"Empress Elashia... please forgive this foreign minister's presumption..."
Adelin thought for a moment and decided she still needed to clearly express her thoughts to Elashia.
"Although the Holy Kingdom's mages are indeed pitifully few, this foreign minister has still seen some..."
"Although those mages' spells do indeed look full of impact and can indeed influence weather to a certain extent, but..."
Adelin looked seriously at Elashia.
"But... no matter how powerful a mage is, it's absolutely impossible to contend with natural disasters. Haven't you seen that even the Iron Empire with hundreds of mages doesn't use such methods to fight natural disasters?"
After hearing Adelin's words, Elashia smiled.
"Miss Adelin's point is indeed very reasonable."
Then, Elashia smiled and slowly said:
"But... what if there were more mages?"
"For example... not just hundreds or even thousands, but tens of thousands?"
"What?"
Adelin was stunned.
"Over ten thousand people... wouldn't that mean all of Elasia's royal magical arts as the foundation of the nation would be leaked?"
If that were really the case... Elasia's international status would be in jeopardy!
And the public security problems would be unimaginable!
You must know—the mage system isn't like the warrior system. Even ordinary people without any talent, with sufficient materials and established spells, as long as they have enough perseverance, can possess quite powerful destructive force after less than ten years of magical study!
If the number of mages expanded to this extent... then Elasia and Elashia would be in danger!
However... as someone also from the Holy Kingdom, Ileina didn't look surprised at all.
She understood Elashia too well.
From childhood, Elashia had told her—"If we can truly become leaders of two countries, Elasia and the Holy Kingdom must help each other like one country."
Ileina was very clear—Elashia didn't have even the slightest thought of conquest.
Such an Elashia... how could she possibly care about something like Elasia's international status which had no meaning to her...
Moreover, as the Holy Princess, she herself could never betray Elashia, and Elashia herself was a princess of the Iron Empire—did she need to worry about Elasia's international status?
Of course not.
She smiled at Adelin.
"Shia is just this kind of person... don't be too surprised."
"In any case... let's owe this favor to Elasia for now, we just need to not forget it in the future."
Looking at the distant horizon and the Northern Fire members and Holy Tribunal officials who had basically completed their assembly, Ileina said to Adelin:
"Minister Adelin, let's discuss these issues slowly afterward. Now the time is about right, we should begin speaking."
"Oh... yes, Your Highness."
Reminded by Ileina, Adelin finally realized—the scheduled time was almost here.
"Hehe... really sorry, I suddenly remembered those things just now, I really shouldn't have mentioned them now."
Elashia scratched her pink little head somewhat embarrassedly.
She really shouldn't have mentioned it now, after all, Adelin and Ileina were about to begin speaking soon.
For her to suddenly bring up such important matters at this time, even the calm Adelin almost forgot about the speech because of her...
Elashia thought about it and decided to wait until later to mention that the Iron Empire and Elasia's allied forces would soon be able to enter the Holy Kingdom to help them escape Blood Clan enslavement...
Seeing that only half an hour remained until sunrise, Ileina stood up and spoke to the crowd below with her passionate voice amplified by qi:
"I think... without me saying much, everyone should be very clear about what happened this night."
"Without needing to say much more, I can responsibly tell everyone—the resistance war has developed from the protracted war stage to the quick victory stage!"
Looking at the crowd below whose eyes were filled with light, Ileina shouted loudly:
"The liberation of the Holy Kingdom is already within reach!"
As soon as Ileina's words hit the ground, equally passionate shouts arose from the Northern Fire crowd below!
"Long live Northern Fire!"
"Long live Princess Ileina!"
"Liberation is at hand!"
"Forward!"
"..."
Soon, the people below spontaneously began shouting the Northern Fire army's slogans.
"Forward!"
"Forward!"
"..."
...
Watching people's excitement, Elashia smiled and said to Catherine beside her:
"It seems... Lena is very popular in your country."
Catherine also smiled and nodded.
"That's right. Since the organization's founding, Princess Ileina has always emphasized to us—'Northern Fire's strongest power isn't in the army, but in people's hearts.'"
"To gain more support, Northern Fire has done many things, including redistributing land, composing nursery rhymes that can explain our ideals and purposes, establishing and operating quite a number of newspapers..."
Showing Elashia a lively smile, Catherine summarized:
"In any case, although our supplies are indeed somewhat lacking, we've been quite successful in winning people's hearts."
Elashia nodded with satisfaction.
"That's indeed very good..."
This was the wise and powerful Holy Princess from the plot...
Ileina wasn't like her, an Elasian mascot who understood nothing about politics and military affairs, nor was she like her mother Alexandra who, though skilled in governing, always liked to dump such tasks on subordinates and Nina.
As Northern Fire's leader, Ileina had quite a lot to manage herself.
After delegating tasks that could be given to subordinates to trustworthy subordinates, Ileina herself had indeed found the correct path and development direction for Northern Fire.
Looking at the smiling Elashia, Catherine smiled mischievously.
"So... as people of the Holy Kingdom, we should properly thank Empress Elashia too."
"Ah?"
Elashia didn't understand Catherine's meaning.
"Thank me? What does this have to do with me?"
Catherine smiled mischievously at Elashia again:
"Empress Elashia, please don't be modest."
"As people close to Princess Ileina, we all know... about you and Princess Ileina when you were small."
"If you hadn't cared for and guided Princess Ileina like a mother when you were small, Princess Ileina, who was alone and helpless in Elasia, definitely wouldn't be so excellent now..."
"If you ask me... Empress Elashia, you're truly our Holy Kingdom's 'Mother of the Nation'..."
Catherine's words made Elashia's small face redden.
"Miss Catherine... please don't tease me..."
Seeing Elashia's face redden from just a few words, then looking at Adelin who was secretly glaring at her angrily, Catherine grinned at Elashia.
"Hehe... forgive me for offending Empress Elashia..."