In a secret chamber of the Oak Association in the Elf Rainforest, the White Tiger High Priestess gathered with six Elf elders, all weighed down by concern.
It was all because of the unusual movements among the forces under the queen's command lately.
At present, the queen was tending to the Elves in the Flame Zone, reassuring them as she had to do every day.
Every movement of the queen and Anfuni was under surveillance, and nothing seemed amiss.
Yet the forces serving the queen were unusually active. The Primordial Elves had even emerged from their derivative spaces of their own accord and secretly taken over the palace's defenses.
If this was a precaution against the elders, that would have been understandable. But they were not monitoring the elders, only defending the palace.
Even more baffling was that the slave shops in Hippo Ancient City had begun buying slaves on a massive scale.
The slave shops were not a source of wealth for the Elves. Their purpose was more to provide the Elves with intelligence concerning slaves.
Now they had broken with their usual practice, and funds were flowing out of the queen's private treasury in batches. By now, the amount already accounted for half the assets under her control.
What exactly was all that money for?
That was a question well worth examining. Though the Elves occupied the rainforest, their finances were far from abundant. Their annual income did not even match that of the Goblins, who excelled at alchemy.
Much of the queen's private wealth, in particular, had been inherited from the previous queen. Every coin was precious.
They all knew that the Queen's Palace had gone five years without repairs, largely because of a lack of funds.
The unusual movement of funds immediately caught the elders' attention,