Princess's Struggle for Survival-Chapter 253: Protagonist Treatment

From a personality perspective, Lyra is not the type who can’t keep secrets, but the Elders Speech is of great importance and involves levels that the current destined female lead should not yet be exposed to.

Moreover, the more important point is that Astrid cannot explain how she came to know this information.

Although Lyra is a bit slow, she is not stupid. It wouldn’t be difficult for her to correlate the effects of the chants Astrid taught her with common spells.

Considering the potential risks and Lyra’s current learning progress, Astrid ultimately decided against telling her.

Lyra’s strength today is already much greater than in the original story.

As long as she continues to study and train normally, there’s no need to forcibly elevate her abilities this way.

Without clearly understanding the truth behind the Elders Speech, it’s better not to reveal this trump card that only she knows.

Looking at the time, there’s still over an hour before the tower closes. Since Lyra hasn’t come knocking, Astrid decided not to disturb the young knight who is diligently practicing.

Taking out the book "Analysis of Differences Between Elvish and Common Human Language" that Professor Evelyn lent her from her bag, Astrid leaned forward, her pink lips slightly pursed, her red eyes quietly fixed on the slightly yellowed parchment before her.

The elves are currently the only known surviving intelligent race.

Although their interactions with humans are few, after a long period of time, most of their language has been deciphered.

To give, to need, to attack, to be friendly... water, branch, sky, fire...

Astrid started learning from each ideographic word, softly murmuring the common human syllables marked in the book.

Thanks to the powerful mental strength of a mage, Astrid’s memory has been greatly enhanced, making learning another language not too difficult.

Having memorized the meanings of some of the words, Astrid flipped to the latter half of the book and tried to read the foreign language literature in the appendix using her fragmented knowledge of Elvish.

The first article told a brief story about a young elf venturing west into the Takus Desert in the Eternal Dark Forest to find his sister who had been kidnapped by a wild fire lizard.

Since the main purpose of the book is to let readers understand the differences between Elvish and common human language, the author only provides a fragment of the article, with the translation written on the other side of the parchment for easy reference.

After skimming through and comparing them, Astrid turned her attention to the Elvish literature on the next page.

This article seemed to record something she was very interested in. Astrid understood a few Elvish words, including but not limited to death, withering, burning trees, and a series of other terms.

What is this recording?

Astrid let go of the snow-white hand covering the other page, her eyebrows slightly furrowed without her noticing.

"I saw the World Tree that carried the sky burning with raging fire, the Fountain of Eternity has dried up, the magma erupting from the ground has submerged the grass and shrubs, Great Elven Queen Idrila, your blessings are fading, our source of power is withering..."

"...This disaster of darkness that has lasted for half a month, no, perhaps much longer, after losing the sun, I can no longer distinguish day from night, perhaps we truly cannot survive this long night."

"Eternal Idrila, embodiment of beauty and purity, please forgive my weakness and confusion, and lead us to the right path, your devout and faithful follower, Kelser Lawrence."

The fragment ended suddenly here. The author’s note states that in 1564, imperial explorers learned this from an elven tribe in the Eternal Dark Forest, a fragment of their history, currently only preserving the above content.

The name Idrila is familiar to anyone who knows elven history. It is said that she is the mother of all existing elves and the guide who led the race to survive the cataclysm.

The burning World Tree was easy to understand.

The Valeria Empire Encyclopedia records that the elves once lived around a giant tree connecting heaven and earth.

At that time, the Eternal Dark Forest was much larger than the Giant Wood Mountains, its total area equivalent to nearly half of the current Valeria Empire.

However, later due to a disaster that swept the entire continent, the World Tree was burned to ashes by fire, and the charred remains fell from the sky. The collapsing tree turned most of the Eternal Dark Forest into scorched earth, eventually forming the current Takus Desert.

As for the weeks-long disaster of darkness... this puzzled Astrid greatly...

The Eternal Dark Forest is located in the northwest of the Valeria Empire.

If this world is similar to Earth, an oblate spheroid, rather than some strange setting, then according to climate and geographical divisions, this area should belong to the mid-high latitudes.

But even so, such extreme weather conditions should not occur. Polar day and night are related to the tilt angle and the sun.

Could there be some special power that can affect the world’s operating rules?

Was the apocalyptic disaster caused by Earth’s natural activities, or were there other complex external factors? If it was caused by external factors, then what immense power could it be to block the sun and plunge a region of the continent into polar night?

Could the Spellcreator achieve this?

This thought briefly flashed through Astrid’s mind, but she quickly dismissed it subconsciously.

If individual power in this world could truly reach such a terrifying level, then the land beneath her feet would have been destroyed thousands of times by those who invented Elders Speech.

Despite the myriad of doubts in Astrid’s heart, the book only mentioned this much information. Continuing to reduce further wouldn’t yield any other clues.

After much thought, this content wasn’t her main focus. The information she wanted was about the users and traces of Elders Speech before the disaster, to enhance her own strength and understand the essence of the world.

Although the apocalyptic disaster is crucial and likely the main reason for the extinction of ancient humans, its priority is still slightly lower.

When the basic linguistics course starts later, she can learn more from Ifini, and perhaps there will be new discoveries.

But speaking of which... it’s almost closing time at the Spiral Tower, was Lyra still training...

Glancing at the clock, Astrid packed her books and turned to walk towards the door.

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Rewind to ten minutes ago, Lyra released the last fire attribute spell, feeling slightly dizzy, a sign that her mental strength was about to be depleted.

Seeing that it was almost time, she tidied up the table a bit, took the key, and left the training room.

As soon as she stepped out, the cool evening breeze carrying fresh air hit her face. Lyra gently sniffed, her white silk-clad legs stepping slightly towards the next room, the pink and white laced shoes making a pleasant sound on the ground.

Princess Astrid is probably practicing magic too, would knocking on the door disturb her?

Seeing the closed door, Lyra suddenly found herself in the same consideration as Astrid earlier, but compared to the decision of the imperial princess, Lyra seemed much more hesitant.

The girl stood in front of training room 418, her snow-white hand close to the door, waiting for a few seconds without knocking, then reached back to her ear, gently smoothing a strand of pink hair.

Just as Lyra was pondering whether to knock early, two other noble ladies in luxurious attire in the hallway saw the pink-haired girl and, after a moment’s thought, remembered her identity.

Lyra Beckett, a new student who enrolled with Princess Astrid.

Thinking of the cold and beautiful princess who attracted all eyes at every ball, a trace of coldness flashed in one of the noble ladies’ eyes, a mix of jealousy for Astrid’s outstanding looks and resentment for her long-standing indifference to her flattery.

Now that Astrid was vigorously promoting the development of magical devices, she had already caused unpleasantness among many nobles.

This Noble lady’s father had completely sided with the second prince in this wave. There was no need for her to continue to flatter the third princess like a dog.

"Have you heard? This year’s enrollment list for the Elizabeth Academy of Magic has quite a few commoner-born new students, and some of them have decent combat scores, assigned to the elite class."

"Of course I’ve heard, it’s all over the academy."

"Who knows where they learned their magic and combat skills, probably by currying favor with some noble to get the opportunity."

The woman didn’t bother to lower her voice, her sharp and piercing tone is particularly noticeable in the quiet corridor.

Rather than a private conversation between friends, it seemed more like deliberate remarks meant for someone else.

Hearing this, Lyra lowered her eyes, her sky-blue pupils dimming slightly.

Commoner-born... decent combat scores...

Looking at the entire enrollment ceremony, very few fit this description. If she wasn’t mistaken, that noble lady was talking about her.

Currying favor, referring to Princess Astrid?

Thinking about it, Princess Astrid has helped her so much, there must be some affection involved.

Saying that she curried favor with the third princess to get the chance to learn combat skills from Elise isn’t entirely wrong.

But this kind of statement still feels quite uncomfortable no matter how you think about it.

Lyra steadied her emotions, her slender and delicate fingers about to touch the door panel when the sarcastic woman raised her voice again, speaking meaningfully.

"Not just magic and combat skills, I bet even the class assignment was through someone’s backdoor, otherwise with that kind of talent, how could she have gotten into Class A."

"Think about it, the annual tuition and miscellaneous fees of Elizabeth Academy of Magic are nothing to us, but for those from the countryside who can’t even afford a cup of afternoon tea, it’s probably a lifetime’s savings."

The noble lady’s acerbic words reached Lyra’s ears, her fingers paused mid-air, clenching tightly, her palm turning slightly white.

Realizing that Lyra knew she was being talked about, the woman’s lips curled into a mocking smile, snorted, and continued to chat with her companion.

"I bet, maybe her parents stole or robbed it from somewhere, otherwise how could they afford it?"

These words pierced Lyra’s heart like a knife. The girl turned around and asked coldly.

"Are you talking about me?"

Seemingly surprised by Lyra’s reaction, the woman sneered arrogantly.

"I’m talking about a certain country girl who got in here by her looks... oh, Miss Lyra, you’re not one of them, are you..."

"My bad, let’s pretend I didn’t say anything."

Calling her by name and in that tone, if Lyra was only ninety percent sure before, now she was certain that the other party was mocking her.

Her parents spent all their savings and borrowed money to send her here to study, and in this person’s mouth, it became theft and robbery.

Lyra suppressed the anger in her heart, knowing she didn’t have the power or influence of the other party, and couldn’t solve the problem through violence.

But if she pretended not to hear, that was absolutely impossible.

That would be too much.

Noticing the low pressure around the girl in front of her, the woman raised her lips, about to continue her sarcasm, when Lyra looked up, her gaze firm.

"You’re right, I am a country girl..."

Lyra wouldn’t deny this and could say it openly.

"Then, noble lady, can you accept a challenge from a country girl?"

The Elizabeth Academy of Magic does not allow private fights. Once discovered, violators will be punished, but agreed-upon sparring is allowed by the school rules.

Lyra had seen the other party at the enrollment ceremony and knew they were in the same year, so there was no issue of fairness.

Hearing this, a flash of surprise appeared in the woman’s eyes, as if she hadn’t expected Lyra to take it so seriously. A mere commoner daring to challenge a noble like her.

But considering Lyra’s combat score was full marks, her strength must be at least that of a peak apprentice, and the explosive speed during the test didn’t seem like a mage’s, she was probably also a knight.

In that case, in a direct confrontation, she might not be able to defeat Lyra.

Thinking of the shame of losing to a lowly commoner in a sparring match, the woman chuckled, her tone still relentless.

"Since you know you’re a country girl, don’t think you can spar with nobles."

Lyra bit her lip, then spoke.

"So, are you scared?"

"Scared? Miss Lyra, are you joking?"

The noble lady fiddled with the copper key in her hand, her voice sharp.

"I just thought it would dirty my hands, and winning wouldn’t be honorable."

Just as the woman’s words fell, the door in front of Lyra opened inward.

A stunning silver-haired girl in a black dress stepped out of the training room, seeing Lyra under the moonlight, her lips pressed tightly, her expression resolute.