Perhaps, Lina and she themselves were overthinking things.
Perhaps, that high and mighty god truly felt fear because of the indomitable will that erupted from this land.
In any case, the current situation is excellent. They must seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to continue expanding their gains.
Just then, an unexpected "ally" came knocking on their door.
It was a sunny afternoon.
A group of hundreds of elves, dressed in magnificent clothes and with haughty expressions, passed through the alliance's defenses without any hindrance and arrived directly at the gates of Dawn City.
Leading the group was a male elf with a face so handsome it was almost otherworldly. He wore a silver robe woven from moonlight silk, and on his chest hung an ancient emblem representing the "Silver Moon Royal Court." Behind him followed a group of equally distinguished elven nobles.
Unlike the weathered elven slaves rescued by the Alliance, these elves bore no trace of their past enslavement. Their skin remained fair, their eyes still haughty. It was as if the dark years of the past five years had nothing to do with them.
“I am Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider, heir to the Silvermoon Court,” the leading elf said to the guards on the city wall in an elegant yet unquestionable tone. “I request an audience with your leader, that human girl named Irelia…”
His words, brimming with an innate sense of superiority, caused many soldiers of commoner origin on the city wall to frown.
After receiving the report, Irelia, along with Barton, Lina, and others, personally went to the city gate.
When she saw the elf who called himself "Prince," she could clearly feel the undisguised scrutiny and...contempt that flashed across his eyes.
"You are Irelia?" Prince Kael'thas's gaze lingered for a moment on her simple leather armor, which even bore some battle scars. "More...ordinary than I imagined."
“I am,” Irelia replied, neither humble nor arrogant. “I wonder where Your Highness the Sunstrider comes from? As far as I know, the Silvermoon Royal Court was destroyed five years ago with the fall of the High City.”
"annihilation?" Kael'thas chuckled as if he'd heard a joke. "No, that's not annihilation, that's 'strategic hibernation.' We simply led our core people into a 'hidden valley' deep within the Misty Mountains, a place even the Empire couldn't find. There, we preserved the purest bloodline and the most precious knowledge of our civilization."
His words caused some of the rescued elves behind Irelia to show expressions of anger.
While their compatriots suffered torment and humiliation in the mines and factories of the empire, these so-called "royal nobles" were hiding in some "secret valley," enjoying a life of ease.
“Now,” Kael'thas continued, ignoring the angry stares, “we have seen some… small achievements you and your ‘alliance’ have made. We believe the time is ripe.”
He stepped forward and, in a tone that seemed to announce a gift, proclaimed loudly:
"I, Kael'thas Sunstrider, hereby declare, in the ancient glory of the Silvermoon Court, that we have decided to join your alliance."
After he finished speaking, an eerie silence fell over the surroundings.
All the members of the alliance looked at him with a strange expression.
"Join us?" Barton, the hot-tempered dwarf, was the first to speak up. He picked at his ear and asked gruffly, "I say, Your Highness, are you mistaken? This isn't some afternoon tea party for noble gentlemen. We're at war! There will be bloodshed, there will be deaths!"
“War? Of course.” Kael’thas smiled elegantly. “We will naturally provide the Alliance with all the assistance we can. For example, we will provide the Alliance with the most orthodox guidance on the use and meditation of ‘Holy Power.’ After all, your current crude and barbaric use is simply a waste of this sacred power.”
His gaze, seemingly casually, glanced at Irelia.
"At the same time, we will also share our powerful 'arcane magic,' which has been sealed away for thousands of years. I believe this will be enough to change the entire course of the war."
He paused, then changed the subject, finally revealing his true purpose.
"In return, we believe that in order to lead this ever-growing army more effectively, the Alliance needs to establish a 'War Council' composed of the noblest and wisest members to jointly decide the future of the Alliance."
“And I, Kael'thas Sunstrider, should rightfully become the Speaker of this Council.”
These words caused an uproar in the audience.
"Ha!" Patton, this time, was genuinely amused and exasperated. "Did I hear that right? A guy who cowered for five years while his own people were being slaughtered and enslaved, now he comes out and wants to be our leader?"
"Insolence!" an elven nobleman behind Kael'thas shouted angrily. "How dare a mere dwarf, reeking of money, be so disrespectful to the bloodline of the Sunstrider royal family!"
"What did you say?!" Barton's eyes instantly turned red, and he grabbed the battle axe from his back.
It seemed that conflict was imminent.
"Stop!"
Irelia's cool yet powerful voice silenced all the noise.
Her gaze was calm and direct, meeting Kael'thas's haughty, azure eyes.
“Your Highness, I welcome any ally who is willing to contribute to the fight against tyranny.” Her voice clearly resonated throughout the room. “However, in the ‘Restoration Alliance,’ we have neither noble blood nor humble origins. We share only one identity—warriors.”
"Our leaders are not determined by bloodline. Rather, they are determined by how much blood they have shed and how much merit they have rendered for the Alliance on the battlefield."
"If you and your people truly wish to join us, then you are welcome. You will be treated equally and incorporated into the combat ranks. Your food, shelter, and weapons will be the same as our most ordinary soldiers."
“As for the ‘Council’ and the ‘Speaker’,” Irelia’s lips curled up slightly, revealing a faint yet incredibly firm smile, “when you can, like Patton, personally cut off the heads of a hundred Imperial soldiers, then come and bring this up with me.”
After saying that, she stopped looking at Kael'thas, whose face had turned pale and then flushed.
"Open the city gates," she said to the guards beside her, "and let our...new recruits enter the camp."
Kael'thas Sunstrider, along with the elven nobles he led, finally reluctantly entered the City of Dawn.
Their arrival was like a pebble thrown into the revival alliance, which, though arduous, was pure in its goals and united in its atmosphere, creating ripples of complexity.
Just a few days later, yet another, massive force arrived at the gates of Dawn City.
This time, it's humans.
Leading them was a middle-aged man named Duke Armand Bellamy. He had been the lord of the "Golden Plains," the most prosperous region in the Land of Holy Light, before the Imperial invasion. When the Empire invaded, he decisively abandoned his territory and fled with his family's private army and wealth to a lawless land beyond the continent called the "Lost Isles."
Like Prince Kael'thas, he also "lay low" for five years.
Now, he has brought thousands of well-equipped and well-trained mercenaries, along with a large amount of money and supplies, to "join in the grand event."
His arguments were far more eloquent than Kael'thas's.
"Ah, Your Excellency Irelia, Morning Star of the Alliance!" Duke Armand, upon seeing Irelia, bowed deeply with a dramatic, aria-like tone, "Please forgive me for being five years late. In these five years, not a single day has passed without my heart breaking at the fall of my homeland. I sold all my possessions and squandered my vast fortune, all to gather strength and await the day when the horn of counterattack sounds!"
He behaved with humility and sincerity, completely lacking the aloof arrogance of Kael'thas. He voluntarily handed over all the supplies he had brought to the Alliance's logistics department. Furthermore, he stated that he and his troops would completely obey Irelia's command.
His attitude won him the favor of many in the league.
However, in a corner unnoticed by anyone, Lina's keen eyes, like those of a feline, caught a fleeting, undisguised greed in the Duke's eyes as he looked at the "Dawn" sword in Irelia's hand.
The addition of elven nobles and the old human powers caused the Revival Alliance's strength to surge to an unprecedented level in a short period of time. The Alliance's total military strength exceeded 100,000, and it possessed its first truly meaningful "magician" troops and "heavy knight" legions.
However, what followed was an endless stream of internal problems.
The conflict first erupted at the most basic level, at the level of daily life.
"Why?! Why can those pointy-eared elves live in the best houses in the city, with gardens? While we, the brothers who have been bleeding and risking our lives since the beginning of the Alliance, have to squeeze into damp, underground barracks?" An orc veteran with a scar on his face angrily slammed the black bread in his hand onto the table in the mess hall.
“And those humans who call themselves ‘dukes’! They eat steaks made from dragon meat! They drink vintage wine dug out of cellars! And what about us? All we get every day is this kind of nutritional paste that can break your teeth!” Another person roared along.
Similar discontent spread rapidly, like a virus, among the lower ranks of the military.
The newly joined nobles simply could not tolerate living the same life as those they considered "peasants" and "inferior races." They used their wealth or privileged status to constantly seek privileges for themselves and their followers.
The pure atmosphere of equality among all races and unity between officers and soldiers in the City of Dawn was quickly corrupted and destroyed.
Irelia was in a terrible predicament because of this.
She convened meetings with the leaders of all factions on several occasions, emphasizing the principles of discipline and equality within the alliance.
However, Prince Kael'thas always responded to her in a nonchalant tone: "My dear Irelia, you must understand that 'grace' is in the nature of elves. For us to mingle with those rude orcs who relieve themselves anywhere is not a test of our courage, but an insult to our souls."
Duke Armand, however, always chuckled and smoothed things over: "Oh, Lady Irelia, please don't get angry over such trivial matters. Young people are hot-tempered, it's understandable. How about this, to appease those hardworking soldiers, I will personally donate another ten thousand gold coins as their battlefield allowance. What do you think?"
He easily won people's hearts with money, thus obscuring the focus of the problem.
Irelia's rage felt like it had hit a cotton ball, leaving her with nowhere to vent her anger.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com