Larrifa Manor, smoke still rising from the small building’s roof.
The Light of Destruction, dressed only in casual clothes, stood upright in front of the small building, saying with grief and indignation:
“That evil dragon actually carried the paladin, launching a despicable, shameless sneak attack. While I was still sleeping, they directly robbed my weapons and armor, I heroically resisted, and they even subjected me to an unprecedented, utterly humiliating interrogation!”
Bad news came one after another.
Two soldiers carried the dead treasure chest monster, its tongue drooping on the ground: “Very sorry, Your Majesty the Emperor, we only found this.”
Even though he knew it was definitely gone, the Emperor of the Yanting Empire still reached his hand into the treasure chest monster’s sharp teeth, groping over and over.
Even though the sticky bodily fluids stained his hand, he endured the nausea and continued groping.
“All the chickens, ducks, and geese in the entire manor, not a single one left, very strange.”
“The soldiers reported. There was a dragon, almost as big as a house, even in human form, as tall as a story, with four arms, able to spit hellfire, covering the entire street in her flames.”
“I swear, by Heim. I shot a crossbow at her, but the dragon scales below her were extremely hard, directly snapping my crossbow bolt.”
“I personally saw her throw her head out, step on a screaming skateboard, and slide directly through the midnight oil. That skateboard must be forged from the souls of dead women, in the screaming I heard the wizard’s wail, he… he hasn’t woken up yet.”
“Must have had his soul taken by that banshee’s shriek.”
They chattered all at once.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire tried hard to maintain imperial dignity and imperial profundity, trying hard to tell himself that an emperor should have profound schemes, unmoved in expression.
He withdrew his hand from the treasure chest monster’s corpse, said to the servants: “Clean it up.”
The accompanying servants then brought out basins, soap, and perfume, and someone brought a box of scrapers.
The servants carefully washed his hands clean, then used scrapers to scrape bit by bit on his arms, scraping off the short fuzz. With each scrape, they wiped the scraper with a clean wet towel.
Scraped over and over, until the Emperor of the Yanting Empire’s arms turned white.
Only then could the Emperor of the Yanting Empire feel satisfied.
But this pleasure from cleaning could hardly reduce his raging anger by half.
Anger was boiling.
He took a deep breath, suppressing the anger.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire constantly told himself that he was now so calm and steady.
Books of later generations, when mentioning him, would surely write about today, even facing such heavy losses, the emperor remained unchanged in expression… it would become a beautiful tale, a proverb.
A crow landed on his shoulder, whispering in his ear: “The footprints disappeared, the bandits in the forest shot the crows dead.”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire instantly thought of the tax collector who died on the road, thought of the last hunting trip, when a wild boar rushed to the scene, pulled a big pile of shit at him, in the steaming shit there was even a piece of paper, written: “Forest tax paid by the Wilderness Runners to the great boar king.”
All sorts of new and old grudges surged into his heart, the Emperor of the Yanting Empire roared in fury: “Damn rangers and damn dragon-slaying hero! I will crush them!”
It took several days, the Emperor of the Yanting Empire insisted on his own way, seeming to forget there was still a court session.
Ignoring the opposition of his subordinate officers, he forcibly assembled troops.
Personally led the army, went to the temple district to demand accountability.
But how could the various churches in the temple district be unarmed?
All kinds of temple armies, guards, paladins all blocked the main entrance to the temple district, confronting the Emperor of the Yanting Empire’s forces.
For a time, swords were drawn and crossbows bent, all sorts of people ran to watch the show.
Those shouting it was about time to fight were believers of the Deep Sea Queen.
As long as fighting started, there would be corpses to throw into the sea, sacrificed to the Deep Sea Queen.
The Mage Association also came to watch the excitement, only thinking this group of divine arts people should have died long ago, then everyone would have to go to the magic department store to spend money on spellcasting services.
But more people shouted don’t fight, don’t fight.
After all, religion was an important part of everyone’s life, who didn’t chant a god’s name while eating, sleeping, shitting?
But the Emperor of the Yanting Empire was already impatient, he demanded to enter the temple district, to thoroughly search the residence of Richard who had “fallen to banditry.”
But the Arbiter of Light disagreed, demanding he could only bring a squad of guards, the two sides couldn’t agree.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire originally wanted to order his men to charge directly and chop them, but the noble officers began to delay, advising him to think carefully, fighting like this would hurt both sides, foreign heretics would laugh their mouths open.
Instead, his ally—Frostsilver wrote a letter saying, as soon as fighting starts, she would immediately lead the Hellknight order to kill over.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire then gained confidence, waved his hand, eyes staring straight at the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain said:
“Are you loyal to me?”
This barbarian chieftain performed a clumsy salute and said: “Loyal, my Majesty.”
“Then take the axe, lead your guards, directly charge in and split anyone who dares block you with one axe.”
In this situation, swinging the first sword carried enormous risk.
Not only easy to die, but anyone with eyes could see this was an unwise war.
The emperor couldn’t leave religion, once he encountered difficulties and began to waver and compromise, as the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain who swung the first sword in the war, he would easily become the sacrifice for compromise.
But the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain just nodded, turned his head and shouted to his countrymen: “According to ancient sacred tradition! Form up! Shield wall! Follow me!”
Accompanied by the roars of the northern peninsula people, they raised shield walls, the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain holding a giant axe wrapped in lightning, directly led the charge forward.
The temple armies also did not compromise, spears raised.
Dwarf guards drew greatswords, the Arbiter of Light stood at the very front, praying loudly.
The Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain raised his battle axe high, stepping closer, both threatening and giving the Emperor of the Yanting Empire time to think.
But the Emperor of the Yanting Empire did not, he roared: “Chop down! My loyal servant!”
At this moment, his mind was full of the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain becoming a representative of loyalty in the future, leaving a beautiful tale in history books.
“Stop!”
A fast horse galloped over, no one knew how she rode through the surrounding crowd.
She directly blocked in front of the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain.
The Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain did not hesitate, raised the battle axe high to chop the obstructer along with the horse into two halves.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire saw the comer clearly, scared and shouted: “Stop!”
But the giant axe was already poised to strike, chopping straight down, even chopping through the protective shield temporarily raised by the Arbiter of Light.
Just when all believers felt this nun was about to martyr, from then on written into books, becoming part of missionary pamphlets.
That giant axe suddenly twisted, smashed into the ground, only the horse lost a tuft of mane, falling to the ground.
The nun said: “The Lord blesses.”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire shouted: “Aunt! Why are you here?”
The nun angrily said: “Not only me here! And your cousin, niece…”
As she spoke, a carriage arrived.
Not only several female relatives of the Emperor of the Yanting Empire, but also female relatives of many noble officers present.
They called out one by one:
“Mom?”
“Fourth sister?”
“Sister.”
“Sister-in-law!”
“Eighth brother!”
“Fifth aunt?”
A clatter of a big pile, chattering endlessly.
Sending noble women to the church was very common, some sent from childhood, some voluntarily joined after growing up.
Usually noble ladies, idle with nothing to do, chant scriptures, pray, do some good deeds to be happy, too normal.
And families with too many children, afraid of dividing the inheritance, directly stuffed into the monastery, depriving inheritance rights.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire only felt a headache.
Clearly on his own territory, military strength also superior here, but always tied hand and foot, interests entangled too deeply.
Today’s battle couldn’t be fought, all the aunts and grannies came, couldn’t order subordinate officers to chop his own relatives.
A noble officer directly said: “Your Majesty the Emperor, are you going to order the barbarians to kill our female relatives?”
For a time, the military confrontation site noisy like a vegetable market.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire helpless, could only order the Red Dragon-Tattooed Chieftain to go back.
He didn’t dismount, seeing the chaotic various relatives before him, and the Arbiter of Light.
He rode forward, said loudly:
“So you group of thieves only know to use women as meat shields?”
The noise lowered by half.
“Quiet, quiet.”
The Arbiter of Light raised both hands, the remaining half quieted down.
He walked alone in front of the Emperor of the Yanting Empire, looking up at the high and mighty Emperor of the Yanting Empire.
The emperor was surrounded by guards in full plate armor.
The Arbiter of Light said: “Your Majesty the Emperor, today you led troops completely ignoring the court agreement, directly planning to use force, to flatten the temple district, what for?”
“You group of thieves, you moved the sword first.”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire waved his hand.
A carriage pulled over, dumped towards the temple district.
Burned sentry tower fragments, corpses dead to the slime monster’s pseudopods, charred soldiers.
“The famous dragon-slaying hero, in the dead of night assaulted my manor, plundered everything, didn’t even spare chickens, ducks, sheep!”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire said loudly: “Today I come to suppress bandits, it was you who broke the contract first!”
With these words, the surrounding crowd all said: “Impossible!”
“How could it be? That’s the paladin with fifty thousand gold debt on the dragon-slaying.”
“He also went to rescue slaves.”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire only felt religious brainwashing too terrifying.
He was just because of a small matter, not nitpicking, just tore a bit of signed paper.
That is, last year tore the trade contract, the year before tore the no tax increase contract, the year before that tore the commercial port dividend contract, the year before that didn’t pay military salary called people not to bring weapons to the drill ground to receive pay… five years ago tore the agreement, dug out the eyes of surrendered political enemies, sent to the monastery to be locked up.
What rules in political struggle?
That’s for fooling kids, winner takes all.
Now everyone doesn’t believe, just proves they are all potential traitors, especially those Mage Association people, usually can’t tell.
The Arbiter of Light instead didn’t join the crowd in not distinguishing “right and wrong,” asked: “May I ask which manor you accuse the dragon-slaying hero of plundering?”
“Larrifa Manor.”
“If I remember correctly, that is not your manor.”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire then remembered, theoretically Larrifa Manor had nothing to do with him, that is, legally speaking, Richard hadn’t broken the contract yet: “As the protector of the empire, treating citizens’ property as his own protection, what’s the problem? If it’s not my property, can it be plundered at will?”
“I believe both sides should present evidence in court, send witnesses to get the truth.”
The Arbiter of Light pointed at the army behind the Emperor of the Yanting Empire, “not rely on swords.”
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire: “Hmph! Where’s Richard? Dare to do but not admit, let a group of women protect him, he takes the dragon everywhere plundering? I see, the dragon-slaying hero will eventually become an evil dragon, he has fallen! The blood of the Dragon of Terror will drown him, and corrupt him.”
People began to discuss fervently, supporters of Richard and opponents began to argue.
After introducing the infamy of the Dragon of Terror, everyone began to have little confidence in Richard, even though the introducer was the Emperor of the Yanting Empire.
“Make way! Make way! Please make way.”
In the imperial army blocking the road, a path opened, fully armed Richard ran over.
The Emperor of the Yanting Empire didn’t expect Richard to actually appear, wasn’t he supposed to have fled into the forest?
And he ordered the guards, once seeing Richard, directly treat as foreseen invader and open fire.
Seeing Richard getting closer, the Emperor of the Yanting Empire remembered Richard’s fame, then dismounted.
The surrounding plate-armored guards also surrounded, impenetrable, the court mages on order stood to the side ready to use spells to stop Richard at any time, afraid Richard would rush over and give the Emperor of the Yanting Empire a sword on the spot.
Richard ran to the confrontation site, raised his hands high and shouted:
I defend myself, I did not go to plunder, but to fulfill my oath.
Thousand-Crow Eye sent assassins, trying to kidnap the foster mother who raised orphans for me, after I captured the assassins alive, let them testify.
But they said their families were in Thousand-Crow Eye’s hands, I promised them to rescue their families, because I couldn’t let them sacrifice their own families for my family.
“So, I went at night to save their families, discovered their families in Thousand-Crow Eye’s hands, living a half-slave life…”
The site became noisy again, the crowd agreeing with Richard gained the upper hand.
But the Emperor of the Yanting Empire disagreed, yet couldn’t start fighting, after much shouting and wasting saliva, finally decided to still follow the contract, everyone properly face each other in court.
Aurina sat on the rooftop watching the entire process, expressed her thoughts: “Ah~~~, so boring. Why do little bugs all like to spit saliva from their mouths, clearly holding guns and swords, can do a bit of small magic, why not fight.”
Beside her, Sophia tried to convince Aurina, this was a tense negotiation site, and very important.
After listening, Aurina said: “So boring, when can we eat. When can we start fighting, when can we start burning.”
“Soon, soon.”
“You’ve said that twenty-one times, Sophia, why not play with birds.” With that, Aurina somehow pulled out a black crow, staring at its shiny lifeless eyes, “Seems dead. Change one.”
With that, Aurina pulled out crows one by one, pulled out over twenty, lined them on the white rooftop, all lying on the rooftop, claws to the sky.
“When did you have so many crows?” Sophia asked: “Didn’t steal from others, right?”
“Steal? No, caught.”
Aurina said: “I saw them always looking at this king, so caught them to play.”