Chapter 53: are you kidding me?

Peace Talks?

As soon as these words were spoken, not only did Isabella find it laughable, but Gaius also felt that his own Princess must have been driven mad by the drastically changing situation on the scene.

They were the ones who had actively stormed into the Silver Moon Palace to hunt down the Imperial Envoys.

Even the personal guards of the Trenton Family had nearly died by their hands.

And now, just because they were outmatched, they wanted to initiate peace talks?

It would be strange if the other side agreed!

“Olivier, I don’t care what’s going on with you right now. But the fact that you led the Alendine Kingdom’s army to kill our countrymen is indisputable.”

Isabella was truly angry this time.

Wendy had never cried in all her years growing up.

How dare she make Wendy cry!

“This is a debt paid in blood, and it must be repaid with blood!”

“Blood debt, blood payment!!!”

With Isabella’s declaration, the momentum on the Empire’s side grew stronger and stronger.

They had endured too much suppression and suffering this night, and now they finally had the qualification to hold their heads high.

Gaius’s expression grew darker and darker.

War was already unavoidable.

He was already thinking, at the cost of irreversible injuries, whether he could manage to get Olivier away.

Ultimately, the answer he arrived at was yes.

However, it would require using the lives of everyone else to pave an escape route for them.

“Kieran, later, you take the men and hold them off as much as possible. I will escort Her Highness away as quickly as I can. Since the Elven King sent troops to aid us, he surely won’t abandon us to die. I’ll come back with reinforcements to save you then.”

Gaius issued the command in a low voice.

Whether in terms of seniority or status, he was the highest among the Seven Knights.

The King had even publicly acknowledged him as the leader of the Seven Knights, declaring his authority second only to the royal family.

In his view, only he, who had served the King loyally for twenty years and helped raise the two princes, was truly one of the royal family’s own.

The rest, whether the Seven Knights or the Three Archmages, were merely hired help.

His commands were absolute!

He was the one person below the King, above ten thousand others, in the entire Alendine Kingdom!

But this time, Kieran did not obey his command.

He stood expressionlessly beside Olivier, as if he hadn’t heard a word.

“Kieran! Do you want Her Highness to die here with you?! Obey my command, hold them off!”

Gaius flew into a rage.

How dare he!

“Don’t be so hasty, Gaius. I’m not necessarily going to die yet.”

At that moment, Olivier suddenly turned her head and smiled.

The sweet, cloying fragrance that wafted over with her smile made him freeze for a moment.

He was about to say something when he saw Olivier speak cheerfully:

“Well, since you demand blood debt, blood payment, then we shall repay blood debt with blood.”

Olivier’s playful words made Isabella sense something amiss.

But with the situation as it was now, she couldn’t imagine how the other side could possibly turn things around.

Elaril and the Elves’ Ninth Tier powerhouses would surely have to contain Alvain before the Sacred Tree.

Even if the Beast Race arrived, they had Leah and Etheriel to deal with them.

Just what was she planning?

Olivier wouldn’t give her time to think.

She had an attendant bring the list of the Empire’s envoys, and then counted them off one by one herself.

“Let me count. One, two, three… Hmm, Gaius led his men to kill ten of the Empire’s Guard Army and five envoys. If you don’t believe me, you can ask that handsome young man over there~”

Olivier winked at Hiberton, making the pure-hearted young master immediately turn his head, not daring to meet her gaze.

Although Isabella couldn’t figure out what she was trying to do, the number Olivier mentioned clearly didn’t match the number of Imperial citizens they had lost.

One was missing.

“Your Highness, Lord Hist died from an Orc attack.”

Hiberton, keeping his head bowed, leaned in to remind her.

Orcs?

She was cooperating with the Orc Tribes as well?

The killing intent in Isabella’s eyes grew increasingly obvious.

This woman would surely become the Empire’s greatest enemy in the future!

She absolutely could not be allowed to leave here alive!

“Surely you’re not going to blame the one Gareth killed on us as well? Ha~ It’s not impossible. Consider it a favor to the tribes.”

Clap clap~

Olivier clapped her hands.

Immediately, ten guards and six officials dressed in splendid robes stepped out from the Alendine ranks.

Their expressions were calm, their demeanor natural, and the aura of life emanating from them was very strong.

They just didn’t seem like living people.

Could it be?!

Their condition immediately made Isabella think of the controlled Elves, and her expression gradually revealed horror.

The next moment, as if to confirm her suspicions, Olivier playfully waved at them.

“For the sake of letting me live, commit suicide.”

In the next instant, these people unhesitatingly placed their swords against their own throats.

Before anyone could react to what was happening, with a whoosh, sixteen brilliant sprays of blood painted the bluestone floor.

Thud.

Sixteen headless bodies fell to the ground simultaneously.

Sixteen heads rolled and tumbled across the floor.

Isabella could still see their expressions remained as peaceful as ever.

Silence.

The Silver Moon Palace was filled with silence.

Whether it was the Imperial envoys who had just been emboldened or Gaius, they were all terrified by the bizarre scene before them.

With just a simple sentence like that, they had so cleanly and decisively ended their own lives?

Gaius suddenly felt the world had become very strange.

Olivier turned into a woman; Kieran defying orders; the envoys willingly going to their deaths.

Everything that had happened tonight was challenging his understanding of the world.

But amidst the expressions of those around him that seemed to take it all for granted, his own bewilderment felt glaringly out of place.

He was special.

That wasn’t scary, because he had always been the special one.

But this time, it seemed he and the royal family weren’t on the same side.

A sudden fear gripped Gaius’s heart.

Everything he had was given by the royal family.

If he wasn’t on the same side as them, what should he do?

“Urgh!!!!”

On the Empire’s side, someone had already started vomiting.

It was a self-protective reaction from the brain, stimulated by the combination of unknown fear and the cruel scene.

From this day forward, everything that happened tonight would be labeled in his mind with weirdness and terror.

Even on his deathbed in old age, when he saw a woman standing with expressionless people, he would still be unable to control his trembling.

“As you can see, the blood debt, blood payment you spoke of, we have already fulfilled it.”

Olivier’s smile hadn’t changed in the slightest.

It was still just as alluring, as if the lives of these sixteen people were merely ants at her feet, not even worthy of her attention.

“Can we have peace talks now?”

“Impossible!”

The one who spoke wasn’t Isabella, but Winnidith.

Her face streaked with messy bloodstains and tear tracks, she glared at Olivier with gritted teeth.

Injure her loved ones like this and then think you can just walk away?

She would never allow it!

Isabella breathed a sigh of relief.

The fighting spirit of the Imperial envoys had been shattered by the bizarre scene moments ago.

The sixteen lives the Alendine Kingdom owed the Empire had also been repaid.

From a standpoint of correctness, she really should proceed with peace talks with Olivier.

But now, with Winnidith joining in, everything was different.

Her emotions would become their best justification for killing Olivier.

Olivier looked directly into her eyes.

Those beautiful azure-blue eyes were now filled with flames of vengeance.

The smile on her face slowly faded, revealing a slightly pained expression.

“That’s why emotional little girls are troublesome, especially naive little girls of high status like you. They’re even more troublesome.”

“But I am the defeated general now. To preserve my own life… Hah, how about I give you the life of Uncle Gaius, who is as important to me as your Uncle Aaron, as compensation?”

Gaius’s hair stood on end.

He wanted to flee, but as Olivier called his name, his body uncontrollably began walking toward her.

“No… no…”

His face twisted grotesquely as he tried to beg for mercy.

But his body no longer belonged to him.

Even as blood mixed with saliva flowed from his mouth, staining the “Seven Knights” emblem that symbolized his status, he couldn’t utter a single word.

“Don’t!!!”

He finally managed to speak a complete sentence!

A flash of joy burst in Gaius’s eyes, only to be replaced by horror as he realized he could no longer utter even a single word.

His windpipe had been severed by Olivier.