By the time Elon stood at the entrance of the princess's tent, he was already regretting his decision.
He clutched the parchment contract in his hand, his fingertips trembling slightly.
The old druid stood outside the tent for a long moment before taking a deep breath and lifting the curtain.
“Your Highness.”
Alicia was sitting in front of a low table, holding a scroll of accounts sent from Windrest City.
Hearing Elon's voice, she looked up, a trace of confusion in her eyes. “Instructor? You don't look very well.”
“Uh...”
Elon cleared his throat and slowly walked over to the table, placing the rolled-up contract in front of the princess. “There is something... I think you should know.”
“Shane and that elf signed a contract.”
He unfurled the contract and pushed it in front of Alicia's eyes.
Alicia's gaze fell upon the contract. She scanned the clauses line by line, and then her brow twitched slightly.
Immediately after, Elon noticed that the princess's fingers gripping the edge of the contract tightened slightly.
Alicia did not speak.
Her gaze lingered on the two signatures in the signature block. Next to Shane's name, Eileen's signature was neat and elegant, almost as if it were declaring something.
The atmosphere inside the tent instantly grew subtly quiet.
Looking at the princess's expressionless face, Elon suddenly felt a chill run down the back of his neck.
He couldn't say where this feeling came from, but he only felt that the princess before him reminded him of certain things from a long time ago.
“Your Highness...”
Elon tried to explain, “That elf is indeed an expert when it comes to greenery. Her theories sound much more systematic than mine, and she might even be more professional than me in this regard. Besides, those theories she mentioned about the symbiosis between arbor trees and pioneer species...”
“Didn't you say just yesterday that she was a liar?”
Alicia looked up at him. Her tone was calm, yet it caused Elon's next words to catch in his throat.
“I...”
“You said she speaks nothing but lies.”
The princess continued, her voice remaining steady. “Even though she is an elf, you did not trust her.”
Elon opened his mouth but couldn't utter a single word. He could feel his old face burning up bit by bit.
“...But she did indeed say some valuable things.”
In the end, Elon could only squeeze out such a dry sentence. He then silently retrieved the contract, folded it, placed it on the corner of the table, and stepped aside, speaking no further.
Alicia did not press him any further either.
She returned her gaze to the accounts in her hand, but Elon noticed that her eyes weren't actually focused on the paper. Instead, her gaze drifted past the edge of the scroll, looking out toward a spot not far from the tent.
Out there, Shane and Eileen were standing side by side by the pool.
Eileen was standing on her tiptoes, gesturing with her hands, while Shane kept his head lowered, listening to her attentively.
The princess's gaze lingered on the two distant figures for a moment before she withdrew it, letting it fall back onto the accounts.
Her expression remained poised and proper, but Elon felt as if the temperature inside the tent had dropped slightly.
He silently took half a step back, deciding not to speak anymore.
By the pool, Shane was crouching next to a Red Willow under Eileen's direction. His fingers rested on the base of the plant as he closed his eyes, sensing the conditions beneath the soil.
“How is it?”
Eileen stood behind him with her hands on her hips, tilting her head to look at him.
Shane opened his eyes and stood up. “The root system is indeed very developed. The taproot has dug down nearly a meter, and the lateral roots have spread outward by at least two meters. They've thoroughly absorbed the nutrients in the topsoil.”
“Right?”
Eileen shook her head triumphantly. “I told you that you grew the pioneer species too well.”
“These Red Willow and Suosuo have already locked down this soil. When the roots of the arbor trees try to dig down, they can't compete with them at all.”
Shane fell silent for a moment before speaking. “Then what do you suggest I do?”
“You're asking me?”
Eileen blinked, putting on an exaggerated expression of surprise. “You're the expert in this area, aren't you?”
Shane frowned. “I've tried every method I could think of, and not a single one succeeded.”
“I'm not talking about that identity.”
Eileen extended a finger and tapped Shane's shoulder. “I'm talking about the other one.”
Shane looked at her, remained silent for a moment, and then hesitantly uttered the word: “Necromancer?”
“Exactly!”
Eileen clapped her hands, her eyes curving into crescents as she smiled.
But Shane's brow furrowed even deeper.
Necromancers did indeed have a technique that could create an area of Desolation.
The essence of that technique was to corrode the traces of life within the earth with death magic, leaving the land barren in a short period of time.
But the problem was that his oasis had been planted for so long. If he used Desolation, it would mean turning this land back into a dead land.
This would be no different from throwing away all his hard work from the past several months.
“You want me to use Desolation?”
“Not exactly.”
Eileen circled around to stand in front of him, then squatted down to pinch a handful of sand. “My point is, you don't need to turn the entire land into Desolation.”
“You only need to suppress the vitality of the pioneer species. You don't have to kill them, just put them into a temporary 'hibernation'.
“Once the roots of the arbor trees have dug down, you can wake the pioneer species back up.”
She stood up. “As a necromancer, you probably can't grasp the exact degree of this, because you can't see the specific changes in the plants' vitality.”
“But as an elf, I can.”
Shane stared at her, his eyes gradually lighting up.
The essence of Desolation was the injection of death magic, while an elf could perceive the changes in the plants' vitality and interrupt it before the Desolation fully formed.
As long as it was halted in time at that critical point, they could precisely control the degree to which the pioneer species' vitality was suppressed.
Furthermore, Desolation was only a low-level technique. Even if it was interrupted midway, it would have almost no impact on the caster.
“You mean you will use your elven perception to observe the plants' state, while I will be responsible for releasing Desolation. Once you find that critical point, you'll interrupt my spellcasting, thereby achieving precise control.”
“Exactly!”
Eileen's eyes sparkled. “Well? Isn't my plan brilliant?”
Shane didn't answer immediately.
He first ran through the entire process quickly in his mind to confirm there were no obvious loopholes before slowly nodding. “We can try it.”
“Great!”
Eileen turned and walked toward the most fertile patch of land by the pool, her steps light and cheerful. “Let's start right now!”
“Wait.”
Shane called out to stop her. Eileen turned around, a puzzled expression on her face. “What is it?”
“We'll do a small-scale experiment first.”
Shane walked over to the pool, stood on a patch of land about two paces square, and drew a circle with the tip of his boot. “We'll test this area first. Once we confirm it works, we'll expand the scope.”
Looking at the tiny circle, Eileen couldn't help but pout. “Aren't you being a bit too cautious? What kind of results can you even see from such a small patch?”
“Trust in an elf needs time to accumulate.”
Shane looked at her, his face devoid of expression. “You've only been at Silver Sand Lake for five days. To be honest, my first impression of you wasn't very good.”
Eileen's cheeks instantly puffed up.
She wanted to argue back, but she opened her mouth only to realize there was truly no way to refute Shane's words.
“Fine, fine, fine.”
She stamped her foot hard. “A small scale it is! Hurry up and cast your spell, I'll keep an eye on things here!”
Rate on N.U.
