Rose Empire

Playing both sides and swinging with the wind is the survival philosophy of small city-states such as Kororo and Sudaman. Although they were threatened by Charlotte to sign two agreements, whether they will always be loyal to Charlotte depends on Charlotte herself. If Charlotte can maintain a strong momentum and advance triumphantly, these two city-states may always crawl under the banner of Viscount Lanwan, but if Charlotte falls behind in the competition with the Aiye Alliance, the two city-states of Kororo and Sudaman may choose to betray her at any time.

This is their traditional art and doesn't even require much thought.

Lilith sneered at Charlotte's pretentious attitude, but she was not very interested in these things anyway, so she talked to Charlotte about her discoveries during her journey.

During this long journey, Lilith had visited most of the cities in the Aiye Alliance that were worth visiting, and even the largest city-state in Sokya, Feidi. She had originally wanted to enter the Delmer Alliance, but as soon as she entered the Delmer Alliance, she encountered a major uprising. The citizen soldiers loyal to the Delmer city-state slaughtered the rebels, and some cities and villages were slaughtered with blood.

In order to avoid being implicated, Lilith had to return in disappointment. However, although she didn't get to travel around the Delmer Alliance properly, Lilith could be considered to have returned with a full load.

"First of all, I found this..." Lilith took out three large rolls of parchment and spread them out in front of Charlotte one by one.

On each parchment there were rubbings of some broken text carvings that looked familiar to Charlotte, and she soon remembered that they were similar to the stone carvings she had found in Ambrato.

"These are the stone carvings I found in Remos, Alyete and Sassini, the homeland of the Lesser Sassini. I found the one in Remos in a cave, the one in Sassini in an ancient well, and the one in Alyete..." Lilith pointed to the most incomplete rubbing and said, "I found this in a villager's sheepfold. At that time, it had been broken into rubble and used to build a sheepfold. I bought them and put them together again."

Elyete is a medium-sized city-state near Fidel. When Fidel initially wanted to form a large city-state alliance, in order to show democracy and to show that it did not want to be the conqueror and dictator of the Sokya Peninsula, it placed the meeting place of the alliance in its neighbor, the Elyete city-state.

This is also the origin of the name of the Ai Ye Alliance.

"Lilith is so amazing." Charlotte gave Lilith a thumbs up.

Although Lilith tried to hold back her smile, she couldn't help but raise her chin, as if to say, "I won't be happy even if you praise me."

"The texts on these carvings are very similar. I think they should be the same article or the same paragraph." Lilith continued, "A piece of text or a paragraph can allow ancient people a hundred thousand years ago to spread the carvings everywhere. I guess it is most likely a prayer or a scripture. Considering that the places where I found these stone tablets are all important port towns with developed shipping, sailors and fishermen like to pray to God, so I think my guess is reasonable."

"Isn't Ambrato an important port?" Charlotte questioned.

Lilith rolled her eyes and said, "There might not have been the Lanwan Isthmus a hundred thousand years ago, so wouldn't Ambratu have been an important port?"

"Yeah, that makes sense." Charlotte quickly changed sides.

Lilith curled her lips and said, "After guessing that they were prayers, I tried to identify the most likely names of gods in them, and then I found this..."

Lilith pointed to a blank spot on one of the rubbings.

Charlotte was a little confused at first, but when she cast her eyes on the other two rubbings, her pupils suddenly shrank.

The same blank space appeared in the same position on the three rubbings!

"After discovering these identical blanks, I returned the same way and carefully inspected them again. I finally confirmed that the stone carvings all showed signs of weathering in the same locations. Even this stone carving..." Lilith pointed to the rubbing from the city-state of Sassini, "The front and back texts are still preserved, but the center part has been weathered away."

Charlotte immediately stood up and rummaged through the boxes and found the rubbing she had made from the Ambra picture, and quickly opened it and found the same location.

really!

It's also blank!

"Someone deliberately erased the name of the god here..." Charlotte looked solemn and couldn't help but lower her voice and said, "Who could do such a thing? Who would want to do such a thing?"

This is a broken rubbing taken from the Sokya Peninsula, which is halfway across. In the known history, the Sokya Peninsula has never been unified. Even Fidelity cannot order other city-states to do such a blasphemous thing.

Snapped!

Lilith jumped onto the chair, swung the paper roll and hit Charlotte on the head, then pointed the paper roll at Charlotte and said, "I know who you suspect, but you'd better not say His name."

Charlotte rubbed her head and said, "I didn't intend to say His name in the first place. I think you just want to take the opportunity to hit me!"

"You're right." Lilith smiled proudly.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and continued, "Moreover, these evidences cannot be considered reliable. They can neither fully prove the existence of another god nor prove what the current one has done. Perhaps these words are not prayers at all. Even if they are prayers, the one that the ancestors prayed to may not be the real god. After all, there are many people in this world who do not believe in that one."

"Of course I know all this," Lilith shook her head and sighed regretfully, "That's why I planned to go to the Delmer Alliance to take a look. Unfortunately, the Delmer Alliance was in chaos and I almost couldn't come back..."

Hearing about Lilith's experience in the Delmer Alliance, Charlotte couldn't help but frown and asked, "How could there be such a serious rebellion in the Delmer Alliance?"

After thinking for a while, Lilith said, "This may have something to do with the ruling method of the Delmer city-state. The citizens of the Delmer city-state do not participate in farming, do not run businesses, and do not study literature and art. They only receive military training and physical exercise since childhood. Both men and women must be naked and learn how to fight. Every time the Delmers conquer a city-state, they often plunder a large number of slaves with sufficient population. Even when they treat their allies, they will exploit and plunder them without restraint. Therefore, whether it is a city-state occupied by the Delmers or a city-state allied with the Delmers, it is inevitable that they have some resentment towards the Delmers."

"So, I heard that rebellions often occur within the Delmer Alliance, and the Delmer City-State often needs to send out citizen militia to quell the rebellion. The Delmer City-State's methods of suppressing rebellions have always been very brutal, and they have massacred the city more than once, but they still cannot completely solve the rebellion problem."

After hearing what Lilith said, Charlotte couldn't help but ask in confusion: "The problems within the Delmo Alliance are so serious, do they still have the energy to continue fighting the Aiye Alliance?"

"Continue to fight with the Ai Ye Alliance?" Lilith showed contempt on her face. "The Delmo Alliance is about to destroy the Ai Ye Alliance, and you are still asking them if they can continue to fight with the Ai Ye Alliance? If you say this to others, people will laugh at you."

"What?" Charlotte was quite surprised. "Is the Ai Ye Alliance going to be defeated?"

"Yeah," Lilith nodded, "I heard a lot of rumors on my way back, saying that the coalition forces of the Aiye Alliance had been completely wiped out, the Bronze Pass had been breached, and Feidi City was in danger. After the Bronze Pass was breached, the Delmer coalition forces were able to march straight in. It was probably because of the rebellion that broke out again within the Delmer Alliance that tied down part of the Delmer troops, so when I left, they had not yet reached Feidi City."

"Is this news reliable?" Charlotte asked in disbelief.

"You'll know whether it's reliable or not after a while. The order for the Fiery City-State to recruit a large number of citizen militia has probably been issued." Lilith said.

"Heh..." Charlotte sighed and laughed, "The Delmers are suppressing the rebellion with one hand, and using the other hand they can beat the Ai Ye Alliance down. The Ai Ye Alliance is too shameless."

"I don't think it's the fault of the Ai Ye Alliance, but the Delmer people are too fierce. I heard that when they were children, their instructors would torture and kill slaves in front of them, and when they grew up, they had to cut off the heads of slaves with their own hands. They are just like... beasts."

Lilith obviously found it difficult to accept the Delmer tradition that wild beasts would teach their children how to hunt, but the Delmers were civilized people after all.

Charlotte didn't care whether the Delmes' traditions were civilized. What worried her was what to do if the Delmes unified the peninsula before her?

Now it seems that the probability of this happening is not small. In fact, the Delmers only need to occupy the Feidi city-state that is already within sight, and then the Aiye Alliance is very likely to collapse directly, and other city-states will surrender.

At that time, Viscount Lanwan would have to face the powerful Delmer people and the huge coalition army composed of all the citizen militias of the Sokya city-states under the leadership of the Delmer people. It was difficult for Charlotte to imagine how she could defeat such a strong opponent.

"Ugh……"

Charlotte couldn't help but sigh, rubbed her temples, and leaned back in her chair.

"Why are you sighing?" Lilith asked.

"I want to send some reinforcements to Fife, but I don't know how to convince them to accept my friendly help." Charlotte said in annoyance.

Hearing this, Lilith's forehead almost burst into black lines. The little brothers of the alliance were beaten up by you one after another, and you still want them to accept your reinforcements? Who would believe that your reinforcements are friendly?

"Forget it, you can think about it slowly," Lilith waved her hand silently and yawned, "I'm going back to my room to sleep. I'm so tired during this period of time."

"Hey, wait a minute." Charlotte quickly sat up straight and called Lilith.

"Is there anything else?" Lilith stopped and asked puzzledly.

"I was recently promoted to the second wing, but there was a problem..."

Charlotte gave a rough outline of what had happened to her.

"You said you wanted to eat people when you awakened your second wings?" Lilith repeated.

"Yes." Charlotte nodded with certainty. Lilith's return was a timely relief for Charlotte. Apart from Lilith, Charlotte couldn't think of anyone to consult with about the problems she encountered when studying the extraordinary faction.

Lilith tilted her head and thought for a moment, then asked, "When you saw Jonathan Hackman just now, did you have the desire to eat his flesh?"

Charlotte thought about it for a moment and shook her head: "No."

"Then when you saw me, did you want to eat my wish?" Lilith asked again.

Charlotte stared at Lilith up and down for a while, and suddenly she felt a sweet smell that was whetting her appetite. She couldn't help swallowing, and then quickly looked away.

"Oh, it seems so." Lilith understood the answer when she saw Charlotte's expression.

After calming down, Charlotte pondered for a moment, and suddenly said as if she had suddenly realized something: "Could it be that I only like to eat girls!"

Lilith was stunned for a moment, then her face darkened: "Can you please put some healthy thoughts in your head all day long!"

"Is there something wrong with my conclusion?" Charlotte blinked innocently. "Then what should be the correct answer?"

Lilith was too lazy to talk nonsense with this guy. She crossed her arms and expressed her thoughts: "When I was adventuring in the snowfield before, I heard some legends from the herdsmen there. It is said that a long time ago, all creatures in the snowfield had extraordinary powers, not just humans or other intelligent species, but even the cattle, sheep, horses, and even the grass eaten by livestock had extraordinary powers. The local herdsmen called this universal extraordinary power 'spirituality'."

Charlotte was also a smart person. After listening to Lilith's story, she quickly understood what she meant and continued, "You mean, maybe 100,000 years ago, all creatures in the world had extraordinary powers, and most of these creatures could be used as food for humans. The ability awakened when the two wings of the ancient faction I practiced was actually a way to absorb extraordinary powers from food, which is the so-called 'spirituality' to enhance oneself?"

Lilith nodded. "But since humans are the only creatures with extraordinary powers around you now, this two-wing ability has become like an ability to eat humans."

"Huh? What should I do now?" Charlotte pointed at her nose and asked, "I can't really eat people, can I?"

"Just because you are surrounded by humans with extraordinary powers doesn't mean that humans are the only ones with extraordinary powers in this world," Lilith suggested, "There are so many tribesmen in the Campe Mountains."

Charlotte's mouth twitched slightly when she heard this: "Not to mention that most of the tribesmen look similar to humans, do you know how fierce the tribesmen are now? They can even fight all the way to Platinum City! How can my small Viscount Lanwan be a match for the tribesmen? The tribesmen can eat people. What if I fail to eat the tribesmen and are eaten by them instead?"

"That's true," Lilith thought what Charlotte said made sense. After thinking about it carefully, she said, "You have always believed that the power of miracles and the power of the human supernatural faction are actually the same thing. Maybe you can try the griffin and the giant eagle."

"How can I afford this?" Charlotte shook her head without thinking, "I still have to rely on my griffins and giant eagles to help me resist the Delmer people who are about to come to attack me."

"You are such a picky eater." Lilith was amazed.

"Is this a matter of being picky about food?" Charlotte complained.

Lilith thought for a while and said, "Then maybe you can try the silver fin fish."

Silverfin fish is a large fish in the world's oceans. The length of an adult silverfin fish can exceed seven or eight meters. Silverfin fish swim very fast, reaching more than 100 kilometers in a sprint, and can easily overturn wooden fishing boats of this era.

However, the fishermen in this world still flock to silverfin fish, not because the meat of silverfin fish is so delicious, but because the bones of silverfin fish are a kind of extraordinary material. In the awakening ceremony of the Royal Griffin Knights faction, the bone powder of silverfin fish is a substitute for mithril powder.

Silverfin fish is indeed a good choice, Charlotte nodded slightly.

"Griffins, giant eagles, silver-winged fish, carrier crows... It seems that the world a hundred thousand years ago might have been a world full of 'spirituality'. Perhaps our current world has degenerated, causing most creatures to lose their 'spirituality', that is, their extraordinary powers." Charlotte said thoughtfully.

"Whether there is degeneration is indeed worth further study, but why do you list the messenger raven together with the other three?" Lilith said she couldn't understand.

Charlotte couldn't say that in her memory crows didn't actually deliver mail, right? Moreover, crows were even smarter than the carrier pigeons in Charlotte's previous life.

"Also, there is one thing I need to remind you of." Lilith said again.

"What's going on?" Charlotte asked.

"Although the meat of the silver-finned fish is delicious, it is poisonous all over. You can't eat too much," Lilith paused and said, "But as a supernatural material, the bones of the silver-finned fish are not actually excellent. In other words, the 'spirituality' contained in the silver-finned fish may not be rich. If you don't eat enough, you will probably not be able to satisfy your hunger."

Charlotte said with a dark face, "Ah? Are you asking me to choose between starving to death and being poisoned to death?"

"You don't have to worry about starving to death," Lilith finally said, "You haven't eaten human flesh in such a long time since you were promoted to the second wing, right?"

"Of course not." Charlotte immediately shook her head.

"Look, you haven't eaten food with supernatural powers for such a long time, but you didn't starve to death," Lilith explained. "The body of a practitioner is the cornerstone of the supernatural system. This is a common theory of most factions, and your ancient faction should be the same. Not eating food containing 'spiritual' may make you feel hungry, but it won't make you starve to death. You can still eat normal food to sustain your life, and this will not change."

"Does that mean I might have to go hungry for a long time in the future?" Charlotte didn't feel much happy.

"Well, that's probably the case." Lilith said with a gloating smile on her face.

Sokya Peninsula, the city-state of Lesser Sasseni.

"The voting statistics of the Citizens' Assembly have been completed. A total of 5,202 citizens participated in the voting, of which 3,162 voted in favor and 2,040 voted against. The motion was passed. From now on, Apo's status as an elder of the Little Sassini Elders' Council will be revoked..."

Matt announced from his podium.

Offstage, Apo remained silent, with little expression on his face.

After the meeting, Apo walked out of the Elders' House alone. When he stopped at the door of the Elders' House and looked back, someone finally caught up with him.

"Elder Abo, Elder Abo..." Matt hurriedly caught up with him, his face full of apology, but he didn't know how to start.

Apo knew what Matt was thinking. He shook his head and said, "It is your duty to announce the voting results. You cannot be blamed for this. I am no longer an elder. You do not have to call me that anymore."

Matt felt even more bitter in his heart. He said indignantly, "In fact, most citizens still believe in you. It's just that Gareth and his people took advantage of the anger of the citizens in recent days and made them vote to remove you from your position as an elder."

Not long ago, Apo released the prisoners of Ambratu despite the opposition of the entire city-state, fulfilling his pre-war promise - as long as they fought once for little Sassini, he would give them freedom.

This behavior undoubtedly angered many citizens of Lesser Sasseni, who wanted nothing more than to see the Ambratu prisoners tortured to death.

Many rumors unfavorable to Apo began to spread in the city of Little Sasini. For example, Apo asked the Little Sasini citizen soldiers to block the Ambratu citizen soldiers during the battle. For example, Apo was eager to attack Ambratu in order to regain the homeland for the Ambratu people. Another example is that Apo accepted benefits from the Ambratu people and wanted to become an Ambratu person...

Taking advantage of this trend, Garris proposed in the Council of Elders that Awa was not suitable for managing the city-state. He sat in the Council of Elders all day in a daze, doing nothing, and not expressing any useful opinions. He was suspected of dereliction of duty and should be removed from his position as an elder.

Today, the Citizens' Assembly voted on this issue and it was successfully passed.

Apo smiled and said, "This time the citizens' assembly did not deprive me of my property in anger and expel me from the city-state. This shows that everyone has been much more tolerant of me."

Matt was suddenly embarrassed and didn't know how to respond.

Apo sighed and continued walking forward.

Matt quickly followed: "Where are you going? I can help you..."

"You don't have to take my feelings into consideration like this," Apo waved his hand to interrupt Matt and said, "I'm actually not that disappointed. I also feel that I'm not suitable to be an elder, and there's nothing to be sad about being dismissed. Besides... I don't know where I should go next..."

PS: Thank you all for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets. Today’s tickets and rewards will still be counted after I wake up tomorrow.

PS2: This chapter has words. I want to sleep so much that I won't post it in two chapters. Today is an extra chapter, and I still owe eight extra chapters. Because I suddenly found out that so many people voted for rewards, I was a little caught off guard. I will try to add three chapters tomorrow and finish the rest as soon as possible.

PS3: Thanks to Chuan and Yingzi for their corrections, the previous errors have been corrected.

Volume 140: Chapter 127 Chapter The Crown

Shortly after Lilith returned, Hermann Green, who had gone to the Green Plains Principality for the second time to deliver a letter, also returned.

In order to complete Charlotte's mission, Hermann Green stayed in the Greenland Principality for a while. Then, he lived up to Charlotte's expectations and brought back explosive news.

"What! Henry wants to enthrone my father as king?" Charlotte said in astonishment.

"Yes." Hermann Green confirmed again.