Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 211 Secret
"Let's make a decision on this matter after we solve the current problem."

Ash rubbed his brow.

Currently, the Whispering Wind Tribe and the North are in a balanced trading relationship. A magic crystal mine will not cause Florina to turn against them. If the stakes are raised, it is hard to say what the future will be like for the Whispering Wind Tribe, which has suffered heavy losses.

At this time, you need to find an extra ally to share the risk.

In Ashe's opinion, this Lord of Highcliff Hold is a very suitable candidate. He is very powerful, but not much stronger than the Whisperwind Tribe, and he is not in a subordinate relationship with Florina.

"We understand."

Several elven elders nodded, then discussed some details before leaving.

……

Florina left earlier than expected.

The next morning, nearly ten thousand soldiers of the Thorn Legion had formed a long line on the open ground, and countless carriages gathered behind the team.

Cement-gray clouds covered the entire sky as far as the eye could see, as if they were within reach. There was no snow today, but the wind was howling, breaking down the dead grass and rotten wood on the ground, and then hitting everyone equally.

"Sir, we are leaving now."

Looking at Sikai who was about to go back with the horse, Levi was still a little reluctant. He walked up to her and shook her hand, bumping his chest against hers: "Have a safe trip."

"Hiss!" Feeling the pain in his chest, Sikai couldn't help but grin, "Sir, I want to ask you a question."

"explain."

"I was drunk last night and didn't say anything, right?" Sikai looked at the lord expectantly.

"You're talking about this." Levi smiled mysteriously, "If you were peeping at a maid taking a bath and you once admired her..."

"Stop, stop, stop." Sikai was so scared that she saw a beautiful figure on the other side, and quickly pulled Levi to a corner: "Sir, can you promise me one thing? Please don't tell these things to others."

He looked pleading.

"Lao Si, I didn't expect you had so many romantic pasts." Li Wei smiled.

"These are all things that happened when I was young. Back then, I would easily do stupid things when my brain got hot-headed." He smiled bitterly.

Levi shook his head. He hated people who kept digging into other people's dark history. He leaned close to Sikai's ear and whispered "comfort".

"Sorry, Lao Si, I'll have to deal with this for the rest of my life."

It was like the devil's whisper lingering in Skye's ears.

"Hahaha."

After saying this, the lord laughed loudly, turned around and left, leaving Sikai standing there frozen.

In fact, drunk Sikai told all of this last night, and even the elf maids who served the dishes heard it all.

Only he himself was still kept in the dark, thinking that even if he told it, only the lord who was closest to him would hear it.

However, Levi did not say this matter out loud. As long as Sikai thought that he was the only one who knew these things, wouldn't it be easy to control him?
"Sir, we are ready to leave."

Maisha, the ice and snow priestess girl, found the lord and said goodbye reluctantly.

Originally Levi thought that it was a foregone conclusion that this priestess girl would join High Cliff Castle, but reality proved one thing, that is, never believe in your own illusions.

Especially the three major illusions in life: my phone is vibrating, I can fight back, and she likes me.

Even though he felt a pain in his heart that his daughter, whom he had raised with great difficulty, had been kidnapped by a little yellow-haired boy, the lord still had to pretend to be magnanimous: "Be careful on your journey. If you have time, you can come to High Cliff Castle to play. The gate of High Cliff Castle is always open to you."

Maisha looked at the handsome young man in front of her with a smile as warm as the spring breeze, and finally plucked up the courage to give him a hug.

"I will."

Looking at Maisha leaving for the ice and snow priest team, Levi shook his head. Fortunately, he captured several drow priests this time, so even if Maisha was unable to join High Cliff Castle in the end, he was not very disappointed.

He looked at Panda beside him.

"Sir, please don't ask those questions. I have no intention of joining High Cliff Castle at the moment." Panda waved his hands quickly, very honestly.

"Damn, do you think you're so popular? My Lord, I begged you to join me?" Levi couldn't help but laugh and curse, then punched him: "The next time we meet will probably be next year, and by then I'll have to see if your martial arts have improved."

"Please spare me. Whoever dares to compete with you in martial arts will just be asking for a beating." Panda shook his head like a rattle and quickly took emergency shelter.

It is true that it is warlike, but it definitely does not like being beaten.

Judging from Lord Li's recent battle record, if he really sparred with him in martial arts, he would definitely be beaten to the point of having no temper at all.

Gus, who was standing by, silently covered his panda eyes and walked to the corner.

This morning, it believed the words of the green-skinned orc and had a wrestling match with the Lord of Highcliff Castle who was doing morning exercises. As a result, it was pinned to the ground and rubbed unilaterally. It also completely realized that its own bravery compared to that of this human was like a stream to the sea, there was no comparison at all.

After saying goodbye to the few people he knew one by one, Levi put his hands in his pockets and returned to the base assigned to Gaoya Fort.

He could understand why Florina left so quickly.

After all, there are nearly tens of thousands of people here, and the amount of food and clothing is astronomical. The longer the time goes, the greater the loss. In addition, she will go south next year, so she has to go back to prepare many things.

So now that things have been resolved, there is no need to stay here, and naturally the sooner we go back the better.

However, Levi was not so anxious. There were only a few of them, and even if they were delayed for a few days, they would not consume much supplies. In addition, Gaoya Castle was in the wilderness, only six or seven days away from here, so he simply waited for everyone in Gaoya Castle to rest before going back.

When Ashe found Levi, the latter was playing a card game with a few people in the tree house.

The hobgoblin Leighton had a smile on his face, while Mir and the lord had pieces of paper all over their faces.

Zat sat next to the two of them and watched all this, his face full of gloating, and he was almost about to say, "Boss, this day will come too."

Levi looked depressed. When he first started teaching Leighton how to play cards, this guy was terrible. But after just two games, he instantly became proficient. The key is that he even learned his cheating skills.

This resulted in him being trapped in his own trap, and he was beaten so badly by the opponent that he almost lost all his pants.

After taking a look at the last two threes in my hand, there is no doubt that I will lose this game.

At this moment, Ashe came into view, and the Lord immediately put the cards on the table and said, "No more playing, no more playing. Business is more important."

This made Mir, who had finally won, look resentful.

"Is there anything wrong, Queen Ashe?" Levi asked casually.

"I have something to discuss with you." Ashe smiled, "Just call me Ashe."

Levi just wanted to avoid the card game, but he didn't expect that something really happened. He asked curiously, "What's the matter?"

"It's about the distribution of spoils and the trivia of thanks." Ashe lied without hesitation and there was nothing wrong with it.

This matter is of great importance to the Whisperwind Tribe, and the fewer people who know about it, the better, so the Lord of Highcliff Castle is the only person they designated to share it with.

Levi thought it was something really important, so he stood up, patted his butt, and before leaving, he told the people who were playing cards to handle the matter.

After all, the boss has started to get busy, and his subordinates certainly can't be idle.

There is a palace standing in the middle of the Whispering Wind Tribe. Generally speaking, the elves’ meetings are held in the center of the hall, but Levi discovered that their destination was not here, but to continue walking inside.

"Aren't we discussing this in the hall?" he asked puzzledly.

Could it be that the elf queen had taken a fancy to him? Was she planning to find a place where no one was around to express her feelings?
"They are waiting for us out front." Ashe said concisely.

"Levi, do you know the Tree of Life of the elves?" Ashe suddenly asked on the way.

"Ah, the tree of origin of all life, the center of the world, the garden of God..." As soon as he opened his mouth, Levi couldn't help but chant this widely circulated poem in a poetic tone.

His tone was long and full of epic meaning.

But in this era of elves' decline, it seems a bit ironic.

After he finished chanting, he realized something was wrong. The Tree of Life had a higher status in the hearts of these elves than God. He didn't want to create a rift with them just because of a poem.

But it turned out that he was overthinking it.

The Elf Queen didn't look like a devout believer in the Tree of Life at all, and she didn't show any sign of being angry.

"What you said was about the beginning. After that, the Tree of Life turned into the sun and the moon for some reason, leaving only two seeds. Our ancestors planted them and obtained the Sun Tree and the Laurel Tree. They are known as the Twin Holy Trees, representing the rise and fall of the elves."

"But ever since the magic power receded like the tide, the gods have gone into hiding, and the Twin Sacred Trees have begun to wither. No matter what my ancestors did, they could not stop it from dissipating."

"The elves have lost the sacred tree forever, or rather, the mother tree has abandoned its people."

Ashe was walking in front. Levi couldn't see her expression at the moment, but he could hear the helplessness and sadness in it.

"Wait." Levi rubbed his temple. No matter how carefree he was, he realized something was wrong. "Are you going to tell me a secret next?"

He felt a little headache, secrets often mean trouble.

And it looks like it's not small. After all, it's obvious that these elves are deliberately hiding things from Florina.

"Not telling, but seeing it with my own eyes." Ashe quickened her pace, her golden boots making a clattering sound on the floor, leaving only two long, white and slender legs.

When you walk into the depths of the palace and come out from a round arch, the view suddenly becomes clear.

In front of him was an extremely spacious cave connected to the palace. The stone walls and the ground inside were filled with a kind of fluorescent plants, which illuminated the entire cave as bright as day.

There is a tunnel in the center that goes down continuously, like a huge mouth of the abyss that swallows people in its quest.

"Isn't this the place where you discovered the magic crystal mine?" Levi pointed to various manuscripts and tools scattered on the ground not far away.

"That's right, there is magic crystal ore under this pit." Ashe nodded without hiding anything.

"Because of one thing, all the tribesmen who were mining were called out, so now there is no one here except us."

Levi nodded.

"Good day, Lord Levi." Several elves who were obviously not young had been waiting nearby for a long time.

They were dressed in exquisite elven clothing and had daggers hanging from their waists as pendants, but the most eye-catching thing was the huge round stone hanging around their necks.

It feels quite incongruous to see modern people hanging a string of animal teeth around their necks.

"Good day, elders."

Levi looked at them curiously. One of them was holding a stone ball exactly the same as the ones on their necks. It seemed as if it was prepared for him.

"Levi, since you know that we have magic crystal mines, you should also be aware of the dangers of magic crystal mines."

"This specially made stone ball is a magical item that can resist the harm caused by magic crystal ore."

Ashe took a fist-sized stone ball with a red string in the middle.
Levi was not arrogant and just stretched his head over. Ashe took the initiative to put it around his neck.

"Tell me, why did you ask me to come here?"

Putting on the stone ball, Levi asked directly.

If these elves couldn't give him a satisfactory answer, he would never follow them underground.

Who knew what was hidden down there? Or were these elves trying to kill him, the Lord of Highcliff Castle?

"This is related to one thing. As time went by, the mine became deeper and darker. When we continued to dig for magic crystal ore, suddenly, a crack appeared in the wall that was big enough for two people to enter and exit."

"Whether it was to eliminate danger or something else, we sent people in to investigate, but the result we got was beyond our expectation. For the elves, it is definitely the most precious treasure, and no amount of gold or silver can measure it."

It can be seen that Ashe is trying her best to maintain the composure of a king, but her excitement is still hard to hide on her face.

She was not the only one there. Except for the Lord, everyone present was trembling with excitement.

Levi really couldn't figure out what could make these elves who owned the magic crystal mine so excited.

After all, the value of magic crystal ore is not much less than that of gold mine.

Just from the fact that all these elven warriors are wearing sophisticated plate armor, you can tell that they have made a fortune from this magic crystal mine.

"What the hell is that?"

"It's hard to explain right now, so you should just come with us and see it."

Heather took the initiative and led the way to the edge of the pit.

The pit was much safer than Levi thought. It was not bottomless at first glance.

On the contrary, this is just a tunnel leading underground, with unknown crystals on both sides emitting white light, illuminating the dark tunnel.

"In fact, this tunnel has existed for a long time, and we discovered the magic crystal mine after that." Ashe explained and walked deeper.

The lord was also a skilled and bold man. Seeing that Ashe, the Elf Queen, took the initiative to walk inside, he walked side by side without being left behind.

Several elf elders followed behind the two men.

This tunnel is wider than expected, and can accommodate two people walking side by side. The height is also about two feet, which is just enough for Levi to avoid bending over uncomfortably.

The team moved forward silently. Levi didn't know how long it would take. He only knew that the walls around them began to bulge, filled with traces of various iron pickaxes, and there were thick wooden stakes used to consolidate the passage.

(End of this chapter)