The Tale of Hero Alice's Social Death - Chapter 145

Chapter 145 – The Elves’ Standpoint

While everything on Alice’s side was progressing smoothly, things weren’t going as well on the elven council’s side. Currently, the elven elders were in distress, and the cause of it was Alice.

“A message came from the demons,” the patriarch, an elderly elf sitting at the head of the meeting room, said with a long face. Then, after sweeping a glance across the six elven elders sitting around the meeting table, he continued, “They want a Seed of Nature from us.”

As the patriarch had expected, as soon as he made his announcement, a cacophony of noise ensued in the meeting room. Although there were only seven elves in the room, their heated debate made the room sound like a noisy marketplace.

However, despite the noise, the patriarch could still make out the thoughts of the six elders. Basically, all six elders were unanimously against the demons’ demand, which was an expected outcome.

The demons had been continuously waging war against the human realm since over ten thousand years ago. Meanwhile, other than the dragon race that lived in the distant Dragon Mountain Range, the demons had involved every other race in their war against the human realm.

It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say that the demon race was responsible for every major conflict that had occurred in this world during the past ten thousand years. So, there was no way the elves would be willing to offer the demons one of their national treasures.

“But the problem is that…the demons seem unusually insistent on getting the Seed of Nature this time,” Patriarch Elway said after seeing the elders’ heated discussion calming down. “It seems they’ve expected us to refuse their demand, so they stated that if we refuse to comply, the demon army will surround the Elven Forest tomorrow…”

Unlike before, the elders no longer made any noise when they heard Patriarch Elway’s words this time. Instead, all of them fell silent unanimously.

Everyone present was aware of how powerful the demon army was. This wasn’t simply knowledge they had derived through analytical data. Instead, it was knowledge they had gained through personal experience. After all, everyone present was either over a thousand years old or close to reaching a thousand years old, and every one of them had experienced at least three demon invasions so far. Three of them even belonged to the same generation as the Seventh Hero.

So, they were fully aware of what the demon army was capable of. Even if they excluded the Demon King and Hero, the elves only had Fithalia capable of matching the demons’ Four Heavenly Kings.

In other words, so long as the demon army had two Heavenly Kings, the elves would face a one-sided massacre.

“Then… It seems our only option is to give it to them?” an elder asked.

Although it sounded cowardly, this was their only way to avoid a massacre. After all, they couldn’t possibly let their race get slaughtered simply because they refused to part with a Seed of Nature, right?

“The demons have learned a lot from human civilization, so they are no longer a purely barbaric race like before. I believe they should be sending their army only as a threat rather than to start an actual war,” Elway said, trying to be optimistic. However, he let out a helpless sigh the next moment and continued, “But even if that is the case, we don’t know what the demons will do if we refuse to give them the Seed of Nature.”

After determining that their only way out of this situation was to make concessions, an elven elder asked, “How many Seeds of Nature do we have left, Patriarch?”

“We only have three left. It should be a few more decades before the next batch of seeds is ready,” Elway answered.

“A few decades, huh… Not very long, then.”

The elders’ mood brightened up a little. If they only had to wait for a few decades to acquire more Seeds of Nature, it wouldn’t hurt to give one away.

“Then… Should we give one away?” another elder suggested.

“But Lalu previously contacted us saying that the Gryffin Kingdom’s princess also needs a Seed of Nature,” Elway said, bringing forth another problem. “I had initially considered agreeing to her request, but if we agree to both the princess’s and the demons’ requests, we’ll only have one Seed of Nature for our use.”

The Seed of Nature was an important resource crucial in assisting talented elves in cultivating their mana and improving the Elven Forest’s environment. It was also essential in mana-based research.

If they had two Seeds of Nature, the seeds should last them until the next fruiting season. However, if they only had one seed at their disposal, they would most likely exhaust it long before the next batch of seeds was ready. If that happened, the development of elves would fall into a period of stagnation.

“This is…indeed a problem.”

This problem also stumped the elders. Although the Gryffin Kingdom’s princess might not seem as big a threat as the entire demon race, the elves shared friendly relations with the various human kingdoms. Moreover, while the elves treated the Seeds of Nature as national treasures, they weren’t items that couldn’t be given away.

If there had never been any precedent of the elves giving away any of their Seeds of Nature, they could naturally refuse the Gryffin Princess’s request without worrying about any repercussions. However, the problem was that there had indeed been precedences where the elves had given away Seeds of Nature as signs of friendship. So, if the elves refused the Gryffin Princess’s request now, there was a high possibility that this situation would develop into a diplomatic crisis.

Times have changed. Although the elves were still conservative in their thoughts, they had gradually begun to conform to the changing times and consider friendly relations with other races and nations.

“Why don’t we tell the truth to the Gryffin Kingdom’s princess and have her stop the demons for us?” an elder suggested. “The demons might dare to threaten us, but they would probably hesitate if their opponent becomes the Gryffin Kingdom. That way, we’ll only have to give a seed to the princess.”

“If you so blatantly use the Gryffin Kingdom as cannon fodder, you might as well reject their request directly,” another elder said, refuting the suggestion immediately. “If we follow your suggestion, we’d be making enemies out of the Gryffin Kingdom and the demons simultaneously.”

“In that case, we’ll pick out two Seeds of Nature and give one to the demons and one to the Gryffin Princess,” Patriarch Elway said after seeing that the elders had nothing more to say. “Although it is unlikely we can last until the next fruiting season with only one seed, we have no choice but to use it sparingly. At worst, we’ll just face a decade or two of stagnated development. We can also consider introducing human technology into the village to fill this period of stagnation.”

“Agreed.”