Village Chief Edwin, who had been sitting anxiously with a furrowed brow, suddenly calmed down.
“You useless piece of trash. With that effeminate face of yours, I bet you’re no good in that department either.”
He mocked with a hint of amusement.
Karlen, as if struck in a sore spot, his face instantly turning beet red, turned to glare hatefully at the innocent-looking bespectacled student council member.
Some of Flower God Village’s young men, brandishing swords and knives, were about to rush over and forcibly take Shiya away.
Elena flashed in front of Shiya, taking a graceful and light step forward, facing the dozen or so gleaming blades that almost made one’s heart tremble.
The tip of her sword lightly tapped the ground, then rose.
In an instant, it formed a circular storm of clashing metal.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—!
The sound of metal colliding rang out incessantly.
These muscle-bound young men felt a shock in their hands, and their weapons flew out of their grasp.
Elena smoothly withdrew her move, her blade sweeping horizontally, leaving bloody gashes on the bodies of these young men.
“Monster, she’s a monster!”
The young men wailed, scared out of their wits, all shrinking behind the old village chief.
In the end, they even pushed the old man forward, forcing him to face the slender figure holding the sword alone.
The scene was tense to the extreme.
Village Chief Edwin sighed inwardly.
It seemed he had underestimated these students; he hadn’t brought the village’s true defensive forces.
After all, she was that person’s child.
However, the student council members didn’t gain any advantage either.
Amid the Flower God Village villagers’ curses of “beasts” and “ungrateful wolves,” they were driven out of the village and slunk off to hide in a clearing in a grove of flower-leaf trees.
Time quietly passed until evening.
By the time the thick fog began to rise again, the student council members still couldn’t make contact with the outside world.
The campfire crackled in the clearing, warming their bodies, but it couldn’t stop the atmosphere from freezing over.
Anxiety and panic gradually spread among the group.
These students, already starving and enduring insect bites in the wild, had reached a fever pitch in their arguments, and it seemed they might come to blows at any moment.
“President Elena, just take us and charge again!”
A hot-tempered student council member shouted loudly.
“My lord father often sends soldiers to kill some troublemaking villagers, to warn them, and also loot some valuables on the side.”
Elena gave him a cold glance, her face expressionless, and said nothing.
“Shiya, come eat something first.”
She ladled the last small bag of rice into a bowl of hot porridge and gently handed it to the girl.
Under everyone’s gaze, Shiya blushed and took it shyly.
She was really too hungry to bear it.
But the girl only took a small sip, then offered it to the student council members who were staring at her eagerly.
“Everyone, have some too.”
The students looked at each other, and under the princess’s deep gaze, no one dared to step forward and take the bowl.
In the end, Elena took the bowl of millet porridge, drank from the same spot Shiya had, and then shoved it back into the girl’s hands.
“Shiya, a girl’s used utensils shouldn’t be given to just anyone.”
The princess paused noticeably at this point, then added in a calm tone, “It’s not polite.”
The bespectacled student beside her first gave a flattering smile to the bewildered Shiya, then abruptly stood up.
He pointed rudely at the nose of the hot-tempered student who had just spoken arrogantly.
“Idiot, are we still going to hold the Flower God Festival? If they hold a grudge and secretly sabotage us, can you prevent it?”
After scolding, the bespectacled student council member didn’t forget to sneak a glance at Elena’s expression.
“Are you a ruffian too?”
The hot-tempered student wanted to retort, but Elena raised her hand to signal him to shut up.
“There’s a smell of blood nearby.”
Under the firelight, Elena’s face was extremely cold, and her hand quietly tightened around Shiya’s palm.
As the princess’s words fell, everyone immediately became like startled birds.
But their good combat discipline kept them silent;
They formed ranks and began searching the area.
But this order didn’t last long.
With an angry, shrill cry, the students rushed toward the direction of the sound.
What kind of sight was that?
Including the student council members who had defiled the female villagers earlier, one after another, the bodies of men and women were pierced through the back of the neck by gruesome iron hooks, which then protruded from their wide-open mouths.
They were hung from the thick branches of the flower-leaf trees in a sickeningly familiar posture, their drooping eyes dull and lifeless, their flesh torn open, with hardly a spot left intact.
The cold wind whimpered, as if both complaining to the living about the earlier atrocities and questioning them.
Why have you come only now?
The bespectacled student, who had been calmly analyzing just moments ago, stared blankly at the female student’s body.
This was his girlfriend, his fiancée whom he had promised to marry upon graduation.
Drops of clear tears slid down the female student’s wrinkled skirt to her calves, finally dripping onto the bespectacled student’s face.
That cold, filthy sensation instantly shattered his sanity.
“I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them!”
Bam!
But perhaps because the fog blocked his vision, he hadn’t run far before his head slammed into a tree.
The frames of his glasses broke, and the shattered lenses cut into his face.
The man, now covered in blood, didn’t care at all.
Using an axe formed from water magic, he cut down the offending flower-leaf tree at its roots, then strode toward Flower God Village.
But just before that, the golden emblem of crossed sword wings on Elena’s hand lit up.
A dazzlingly gorgeous golden holy sword, with blinding light, pressed against his throat.
“Don’t act rashly, Anderson.”
Despite being equally furious, Elena still controlled her emotions and advised him.
Anderson’s eyes wide with fury, he roared, “Still thinking about the Flower God Festival? You royal nobles really don’t care about human lives at all?!”
Insulted by a commoner, Elena, as a princess, didn’t get angry; her voice remained calm and unhurried.
“Because I’ve already found him.”
In an instant, a flash of sword light.
The princess leaned forward at incredible speed, lightly swinging the brilliant holy sword in her hand to shatter a few scattered stones flying toward her.
The burst limestone fell with a rustle.
With a light step, her blade swept horizontally, pushing aside an inconspicuous clump of grass.
The princess only took a quick glance, and a look of disgust quickly appeared on her face.
Because behind the grass, a short dwarf man was hiding without even wearing pants.
She kicked him to the ground.
“Shiya, close your eyes. There’s something dirty.”
Elena gently pulled Shiya, who was right behind her, back a little, and covered her eyes with her hand.
“Mm, Elena, like this I can’t even see the road.”
The girl muttered in dissatisfaction and reached up to pull at Elena’s hand.
In that brief moment, Anderson had already brushed past them.
“You damned thing, how could you bear to do this to her?”
Anderson, eyes bloodshot, stomped on the dwarf’s stomach and gathered a water ball, ready to crush him completely.
“Mommy, Mommy…” The dwarf man giggled, pointing at Anderson, as if not quite sane.
Just then, a sudden change occurred.
The sound of heavy objects pressing through the soil approached.
The entire forest of flowers came to life.
Giant purple flowers, taller than a person, burst out from the ground, and swallowed the off-guard Anderson into their thick-rooted bellies in one gulp.
Elena didn’t even raise an eyelid.
She launched a continuous series of sword strikes, cutting apart all the roses that leaped at her.
Then, with a twist of her wrist, she reversed her golden blade and split the giant purple man-eating flower in two, rescuing Anderson.
Unfortunately, compared to the entire flower forest, Elena’s attack was like a drop in the bucket.
The next moment, more flowers pulled themselves out of the soil.
Rustling, like a swarm of colorful venomous spiders, they all pounced toward her.
But Elena’s movements didn’t become hurried;
It was as if she was strictly adhering to the elegant etiquette of an imperial princess.
She gently pressed her palm on the hilt of the sword.
A powerful wind pressure formed sword qi, clearing the surrounding area while also briefly dispersing the thick fog.
The figures of several villagers controlling stone statues were all reflected in her light blue eyes.
Elena’s heart stirred slightly;
These stone statues seemed exactly like the ones that had attacked Shiya earlier.
Their eyes met only briefly, and beads of sweat immediately formed on the villagers’ foreheads.
Elena’s cherry-red lips curled slightly.
“Shiya, hold tight.”
The girl, confused, still extended her slender arms and tightly hugged the princess’s waist.
Then, she truly witnessed the unparalleled might of an absolute powerhouse.
Elena swung her golden holy sword, cutting through the flower vines, which were slow to react to her, as if entering an empty land.
The golden sword qi was especially dazzling in the foggy night.
One villager controlling a stone statue was dazzled, his vision going white, and quickly used his arm to shield his eyes.
Elena was already in front of him;
She casually raised the sword hilt and knocked him unconscious.
The dazzling holy sword cleaved the stone statue in two as easily as cutting a piece of cream cake.
Then, the princess strolled leisurely, her blade rising and falling, knocking down all the resisters present and destroying all the stone statues.
The outcome was decided.
Shiya let go of Elena’s waist.
Her light golden eyes reflected the princess, whose upright posture and aura were no less imposing than any man’s.
In her palm lingered the lingering warmth unique to a girl, along with a faint scent of bamboo leaves.
But soon, the princess’s somewhat heroic brows furrowed in confusion.
Why hadn’t the other student council members followed, aside from her and Anderson?
The answer soon revealed itself before the princess.
“President Elena, save us.”
From behind came the cries for help from the other student council members.
The old village chief slowly emerged from a thicket of flowers.
“Princess Elena, as a leader, the most important thing is not to charge ahead alone, but to have the ability to command the overall situation.”
Behind the old man, some villagers controlling stone statues used vines to bind all the student council members, who had long since fallen behind.
Compared to raw strength, skillfully using tactics can more easily achieve unexpected results.
From the beginning, the old village chief’s primary target was not Elena, who was the strongest in combat.
The ones sent to intercept Elena were merely bait.
“Princess, hand over the Flower God Bride. There’s no need to make this situation so ugly.”
The old village chief said this, but he took a dagger handed to him by a nearby villager and stabbed a bloody hole in Karlen, who was bound by vines.
The man screamed in pain, but still gritted his teeth and shouted to Elena, “Don’t worry about me, run quickly.”
“Karlen…”
Elena clenched her fists, her light blue eyes moist.
As a retainer, Karlen was far too loyal.
Village Chief Edwin clicked his tongue.
“What’s all the noise? I’ve had it with you for a long time.”
The dagger turned slightly.
Karlen let out a sharp howl, broke free of the vines, and writhed in pain on the ground.
The sharpness that should belong to a man was completely gone at this moment, as he made his final farewell to her.
The old village chief impatiently kicked something toward the river, then stomped heavily on Karlen’s back, pinning him down.
Besides the female villager who had been defiled by the three student council members, another timid female villager had also come to him crying.
As the village chief, Edwin naturally had to stand up for the female villagers.
“Shiya…”
Elena called out to the person beside her instinctively.
The girl was silent.
After letting out a soft sigh, she moved with light steps toward the Flower God Village villagers who were glaring at her.
“I understand, Elena… sister.”
Elena’s body stiffened sharply.
She reached out a hand, almost unable to control herself, and cried out, “You… where are you going?”
The girl’s back suddenly stopped.
She turned her head, her light golden eyes devoid of their former gentleness, only a calm like still water, as if completely dead.
‘Isn’t this your choice, Elena? What are you hesitating about now?’
She said nothing, but Elena immediately understood the silent words in Shiya’s eyes.
Elena clutched her chest, feeling an unprecedented dull pain, her breath almost stopping.
But she had to do this.
Those student council members loyal to her were important assets in her future bid for the throne.
And in just five years, she could bring Shiya back to the Imperial Capital unharmed, right?
“Shiya, when that day comes, I will agree to anything you ask…”
Shiya neither responded nor looked at Elena’s pained expression.
Without even a word of concern, she slowly walked to the old village chief.
Until the burly man beside Village Chief Edwin grabbed her shoulders, immobilizing the girl, making it impossible for her to escape.
However, the burly man’s face showed no joy at this moment.
He turned to Village Chief Edwin, “Village Chief, with people dead and the Flower God’s guardian statues destroyed, this will definitely anger the deity. Let’s perform the Flower God’s ritual early. Have the Flower God Bride offer a dance to the deity, then present her chastity as an offering.”