Benice didn't know much about the Elf Kingdom.
Although called the Elf Kingdom, strictly speaking, it wasn't a proper country at all; it was more like a collection of tribes and villages.
They had always lived in seclusion in the Southern Great Forest, self-sufficient, and had never declared themselves a nation or established diplomatic relations with other countries.
It was only because of their proximity to Theocracy and a period of cooperation many years ago against a common enemy that they had any interaction.
After that, the newly appointed Elf King, a pervert, kidnapped a Divine Being from Theocracy, and the two sides fell out.
However, what made Iri curious was how the Elf Kingdom, in its current state, could have fought Theocracy for nearly several hundred years.
Logically, Theocracy, with its strong combat power, should have had no problem dealing with a tribal alliance that didn't even have a regular army, right?
Could they really have fought for so long?
According to Benice, in the more than a hundred years since the Elf Kingdom and Theocracy became enemies, Theocracy hadn't been fighting constantly.
Moreover, the Elf Kingdom was very good at guerrilla warfare, and with the unique characteristics of the Southern Great Forest, Theocracy still had no way to deal with the elves.
Regarding that uniqueness, Benice only knew that deep within the Southern Great Forest, near what was called the Elf Kingdom's capital, there seemed to be some kind of barrier protecting it.
It was perpetually shrouded in mist, and any normal person who entered would get lost a hundred percent of the time.
Basically, if the elves couldn't win, they would retreat deep into the mist, and the people from Theocracy would be completely helpless.
Furthermore, that mist could even resist magic attacks; magic could not be cast within the mist.
Theocracy's current speculation was that the mist might be caused by a secret treasure left behind by the Six Great Gods or Eight Greed Kings.
Mist that could resist magic! No wonder Theocracy found it tricky.
Hmm! That's odd. If that mist existed, how did Theocracy rescue Death Knight from that perverted Elf King back then?
That was a puzzling question.
After Iri raised her question to Benice, Benice explained that the mist appeared only after they fell out with Theocracy, which clearly indicated that the mist was man-made!
It seems the elves shouldn't be underestimated; if they didn't have some trump card, they wouldn't dare challenge Theocracy for so many years.
However, it was also because this trash Elf King courted death by provoking Theocracy… which led to elves not being treated well in other countries.
After discussing the Elf Kingdom, the conversation moved to Theocracy's Fire Extinguishing Scripture.
This unit, overseen by the Fire Priest Benice, was primarily responsible for domestic security.
So, Iri usually saw that the monastic soldiers guarding Theocracy's capital and near the temple were almost all from the Fire Extinguishing Scripture.
In addition, the Fire Extinguishing Scripture also had a secret unit specifically responsible for assassination work.
Information about that unit was top secret, so Benice couldn't find out anything.
The Fire Extinguishing Scripture escort team dispatched this time was similar to the so-called royal guard units in other countries.
Although their numbers were not large, they were all elites.
It seemed that Theocracy was truly serious this time, intending to take down the Elf Kingdom in one fell swoop.
Iri could understand this, as it was a tumultuous time.
First, Xiao Di created Jaldabaoth, then there was the Ainz Ooal Gown Magic Kingdom, and the Destruction Dragon King was about to revive.
Originally, there was also the problem of the Dragon Kingdom being attacked by beastmen, but that problem had already been resolved by herself.
Looking at it this way, if Theocracy didn't quickly take down the Elf Kingdom, it would be difficult to deploy forces to deal with the Magic Kingdom.
Theocracy itself was already wary of the Magic Kingdom's power; if they were also attacked from both sides, it would be a hopeless situation.
At this point, Iri wondered if Theocracy's decision to send her to eliminate the Elf Kingdom, even after knowing she was a princess of the Magic Kingdom, was precisely for this reason.
They wanted to use her power to quickly eliminate the Elf Kingdom so they could free up manpower to focus on other situations.
But by doing this, weren't they afraid that the Magic Kingdom would absorb the Elf Kingdom?
Wouldn't this contradict Theocracy's attitude towards the Magic Kingdom after the original story?
As mentioned earlier, if the Elf Kingdom sided with the Magic Kingdom, Theocracy would be completely surrounded.
Even without counting the neighboring Holy Kingdom, Theocracy was still in a very disadvantageous position.
The high-ranking officials of Theocracy shouldn't be so brainless, although they still believed she was under their control.
It was clear that those people in Theocracy had great confidence in the power of Falling Beauty of a Nation in her hands.
However, Iri herself didn't have a good way to bring the Elf Kingdom under the Magic Kingdom's banner.
In the original work, there wasn't much description of the Elf King, and most of it focused on how perverted that scoundrel was, with little mention of other aspects.
So, Iri didn't understand the Elf King's other attributes besides being a pervert.
Therefore, to deal with the Elf Kingdom, besides the earlier idea of directly killing the Elf King and forcing the elves into submission by force, Iri couldn't think of any other method.
But doing so would greatly benefit Theocracy, as she was indeed on Theocracy's side attacking the Elf Kingdom.
If she mobilized the Magic Kingdom's troops, she could indeed occupy the Elf Kingdom directly after eliminating the Elf King.
However, doing so would lead to a formal break between Theocracy and the Magic Kingdom.
In that case, Theocracy might start forming a grand alliance to target the Magic Kingdom.
This would be putting the cart before the horse. Apart from a scorched-earth policy, there really wasn't any other good solution for a head-on fight.
Theocracy's brainwashing education of its citizens was too effective.
The populace was all extremely human-supremacist. Confronting the Magic Kingdom with such people, apart from scorched earth, there were almost no good options, so this situation absolutely had to be avoided!
After understanding the issues she wanted to know, the situation remained unchanged.
This time was different from the Empire and the Dragon Kingdom.
The Empire had seen the script beforehand, and with the overthinking emperor being too effective, he dug his own grave.
Although the Dragon Kingdom wasn't heavily described in the original work, it was the weaker party and the one receiving aid, so it was very easy to intimidate.
Although Iri was also very curious why the Dragon Queen surrendered so quickly; she had barely left before the Dragon Queen surrendered to the Magic Kingdom.
Iri was also quite surprised by this, but now was not the time to dwell on it. Anyway, it had happened, so she wouldn't worry about it.
The primary issue now was still the Elf Kingdom. For now, she could only wait for any further intelligence from the Fire Extinguishing Scripture.
Then, it would be a matter of going there for a field investigation and taking things one step at a time.
If all else failed, she could feign weakness and just avoid attacking the Elf Kingdom.
Didn't they have that mist that could resist magic? She could use that as an excuse, saying she couldn't do anything about it, and let the Fire Extinguishing Scripture go to their deaths themselves.
She could just slack off on the side. Anyway, letting the Elf Kingdom and Theocracy continue fighting would tie up Theocracy… allowing Xiao Di and Ainz to first deal with the Holy Kingdom according to the original plot, and then slowly handle Theocracy later.
With an idea in mind, Iri chuckled again…
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