Azure Scepter

[You have mastered the supernatural ability "Fear Aura"]

"Good heavens, it took me two versions to get this feat when I played a necromancer, but now as a paladin I got it right away, it's ridiculous." Trier thought to himself as he looked at the information flashing past his eyes.

[Aura of Fear: Your intimidation has become a supernatural ability beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. When this supernatural ability is activated, your every move will be shrouded in a terrifying aura of death and horror. Any creature within 20 meters of you must make a Will save based on your class level and Charisma bonus, or it will automatically enter a state of trembling and fear. Those who make a save do not need to make a second save within 24 hours.]

[Warning: "Aura of Fear" benefits from the Paladin feat "Advanced Aura." Your Aura of Fear's range is now 50 meters. Even if the affected target leaves the aura's range, the effect of fear will still last for 1d4 rounds.]

[Warning: "Aura of Fear" does not benefit from the Paladin feat "Tranquility," which adjusts the Charisma bonus to a Perception bonus.]

"This specialty is very useful, especially when combined with the ability of Longsword Without Light to automatically upgrade negative effects, it becomes even more useful."

Trier's gaze continued downwards.

[You have successfully acquired the divine power of deception, "Saint Seir." Through this experience, your deception skills have been greatly enhanced.]

[Deception +30]

[You successfully performed before the god-like being "Saint Seir," and through this experience, your performance skills have been greatly improved.]

[Performance +20]

The transmigrator narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't care about the growth of those insignificant skills, but at this moment, he noticed the description of Saint Seir on the information panel—"a being with godlike power."

"This old thing really doesn't have any divine authority; he can't be considered a true god," he thought. "We must take this into account in our next plan."

He sighed and looked up at the weeping maid.

The maid was still crying, her tears soaking the ground. A silent soldier walked across the ruined corridor, crept up behind the maid, and gently patted her on the shoulder.

"Stop crying." The soldier's hoarse voice reached Trier's ears.

The maid raised her tear-filled face and forced a smile.

“Although he is just a waiter, he fought very bravely. Yesterday, that demon almost killed me, but he saved my life. Don’t worry, I will take care of you.”

The maid started crying again, this time even louder, while the soldier, at a loss, hugged her.

Because Trier was sitting in a very secluded spot, none of them noticed him.

“I will take care of your wife and children, so don’t worry about it…” Trier thought to himself, but at this moment, he vaguely felt a tightness in his chest. “Forget it, I’ll just accept my weakness. I’ve really become more and more soft-hearted since I transmigrated. Being a paladin does have an influence on people.”

He shook his head again and continued thinking about serious matters.

"Although time is tight, things cannot be rushed."

"First, I need to use divination as soon as possible to find the vessel through which Lady Bloodthorn descended, and hold that little girl in my hands, so that many things can proceed."

"Secondly, I need to advance two things simultaneously: first, to further sow discord between Oris and the princess and win her over to my side as much as possible; second, to prepare for contingency plans if things don't go smoothly, I must start winning over the local nobles of the Southern Duchy, hiring mercenaries, and making preliminary preparations for an armed coup as soon as possible; finally, it's also time to start looking for Lothaway's location."

"That's it for now, let's eat first."

The time traveler yawned and took out some hard, dry rations from his backpack.

Whether before or after his transmigration, he was indifferent to the taste of food. Before his transmigration, there was a time when he even seriously considered eating only tasteless nutritional pastes, because this way of eating was both nutritionally balanced and time-saving, with no harm whatsoever.

"Crunch." He took the first bite, and then the image of the soup that Futia had made involuntarily came to mind.

The delicate aroma of malt, the rich flavor of meat, a spoonful of fine white salt paired with tenderly boiled taro, a blazing fire, and a pinch of pungent black pepper...

“Fodia’s cooking is indeed delicious,” he said in a low voice, then took another bite of the cold, hard, and tasteless dry rations.

The next moment, the time traveler put down the dry rations.

—The maid in the distance suddenly stopped crying, and the soldier suddenly knelt down.

Trier looked in the direction where the soldiers were kneeling. Beneath the burnt-out tower, a lady-in-waiting wearing a flower wreath and a white dress was carrying a flower-woven basket and walking toward them. Beside her was a girl with a large bandage wrapped around her head.

The morning light fell on the girl's profile, her braided gray hair cascading over her shoulder. Her emerald eyes were scanning the surroundings, and the moment she saw Trier, a smile suddenly bloomed on her face.

—It is Edith.

Edith didn't rush over. She first gently comforted the widowed maid, then praised the soldier's bravery, and finally took the flower basket from the lady-in-waiting and slowly walked to Trier's side. Then she sat down next to Trier without any regard for etiquette.

The lady-in-waiting stood on a high point in the distance and did not come over. Trier noticed that the lady-in-waiting had a magic book hanging from her waist.

Chapter 176 The Princess's Request

The cool morning breeze brushed against Edith's face, carrying the scent of flowers mixed with a hint of blood, which involuntarily lifted her spirits.

The city of Eraf is the fiefdom of Earl Cohen, the second son of the current Duke of the South. According to the tradition of guest rights in the human kingdoms, it would be very strange and impolite for Trier, as a relative of Earl Cohen, not to attend the breakfast.

Considering that the castle's owner, Earl Cohen, was not in the castle because he was busy breaking the undead's blockade of the city of Wilt, Trier's absence becomes even more strange.

However, Edith had a vague feeling that a major reason Trier didn't attend the breakfast meeting was that he had argued with Ms. Oris late the night before, and the reason for the argument was ultimately because she hadn't communicated properly beforehand.

Looking at Trier's peaceful face, Edith couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

In last night's fierce battle, Trier nearly saved her life and even deciphered the strange inscription on the ice coffin that had been troubling her, but how could she repay him?

—Smashing the other party's ancestral statue, using the teacher's divine revelation as an excuse to refuse the other party's reasonable request, and even causing the other party to quarrel with the teacher because of his own weakness and procrastination.

She instinctively looked down and then saw the cold, hard rations in Trier's hand.

Edith suddenly remembered that the other person was in exile, and in an instant, a strange emotion mixed with guilt and pity overwhelmed her thoughts. Due to a severe concussion, her mind felt chaotic, and her language ability was severely limited; she was completely unable to express her subtle emotions accurately in words.

She simply lifted the white cloth from the flower basket, placed it on the grass, and then took out a series of breakfast items from the basket, including white bread, crown pastries, basil cream-baked lamprey, beef, pea and potato mash, coffee, and wine, and placed them on the white cloth.

“I know you haven’t had breakfast yet.” Edith paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and then said, “I’m sorry.”

For the first time since last night, Trier showed a look of surprise.

Why are you apologizing?

Edith wanted to recount her dereliction of duty and Oris's stubbornness and inhumanity, but all that came out of her mouth was a forced smile.

"Because I smashed the statue of your ancestor."

“Then you have absolutely no need to feel guilty or apologize for it.” Trier glanced down at his breakfast, ignoring the other food, and picked up his coffee directly. “Coffee? Thank you.”

Trier opened the lid and took a sniff.

"The coffee beans from Sual Island are excellent."

The bitter aroma of roasted beans wafted through the air with the humid heat. Edith casually picked up a cream pastry from the tablecloth and glanced at Trier discreetly.

Trier took a small sip of his coffee, closed his eyes as if savoring a fine wine, and the next moment, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

Edith felt inexplicably that the other person's smile was different from before; she felt that the smile seemed to come from the heart.

"You really like coffee?" she asked curiously.

“Of course.” Trier’s eyes seemed to brighten a bit, and he seemed quite excited, becoming more talkative. “The best coffee beans are from Sual Island. They have a very rich flavor profile, with a very slight, rounded acidity in the bitterness, and sweetness in the acidity.”

Edith nodded, then took a piece of white bread.

Trier closed his eyes and remained silent for a moment, seemingly savoring the aroma of the coffee. The next moment, he said, "It really is delicious. I haven't had it in a very, very long time—who knows, Sual Island might sink someday."

Edith couldn't help but chuckle. Suyar Island was the largest trading hub in the Broken Isles. Due to its extremely important geographical location, the island was garrisoned by the elven Morningwind Stargazers, who were said to be able to accurately predict storms and tsunamis. Therefore, it was absolutely impossible for the island to sink.

It seems that Trier, despite his vast knowledge, can still spout nonsense. Edith thought to herself.

Her unease and anxiety dissipated considerably, and in a good mood, she used a fork to spear the basil butter lamprey.

The soldier in the distance held the maid's hand and awkwardly wiped the corner of her eye with a handkerchief.

"Speaking of which, the Duke in 'The Drunken Moon' also really enjoys drinking coffee," Edith said.

Trier raised an eyebrow: "Then I hope you didn't poison the coffee."

—In the story of "Drunken Moon", before the imprisoned princess and the usurping duke finally confront each other, the princess tried to poison the duke with coffee, but by chance, the poisoned coffee ended up killing her thief lover instead.

The princess couldn't help but laugh.

“You wouldn’t poison my coffee, so I’m neither the Duke nor could I lock you in the tower,” Trier continued to tease.

Edith reached out her fork again and quietly forked away the beef, pea, and potato mash.

It must be admitted that Count Cohen's chef was indeed highly skilled...

"If I were locked up in the Tower of Stars, I'd fight my way out with my sword," she said with a smile.

As they chatted, Edith gradually relaxed.

Suddenly, a faint smell of burning flames wafted in the breeze, and a maid in the distance let out a gasp of surprise.

She subconsciously looked down and saw a column of smoke suddenly shoot into the sky in the distance. The blazing flames raged like the chain whip of a flaming demon, and the sky was reflected in a fiery red by the overwhelming firelight.

Her pupils suddenly contracted, and she looked down in the direction of the column of smoke.

Below the column of smoke was the lower city, where people scattered like ants. Although the distance was far, the cries of men and the screams of women could still be faintly heard.

Edith clenched her fists instinctively. She wanted to get up, but the next moment, Trier's voice came from her side.

"Don't be nervous, the garrison in the lower city will handle it. Besides, there was a heavy rain yesterday, and the current humidity doesn't support the fire spreading." Trier's voice remained calm. "The fire is near Dragon's Kiss Pass, where there are plenty of people. The fire will be extinguished quickly, and the arsonist won't be able to escape. There's no need to worry."

Yes, you should calm down, Edith. The princess thought to herself.

She took a deep breath, smoothed her braids, and then looked worriedly at the yellow-robed guards rushing to put out the fire on the street.

Just as Trier had said, the fire was quickly brought under control, and within minutes the flames were completely extinguished.

The fire was extinguished, but Edith's mood was quite heavy; the good mood she had been in while chatting earlier had vanished.

A silence hung between them like a dark cloud, as Edith stared blankly at the burned-down ruins.

Suddenly, Trier broke the silence.

"Your Highness, you don't need to feel guilty. This fire has nothing to do with you."

"Guilt? I didn't..." Edith was startled. She instinctively retorted, but her voice trailed off mid-sentence, "..."

After a long while, she sighed.

"You're right."

“It’s like the soul is wearing plates of fine gold,” Trier added.

This line is a classic line from the movie "Cold Winter's Dream".

Edith did not respond. She raised her head, her gaze sweeping over the lower and outer city districts, and looked toward the white mountains in the distance.

“Trier, I feel so guilty. I knew I should have stopped the food transport as soon as possible and evacuated the overcrowded residents, but I did nothing…”

"The plague is spreading, famine is brewing, and demons are slaughtering my people. And what about me? I wander around like a brainless caveman every day, hoping that clues will fall from the sky to help me solve the problem. It's ridiculous."

The princess turned her head and saw that Trier was looking at her intently. He didn't speak, but just listened quietly.

"The fire happened at the Red Brick Bishop's Wine brothel, where the madam sheltered many refugees. The fire is definitely directly related to overcrowding," Edith continued. "If I had thought of this sooner, none of this would have happened. I'm really incompetent."

“Indeed,” Trier agreed.

Edith was speechless for a moment, and she secretly glanced at the other person.

At that moment, Trier was also looking at the distant mountains. His gaze was very focused, as if he were staring at something. He looked like one of those old charlatans who often appeared in the court, predicting the end of the world and the destruction of the kingdom.

Several months earlier, before she set off for the southern duchy to investigate the blood plague, a blind old elf suddenly burst into the King's Council and abruptly declared that the kingdom was doomed.

The old elf was incredibly agile; it took several guarding knights and a large group of soldiers a great deal of effort to drive him away.

For some reason, Edith felt that the tone of the elven conman was very similar to that of Trier at this moment, both filled with a certain unspeakable certainty and mystery.

“As the crown prince, you have done a great job. But you have been irresponsible to yourself; you have taken on too much of a burden.” Trier paused for a moment, then said softly, “They have chosen a difficult path for you.”

"You talk like you're some kind of old man," Edith said instinctively.

Trier didn't say anything, just smiled and took another sip of coffee.

Edith fell silent. She and Trier looked at the distant mountains together. Strangely, the anxiety and unease in her heart seemed to have completely vanished, and a long-lost sense of relaxation and security enveloped her once again.

She only had this experience when she was with Futia. She didn't have to consider her words every moment, nor did she have to worry about whether her behavior was appropriate. She quietly enjoyed the hard-won sense of security.

Not far away, the soldiers and maids had already left under Granny Lor's orders.

Edith looked around and, after confirming that no one was around, took a deep breath.

"Trier, can I trust you?"

Trier paused for a moment, then put down his coffee cup, his gaze gentle and sincere.

"Of course, we are friends."

The princess felt a warmth in her heart, and at the same time, a slight itch, as if a strand of hair was gently brushing against the surface of her heart. She lowered her eyes and revealed a smile.

"Thank you—Trill, you are the most learned person I have ever met. Could you...could you help Granny Lor research a cure for the blood plague?"

Trier did not respond immediately; he tapped the coffee cup lightly with his index finger.

The monotonous tapping sound rang out at very rhythmic intervals, and Edith suddenly realized that Bishop Vercingetorius seemed to have this habit as well.