“The head of the Nelf Family… I recall she was called Yiruiweilian.”
“Yes.” Just hearing that name, the warmth in Iyue’s gaze cooled rapidly.
“My aunt, Ranger Corps Captain General Lai Wei An Se, told me she is still alive. But I left the Sea of Trees many years ago and have nearly severed all ties with the family, so I am not well-informed of the Family Head’s current situation.”
“I did make some inquiries about her before… but the accounts I heard from those who are not family members were all much the same, with little value. Lai Wei An Se has already told me those matters, and Nefi remains unconscious. Considering that the Royal Court is the object of the family’s allegiance, I thought you might perhaps know something about her.”
After hearing her out, Senia lowered her head and fell into thought.
“…I do not know where she is now either.” After a moment, she waved away the steam rising from her tea and pushed the cup before her a little further away.
“…Is that so.”
A flicker of disappointment passed through Iyue’s eyes.
“Regarding that Family Head, what I know is not much. As Lai Wei An Se said, she is still alive.”
“After all, the Royal Court has never received word of her passing. But if you ask me what she has been doing all these years, or where she resides… I have no channel through which I could directly confirm such things.”
She paused briefly, as if organizing her memories, gradually piecing together the image of that ghost-like Family Head.
“The first time I saw her was when I was still a Princess. She was an elderly woman in a wheelchair—among us elves, such an elder is truly a rare sight.”
“…That’s her.”
Senia’s description drew forth the memory sunk deep in Iyue’s heart.
That day was the seventh time she had broken into the Giant Tree, only to be captured by the guards.
Those people pressed her to the ground and hauled her up to a garden high in the Giant Tree.
It was not a particularly ornate garden. There were no gardeners tending the flowers, nor servants attending to the high-born.
Everything was quiet. And the guards who had escorted her all the way there, without exception, softened their footsteps to an extreme slowness before entering the garden… but Iyue could hear their normally steady breathing grow somewhat disordered.
In the white stone garden, sat an old woman.
She was an elf so aged that one could scarcely perceive the concept of “life force” from her.
Withered and gaunt, she resembled nothing so much as a piece of ancient wood dried out by the passage of time.
Wrapped in layer upon layer of blankets, eyes closed and motionless, she seemed to be in a deep slumber—
But as Iyue was escorted closer, the old woman slowly opened her eyes.
And the moment Iyue was forced to lift her head and meet that gaze, a sensation arose within her unbidden.
She had to summon all her willpower just to keep her own gaze steady.
That sensation was alien… though she was clearly just an old woman on the brink of death, she radiated a pressure like that of a natural force of creation.
“She was so old she seemed like she might expire at any moment… yet when she opened her eyes and looked at me, I dared not even blink.”
“It seems our impressions of her align. The one I saw back then was exactly the same.” Senia said, “When you first joined the Knights Order, I paid her a visit on account of your identity… she told me that to eliminate the [stain] in your blood, your achievements were still insufficient.”
“Achievements insufficient… heh.” Iyue repeated those four words in a low voice, her eyes filled with mockery.
“She did later acknowledge your identity.”
“The Triumphant Ceremony. Even on such an occasion, she still did not appear.”
Iyue recalled the grand ceremony held on the streets of Fenglin City after the War ended.
Others might have considered it the greatest Honor of her life… but only she knew that was not the case.
“It was I who summoned you back then, after all.” Senia remembered her own petty actions upon first hearing that the Hero had married, and could not help but blush slightly.
“I recall that it was Lai Wei An Se who stood on the family’s side as Acting Head of Family and bestowed my surname upon me.”
“Yes,” Senia said, “I remember it that way as well. She had already taken up the position of Acting Head of Family by then… because of the achievements she had earned in the War.”
The recollection of that ceremony’s details cast a shadow over Iyue’s expression.
Because she remembered her sister, who had turned and walked away from her with contempt through the crowd, and the disbelief in her eyes when she had cast her out all those years ago.
She looked at the Queen before her, then thought of Waletidina, whom she had dueled in the Illusion Realm… and felt a stabbing pain in her heart.
Thinking back now, the reason she had packed her belongings immediately after the ceremony and set out on her Journey again without contacting anyone… was in part an attempt to flee from the pain of those old bonds.
But I will not run anymore. Because everything I have built with them is not merely pain.
Iyue thought this to herself.
Senia could guess somewhat of Iyue’s feelings from the expression on her face.
So she did not bring up the Triumphant Ceremony again, but instead continued recalling old matters concerning the Family Head:
“In the years since I ascended the throne, I have issued several summons to the head of the Nelf Family—since effective power has already been transferred to Lai Wei An Se and your sister’s hands, my reason for summoning her was merely to confirm, as per custom, whether her health remained sound.”
“How was it?”
“She did not appear.” Senia said, “The answer was always the same—she was unwell, unable even to stand upright, and thus could not come. After that, Lai Wei An Se would always come to see me, begging for my understanding and forgiveness.”
“The reason for the summons was itself to confirm her physical condition, so I had no grounds to punish her.” Senia gave a wry smile, “And in the impressions of all who had seen her, she truly was exactly that—as if she might die at any moment without it being strange.”
“But you said… that news of her death has never come.”
Iyue spoke in a very low voice.
“Yes.” Senia said, “Regarding that point, I have some thoughts. In the past, I heard certain things from my Father… things you all would not know. Father also told me not to tell others.”
“Your Majesty, you need not—”
“It’s fine. I judge this is not something that needs to be hidden away… especially from you.” Senia shook her head at Iyue, signaling that she need not worry.
“That Family Head is a figure from the same era as the First Queen… this much everyone knows. But for the Royal Family, we know her another identity—she is the First Queen’s younger sister.”
“Her… sister?”
Iyue was momentarily stunned by that word.
“Not some distant relative—they were biological sisters. They lived together in the age before the Sea of Trees nation was founded, and together they participated in that [War] against the Demon Invasion, led by Ilan Ilanthia, the founding Emperor of Yilansiya and the Second Hero.”
“That was… thirteen hundred years ago…”
“Yes. And by then, they were already close to five hundred years old. If she had lived straight through to today, she would have far surpassed the longest-lived among our Fairy Race… for even that person only lived to one thousand four hundred years.”
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