36 Five hundred years of search and change

"Whenever I think about that night, my heart feels like a knife has been dug out and thrown into an ice cellar......"

In the second half of the night, the city fell into calm again, the sporadic fires slowly extinguished, and the fighting gradually died down. A number of busy figures shuttled through the streets and alleys, and it was the rebels scattered in the city who gathered towards the castle, and with the primary objective fully accomplished, the castle and the city were under the complete control of Prince Lane.

After the three main members of the royal family were confirmed dead, the rebel-held gates of Butler City were restored, and because it was the second half of the night, there was no crowd at the gates, only a few rebels standing guard, dragging their tired bodies against the base of the city walls and dozing off.

The wind chimes rode the night back to the stable behind the church, where it was so dark that it was impossible to see if there was anyone inside. To be on the safe side, the wind chimes quietly entered through the small door behind the stables.

"The Earl." The wind chimes called softly, but there was no response.

"Count!" Called again, but there was still no response.

Wind Chimes couldn't wait any longer and lit a torch - she finally saw that there was no one in the stable! She hurried to the haystack where Lilith was hiding, which was also empty.

The unexpected changes made the wind chime's heartbeat instantly accelerate to the limit, and even made her feel an unbearable dizziness......

"Princess, princess, you ...... Where are you? Wind Chime muttered in his heart, "Did you escape?" …… No...... The Count will not betray the princess...... Why nobody, Count, where are you...... Was it caught? No, no, there are no traces of a fight here...... Someone's coming? …… No, no one ......"

……

Wind Chime pondered as she examined the stables, but she found no indication of where the princess and the count had fled, as if no one had ever been hiding here.

"The remains of the crown prince! It's gone......" Wind Chimes suddenly realized, it turned out that the body of the crown prince in the stable was gone, "Where did you go?" "Following the original location of the crown prince's body, the wind chimes found some footprints, but unfortunately, those were the footprints of the rebels, and the route to and from was the same. Wind Chimes followed the footprints out of the stable, and it was only when she realized an important omission in her previous plan - in order to make Entecoman look like a real mutiny, Earl McQueen stabbed him with several wounds, but the blood from these wounds followed Entekoman's path to the bridge. Of course, the rebels were not stupid, and a team followed the bloodstain to find the stables, and found the remains of the crown prince, while searching the entire stables.

"My God of Ten Thousand Sources...... Wind Chime suddenly sat down, but she still extinguished the torch in time, "Princess, Earl...... You won't ...... No, no, there's no sign of struggle here...... The Count was a cautious man, and he must have noticed that someone was coming to search, yes, he could...... In case he, in case...... I, what should I do? ”

Conflicted, tangled, anxious, upset...... Hit the heart of the wind chime, no matter how tenacious she was, she was on the verge of collapse at this time. The beloved princess is gone, and she doesn't even know where to go, has she escaped? Or was it captured? Everything is unknown......

The wind chimes with a dead heart barely supported her body, walked out of the stable, and looked up at the huge six-pointed star magic array in the sky, she was really at a loss at this time.

……

Before daybreak, the wind chimes searched all the streets around the stables, and even searched the alleys three or four times, but found no sign of the Count and the Princess. When the eastern sky was bright, the wind chimes had already traveled half the city, and still no clues or traces had been found, and she had to begin to accept this cruel fact-

- Lilith is really missing.

The streets gradually became more and more crowded, and after the night of the thrilling coup d'état, people's lives did not change much, only the man who sat on the throne. The operation of the city was as usual, unchanged, officials and nobles entered and exited the castle as usual, and the new king had completed his accession to the throne and began to negotiate new state policies.

Traces of last night's battle can be seen everywhere, but the bodies of the fallen have been removed, and there is a lot of talk about the coup, and bizarre speculations and rumors have spread, including the death of the king and the crown prince, whether someone has fled with valuable treasures, etc., and these topics have quickly become popular.

The wind chimes changed back into a black robe, and the dust was caught in the middle of the passers-by, keeping a low profile so that no one noticed her. She weaves through the jumble of news, trying to find clues about Lilith, but none of them have anything to do with the princess.

"No news, but it's good news......" Wind Chime comforted herself, and suddenly she noticed a few rebels not far away—of course, now the regular army, and a few generals were having breakfast in a street storefront, so Wind Chime leaned over and sat down where she could hear their conversation, and began to listen to their conversation.

“…… Originally, they were all going to be captured alive, but I didn't expect this to be the result......"

"Even the princess died, I really didn't expect it."

"Yes, you see that His Majesty (Lane) didn't have a smile on his face after getting the news, after all, it was his niece, who was not yet twenty years old......"

When Wind Chimes heard this, she was already convinced that Lilith had not fallen into the hands of the rebels, and she was a little relieved. But how do you find Earl McQueen and Lilith next?

"Get out of the city first...... Look in the Earl McQueen's domain...... That's the only clue at the moment......"

……

Wind Chimes walked out of the city gates on her own, yes, without anyone noticing her identity - thanks to Entekoman's efforts. A few days later, she finally found the Earl of McQueen's domain, only to find that it had changed owners, and upon inquiry, she found out that the Earl had already sold his land and possessions, dismissed his servants, and had prepared for the worst before the night of the coup.

And just like that, the only clue was broken.

Wind Chime finally realizes that trying to find the princess is not something that can be done in a short time. But on the bright side, she locked her time in order to resurrect Lilith, and now that the princess is immortal, as long as the wind chimes don't give up, Lilith is somewhere in the world waiting for her to find her.

"So, I also locked my time......"

The long search began, from the villages of Spellet, to the surrounding neighbors, to the distant and untouched kingdoms, to the island nations on the other side of the sea...... Wind chimes are left everywhere.

During this time, the gendarmes of the new king of Sprelet soon discovered that they had left out some people loyal to King Albert, including Wind Chimes, and began to arrest them, considering that Wind Chimes were magicians, they commissioned the Green Dragon mercenaries with corresponding experience to conduct a secret search, the results of which we have also learned in the previous content.

Time passed, and the search for Lilith by the wind chimes continued, and on the other hand, the expansion of the Kingdom of Split was also in full swing......

The Kingdom of Split under King Lane continued to follow King Albert's domestic policy, and it took two years to complete military reforms, raise an army of nearly 100,000 men, and begin the external expansion of the empire. Three years after the Battle of the Black Gate, Alista Akayi led an army of 40,000 to complete his revenge on the kingdom of Yusd and invade its capital, completely destroying this formidable enemy. The walls at the Black Gate on the border have long since been demolished on the orders of King Albert, leaving behind an endless expanse of green grassland, with an inconspicuous stone slab in between, and the occasional souvenir or hair of those who fought here to pay homage to the battlefield. It is said that the nearby cattle and sheep did not dare to graze here because there were too many people who had died here......

On the other hand, the army of the Kingdom of Split also expanded to the west and south at the same time, and won many battles without tasting defeat, after just five years, the territory of the Kingdom of Split has tripled, and the surrounding neighbors have either been wiped out or encroached, while the army of Split has always maintained a strong combat power, and at the same time is far ahead of other countries in technology.

There are two noble generals who have distinguished themselves in the expansion of the kingdom: one is Baron Risson, who fought on the battlefield with the Janissary soldiers he rescued on the night of the coup d'état, and helped him win numerous victories; The other is Ente Koman, who was made a baron for his "merits" in the coup d'état, and took the lead on the battlefield - the ivy with a white background finally became his family's coat of arms. Their performance on the battlefield led them to become a force to be reckoned with in the nobility, so much so that hundreds of years later, the two families are still prominent and have driven the fate of the empire in different ways.

Splait's expansion continued steadily, with many countries being annexed, kingdoms renamed empires, and kings renamed emperors...... Now, hundreds of years later, the remaining small frontier nations have nothing to fear, and Sprout has become synonymous with strength and glory, a superpower that cannot be shaken even if the Aube and Dragon empires join forces.

The search for the wind chimes also continued, even after hundreds of years of trials and hardships, the wind chimes were not afraid, even if the hope of finding them was very slim, the idea of "giving up" never appeared in her mind. She insisted on searching for five hundred years, and in five hundred years, the emperors of the empire changed one after another, and the long four seasons alternated again and again, and the wind chimes were still the same wind chimes, fearless, persevering, courageous, always holding the belief that "maybe they could be found tomorrow", repeatedly shuttling through villages and cities, tirelessly asking one person after another who seemed to be able to provide clues, except for the desperate desert and the misty jungle, two places that could not be set foot in, the wind chimes had tossed back and forth on the continent and the archipelago several times, And she never stopped......

Finally, one day, Wind Chimes felt tired, and even though her body could no longer feel the passage of time, she knew that it was time to take a break. By chance, Wind Chimes arrives in Windwalk, where he assists the people in driving away the attacking bandits, and meets the young Earl Lee, the lord of Windwalk, who affectionately calls her "Magician Sister". With the kindness of the townspeople of Windwalk, Wind Chime decided to live in seclusion in the snowy mountains of the north to get a good rest, and when she said goodbye to Windwalk, she left a spell stone, which she placed on the Ryx Altar and the Wind Chime would reappear to help the townsfolk through the trouble.

We pretty much know what happened next......

……

"It wasn't that long ago that I finally remembered someone under your reminder...... It was with the help of this person that I was able to recover the princess......"