Well, now Elashia was even more concerned about that previous question—"Why does Candice care so much about me?"
Why would Candice, who in the game had almost purely professional relations with Elashia, say such things to her?
Seeing Elashia's face tinged with a rosy glow, Candice seemed to realize that her behavior had made Elashia somewhat shy.
However, Candice didn't regret saying such words to Elashia.
After all, how could she not pity such a lovely girl, both inside and out?
Looking at Candice whose eyes were filled with tenderness, Elashia didn't know what to do.
She could only answer with a red face:
"I understand... Aunt, please let go of me first."
Looking at her niece in her arms who was twisting her little face away embarrassedly, not wanting her to see, Candice smiled with satisfaction.
It seemed Elashia had received her feelings.
Now the battle situation had basically stabilized, and post-war recovery work should begin.
Patting Elashia's little pink head, Candice turned to go to the government hall to begin post-war recovery work.
Elashia remained on the city walls, preparing to concentrate on treating the wounded.
Before long, Elashia saw Cecilia return looking somewhat melancholy.
But just as Elashia was about to ask about how the [Goblin Emperor] had died, Cecilia suddenly knelt before her.
"Your Majesty, as a knight, I have committed the crime of favoritism and corruption. Please punish me."
Unlike before, this time Elashia could clearly feel that Cecilia's mood seemed very heavy.
But understanding Cecilia, Elashia still forcefully helped her up as before.
"What matter can't be discussed properly? Why must you always do this?"
Elashia understood Cecilia—she knew Cecilia couldn't possibly do anything that would upset her.
So after being helped up by Elashia, Cecilia recounted her encounter with the strategist from beginning to end.
"Oh, so that's how it was..."
Now Elashia finally understood how the [Goblin Emperor] had died.
In the plot, after Elasian soldiers shot arrows killing both hostages and goblins, the strategist had chosen suicide.
That scene had made Elashia, who was playing the game at the time, feel terribly blocked inside.
No matter what, although this strategist was truly a beast, he was genuinely sincere toward his brothers.
This was also why he committed suicide after Elashia ordered the arrows fired.
But now that his brothers' families had all been rescued, the strategist's spiritual support hadn't collapsed.
So in the end, he had acted like a man, like a knight, for once.
Helping Cecilia up, Elashia smiled and said to her:
"In your eyes, am I really such a pedantic person?"
Elashia couldn't let the strategist who had advised goblins escape justice, but she also couldn't be angry about how Cecilia had handled him.
To some extent, Elashia, like her mother Alexandra, cared more about results than process.
As long as this person was dead, Elashia wouldn't say anything more.
After all, this was when humanity was about to face an extinction crisis, not the world Elashia had transmigrated from.
Facing people who deserved death, Elashia still preferred to kill them quickly to eliminate future troubles.
So even if Cecilia had brought the strategist back, Elashia would most likely have killed him directly without waiting.
But Cecilia knelt down again.
"Your Majesty, my actions have violated the knight's code. Please punish me."
"Sigh..."
Seeing Cecilia like this, Elashia really had no choice.
Hey!
Elashia suddenly thought of something very important!
There was still one very important character in Elasia that she hadn't dug up!
And this character had quite a deep relationship with Cecilia.
So Elashia was no longer in such a hurry to pull Cecilia up.
"Cecilia, if you really want me to punish you... I do have a punishment in mind for you. Would you be willing?"
Cecilia lowered her head and said in a very solemn tone:
"As Your Majesty's knight, I will do anything."
Cecilia's words made Elashia smile.
"Anything?"
"Very good."
So Elashia once again helped Cecilia up.
Looking at the somewhat bewildered Cecilia, Elashia asked knowingly:
"Cecilia, now that we've solved the goblin problem, according to the plan, what should be the focus of Elasia's military actions next?"
Hearing Elashia ask about something within her scope of responsibility, Cecilia immediately responded seriously:
"Your Majesty, according to the plan, we should now begin the bandit suppression process."
Elashia said with a smile:
"Yes, so since you think you've shown favoritism now, I'll punish you by not allowing favoritism during the bandit suppression operations."
Elashia's words left Cecilia quite confused.
"Your Majesty, I don't understand what you mean."
Seeing Cecilia who hadn't reacted yet, Elashia smiled:
"Don't you miss your old friend from the orphanage?"
Instantly, Cecilia understood what Elashia meant!
"Your Majesty, are you referring to... Dorothy?"
Elashia smiled and said:
"That's right. How about I have you suppress these 'bandits' first?"
Hearing Elashia's words, Cecilia immediately smiled.
She knew very clearly what Elashia's "suppression" actually meant.
"Your Majesty, how do you know about her?"
Elashia smiled.
Her understanding of this character really didn't come only from her gaming memories.
In "Elashia's" memories, she had also met this chivalrous thief once.
Dorothy was a bandit leader.
However, they were a relatively special type of bandit.
Like those chivalrous figures who robbed the rich to help the poor, she never robbed poor people, and in principle never robbed rich people either.
She only robbed one type of person—rich people who were both bad and wealthy.
What constituted "bad people who could be robbed"?
For her, this had an extremely rigorous evaluation system.
First, this person not only had to be morally bad, but also had to violate Elasian law.
Second, this alone wouldn't make her act—she had to be able to prove this person couldn't be punished by public authority before she might take action.
Finally, she had to have sufficient evidence—without evidence she wouldn't act.
So generally, the villains she punished would end up being robbed by her, then tied up with evidence and dumped at the local government's doorstep.
Over time, she had become a female hero celebrated among Elasian folk.
And "Elashia" had been fortunate enough to meet this female hero.
It was an extremely cold winter.
Ileina, who hadn't awakened yet, didn't listen to Elashia's advice and immediately took off her coat after intense exercise because she felt hot, resulting in a high fever that night.
Elashia, who was almost beside herself with worry, ran through the cold wind searching the Imperial Capital for ways to save her best friend, finally begging the nuns at the capital's monastery for medicine.
But unfortunately, on Elashia's way back, she encountered a group of local thugs.
These thugs saw that the medicine in Elashia's hands seemed quite valuable and robbed her of the life-saving medicine for her best friend.
Dorothy, who was passing by, saw this scene and immediately intervened, severely teaching these thugs a lesson, retrieving the medicine Elashia needed to save Ileina, and even accompanied Elashia back to their small courtyard, helping the still-young Elashia care for Ileina.
Ileina's eventual awakening was also thanks to her help.
Thinking of this, Elashia showed an extremely gentle smile.
"Well, that would have to start from when I was small..."