Outside a man-made cave, there was a gorgeous woman lying on a sun lounger with sunglasses on, eyes closed. She was wearing a yellowish-green bikini. She had a satisfied and pleased smile on her face.
The only thing a human would find strange was that she had a pair of sharp, long, pointed ears—but nothing strange to her, as she was a High Elf.
This High Elf woman's face and figure were no older than what one would expect from a 20- to 30-year-old adult woman. She had vibrant green hair, and her height was nearly nine feet...
Her name was Lysandra Willow.
Lysandra and her cutest youngest daughter, Elara Willow, were on a runaway vacation at this moment.
Lysandra and her people had arrived at Humancrown Continent for various purposes.
She used the opportunity while everyone was busy and secretly sneaked out with her lovely youngest daughter to this isolated island on the southernmost side of the Humancrown Continent. She didn't even know which kingdom it belonged to, nor did she care.
She had already checked and figured out that for nearly past 10,000 years or more, no intelligent species had landed on this island or the neighboring ones. People also had no reason to come, as there was nothing of interest here. The terrain was difficult for mortals to traverse, while Mana Wielders just had no reason to make a trip to this isolated location, and there were also no ship routes around this zone.
Lysandra had especially chosen this location because it was untouched, and no one would bother her and her daughter's intimate vacation here.
Lysandra also used to be a hardcore adventurer back in her younger days. Traveling to such a location was her favorite, and her daughter Elara had also picked up such an interest.
Unlike Lysandra, Elara was quite obedient. As a mother, Lysandra should be glad, but she instead felt lonely, as her children weren't creating constant trouble for her, unlike how she herself used to be when she was younger.
But it was also understandable, as she had maliciously crippled her own daughter—Elara's Mana Veins—without her knowing anything! And so, Elara became lonelier and depressed, watching her friends and everyone else become Mana Wielders while she remained a mortal, without understanding why, believing it was her own fault. Mahaha.
Cough.
Nonetheless, Elara also dreamed of being an adventurer and wanted to visit such beautiful places, so Lysandra took her away to this untouched island.
Lysandra had even disabled her communication artifacts to avoid being disturbed during her vacation with her lonely, sweetest daughter.
The moment Lysandra arrived at this island with Elara, both of them immediately fell in love.
It was a lush, green, heart-shaped island with a sandy white beach curving along both edges. It was surrounded by vibrant turquoise water, with shallow reefs near its shore. A few other smaller, similarly vegetated islands were visible far away from this one.
This heart-shaped island was densely covered in vibrant green tropical vegetation and had two tiny hills, side by side but not colliding.
Just looking at the entire island gave a sense of untouched nature. Not to mention, the naturalistic beauty—and the fact that not even monkeys or any big animals were around—made it an even more tempting place to spend a fine, free vacation.
While Lysandra was enjoying the cool evening breeze, she heard Elara's sharp cry for her.
She raised her eyebrow under her shades, removed them, and then sat back.
She knew Elara was rushing toward her, so she didn't feel like walking and waited on her sun lounger.
Soon, Elara appeared and seemed to have brought a really 'big' fish.
Lysandra noticed the half-dead, seriously injured unconscious human boy on her daughter's bosom.
She stood up, glanced at the boy, then at Elara, and spoke with astonishment, "I thought you only went to roam around, but I didn't expect you to have captured a 'Prince Charming' for yourself too! Have you two already decided? When's the wedding date?"
"Mother!" Elara, who was no less beautiful than Lysandra, with shoulder-length bright green hair, stamped her foot, blushing.
Lysandra laughed and reminded, "Don't shake your body so much, or else I'll lose my son-in-law too quickly!"
Elara's cheeks were completely red.
She had been brought up in a peaceful environment and honestly didn't know how to be angry or berate someone. So, she could only glare back at her mother with a bright red face.
Lysandra chortled at Elara's cute red face and then proceeded to observe the human boy closely.
It was too strange for someone to land on this island, as no intelligent species had done so for at least the last 10,000 years. She herself had placed various arrays, including one that made the island undetectable from the outside.
So, it was either someone who had managed to figure out their vacation location and had some 'interesting' plans, or it was just a plain coincidence.
"Alright, your husband is clearly far too severely injured—even his face and front are totally burnt. Hm, even the back is burnt. Two Tier-1 fireballs were thrown at him by a Rank 1 Mage, and later he fell into the ocean..." Lysandra casually observed the human child and didn't feel like observing more than that. After all, it was just a mortal human, heavily trained, and possibly a native.
Elara was shocked. "T-two fireballs? Was he a Mana Wielder? I thought he was just a mortal..." After all, how could a mortal survive taking two fireballs, especially from such an isolated and underdeveloped place?
Lysandra nodded. "He is a mortal, and by seeing his barely remaining mortal-tier clothes, we can say he's probably a native. From a scan by my Spiritual Sense, I know his age is similar to yours—two months older—and similar to you, heavily trained—in fact, far more than you!"
"My, my, Elara, you really found such a dashing Prince Charming for yourself! I'm jealous!"
Lysandra was back at teasing her cutie daughter.
Elara glared with her natural red cheeks. She felt she needed to learn how to berate her mother quickly. She would think deeply on this topic later, but for now—"Shouldn't you first try saving him? I feel he'll die any second now."
Lysandra couldn't really tell Elara to just throw the human boy away and let him become fish food. After all, Elara hardly ever got to do anything by herself, as she was just too sheltered. Unlike her, Elara, although passionate about exploration and combat, didn't have the guts to secretly run away from home like Lysandra—who not only used to run away but also robbed her own home of all possible wealth!
Lysandra could see that Elara was very enthusiastic to be able to save a life by herself for the first time. Though she still needed her help, it was Elara who had brought the 'body' from near-death, so in that sense, Elara was the true savior. And since Elara was so eager about it, she, as a mother, couldn't really destroy her hopes and wishes.
"Don't worry—as long as I'm here, even if he wishes to die, he can't... Hm?" Lysandra suddenly paused and looked around.
Elara got creeped out by Lysandra's sudden action, so she quickly moved closer while surveying their surroundings. "I-is there someone else around?"
"No, nothing. I just suddenly felt someone was listening to our conversation, but there's no other intelligent species around or within the island..." Lysandra said, frowning at Eric suspiciously.
Riya, who was quietly listening to the conversation and hoping the 'mother' would stop teasing her 'daughter' and focus on rescuing Eric first, suddenly got goosebumps rising all over her body.
She felt that this 'mother' somehow seemed to have sensed it was her listening to their conversation.
'H-how the hell is that even possible?!'
This was even more absurd than someone sensing their voices being recorded by some bug, camera, or tape. That was because Mind Space and her own existence were 'nonexistent.'
No one should be able to sense anything about it!
'What a scary woman this 'mother' is...'
Still, Riya couldn't stop listening, no matter what—this was a life-and-death matter for Eric. Nothing else was more important than that, and if she suddenly stopped listening, that itself would become even more suspicious.
Lysandra wasn't too bothered by it and did another quick scan before leaving it as it was. If someone was planning something bad against her, she definitely didn't want to stop it. Such excitements were rare these days for her.
She motioned Elara to follow her inside her homemade cave.
Elara walked in, and just as she was about to put Eric onto the bed, Lysandra quickly stopped her.
"Wait, wait. Are you planning to kick out your mother after finding yourself a man? We sleep together on that bed! Are you that impatient to sleep together with that boy? Not that I can't understand."
Elara turned completely red from head to toe. She stammered, "B-but there's no other bed or anything..."
It was a single room that Lysandra had opened up inside one of the small hills of the island. Although it was fairly cozy and wonderful, with a kitchen, bathroom, and all that, there was only one room and one bed—that Lysandra had forced her to sleep together in, informing her that she didn't have any more beds...
So, where else could she drop the boy? The floor? He was seriously injured!
Lysandra rolled her eyes. Everything aside, the boy was wet and badly injured on both sides—putting him on a bed was wrong to begin with.
She motioned Elara to follow her again and looked around the small room.
After finding a good spot for a 'house extension,' Lysandra waved her hand, and suddenly, all the mud, soil, hard rock, and everything in that area began coming out in the form of large blocks and cubes.
All the cubes gently floated outside the cave toward an empty space on the island and then dropped down in an organized manner, one by one.
The cubes that came out didn't even leave behind a single speck of dirt inside the existing room.
Elara's mouth was wide open.
She really wanted to become a Mana Wielder as soon as possible, have fun around the world, and then become as strong as her mother—but for some reason, she kept failing to open her Mana Space. No Mana Doctor or expert had managed to help her.
She wondered if she was going to live as a mortal forever...
But thankfully, Lysandra had told her not to worry, as she seemed to have recently figured out a way to fix her Mana Veins.
It didn't take more than a couple of minutes to open a nice, large room with an extra bathroom attached.
Lysandra walked in; Elara followed behind, carrying the not-yet-dead Eric in her arms.
Lysandra waved her hand again, and out of nowhere, a single-person nursing bed—along with a table, chair, doors, wardrobe, bathtub, luminous stones, and so on—appeared all together and floated toward their respective places within the room, settling down.
Everything was of peak quality, and anyone who saw it would wonder if the person living inside was an emperor—even the floor mats were of extremely high quality.
Lysandra was indeed the Ruler of the entire Elvin Continent and was also a perfectionist. Whatever she did, she wanted to do it with absolute perfection—even if no one would ever see or use those features, she would still do it all the way. She was filthy rich, and so the entire cave was built with royal-quality goods only.
After nodding with self-satisfaction, Lysandra turned to her daughter. "Elara, you can leave the boy here and go outside to wait."
Elara glared at her mother hatefully and demanded an answer. "Didn't you say you didn't have any extra bed with you? Where did that bed come from?!"
With an innocent expression, Lysandra answered, "This is for emergency purposes only. See—currently, we're having an emergency, so I have to bring it out." She shrugged as if she were helpless.
Elara gritted her teeth tightly and barked, "Shameless!"
Lysandra laughed. "That's right—you need to be shameless sometimes to obtain what you want."
She waved her hand, and Eric mysteriously started floating away from Elara's arms, arriving in the empty space of the room.
She reminded Elara with kind intentions, "Elara, you should leave—otherwise, you'll get to see your husband naked even before your wedding night."
Elara blushed. She gave Lysandra a nasty glare and immediately ran out of the new room, closing the new door behind her.
After coming out, Elara didn't leave and waited outside.
She wanted to know what would happen to the human boy she had personally rescued. She was internally extremely happy and excited to be able to save a life for the first time.
Lysandra shook her head in amusement and then turned to watch the human boy.
Her smiling face turned indifferent.
All the remaining clothes and whatever was on Eric's body turned to dust.
Lysandra then pulled out a bottle of healing elixir that could heal a mortal. She carried it along in case she needed to help Elara.
Lysandra didn't move, but the elixir bottle opened by itself, and the required number of drops flew out and were applied all over Eric's body. Another drop went inside his mouth.
It didn't take long—soon, Eric started to heal magically, and in no time, all the outward injuries disappeared, and his body was as good as new.
This elixir only fixed physical problems and had no impact on Mana Veins. Lysandra was, of course, aware of the human boy's Mana Veins issues, but she had no intention of curing that. Well, unless the boy managed to seduce, entertain, and manipulate Elara into obtaining the cure—only then would she be willing to fix his veins.
'So, good luck, young man!'
Eric floated toward the bed, which had its back slightly raised. New bedsheets automatically covered his naked body.
Lysandra nodded with satisfaction.
All done!
She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.
"How is it? Will he live?" Elara asked with anticipation.
Gazing at Elara, who had an anticipatory and hopeful look, Lysandra sighed sadly and shook her head.
"Sadly, no—he was too injured. You'll need to find a new son-in-law for me." She spoke with deep pity in her tone.
Elara's eyes immediately teared up. She quickly closed her eyes shut to hide it from Lysandra and muttered painfully, "I-I see..."
"Come on, I was just joking," Lysandra laughed. "He'll be fine and wake up in a day or two. Have you already lost trust in your amazing mother's capabilities?"
"Humph!" Elara snorted. "I knew it already! There's nothing impossible for you!" She turned and ran out of the cave.
Lysandra smiled, watching Elara run away.
But then, Lysandra's smile turned melancholy.
She quietly muttered, "No, Elara... Don't put so much hope onto me. I can't protect you—and neither can I protect Celestia."