The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

After winter set in, the elves of the Ancient Forest, led by their queen, Avilia, completed a ceremony to worship the god of nature.

Although most elves are unaffected by the cold winter temperatures, they follow their faith and activate an energy-saving mode during winter because winter is the season when the god of nature rests, according to legend.

"It seems like war is about to break out on the human side again."

After the ritual concluded, the Elf Queen and the elders began their seasonal meeting, and the topic of this meeting was, without a doubt, the elves' neighbor of the past millennia.

“The ancient forest rests with the god of nature in winter. I think we can send more forest rangers to the border to monitor human activities.”

Upon hearing the elven elder's words, the other elders, who also sported long beards, nodded in agreement.

Humanity does this every few centuries anyway, and the elders are used to it.

But this meeting was a little different. Princess Tia of the elves, although from a human perspective it might be several hundred years before she could take over her mother's responsibilities, was already able to participate in politics.

This time, Tia brought some very young elves to participate in the meeting.

"They're just humans. Why should we keep defending our borders? I think we could send some elves among the humans, not only to gather intelligence, but also to prepare for the future."

Tia's words immediately won the approval of the young elves present. The elves had been secluded for too long. Although the legend of the Gorg Empire still circulated on the continent, the number of elves traveling abroad was far too small.

The young elves yearn to see the outside world.

I had expected my suggestion to be met with opposition from a group of old-fashioned pedants, just like in the knightly novels I had secretly read. But to my surprise, the elven elders all smiled knowingly.

“Avilia, this girl looks exactly like you when you were young.”

The Elf Queen's crystalline face immediately flushed red, and she interrupted, "Elder, this is irrelevant to the agenda of this meeting."

"How can it be unrelated? Back then, you were also clamoring to go to the Rom Empire, saying that the Rom Empire was nothing special, and you were almost kidnapped by their prince. It was His Majesty Elvis who dragged you back by the ear."

The elders started chatting about gossip from a thousand years ago, turning the meeting room into Old Deng's Tavern.

The young elves were all shocked as they listened to Her Majesty the Queen's gossip, and Tia stared at her mother in utter astonishment.

Avelia sighed and tapped the ground with her scepter, which finally quieted the elven elders down.

"So, what are the elders' opinions on Tia's proposal?"

As soon as Avelia finished speaking, an elder took out a small piece of paper and read it aloud: "I believe that contact with humans can not only improve our magical level, but also help us to know ourselves and our enemies, so that we can win every battle. In order to better deal with the threat brought by the expansion of the human empire in the future, I propose that the elven princess be sent to the Royal Academy of the Rom Empire as an exchange student for further study."

While the young elves were still wondering why elves would learn magic from humans, Avilia already recognized that this was an idea she had put forward a thousand years ago.

boom!boom!

Two loud knocks interrupted the elven elder's reading of the note.

"Almost got it."

"Avilia warned."

Seeing the shame and indignation on Avilia's face, the elders put aside their thoughts and replied seriously, "Your Highness's suggestion is not without reason. Things are different now than they were a thousand years ago. Humanity has once again reached a critical juncture that will determine their fate."

"In order to maintain our historical relationship with humanity, I think we should indeed engage with the various forces of humanity today."

Finally recovering from her mother's embarrassing past, Tia spoke up and asked, "Why maintain the previous relationship with humans? I think our Gog Empire, as the only empire on the continent, could definitely take it a step further!"

The elders all shook their heads. The elder who had held the small note earlier stepped forward and asked, "Your Highness, do you know how many races and countries there were on the continent in the past?"

The elder closed his eyes and said, as if recalling a dream, "Sand demons, kobolds, snake-bodied monsters, lizardmen, scaled insects, primitive beastmen..."

Another elder also took out a thick book, opened the table of contents, and said along with the previous elder: "Atheron, Ferrel, Tyroth, the Kingdom of the Mountains, Sauron, Ginghis."

"What are these?"

Tia was somewhat confused.

"These are all races and nations that have been wiped out by humans throughout elven history."

"Avilia explained."

“Thousands of years ago, humans collectively referred to us as ‘subhumans.’ In the eyes of humans at that time, we were just a subspecies of humans. But because we were subhumans and very similar to humans, humans have always maintained a friendly attitude towards the subhuman race.”

"As for races that are unfriendly to humans..."

Avilia glanced at the thick book in the elven elder's hand.

"There's nothing we can do about their unfriendly attitude."

The oldest elven elder said, "Back when the continent was in chaos, human envoys loved to point their fingers at the king and curse him. If the king was angry and executed the human envoy, the human army would immediately arrive on horseback."

"Isn't this just being a rogue?" Tia and the young elves complained as they listened to these ancient secrets.

"Where do you think humanity acquired such a vast and rich territory?"

"If it weren't for humanity creating a shackle called morality, there probably wouldn't be many races left on the continent by now."

Finally, Avilia concluded the topic by saying, "Humans have poor memories. After all, they are not immortal beings. Things from the previous generation may be forgotten by the next generation after a hundred or two hundred years. But humans also have excellent memories. On the continent, humans were the first race to begin recording history. Human poetry even records events from tens of millions of years ago."

"So we will continue to keep our distance from humans, but we must gain a deep understanding of them. I think Tia's suggestion is feasible, and we should indeed send more elves to human kingdoms."

The elders nodded in agreement, which was considered as their approval of Avilia's proposal. Some elders even began to draft the charter on the spot.

Tia watched in bewilderment as her proposal was approved. The young elves exchanged bewildered glances, yet were also somewhat excited, discussing which human country they should go to after leaving the Ancient Forest.

After the meeting, an elven elder came to Tia and asked her which human country she wanted to go to.

"It's probably Anjou. I heard it's the most powerful kingdom in human history now."

"Yes, Anru is doing well. The new ruler there is ambitious and enterprising, much better than the stagnant Cape Kingdom."

As the elven elder spoke, he "accidentally" dropped a letter from his sleeve in front of Tia, then left as if he hadn't seen it.

Tia found it strange and called out to the elder several times while holding the letter. The elder pretended to be too old to hear her, but when Tia saw the name on the envelope, she immediately hid the letter in her bosom.

This is a love letter written by the fourth prince, Roel, to the elven princess, Avelia, during the old human empire era.