As the last wisp of green light from the gel teleportation gate flickered out deep within the cave, the Shadow Mountains finally regained their proper silence.
Long after, whispers came from two unknown beings hidden in the shadows of the deep forest, coiling around and repelling each other in the darkness like two entangled snakes.
"These slimes really do have incredible perception. They can lock onto a target from over a hundred miles away, pierce through the interference of the shadow tendrils, and land precisely in that cemetery. It's simply unbelievable."
Another voice sounded. "Morrigan, I still prefer the you from when you were little—the one who couldn't talk. Maybe they haven't gone far yet, but your voice travels clearer than a bat's echo through these shadows right now."
"Oh, my dear sister, your way of scaring people is still exactly the same. But do you think this is just any place? This is the Shadow Mountains—our world."
"Even if Casaric set foot in these mountains, he'd have to bow to the Shadow Dragon's offspring before he could find solid ground."
Morrigan's shadow rippled faintly in the darkness, and he let out a cold laugh. His tone carried the kind of calm that only came from standing on truly familiar territory.
"Since those slimes' spells didn't detect us, it means their perception can't penetrate the cover of deep shadow. Even if only scraps of that divine kingdom fragment remain, they're enough to make any Legendary detection spell useless."
"Enough. I never noticed you were this talkative before." Morgana's voice suddenly turned icy, but a hint of helplessness crept into the end.
"With two of our brothers and sisters being forcibly devoured by Arthus at once, the Shadow Mountains will be in turmoil for a good while. This place is already lively enough—you don't want to end up as Arthus's snack, do you?"
At the mention of the name Arthus, Morrigan's shadow involuntarily shrank.
"A Legendary shadow..."
"How did that bastard even cross that threshold? Are we supposed to keep scurrying around like rats until he swallows us all?"
"My dear sister, put that so-called wisdom of yours to use and come up with a plan." When he said this last part, he bit down extra hard on the word "wisdom," his tone dripping with sarcasm.
Morgana let out a cold laugh. "You're still as stupid as ever."
"Do you think the Slime United Empire and the Ancient Tree Council haven't been keeping an eye on this mountain range's movements? The bigger a scene Arthus stirs up here, the more eyes will turn this way."
"So what if he's a Legendary? Prey caught in the sights of two massive beasts doesn't live to see the end. And besides..."
"Who says we don't have a Legendary of our own on this side?"
Morrigan chuckled. "You mean Lide, that little knight? That silent gourd who barely talks to outsiders?"
He mocked her mercilessly. "Do you really think he can earn the recognition of that old spirit in the ancient castle? Morgana, should I call you naive, or just plain stupid?"
"You and I both know that once Gilmore sets his mind on something, he's more stubborn than the shadows themselves. An ancient hero, one who once rode a massive beast to expand the old Giant Empire's borders all the way here—a Legendary even older than these Shadow Mountains—would never look twice at a little knight who hasn't even solidified his own knightly path."
Morgana fired back without mercy. "So where is Casaric now—that carefully chosen partner of yours from all these years?"
"His judgment and his brains have always been the same thing. Useless for anything except luck. Stop questioning my decisions."
It seemed that her words had struck a raw nerve inside Morrigan. His shadow drifted silently through the forest's gloom for a good while before he finally spoke again, his voice leisurely.
"Morgana, I admit it—I am foolish. But that doesn't make you any more rational."
"Ten years of wandering have made you too human. You've started to develop feelings, even making plans for someone else's future."
"I won't ask what's going on between you and that little knight of yours. But you and I both know our fate."
"No matter whether you devour me in the end, or I devour you, the dragon must ultimately return to its supreme divine kingdom."
Morgana fell into an unusual silence, offering no further response.
---
Winter in the Dryad domain was as peaceful and serene as ever.
After the Valley Campaign, the demon threat had finally been eliminated, and the Empire began a new wave of construction. Numerous towns sprouted up as the population shifted and gathered.
The Dryad domain, however, still retained its lush forest appearance. The only difference from the past was the addition of many gel greenhouses in the clearings. Their roofs were covered in a translucent gel membrane that glowed with a warm, soft green luster under the winter sunlight.
Inside the greenhouses grew newly introduced winter wheat seeds from the Golden Tassel Plain, thriving under the support of constant-temperature magic formations.
Count Bran landed on the roof of one gel greenhouse, his claws sinking into the springy, soft membrane. Every time he hopped, he bounced back up, and then he'd deliberately stomp down again, having a blast.
The snow piled on the roof scattered everywhere as he thrashed around. He shook his head to fling off the snow, then rolled his entire body across the membrane, frolicking in it.
Not far away, on the Dryad square, Chen Yu crouched on Arthur's shoulder pauldron, recounting the tale of their trip to the Shadow Mountains to Viola, who sat on an old tree swing.
Viola sat on the swing, her bare feet dangling just above the snow, gently swaying.
After she finished listening to Chen Yu's story and learned that Eserin had returned to the Emerald Crown, she let out a soft sigh.
"I see."
Count Bran flew over from the greenhouse roof, landed in a snow pile next to the swing, and stared wide-eyed at Viola. "Caw! Green one! One of your subjects gets snatched away by a Legendary elf, and all you have to say is 'I see'? What kind of reaction is that? Might as well not have heard it!"
Viola swayed the swing slowly, her voice calm. "When Eserin proposed going back to the Emerald Crown to visit old friends, I knew this would happen."
"The old friends she wanted to see are no ordinary figures, and they don't necessarily share her loyalties. Something like this was inevitable."
"Elves don't have some magical spell that can track a person's whereabouts across an entire mountain range. Your movements were exposed from the very start."
"Then why did you let Miss Eserin go back?" Arthur stood in the snow, soulfire flickering anxiously in his eye sockets, his voice full of confusion and worry.
Viola spread her two little hands. "Look on the bright side, young man. Maybe this isn't such a bad thing."
"Lothlorien—that name is almost unheard of in the Eastern Continent. But in the Emerald Crown, its weight is far heavier than you can imagine."
"If he took Eserin away without even consulting me first, it means the situation in the Emerald Crown has grown far more serious, to the point where he felt he couldn't discuss it with me through normal channels."
"And the fact that Eserin left word for you to notify me before she left shows she wasn't completely passive about it. She's a child I raised with my own hands—she wouldn't do something meaningless."
Her gaze landed on Chen Yu. "I know His Majesty must have questions. Please, go ahead."
Chen Yu hopped down from Arthur's shoulder and landed on the stone table in the Dryad square. His tiny eyes fixed on Viola as he got straight to the point.
"Eserin's identity isn't simple?"
Viola's eyes gleamed with approval. "As expected of His Majesty—you've grasped the core of the issue immediately."
"Moonlight elves have always been a high-class bloodline among elvenkind, no matter the era. Their status would never be low enough for someone to just take them away. But... Eserin's identity is even more special than that."
"This involves some ancient secrets of the Ancient Tree Council from long ago—not the kind of public records you can just write into official documents and send to embassies across the nations."
Count Bran felt like ants were crawling inside him from curiosity. He hopped from the snow pile onto the stone table and scratched the feathers around his ear with one claw.
"Old fossil, get to the point."
Viola's gaze fell on Count Bran, her expression unreadable as she looked at him with a hint of a smile.
When she stared at him like that, Count Bran suddenly felt a pang of guilt, even though he had no idea what he was guilty about.
He tucked his wings closer to his body and took half a step back. "W-What? I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Little crow, you saw me back in the Shadow Mountains that year, didn't you?" Viola's tone remained unchanged as she leisurely brought up old matters.
"You secretly stole my flowers back then, and I plucked one of your feathers. I suppose that makes us even."
Count Bran immediately hid the wing that had already healed behind his back, staring at her warily.
Viola didn't tease him further. She withdrew her gaze and started swaying the swing again, like an elder sitting by a bonfire, reminiscing about the past.
"Now that His Majesty has become a Legendary, there are some pieces of history I can share with you. No longer do we need to keep them hidden in the shadows for fear of stirring up trouble if they circulate too long."
"In truth, whether it's me or Eserin, our original homeland is neither this swamp forest beneath your feet nor the Shadow Mountains."
"We both come from the Emerald Crown—from that forest guarded by the Sacred Oak for tens of thousands of years."
"The Council was our home there. It was once the most magnificent place I had ever seen in my life, built up bit by bit over thousands of years by channeling holy light from the wilderness."
Chen Yu jiggled his gel in surprise.
So their usually mysterious Dryad lord was truly an old-timer.
He caught the key word. "Something happened after that, and you left the Emerald Crown, wandering all the way to the Eastern Continent?"
Viola swayed her feet, recalling. "That's right. But I wasn't the only one who left the Council back then. The Forest Sage Council, along with most of the elves, all departed at that time."
"In those days, the leaves of silver oak tree after silver oak tree fell earlier than autumn in August. The forest's roots silently twisted into patterns of mourning in the un-sung blackness of the night."
"We never publicly disclosed that incident. In truth, it was nearly a disaster that stripped away the very foundation of the sanctuary. The Ancient Tree Council has never been the same since."
"We wandered the continent for a long time. It hadn't been long since the younger generation took up the burdens of those ancient sages, and most of them have already forgotten me."
"Most of them have long since forgotten why their ancestors left the Emerald Crown in the first place. They gradually integrated into the lives of the local races—escorting goods with human caravans, building observation posts alongside dwarves at the borders... They've become part of this continent."
"Only a handful of old elves still know my name."
"The Sacred Oak Grand Sage—that's what they call me."
Count Bran's eyes went wide after hearing this.
He looked left, then right, then circled around behind the swing, tilting his head to scrutinize her from head to toe.
His tone was full of suspicion.
"Caw! Sacred Oak Grand Sage? You mean that Sacred Oak Grand Sage with the most power in the Ancient Tree Council, that elven sage who presided over the Emerald Sanctuary?"
"You're telling me that a little thing like you is the oldest of the old fossils? Caw-haha! You're an even bigger bluffer than I am! If you're the Sacred Oak Grand Sage, then I'm the Shadow Dragon..."
Viola spread her hands. "It really is hard to believe. But to be honest, I look very different now from when I stood in the Emerald Sanctuary back then."
"The calamity that struck the Council nearly destroyed my entire body. Only a few tiny sprouts followed the surviving elves as we left the Emerald Crown."
"That child, Eserin, also left with me back then. She was still a chubby little one who would toddle over and hug me. Such a pity that she grew distant after growing up—always with that aloof expression, just like her mother."
"The reason her identity is so important within the entire Council system isn't just because of her Moonlight Elf bloodline. It's because she is one of the seven royal descendants still recorded in the Ancient Tree Council's archives as 'status unknown.'"
"Their lineage was completely shattered during the calamity. Most of the records were sealed in the sanctuary's secret chamber. After several purges by the council of elders, very few elves remain who know about this."
"But the few old-timers who still remember the royal genealogy are well aware that she is alive. They know that she represents a Moonlight royal line that, in theory, still bears some ancient inheritance rights to the Emerald Crown."
"Lothlorien is one of the very few elves who knows her identity. The status of a royal descendant is very special—perhaps tied to the very survival of the Ancient Tree Council. That's why he took Eserin away while she was returning to the Shadow Mountains."
"Wait, let me process this." The sheer volume of information made Chen Yu feel dizzy.
So the Dryad lord who had been lazing around in his empire all this time was actually the former Sacred Oak Grand Sage of the Ancient Tree Council?
That cold-looking but gentle-hearted elven girl in the Dryad domain was actually an elven royal?
Even the members of the Forest Sage Council were descendants of those ancient elves who had left?
Didn't this mean that, according to the Ancient Tree Council's own succession laws and bloodline genealogy, the true orthodox elven power was actually in the Slime United Empire?
So, they were the real elven faction.
He thought he finally understood why the Ancient Tree Council was so wary of the Slime United Empire.
---