The magic cards I made are absolutely flawless!

The decisions of the powerful and wealthy can easily affect the future of the territory, but they don't care and continue to use the power at their disposal to fight.

Despite being a seemingly prosperous and fertile land, many residents starve to death every year.

The law was rendered ineffective, and even the lords, under the real power of the nobles, appeared to be mere puppets.

The families who truly held power were indifferent to the survival of their territories; they carried out tyranny to satisfy their own desires and interests.

At first, the lord was quite apathetic, adhering to the principle of living one day at a time.

However, his eldest and second sons were both ambitious young men who were constantly clashing with the interests of the powerful and wealthy in their struggle for territory.

The final result was unsurprising: the lord lost his two sons.

But he didn't even dare to seek revenge, because he still had his only remaining daughter.

Those powerful and wealthy individuals are cautious and cunning, and they even have well-trained high-ranking guards by their side.

Unexpectedly, those powerful figures remained relentless and had already considered replacing the puppet lord.

finally.

Just as the powerful and wealthy sent assassins to kill the lord.

The lord encountered Delois, who happened to be passing by.

The lord, who had given up hope, disregarded all consequences and successfully made a deal with Delois, gaining Delois's interest.

The fate of both Delois and this territory began to change.

No matter how evil those powerful and influential people were, none of them escaped the fate of being played with like babies by Delois.

Or perhaps their hounds were incredibly powerful, but before the legendary demon Delois, those humans appeared pitifully weak.

Under the lord's rule, that territory gradually recovered its true prosperity.

In the present world, with the Kingdom Federation in place, even the most powerful and influential figures cannot act as recklessly as they did in the previous life.

Even though the Kingdom Federation cannot interfere too much in the internal affairs of its member states, it is not as corrupt and inactive as the Holy City was back then.

But who could have imagined that the Kingdom Federation would one day suddenly disintegrate?

The malice of that group of powerful people suddenly seemed to spiral out of control and went berserk.

Dekan: "What about Cornelia? Those guys will probably try to deal with her too, right?"

Chloeux: "...They clearly misjudged her combat strength. Who would have thought that an eighth-tier spy would be captured by a sixth-tier princess and have twenty-two bones smashed with a book...and in the end, they even managed to interrogate her employer..."

Clay, standing outside the car, couldn't help but say, "I think Cornelia has the potential to become a spy. I'll teach her a couple of tricks; they'll be very useful when she's in stealth mode."

Mir looked puzzled.

So, for your kingdom's spies, the primary criterion is that their strength must be maxed out, right?!

"Now that those powerful and wealthy have been outmaneuvered, they should be more restrained, right?"

"Dekan asked."

Chloeux nodded:

"Yes, so later these powerful figures didn't dare to be too open about it. After all, what they wanted was not an open rebellion, but to control the royal power in a respectable way. Eventually, the stalemate gradually turned into various intrigues and power struggles."

"However, the situation gradually evolved into a stalemate between the two sides, because the second prince was ultimately under control, which made the king feel as if his weakness was being exploited in the negotiations. Cornelia was also worried about her father and mother because of the vivid memory of the attack on the eldest prince. The nobles continued to press on."

"The method ultimately chosen by the nobles..."

Chloeux paused here, observed Dekan's expression, and then continued:

“Each family has expressed their desire for their heirs to marry into the royal family, and they want to resolve the issue of the royal family being swallowed up in a way that is in accordance with the rules.”

"Besides constantly pressuring the king, they did find a reasonable way, because according to the royal tradition of Vihart, if a noble of equal status wanted to marry a prince or a princess, even the king could not obstruct it and had to promise a fair contest."

"This was originally a tradition to prevent the king from being arbitrary and forcing couples to break up, but they've turned it around and are using it like this... It seems they want to control the eldest prince, the future heir of the country, or completely trap the second prince, but whether they dare to make a move on the young princess is anyone's guess..."

"Holy crap! They're like old folks eating poison! They're all tired of living!"

Sheen exclaimed in surprise from the side.

It's one thing for these nobles to scheme for power.

You can rebel all you want, but don't actually think about your beloved who's causing you so much pain!

Do you really think he'll never come back in this lifetime?!

Icardinos's expression gradually darkened, and the way she clenched her fingers seemed to be pondering that if she could retrieve her original body, she would definitely curse and kill all these ignorant nobles.

Such an arrogant nobleman is unheard of in the Saron Empire.

"So what did the king promise in the end?"

After a moment of silence, Dekan asked in a calm tone.

These nobles were indeed quite gamblers.

Since the Empire has already attacked, and even the Empire isn't afraid of Dekan returning, what else do they have to fear?

As for the fact that they had already incurred the wrath of Cornelia, they no longer needed to consider the possibility of Dekan's return.

"The content of the competition was ultimately chosen by the king to be made into cards, which were made public to eligible young men and women around the world. The winner could marry into the royal family or choose to give up and receive a large sum of money."

Chloeux shrugged helplessly.

It's hard not to suspect that the king's words contained an element of intimidation towards those families.

After all, when it comes to the world's best card makers, besides Avalon and Mier, the one that comes to mind most easily is Dekan.

The reason this group of powerful figures dared to be so arrogant was because, with the war so close and Dekan still missing, they were almost certain that Dekan was dead.

The king was also trying to manipulate the mentality of these nobles: "You should think carefully about the consequences of his return every day."

"So how are those powerful and wealthy people feeling right now?"

Dekan asked again.

Although the Imperial intelligence service has blocked information about Dekan's whereabouts.

But now that the Empire and the Kingdom have suddenly ceased hostilities, even if Dekan doesn't return, these nobles will have to face the wrath of Cornelia's friends.

After all, the Kingdom of Norton was not only not destroyed by the Empire, but its entire population was also freed up.

"Those nobles are panicking. They've become very polite now, but they're still desperately trying to win the contest the king promised. In their eyes, you haven't returned yet, and as long as they can arrange a marriage between their family members and the eldest or second prince, at least their family can be spared."

"After all, this is a promise made by the king, and the content of the competition has been made public to the whole country. It will be officially held soon. Nobles can participate in person or send their family's chief card maker to participate on their behalf."

"Although none of the card makers from the southern kingdoms were willing or dared to help these nobles, some card makers from the exiled northern kingdoms dared to take on this challenge. In addition, since the king did not restrict the participation of people from other countries this time, many card makers even volunteered to participate, mostly to uphold justice, and a small number were attracted by the king's offer of a high gold coin reward for giving up the option of marriage."

"Of course, we initially decided to send the top-tier card maker, Ice Princess, to help Cornelia. After the empire ceased hostilities, we directly set our strategy to help Cornelia take revenge on those nobles, regardless of victory or defeat. Of course, considering the authority of the Vihart royal family, we did not intend to ignore any rules and take action as soon as we arrived."

Chloeux explained.

Those powerful and influential people are probably trembling with fear right now.

After all, judging from how Cornelia's friends conquered the Shadow World, they have never been particularly fond of following the rules.

"Hmm... If Ice Princess makes a move, it should be a sure thing even without my intervention."

Dekan stroked his chin and sighed, expressing his high regard for Ice Princess's card-making skills.

But now that he's back, he'll definitely have to take action himself.

"Not necessarily. Even top-tier card makers can't create epic cards on the spot 100%. Besides, some of the three major families have even found top-tier card makers..."

Chloeux paused here, as if she had thought of something strange.

"I'm also a bit puzzled by Ice Princess's condition. Lately, she's been practicing card making like crazy, and she's been wiping away tears while she's making cards... Judith also said that Ice Princess often breaks down in her room and cries alone..."

"Wow—she really cares this much? I'd better thank her in person."

Dekan said with deep gratitude.

Mier, who was standing nearby, twitched at the corner of his mouth as he listened.

Should we send Ice Princess to help Cornelia make cards?

If you win, you can personally bring Cornelia back and let Cornelia and Dekan be together.

Losing would not only make me feel guilty towards Cornelia, but I would also worry that I might accidentally reveal my feelings for Dekan and be misunderstood by others as having deliberately lost because of scheming.

Given Ice Princess's introverted personality, if she really lost, she would probably cry on the spot and even commit suicide to atone for her sins.

If Dekan hadn't returned, Mier wouldn't even dare to imagine what Ice Princess's mental state would be like now.

******

Author's Note:

At this moment, an imperial duke is rushing to the southern kingdom to get married. Although he can choose to take the bounty and not marry even if he wins, if he backs down this time, our Teacher Da Tong will be laughed at for the rest of his life, right?

I'll try not to take a single day off in the next few days and finish writing the present world part of Volume 6. As for the shadow world part of Volume 6, it should be quite short, since the story of the Holy Kingdom has been told to a large extent. In other words, Volume 6 is already more than halfway done.

357 Why did Dekan flee the mansion in such a panic?

“Let me tell you, I, Dekan, have always been known for my prudent approach and don’t know how to spell ‘crash’.”

Dekan sat in the carriage, chatting animatedly with his friends, a smug expression on his face.

"Furthermore, I must emphasize that I, Dekan, have never been a comedian."

When suddenly asked about the biggest difference between Dekan and Deloitte, people generally felt that Deloitte was more charming than Dekan.

While Dekan could portray a truly ruthless and handsome villainous boss like Doloice, with a touch of unspoken sorrow, it was still an act, essentially mixed with a comedic element.

Dekan was naturally indignant. He felt that he and Deloitte were the same person, so why had his charm diminished in this life?

Later, Mir mentioned that she found it hard to imagine Dolois crashing the car.

Dekan immediately panicked and said that he wouldn't mess things up either.

This immediately drew disdainful looks from Mir and Chloeux—

The way you stubbornly insisted and the way you trembled as a gray cat were both really cool.

Clay seemed to sense something was amiss and looked at Dekan.

In his memory, Dekan had said he wanted to conspire with him to take down Dazhan.

But if Dekan is unexpectedly unreliable in some matters, then Clay should think twice.