength to increase their slim chance of crossing the terrifying rift.
Just now, they had sensed several presences appearing here.
They had thought it was the companions they were longing for.
As a result, after rushing over, what they saw was Elvia sitting on a wooden crate.
She looked like an angel fallen into the mortal world.
That peerless face, the cascading golden hair, the bare slender feet, and that sense of nobility that couldn’t be entirely masked...
It was like a beam of intense light, instantly piercing through their souls shrouded in darkness and despair.
The soldiers, led by Bob, were immediately transfixed.
Their breathing subconsciously grew heavy.
Their scorching gazes were nailed to Elvia’s alluring, swaying feet and her graceful figure.
The long-suppressed fear, despair, and beastliness seemed to find an outlet for venting at this moment.
Elvia acted as if she had only just noticed them.
She slightly turned her head, her long golden hair tracing an elegant arc.
Her brow furrowed slightly, carrying a hint of displeasure at being disturbed.
She jumped down from the wooden crate with composure and bent over to put on her muddy combat boots.
Then, with a clang, she unsheathed her honorary saber, the tip pointing diagonally toward the ground.
She looked at Bob and the others with a cold expression.
“Halt your advance, unknown warriors!”
Her voice was clear and cold, carrying a majesty that came from long-standing authority.
It actually suppressed the soldiers’ restless aura for a moment.
“This is a temporary outpost established by the Carter royal family!”
This sudden royal display and declaration...
Caused the soldiers, who were on the verge of collapse, to experience a brief moment of daze.
But soon, deeper greed and the desire for survival resources...
Burned through the last shred of their reason like wildfire.
Their faces remained savage.
Their gazes swept back and forth between Elvia’s stunning face and the pile of heavy-looking wooden crates behind her, their steps ready to move.
However, Bob suddenly raised a hand, stopping his subordinates who wanted to step forward.
His eyes were locked onto the royal badge on Elvia’s chest.
Although stained with dust, its exquisite outline and unique patterns could still be discerned.
His throat bobbed as he asked with a dry mouth,
“You... You’re from the royal family?”
Elvia’s heart steadied slightly. She lifted her chin a bit.
Looking down at Bob with an even colder and prouder gaze, she seized the initiative and questioned,
“Who are you? A knight of which noble house? Why would you appear on the royal family’s secret route? Why have you approached the royal outpost?”
She paused and deliberately emphasized her tone as if casually mentioning a minor matter.
“When the Royal Holy Knight order crossed through the forest earlier, they found some skeletal remains. Judging by the equipment... could they have been your men?”
She intentionally mentioned the “Holy Knight order” to create momentum out of thin air.
She wanted to use the reputation of Legendary experts to intimidate the other party.
At the same time, she used the “corpses they encountered” to increase the credibility of her words.
As expected, the terms “Holy Knight order” and “Legendary”...
Acted like a bucket of cold water, making the elite Defense Force soldiers halt their steps abruptly.
Expressions of suspicion and uncertainty appeared on their faces.
Except...
The gazes they exchanged with each other...
Were not the fear or awe Elvia had expected.
Instead, it was a look that was extremely strange...
An eerie expression mixed with anger, resentment, and a trace of disbelief.
Bob in particular went from initial greed and madness...
To a complexion that gradually turned ashen, with veins bulging on his forehead.
The hand gripping his weapon trembled slightly from excessive force.
A powerful sense of foreboding instantly seized Elvia’s heart!
There was some critical piece of information she didn’t know!
Her mind raced, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong.
Before she could understand, Bob was completely set off!
He suddenly drew a longsword from his waist that was covered in dark-red bloodstains.
He pointed it at Elvia.
His voice became hoarse and twisted due to extreme fury:
“You’re talking about those bastards?! Those bastards who snatched my wife and defiled my female kin?!”
“The bastards who slaughtered our parents and children right in front of us to feed the demons?!”
The emotions of Bob and his men were completely detonated.
“???”
Elvia almost failed to maintain the cold expression on her face.
Bastards?? Those bastards?? Which bastards??
Wait, slaughter??
In an instant, a guess surfaced in Elvia’s mind.
Could they be talking about... John’s Holy Knight order, which had left before she even arrived in Caran??
Recalling that powerful Legendary Holy Knight’s decadent reputation in the Royal Capital...
Elvia wasn’t surprised at all that they could do such things.
Instantly, Elvia went deathly pale. Her original plan had been to use her royal status to suppress the other party.
Then, she would have quietly revealed that she could take them to the Royal Capital and guarantee they wouldn't die to stabilize them.
As it turned out...
She had been wrong from the very beginning!
Those damned knights!!
She forced herself to maintain a stern and proud face, shouting sharply,
“I don’t know what nonsense you’re babbling! I am warning you one last time.”
“If you dare approach again, the royal Transcendent archers hidden nearby will shoot you all into sieves!”
Her words were filled with killing intent, and she raised her saber again, pointing the tip right at Bob’s nose.
At this moment, Elvia almost wanted to kneel before Theia.
Half-demon! Sister Theia!! Ancestor Theia!!
If you can hear me, shoot a freaking arrow right now!
Cooperate with me!
Otherwise, I’m going to be torn apart by these people!
However, during her anxious wait, there wasn’t a single movement in the forest behind her.
Elvia gave a hollow chuckle.
She had been... abandoned.
Her right foot, however, uncontrollably shifted backward by an extremely tiny half-step.
It exposed her internal tension and her intention to retreat at any moment.
This subtle movement did not escape Bob’s eyes, which had become exceptionally sharp due to anger and despair.
The savage smile on his face became even more distorted.
“Royal archers? Hahaha!”
He let out a frenzied laugh.
“Still lying! What else do you high-and-mighty figures know how to do besides lie?!”
“Brothers!”
He suddenly turned around and roared at his subordinates, who also had murderous looks in their eyes and were itching to move,
“Seize this little royal bitch! I’m going to pay her back for everything they did to us!!”
Before his voice had even faded, he led the charge, rushing toward Elvia like a mad bull!
The five Defense Force elites behind him also let out beast-like howls as they followed closely!
Elvia let out a bitter smile.
Her saber dropped. She couldn't escape.
She was her father’s twenty-first daughter and forty-eighth offspring.
From the moment she was born, she had fallen into a cruel and bloody struggle for succession.
She had watched herself go from being the sixteenth princess to the seventh.
Her nine sisters before her had all died in the power struggle.
Whether they fought for it or not, they were all forced into the bloody slaughter.
Elvia didn’t want to die; she was afraid of death. To survive, she had grasped onto everything she could.
Relying on her stunning looks, she had recruited everyone she could.
Down-and-out nobles, greedy mercenaries, adventurers obsessed with her, commoners trying to scrape by... and even...
The rebels.
She was like a smooth pebble in a torrent, constantly hitting the walls yet never breaking.
She had no interest in that supreme throne; it was just that if she didn’t fight for it, death was the only road left at the end.
She didn't feel anger at Lin Gui’s abandonment.
If it were her, she would have been even more ruthless and heartless than Lin Gui.
To live, more than one or two pawns had been pushed out by her to die in her stead.
It was just... utilizing others and being utilized like this was truly exhausting.
Elvia dropped her honorary saber. Her eyes were vacant, and her face was filled with weariness.
Ultimately, her thoughts returned to that bloody night.
She saw her mother, who always had a gentle smile on her face.
“Heh, it seems I still wasn’t able to fulfill the promise I made to you.”
As Bob raised his sharp blade to strike, at the moment Elvia calmly faced death...
Lin Gui’s speechless complaining reached her ears.
“I told you to stall for a bit, but you freaking detonated the other side as soon as you opened your mouth.”
“The other side is raising a blade to hack you, yet you’re just spacing out in place.”
“Where’s that princess who was so quick to cower and beg for mercy to stay alive?”
Elvia’s eyes snapped open. Through the sharp blade, her golden eyes saw a ranger who had abruptly appeared with a drawn bow behind her.
Theia was carrying a pale-faced mage on her back, and the Azure Echo in her hands had been drawn into a full moon.
An arrow condensed with emerald-green Transcendent battle force was pointed directly at the back of Bob’s head!
The distance was too close! So close that there was no time for any reaction!
Swish—Thwack!
The sound of the arrow leaving the string was almost inaudible, but the dull thud of it piercing the skull was exceptionally clear.
Bob’s forward-charging movement instantly froze, and the high-raised blade stalled in mid-air.
The crazed expression on his face solidified, and the ferocity in his eyes was quickly replaced by emptiness.
He didn't even manage to let out a scream before his massive body crashed forward.
Theia’s movements didn’t stop for a single moment!
Before Bob’s corpse had even fully hit the ground...
She lightly tapped her toe against the backplate of Bob’s falling body, using the force to leap into the air again.
Drawing a dagger, she shot toward the other Transcendent warrior!
Clang! Clang!
Two rapid sounds of clashing metal exploded!
Although that Transcendent warrior had some preparation and hurriedly raised their shield to block...
Theia was too fast.
The impact sent them stumbling backward, their arm holding the shield going numb.
Fine cracks even appeared on the shield’s surface!
Using the recoil, Theia performed an elegant backflip.
She landed steadily in front of Elvia.
She shielded the dazed princess behind her.
With her toe, she hooked Bob’s corpse on the ground and gave it a light flip.
Whoosh!
It accurately rolled to the feet of the remaining four High-tier High Rank soldiers.
With a flick of her wrist, Theia twirled her dagger, shaking off the blood beads.
She lifted her emerald eyes, which were now cold as frost, and barked a rebuke.
“If you don’t want to die, get the hell out of here!!!”
This rebuke was like a clap of thunder exploding in the deathly silent air.
Those four soldiers looked at Bob on the ground, then looked at the elven ranger who had just insta-killed their Transcendent captain...
The last bit of their fighting spirit instantly disintegrated.
They fled toward the depths of the forest, crawling and scrambling.
Even the Transcendent warrior who had been pushed back by Theia turned and ran without hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, the scene that was filled with killing intent just a moment ago...
Was left with only a corpse on the ground, the scent of blood in the air, and a shell-shocked Elvia.
Letting out a long breath, Theia carefully placed Lin Gui, who had fainted after exhausting his mana, onto the raft.
She turned to look at Elvia, who was standing in a daze, and said irritably,
“As expected of a delicate princess, a single small knife scared you stupid.”
“I say, you didn’t get scared shitless, did you?”
“...”
Elvia lowered her head, gritting her teeth. She suddenly looked up and burst into curses.
“Who the hell is shitless?! You piece-of-shit half-demon!!”
“I was hinting at you just now! Couldn't you just cooperate with me a little?! You idiot!!”
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