The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

“Imagine,” she licked her lips, a burning light blooming in her scarlet eyes, “a family that is comparable to a city-state.”

Sylvia's scarlet eyes flickered, and there seemed to be a hint of the same heat rising up, but this heat was fleeting, and the scarlet eyes returned to their cold and calm state.

She stretched out a hand and fumbled with the spider relief on the armrest of the seat. Before she could say anything, Korul in the audience spoke angrily:

"I thought your attempts to exonerate yourself were foolish enough—I didn't expect you could be even more foolish!"

"Are you crazy?"

"You actually instigated us to attack a city-state inhabited by a giant dragon?"

"The greater the risk, the greater the opportunity." Facing the harsh rebuke from her second sister, Cassia remained calm and responded calmly.

"You..." Korul was furious but wanted to continue speaking.

But Madam Sylvia interrupted her. Her dark purple lips slightly opened, and her cold words instantly grasped the crux of the matter:

"The power of that dragon, I need to know this."

She believed that her daughter was not a foolish person who would go crazy and disregard her life for a mountain of treasure. Moreover, Cassia's behavior at this moment showed that she still had a fairly clear mind.

Now that she said so, it proves that this is not a battle without any chance of winning.

"Judging from its size," Cassia said calmly, "it's just a young dragon."

"Maybe," she added to boost the elves' confidence, "maybe just in his late teens."

"I don't want to hear maybes," said Madam Sylvia coldly, "Let's just assume that it was a young dragon."

"With all our strength, we can kill the dragon. But have you ever thought about how much it will cost us, and what will happen after that—"

Her long black nails tapped the metal relief on the top of the handrail. "Can we keep the fruits of victory?"

"In this city, many families are eyeing the Seventh Family and waiting for its downfall."

"As long as we show the slightest sign of weakness, countless guys will rush forward without hesitation and tear us to pieces with their fangs and claws!"

Sylvia's voice was bone-chillingly cold, stirring up waves of fear in the hearts of many of her daughters.

For a moment, they seemed to have seen the gate of the Borgia family being breached, family members dying one by one, and finally it was their turn to escape the horrible fate.

The scene was so vivid, because in countless pasts, they were the ones who personally created similar tragedies...

Borgia is the seventh family of Nevre - but Borgia was not born as the seventh family. It has risen from an insignificant family in the outer city to its current status in the past hundred years. In Nevre, there is no peaceful transition of power. There is only one way to improve the ranking of a family - every time you kill a family in front of you, your family ranking will move up one place.

This is how the Borgia family climbed to their current position step by step, trampling on the blood of countless other families. In every battle, they would kill every member of the enemy family, even babies. Only slaves who were not dark elves, not citizens, but just "property" or "livestock" would be incorporated and have a hope of surviving.

This was the customary practice in Nevre's bloody struggle. Not only Borgia, but every family that participated in the struggle and ultimately won dealt with their enemies in this way.

This also means that once the Borginia family fails, the cruel fate they have inflicted on other families countless times will inevitably befall every member of their family!

"You are aware of the price of doing this," Lovina's voice was chilling, and she was trembling slightly with subconscious fear.

"In my opinion, you want to divert attention. Use a grand and tempting, but almost unattainable goal to make the family ignore your failure."

"In order to escape punishment, you are willing to put the entire family on fire. You deserve to be killed!" She pointed her finger at Cassia, her voice was high and her eyebrows were twisted in anger.

Cassia lowered her eyebrows slightly.

Luo Wenna was right. She wanted to divert the family's attention through a new war and reduce the family's attention to her failure. Moreover, if this battle started, she, as the only witness of the last battle, could not help but participate. As long as they killed the dragon and gained a huge harvest, she could atone for her crime and might even be rewarded.

However, she was not so stupid as to not understand that if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold, and if the nest is overturned, the eggs will not be able to remain intact...

"The pros and cons," she raised her head and said loudly, "My Lady and the sisters can weigh the pros and cons. I won't use such a clumsy method to deceive you. This is the ultimate insult to your wisdom."

"However," she paused, turned to the mistress, and nodded respectfully, "Regarding this matter, I have another very important piece of news that I need to report to you. I hope you can make a decision after hearing this news."

"What news?" Sylvia asked calmly.

Cassia hesitated a little.

"Forgive me for my presumption," she said after a long pause, "Madam, this news is extremely important. It is related to the fundamental direction of this incident and the future fate of the Borgia family..."

"So I think I can only report this to you alone."

"Are you doubting your sister?" Upon hearing this, Korul frowned slightly and said in a cold voice.

The other sisters also had strange expressions on their faces.

"You are really getting more and more ignorant of the seriousness of the matter," Korul said angrily, "In my opinion, it is not enough for you to lure the family with foreign enemies, but you are also trying to create suspicion and division among us. You are really..."

"Stand back," At this moment, Madam Sylvia suddenly uttered two cold words from her dark purple lips.

Korul fell silent immediately. At the same time, many sisters put away their different expressions and became dignified and respectful again. Before Sylvia gave another order, they all bowed to their mother and left without saying a word.

The unspeakable silence dissipated, and the unspeakable silence reunited. As the door closed behind her, Cassia felt a pressure on her shoulders. This pressure was even heavier than when many sisters were present before, because she had to face her mother alone.

"I'll give you a chance to speak to me alone."

"However, the information you provide next had better prove that you are worthy of this trust."

"otherwise……"

The sharp nails scratched the metal relief of the chair armrest, making a chilling sound. The live venomous snake wrapped around the snake-head whip hanging beside the chair also seemed to sense the owner's thoughts, twisting and twisting to spit out red letters and making chilling hisses.

Sylvia Borgia sat high on the throne. Her tall figure loomed larger and larger above the rising steps, emitting an irresistible oppression, like a venomous snake that straightened its upper body and stared at its enemy. As soon as she opened her mouth, cold air blew out from between her dark purple lips, just like a venomous snake spitting out its scarlet tongue, ready to launch a fatal attack.

Facing her biological mother alone, this scene made Cassia feel as if she had returned many years ago.

Anakta was not yet her eldest sister at that time.

There is actually one older sister above her nine older sisters.

On that familiar day, young Cassia was standing in this dark hall, facing her mother alone, just like now.

At that time, she was not as scared as she is now. She was just full of doubts, because at her age, she was generally not qualified to attend such a meeting attended only by female nobles of the family. And the curious nature of a child increased her curiosity, so she was very confused and looked at her mother on the steps with wide eyes without any hesitation.

At that time, she had been educated that she should not look directly at her mother without permission. But for some reason, her mother ignored her recklessness and did not scold or spank her as she had done in the past, giving her a profound lesson.

Now Cassia certainly knew that the reason why the mistress did not immediately teach her a lesson as usual was because a lesson far more profound than that was about to come.

Chapter 196 Lessons and Plans

She heard the sound of a door opening behind her, so she turned around and was surprised to find that her second sister Anakta, third sister Kelul, and fourth sister Mefina walked in together. In their hands, they were holding an elf who was tied up tightly - their eldest sister, Marsed.

This was not the Masaid who was dressed in a black robe, beautiful and dignified, elegant and majestic, and whose every word and action was in accordance with the norm, but a Masaid with messy hair, tattered clothes, and blood all over her body.

Cassia opened her eyes wide and looked at her three sisters in disbelief as they escorted her. She was also their eldest sister passing by and was at a loss as to what to do.

She wanted to say something and make sense of the situation, but a foresighted omen and the great fear that followed grabbed her heart and sealed her lips, making her dare not make a sound.

After a while, the other sisters arrived one after another.

After all the daughters of the Borgia family arrived, Madam Sylvia announced something: her eldest daughter, Mercede, could not wait to take over power from her healthy and strong mother, so she conspired with other families to launch a rebellion, trying to murder her mother and replace her...

After listening to her mother announcing her eldest sister's shocking crimes, young Cassia witnessed a scene that still horrifies her when she recalls it:

The mother used magic to imprison Masayoshi's body, releasing poisonous snakes and spiders... driving them to drill into Masayoshi's mouth that was forcibly pried open, and into her body...

Then, the spell was lifted, and the poison, eager to find a way out, bit Masaid madly. She still remembers her elder sister's horrible face, her distorted screams that sounded like human voices, the poisonous snakes and spiders that came out of her mouth, nose, and lower abdomen, and her mother's high-pitched laughter coming from the top of the stairs.

After that day, Cassia went from being the eleventh daughter of Borgia to the tenth, and Anakta went from being her second sister to the eldest.

All these years have passed, and the ranking of the Borgia sisters has never changed, which is enough to prove that the mistress's handling is very proper and appropriate.

And now, she has to face such a deep, wise, cold and powerful mistress.

"I met Dufia in the maze," she said calmly.

"Who?"

"Dufeiya Dinitya. The daughter of the Second Family, and the most beloved daughter of His Excellency Lucien, the Chief Mage and Chief of Martial Arts of the Second Family."

Generally speaking, when referring to males, female dark elves rarely add the word "Sir" after their names, but Lucien is an exception.

Since the death of the previous matriarch of the Second Family, he has been the actual ruler of the Second Family, and this has not changed for decades. This is an unprecedented major event in the political situation of the female-dominated city-state of Nevre, so although many noble women have opinions about this daring man, they still cannot help but give him the respect that a family leader actually deserves.

"There is not only a giant dragon in the maze, but also Princess Du Feiya of the Second Family and her army."

"They are exploring the lost city just like us."

"Did you have a conflict with them?" Sylvia asked calmly, stroking the armrest of the chair.

"No."

"Their troops are stronger than ours." Cassia replied calmly, "But both of us were in trouble at the time, so I took advantage of the situation and persuaded the two families to cooperate."

She clearly felt her mother relieved, which made her a little disappointed.

"I asked her why she was here, and she said that her family's scouts also discovered information about the lost city. What a coincidence."

"But I think," she paused, enunciating every word with great clarity, "this is definitely not a coincidence."

"This is certainly not a coincidence." Sylvia, sitting on the throne on the steps, sneered.

"Someone in our family leaked the news."

"This information came from a single source, and it was kept strictly confidential before we set out. Apart from the scout who discovered the ruins, only I and your sisters knew about it."

"Yes," Cassia whispered, "I thought so too, so I..."

"Do you suspect that there is a traitor among your sisters who is colluding with the second family?" Sylvia raised her eyebrows and asked Cassia bluntly.

"This is just one of the possible scenarios. Perhaps there are other variables in the process." Cassia said respectfully, "But I think we can't let our guard down at any stage before we figure out the real reason for the news leak."

"Since you know the importance of this news," Sylvia asked coldly, "why didn't you report to me as soon as you came back?"

"Please forgive me, Madam," Cassia bowed her head slightly and answered timidly, "I also know that this news is very important, but it concerns... my sisters. I think... I shouldn't speculate about my sisters in this way, so I am very hesitant. But this matter is so important, and no matter what the actual situation is, Madam, you have the right to know everything, so I thought hard for a long time, and finally..."

"Okay," Sylvia interrupted her impatiently. Then she kept silent and fell into thought.

Cassia said nothing more. She stood in the middle of the hall, waiting silently.

Her goal had been achieved. She didn't care who was the spy. The reason why she didn't go straight to the mistress and report the news as soon as she came back was that she hoped to find the right time in the middle of the family meeting and use this as an excuse to get the other sisters out, so that they wouldn't gossip in the mistress's ear and add fuel to the fire.

As for whether there was a spy and who the spy was, let the mistress investigate slowly. If she focused all her attention on this matter, she might not have the energy to repeatedly evaluate her own failure.

"What happens next?" Sylvia pondered silently for a while, then spoke again. However, she did not dwell on the previous question any further. Instead, she put it aside for the time being and asked about the situation after Cassia and Dufiya reunited.

"The Dinitya family's expeditionary force was wiped out just like us."

"Du Feiya?"

"She didn't make it out alive. I am the only survivor of the entire coalition," she paused and added seriously, "and Korul's daughter."

Sylvia nodded: "Is this all you want to report?"

"Okay," she spoke again, and was about to send her little daughter away, but she suddenly opened her lips.

"Not only that," Du Feiya responded in a low voice, "Madam, based on the intelligence we obtained in the ruins earlier, I have another plan."

"This is just a suggestion," she raised her head and looked at her mother carefully, "I hope you will listen to it."

"Speak," Sylvia said solemnly.

"I have suggested before that we should not let go of the treasures in the lost dark elf city that are as rich as a country."

"But you have made a profound analysis of our current situation, and you sisters have also criticized my greed."

"But in fact, the plan I mentioned before is not a complete plan." Suddenly, Cassia's tone was deep and her eyes were far away, "It is just a part of the plan."

"Oh?" Sylvia's pupils shrank slightly. "Tell me about it?"

"My Lady, I also understand that with the power of our family, even if we can defeat the dragon, the remaining strength will not be able to protect the fruits of our victory."

"But," Cassia paused, "if we don't use our power to face the dragon directly, but..."

"To seize the fruits of victory of others?"

Sylvia's whole body trembled, and a gleam of light flashed in her eyes. She figured out the whole cause and effect in an instant, and was shocked by her daughter's bold plan.

"You clearly knew that there was a spy within the family, but you still openly gave us a detailed account of the results of your exploration in the ruins."

"You said that not only to me, but also to--"

"Tell it to the Dinitya family?"

"My lady, please understand," Cassia lowered her head, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, revealing a cold smile.

"The second family is more powerful than us. They may have the courage to face the dragon." Sylvia continued along her own and Cassia's lines of thought.

"However, even with their strength, it will probably take a lot of effort to defeat the dragon."

"If we can act at the right time and help them relieve their worries and troubles, then we will not only be able to seize wealth comparable to that of an entire city, but also..."

"It can also help the Seventh Family move up one spot in the rankings." Cassia sneered and took over her mother's words.