Chapter 177: Big Blunder

Although Princess Juliet was not dressed in full regalia today, wearing only a simple and elegant noble dress, she still had a holy aura that made one dare not profane her. The elegant temperament accumulated by the Elven Royal Family over a hundred thousand years of history was perfectly embodied in Princess Juliet. Coupled with her tall and graceful figure and her exquisite face as beautiful as a snow lotus on a mountain, the combined beauty was like that of a Goddess, possessing a lethal attraction to anyone. Therefore, saying she was a disaster for the country and the people was not an exaggeration. If such a woman were taken into the harem by an Emperor, she would surely fascinate even the wisest monarch to death.

After Princess Juliet entered, she showed no arrogance befitting a princess. She first saluted Old Xie and said formally, “Juliet O’Higgins of the Elven Royal Family greets Your Excellency Stephen!”

Old Xie naturally did not dare to put on airs at this moment. He hurriedly stood up early and returned the salute with impeccable noble etiquette, saying, “Carl Stephen greets Your Highness.”

Then Old Xie said somewhat embarrassedly, “Oh, first, please allow me to express my most sincere apologies for the misunderstanding that day. It caused you so much trouble; I am truly sorry.”

Upon hearing Old Xie mention that day’s event, Princess Juliet’s face immediately turned red, not knowing what to say. Actually, she was also quite depressed in her heart. If it had been anyone else, she could have vented her anger, but the person who took liberties with her right before her eyes was of the Star Elves royal blood, making her too embarrassed to strike.

Fortunately, Constantine on the side saw the awkwardness between the two and hurriedly laughed, “Alright, alright, let the past be the past. It was just a misunderstanding after all. Come, let’s sit!” As she spoke, she pulled Princess Juliet to sit on one side.

At first, Old Xie and Princess Juliet were a bit awkward, but as the conversation deepened and Constantine kept guiding, the barrier between the two quickly dissolved. As they talked, both Old Xie and Princess Juliet couldn’t help but feel a sense of amazement. Old Xie discovered that Princess Juliet’s knowledge was terrifyingly vast; even very obscure information was at her fingertips. Whether it was history, magic, or Alchemy, her basic knowledge was extremely solid. To put it bluntly, this woman’s brain was comparable to a computer, a walking database.

Princess Juliet, on the other hand, was also amazed by Old Xie. Although Old Xie’s common sense couldn’t compare to Juliet’s—after all, Old Xie spent most of his time practicing and didn’t waste it on books—Princess Juliet discovered that Old Xie had a near-godlike control over the general situation. When evaluating history, Old Xie always hit the key points concisely. For various famous battles, even if he didn’t know the specific process beforehand, he could analyze the general trend quite accurately.

Of course, this alone was not enough to shock Princess Juliet, as this might have been taught to Old Xie by the Old Mage. But there was one thing the Old Mage absolutely could not have taught him beforehand, and that was the few battles Old Xie personally commanded. Whether it was the cliff ambush against Tianfeng Fourteen Lang or the battle that completely destroyed the Black Dragon Society headquarters in the City of Chaos, both were commanded by Old Xie alone. At that time, no one had given him any advice.

After Princess Juliet learned the full process of the battle from the two parties involved, Constantine and Old Xie, she was truly shocked by Old Xie’s terrifying overall ability. You had to know, a sixteen-year-old child not only dared to challenge the dignity of a Sword Saint in front of two armies, but he even won. Especially later, when Sven and other Barbarians explicitly stated they would not participate, he still resolutely launched a surprise attack on the headquarters of the Black Dragon Society. You had to know, at that time Old Xie only had about 300 men, while the enemy had over a thousand, and they also had a solid Castle as their backing. Although Old Xie had a fairly good battle plan, if just one link in this plan had a mistake, it could lead to the entire army being wiped out.

In such a situation, Old Xie, a mere teenager, actually dared to make a move and ultimately won; how much courage and how terrifying wisdom this required! Princess Juliet asked herself, even she or her brother Arthas would absolutely not have the courage to take this risk at that time!

What especially surprised Princess Juliet was that after Arthas was injured, Old Xie accurately predicted that the City of Chaos would be destroyed by the Elves, so he abandoned the base of the Stephen Family there without hesitation.

Although later, the Elves did not massacre the humans in the City of Chaos during their attack, but war, especially the street fighting during a siege, could it possibly avoid harming civilians? Although the Elves tried their best to avoid accidental harm, in reality, at least tens of thousands of humans died at the hands of the Elves at that time.

Moreover, many Castles were jointly run by humans and pirates, and the Elves simply didn’t ask so many questions and just flattened them directly. One could imagine, under these circumstances, if the people of the Stephen Family were still there, who knew how they would have died!

Because of this, Princess Juliet felt curiosity and admiration for Old Xie, and Old Xie also developed infinite fondness for this princess who was indescribably beautiful and especially gentle and talented, so the two of them talked more and more happily!

Just at this moment, Princess Juliet suddenly said: “By the way, last time I heard that poem of yours from Constantine, it’s called ‘Moonlit Night on the Spring River’, right? It was truly too beautiful!”

“It’s not mine!” Old Xie shook his head very bluntly. This was his good point; he disdained to take credit for other people’s things. Although he knew there was almost no possibility of being exposed, the pride in his bones still did not allow him to do this!

“Hehe, don’t try to fool us!” Constantine laughed: “Even if my memory has problems, Princess Juliet absolutely cannot be wrong; she is a famous talented woman of the Elves and has almost read all the famous literary materials recorded in the history of the Elves, but she has no impression at all of a wonderful poem like ‘Moonlit Night on the Spring River’. Obviously, this should have been made recently. Unless you can tell us who the original author is, otherwise, you should just admit it!”

“I won’t admit it!” Old Xie continued to shake his head: “I don’t have the habit of being a literary thief. Anyway, this thing was absolutely not written by me.”

“Then who wrote it?” Princess Juliet immediately asked curiously.

“I won’t tell you!” Old Xie said with a smile.

“Oh no, how can you be like this!” Princess Juliet couldn’t help but smile bitterly: “Stephen, this is not something a Noble should do!”

“Hehe, I am not a Noble; according to your brother, I am just a rude Barbarian!” Old Xie said with a smile.

“That’s because you always call him a Pretty Boy!” Princess Juliet said helplessly with a bitter smile.

“Alright, Stephen, everyone is so happy today, you see you can’t spoil our fun; how about this, no matter if ‘Moonlit Night on the Spring River’ was written by you or not, anyway, today you must recite another wonderful poem for me!” Constantine said with a charming smile.

At Noble gatherings, it was very common for young men to recite poems for the women they admired, and Constantine and Princess Juliet were no exception. Seeing Constantine propose this, Princess Juliet also immediately chimed in: “Well said, Stephen, you must recite a poem that satisfies us, and it must be one we haven’t heard before!”

“Ah~” When Old Xie heard this, his face immediately turned bitter, and he said helplessly: “I am a rough person, I don’t know how to compose! Besides, I hate this tone of the Nobles the most!”

“If you can’t compose, then recite ‘someone else’s’!” Constantine insisted: “Anyway, I don’t care if you like it or not, I want to hear it!”

Constantine, who was always understanding, also showed this girlish attitude, which made Old Xie feel both happy and helpless! In the end, his affection for Constantine prevailed, and he could only smile bitterly and say: “Alright, I will recite a poem by someone else!”

“Good, good!” Princess Juliet immediately teased: “But let me state first, we don’t want to hear those disgusting sentiments in Noble circles, your poem must be different, with philosophy and a spirit of progress!”

“Alright!” Old Xie nodded helplessly, then thought for a moment, and recited with great spirit: “Be a hero in life, and a ghost hero in death!”

“Wow!” Constantine heard the first two lines and immediately couldn’t help exclaiming: “Good poem, truly too good! Just with this majestic and grand momentum, it is already fully worthy of being an eternal famous line!”

“Not bad!” Princess Juliet also exclaimed with stars in her eyes, “The opening two lines are so brilliant, I really don’t know how classic the rest will be! Quick, tell us, tell us the rest!” She then couldn’t help urging.

But Old Xie got stuck right there, his old face flushed red from holding it in, and finally said, “The rest is gone!”

Actually, it wasn’t that Old Xie didn’t remember the next two lines, but he suddenly realized that the next two lines simply couldn’t be shown to people. Because the author of this poem, Li Qingzhao, later said, ‘Thinking of Xiang Yu to this day, refusing to cross the Jiangdong!’ In this other world, who knew who Xiang Yu was? And who knew the allusion of crossing the Jiangdong? Once he said it, they would definitely ask, and Old Xie couldn’t just directly say, I came from another world, right? So he forcibly swallowed the last two lines.