Can't I develop my own character?

"...Strange, why did those inner world cracks suddenly disappear?"

Berman, in the castle courtyard.

Casradi asked Ryan to come over for afternoon tea to discuss the recent national situation.

The demon army is endangering the human world. Now it is no longer a secret that they are extraordinary. It is something that everyone knows on the street.

These days, she was trying to appease the people while arranging personnel to deal with the chaos caused by the demons. Fortunately, there were 'Xia Li', 'Ina' and the people of the Fire Covenant on the front line, so there were very few situations that really endangered the people.

"Maybe the Blood Archbishop had a change of heart and suddenly gave up." Ryan said while drinking tea.

Casradi rolled her eyes. "Do you believe that?" She then pondered, "I suspect Magna did something."

"Oh? What do you say?"

"Haven't you noticed? The stabilization of the situation started in the West. If anyone in the Empire could accomplish this, besides the people of Janus Gate, it would probably be Maganna."

Ryan said calmly, "Then why didn't His Majesty do it?"

"Father..." Casradi shook his head gently, "Lian, can't you see? Father has changed. I even wonder if the mastermind behind this 'war' is..."

Ryan was startled: "Your Highness, be careful with your words."

Your Highness, go on!

Casradi raised his hand, signaling Ryan not to be too surprised.

"Remember Bill? I used to think that the power he secretly cultivated was controlled by my second brother. But my second brother clearly has the support of General Alvin and holds great power, giving him the greatest advantage in the battle for the crown prince. In this situation, why would he meddle with paganism and leave himself vulnerable to attack?"

"...Yeah, I think so."

"If all this was secretly arranged by our father, then it makes sense." Casladi's eyes flickered slightly. "I always thought my second brother wanted to start a war and gain influence through military power, but I was wrong. The events in the Western Territory left Maganna severely wounded, General Alvin defeated, and the recent reforms to the Imperial Merchants have all suppressed the three strongest contenders for the throne, leaving only me, a remote princess with little influence."

"Now even I am being summoned back to the imperial capital. All this suggests that my father may not wish to inherit the throne. If that's the case, then he must first survive... Furthermore, my father was once a powerful Blood God-transcendent being."

Ryan was surprised. The princess had been quiet these days. Was she thinking about these things?

Moreover, she perfectly recreated the crime scene. It has to be said that if it comes to brainpower alone, Casradi has more advantages than Maganna.

Unfortunately, even if the princess knew this, it would be useless... No, it should be said that she was even more desperate. Looking at the expression on her face, Ryan guessed that Casradi was almost heartbroken.

Alas, there is nothing we can do, Princess. We only have a small territory in the southern border. Even if we turn the tide, we can't train 20,000 soldiers. How can we fight the Grand Duke? Not to mention that our opponent is now the old emperor.

Ryan was waiting for the old emperor's reaction. The impact of the war was getting weaker and weaker. Even if there were still a few places that had not been cleaned up, it was far from meeting the old emperor's expectations.

So next, the corrupt old emperor will probably get angry and do something crazy.

He is old!

Going crazy!

He also lost the rationality and pride that an emperor should have.

If he were to fight against the old emperor, Ryan would not be sure of his victory, but now... Oh no, I am a loyal subject of the empire, and I am not needed to charge into battle.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. The situation in the empire is currently in chaos. We can rely on these three cities and develop slowly. There will be hope." Ryan chuckled.

"I hope so... You've worked hard, Lord Ryan. Go and get some rest."

After finishing afternoon tea, Casladi returned to her room, intending to calm down and practice well, thinking about what to do next.

As soon as I entered the room, I saw a figure standing by the window with his back to the door.

Casladi was stunned. The familiar figure made her feel incredible.

"teacher?!"

The figure in the room was wearing a white magic robe, with long silver-white hair cascading down like a waterfall. When she heard the voice, she turned around, and a gentle smile appeared on her exquisite face.

"Casradi, we meet again."

Hainuo's bright blue eyes sized up Casradi and praised him, "It's only been over a month, and your magic power has increased significantly."

"Hello, teacher." Casradi bowed slightly.

Although she is an imperial princess, she must observe etiquette in front of Hainuo.

Not only because Hainuo is her teacher, but also because Hainuo is a genius that appears once in a hundred years in Saint Marian, a seventh-level Holy Word Master, and the youngest vice-president in the history of the academy.

And because she is well maintained, she doesn't look like a generation older than Casradi when standing next to her. Instead, she looks like an older sister.

Compared with the halo of Heino, Casradi's identity as a princess seems dull.

"That kid just now, was he your friend?" Hainuo asked with a smile.

Casradi thought for a moment and said, "His name is Ryan. He's a student... a subordinate, and also a friend."

"Well, there's something strange about him. I can sense that his magical talent is excellent, but it seems that there's a special force suppressing him."

"Special powers?"

Casradi had never thought about Ryan's magical talent. She just guessed that it should be quite high, but since this kind of thing had no impact on anything, she never paid much attention to it.

After all, no matter how talented one is, it takes time to grow up, and what she lacks most now is time.

"I don't know either, but I'm sure it's not some evil force, so you don't have to worry." Hai Nuo said with a smile, "Compared to this, seeing you look so worried, the battle for the crown prince is probably not going well."

"...Um."

Casradi sighed softly, "The situation in the empire is far more complicated than I thought."

"I thought about this before I received your letter. I originally wanted to persuade you to stay in the academy and study with me, but I can see that you want to come back. In that case, as a teacher, I should also do my best for my students."

The relationship between students and teachers at St. Marian's was not that simple. Although Hainuo occasionally taught courses at the academy, the only one who could truly be considered her student was Casradi.

"Teacher, how can you help me?" Kasradi asked in confusion.

"Teacher, I don't have any other special abilities, but I do have some talent in magic cultivation and I have some connections, so I believe it shouldn't be difficult to find some help. Besides that, I've studied alchemy quite a bit over the years and have even made a batch of puppets."

"Alchemical puppets?" Casradi was startled. She needed connections, but alchemical puppets... "How many are there?"

"About a thousand."

"Only one thousand..."

"Well, the lowest is equivalent to a third-level transcendent, and the highest... is probably sixth-level."

"??????"

............

The first update is 6k5, and the new day will continue with 10,000 per day. Please vote and support!

Chapter 87: Xia Li: Ryan, let's get engaged [6k5]

Alchemy is a very mysterious profession, because it is not a skill that can be obtained through any faith. It needs to be studied by extraordinary people themselves, so the number of alchemists is very small.

The scope of alchemy is quite broad, ranging from potion learning to formation arrangement to puppet making.

To put it bluntly, anything other than faith and profession that involves supernatural powers can be classified as "alchemy."

So alchemy is a very complex and profound subject. Casradi had been involved in it before, but he was quite good at it and could only make some simple potions at most.

After all, she still has to spend a lot of time and energy on practicing magic.

As for Heino, Kasradi only knew that he had studied alchemy, but as for his attainments...that was unknown. After all, Teacher Heino was unfathomable, and she could not compare with him at this level.

But Kasradi didn't expect Hainuo to be so shocking, and he used thousands of moves... Wait, teacher, what did you just say? I didn't hear it clearly. Can you say it again?

"What's wrong? Isn't it enough?" Seeing that Casradi was silent, Hai Nuo said, "There should have been more, but I used the low-grade ones to recycle materials. They're not very useful anyway."

"..."

"If it's not enough, I can help you refine some more, but I need to find some materials."

"That's enough," Casradi said hurriedly, "this much is enough for now."

She is not about to rebel, and she does not need so many puppets now. Of course, it would be best to have some. With basic armed support, there will be more hope.

Moreover, with Hainuo's strength and connections, with her public support, the effect will definitely not be less than Alvin's support for the Second Prince!

After all, St. Marian's College holds a unique position on the continent. Otherwise, nobles from all over the world wouldn't travel thousands of miles to study there. Why? Could it be that it's really for learning? Oh, of course, it's to build connections.

To put it bluntly, it is an aristocratic platform for building relationships and engaging in entanglements with various countries' forces. It is indeed a miniature version of the Rhea continent.

St. Marian College is located in the city of San Gro, which is under the jurisdiction of the Janus Gate. Therefore, many countries have sent their heirs there in order to establish relations with the Janus Gate.

As the vice president, Hainuo's influence is self-evident.

Thinking of this...Casradi's dead heart gradually came back to life. I am about to rise!

"Teacher, are you really willing to publicly support me?"

"Of course." Hai Nuo smiled gently. "You are my student, so of course I will do my best to help you. But don't get too excited yet. Although there are a lot of alchemical puppets, you should know that they are no match for extraordinary people, and the cost of daily maintenance is not low."

"I understand this."

Casradi nodded.

Of course, she knew the disadvantages of puppets. They were not flexible enough, consumed a lot of materials, and because of the magic energy storage, many puppets were not only expensive to make, but also consumed a lot of soul jade just to move. Therefore, most puppets could not even use magic to fight, and could not fight against extraordinary people of the same level with just their physical strength.

St. Marian has a special puppet training room where students can improve their combat skills by fighting with puppets. Casradi once fought against three third-level puppets at the same time with the strength of a third-level puppet and won.

In addition, if there is no magic protection on the battlefield, it will be difficult for the puppets to play a role in the face of firearms bombardment. According to Casradi, a long time ago, firearms technology was not so advanced, and the battlefield was completely in the era of cold weapons. At that time, some countries would send puppets to the battlefield to fight.

But times have changed. Ordinary swords can hardly cut through the puppet's body, but muskets and cannons can.

Considering the high cost of puppets, they completely withdrew from the war stage after the cost-effectiveness dropped.

What surprised Kasradi was that his teacher had quietly created thousands of them. Even if most of them were low-level puppets, it was still scary enough.

"Wait...Teacher, you actually made the academy's puppets?"

Hai Nuo smiled slightly: "Otherwise, where would I get so many materials?"

"..." Casladi was at a loss for words. "Won't the academy find out?"

"I'm the vice president. If I don't have this little bit of power, then what's the point of being the vice president?" Hai Nuo said as a matter of course. "Don't worry, even if someone finds out, they won't say anything. If anyone wants to say anything, I'll stop them."

The teacher was very domineering, and the last bit of worry in Casradi's heart disappeared.

What she should consider now is how to use the puppets. If she brings them to the imperial capital, they will be of no use at all. Thousands sounds like a lot, but facing hundreds of thousands of imperial troops, countless muskets and cannons, and countless extraordinary forces secretly cultivated by her father, Casladi has no confidence at all.

After much thought, Kasladi felt that it would be better to leave the puppet army in the southern border to shine.

With these combat capabilities, wouldn't it be easy for Ryan to expand his territory in the southern border?

If it was troublesome before, now the empire is becoming more and more chaotic, and the law has become cheap in the face of war. Maganna openly expanded the Iron Blood Army. She is a princess with tens of thousands of troops under her command. It is reasonable for her to have dozens of cities, right?

"You're going to hand over the puppet to that kid just now?" Hai Nuo asked in surprise, "Do you trust him that much?"

"Yes, teacher. Ryan is worthy of my trust." Casradi said with a wry smile, "And he's the only one I can trust. Once I go to Baron, I'm afraid no one in the entire southern region will truly follow me except Ryan."

"In that case...it's up to you." Hai Nuo didn't know what to say. Anyway...the child has suffered so much, she could only try her best to help.

Hainuo turned to look out the window, her thoughts going back many years. Even Casradi didn't know that she and the latter's mother were actually very good friends. Later, one became the queen and the other became a genius in the academy, step by step achieving the achievement of the youngest vice-president in history.

"Don't worry, I'll go to Barron with you. No one can hurt you while I'm here."

.....

Ryan didn't know that the princess had stood up and was about to go to the adults' table, and he had no idea that he was about to make a fortune inexplicably, otherwise he would have happily given Casradi a big hug. After all, what worried him most now was the lack of troops.

But Ryan didn't have the energy to hug him for the time being because the old emperor came to see him.

As expected, the Grand Duke was very arrogant and the old emperor was very angry.

"That Maganna, she simply doesn't take me, the emperor, seriously at all. How presumptuous!"

Unlike his calm and gentle appearance last time, this time the old emperor did not hide anything in front of Ryan. He started scolding Maganna for several minutes. It seemed that he was really angry.

Ryan asked in confusion, "Your Majesty, Maganna has been staying in the Western Territory. What has she done?"

"She..." the old emperor snorted coldly, "She actually doubled the size of the Iron Blood Army to a full 100,000 men. What duke in the world could lead 100,000 men? I've become a laughing stock in the Northern Continent!"

I'm afraid it's not just this... Ryan thought to himself, his face showing anger: "Indeed, it's so abominable! How dare she do this? Has she really taken your majesty's kindness for granted? Your majesty, if you ask me, we should send troops now and attack the western border before this 100,000-strong army develops, otherwise it will be too late!"

The old emperor's mouth twitched slightly, but he didn't say anything.

Attack the Western Territory?

He had just made peace with the Western Territory. Sending troops at this time would not only be a slap in the face of the Gate of Janus, but it would also make it difficult to conquer the Western Territory.

Are there only 100,000 people in Maganna?

Ha ha!