After they arrived at the square before the court, the two councilors took the lead in joining a group of four elves dressed in magnificent robes. A little thought made it clear that these four were the other members of the Silvermoon Council.
With no time to study these leading figures of Quel'Thalas closely, Charlemagne, Skarren, Yawen, and Sylvanas followed Lireesa's orders and carefully inspected the ranks of the rangers under their respective commands.
After all, they would be inspected by His Majesty the Sun King, so they could not afford any mistakes at this crucial moment. Even the usually rather casual Farstriders sharpened up and arranged themselves in immaculate ranks.
Lianda also led the mages who had participated in the battle into a separate formation. Though few in number, they represented the highly esteemed arcanists of the High Elf kingdom.
Liadrin, whom they had not seen for days, also greeted Charlemagne and the others with a smile before leading her priests into formation beside the mages.
Watching the soldiers inspect their formations, the surrounding onlookers clearly realized that their king would soon appear, and instinctively lowered their loud conversations to whispers.
Sure enough, after Lireesa, Lianda, and Liadrin each gave a signal, Dar'Khan nodded and straightened his clothes along with the other members of the Silvermoon Council.
Then he called out loudly in a rising and falling cadence, "Now, please welcome our Sun King, His Majesty Anasterian Sunstrider, with your sincerest respect!"
At these words, every elf present bowed their head slightly in unison, respectfully awaiting the king's arrival.
With a heavy creak, the doors of the Sunstrider Court atop the raised platform finally opened slowly.
Under the High Elves' gazes, an elderly elf wearing fiery red robes trimmed with gold slowly emerged through the doors, arm in arm with an equally silver-haired old woman in stately attire, her bearing elegant.
Perhaps to display the nobility of the royal family, the entire Sunstrider Court had been built very high, connected to the square by a long, gently sloping bridge. A red carpet now covered the entire route from the court to the lower end of the bridge.
As the king slowly crossed the long bridge with the queen on his arm, two rows of royal Spellbreaker guards in fiery red armor, carrying double-bladed swords and large shields, solemnly guarded them from either side.
The armor and shields worn by these carefully selected High Elf warriors granted complete immunity to magic, while their double-bladed swords could easily pierce the various magical shields of mages.
Correspondingly, a full set of this equipment was extremely expensive. Even the royal Sunstrider family, the wealthiest in the entire kingdom, could not afford to maintain many of them. There were currently only a little over 120 Spellbreakers; any more, and even the king could not bear the expense.
When Anasterian reached the designated platform with Queen Giffen, his aged voice, projected through amplification magic, carried across the entire square.
"Everyone, please raise your heads!"
Only then could Charlemagne finally lift his head and take a close look at the current Sun King.
Anasterian Sunstrider was already extremely old. According to his mentor's estimate, the king probably had no more than fifty years to live, and the queen, who was roughly the same age, was likely little better off.
Yet the old man looked hale and vigorous now. Apparently, this great victory was an achievement worth getting excited about for him as well.
"I believe some of the better-informed among you already know that we recently won a great victory over the Trolls. Not only did we drive those savage Amani Trolls back into Zul'Aman once again, but this time, we even captured one of their high-ranking commanders alive."
At this point, Anasterian gave Lireesa a meaningful look. The ranger-general nodded lightly in understanding and beckoned for the rangers waiting at the rear to push Halazzi's prison cart forward.
"This is him! The foremost follower of the Lynx Spirit among the Amani Trolls-Halazzi! Our victory this time was entirely thanks to our brave warriors' hard fighting and the blessing of sunlight. Praise the Sunwell!"
"Praise the Sunwell!"
At the mere mention of the Sunwell, everyone present, even Dar'Khan, cried out excitedly. This fanatical atmosphere made Charlemagne frown slightly.
The deeper their worship of the Sunwell, the greater the people's despair would be after losing it in the future. For Charlemagne, who was committed to changing their fate as addicts, this was hardly good news.
After that, like every leader, Anasterian launched into a tiresome, long-winded speech. It was nothing but the same old platitudes about thanking their ancestor Dath'Remar for leading them east across the sea, thanking the Sunwell for granting them arcane power, and so on.
Charlemagne had no interest in listening to these clichés. He took the opportunity to study the members of the Silvermoon Council and the guards beside the king.
The six members of the Silvermoon Council stood in what were subtly three separate factions. Among the radicals led by Dar'Khan, the other two came from the Corona family and the Flamecrest family respectively.
The councilor from the Corona family showed no signs of age yet, so he probably belonged to a younger generation relative to the king. Exactly how many thousands of years old he was, however, was something only he knew.
Unlike the other High Elves, who prized red, this councilor from the Corona family had made an unconventional choice of a somewhat... gaudy purple robe. His overall demeanor gave a rather gloomy impression.
The other member, from the Flamecrest family, wore light red mage robes and watched the king's speech with a constant smile. Yet that smile certainly did not come from the heart. A false smile was the perfect description of his expression.
The two councilors standing together a short distance from the three were probably the moderates. Both also wore red robes, with slight differences in their styles and family crests, and came from the Dawn family and the Flameglow family respectively.
The councilor from the Dawn family was a thin, wizened old man. Judging by his constant coughing... his health was probably poor.
By contrast, the councilor from the Flameglow family was a young, severely overweight man. Obese people were still relatively rare among High Elves...
Moreover, he kept wiping sweat from his forehead even in Quel'Thalas, where it was spring all year round. Apparently, his constitution was quite weak too.
So that's how it is. Neither of the two moderates is in good health. No wonder Dar'Khan has practically dominated the council since winning over two councilors. These two alone probably can't keep him in check...
Finally, Charlemagne looked at Aoxisi Chenxingzhe, who stood alone to one side, resting with his eyes closed, and assigned him a label in his mind.
Old fox!
Aoxisi appeared to take no stance and did not participate in the two factions' efforts to check each other, but he was actually the most influential person in the entire Silvermoon Council.
As a veteran who had participated in the Troll Wars, Aoxisi clearly possessed a greater presence than these councilors of the younger generation.
Although he had been considering retirement in recent years and rarely voiced his opinions, the other five councilors did not dare underestimate him in the slightest. Both sides were doing their utmost to win him over.
Is he watching the tigers fight from the mountaintop, or does he have some other scheme? I keep feeling that this elder cousin of Xiao'en's has something in mind...
(End of chapter)