Early in the morning, in distant Kazakhstan. The rebellious, pretentious, small-eyed Sbybee ends his house arrest in his own magic tower. It's not so much the end of house arrest as his father dragging him out of the magic tower stacked with books to attend a top-secret council.

Sbee was dragged onto the Elemental Cart and sat down.

"Oh, my dear father, you, oh no, you, have to think about it. "After all, you, oh no, you're not the only son of mine, I mean, my dear brothers, who are the best of you to be in this meeting." ”

Sby knew and took him to a council of this level. Basically, he was appointed as the next patriarch, which gave him quite a headache, especially when he thought of his eight half-brothers.

His father, dressed in a serious black suit, had always had his waist upright. The elemental cart started, and the cane he was holding in both hands didn't shake in the slightest. The old man looked at his eldest son quietly through his monocle, but saw his first wife in his eyes, holding young Spyby and smiling at him, if not for the accident..... He himself is also responsible for his wife's death.

"You'll understand many, much later, my child. Sby's father said softly, "I want you to learn more from the words and deeds of those decent people." ”

This child's talent and intelligence have surprised him. I hope he can take over the burden from his hands and guard that secret.

They arrived at the council premises. A group of powerful old people, and some young people like Sbee are waiting for them. There is only one issue, how to properly resettle refugees.

There is very detailed information on refugees. Everyone has a copy in front of them, and everyone must have seen it beforehand, because only Shi Bi read it carefully. It is reported that among the refugees, the belief in the gods is spreading rapidly, and there is no possibility of suppressing it, and the plague is spreading among the refugees, and the granaries are being burned down by the believers of the gods. To add insult to injury, the Empire's most wanted criminal, Alina, burned down the facilities for the resettlement of refugees, killing nearly 10,000 people. Reading this, Spye frowned. He decided that it was a lie, and aside from the emotional factor, he didn't believe that a good friend could burn so much.

After ceremonial introductions to each other. A young nobleman spoke first, and he was a little chubby. I don't know if it was because of nervousness or something, his face was red, his cheeks were sweaty, his oiled hair was shining, and the unknown badge on his chest indicated that he didn't belong to any noble family. His words are elegant and his vocabulary is gorgeous. Apparently he was already immersed in his speech, and his hands were shaking slightly unconsciously.

His speech had been memorized beforehand, and Spy's talent revealed the secret. In Sbyby's eyes, he is tantamount to a circus clown, a nasty clown.

Because he advocated sending those refugees to Crescent City to be immortal slaves. Sby's small eyes narrowed, like a cheetah lurking in the grass ready to pounce.

The oily aristocracy had finally finished speaking, and before he could bend down and bow, Spye stood up.

"I have to say that your rhetoric is really unusually beautiful, and from a literary point of view, it is full of reason and elegance. Sbee loudly complimented the nobleman on the other side. "I especially admire that you can match such a shameless and dirty business with such beautiful and noble words, and believe me, if I were the editor in charge of reviewing your speech, I would not hesitate to take it and wipe it off my ass, sorry, gentlemen, shit. ”

He opened his arms, obviously very useful, but when he heard Sby's next words, his face turned bad, and Sby's father gave you a reproachful look

"You!" the fat nobleman glared at the eldest son of the Chenyue family.

"Watch your words, kid of the Tatsuki family. "There are many problems in this world, and the solution to them requires experience and wisdom rather than the resentment of a child." ”

For a moment, Sby's gaze rested on the fat nobleman opposite, and he glanced at the big men present.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my lords, I know that you are the most honorable people in this city, and that you are busy with all kinds of important business every day, with counting the income from the books, with attending noble balls, and with enjoying beautiful operas. You've never cared about the fate of those mud-legged people. ”

"Before I came here, my father told me that he wanted me to listen to the adults and learn how to be a big man. To be honest, I had no interest in it, and I even thought I would sit in my seat the whole time and wait for the meeting to end. But who knows? Today's agenda makes me can't help but raise my hand and try to get involved. ”

"I stand up to tell you that I am against it! I am resolutely against standing there and whitewashing a cold-blooded massacre with beautiful words...... Sorry, I never remember the name of the Joker. ”

"More than 80,000 civilians, we are talking about the lives of more than 80,000 civilians. They're not the cold numbers in your ledger! they're real people!"

"As you count the hundreds and thousands of gold coins you have earned this day, you are struggling for the one copper plate you will need for your life tomorrow. As you dressed up and wandered from ball salon to prom salon, they toiled in the fields, in the mills, under the overpasses. When you sigh in your hearts at the graceful figures and magnificent dance steps of the opera singers, they clutch the heavy ropes and hold the tattered hoes!"

"Shut your honeyed mouth," the fat nobleman tried to interrupt, "that butcher wasn't released by you. ”

The host pointed his scepter at the fat nobleman and motioned for him to sit down with a stern look. Chenyue Sbee ignored him, and without a pause, he continued to speak.

"Yes, that's right! We nobles are born to enjoy all this! We can get the best things in the world! We are the masters of the world, and the mud-legged people deserve us!"

"But it is not for nothing, folks, I beg you to recall the four pioneers who founded our empire, who issued the Code of Jophia, which states the natural rights of our nobles, but this does not mean that we are just demons parasitic on the peasants and sucking the blood, for we also have obligations that we need to fulfill!"

"They deserve to die, they're better than dogs. The fat nobleman whispered.

"We need to protect our country, we need to protect our people, we need to protect our great and beautiful traditions, we need to protect our supreme glory and morality!"

"They spread the plague. ”

"These mud-legged people infected with the plague are our people! The Code stipulates that we have the obligation to protect them! It is our duty to protect them, it is our tradition to protect them, and it is our morality and glory to protect them!"

"Have you forgotten? On the day of the coming-of-age ceremony for each of you, what you swore - to fight all the believers of God to the end! And now! These damned believers of God have sent down a plague against us! This time it is these peasants who have suffered, and what about it in the future? Do we have to get rid of our people every time there is a plague? Do we have to let those damned believers get their wish every time? Do we have to bow down to them every time? I want to say! Never! We must not break our oath!" Spy's hands raised excitedly, "We are the 'Divine Woe'! We are the Empire of Ruofia! We are the masters of the continent! No one can make us bow our heads! No one can make us retreat! No one can make us break our oath! Long live the Ruofia Empire!"

Sbee's right hand clenched into a fist vigorously. Under this supreme and sacred slogan, the whole audience resounded after the active or passive long live the empire. Sby glanced at the embarrassed and reluctant clown and sarcastically said.

"As for you, a country hybrid, who has not even experienced the coming-of-age ceremony of a pure-blood nobleman, and has no shame, is he worthy of shouting long live the empire with us?"

He blushed and tried desperately to say something, but eventually retracted his seat in despair as everyone looked at the joke.

Sbee sat down. Although the success brought a wave of rhythm. However, he felt weird. It's not that everyone here is amused by his sacred slogan, but something else.

"What an exciting speech, the children of the Tatsuki family. The host looked at Sbee with interest, and he smiled gently, "Who in this room has any objections?"

At this point, the man who made Sbee stand up, and his father next to him got up from his seat. Sbee only felt that a mountain stood beside him.

"Ever since the Elven King freed our ancestors from the captivity of the gods, we have sworn to follow the ways of the elements and swear to the death against the god-believers. This war has been going on for almost 10,000 years. If it weren't for the fact that the Yaren never forgot their oath, we would not have wavered even when the army of gods crossed the Sunset Plains and approached Kazakhstan. His tone was calm but powerful, "We are open-minded and inclusive. Under the selfless teaching of the elf teacher, our country's elemental industry has advanced by leaps and bounds, and the sharp cannons on the warship have driven the god believers out of the sky. The blade of the Elemental Knight slices through the phalanx of the god's followers....... Finally, in the midst of nearly 10,000 years of war, we all saw a glimmer of victory, but the vile gods, realizing that they could not defeat us by force, began to bewitch the people we protected. ”

"They are not Ya Fei people. They attribute all their misfortunes to the elemental industry. They don't see the protection that the elemental industry brings them, but they blame the elemental industry for taking their jobs. Some of us also doubted the choice of our ancestors and chose to collude with the gods. The gods have sent killers to try to deal with the moles and distort our minds. Luckily, at the last moment, Master Frogiza saw through the conspiracy, and the elves once again saved the Empire. ”

"But we have to admit that when the element industry developed greatly, it did bring us some problems. We all agree with the theory of scholar Malthus. The expenses of our nobles have given a powerful impetus to the development of the elemental industry, and at the same time we have enjoyed the dividends of development, we have gone to war to defend our empire, and we have mercifully given bread to the hungry people........ However, not only did they do nothing to help the development of the elemental industry, but they also gave birth without restraint, and soon they exceeded the limit of what the land could provide. The hungry poor are more susceptible to the gods, and they are unable to confront us head-on. So we dived into the murky underground waterways and seized every opportunity to stab us. ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, they are no longer our people. but our enemies. ”

The meeting burst into applause. Far more enthusiastic than the "Long live the Empire" just now.

The host suppressed the applause and asked loudly, "Do you have any objections?"

Almost all of them put their hands up.

Sbee was furious, his hands trembling with anger, but he couldn't lift them. He wanted to jump on the table and shout, "What are you mad about!" but the towering arms seemed to hold him down, and he couldn't move for half a minute.

Sbee finally understood why he felt wrong. All this has been decided in advance, everyone knows it, and he is the only one who stands up stupidly to speak out. He asked.

"Father, is this why you brought me here?"

Sby's father gave his deceased son's son a meaningful look.

"My child, you mentioned traditions, and unfortunately they are not mentioned in our literature or in the school textbooks, and this is not the first and neither the last. ”

Sbee stared into the void in front of him, but seemed to be staring at the nobles who were cheering for the "cleanup" in front of him.

His father's words seemed to come from another world.

"Although our elemental industry is developing rapidly, there are still too few workers who can engage in the elemental industry, and even fewer nobles who have mastered the power of the element. We need more elemental affinity people, but before we can put all our energy into the war with the followers of God to defend the Empire of Jophia. ”

Sbee slowly turned his head to look at his father. The father could read the doubt in Spaby's eyes and continued to explain,

"A small number of nobles could not support the manufacture of large-scale agriculture in the elemental industry. We have to produce more people who have the elemental affinity to meet the standard.

This is the only way to get out of the demographic trap. At that time, we will be able to live happily as the elves, but before that, many pioneers will need to carry their sins forward. ”

After this meeting, Tatsuki Sbee was depressed in his magic tower for a few days. When he walked out of the magic tower again, he was determined and took the initiative to ask his father to take over the burden of the patriarch.

Since then, the two best friends have embarked on two opposing paths.

Let's take our perspective back to Arcanis, located in an underground canyon near the city of Carmor. After a night's sleep, she had regained some of her strength, and although weakness had been eating away at her will, there was nothing that could stop her, not even the gods.

Arcanis stepped out of the zigzag underground passage. She stood under a small platform in the underground canyon, her head held high, looking down at the bottom of the canyon, which was littered with wreckage. Without a trace of pity in her heart, she turned and brushed the dust off the stone wall behind her, and a line of words behind the dust was revealed.

"The law of the jungle, Mother Nature's immutable law. - Arcanis on a visit. ”

Under this line of deeply engraved words, another line of crooked universal text was added, "And, may the elves and the elements die!"

"Yes, death to the elves and elementals, and the Empire. ”

Arkanis smiled. The Empire will regret what a terrible enemy it has created. After last night, she seemed to be a new life, unlike the Arcanes before her. She has a firm heart and a clear goal, and will no longer be distracted by superfluous and useless emotions to do useless work.

She has hatched a great conspiracy in the cold and weakness that will cause the ancient empire to tremble in the flames.

The cat at its feet suddenly let out a rapid cry, and it jumped out of its hood, its body arched, and its fur stood on end. A jawless, charred skull floated from beneath the canyon, its eyes glowing with purple light. The god of conspiracy, Shirek, sensed the conspiracy in Arcanis' mind and consecrated her.

"My former believer, are you ready to embrace me again? The jawless skull said to her, "I can grant your wish." ”

Arcanis didn't answer, she just smiled. The skull laughed, and the purple light faded into the dark canyon. A short sword, as black as the night, fell from above and plunged into the stone ground in front of Arcanis' feet. Melly called out to her, trying to stop her from drawing her dagger. Completely ignoring the cat's meow, she drew the dagger.

"Shadow Blade. ”

A feeling of familiarity hits me. She snapped her fingers, and the short sword with her forearm turned into a shadow between her fingernails.

The cat watched all this sadly. It knew that the Shadow Blade was Arcanis' weapon, given to her by Ciric. She hadn't used it since she converted to Mericay. The Shadow Blade was also lost after an accident.

Now, watching her go the same way she once was. The cat's heart was so uncomfortable that it barked and pulled at Arcanis's cloak with its mouth, but it was all to no avail, as if it were a praying mantis trying to hold the wheel of fate in its way.

Arcanis ignored the cat tugging at her cloak. Pulling a shiny engagement ring from her pocket, it shimmered in the darkness, and Arcanis threw it into the abyss, the ring arcing like a meteor in the darkness, and she watched the delicate shackles disappear into complete darkness, and then dragged her weak body towards the surface of the light.

She was free.