Throne of the North.

Chapter 620 The Chosen One—Viking Columbus
The Elector Columbus is a name that is rarely mentioned.

But as one of the chosen ones, he was destined to be a rising star within the empire.

Viking Columbus was younger than the other two electors, and the reason why such a bloodline, which was not supported by any nobles, could become an elector was simple: he was too perfect.

In any field, Martina Lillard, the Queen of Nantes, is known as the most beautiful woman, while Viking Columbus is the most handsome man. Looks are innate, but temperament is also important. How could the temperament of a member of the Flor Empire royal family and an elector be lacking?
Gradually, no one even compared the queen to the Vikings anymore.

In terms of wisdom, all the nobles who have visited the capital city are amazed. The old nobles of the empire have witnessed the birth of one of the world's most intelligent electors. In the Academy of Wise Men, he can make all doubters put away their doubts from childhood to adulthood.

This is no ordinary world; in the realm of the extraordinary, even the Chosen Ones, the Vikings, possess immense talent.

He was a knight, a clergyman, and even a magician.

When he heard Pascal say these things, Ryan couldn't help but be surprised. The last person he had seen like this was Dean Rose, who had achieved great success in both magic and alchemy. And now, Dean Rose was also embarking on the path of knighthood with his help.

"Can a knight and a mage cultivate at the same time?"

As Ryan knew, it was impossible, because one path was extremely still and the other extremely dynamic; a mage needed quiet meditation, while a knight needed to ignite his blood and qi.

Rose is able to do this now because she has long since given up on the dangerous path of becoming a shadow mage.

"No one else could have done it, but he did."

"It was because of the success of the Viking Emperor that academic research on improving the physical strength of mages became popular again in the magic community."

Count Pascal said this, adding that he too was a legendary mage and had tried certain approaches.

"He was impeccable in etiquette; even the most serious noble attendants could not find fault with him. He was humble and polite in his treatment of nobles, and even in his treatment of commoners and slaves."

"He can soothe the emotions of wild beasts and pets, he can also engage in knightly duels, he can venture into the North alone, and he can show mercy to his enemies before beheading them."

"In a certain alternate dimension, His Highness the Viking conquered it without firing a single shot, and everyone there willingly submitted to the Empire."

“All the fine qualities we aspire to can be seen in His Highness Viking. The nobles are all an act, but he is the real deal.”

"He possesses divine power, so he can be considered a clergyman, not from the Dawn Church, but from the favor of that Moon Lady."

Pascal himself recalled that he couldn't help but doubt once again whether this was really a human being.

"The empire was blasphemous, so more than one nobleman or even the royal family themselves doubted the Vikings' identity, fearing that some great being might replace the Columbus dynasty and thus leave a curse on the empire."

"But in the end, all doubts vanished, and Viking Columbus became the elector of the empire."

That sounded pretty good, but Ryan wasn't affected by what Pascal said. He felt it was excellent rather than perfect, so he continued to ask:

"Why doesn't any nobleman support such a person who is both shrewd and kind, ambitious and capable?"

Count Pascal sighed helplessly:
"The problem lies in this: the Viking Elector is too perfect."

"He originally had many supporters, and several grand dukes even competed for him, but they all eventually gave up."

"What did he do?"

"No, it's what he's planning to do."

Count Pascal's eyes deepened.

"The Viking elector once said in the capital that all slaves in the empire should be abolished, whether they were slaves of the empire or slaves of the nobles, and that they should live on the land of the empire as commoners."

Ryan clicked his tongue, but he wasn't surprised. If he could, he would want to do the same. The productivity of slaves was too low. This Viking elector was someone with a vision for development.

However, this affected the interests of the nobles. Slaves were private property, while commoners were free. It was wishful thinking to ask the nobles to give up their greatest wealth.

"He also wants to reclaim the lands of the nobles."

His concise and to-the-point statement clearly showed Ryan why no nobles supported the Vikings.

If Ryan could still make amends about the previous transformation of slaves into commoners, from the perspective of productivity and the progress of civilization, the nobles could also accept that this world was becoming less and less like it was a hundred years ago.

But the topic of reclaiming the land made Ryan think that the Viking Elector... was still alive?

It's quite remarkable that he survived alive and well after expressing such thoughts, and that the nobles didn't react much when they talked about him.

Land, territory, the Viking electors are not just touching the wealth of the nobles, they are uprooting their very lifeblood.

They even went so far as to strip the entire world's nobility of their power, putting the Florian royal family on the hot seat of adversity.

He believed that by distributing land to all the commoners of the empire, the nobles and the emperor could acquire more wealth.

Not only should the territory be reclaimed, but the land should also be redistributed.

In an ordinary world, this idea might be considered advanced, but in a world with extraordinary beings, where even the nobles are rulers who wield extraordinary power, this idea is considered advanced.

It's important to understand that the rule of nobles wasn't solely based on hereditary succession.

The simplest example is that Ryan's bloodline contains extraordinary power that makes him naturally stronger, which sets him apart from ordinary people.

"Is he still alive? Or is he being held captive?"

Ryan finally asked the question.

Count Pascal shook his head and said:

"He has been exiled, and I don't know where His Highness the Viking is."

"Back then, he spent several years proving to us that land in the hands of commoners, and then the nobles taking control of the commoners, could acquire more wealth."

"Let the nobles control the wealth, let the common people live a prosperous life, and let there be no more oppressed slaves, so that the empire will become stronger."

"A nobleman is still a nobleman, but he has lost a lot and is more like a... millionaire?"

"In short, this last elector instilled fear in the nobles."

Having offended all the nobles, it's no surprise that the elector was banished.

You could even say this is the smallest possible cost.

Ryan was curious. Wouldn't someone like this be able to establish their own system of thought and thus become a wise man or saint?

Moreover, his ideas are far too radical in this world.

At the same time, Ryan also felt that this Elector Viking seemed too perfect.

To be precise, it's a bit too much of a perfectionist.

It's a very simple thing: if the world becomes the way he envisions it, will it become perfect?
It's practically impossible, because of human nature, desires are insatiable.

The Vikings underestimated the nobility, as well as the commoners and slaves. Within the Frozen Territory, even the slaves possessed strong desires, and Ryan exploited these desires to propel the territory's rapid development, surpassing other territories by dozens of times. This is the power of desire.

But human desires go far beyond that.

Any of his ideas would take a long time to develop; he wanted to achieve that in one era.

impossible.

In an extraordinary world, this time span is only more difficult.

To put it bluntly, even if he became a god, it wouldn't work.

And Ryan didn't understand what his purpose was.

Since he is an elector with top-notch wisdom, does he really think he is being wishful and not know what the consequences will be after he says these things?
"He was so perfect in every way that he seemed inhuman."

Count Pascal also laughed, for he understood why the Viking Elector had failed.

"But he doesn't seem like a god either, because the sparks of human civilization are something that gods naturally fear."

"Great beings never wish for humanity to possess...something superior."

Knowledge is imprisoned, starting from the very source of the extraordinary.

"What does he want to do?"

"It can't be for some kind of universal harmony, can it?"

Ryan said with a smile. Although Count Pascal did not understand the specific meaning of universal harmony, he still guessed the direction from Ryan's strange expression.

"The world is not so wonderful."

"These words were spoken by His Majesty the current Emperor to Viking, the elector."

“The Viking told His Majesty the Emperor, ‘I have seen the dark and filthy side of this world.’”

"He knows everything."

Count Pascal analyzed that a royal nobleman who actually knew the essence of the world still did not change his mind.

What could his purpose be?

"This answer may only be known by one person in the world."

"Lord Rice, the first blasphemer, the brother of Emperor Columbus I, the former crown prince of the Flor Empire, the first blasphemer of the empire after the transdimensional war of the gods, and a driving force behind the development of imperial civilization."

"Demigods cannot be formed later in life. In other words, demigods cannot be upgraded through the legendary path. A mage's pursuit of truth can make a legendary mage incredibly powerful, even powerful enough to dare to confront the gods, but he is still just a legend."

"Legend is the end of an extraordinary path, no matter how many steps you have taken to reach that end."

"That demigod, Prince Anselmo Russell, used the power of fate and truth. Duke Russell used those two terrible objects to rewrite Prince Anselmo's destiny."

"Let anyone be born with the destiny of a demigod, and if he can bear it, he will be a demigod."

Before Anselmo Russell became a demigod, no one knew, but now that he has, the nobles naturally have ways of finding out the reason.

"No, Lord Rice is not. He is still human, but he possesses the power of a demigod."

After Count Pascal finished speaking, he looked at Baron Ryan, who was deep in thought absorbing the information, and asked:

"Don't you feel that the Dawn Church's performance during the war is different from what you imagined?"

"Actually, so are we."

"But recently I've come up with an answer."

"That was back then, in order to force the Empire to compromise and in order to try to kill Lord Rice, the Dawn Church lost... a lot of manpower."

Ryan was surprised, but nodded to indicate that he understood.

This is not surprising. In the Northwind Province, at their peak, Earl Winter and Earl Sauron each commanded several thousand Unicorn Wolf Cavalry and Dragonblood Warrior Legions. However, they have not yet recovered and would be easily defeated if they were to fight against them.

Since the start of the interdimensional war of the gods, the strength of the Dawn Church has been declining.

"No one knows why Lord Rais gave up the throne, or why he possessed the power of a demigod, just as no one knows what the Chosen One Viking is up to."

"But it is clear that whatever he is going to do, he has already told us that what he is going to do will kill all the nobles."

After Count Pascal finished speaking, he also sighed, for that perfect elector.

"Thus, he became an elector who was absolutely impossible to be crowned."

"Then why not strip him of his title as elector of the throne?"

Ryan asked, "Wouldn't that solve everything? He can still keep the title of Elector."

"That's impossible, for the sake of... the stability of the royal family, to prevent the empire from experiencing even greater internal strife."

If the elector's title can be easily stripped and changed, then what authority does the elector have? Moreover, if it can be stripped and replaced, the empire will be in great turmoil.

The Columbus royal family itself was acquired from Les Enrique.

Why can't it be someone else?
Ryan realized that he should have the final say in such matters, based on his familiarity with history and his personal experience in doing such things in the Northwind Province.

Viscount Miles, Viscount Dragon, has his own cases handled personally.

The political struggles among the imperial nobles were partly due to the emperor and partly due to the electors.

The nobles could not possibly support Viking Columbus, so allowing him to retain the title of Elector was to avoid the same great trouble.

……

"Tsk tsk, the politics of the empire really are something you have to peel back layer after layer."

On the same day the demigods left, Ryan also left the Danube province and returned to the Northwind. The biting northern winds swept over him, making Ryan familiar with the land beneath his feet.

Looking at the desolate and bitterly cold land of the Northwind Province, he thought of the Grand Duke Meyers' family.

"It seems that no one knows what Grand Duke Meyers wants to do with the Northwind Province."

The problems on this land will not disappear just because war has broken out in the south, nor will they disappear just because the imperial nobles are now facing the threat of black swan assassins.

(End of this chapter)