After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

In the understanding of Knight Robert, elves are a race that is both long-lived and extremely rare.

Humans can double their population in twenty years.

But the elves will only have a few more new members over a period of twenty years.

Although each of them was a powerful warrior, a powerful mage, a powerful craftsman, and an unparalleled scholar and prophet, their population was far too small.

Even a novice can defeat a master with a flurry of punches, let alone those fanatical believers in the parish who are oblivious to their own mortality after taking narcotics.

If the parish can truly push the wall of flesh and blood into the heart of the Elf Forest and establish a foothold there with priests and bishops, then it's not impossible that the elves might be forced, even to the point of migrating as a whole...

But the question is, can the parish really advance into the heart of the Elf Forest?

Knight Robert recalled the ordeal of Earlhood of Kagard—after that incident, the entire earlhood was now practically devoid of men. Given the high probability that the Regent would travel to the Elven Kingdom, could the parish truly advance into the heart of the Elven Forest?

He shook his head, but in his mind, he still thought the possibility of the parish being severely punished had increased.

...........

Meanwhile, in Drake Port of the Roman Empire.

This area belongs to a military region, and its residents exhibit a strength and wealth that differs from those in the central region of the Roman Empire.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Almost every resident would praise the Empress's name after eating and drinking their fill. This city was arguably the wealthiest outside of the capital, and it was also the only port in the Roman Empire that could conduct foreign trade. In addition, it was an important military camp for training elite troops.

The city's wealth, power, and loyalty to the Queen attracted countless foreign merchant ships, which brought in vast amounts of wealth and took away accumulated products, but failed to bring the food that the Roman Empire needed.

This caused a hint of anxiety to appear on General Dreschka's usually calm face.

The city's prosperity is ultimately temporary. Domestic grain transport can only support Drake Port's continued prosperity for another six months at most—once the port fails to attract large caravans from Isgard to purchase grain under the guise of brewing... then the city will soon perish in ruins.

Damn drought!

General Dreschuka couldn't help but curse a few times in his heart. But as he cursed, he couldn't help but shift the blame from the drought to the common people, and then from the common people to the regent who had already fled to who-knows-where.

If the regent hadn't really run away and hadn't intended to come back, would the Roman Empire be in this state now?!

Damn drought! Damn commoners! Damn regent!

Despite his anger, General Dreschka remained calm and opened the letter from the royal family, delivered by Prince Garsen.

.....

In the letter, Prince Garsen said he was also under a lot of pressure.

Now he has no choice but to temporarily give part of the compensation money sent by the parish to the nobles who support him under the guise of a "loan," and then ask those nobles to open their granaries to provide relief.

Even so, the extra food would only slightly appease the masses—if the port still couldn't acquire large quantities of food, a peasant riot was likely to break out in the central district soon.

"It's just a peasant uprising; we can suppress it and reduce the number of mouths to feed. But if the empire across the sea notices this... that would be troublesome."

General Dreschka pondered for a moment, then waved his hand, signaling for his attendant to enter.

He must further strengthen security at the Port of Drake and absolutely prevent any foreign merchants from leaving the port by any means necessary, and absolutely prevent them from seeing the situation in the central district.

However, what Dreschka and Prince Garsen never expected was that Isgard had long planned to build their own secret port on the continent of Elusia.

So what's the point of them simply blockading Drake Harbor? Without sending cavalry to search the coast for any suspicious landings, what difference is there between this and burying one's head in the sand?

If Yang Hao were here, he'd probably be laughing so hard he'd spit out blood.

Unfortunately, he is now in the Monster Forest.

With the help of Teresa's [Tranquility] spell, he was able to communicate with Naruja and the others in a normal manner.

This should be considered the first real gathering of this small group. In this small nighttime gathering, everyone sat around the campfire, while Theresa, as if asserting her dominance, sat directly on Yang Hao's lap.

Aside from her clothes and appearance, she didn't resemble a nun at all—Mr. Joseph muttered to himself, before his wife suddenly pinched his lower abdomen several times, causing him to almost cry from the pain.

Just as Mr. Joseph and his wife were exchanging glances, Theresa, sitting on Yang Hao's lap with his arms wrapped around her lower abdomen, smiled and said:

"In short—we'll be approaching the Elf Forest soon. To avoid giving our long-eared forest masters a bad impression, I'd like to talk to you about the elves."

This is serious business, you know? So please take it a little more seriously—as the nun spoke, everyone sat up straight, because they also knew that the Elf Forest would be an important turning point in their new life.

After confirming that everyone was focused, the little nun began to earnestly recount everything about the elves.

She seemed to know quite a lot—Yang Hao, who was sitting under her, listened attentively while pondering something.

Theresa really knows elves too well.

From the brotherhood between the ancient human empire of Bayern and the elves that spanned thousands of years, to the elves' population structure and customs, to their preferences and trade inclinations—Theresa's understanding of the elves was even greater than that of the most intelligent and experienced diplomats in the Roman Empire.

She wasn't an ordinary nun. Yang Hao muttered to himself, and just then, perhaps caught up in the moment, after finishing the necessary explanation of the rules to the elves, the little nun suddenly started talking about St. Petersburg, the parish headquarters.

"St. Petersburg is said to be a religious city in the south of the Bayern Empire before it sank underground. Perhaps because it was built too grandly, or perhaps because the people of this city perished along with the invading demonic beasts, in any case, St. Petersburg stopped sinking more than forty layers underground. It may be the only remaining city ruin of the Bayern Empire on the surface today..."

Ugh, just the thought of it being defiled by those madmen of the Church of Light makes me want to vomit.

Theresa playfully made a "I'm going to throw up" face, then, seemingly feeling uncomfortable sitting down, she adjusted her posture slightly and leaned her entire body against Yang Hao.

"So in a sense, the reason why the parish can have such a magnificent city that attracts believers is also because they occupy the ruins of an ancient empire, right? If they had to start from scratch, how could they attract so many believers and talented people like they do now... Sigh. But that's beside the point. What we're most concerned about right now are the following important matters!"

"First—we need to settle down in the Elf Kingdom. Whether it's Naruja or Mr. Joseph, I'm sure you're both fed up with wandering the world... What? I'm the only one complaining? You're already used to it? I don't care, we're going to settle down in the Elf Kingdom! I haven't been shopping in months! So let's just leave it at that!"

Secondly, there's the issue of the wounded members of the Listening Clan. Limb regeneration magic is a unique healing spell among elves, and if nothing unexpected happens, your antlers should also be able to grow back... but doing so will probably cost a lot of money. Therefore, our most pressing problem is probably how to obtain work after safely entering the elven kingdom and obtaining permission to stay...?

Thirdly, my husband's identity is somewhat...special. Who knows, the elves might suddenly show up one day...so, well. Everyone needs to be prepared—prepared for what? Don't ask me, I'm just a nun, how would I know? Just be prepared.”

Theresa kept muttering to herself, and then suddenly said something that left everyone with a bewildered expression.

Yang Hao was somewhat helpless—but indeed, his identity was far too special to the elves.

Hopefully, the elves will show some consideration and not make things difficult for me because of my special status.

Chapter Five: The Humble Hospitality from the Elves

On May 5, a month later, when Yang Hao and his group finally arrived at the border of the Elf Forest, the visible changes in the forest were immediately apparent to them.

To put it in simpler terms, they were in a rather gloomy place where, not to mention the sounds of birds, even the sound of the wind rarely reached their ears—this was the Demon Forest.

The area ahead, with its warm and bright overall tone, where you can even see many birds flying among the branches and where sunlight shines directly through the canopy, making the ground shimmer with gold, is the Elf Forest.

Elves love sunlight and possess exceptional magical talent—therefore, in order to allow sunlight to penetrate the dense foliage and reach the ground, elves cast a wide-area spell in their territory to meet their needs.

It is said that the ancient trees in the Elf Forest can move. However, Yang Hao had never entered the Elf Forest before, so he only regarded it as a rumor.

However, the rules still had to be followed. With this in mind, Yang Hao restrained the behavior of the Ling clan members and Joseph's family, making them stand at attention in the back.

He then carefully walked to the boundary between the two forests, knelt down, scooped up a handful of brown soil from the Elf Forest, and recalled the elven etiquette he had learned earlier.

To enter the Elf Forest and the Elf Kingdom, the first thing to do is to express your needs and respect to the trees maintained by the elves at the border of the Elf Forest—and if all goes well, those ancient trees will respond accordingly.

But how exactly should we do it?

A fragrant aroma suddenly wafted towards him. Yang Hao looked up in surprise and found Teresa kneeling on the ground, holding a cup of soil, looking at him playfully, just like him.

“Generally speaking, we just need to tell them the purpose of our trip,” she said. “Please treat those trees with the same respect as people, and they will naturally respect us in return—they are very friendly and willing to do a lot for us, only needing us to give back a little something in return.”

"Theresa...you know so much."

"That's natural. After all, although I'm just a novice nun, I've memorized a lot of things about elves from the books in my family's library... More importantly, did you forget your lines?"

Theresa's direct question made Yang Hao a little embarrassed, but he still nodded and said bitterly that this was knowledge he had learned a long time ago, and it was understandable that he had forgotten the words now.

"But I remember that hardly anyone from the Roman Empire's official ranks ever went to the Elven Forest, let alone learned elven etiquette, right? After all, the parishes bordering the elves are always engaged in border skirmishes..."

"This information was actually given to me by a scholar I sent to the Elf Forest. I don't know how he is doing there."

"Oh? It seems you trust Mr. Joseph more than Mr. Joseph?"

"After all, he was my right-hand man back then, and I understand that he was engaged in crucial diplomatic activities in the Elven Kingdom and simply couldn't get back in time after that incident... But never mind, let's go inside first. Who knows, he might have abandoned his duties after I was exiled."

They both lowered their heads and stared at the cup of soil in front of them.

Teresa was muttering to herself, and Yang Hao followed suit, telling the mud in front of him his goal for the trip.

He kept Teresa's advice in mind while also thinking about the team's food problem.

Once you enter the Fairy Forest, you cannot harm the animals there without permission.

But now, the golems are running out of food, and if they don't find a way to replenish their food, they may not be able to make it to the elf village to seek help.

Should we gather enough food in the monster forest outside before going in? Just as Yang Hao was pondering this, he suddenly felt as if his mind had been touched by something.

Carrying the fresh scent of leaves, it was like a kind old man. He looked up at the illusion before him, and in the next instant, he saw nuts and plump vines falling from the trees not far ahead.

"—The tree of the elves has responded to you."

Looking at the piles of nuts and vines not far away, Teresa ignored the astonishment of the Ling Clan and Joseph's family behind her, and instead muttered in surprise:

"It allows us to take the nuts and vines as food and water for our journey, in exchange for leaving the nut seeds behind and finding a suitable place in the Elf Forest to plant them..."

"...I think I just saw an old man?" Yang Hao muttered uncertainly to himself. "But when I came to my senses, I couldn't see anything anymore..."

"I saw nothing. Perhaps this is a sign that you are favored by the elves—oh? Is there anything else you need to convey?"

"...The golems of the Listening Clan will inevitably cause damage to the land of the Elf Forest. We must also convey this apology to the land here."

Yang Hao continued to speak sincerely to the soil. After a while, as more nuts and seeds fell, he received permission from the forest.

The forest allowed the Golems to trample on the ground and grass, and also allowed them to gather firewood at night to cook, and, when necessary, to cut down a very small number of trees to build shelters to avoid the cold of the night.

As compensation, they need to plant more nuts, and ideally, they should water them slightly with the cool, thirst-quenching sap from the vines when planting them.

That's it.

The communication was surprisingly quick and simple, and the other party's request was not unreasonable at all; it could even be described as the generosity of an elder towards a younger generation—Yang Hao had thought the Elf Forest would make very demanding requests; he truly hadn't expected these ancient trees to be so generous...

But for some reason, as Yang Hao sighed, he thought of the arrogant official diplomats of the Roman Empire since its founding...

Those guys probably wouldn't interact with elves as sincerely as I do. Instead, they'd arrogantly ignore the elves' attempts to understand and barge into their homes like idiots who urinate and defecate anywhere, flaunting their meager knowledge.

He genuinely believed those people were capable of such a thing. After all, the most crucial factor in the destruction of an empire wasn't stupidity, but rather arrogance—and when arrogance is compounded by stupidity, no one can save the country.

Ugh!

He gently placed the soil from his palm back in its original place, smoothed it out with his hand, and then, holding Teresa's equally dirty hand, gestured for everyone to come and accept the nuts and vines.

Everyone carefully followed the rules of the elves, placing the nuts and vines on the golem.

As they continued onward, sparrows and small birds perched on Golem's head, chirping and twittering. Bathed in the golden sunlight, the hornless Listener girls curiously reached out to stroke the birds' feathers, and the birds fluttered merrily in their palms.

This is truly a wonderful place.