The green letter was reduced to a ball of green fire, and the gusts of wind around Josh subsided—as did the twisted expression on his face. He adopted his normal warm demeanor as he plucked one of the white sheets of paper out of mid-air. All of the other sheets of paper suddenly thudded to the ground as if they had increased exponentially in weight.
Schubert's dead, so Irina must know some things already. She must be suspecting me already, and that would land a vital blow on our relationship. I have to find Alex and that little brat before her, and kill them to kill off any hope in her heart. When that time times... Irina, I'm going to make you willingly marry me. Josh stood in front of his desk and began to write a letter.
"Dear Irina..."
After half an hour, Josh waved his hand through the air to dry the ink on the sheet of paper on the desk. He then carefully read through the letter to ensure that the wording and expression were perfect before tucking it into an envelope.
If you want to find out information about them, then I'll tell you that they're still alive. In that case, you won't be so eager to exact your revenge. Come to think of it, I really regret not doing a thorough job back then. Josh sealed the envelope with a cold expression on his face.
He snapped his fingers, and the door to his study opened as his butler walked in with a bamboo tube in his hands.
"Is that news from Seuss?" Josh looked at the bamboo tube in the butler's hands with a hint of surprise on his face.
"Yes, Your Highness. This letter has just arrived," the butler replied respectfully.
"Let me see it." Josh took the bamboo tube with a calm expression. At the same time, he handed the envelope in his hand over to the butler, and said, "Send this letter to the princess in the Wind Forest as quickly as possible."
"Yes." The butler accepted the letter with both hands before quickly exiting the study.
Josh opened the bamboo tube and extricated the letter within. He looked at it for a while before murmuring to himself, "Seuss has already been in Chaos City for over 10 days, but he hasn't found anything related to Alex. Could it be that my judgment was incorrect? Maybe they're not in Chaos City, but hiding in a secluded location instead?"
Josh fell into deep thought before writing two more letters. One of them was placed in a bamboo tube, while the other was tucked into an envelope. He opened the door, only to find that the butler was still standing respectfully beside the entrance.
"Send this letter to Seuss, and this one to Helena." Josh handed over the two letters to the butler as he said, "Also, next time an elf from the Wind Forest appears in Rodu, make sure to keep a good eye on them. As soon as they exhibit any abnormal behavior, capture them at once and put them through strict interrogation. I'd rather kill innocents than let any spies get away."
"Yes." The butler nodded respectfully before rushing away again.
"Alex, you're just as mysterious as ever. I'm not going to let you get away this time, though," Josh murmured to himself.
"Mistress, are we just going to ignore the fact that Irina killed Master Schubert? Her Majesty is far too lenient with her, and only locked her in detention for a year. That's surely going to be a dissatisfactory verdict for the other major families." In a cave with a ceiling akin to a starry night sky, Hetty was appraising Helena with an indignant expression.
"What do you propose, then?" Helena asked.
"I think we should join forces with all of the major families to exert pressure on Her Majesty. We have to make her revoke Irina's status as the elven princess and cut off her connection with the tree of life, then banish her from the Wind Forest," Hetty suggested through gritted teeth.
"Banish her from the Wind Forest?" Helena looked at Hetty with a mocking expression as she said, "Are you not aware that Irina's power is second only to Her Majesty in the elven race? Even I may not be able to defeat her when she draws upon the power of the tree of life. Her Majesty will inevitably return to the Sea of Stars. When that time comes, Princess Irina will be the most powerful guardian of our race, yet you want to banish her?"
"But... she's completely uncouth and untameable. If we support someone else to become the princess, they'll become Her Majesty's heir. When Her Majesty returns to the Sea of Stars, the entire elven race would be under your control." Hetty looked at Helena with an urgent expression.
"Why would I want to control the elven race? I want our elven race to become more powerful. I want to completely wash away the humiliation we suffered during the war among species, and make the entire continent tremble in fear in the face of our elven army." Helena looked at Hetty with a cold expression as she said, "You can die, but Irina can't. We can't allow her reputation to be tarnished, either, as she has to be the main guardian of our elven race.
"Also, how do you know that Her Majesty will return to the Sea of Stars before I do? I watched Her Majesty grow up, so I should be the one to return to the Sea of Stars before her." Helena's expression grew calmer, but her eyes glowed with a fervent light as she said, "Power is pointless to me. All I want is to see the elven race stand at the pinnacle of the Norland Continent; that is my final wish. To achieve that objective, I'm willing to do anything."
The stars in the night sky overhead suddenly began to emanate brilliant light as if they were burning. A vast expanse of scintillating light fell on Helena, draping a veil of light over her body.
Hetty looked up at Helena with tears shimmering in her reverent eyes.
"How many of our brethren returned this month?" Helena withdrew her gaze and the starlight receded.
"There was a total of 204 elven brethren who have returned, 36 of which returned voluntarily, while the others were all sent back. Most of them aren't very powerful; there are only 20 elves at or above the 4th-tier, and all of them have been conscripted into the guardian squad and the major families," Hetty replied.
"That's nowhere near enough." Helena's brows furrowed as she said, "Increase the wages for those capturing high-tier elves. What we want are brethren who can directly contribute to the power of the guardian squad, not manual laborers. Tell those stupid demons that if they continue to placate us like this, we'll cease our cooperation with them."
"Yes." Hetty nodded before hurrying out the cave.
"We have to speed up this process. The old king in Rodu won't live for much longer. As soon as Josh takes the throne, the united human and elven army will sweep through the entire continent..." Helena murmured to herself.