I casually tore open the sealed letter, only to discover that it was actually the highest-level contract seal. There was also a magic seal engraved in beeswax on the gray envelope. If someone other than the recipient opened the letter, the letter would either be destroyed or explode.
"Evelyn? I've never heard of her. Yep, you never told us about her either. "
Although Little Red kept shaking her head, her eyes were smiling. Although Dragons usually disdained lying, based on my understanding of her, her expression meant that she was waiting to watch a good show. There was no point in asking.
And so, I unhesitatingly tore open the envelope slightly and placed it on a nearby table. Then, I stood near the door and used my Hand of Ice to open the envelope from afar … I was so smart. If only the bomb disposal experts in my world had my hands, they wouldn't have been killed in the explosion.
"Pfft! Hahahaha!"
I completely ignored the female dragon who was laughing so hard behind me. I didn't know why, but when I saw Evelyn's name, which sounded more like an elven name, I felt my scalp go numb. It was as if my instincts were telling me that Evelyn was trouble, and that I should be more cautious.
In order to avoid being tricked, I carefully hid behind the door. Meanwhile, the ice arm in the room disappeared the moment the envelope was opened, and then …
"Are you kidding me? Nothing happened at all! "
There was no sudden flash of white light, no sudden screams of a banshee, no explosions, and not even some floating green or white powder. At the very least, there should be a death curse. This was a threatening letter that didn't even have a single trap installed. This was so unprofessional.
"Hahaha! I'm dying of laughter. What are you doing? Using your face to look in the bushes? Using your feet to step on traps? "
Alright then, let's continue ignoring the female dragon who was rolling on the ground laughing behind me. I picked up the letter and saw that it only had a few simple sentences.
"Ancient elven language? Someone actually uses this language in this generation? Let me think, how should I pronounce it? "
The letter was written in twisted tadpole language. It would be normal if it was written in the dragon language or human language, but what was the meaning of using a language that only existed in the ancient elven empire? Was this Evelyn an archaeologist?
The handwriting on the letter was beautiful and elegant. It was obvious that it was written by a female. However, the content was so confusing that I couldn't understand it.
"… You dare to return?"
She read this sentence in a low voice. The grammar was correct, but why didn't I understand it? Was she complaining?
As soon as he said that, the letter suddenly lit up, and then …
"Damn it! It's actually a definite verb! "
"Boom!"
Sure enough, the letter exploded. The explosion wasn't strong, but it released a strange smoke. When the smoke dissipated, I was covered in a layer of blue paint.
"Cough, cough, you actually purposely used a tongue-twisting Ancient Elven language to lure me into reading out the key words. How wicked! Cough cough cough. "
He didn't know what was used to create this trap. Even the dust it coughed out was blue in color. Fortunately, he could sense that this trap wasn't poisonous.
"Hahaha! As expected! "
The female dragon at the back was already rolling on the ground in laughter. She seemed to have expected this.
What followed was a sudden flash of light in the sky outside the room. It was as if when the letter was opened, something mysteriously left. The designer of the mechanism already knew that the letter had been activated.
At the same time I turned into a smurf, a small pendant fell to the ground. The heart-shaped sapphire on it was giving off a cold radiance, just like moonlight.
Seeing this, I knew that this was only the beginning. Trouble was probably waiting for me in the future.
"With such a powerful trap, it's impossible to believe that it wasn't someone I knew …"
…
Even though I still couldn't remember who it was, I became even more worried. Such a trap was obviously targeted at me. It was obvious that it was someone I was familiar with, but I couldn't remember anything at all.
Not having any impression at all was fine. After so many reincarnations, I had already forgotten many different things. However, it was quite abnormal that my library of diaries didn't have any records at all.
No matter how I thought about it, there were only two possibilities. Either I hadn't started writing in my diary yet … which was basically negligible. Or, those past events were memories that I wanted to forget, which was why I intentionally didn't write them down in hopes that I would completely forget them in a certain reincarnation.
"Well, if I can't remember, then I won't think about it. Since it's something that I decided to forget, it's obviously better not to remember."
I was able to quickly forget about this little episode, but Little Red, who was intending to watch me make a scene, was displeased.
"You're living quite freely, aren't you? You won't think about it if you can't remember? I'm so envious of your attitude towards life. Aren't you worried that there'll be trouble waiting for you if you can't remember? "
"… There's nothing I can do even if I can't remember. Besides, if that person comes looking for trouble. Even if I remember, there'll still be trouble, and it'll just be more troublesome. Since it's an enemy, I'll just deal with whatever comes my way. Isn't it just an 'old acquaintance'? If there's a line of old acquaintances who want my head, it'll probably stretch from here to the West Coast. Have I ever been afraid of anyone? "
Although I said that, I still secretly strengthened the defenses of the rooms around me. Of course, I wasn't completely on guard against any unknown threats.
When a new day arrived, I was able to relax slightly. Although the Dragon Knight behaved quite respectfully towards Lilith, and the Knight was mostly a stubborn bunch, it was still necessary to be extra careful when we were in enemy territory. It was also necessary to be on guard.
As we talked, I indeed obtained the most lacking information about the Bardi Empire. The information from the local domain lords was far too slow, unlike the Dragon Knight, who received news from the capital every day.
The ambitious and ruthless Orloss was still alive, and the current Bardi Empire was naturally still under his control. However, although everything seemed peaceful on the surface, there were many hidden undercurrents. As the old emperor aged, the situation in the Bardi Empire became more and more complex.
Nominally, the emperor was still supreme, but everyone was probably hoping for his death. This was especially true for the dozen or so adopted princes. Although they all seemed pure and innocent, they actually had a large faction under them, and they were all waiting for the old emperor to die and inherit the throne. Of course, there were still no princes who dared to interfere with the military. Yep, not on the surface, but the families of the princes' wives all seemed to be developing in that direction.
As for the local domain lords, there was no need to even mention them. The conflict between the central government and the local domain lords would never be resolved. The rule that all the domain lords' eldest sons would have to grow up in the capital was indeed an extremely effective method of hostage control, but it also deepened the tension between the two.
This rule had already been in effect for twenty years. The first batch of domain lords' eldest sons had already grown up, but very few of them returned to their territories to inherit the position of domain lord. This wasn't because the king didn't want to release the eldest sons, but rather because many domain lords chose to have their second sons who weren't in the capital.
No second sons? They could just have another one. And once a second son became a domain lord, he wouldn't be as friendly towards his older brother who had legal rights to inherit the throne. Even now, there were very few cases where a second son would welcome the rightful heir back.
The royal family's high pressure had caused quite a lot of resentment. Since the resentment had already accumulated, it was only a matter of time before there would be a backlash.
It was likely that after Emperor Bardi died, no matter who ascended to the throne, that person wouldn't have the absolute authority to suppress the domain lords' collective backlash. It could be said that due to how powerful the central government was, the local domain lords had been living with their tails between their legs for the past twenty years. Now, they were probably all hoping that the mountain above them would collapse as soon as possible so that they could rise up again.
It could be seen from the Bardi Empire's alliance with the undead that there were many internal conflicts within the Bardi Empire. Although Emperor Bardi had used his authority to suppress most of the nobles' objections, since there was no consensus, the internal divisions had long since begun.
Apart from the various True Gods' churches that directly broke off from each other, the most intense faction was probably the royal mages.
From the day that this news was announced, the head royal mage Winst immediately took a sick leave, while the other royal mages all began closed-door training to research magic. The only thing that was slightly milder was the fact that the dragon knight archduke and the dragon Knight all left together.
Halent's dragon Knight group used their own methods to express their dissatisfaction with Emperor Bardi. However, further to the west, the dragon Knight group that was still loyal to Emperor Bardi was about to enter the battlefield and attack the Mage Country in retaliation.
The dragon Knight group had a rather special status. First of all, many of them were half-dragons, which meant that they were both humans and Dragons. However, they had spent most of their time growing up in the human empire, so they were quite inclined to be humans during their "childhood". Considering their status as Knight, it was only reasonable for them to participate in the war since Emperor Bardi had sent out a message for war.
But if it was possible, I didn't want to see a war between mega empires, especially one that was intimately connected to me.
Combined with that strange System Quest that required me to choose between raising my reputation in either the Mage Country or the Bardi Empire, it was likely that I would have to choose a side when the shadow of war between the two countries became unavoidable.
I guessed that when I went to the Cloud Tower and accepted this so-called main storyline Quest, I would most likely have to choose a side and participate in this war.
"If it was possible, I really wouldn't want the dragon Knight group to participate in this war. That would escalate the war. The undead are already invading us. The longer we delay, the more prepared we will be, and the greater our chances of victory will be. If we just send all the top-level combat strength of both countries into this war, it'll only benefit the undead that will arrive sooner or later. "
That wasn't all I was thinking about. It would be far too much of a pity to just hand over the Bardi Empire to the Undead Emperors. And since the Bardi Empire's internal situation wasn't stable, the longer I delayed, the more the situation changed. For example, if the old emperor suddenly passed away, it was highly likely that the new emperor would turn on the undead.
[Congratulations! You have triggered a side quest: Stop the dragon Knight group from participating in this meaningless war.]
[Quest Requirement: Do your best to delay the dragon Knight group's participation in this war. If you delay this for more than three months, this quest will be considered complete.]
[Quest Reward: Lead to the former Dragon Queen Molly. Punishment for failure: Little Red's fury. System Notification: You can continue doing side quests without doing anything. You want points? No way!]
It would seem that as long as the main storyline was involved in the war between the two countries, it would be possible to trigger these side quests. Although I didn't have any points, according to convention, in order to do a good job with the main storyline, I couldn't leave out even a single one of these small details. Accumulating small victories for a major victory was the most reliable method.
Something worth mentioning was that although I received quite a few looks of disdain when I warned the various countries that the undead were about to invade, when the undead really arrived, although the various countries still pretended to be deaf and mute on the surface, we received quite a few private contacts in hopes of obtaining relevant information and assistance.
Of course, I was being serious here. I pointed out all the locations where the undead would invade in history. As for whether or not there would be any changes in the future, that was none of my business.
"In history," the Bardi Empire was the largest location where the undead would invade. After the undead began their full-scale invasion, the mega empire Bardi was suddenly destroyed in just three short months. This was doubtlessly inconceivable. But when I organized all the information I had gathered, there were plenty of internal and external problems. I suddenly felt that it would already be amazing if the Bardi Empire could survive for three months.
History didn't have any detailed records of what happened to the dragon Knight group. However, it did record that a large number of bone dragons appeared after the Bardi Empire was invaded … Based on the current situation, even if the dragon Knight group didn't die on the Mage Country's battlefield, they wouldn't be able to survive the subsequent undead invasion. It was completely predictable that all of them would die.
But right now, trying to stop the dragon Knight group was easier said than done. We were foreigners, after all, and we even faintly seemed to be enemies with the Bardi Empire. Even if Lilith tried to stop us, it was unknown how effective that would be. And as a Knight group, as long as Emperor Orloss gave the order to attack the Bardi Empire, Halent and the others would have no reason to refuse unless they wanted to betray the Bardi Empire.
"… Especially since they're currently fighting for revenge, it's even more impossible to stop them, unless we can prove that Emperor Orloss has gone insane, or that he's committed some serious crime against the Knight group."
But when I thought about this, I chuckled. Hadn't there already been evidence of such a crime?
"Kasola's Tears. What excellent evidence. It seemed that it was time to go talk to Halent. Right, the reason why the dragon Knight group joined the battle was probably because they wanted to take revenge on that forbidden spell. I feel like that doesn't seem like the Mage Country's style. Let's investigate it first. "
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