The gods and spirits were extremely arrogant, as seen by how Marina was completely ignored by the stranger, and they might decide to become judge and executioner rather than merely investigator.

That could not be allowed to happen in their home.

There was little assurance that this intruder would not decide Benjamin’s existence was a threat to the natural order of the world and would want him dead.

With a spirit clearly this powerful, she could easily turn it into a massive war with her minions or the various kingdoms that owed her favors from debts accumulated over centuries.

So the simplest approach, the safest one, was to make sure she does not even find the perpetrator here.

If she did not know Benjamin was in Verdant Spire, she could not target him.

"If you refuse to communicate with us or even answer our questions, we will have to kindly ask you; take your leave and depart from our lands," Marina squinted, her hand tightening on her spear.

She was ready to strike at a moment’s notice, ready to die if that was what it took to protect her queen and her home.

But the strange woman kept looking at all the women gathered there with a bored and expressionless face, her yellow pupils scanning the crowd of warriors with their equipments and weapons of destruction drawn and ready.

But she said not a single word in response to Marina’s threat. And her silence was louder than any shout.

Lotus also watched carefully from her position in the formation, not saying anything to the intruder directly.

But she was very alert and ready to cast defensive spells in case something were to immediately go wrong.

Her staff was held firmly in both hands, her golden eyes locked on the stranger’s every micro-movement.

Violette, Titania, and Benjamin were back in the village, away from the confrontation at the forest entrance, though.

Benjamin had been asked by Elara and Sakura to stay back and remain hidden, to not show his face or use his powers since the intruder might sense him.

Violette and Titania had agreed to stay with him, keeping him safe and keeping him from doing anything reckless that might expose his presence.

"Marina, please allow me to take it from here. Your approach is not working, so we need a different tactic if we are going to get any answers from this woman," Elara walked forward past her guardian and nodded to Marina, her silver eyes calm and her expression composed despite the tension in the air.

"But your Majesty, she is clearly hostile and disrespectful. She ignored my questions completely and has not acknowledged anyone here properly," Marina glared again at the pale woman who was invading their home, her hand still tight on her spear.

"Relax, Marina. She may seem hostile to us, and her silence may feel like an insult," Elara put a hand on Marina’s shoulder in a comforting gesture, squeezing gently, "but the fact that she has not yet pointed out an insolence for speaking directly to her without being addressed first means she is not one of the most arrogant and dangerous of their kind. A truly prideful spirit would have punished you already for such a breach of protocol."

Sakura chuckled softly from where she stood, observing the exchange that Elara had just pointed out.

"She might be offended by your tone and demands," Sakura added, "but she feels that speaking back to a mere subordinate would taint her dignity and lower her status. Marina dear, allow Elara to try her approach. She is the queen of this land, after all, and deserves some respect even from someone like this." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Marina nodded slowly and moved back just a foot, creating space for Elara to step forward and address the intruder directly.

"Good afternoon to you, stranger," Elara smiled warmly and began addressing the young woman in a respectful and welcoming tone, her hands open at her sides to show she meant no harm. "My name is Elara of the Amazon tribe. I am the Queen of the Amazons and the matriarch of our village, which is called Verdant Spire. It is an honor to have you visit our lands, even if your arrival was unexpected."

"...I know of Verdant Spire," the woman finally spoke in a soft and hush tone, her voice barely above a whisper, and Marina clicked her tongue in frustration that the stranger had responded to Elara where she had been ignored completely.

"So you know of our village? That is wonderful. It is a great pleasure then ," Elara continued to smile and address the woman respectfully, her silver eyes warm and inviting. "It is also a pleasure to have you here as a visitor, even if the circumstances of your arrival are mysterious to us. But... if we may ask, what brought up this sudden visitation to our lands? I pray that we Amazons have not erred in some way that has drawn the attention of the spirit world?"

The stranger scanned the brown-skinned woman who was speaking to her, squinting her yellow eyes and sizing her up carefully, as if she were trying to see past Elara’s face and into her soul.

Then she said, her voice still soft but carrying clearly across the distance: "Irina... that armor you are wearing... it belongs to Irina?"

That caused some murmurs to travel across the plains, whispers and quiet conversations breaking out among the assembled Amazons, as it became strange and confusing as to why that name was being mentioned.

"Irina is my mother, the previous queen of the Amazons, and she left this armor to me," Elara, also a bit thrown off by the question and the familiarity with which the stranger spoke her mother’s name, answered respectfully. "It has been in my possession for a very long time."

Sakura raised a brow and asked, her curiosity getting the better of her caution: "What relationship do you have with Irina-sama? How do you know her name and her armor so easily?"

"..."

The intruder only glanced at Sakura for a heartbeat, a brief flicker of her yellow pupils, before looking back at Elara as if the fox woman had not spoken at all.

A vein popped on Sakura’s forehead, a clear sign of her irritation at being dismissed so casually, but she managed to keep her smile and her calm composure.

"My mother, Irina, is no longer in the land of the living, as far as any of us know," Elara explained, her voice growing quieter and more personal. "After the last Celestial War ended, she disappeared from the world completely. No one has seen her or heard from her since those ancient days. I... thought that a dweller of the spirit world, someone like you, would know more about that than we do."