A Battle-Hungry Veteran

Unfortunately, not long after Elia returned to her room, Iris brought her some bad news.

‘You mean, Sir Luke likes me?’

Don’t misunderstand, being liked was as commonplace as daily meals for Elia; there was nothing strange about it.

Even if the object of affection was that annoying Hero, it was only natural for him to like her; she was always the only one with the right to be annoyed.

When Elia sent Iris to gather information, she didn’t expect her to bring back anything useful, and it turned out that the bastard Hero indeed had no past women to slander him with… Of course, if it were Elia herself, she certainly wouldn’t tell anyone even if there were.

What Elia actually considered bad news was that Iris had, for some unknown reason, sided with that bastard Hero.

Although Iris had previously said she would support Elia and the bastard Hero getting together, that was from Elia’s perspective, offering help.

But now, in her recent description, Iris had spoken highly of the Hero countless times.

‘That’s right, Sir Luke undoubtedly likes Her Highness Elia!’

Just as Elia suspected, Iris had already started to view Luke as the real-life embodiment of a male lead from her favorite romance novels.

In the eyes of a fan, everyone is perfect; Iris naturally began to praise Luke, even if most of it was her own conjecture and the deeds of fictional male leads.

And to bring the two together, she deliberately exaggerated Luke’s affection, and planned to do the same if she had the chance to express Elia’s affection to Luke later.

Because by doing so, the two would become more attentive to each other, taking each other’s originally insignificant, possibly meaningless actions as expressions of love, thus making their relationship closer.

Furthermore, Iris had concocted a reason in her mind for Luke offending Elia at the ball—he had fallen in love with Elia at first sight, but having no romantic experience, he inexplicably felt unease and fear towards this restless emotion, subconsciously avoiding and neglecting Elia.

Now, Luke had probably realized he was somewhat apologetic towards Elia, but was troubled by a lack of opportunity to apologize, or unsure how to appease her, thus vexing him endlessly…

‘How utterly naive!’

After this bout of imagination, Iris’s heart was filled with excitement, much like a fan seeing their favorite ship ‘giving out candy’.

Although she didn’t have mind-reading abilities, Elia had known Iris for so long that she could tell at a glance she had entered her romantic delusion state again, leaving her utterly speechless.

‘Is that so…’

However, Elia was, after all, a professional in the art of disguise; no matter what she thought internally, she didn’t forget to put on a shy expression externally.

Thus, in Iris’s eyes, Elia had quickly become shy after hearing that Luke liked her.

‘Please rest assured, Your Highness Elia, things will definitely go smoothly.’

Considering that the woman should be a little reserved but not entirely unresponsive, Iris decided to act as a love messenger between the two, conveying Elia’s affection while urging Luke to become more proactive.

‘Good, this is perfect.’

Elia wanted Iris to misunderstand, after all, only by assuming they mutually loved each other could there be talk of “betrayal” or “catching them in the act.”

If Iris could later weep and complain in front of the assembled crowd, that would be even better; many people would surely cast their votes of sympathy for her and verbally condemn that bastard Hero.

But as she always said, Elia was a professional; so after hearing Iris’s assurance, she first smiled with delight, then, as if suddenly remembering something, her smile froze, and her mood instantly became somewhat downcast.

The golden-haired elf maid, who had been carefully observing Elia’s expression, naturally didn’t miss this series of emotional changes and quickly asked with concern:

‘Your Highness Elia, what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing, I was just thinking about this morning.’

‘This morning… what happened at the tea party?’

Normally, Iris would always accompany Elia, but today, to investigate Luke’s situation, she had taken leave and let another maid take her place.

Elia revealed a somewhat troubled expression and said, ‘Nothing special, it’s just that Madame Mary, Madame Carol, and Miss Catherine were all very enthusiastically asking me about Sir Luke…’

Upon hearing those names, Iris’s expression also changed.

For no other reason than these ladies were all renowned socialites in aristocratic circles, rumored to have entertained guests in the double digits.

Madame Carol, in particular, was even more exaggerated; whenever she engaged in such activities, her husband, Viscount Green, would even play music outside to set the mood… Targeted by these few, Iris immediately became uneasy.

‘I’ll go find Sir Luke and warn him to be careful…’

‘Iris, wait a moment.’ Elia hastily stopped her. ‘I… I think such matters should still respect Sir Luke’s own choices.’

As she spoke, Elia first showed a faint trace of loneliness and heartache, but ultimately, kindness and determination prevailed—evidently, she was prepared to sacrifice herself for the sake of others.

If anyone else were present at this moment, they would surely shout slogans and praises like, ‘As expected of Her Highness the Saintess!’ or ‘Her Highness Elia is truly great and selfless!’ but Iris could not do so.

For Iris, Elia was not only the highly anticipated Saintess but also her own family.

She simply could not accept her loved one sacrificing her own happiness for others.

But thanks to Elia’s reminder, she recalled the goal set yesterday and realized that jumping to conclusions and siding with Luke so quickly was indeed not rigorous enough, and not responsible enough for Elia’s future happiness.

However, Luke was just a novice in love; facing these ‘battle-hardened’ ladies, it would be too difficult for him to ‘maintain his integrity’… After much deliberation, she decided to give Luke a less direct hint and warning, and then observe the situation.

‘Mhm, then I’ll leave it to you.’

After hearing her maid’s thoughts, Elia’s face showed no dissatisfaction or disappointment; after a fleeting moment of guilt and self-reproach, only immense trust, encouragement, and anticipation remained.

This was precisely why Iris respected Elia.

It was also why Iris had resolved to go through fire and water for Elia.

‘Yay!’

After seeing the elf maid out of the room, Elia quickly rolled around happily on her bed.

Although Iris’s tendency to side with an outsider made her a bit displeased, wise as she was, Elia immediately thought of a good way to exploit this.

‘You want to help that bastard Hero, do you?’

‘Fine, no problem.’

‘But after all your help, that bastard Hero will still fall into a den of iniquity.’

And Iris, personally discovering this situation and realizing her efforts were all in vain, would become enraged and expose the bastard Hero’s disgraceful conduct to the world, utterly ruining his reputation… This development couldn’t be more perfect.

‘You say it’s not much different from before?’

‘Then you’re terribly mistaken.’

In the original plan, Iris would merely observe from afar, not investing too much emotion in the Hero, nor having much contact with him; when the incident occurred, she would undoubtedly handle it with more calmness and rationality.

And calmness and rationality would mean slowness.

If, at that point, she was unlucky enough to have the King personally intervene, trivializing the serious and making the minor disappear, and insisting on continuing to form the Hero’s squad, then she would be the one doing useless work.

But now, Iris was her ‘interlocking stratagem,’ only waiting for the incident to occur and let the flames burn even fiercer.

‘Whether you did it intentionally or not, dare to win over my people, and just wait to shoot yourself in the foot!’ Elia cackled sinisterly.