The Elf Queen—Lola

Passing through layers of dense forest, Vina led Serea and Celia deeper into the Corrupted Jungle.

Here, a river split the thickets in two, and on the other side, some buildings made of plants could be vaguely seen. These strange structures were built suspended in mid-air, supported by three towering trees.

Seeing those unusual buildings, Serea felt somewhat curious. Accompanied by the elves, she crossed a suspension bridge to reach the other side and entered this mysterious village surrounded by the forest.

Just as she entered the village, Serea saw a few elf girls gathering berries in a bush. At the same time, those elves also spotted her.

At the first glance, the three girls cried out in alarm.

“Human!”

After shouting, they immediately hid behind the bushes. The girls seemed to be very afraid of Serea.

“There’s no need to be afraid, it’s us.”

Vina stepped forward, and upon hearing her voice, one of the elf girls slowly poked her head out from the bushes. When she saw that it was Vina, the fear on her face faded, replaced by excitement as she greeted her.

“It’s Commander Vina!”

The girl stepped out, and the other two elf girls, realizing that it was Vina, also came out from behind the bushes.

“Commander Vina, did you catch those bad people?”

“Mm, I’ve already caught the human. Go notify the Queen at once, tell her I’ll bring the human over immediately.”

“Yes, we’ll go right away.”

Hearing that the bad people had been caught, the three elf girls skipped merrily toward the village to deliver this good news to their Queen.

Standing at the side, Serea listened to their conversation. It seemed that the so-called Queen was the leader of this ‘village.’ But why were they so hostile toward humans?

Serea couldn’t understand, and as she was lost in her thoughts, Vina urged her from behind.

“What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!”

“All right, all right.”

Serea didn’t choose to resist. She followed Vina’s instructions and walked toward the village, secretly observing the elves’ architecture as she went.

After seeing some unusual stone buildings, Serea became certain that with their building skills, helping her construct her Blood Well wouldn’t be a difficult matter.

With this thought, Serea continued to observe the architecture of the elves.

Under the pointing fingers and stares of the elves, Serea and Celia were brought before the ‘Queen’.

It was a huge wooden house, suspended high in the air, but thanks to vine-made stairways, ascending and descending was not particularly difficult.

Upon entering, the three elf girls from before were already inside.

The so-called ‘Queen’ now sat on a wooden vine chair, surrounded by the three elf girls. Vina then brought Serea and Celia before the Queen.

With waist-length emerald green hair, light blue gemstone-like eyes, combined with the unique beauty and temperament of the elves, the Queen sat not far from Serea, dressed in a white long dress and wearing a crown woven from vines.

“Queen, I found the accomplices of those humans in the forest. They must know where our people have been taken.”

Vina bowed deeply and respectfully. She seemed very deferential to the girl in front of her, who looked no more than fourteen or fifteen years old.

Meanwhile, Serea scrutinized the elf girl addressed as Queen… no, to be more precise, the loli.

She didn’t know her exact age, but judging by appearances alone, the elf dignifiedly addressed as “Queen” by Vina certainly fit that category.

Character: Lola Darkmoon (Elf Royalty, junior Elf Priest, Legendary)

Level: 25

Status: Good

Spirit: A

Strength: C

Agility: C

Endurance: C

Constitution: B

Charisma: S+

Luck: A

Skills: Revitalize (Tier 1), Nature’s Protection (Tier 2), Wind Rush (Tier 1), Treant Summon (Tier 2), Healing Rain (Tier 3)

Description: Possesses the diluted bloodline of the highest elves—Blood Elf Royalty. Any lesser elf would willingly submit to her.

“The highest elf? Blood elf?”

Serea repeated these two unfamiliar terms in her mind, and, sensing her confusion, the System jumped out to provide an answer.

System: Blood elves, as vassals of the Vampire Queen, rank alongside Moon Elves, Light Elves, and Dark Elves as the four highest-ranking elf races. All modern elf tribes are descended from them. However, to this day, only the Dark Elves remain; the Blood Elves have been wiped out, and the Moon and Light Elves merged to become today’s High Elves.

“So that’s how it is.”

Now understanding the relationship, Serea also noticed the phrase ‘Vampire Queen’. It just so happened that Lola was a blood elf descendant, and it all seemed a bit too coincidental…

As she pondered the connection, Serea suddenly realized that Lola was now sizing her up.

“Queen, how should we deal with them?”

At that moment, Vina spoke up again, her eyes full of anger as she looked at Serea and Celia.

By comparison, lola remained relatively rational. She first questioned Serea.

“Human, what is your purpose here?”

“Our purpose… We’re adventurers, and the Corrupted Jungle has a lot of monsters. Of course, we came here to hunt monsters.”

Serea didn’t lie; she really had come to hunt monsters. It was just that, unlike adventurers from this world who hunted monsters to fulfill commissions, she hunted them for materials.

“Nonsense! The Corrupted Jungle has always been a forbidden land for humans—few ever dare even to linger at the forest’s edge. You must have some other motive!”

“Uh… We truly came to hunt monsters.”

Serea stuck to the same explanation. Hearing this, lola focused her gaze on her, and Serea met her stare without any hint of guilt.

After a dozen seconds of silence, lola spoke.

“They are not lying.”

When she said this, Serea felt a bit strange. Could she really be so sure that she wasn’t lying?

“Queen, of late our tribe has been continually harassed by humans. We have already lost more than ten people. Humanity’s hypocrisy is not to be trusted.”

Vina pleaded, but Lola shook her head and turned her gaze toward Celia.

“Not all humans are deceitful or hypocritical. I believe that any paladin favored by the Holy Light would never lie to us.”

As Lola spoke, Vina now stared at Celia.

“Paladin! You serve the Church?”

At Vina’s guess, Celia corrected her.

“No, the Church of Light.”

Celia, expressionless as usual, spoke without a trace of emotion. However, upon hearing the words “Church of Light”, Vina immediately felt an invisible pressure.

As the situation suddenly shifted, Serea turned to glance at Celia—she never expected the Church of Light’s name to wield such power.

(To be continued…)

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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