Year FT8, December 27th. There were only three days left (Aichy had thirty days per month). The old year was about to end, and the new year was about to begin.
In this world, there was no such thing as a solar calendar or lunar calendar. The New Year's celebration in three days would be the grandest celebration of the year. As snowflakes fell, everyone's footsteps became more and more hurried. However, most people had joyful expressions of satisfaction and expectation. Many brightly colored banners and advertising slogans had appeared on the shops along the streets, and the streets were filled with a joyous atmosphere.
And as living standards continuously improved, there would be a tremendous amount of job opportunities brought about by prosperity and development. For Diffindor's residents, as long as they didn't stay at home to wait for assistance, their lives would naturally become better and better. This trend of constantly improving one's life was even more valuable than having an abundant lifestyle.
This trend of constantly improving one's life filled everyone with hope for the future. They would work as hard as they could for a better future for themselves. They were also filled with gratitude towards the Mist Kingdom's royalty who had given them such a lifestyle.
Every year, this would be the busiest time for the Mist Kingdom's administrative department and royalty.
Not only would there be a large amount of work to deal with during the year, there would also be the preparation of winter rations and winter hunts. These were all major events that concerned the country's survival. Also, meeting with representatives from all over the world and participating in all sorts of activities was also a requirement to stabilize the country's morale.
The royal family's main doors were wide open, and there was an endless stream of carriages coming and going. The guest hall was currently hosting an end-of-year reception and a banquet. Groups of representatives came and went, and as the host, Renée was smiling so much that she had cramps after smiling for more than five hours straight.
However, the guests didn't care about such things. They excitedly waved at the friendly queen and kissed her fingertips.
In the eyes of the citizens, the Knight Princess from back then was now a true queen. Being able to see that the queen and her concubines were in good health meant that the Mist Kingdom would develop more steadily in the coming year. The only worry was that the queen's personal hobbies would have a side effect.
"What if the royalty has no descendants? If something happens to Her Majesty Renée … "
Speaking of which, it was rather laughable. Back when the Mist Kingdom had been in decline, nobody had cared about this problem. But now, as the power of the country continued to rise, a dangerous fact was placed before everyone — there was no one left to continue the royal family.
There was no need to mention how important a successor with a stable position was to a kingdom. Although East Mist was still a Dukedom in name, be it in terms of size or influence, it was definitely an empire. The advantage of a centralized authority was that it was highly efficient, but the disadvantage was that if something happened to the person in charge and the successor didn't manage to keep up, the entire empire would collapse.
And it just so happened that this Knight Princess had probably been raised as a boy since she was young. Even some of her sexual orientations were too masculine, which eventually led to a deviation.
These were just small matters. The citizens wouldn't be dissatisfied with Her Majesty Renée because of this. On the contrary, the fun of the streets and alleys made her more approachable to the people. However, this small hobby directly caused the queen to be married for many years and still have no children.
Of course, if her imperial concubine were to get pregnant, the first people who would be dissatisfied would be this group of gossip-loving citizens. However, after so many years, Reyne was still the only one in the royal family. This made people a little anxious.
If the Mist Kingdom's royal family still had a branch bloodline, they could think of a way to find a nephew to take over. But with the current situation, if Her Highness Renée didn't have any descendants, she would eventually grow old even if nothing unexpected happened. Once the throne was empty, it would be strange if the rulers under her didn't make a huge fuss.
As for adopting children from other countries? Sorry, the people of the Mist were quite serious about this. It had to be this bloodline. They still remembered the Mist War Flag and the previous kings who had protected them and their country. Before the Mist Kingdom lost its honor, they wouldn't accept any other bloodline.
And so, scenes that made Renée the most embarrassed kept happening. After the representatives said a series of congratulatory words for the new year, they would always talk about their sons and grandsons in a roundabout way, almost directly saying things like "You should hurry up and find someone to give birth to a son," which would be incredibly rude. Meanwhile, the major nobles and leaders of the Mist Kingdom would directly introduce their nephews and grandsons' achievements and experiences … Starting from three years ago, this was already the end of every year for Renée. According to the average marriage age in Eich, there were quite a few people who got married at the age of fourteen. Renée, who was currently twenty-two or twenty-three, should indeed be the mother of two or three children.
"After forcing her to get married, she's forcing her to give birth to a child? She's such a pitiful queen. "
"… Do you even have the right to say such a thing? You still have the face to say such a thing? "
The silly cat was quite happy that she was bound to my equipment, but I felt like there was more to her words.
"What does that have to do with me? Isn't this all Cavendish's doing? "
"Cavendish? Have you forgotten who Renée's nominal Guardian Knight is? "
Guardian Knight? In other words, a noble lady's lover Knight would be more appropriate. Did Renée even have a Guardian Knight? Back when she was still in the Ottoman Empire, she seemed to have found a female Guardian Knight for her. That was also when the rumors about Renée being a lily began.
"Who? Oh … there's a time machine over there. Doraemon, it's time to go on an adventure to the dinosaur era! "
I finally recalled. Back then, in order to interfere with the Mist Kingdom's internal affairs as the Mist Kingdom's rightful ruler, as well as to stop those ridiculous rumors, I was indeed Renée's nominal Guardian Knight, which meant that I was Renée's personal Knight … I finally understood what all those angry and complaining gazes meant. I should hurry up and find a time machine.
At this moment, I no longer had any interest in watching the fun. While it was fun to watch the fun, it was quite troublesome to watch the fun and get involved.
"You've finally remembered, haven't you? Yongye's woman … Do you really think that ordinary people will dare to pursue her just because of her title? It's all your fault that she can't get married. "
"Nonsense, it's obviously Cavendish's fault. If he didn't use Renée's body to drink with prostitutes, wouldn't that have caused all those rumors?"
"Alright, let's fix this. It's the fault of you two shameless brothers. How do you intend to make up for the fact that you guys are specialized in making up for your granddaughters? Everyone else's entire lives will be ruined because of you two brothers. "
I hesitated for a moment and finally gave up on the idea of finding a time machine … I'd rather go look for a Dimensional Door.
In the past, the New Year's greetings would end very quickly. But this year, the situation was slightly different. It seemed that none of the guests wanted to leave.
In the eyes of the guests, a familiar figure who was sitting at a table and reading a book was quite shocking.
"That person? Is it him? Has he finally returned? "
"I was wondering why the bounty was canceled. So it turns out that Her Majesty Renée finally found him."
"Shh, stop talking. Be careful that he doesn't run away again."
These tall and burly men were all quite loud. Of course I could hear them since we were in the same hall. I didn't even know what to say after hearing their words that made me feel helpless.
"Run away? Bounty? Do you think I'm a naughty child who ran away from home? "
"Save it. You're even worse than a naughty child. At the very least, naughty children don't know what they're doing. You know everything, and you're still doing whatever you want. "
They kept pointing and whispering to each other even though they were two tables away from me. However, they didn't dare to come over and talk to me. It was as if they were afraid that I would run away the moment they spoke. This was just …
"It's great that His Highness has returned. There's no need to worry about Her Majesty Renée's descendants anymore."
"Yeah, the People of the Mist have descendants now. I hope that the first child will be a prince. That way, everyone can relax."
"Ha, I didn't believe the rumors back then, but after watching that opera, I knew it was true."
"Opera? Oh, oh, that Princess Peach? I remember that Her Highness Renée acted as Princess Peach, and His Highness Roland acted as the Dragon Knight. In the end, the Dragon Knight kidnapped the princess … Oh! So that's what it means. "
Wait a moment, there was too much information in this story. Let me think about it first … Damn it, there was no way I could explain myself. There were too many things to comment on!
"Pfft!"
The silly cat was rolling around in laughter as usual. She didn't care about her image at all after transforming into a cat.
I opened my mouth, intending to refute the rumors, but then immediately closed it … How should I refute the rumors? Should I say that I was the one who acted as Princess Peach? It turned out that the rumors hadn't disappeared even after so many years. In fact, they were becoming more and more intense.
I finally understood why my two concubines were so unfriendly towards me. Was it because in their hearts, I was their love rival?
Numerous gazes were sneaking glances at me, sideways, and out of the corner of their eyes. This overly intense yet indirect gaze caused my scalp to go numb. But, I had originally come to this event to calm everyone down, to express the fact that "I'm in the Northlands and don't intend to go out and cause trouble for the time being", as well as to give some pressure to those restless rats hiding in the gutter. The main event hadn't even begun yet, so it would seem rather inappropriate for me to run away.
"Forget it, let's get down to business."
And so, while everyone else was happily chatting, toasting, and chatting, I did my best to focus on the documents in my hands. It was as if I was a pitiful person who only remembered on the last day of my summer vacation that I hadn't finished my summer vacation homework yet … Ahem, ahem, that was just an analogy. Did I look like someone who forgot to do their summer vacation homework? That's right, I never handed in summer vacation homework, so how could I possibly do it?
Ever since I arrived in Diffindor, I hadn't even finished reading the documents in my hands. There were far too many things that I needed to deal with, and far too much homework that I needed to catch up on. Not only that, these things were all quite important, and I couldn't afford to be careless.
Right now, I was currently holding the latest battle report for the continent, which was basically the hottest news in the world right now.
"The battle between the old and the new Archmages ended with both sides heavily injured. Yongye says that both sides are incredibly weak! … These little things are becoming more and more clickbait. They want me to write a review, and they're even using me as an example. "
The Bardi Empire's undead army had finally been stopped. Not only had the Bardi Empire's ally, the Immemorial Dragons, attacked, but the Bardi Empire's "ally", the archmages from the Mage Country had also attacked.
"… You really wrote something like 'The Truth Symposium was beaten up by an Undead Emperor?' You really dared to write something like that. The Cloud Tower must be furious. Those ancient artifacts are so difficult to deal with. "
"Nonsense, I'm not that foolish. I said 'If we only look at the Truth Symposium's strength on paper, they're still slightly weaker than the Undead Emperors.' How did it become 'Emperor Yongye says that the Truth Symposium's archmages are all trash with a combat strength of 5?' Those heartless gnomes actually twisted my words! Do they want me to be killed by those ancient artifacts? "
This battle report was from the Bardi Empire. Both sides were mages, so the headlines weren't too clickbait. Due to my special status as a member of the Mage Country's Truth Symposium, as well as an Undead Emperor (retired), the fairies brought me a memory crystal and asked me to comment on the battle. All I did was casually say a few words. It would seem that my outdated commentator had gotten into quite a bit of trouble.
"… Are you a newcomer? You actually believe in the integrity of a news reporter? Do you want me to help you write a letter to the Truth Symposium to explain? Just a small commission would be fine. "
"No need. They're no idiots. In this day and age, anyone who believes the headlines of those gnomes would be an idiot."
Due to their greedy personalities and the fact that they would do anything as long as there was money to be made, the fairies who had shops all over the world had a new name for themselves. But since they were professional information brokers, even if the headlines were exaggerated, the content would still be the truth.
As I looked at this battle report, I recalled the memory crystal I had seen two days ago.
The spreading Undead Calamity had finally been stopped. The Truth Symposium's archmages had used a forbidden spell right at the head of the Undead Calamity. This fire and earth dual element forbidden spell had directly changed the terrain of that area, creating a new volcanic area. This had also eliminated a lot of cannon fodder.
From a certain standpoint, those ancient artifacts were quite advanced with the times. Several archmages had teleported into the battlefield with their floating towers, and then had a forbidden spell mage stand inside the floating tower and chant an incantation, waiting for the enemy to enter their range. This was essentially no different from my previous battle against the Undead Calamity.
Meanwhile, the Undead Emperors' method of recovering was to instantly cast a forbidden spell just as viciously. I didn't know how they managed to do it, but it was a large-scale withering spell. However, judging from the area and power of the spell, it was indeed at the level of a forbidden spell. The spell drained all the water in the plains, transforming all the animals and humans into dried corpses.
The exchange of forbidden spells was only the beginning. The mages' duel would be the main show. The Bardi Empire and the Mage Country had sent seven Truth Symposium level archmages and three Supreme Immemorial Dragons. It would seem that they had planned on fighting two against one.
All sorts of spells flew about on the battlefield. Ancient forbidden spells and secret techniques were nothing more than cabbages. I couldn't even recognize most of the spells, but at least I could tell who was winning and who was losing.
It could be seen that this battle was only a test. Neither side was serious to the point of using their full strength. After all, it would be foolish for mages to go all-out before figuring out the enemy's strongest areas and trump cards.
The result was just as the records said. Neither side died, and the injured weren't too seriously injured. It was just that the map of that area would probably need to be redrawn. There would be a bunch of volcanoes, lakes, mines, and ice plains. The original map would obviously be useless.
Judging from the process of the battle and the result, although neither side used their trump cards, the Truth Symposium's old-timers were actually at a disadvantage. Harloys's teacher and Marguerite's teacher were among the Truth Symposium's members. They were all old-timers that even I didn't dare to provoke.
I casually tossed aside the newspaper. This was only the beginning. Both sides would continue fighting. Only after the mages learned the enemy's trump cards would they use their trump cards that would kill them. Rather than having the mages' power level, the mages' will to fight was even more suspicious.
"Have the Truth Symposium's old-timers fight to the death? For the sake of another country? The Undead Emperors are probably still testing the mortal plane's retaliation. This will take some time. "
Just as I was deep in thought, a sudden voice interrupted my thoughts, giving me the urge to break into a run for it.
"… Her Majesty Glina of the Sleuweir Kingdom has arrived …"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
