The ritual site was packed with people, but no one would have guessed that the most eye-catching figures there were neither Zhou Xu nor the Elf King who was about to be invested with his title, but the Dark Elves dressed in Black Military Uniforms!
At that moment, let alone the humans and goblins present—even the elves had focused their attention on them.
The elves in particular wore especially complicated expressions.
The feeling was simply too strange, as if your parents had spent your childhood telling you not to play with that bad kid, only for you to suddenly discover one day that he had made something of himself.
You were still tightening screws at the factory, while he had already passed the civil-service exam.
It left them feeling more than a little sour.
During this, Lait, the Elf King, felt even more conflicted.
"That... Eredar."
As the commanding officer leading the military district troops, Eredar stood there in a full officer's uniform, his expression solemn. His senses were completely spread out, enveloping the ritual site before him. He would detect the slightest disturbance at the first opportunity.
Upon hearing Lait's voice, he merely shot him a sidelong glance before shifting his gaze back to the ritual site.
His expression seemed to say, Don't talk to me. We're not close.
Lait's heart tasted bitter. They had clearly once been such good friends.
But he had no time to brood, as the proceedings soon reached his part.
The entire ritual was, in plain terms, actually very simple. Zhou Xu publicly announced the establishment of the Elf Autonomous Region, appointed Lait to continue serving as the Elf King, and then said a few perfunctory words before it was over.
The process itself was unimportant. What mattered was the public announcement. The goal