The burly man didn’t bother to lower his voice.
Elena, standing not far away, heard everything clearly.
Elena’s light blue eyes instantly turned frosty.
With a wave of her hand, a golden holy sword materialized out of thin air.
She grasped it and pointed it directly at the old village chief.
“Village Chief Edwin, what do you mean by this?”
“Didn’t we agree before that Shiya would only be the Flower God’s bride in name?”
Elena spoke very quickly.
Anyone could see how anxious she was.
The old village chief glanced painfully at the burly man beside him, who remained impassive, then snorted at Elena.
“Princess Elena, you didn’t think that becoming a god’s bride and enjoying the villagers’ worship would come without any cost, did you?”
As soon as the old village chief finished speaking, a brilliant golden sword aura, like a shooting star, came slashing toward him.
The burly man stepped sideways, directly blocking the old village chief.
His red aura surged to its limit as he grabbed the sword aura with his arm.
BANG!
The shockwave instantly spread, nearly knocking everyone present back several steps.
Blood trickled from the burly man’s mouth, his face turning pale.
His earlier arrogance was gone.
Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, the old village chief took advantage of the stalemate.
He pressed a dagger against a female student’s neck and shouted,
“Stop!”
Elena indeed stopped, gripping the sword hilt tightly, not moving.
She turned to look at Shiya.
But the girl merely met her gaze silently, tilting her head as if she had long expected her fate and no longer had any expectations of Elena.
“Is there anything else I need to sacrifice, Sister Elena?”
These words struck Elena’s heart like a steel needle.
Elena took a deep breath.
She placed the sword hilt at her waist, stepped forward, and assumed a sword-drawing stance.
The old village chief’s gray eyebrows trembled involuntarily.
With a swift movement of his foot, he kicked Karlen over.
He appreciated this young man.
He thought Karlen could calm the princess who was on the verge of losing control.
As for the remaining students, it was too late.
If he let them all go, the holy sword’s edge would likely come crashing down on his head in the next moment.
This was once the sword of the Empire’s Valkyrie.
Even now, the old village chief still shuddered at the memory of those purple vertical pupils.
Leaving aside how an old man from a remote village knew this, but as he expected,
Sure enough, Karlen, clutching his pants, crawled over to Elena’s feet.
“Don’t be rash, Elena. I believe Shiya Yiding also doesn’t want you to do something stupid for her sake.”
But this calm tone was soon twisted, rising several pitches.
“Aah, E-Elena, can you help me stop the bleeding first?”
Rarely, Elena ignored Karlen.
She lowered her head, her golden hair falling to cover half her face, making her expression unreadable.
After the old village chief signaled the burly man to take Shiya, the Flower God’s bride, away, he caught a glimpse of something shocking—through the girl’s hair, he saw a pair of light blue eyes filled with intense hatred.
A chill ran down his spine.
After a moment of hesitation, he beckoned to the princess.
“Princess Elena, if you don’t mind, we can talk over there in that open space.”
“Even if you didn’t say it, I would have come to find you.”
Elena coldly left that remark, then, as if realizing something, she tossed a magical healing item to Karlen at her feet.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Karlen, but matters concerning Shiya are truly important to me.”
With that, she walked away without looking back.
Karlen stared at that slender, graceful figure for a long time, then suddenly felt waves of intense pain from the wound.
He gritted his teeth, clenched the healing item, and desperately tried to calm himself.
After a while, once the others were gone and only the old man and the young girl were left facing each other,
The old village chief, as if relieved of the burden of leadership, coughed twice and slowly sat down on a large rock, supporting his back.
“Princess Elena, do you think chastity is very important to a young girl?”
He got straight to the point.
Elena was so angry she laughed.
She stared intently at the old man and said, word by word,“Old village chief, don’t ask such stupid questions.”
But Village Chief Edwin shook his head.
“In my opinion, it’s just a layer of something. If it can be exchanged for ample food and a stable life, does it really matter to whom you give it?”
Then the old village chief looked very seriously at Elena.
“My wife didn’t have that thing, but we still loved each other for decades until she died of old age.”
Elena let out a rare scoff but didn’t respond.
The old village chief wasn’t angry; he just sighed lightly.
“In those times of war and chaos, people had no food. To exchange for a bite to eat to save me, she unhesitatingly chose to sell her dignity.”
The disdain on Elena’s face faded somewhat.
‘Putting myself in his shoes… would I care whether Shiya was pure or not?’
‘The answer was obvious—of course I wouldn’t care.’
‘But according to the old village chief, Shiya was still intact; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been chosen as the Flower God’s bride.’
‘That meant Leonora hadn’t done anything to Shiya?’
‘No, that’s not right. It was that Shiya had always held her ground, remaining unstained from the mud.’
Elena’s heart began to beat uncontrollably faster.
The old village chief looked strangely at the princess, who had inexplicably broken into a grin.
Then he said something that instantly made her face turn pale.
“And now, Miss Shiya, for your sake as well, has agreed to willingly become the Flower God’s bride.”
“Now, she only wants to see you one last time.”
Elena was immediately struck as if by lightning.
She plopped down onto the large rock.
“Shiya…”
Her lips moved, murmuring that name.
Her eyes were frighteningly red.
Village Chief Edwin sighed and shook his head again.
A girl willing to sacrifice herself for another girl like this—it was truly a first for him.
He slowly stood up, brushed the dust off his clothes, and after a long silence, asked Elena a question in return.
“Your Highness, do you truly believe that dwarf, that fool of our village, could actually kill your students who know magic and swordsmanship?”
Earlier, during the battle, Anderson was too busy dealing with the attacking flowers, and the fool had already taken the chance to escape.
The old village chief then supplied a negative answer for Elena.
“Even if it were true, the aftermath of the conflict would have alerted your student council members, wouldn’t it?”
Meanwhile, Karlen, who had watched the two leave earlier, looked down at a small puddle of water at his feet.
His voice was cold as ice.
“Xiwa, who exactly killed those students who insulted the village women?”
“And, you went too far. Next time, don’t use your tentacles as a substitute for thinking.”
Suddenly, a slimy purple tentacle shot out from the puddle, hooking around Karlen’s neck and shaking it gently.
But the force was gentle, more like an act of affection.
Vaguely, cold white tears slid down its surface.
At that moment, another purple tentacle rose from the river, holding something Karlen had been longing for in a fawning manner, then dropped it with a slap onto the ground.
Karlen glanced at it and growled furiously,
“What use is it now that you’ve brought it back?”
The purple tentacle complied readily, immediately wrapping around that thing again.
It squeezed it tightly until it broke, then sucked it dry with its suckers, devouring it completely.
Karlen finally couldn’t hold on.
In his rage and frustration, he coughed up blood and passed out.
Time quietly passed as everyone harbored their own thoughts, until the next morning.
Elena arrived as promised at the door of Ilya’s secluded two-story wooden house.
What was notable was that the old village chief, who usually handled all matters in Flower God Village, was just sitting on the wooden steps that day, showing no intention of going inside.
When he saw the princess arrive, Village Chief Edwin greeted her and then left on his own.
Elena composed herself.
Since last night, she had had so many things she wanted to ask Shiya.
But the moment she pushed the door open, she was completely captivated by the scene before her.
The snow-white-haired girl inside the wooden house had already changed out of her usual plain white dress.
In its place was a dress woven from flowers, branches, and green leaves.
Her smooth, snow-white shoulders, slender neckline, and large expanses of fair, delicate skin on her back and legs were half-hidden among the blossoms and greenery.
At that moment, the flower bride extended an arm as pure as white jade, slowly raising it.
She gently brushed the back of her hand across her cheek, then down along her shoulder and neck, finally resting at her collarbone.
Finally, she turned to Elena outside the door and bloomed into a fresh, elegant smile like a flower’s countenance.
She froze for a moment, apparently not noticing that the princess had already arrived.
From inside came Ilya’s cheerful applause.
“Sister Shiya, your dance talent is amazing! It hasn’t been long, and you’ve already mastered all the basic moves.”
Even the strict old woman beside her, who had come to give Shiya rigorous instruction, nodded repeatedly.
“Miss Shiya, it seems you will be the bride best able to please the Flower God in all generations.”
Elena’s heart was pricked slightly.
But she still closed the door behind her and forced a strained smile.
“Shiya, all these years, I never knew you had such talent.”
But faced with so much praise, Shiya only nodded numbly, her gaze somewhat hollow.
Seeing this, Ilya and the old woman exchanged a knowing glance.
It was Ilya who spoke first.
“Then, Sister Shiya, you finish dancing a full dedication to the Flower God in here. Grandma Qiaona and I will wait outside.”
Elena immediately stepped forward, looking directly at Ilya.
“Can I stay here?”
Ilya’s large, water-blue eyes blinked.
She looked at Elena with some difficulty, but in the end, she left with the old woman.
And at this moment, only Elena and Shiya remained in the room.
A gentle breeze swept over the girl’s skin, bringing a slight chill.
She pressed her lips together and stood on her tiptoes with her delicate ankles.
But perhaps because she was too nervous, the moment she started, she stumbled.
Elena decisively stepped forward and caught the unsteady girl.
“I think I sprained my ankle.”
Shiya lowered her head, her ear tips slightly red.
But Elena took the opportunity to grip her arms, speaking slowly and earnestly.
“But Shiya, I want to see it.”
The girl was ultimately helpless.
She broke free from the princess’s grasp and instead wrapped her arms around Elena’s shoulders.
“Then be my stage support.”
Even she didn’t realize that when she said that, a glimmer of light finally appeared in her pale golden eyes.
As the girl began to dance gracefully, the green leaves and flower petals on her dress began to fall off, drifting down.