444: Chapter 430 I heard they saved two more humans today.

When her hearing captured the phrase "private matters about me," Alice had a realization; she was afraid she was in trouble.

Evading death is a biological instinct, and driven by it, Alice held onto a glimmer of hope and tried to save her own little life.

"That... Your Highness, you must have misunderstood something," she said, while discreetly struggling to escape Frederica's affectionate arm around her shoulder.

Frederica remained unmoved, smiling as she kept her arm around her shoulder and walked into the room.

Ten minutes later.

Frederica sat comfortably on the edge of the bed, while Alice stood in the corner looking aggrieved, her hands tightly covering her buttocks.

"Stop pretending, get me a glass of water."

"Oh." Alice trotted over to the dining table, poured a glass of water, and handed it to her with both hands.

After drinking it all in one gulp, Frederica's expression turned solemn: "Why do you think Elder Anna exposed the agreement between me and my father in front of the clansmen?"

Speaking of serious matters, Alice's fake whimpering subsided, and her brows furrowed: "She should understand that the agreement cannot stop the contest between you and Princess Sined."

"That's exactly what puzzles me; Anna is no fool."

During the meeting, Anna had suddenly launched an attack. Frederica had remained silent for several minutes before responding, not to choose her words, but to ponder Anna's true purpose.

As mentioned before, a verbal agreement not formally announced by the Elf King could not be used as a formal regulation. Anna's actions were destined to be in vain, and she knew this better than anyone.

Alice sat down beside Frederica and speculated, "The only thing I can think of is that Elder Anna intends to frame you for the withering of the life tree."

"That is indeed the most likely possibility, but... I don't think the failure of the expedition alone is enough to pin the blame on me."

"Perhaps she was just testing the waters? After all, there's no loss if she fails."

"She almost had her position as Elder stripped away by me."

"Hmm, perhaps she didn't expect you to be so forceful?"

Frederica folded her arms, stood up, and paced back and forth in the room. "That's plausible, it's just that I always feel... it won't be that simple."

"Forget about her, the duel starts in five days. In five days, there's no time to implement any schemes."

Hearing this, Frederica's footsteps paused, and her eyes glazed over for a moment.

Alice noticed and asked in confusion, "What's wrong, Your Highness?"

Frederica remained silent.

"Your Highness?"

"Alice."

"Yes."

"After I die, you and Saldari—"

"Your Highness!" Alice suddenly jumped up from the bed and screamed, "What are you planning to do?!"

"Shh—" Frederica smiled, placing her hands on Alice's shoulders and pressing her back down onto the bed. "Although the disappearance of the jela flower most likely has nothing to do with me, the withering of the life tree... to be honest, I can't be sure I didn't cause it."

"That's absolutely imposs—"

"The truth doesn't matter anymore, Alice. Even if there is another reason, as the Crown Prince of the Elf Clan, I must take responsibility for saving my people."

"But, the contest..."

"I am the older sister; I have to protect my younger sister, right?"

Alice wanted to argue, but she couldn't find the words. The older sister protecting the younger sister, the Crown Prince saving her subjects—what was wrong with that?

After sitting blankly for a long while, she accepted reality, the light in her eyes gradually dimming.

"Your Highness, what do you need me and Saldari to do for you?"

"After I die, go to Lake."

"And then?"

"Find Zhang Mu and tell him that Frederica loves him deeply."

Alice lowered her head gloomily and was about to agree when she heard her speak again.

"Actually, never mind."

"Huh?" Alice looked up, her gaze confused.

Frederica didn't clear up her confusion, only smiling: "Don't run around these next few days. When the time is right, I will send you out."

Alice seemed to have figured out the answer herself and nodded.

The atmosphere was a bit heavy. She didn't want her Highness's remaining time to be filled with sadness, so she changed the subject: "The clansmen rescued two more humans today. Do you want to go see them?"

Every time the elves patrolling the forest brought back humans, Frederica would go to inspect them.

Nominally, it was an interrogation to prevent enemies from infiltrating the clan grounds disguised as ordinary people, but in reality, it was an opportunity to inquire about the current situation in Lake—if Lake still existed, it meant Zhang Mu was safe.

Alice clearly remembered that as long as humans were rescued, Her Highness would excitedly run over.

However, this time Frederica shook her head: "I won't ask anymore."

In the future, in her frozen memories and her solidified thoughts, Zhang Mu would be alive, eternally.

"I'm going back to the bedchamber."

"Goodnight, Your Highness."

...

In a sparsely furnished room, Elder Anna sat at the table in silence, seemingly waiting for something.

After a while, the door was pushed open, and the Third Elder walked in, sitting opposite her.

"Anna."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Anna raised her eyelids. "If you're asking why I knelt to Princess Frederica, I can only tell you she is the Crown Prince and showed the demeanor a Crown Prince should have.

As a subject, I have no reason not to respect the Crown Prince."

The Third Elder was expressionless: "You should know that's not what I'm asking."

"Then what is it?"

"Don't play dumb!" The Third Elder slammed the table in anger, his face visibly agitated and his eyes bloodshot. "You know that the withering of the life tree has nothing to do with Her Highness!"

"Is that so?" Anna smiled.

"The flora growing in the Forest of Spirits has been dying off in small areas since five years ago, and magical beasts have also been dying mysteriously. All of this was a sign of disaster!

And at that time, Princess Frederica hadn't even returned to the clan!"

The two of them had a deep personal friendship and often walked out of the Magic Array together to wander deep in the forest and discuss magic.

Back then, the two had discovered with surprise that the flora was mysteriously withering, and over the past few years, the number of magical beasts had also decreased strangely. Initially, the Third Elder thought the magical beasts had migrated elsewhere, but after investigation, there were no traces left behind by migration within the Forest of Spirits.

The frequent entry of ordinary humans deep into the Forest of Spirits over the past year, approaching the Magic Array that shrouded the clan grounds, also stemmed from this.

In the past, the forest was teeming with high-level magical beasts. Let alone physically weak ordinary humans, even a lone Great Knight could not reach the depths of the Forest of Spirits.

"The King questioned me about this matter."

"Your answer?"

Anna placed her hands on her thighs and looked elsewhere: "The decrease in magical beasts might be because they went somewhere else."

"You dared to deceive the King!"

"Did I?" Anna straightened her head and looked directly at him. "Besides that reason, what else could it be?

We checked; no carcasses of magical beasts could be found in the forest. Could they have been eaten clean by the surviving ones?"

"But we didn't find any traces of the magical beasts leaving either!"

"So I told the King that this was just an unconfirmed possibility."

The Third Elder calmed down: "What exactly is your purpose?"

Without waiting for Anna to reply, he continued, "You are Sinéad's teacher... to stop the contest?

You want to force Princess Frederica to voluntarily sacrifice herself?"

Anna remained silent, seemingly in tacit agreement.

The Third Elder pondered for a moment and asked, "What's the point of doing this?

Even if Princess Frederica didn't refute you, the King wouldn't cancel the contest because of your speculation."

"Heh, hehe..." Anna laughed softly, a laugh devoid of any warmth, only grimness. "Do you really think I'm doing this to protect Sinéad by framing Princess Frederica?"

The Third Elder felt a sense of foreboding: "What do you mean?"

"Sinéad once unintentionally revealed something to me." Her face turned cold and full of resentment. "During Princess Frederica's travels in the outside world, she met a human, and it's said they had a good relationship.

I didn't care at the time; it's normal to meet humans when staying outside for a long time, until I learned that human's name."

Anna looked at the Third Elder, her gaze ferocious: "His name is Zhang Mu!"

"What?!" The Third Elder suddenly stood up.

"Do you understand now?

What expedition to Lake, what following the divine oracle? She was selfish, selfishly disregarding the safety of her clansmen to save her lover!"

The Third Elder staggered back a few steps and stood there dazed, his face pale without a trace of color.

Anna stood up, no longer hiding anything: "I want to expose her hypocrisy and let all the clansmen know what 'good' things their beloved Crown Prince has done for them!"

"But, but..." The Third Elder's lips trembled, unable to say a complete sentence.

"Five days is enough for me to implement my plan. By the day of the contest, the clansmen will shout in anger, shouting Frederica's name, shouting for her to die.

Even the King cannot resist the will of the entire clan."

This was not an empty boast. Although the King held absolute sovereignty within the clan, if the entire clan stood in opposition to the King, the King could not ignore it. This was not about who was right or wrong, but a compromise with reality. The King couldn't just kill all the clansmen.

The King is the law, but the law does not punish the masses.

Anna clenched her fists, her chest heaving violently: "Now, are you going to stop me?

Or join me."

The Third Elder's emotions had leveled out, and he thought silently.

After a long time, he finally moved, turning to walk out the door: "I will go organize the other elders."

Anna's tensed body suddenly relaxed, and she slumped onto the floor: "Thank you."

The response she received was the sound of the door gently closing.

...

The next day.

The elves of the clan grounds, worried about the health of the life tree and having suffered from insomnia for a long time, woke up early.

Carrying their worries, they began their day's labor.

In fact, the Elf Clan did not have heavy production tasks. Most of the time, they only needed to spend a morning collecting dew and gathering fruit, and the rest of the time was their own.

The only ones on duty all day were the Guard. The members of the Guard patrolled various parts of the clan grounds daily, but due to the protection of the Magic Array, outsiders couldn't get in at all, so the Guard basically had a perfunctory attitude of going through the motions.

The morning passed quickly.

Finishing their gathering work, the elves returning to the residential area were surprised to find people in groups of two or three. Some gathered under trees in courtyards, some huddled at corridor corners, and even the half-grown elf children were crouching in the bushes.

They were whispering, their voices kept exceptionally low. Even though everyone was discussing it, it remained so, clearly indicating the topic involved some terrifying taboo.

The returning elves couldn't hear the specific content of the conversations. Even when they got closer, they could only hear a few sudden spikes in volume saying "Princess Frederica."

What happened?

They went forward in confusion to inquire, and through the accounts of their clansmen, they soon understood the whole story.

The rumors spread rapidly, and by evening, the entire clan knew.

Frederica, the subject of the rumors, was the last to find out. And she didn't hear it while walking around the clan grounds; she only knew because Alice reported it to her.

After learning the details from Alice, she was slightly flustered but quickly calmed down.

After a bit of thought, she gave up on gathering the clansmen to clarify, acting as if nothing had happened.

Alice was extremely anxious and urged her to go to the palace to explain to the Elf King.

However, Frederica shook her head and refused—the life tree had been withering for over a year, and the clansmen were already terrified to the core. At this point, they didn't care who the culprit was; they only desired to identify them and resolve the disaster.

As for the evidence that could prove her innocence, such as the mysterious disappearance of magical beasts and the strange withering of plants—these signs of the disaster's arrival would be instinctively ignored by the terrified clansmen.

Saldari and Alice fell silent after hearing this.

After a moment of silence in the room, Alice asked, "Why would the clansmen know about this?"

Saldari spoke slowly: "The only ones who know about Mr. Zhang Mu are the three of us, and..."

"Princess Sinéad?!"

Frederica did not get angry because the two suspected her sister, but said rationally, "She indeed has the most suspicion, but her motive is insufficient."

"Perhaps she's afraid of being sacrificed..."

"Hmm... that's possible, but spreading rumors for that seems a bit redundant."

"Why?"

"In a fair contest, given her familiarity with the forbidden grounds, there would almost certainly be no accidents in her defeating me. There's no need to go through the trouble of planning a scheme.

Besides, Father is no idiot. If she did this and was discovered by Father, she might be sacrificed along with me."

Saldari felt confused: "If it's not Princess Sinéad, then who? Who else knows that you and Mr. Zhang Mu know each other?

Could it be that Princess Sinéad accidentally let it slip?"

"I asked Princess Sinéad; she hasn't told anyone. The only time was during a chat with Elder Anna, when she mentioned that Her Highness had met a human, but she didn't mention the name."

Alice trusted what Sinéad had said.

When Alice was gossiping with her, she hadn't mentioned Zhang Mu's name, so she didn't know that the person Frederica was concerned about was Zhang Mu. It was out of the question that she had leaked the secret.

The three of them reasoned for a long time, but the identity of the mastermind remained a mystery.

Seeing that it was late, Frederica interrupted the discussion and told them to go back and rest.

The two were worried about their Highness and were unwilling to leave.

She sighed: "What do you think this person is stirring up trouble for?"

"To force you to voluntarily sacrifice yourself."

"And what was my original intention?"

They looked at each other and lowered their heads.

Frederica laughed: "So, is there any need to care about the rumors?"

"I, I understand," Alice said in a low voice.

Saldari opened his mouth as if to say something but hesitated, finally swallowing the words he was prepared to say and instead asking: "Your Highness, are you sure you only have one sentence to bring to Mr. Zhang Mu? Is there nothing else?"

"Just one sentence."

"I see... as you wish."

The outcome was decided. This was Frederica's own choice, and they had no right to interfere. They turned and walked out of the room side by side.