Blood Elf Monarch

"May I come in?" the dark elf princess asked when they made eye contact. Even so, despite her asking, she still entered without waiting for Tristan's answer.

As Illiana walked into the special guest room, Tristan's eyes were unconsciously pulled to the black dress enveloping her curvaceous body.

The top of the dress was tied to her neck and holding the two mountains, while the side of the black dress had a cut almost reaching her waist, giving a small peek of her undergarments and showing about half of her leg.

Coupled with the decisive clicks of her footsteps and the confidence in her beautiful eyes, the dark elf princess certainly gave him a good impression.

However, although he could appreciate a beauty when he saw one, he understood that with this woman, there was much more than meets the eye. With how clever and manipulative she was, he might get into trouble if he could not make his little brother behave.

"What do you want?" Tristan asked, observing the woman in front of him.

Ignoring his words, Illiana simply kept walking until she stood next to the bed before asking back.

"Do you not need the alliance anymore?"

Hearing her question, Tristan fell silent for a moment. He briefly pondered over her question and her motive in coming here to meet him before giving a nod.

"I do." 

"Then why? My father, the king, only asked for a marriage in exchange. Unless..." she looked at Tristan in the eye. "You find me unbearably unattractive?"

With a little movement of her leg, Illiana was able to show off her exquisite legs, trying to entice him.

Unfortunately for him, her trick did work. It seemed that this woman knew how to make a conversation.

Looking at her eye-to-eye, Tristan approached the woman with a mysterious smile.

"I believe you're smart enough to know it's not about that."

As Tristan started to get closer Illiana, the dark elf slowly began to walk away from the bed. However, she did not avert her eyes, nor did the confidence in her eyes disappear.

"Then why? Why not? What is it that you want?" Illiana continued to ask.

Seeing the dark elf's behavior, a thought came to him.

'She's trying to play mind games with me.'

Thinking of this, the smile on his face turned into a slight frown. He stopped his steps and controlled his emotions to give a light smile before replying.

"I don't like to be played with. I just don't see why the king would wish for us to be married. It's all about trust, you see," Tristan deliberately paused for a moment. "There are too many things about you that I don't know at all for us to talk about marriage. Unless you think it's okay to trust someone you have almost no information about?"

Illiana briefly closed her eyes before finally relenting.

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

This was exactly what Tristan had been hoping for. Not wasting any time to take the opportunity, he directly spoke.

"Okay then, tell me… where did you get all of your intel from? It's astonishingly accurate."

The dark elf was previously curious about what Tristan wanted to know, but hearing his question, she simply smiled before responding.

"You understand, don't you? We are at war, hence gathering info through spies is a common thing."

Really not divulging anything. This woman was indeed clever, but this roundabout conversation also felt a bit annoying.

"You know that's not what I'm asking for."

The woman smiled even wider while remaining silent. Just as he thought she was not going to say anything, she began mentioning names.

"Your Caerleon captain Gazef was very informative. As for the capital... it was Commander Vain of the Night Owl."

Tristan was quite taken aback by this information. After all, the two she just mentioned were prominent figures who had served Arcadia for dozens of years. If she had not mentioned them, Tristan would have never guessed.

Without waiting for Tristan to say anything, Illiana continued, "Well, for what they're worth, they weren't that easy to acquire. Moreover, other than information, we never ask more from them."

Gazef was there when he experimented with his blood skill. As for Vain, he was ranked high enough to know what he did to the space knights. No wonder her information was so up to date.

Tristan was glad she was willing to tell him about them. However, at the same time, this made him doubt.

This woman revealed her informants so casually. It was either she had more than just those two as her informants or she was indeed sincere to make the alliance work.

"Anything else you'd like to know?" Illiana asked him with a smile, ignoring how he seemed to be in thought.

"What about the number of troops you have?" 

"We have 10,000 Uruks, 2,000 warrior elves, 500 nobles, 80 at saint level, and 8 at magus level."

Tristan was amazed by how casually she told him. However, she was not finished.

"That's the number known to Arcadia. In reality, we have twice the number of Uruks, 20 more elves at saint level who are in close training hoping to breakthrough to magus level, and 200 mountain trolls."

This woman really never ceased to surprise him. Tristan had briefly learned about the dark elves, and what Illiana previously said was true. Arcadia only knew the first numbers she mentioned. This led to his next question.

"With those forces and your talent in battle, you should be able to at least battle against Arcadia properly and probably win, so why haven't you?"

Still with the same smile, Illiana answered in a casual tone, "Believe it or not, we treat the war against Arcadia as practice. We've never really wished to beat them."

"Why?" Tristan insisted on getting the answer.

"As much as we don't like those humans, they still have their uses."

It was indeed such an arrogant reason. Even so, Tristan could see that if their actual number of troops was really as she said, then they would be able to destroy Arcadia with ease.

Seeing that Tristan was satisfied with her answers, the female dark elf then said.

"Now it's my turn to ask."

"Alright, spill it." Tristan nodded.

She was willing to answer his questions even though they were quite strictly confidential, so it was only right that he at least heard her out.

"All these questions and doubts, you seem more to act like a human than an elf," she looked into Tristan's eyes. "Tell me, what are you, really?"