Serena stared at the wooden bowl in front of her, where some sticky porridge residue remained. She listlessly chewed on her spoon, watching Xixi doing the same thing beside her at the table. Xixi's bowl still had half a bowl of thin porridge, and she seemed more troubled.
"If you don't have an appetite, then don't eat," Serena spat out the spoon and patted Xixi's back.
Xi Xi also spat out the spoon, blinked and smiled, "I'm fine, but it's quite surprising that Miss can still eat a bowl of rice at this time."
Serena raised her hand as if to hit her, and Xixi, seeing this, giggled and fled from the dining table.
Serena lowered her hand, her gaze falling on a letter on the corner of the table. Her mood, which had just improved, instantly darkened again.
The letter was from Duke Salder, arriving the day after they arrived in the valley village. Besides praising Serena's beauty, intelligence, and resilience, it contained the familiar urging of marriage, only this time with a more relaxed and unhurried approach. The Duke even employed various rhetorical devices such as parallelism, antithesis, metaphor, and hyperbole, transforming a marriage-urging letter into something remarkably literary.
Serena hasn't shown the letter to everyone yet, but it's clear that everyone already knows a letter has been delivered to her house. As for the contents of the letter, it seems there's no need to say more; everyone already knows.
Therefore, Serena's door was eerily quiet; no one came to visit, and no one offered advice.
Serena thought about it. Based on her observations and subtle inquiries, it seemed that everyone except Philby and Zad approved of the marriage. Of course, there was one person who hadn't expressed his opinion. Thinking of this, Serena couldn't help but feel inexplicably angry. Although she couldn't explain why, she just felt a little uncomfortable.
Inside the elven tent, the elven prince Tandras also received a letter, and it was this letter that slowed down the movement of the elven army.
The letter came from another elven army. It was brief: human troops had appeared on the border, and elven scouts had made contact with human scouts. Preliminary assessments indicated that the human army in front of them numbered at least five thousand, and that they were royal troops.
"Humans have finally mobilized their troops, though it's been a bit slower than expected, but they've still arrived," the old man beside the prince said calmly, looking at the letter.
“No, they didn’t arrive slowly; we arrived too quickly.” The prince returned to the table, examining the map on it while flipping through his war diary.
"So, shall we proceed according to plan?"
Tandras nodded. "You write back and tell them everything is going according to plan."
The old man nodded, and then stopped as he was about to leave.
"Your Highness, I wish..."
Tandras looked up in confusion; it was unusual for the old man to be so polite.
“I hope you can speak to Tordron. You know, he's been really down lately because of that failure… As his uncle, I really can't think of anyone better to talk to him…”
Tandras was taken aback; this was a request he hadn't expected.
"I promise you, go and call him over."
The old man's eyes shone with gratitude. He nodded and quickly left the tent.
Yun Zhe was eating at the moment, and he was in a good mood because Usha had just demonstrated the sword skills she had learned before the meal. Although it looked more cute than dangerous, Yun Zhe was still very pleased because this was the first time Usha had systematically learned a set of moves. Moreover, it was the first time she had taken the initiative to show off in front of him.
Ellie walked in from outside and hesitated for a moment when she saw Yun Zhe happily chewing on a piece of coarse bread.
Yun Zhe keenly noticed this. He swallowed what was in his mouth and asked curiously, "What's wrong? Is there something you want to tell me?"
Ellie glared at Yun Zhe. "Serena received a letter. I heard it's from Sald, urging us to get married. Apparently, if we agree, they'll send troops or something."
"What did Serena say?"
"Hmph," Ellie seemed to be in a bad mood, making Usa look at her with suspicion and uncertainty. "That little girl is still thinking about you, and obviously wants to know your opinion." Ellie drew out the last few words and started scooping rice into her bowl.
Yun Zhe looked somewhat embarrassed. Usa glanced back and forth between Ellie and Yun Zhe, her eyes suddenly lighting up before she chuckled and continued drinking her porridge.
Ellie and Yun Zhe both instantly looked embarrassed. They both knew what Usa was thinking.
"Even if she becomes someone's wife, is this fiefdom still hers?" Yun Zhe coughed lightly, intending to use a businesslike attitude to gloss over the matter.
"Oh?" Ellie was somewhat surprised by Yun Zhe's reaction. "The land still exists, but it definitely belongs to her husband now."
Yun Zhe nodded, then he couldn't understand why Serena was hesitating. Could it really be him?
Thinking of this, Yun Zhe suddenly felt a chill. He shook his head and quickly finished the porridge in his bowl. Then he looked at Ellie, but Ellie didn't look at him; she was focused on eating her porridge.
Yun Zhe coughed softly, "Ellie, I have an idea. Let's take Usa with us."
Ellie held the bowl, which covered most of her face. Her eyes darted around, unable to understand what Yunzhe was thinking.
"Actually, things would be much easier here if Serena just agreed to the marriage. It would just be another battle between humans and elves, which, to be honest, is really pointless. I want to travel to other parts of the Western Continent and see more of the sights. I've also thought that maybe I could become a traveling merchant. That kind of business allows me to travel and make money at the same time, which sounds pretty good."
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