Lin Mo looked at the elder.
"Kona isn't just Great Xia's frontline. It's a shared battlefield."
"The Demon Clan won't give up. Terra's safety depends on us holding them back at Kona."
"Great Xia is shouldering the most dangerous pressure at the front, and we also hope our allies can offer some flexibility and help within their means, rather than..."
"Hold us back!" Lin Mo did not say those words aloud, but everyone knew what he meant.
The hall fell silent again.
Fendona's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her heart clenched.
Lin Mo had meant no malice when he said those words.
Yet they sounded unbearably harsh to the Queen and the elders.
Great Xia bore the pressure on the front lines while the Elves lived peaceful, prosperous lives in the rear, yet were unwilling to help. Put that way, it did sound as though the Elves were ungrateful.
But the Elves had endured two hundred years of war, losing their homes, loved ones, and countless warriors.
Their present peace had never come for free. Behind every high-ranking Elf lay a forest and a people they needed to protect.
They could not simply be reassigned at a word.
Sure enough, Ellari's eyes turned cold.
"Sir Lin Mo."
"I agree with what you said about a shared battlefield. The Demon Clan is indeed our common enemy!"
"But you seem to have forgotten something."
"The Elves are not a subordinate legion of Great Xia."
"Nor are my people a string of numbers to be placed on a scale at any moment and deployed according to demand."
Lin Mo's heart sank slightly.
He wanted to explain that this was not what he meant.
But Ellari had already slowly risen.
She stood above them, her silver-gold gown trailing over the edge of the throne, radiating