Chapter 227: Aestrea Against The World (IV)

Then, Zeva practically dragged Aestrea to the war table, her fingers still lightly laced around his wrist like a cat who refused to let go of her toy.

With one sharp gesture, she scattered a few of the older scrolls off the table and slapped a fresh crystal map in place.

“Alright, serious now,” she said, her playful tone still hanging in her voice, but her eyes sharpened the moment she tapped the center of the map.

A glowing blue circle pulsed near the northern frontier, which was far above Silverleaf’s Academy.

“People from the Elven Kingdom have struck Silverleaf once, but now… they’re about to do it again.”

Aestrea’s eyes instantly sharpened at her words.

“Elves, huh?”

Zeva nodded.

“More precisely, Frozen Elves, one of the five great families in the Elven Kingdom. It seems that the Elven Emperor ordered them to attack Silverleaf.”

“Wait… Ice elves?”

“Yeah. The same ones that hit the northern frontier about six months ago and then disappeared like ghosts. We thought they’d retreated after that failed siege, but…” She pointed toward three flickering red marks that had just appeared on the map.

“They’re back. Multiple units were sighted in the frost valleys. This time, they’re not even hiding.”

’…They attacked the frontier six months ago…? How come I didn’t hear about that attack?’ he frowned slightly.

“…They’re marching in the open?” he asked.

“Blatantly,” Zeva nodded, tapping the table again. “It’s not like them. Ice elves don’t usually expose themselves unless they’ve got an overwhelming advantage.”

She flicked her hand again, and the map zoomed slightly, showing units converging toward a cluster of mountain paths.

“We don’t know what changed. But the weirdest part is… they’re not targeting the empire’s main northern walls. They’re veering east.”

Her finger traced a long glowing line…

In that place, it was obviously Silverleaf.

“And that was actually the reason why I’m here. Because I’m probably the best person to fight against ice users.”

“Mhm…”

Aestrea nodded slighly as he continued staring at the map. Their route was quite strange for him, and they had made too many stops along the way.

“Wait… ice elves?” Aestrea blinked slighly.

“I need to talk with Eira.”

Zeva’s ears perked almost immediately.

“Huh?”

“Ahh…” Aestrea frowned slightly. “I have a girl… friend called Eira, and she’s one of the princesses of the ice elves.”

Zeva’s face twitched at that.

“Of course it’s a princess,” she muttered darkly. “Do you ever talk to normal women, or is it just royal blood and war criminals?”

Aestrea’s mouth twitched.

“What do you mean by war criminals?”

Zeva’s grip on his wrist tightened almost immediately.

“Remember me again… when you were against the Emperor, who was the one that gave you an army to help you with the attack…?”

“Yara, the Underground Queen… she’s not exactly a war crimin—!”

“—She attacked the Emperor!” Zeva instantly interrupted him.

“…and I killed him.” Aestrea simply added with a shrug.

Zeva crossed her arms at his words.

“I know… I was just making a point… besides, we should be focusing on a strategy instead of your relationships!” Her gaze went to the map again.

’You were the one who started talking about relationships…’ Aestrea sighed inwardly.

“…Either way, even if I’m friends with Eira, if the ice elves attack Silverleaf, I’ll stop them even if I have to kill them all,” Aestrea added coldly.

Zeva’s lips curled slightly at his words, her eyes staring intently at his before she gave a tentative lick on her lower lip.

“Not now.”

At his words, Zeva clicked her tongue and leaned on the table, folding her arms, but kept staring at him.

But then, Zeva leaned slightly closer, resting her chin on her knuckles and smirking up at him.

“…So. This Eira. Is she cute?”

Aestrea didn’t answer.

Which was already enough of an answer.

“Ugh. Of course she is,” Zeva grunted, slamming her forehead against the table.

“She’s not the enemy… yet,” Aestrea said calmly.

“No, she’s just another problem with tits,” Zeva mumbled.

“…You kissed me like ten times in under a minute.”

“That’s different. I’m stable.”

“You swung a sword at my head the first time we met.”

“It was a love sword.”

As soon as she uttered those same words, Aestrea stared at her for a few seconds with a practically deadpan face.

“Ahem!”

She cleared her throat and waved off the topic.

“Okay, okay, serious mode again. Look, if you’re thinking of confronting the elves, you’re not going alone.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” he muttered, already flipping through the strategy charts beside her.

’If anything, I’m thinking of directly meeting their emperor…’

“Good. Because if I find out you rushed into some frost kingdom and got stabbed by some blue-haired girl in the snow, I’ll raise your corpse and slap it.”

“You’d have to catch me first.”

“Oh please. I’d just lay down and wait for you to come to me. You’re emotionally drawn to chaos.”

She grinned.

“Ah…” Aestrea sighed deeply, but then he turned around and left the tent, without saying anything, leaving Zeva puzzled.

But she still didn’t follow him.

And when he got out of the giant, he immediately noticed two familiar figures, who were obviously Derek and James.

Derek was leaning lazily against one of the crystal-warded poles, with his arms crossed, trying to look cool while James sat cross-legged beside him, tossing pebbles at a target line drawn in the dirt.

The second they saw Aestrea emerge from the tent, James grinned like a predator sniffing blood.

“Oho~ Look who survived the crazy commander’s lair!” he sang, throwing his arms behind his head.

“Still alive,” Derek noted dryly. “Though she probably licked his neck when we weren’t looking.”

“Bro, no joke,” James said, wiggling his eyebrows. “I heard sounds. I swear I heard something wet in there.”

“Shut it,” Aestrea muttered, walking past them.

But that only made James and Derek exchange a glance and pounce.

In one smooth movement, both twins jumped forward!

“Whooo~ Zeva and Aestrea, sitting in a tree—”

“F-I-G-H-T-I-N-G—!”

Thud!

Crack!

“Agh—!”

“Ack—!”

Aestrea pressed both their heads into the ground with one hand each, firmly grinding their faces into the dirt like annoyed punishment.

“I will freeze both of you solid if you don’t stop.”

“Worth it…” Derek groaned under the pressure.

“Totally worth it… can’t breathe, but worth it.” James wheezed.

Aestrea released them with a sigh, brushing invisible dust from his sleeves.

He walked away from the twin idiots as they groaned and flopped like stunned fish behind him.

Then, after walking for a while, he found a quiet patch of forest behind the outer ward line, where the wind filtered gently through the leaves and only the chirping of distant birds broke the silence.

From his storage, Aestrea pulled out a phone. Then, he searched for the contact “Eira”, and gave it a buzz.

Bzzzzzt…

Bzzzt…

It rang for a while, longer than he expected.

Almost too long.

His fingers tightened around the phone.

And then…

Click.

The screen glimmered, and Eira’s image appeared, a strange soft blue light painting her delicate face. She looked tired, her cyan-colored hair was slightly unkempt, and one could easily see the shadows beneath her eyes.

“…Aestrea?”

He didn’t waste a single second.

“Why are your people attacking the frontier? More precisely… Silverleaf.”

Eira blinked, startled by his directness.

“I… I don’t know,” she answered softly. “I really don’t. I tried to stop it, to the point of speaking with my parents, the rulers of the ice elves.”

He remained quiet, eyes sharp.

“They said they would talk to the Emperor. They even agreed with me… they said there was no reason to provoke the Empire again.”

Eira looked down slightly, her voice turning bitter.

“But I haven’t heard from them since.”

She stopped talking for a moment, taking the opportunity to swallow her saliva.

“I even sent a high-priority communication spell to my mother two hours ago… and there was no reply.”

“…You think they lied?” Aestrea asked.

Eira’s shoulders trembled faintly.

“I don’t want to believe that,” she whispered.

“…But I don’t know anymore.”

Phew~

The wind stirred faintly behind Aestrea, his silver hair rustling slighly as his glowing crimson eyes stared at Eira through the screen.

“I’m giving you a warning…”

His voice turned completely cold, causing Eira to even shake through the screen, her lips shutting tightly.

“If they really decided to somewhere near Silverleaf…” he stopped for a moment, gazing deeply into Eira’s eyes.

“I’ll kill them all.”

Eira’s eyes widened entirely as her shoulders trembled lightly. Aestrea could see that the veins on her arm had popped slightly, meaning that she was probably gripping the phone strongly.

And that was enough for him.

He just wanted to instill fear in her, to make sure that she really would try and stop the attack before he killed an entire army.

And then, he heard a final whisper coming from her:

“…Please don’t kill my people…”

Beep.

He hung up the call.

He had already made his own decision.

And that decision was… to kill whoever came near Silverleaf.

Even if that was the Elven Emperor himself, because now, Aestrea was confident against everyone.

Because now…

Aestrea has plenty lifespan to sacrifice.

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