Do you have a problem with necromancers?

Chapter 84 We'll Always Be Your Family (6k)

If the Gem Islands are likened to the crown of the High Elves, then the Diamond Isles are the most dazzling gem in that crown.

Looking out from the palace corridors, one can see the endless municipal gardens outside the city. The marble pavilions, meticulously carved by artisans, are surrounded by a variety of vibrant tropical flowers.

Noble ladies in fitted long dresses chatted and laughed with gentlemen who were accompanied by canes, occasionally unfolding folding fans to cover their teeth when they smiled.

Ancient races that can remain closed off from the world for years certainly have the wealth and resources to do so.

The ancient Elven Empire was overthrown by numerous slave uprisings by humans, leading to its complete collapse. When it retreated to the Gem Islands, it took away a vast amount of wealth. It is said that the fleet made three round trips but still couldn't transport it all. In the end, it had no choice but to leave the remainder at the mouth of the Fertile Lands—where human gold prospectors go every year in search of treasure.

An extremely wealthy and powerful force skilled in magic, yet due to its isolationist policy of closing its borders, allowed the White Walkers to multiply and spread unchecked across the continent, which was not a good thing for the entire world.

However, the extremely long lifespan of the High Elves inevitably led the nation into a state of stagnation and stagnation. The older they got, the more conservative and complacent they became, preferring only pleasure and avoiding any unnecessary struggles—a situation that applies to any race.

Changing a country that has been closed off from the world for hundreds of years would be no easier than usurping the entire human empire.

The fact that the High Elf royal family wanted to see him because of Ellina was certainly a good thing, but Renn had no intention of rushing things or taking any risks.

For example, assassinating the High Elf king and then resurrecting him to seize control of the government... This old king is not a dictatorial and authoritarian emperor. What if the kingdom's strength is not consolidated, the plot is exposed, and the hero kills him as the final boss?

The most important thing right now is to figure out why these guys are interested in Ellina.

Especially when Fernando first met her, the way he called her "Auntie" left Rennes completely baffled.

What, are you Yang Guo? You've mistaken Xiaolongnu for someone else!
The language of the High Elves is quite similar to that of the Imperials, both evolving from the ancient Elvish language of the ancestral Elvish Empire. The word "aunt" specifically refers to the father's sister, leading Renn to suspect that the other party had likely mistaken Ellina for a female elder relative.

It sounds far-fetched at first, but upon closer inspection, it is not impossible. High Elves generally have brown hair and yellow eyes, while the royal family has always had white hair and golden eyes. This gene is extremely stubborn, just like the baldness gene of the British royal family in the Earth plane. It is a super dominant gene among dominant genes, which is stably inherited and will never mutate.

When the other party saw that Ellina also had white hair and golden eyes, their first reaction was that she must be from royalty... and this guess was indeed correct.

Renn turned his head to look at Ellina.

Ellina met his gaze, a question mark seemingly slowly appearing in her eyes, but she quickly guessed what he was thinking.

"The royal family must have mistaken me for one of their long-lost members," she said calmly.

“There is no misidentification,” Ryan corrected her. “You are indeed a member of the royal family who has been separated from you.”

“You know what I mean,” Ellina said, emphasizing each word. “They mistook me for a certain living member of the royal family.”

“So we need to find out who that person is as soon as possible,” Ryan said casually, “so your disguise doesn’t fall apart.”

“No need,” Ellina said coldly. “I won’t pretend. If they ask, I will tell them the truth.”

"What does that mean?" Renn asked with a surprised expression. "You mean you're Ellina from the Ancestral Elf Empire? Do you think they'll think you're a fool?"

Ellina had to admit this to herself, but she didn't intend to say it aloud.

Ryan didn't continue chatting with her, because they both sensed someone approaching from the other side of the corridor.

He is Burkitt Delacroix, the Inkmaster of the High Elf court.

"Gentlemen," the other party said gently, "His Majesty the King has summoned you. Please observe the proper etiquette before the King."

“Let’s go,” Renn said.

The two walked towards the Summer Hall. Burkitt followed behind, remaining silent and observing from the shadows.

Judging from her posture and demeanor, this "Lady Ellina" is undoubtedly of high elven royal lineage. Furthermore, her habitual half-body lag behind her husband suggests that, subconsciously, she prioritizes him.

It's quite interesting, because Princess Eileen used to be a very opinionated and strong-willed person. It's hard to imagine that she would actually make her husband her pillar of support after marriage.

His Majesty the King will probably be heartbroken when he sees this.

The Imperial Inkkeeper Burkitt's guess was correct. When King Bolzak saw Ellina walk into the Summer Hall, he almost blurted out a longing "Ellin."

Then, seeing Ryan walking half a body length ahead of her, her expression immediately darkened uncontrollably.

"Your Majesty," Raine performed a simple courtly greeting.

"Are you Raine Fahel?" the High Elf king asked.

"Exactly."

"And you, Lady Rain?" The King looked at Ellina again. "What are your first and last names?"

"Elrina Francesca".

After a moment of silence in the hall, King Bolzak's deep voice rang out:
"There are no outsiders here. Eileen, are you still going to insist on using this pseudonym in front of me?"

“I think you must have mistaken me for someone else,” Ellina said coldly. “I am Ellina, not Irene.”

Raine frowned almost imperceptibly beside him.

"In history, after that heroic princess, there has never been another High Elf named 'Ellina'," the king said sorrowfully. "Do you use this as a pseudonym to suggest that you have completely severed ties with the past and are a ghost without family or relatives?"

Raine almost showed an incredibly strange expression: Good imagination! You've really imagined it! And you actually guessed right about that last sentence, she really is a ghost without family or relatives.

Ellina was speechless upon hearing this. She disdained lying and pretending, but this was the first time she had encountered such a bizarre situation where telling the truth was interpreted in a completely different way.

“Very well,” King Bolzak said softly. “The reason I arranged this meeting was simply to tell you that whether you are Irene or Ellina in the future, you will always be my family, and this will always be your home.”

“I’m not your family,” Ellina said, frowning.

King Bolzak's expression grew increasingly sorrowful. He turned his gaze to Renn and said:

"I made an unforgivable mistake that caused me to lose my sister. Now that our ancestors and the gods have sent her back to the human world, I dare not ask for anything more. Please take good care of her for the rest of your life."

“Of course,” Renn said calmly.

“If you encounter any difficulties, you can tell me,” Bolzak continued. “Your family wants to trade with us, right?”

Raine was somewhat surprised by this, because given the general arrogance of the high elves, the old king shouldn't have reacted this way upon learning that his sister had married a human.

But he quickly figured it out: to the high elves, human lifespan was far too short, much like how modern people perceive the average lifespan of people in ancient times as less than twenty years old—it was as fleeting as a blink of an eye.

The old king was probably thinking that he would bring his "Sister Irene" back to the royal family after he passed away, so he needed to maintain contact with the Fahre family to check on "Sister Irene's" situation at any time.

“I have inherited the family’s Salt Island as my territory,” Raine quickly composed himself and replied. “It is a barren island, mainly composed of saline-alkali land eroded by the sea, which is difficult to cultivate. Most of the inhabitants rely on fishing for a living…”

King Bolzak listened carefully and roughly understood the situation on Salt Island.

He absolutely could not allow his own sister to live in the salty, damp castle, subsisting on dried pickled fish offered as tribute by the people. Upon hearing this, he spoke up:
“If you wish, you can relinquish that territory. I will set aside a piece of land within the royal domain of the Gem Islands and grant it to… your wife.”

In any case, granting territory to humans was far too advanced for the High Elves, and the court would definitely not approve it.

“Thank you for your kind offer, Your Majesty,” Renn politely declined. “I am, after all, human, and I am more comfortable living in the Empire.”

Bolzak was not surprised and said:
"If you need any trade goods, just go and talk to the Imperial Ink Official."

----------

The Imperial Ink Officer, Burkitt, was standing guard outside when he saw Rein and Ellina come out, and he was slightly surprised.

So fast? Well, it seems the Princess still hasn't forgiven His Majesty.

Burkitt was also one of the insiders regarding the falling out between the two back then. To be honest, the fact that the princess chose to marry a human nobleman already spoke volumes about her attitude; it wouldn't be easy for His Majesty to change her mind.

Fortunately, high elves have exceptionally long lifespans; hopefully, time will heal her wounds. After all, the blood ties between close relatives never change.

“Actually, His Majesty ordered me to handle this matter before he received you,” Burkitt explained to the two. “Our kingdom has its own unique circumstances, and it is absolutely impossible to lift trade controls. However… in the gray areas that the kingdom cannot govern, a certain amount of goods will bypass customs and flow out every year, which is impossible to strictly prohibit.”

"By the way, I heard that Diamond Delacroix of our family is serving you in your territory?"

“Yes.” Renn had already guessed what he was going to say. “I heard him say that he seems to be an illegitimate child.” “Even if he is an illegitimate child, he still has the same blood flowing in his veins. Why deliberately create artificial alienation?” Burkitt smiled slightly. “The Mad God Plague destroyed the underground black market on Diamond Island, but it may rise again one day. After all, rats are hard to eradicate.”

Ellina also understood his implication: future trade between the two sides would still be conducted through the black market, since such activities could not be exposed openly.

Of course, whether it's customs inspection or naval patrol, when they encounter the smuggling fleet under Ryan's command, they will tacitly pretend that they just happened not to see it.

The liaison between the two sides in this regard was naturally Diamond, who had connections with both the Rennes and the Delacroix families.

------------

At the port on the north side of Zircon Island, a fleet of ships is setting sail.

The human sailors who survived the Mad God Plague, along with Bodak Faher, the head of the smuggling fleet, have finally regained their mobility after receiving treatment from the court mages in Diamond City and are now able to sail the remaining family ships back.

On the deck, Ellina looked into the distance and saw the king standing on the dock in a black robe, watching Fahre's fleet depart alone, with only two palace guards by his side.

She started to feel a headache.

"I heard that someone was originally a member of the High Elf royal family who was lost to the outside world?" Bersalia hugged her waist from behind, rested her chin on her shoulder, and asked teasingly, "How does it feel to reunite with family after so long?"

"Stop it." Ellina helplessly broke free from her embrace. "I don't have any family."

“No, Eileen,” Aurora said. “Strictly speaking, they are indeed descendants of your Francesca family, and are your blood relatives.”

“Unlike us.” Bersalia smiled, but a deep chill lingered in her crimson eyes. “Our people are completely wiped out.”

Aurora remained silent, quietly wiping her longbow.

"I'm not talking to you guys anymore." Ellina sighed and rubbed her forehead in exasperation.

If she could, she would rather never see the High Elf royal family again, so as not to continue giving them this cruel and false hope. But it was obvious that Raine would not let this opportunity pass, and would inevitably use the High Elf royal family's attitude towards her to plot to drag the entire kingdom onto the war against the White Walkers.

Alas, he was, after all, a necromancer born evil...

Ellina returned to her cabin and entered her own room, when she suddenly sensed someone behind her.

She instinctively wanted to fight back, but the resistance she felt quickly told her that it was Ryan hiding in her cabin.

“I’ve just received some very interesting information,” Renn said in a leisurely tone, sitting in a chair by the door. “The current King Bolzak’s father died in a magical accident, leaving his brother and sister to depend on each other.”

"Eileen Fladsika, who dreamed of becoming a hero and going on adventures, was forced to take up the banner of the High Elf royal family in place of her younger brother and navigate the treacherous court politics."

“When Bolzak came of age, she did not cling to the position of power, but decisively handed the throne to her younger brother—if she had intended to become king at that time, Bolzak would not have had any chance.”

"Clearly, for Eileen, who aspires to be a legend, court politics is the most boring thing, and the adventure plots in novels are much more to her liking."

"But Bolzac didn't think so. He wanted his sister to fulfill the duties of a member of the royal family and to marry into a powerful noble family to consolidate the royal family's position... This was completely unacceptable to Eileen, who had been fulfilling royal duties for decades."

"The siblings had a huge fight, and Bolzac was so angry that he announced on the spot that Irene's royal status was being stripped. Irene also chose to run away in a huff, boarding a passenger ship bound for the Emerald Isles, but unfortunately, she was shipwrecked and died en route. This incident became a nightmare for Bolzac, the kind of thing that would make him wake up in the middle of the night and slap himself three times."

After listening quietly, Ellina calmly asked:
"So what? Does it concern me?"

“I hope you can get to know the character of Erin Vladsika,” Ryan said slowly. “Actually, in many ways, you and she have a lot in common.”

"Oh?" A fake and dangerous smile suddenly appeared on Ellina's face. "For example?"

“For example, you also have a younger brother,” Renn said calmly. “You initially joined the Magic Knights because the Grand Master of the Order has always been a member of the royal family, and this position can gain the favor and support of the military.”

"But judging from your subsequent experiences, you seem to have completely given up on pursuing the right to the royal succession, and instead focused on doing a good job as the commander of the Knights."

Ellina fell silent.

“So I think you and Eileen are not only similar in name and appearance, but also share many similarities in personality,” Ryan said with interest. “You are both uninterested in power, instead pursuing loftier ideals, and even your failures in those pursuits are completely similar. She died tragically at the very beginning, while you chose to die after your dreams were shattered…”

“What you’re trying to say is that we’re all stupid,” Ellina whispered.

“I think ‘stupid’ is an understatement,” Ryan said slowly. “To be precise, it’s naive.”

"It's not the kind of naivety that Dia has never seen the world, but rather the stubborn pursuit of something she knows doesn't exist, and the willingness to give everything for it."

“If I weren’t bound by this caged bird mentality, I would have given you a good beating for your unwarranted speculations and mockery,” Ellina said coldly.

"Beat me up?" Ryan chuckled. "Wouldn't that be killing me?"

Ellina was somewhat taken aback.

“Look, you know perfectly well you should kill me,” Renn said in a lighthearted tone. “Isn’t it only natural for a righteous knight to fight an evil necromancer? When I first resurrected you, you had the courage to drag me down to hell with you, didn’t you? Now it’s turned into ‘beating me up’ because you’ve realized that I am indeed saving the world, and the moral code you uphold no longer allows you to do so.”

“A very interesting guess.” Ellina regained her composure and said calmly, “I want to beat you up because what you said was really rude, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to kill you; if you do something heinous in the future, I will still do my best to drag you down to hell with me.”

This elven princess's tongue is probably harder than mithril. Renn chuckled inwardly, but said aloud:

“I’ve made my meaning very clear. Doing our best to play the role of Irene Fladsika and get the High Elf kingdom involved in the plan to fight the White Walkers will be good for our overall situation.”

He stood up from his chair and said:

"If one day we can completely quell the White Walkers, before you decide to return to Hell, I might allow you to beat me up. Heh."

Ellina watched Rein leave the cabin. A long time passed before she finally sat down alone in the hammock.

For some reason, she suddenly thought of her father, Targero.

After I perish alongside the White Walker Lord, will my father grieve and suffer for me, just like King Borzac?

If my father were here, would he persuade me to play the high elf Erin?
As Ellina pondered, her consciousness gradually returned to the cold indifference unique to the dead.

Berthalia, you're wrong.

I'm actually just like you; all my family members... have also died out completely.

------------

The fleet sailed across the vast ocean and finally returned to the sea rock city of the river bend.

Marquis Fahre, who had received advance warning from the raven, was overjoyed. The ship had returned, and the loss of manpower was minimal. Letting the Rein couple handle the matter was indeed the right decision!
When they arrived at the dock to welcome the fleet, the old marquis did not show any particular joy. Instead, he had a calm expression that said, "I knew he could do it. What's so strange about that?" and chatted casually with the other clansmen who were waiting there.

If winning over Her Majesty the Queen in the capital could be attributed to Rein's handsome face, which was unlike that of a Faherman, then bringing back a fleet and manpower from the High Elf Kingdom was something that far exceeded the limits of the Faherman's imagination.

Even if one were to deliberately belittle someone, one couldn't think of a plausible excuse. Luck? Show me some good luck!
After the fleet arrived, Bodak shakily returned to the dock and was warmly embraced by the old Marquis.

"You suffered."

“This time I almost lost half my life.” Bodak smiled wryly. “Thanks to your son, Rafaan. You have a good son.”

These words really hit the old marquis right where it hurts. As the powerful patriarch of the family, it was a fact that "I am awesome" and he didn't need anyone to flatter him, but "my son is awesome" was an extremely rare compliment.

After all, Fahrenheit people valued quantity over quality when it came to their offspring. Many of their clansmen were good-for-nothings from childhood to adulthood, knowing nothing but drinking, fooling around, and womanizing. They were nothing like the biological father and son of the wise, powerful, and decisive Marquis.

Only Ryan is like me!

The old marquis then inquired in detail about what had happened from Bodak. He learned that the third prince of the high elves had personally led the rescue team (from the sailors' perspective), and that the royal family had arranged treatment for everyone afterwards. He was so shocked that he could not speak.

Uh, are you sure it's the High Elf royal family?

Seeing the old marquis's intensely suspicious expression, Bodak suddenly grabbed his hand tightly and whispered:

“I’m not exaggerating. Given his wife’s true identity…”

"...Whether the family can continue this smuggling business or not is probably something that she can decide with just a word when she gets back."

The old marquis's shocked and somewhat dazed gaze fell on the family seal ring on Renn's right hand, and for a moment he was speechless.

(End of this chapter)