Do you have a problem with necromancers?

Chapter 91 Answer Sheet
This was Dia's first time visiting the Amazon Association.

The bright and clean lobby, the fresh flowers at the entrance, the various desserts on the food cart, and the elegant ladies who passed by, all possessed a wonderful charm that captivated Dia.

This is the ultimate sanctuary where noble ladies and young women linger!

For a moment, Dia felt a subtle sense of shame and unease, and she instinctively moved closer to Berthalia to avoid revealing her rural background in terms of presence.

This morning, she went to Ryan's place to clean and make the bed when she suddenly heard him say:
"Besalia is going to the Amazon Association today to have a meeting with those noble ladies and young women. Dia, go with her and observe carefully how real noblewomen behave and behave in their daily lives."

"Ah, didn't I already learn etiquette from Ellina?" Dia asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Learning and practice are two different things,” Ryan said slowly. “If you don’t touch the stove, you won’t learn to cook even if you look at the recipe tens of thousands of times.”

“As my personal maid, you will be dealing with nobles most of the time in the future, so it’s time for you to start your internship. I’ve told Berthalia that she will act as your mistress, not only teaching you all sorts of knowledge about nobility, but also serving as the examiner to test whether you have passed your studies.”

"If you fail the assessment, your maid service period will be extended by another year. I will not approve of unqualified maid service."

"No! How can you just add a deadline like that?!" Dia cried out immediately. "I don't agree!"

"Oh, really?" Renn said expressionlessly. "My territory has recently seen a lot of lizardman refugees, and the original human inhabitants have a lot of complaints about them. What do you think is the best way for me to deal with these lizardmen?"

Dea shut her mouth in frustration, and after a long while, she finally said:

"I will study hard, you don't need to threaten me with this. I used to have a lot of feelings for you, but now they're gone."

"Why does a master need a maid's favor?" Renn asked, puzzled, and casually ruffled her silver hair. "If you could become more powerful, like Ellina, then I might start to value your attitude towards me. As for now... hehe, you should focus on your studies."

………………

Recalling Renn's words, Dia felt a surge of anger. She vowed to study hard this time, become a perfect personal maid, and make Renn look at her with new respect!
Hmm, something seems off... Why should I have to work hard to learn how to be his maid?

Forget it. Even if it's just for the sake of the lizardmen on Salt Island, I'll make Rein take back those disgusting words of his belittling me, make him admit he shouldn't have underestimated me, and make him sincerely apologize to me!

The dignity of the Dragon's Daughter must not be defiled!

Dia followed Bersalia into the meeting room and saw that various drinks and desserts were already laid out on the table for everyone to take as they pleased.

In the past, she would probably have secretly swallowed her saliva. Now, she simply calmly followed behind Bersalia, faithfully playing the role of her personal maid.

"Bessah! You look radiant as ever today!" Several unfamiliar noble ladies smiled and embraced Bersalia, exchanging a warm greeting.

Dia remained silent, carefully memorizing their appearances—because Ellina had taught her to try to remember the appearance, name, and family background of every noble she encountered, as this was a basic requirement for interpersonal communication.

Berthalia greeted everyone warmly before taking her seat.

The meeting officially begins.

The Amazon Association's internal meetings mainly focused on exchanging information about recent events and how members could seize opportunities to increase exposure and make the association known to as many Beijing residents as possible.

At this stage, the most important thing for the association is still recruiting new members.

The goal is not only to attract more nobles, but also to recruit more commoners. The former will bring more resources to the association, while the latter will be the main force behind street demonstrations.

In the capital, the key to assessing an organization's overall strength is its ability to mobilize a large number of people to protest in the streets. The more trouble the bigwigs cause, the larger the slice of the pie they can ultimately claim. As for law-abiding citizens who dislike political involvement… well, sorry, you are the pie.

The initiator of this conference was Olivia Crosos, a noblewoman in her early thirties.

In the capital, it's quite rare and unusual for someone her age to be unmarried. Although it might be impolite to think that way, Daiya guessed that she probably had some significant physical or personality flaw.

Soon, everyone began discussing the hottest topic of the day: the Amazons being roughly searched by the Golden Robe for stealing.

“Even if she did commit a crime, it doesn’t mean the Golden Robe has the right to humiliatingly strip her naked in public under the guise of ‘searching for stolen goods’!” Olivia preemptively declared, “Everyone! Think about it carefully! What if any of us are falsely accused of theft in the future, and the Golden Robe uses force to search you in public? What will you do?”

"She is the victim today, but she could be any one of us tomorrow!"

The noble ladies present whispered among themselves, clearly agreeing with Olivia's statement. After all, being searched was a profound disgrace for a lady, and anyone who put themselves in her shoes found it utterly unacceptable.

“Wait a minute,” Bersalia suddenly objected. “Why would we be falsely accused of theft? I would never normally go to those cheap stores that thieves frequent.”

“Bessa, our anger stems from the fact that the victims are Amazons,” Olivia said sarcastically. “As a dark elf, you certainly cannot understand the plight of us Amazons. Tell me, if the suspected perpetrator were a burly, vote-rigging thug, would the Golden Robe dare to arrest him and publicly search him?”

"That's right!" the others chimed in. "These rich guys from the capital are just bullies who prey on the weak! They always stare at us with lecherous eyes and spew all sorts of disgusting filth behind our backs!"

Dia keenly noticed that, under Olivia's deliberate guidance, the discussion had completely veered off course from its original topic, turning into accusations and condemnations of the Empire. Everyone was venting their discontent, to the point that Bersalia had to change her tune to avoid incurring unanimous hostility from the entire room.

“That imperial gold-robed man certainly deserves to be punished.” She raised her hands to her chest to indicate that she had no intention of exonerating him. “What I mean is, there’s no need for a street protest. It’s election season now, and there are at least seven or eight protests every day. Not many people will pay attention to such a mundane security case.”

"You think that an Amazon being publicly stripped and humiliated is just a trivial law enforcement case?" Olivia said sarcastically. "Oh, I forgot, Bertha, you seem to have a close relationship with the newly appointed commander in the golden robes. Perhaps you should avoid this meeting, lest our speaking up for the Amazons makes you feel like you've betrayed your friends."

Some people in the audience burst into undisguised laughter, while Bersalia's expression turned somewhat unpleasant as she argued:

“Ony, I’m just stating the facts. When the Golden Robe arrests suspects for theft, he always searches them directly to look for the stolen goods. There have been countless similar cases before, and our citizens are already used to it.”

"Just because it happened often before, does that mean it's right?" Olivia retorted coldly. "Just because Amazons have often been victims in the past, does that mean we should just sit back and suffer this time as well?"

"Well said!" someone shouted. "We must never stop speaking out, or the number of victims will only increase!"

Amid the shouting, the crowd seemed to have reached a consensus, leaving Bersalia angrily biting her fingernails, seemingly pondering a solution.

Dia had never seen Bersalia show such a vulnerable expression.

In other words, she was acting.

“Ony, it’s precisely because my friend is the commander of the Golden Robes that I know him, and that’s why I’m here to dissuade you,” Bersalia said angrily, rising to her feet. “The law stipulates that to confirm a theft, the perpetrator must be caught red-handed. That’s how the Golden Robes have always investigated cases. If you use this matter to launch a major attack, it’s tantamount to denying the legitimacy of all the cases the Golden Robes have handled in the past. They will absolutely not back down and will fight us to the end!”

"Then let your golden-robed dog come!" Olivia also suddenly stood up and screamed, "The Amazons never admit defeat! Since they're afraid we'll expose their past, we'll trace all the similar cases from the past and bring them to the forefront, so the citizens of the capital can see how many Amazons have been abused and harmed by the golden-robed dogs!"

"Get out, Berthalia!" Several more noble ladies stood up. "If you side with the man in the golden robes, you're not welcome here!"

Bersalia's face darkened, and she ignored Olivia, who was about to continue her battle cry, and turned to leave without saying a word.

Dia followed closely behind her.

Leaving the Amazon Association's headquarters, Bersalia finally concealed her anger and smiled, saying:
“Well done, little Dia. I’m glad you chose to remain silent and observe rather than rashly step in and speak for me when you didn’t understand the situation.”

“Since I’m playing the role of a personal maid, I’m certainly not qualified to speak in your meeting,” Dia said with a frustrated expression. “Even if I were to interrupt, no one would listen attentively; they would just think I’m an ignorant servant.”

“That’s right,” Bersalia said leisurely. “You’re already better than more than 90% of the noble ladies here by accurately assessing the situation. Believe me, they can’t compare to you in this respect.”

“My illusions about these ladies from noble families have been completely shattered,” Dia sighed. “Why do they harbor such strong malice and aggression towards the so-called ‘Imperials’?”

"That's not the point," Berthalia said with a smile. "Any race with a large enough population will inevitably have such trash: they blame their misfortunes on persecution by others and see the misfortunes of others as their own victories. What you need to consider is why these groups, which have always existed, have suddenly gained such a large voice and influence recently?" What else could it be? The Queen's doing, of course.

Dia wasn't a fool. She hadn't kept the discussions between Rein and the three elves a secret from her, and she had been listening and thinking throughout.

The Amazon Association is essentially a tool in the hands of the Empress. By hyping up various controversial topics, it creates a fabricated "persecuted Amazonian community" in order to recruit more extremists into the association.

What Her Majesty the Queen truly needs are extremists who can fight for her and cause her political enemies a great deal of trouble at crucial moments.

Therefore, anyone who is even slightly mild-mannered, intelligent, and doesn't like to attack others will never join the Amazon Association—the very existence of the association filters these people out.

“What will Rein do if we go against these people?” Dia asked with a worried expression. “Any counterattack against them will only provoke their fiercer and more intense retaliation and attacks.”

“Well, if it were you, I would advise you not to provoke them,” Bersalia said dismissively. “But if it’s Renn, you probably don’t need to worry.”

Dia didn't understand why Bersalia would say that, but she knew she would get an answer soon.

Just watch what Renne does.

------------

Grand, the secretary to the Minister of Justice, has been in this position for 27 years.

Born into the Gurenfil family, he was among the middle ranks of the nobles in the capital. However, Grand himself was the second son who was not valued by the family. Therefore, he began to support himself at an early age, graduated with excellent grades from the Imperial Platinum University, obtained a law degree, and then passed the exam to become a glorious imperial civil servant.

Therefore, Grand sees himself as a civil servant serving the empire, rather than a member of the imperial capital's nobility.

The imperial civil service system was highly dependent on imperial power, because almost all the nobles in the four border regions believed that the imperial civil servants had usurped their territorial rights, the only difference being whether they verbally admitted it or not. Therefore, in order for the civil servants to maintain this system from being destroyed by the united efforts of the nobles, they had to be under the constant protection of imperial power.

What's interesting is that imperial power and the emperor are not the same thing, and Grand only understood this after he had been in a high position for many years.

The current emperor, Nilocas, is both arrogant and timid, a rare combination of contradictory traits among emperors in history. Simply put, he always aspires to achieve great things comparable to his father and grandfather, but instinctively retreats to avoid failure at the slightest setback or obstacle.

They wanted to win so badly that they couldn't accept losing.

If this emperor is allowed to act arbitrarily, he will sooner or later trample on the imperial power to the point where no one respects it. Therefore, high-ranking civil servants have long decided to defend the honor and dignity of the royal family to the death—that is, to prevent the emperor from acting recklessly, and it is best not to participate in any decision-making, but only to endorse the normal operation of the court.

Grand had to admit that in previous years, too much attention had been focused on the Emperor, causing everyone to relax their control over the Empress. This woman was even more outrageous than the Emperor; not only did she have a bunch of lovers, bringing shame to the royal family, but now she had even started some kind of "Amazon Association," which was constantly organizing women in the capital to take to the streets and cause trouble, creating chaos and obstacles for all sides. She was a troublemaker that no one liked.

His wife recently joined the association, explaining that it offered free afternoon tea to official members every day, so why not take advantage of it? Since the two were considered a "model couple" (referring to imperial civil servants who had to maintain a facade of a happy family to avoid criticism), Grand didn't care about his wife's political leanings in private.

That evening, my wife, dressed beautifully, returned home. She took off her top hat and hung it on the coat rack by the door, then suddenly smiled and said:
"Honey, you're in big trouble."

"Oh?" Grand's expression remained unchanged as he calmly sipped his tea. "I struggle with all sorts of work-related troubles every day. If you're reminding me of this, then thank you."

“I’m not talking about your battle of wits with that Harvey,” his wife said. “Our association has decided to investigate all past theft cases, to find all those cases where the men in gold robes searched female suspects, and to put them back on the table for discussion on whether they were reasonable. You and Harvey will soon be embroiled in a media storm.”

Grand calmly put down his teacup and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

The reason a troublemaker is called a troublemaker is that when the other party attacks, everyone rushes to dodge to avoid being splashed with excrement from the stick. He didn't think that this level of attack would pose any fatal threat to himself or the Minister of Law, but if it got too heated, too loud, and involved enough people, the situation would still become very troublesome—more troublesome than washing off excrement from clothes.

It seems I need to contact the court and the guards as soon as possible.

------------

The Imperial Capital Court is derisively called "White Sheep" by the citizens of the capital because its members wear white wigs.

It's similar to how the guards of the capital were called "Golden Robes".

That morning, Chief Justice Nixon of the Imperial Capital visited the military camp with the White Sheep.

Commander Ryan personally came out to greet them.

“You must be aware of this matter as well,” Nixon said succinctly. “Some time ago, a guard in the capital caught a thief and searched him to ensure that the thief was caught red-handed, but the Amazon Association turned around and accused the guard of indecent assault.”

"I can tell you very frankly that if the other party really files a lawsuit in court, we will not support their claims. But recently there have been rumors that these people intend to investigate all similar cases over the past three years, looking for any points to attack. Therefore, we have also located the corresponding Imperial Guards based on all the cases, and we hope that you can allow them to come back to the court with us to supplement and restore the records in more detail."

“Okay.” Ryan also showed his willingness to cooperate fully. “I will approve their leave. Everything will be done to support your work.”

After seeing off Chief Justice Nixon, Ryan called Berthalia into his study:
"Have you obtained any leads from your recent investigation within the association?"

“There’s a woman named Olivia Crosos who is very suspicious,” Bersalia replied. “She often makes a big deal out of my relationship with you, and she’s been openly and secretly accusing me of siding with the Imperial Guards for you and abandoning the Amazon victims who were stripped and humiliated.”

After a moment of silence, Raine suddenly asked in a somber tone:
"So I'm implicated because of you? That woman has no grudge against me, she just wants to bring you down and ruin your reputation, which is why she created this big trouble for me?"

"Uh, I don't know either," Bersalia said, feigning ignorance. "You know, women can do anything out of jealousy. Plus, I have both beauty and brains, and I'm also an international friend of the Dark Elf, so it's understandable that I'm sought after by many people in the association, right? Maybe some people are jealous of me because of that, but I have no way of knowing."

“Krossos, the Krossos family…” Renn took a copy of “Complete Genealogy of the Imperial Capital” from the bookshelf and began to flip through it casually, asking, “Is this woman married?”

“No,” Berthalia replied. “A spinster in her thirties, never married, has lived alone away from her family for many years, and has two big dogs at home.”

"So it's just the same-sex repulsion between old maids?" Renn muttered to himself, drawing a furious glare from Berthalia. "Raising dogs... ugh."

“Kill the dog, resurrect it, manipulate it to bite her to death, and that’s the end.” Bersalia shrugged. “I’ve even come up with a revenge strategy for you.”

"Naive," Renn said disdainfully. "If you really wanted to kill her, it would only take Aurora one arrow. Why make such a fuss?"

“What you want is to defeat her decisively on the open battlefield.” Bersalia feigned sudden realization. “Let the whole empire know that the Golden Robe is not someone to be bullied. Otherwise, everyone will just think you were lucky this time, and someone else might come looking for trouble next time.”

“It’s not just that,” Raine shook his head and said, “Her Majesty the Queen didn’t stop Olivia from causing trouble, most likely because she wanted to use this to test me. This is a questionnaire that needs to be filled out. Directly assassinating Olivia would be cheating, and apart from avoiding trouble, it would only have the opposite effect.”

"So what do you plan to do?" Bersalia asked curiously.

Renn pondered for a while before saying:
"Walk."

"Where to go?"

"The capital's snake den."

"Didn't you say that assassinating Olivia wouldn't solve the problem?" Bersalia asked in surprise.

"Who said I was going to buy Olivia's life?" Renn asked inexplicably.

"So you're going to... Oh, oh!" Bersalia finally understood, and gasped in surprise, exclaiming, "You're so cunning, Renn! I'm starting to suspect that you have dark elf blood in your family."

"Get lost, don't try to pass yourself off as a relative!"

(End of this chapter)