Xingtie, started with a guitar, and made a living by singing

Even Bronya looked at Wendy in confusion. She originally thought that she was brought down just to let her see what the lower area really looked like, but did he actually have other plans?

Those thoughts that she didn't tell her...

A sense of disappointment arose in vain. Even though she knew she shouldn't feel this way, she felt a little sad about this estrangement.

Fortunately, Wendy made up for it in time, saying, "Because instead of my unilateral and pale explanation, it would be more effective if Bronya could actually see the lower level area and then come here to talk directly!"

"There is some truth in what the poet said."

After a moment of silence, Swarovski agreed.

"So, now that you've seen the true state of the Lower District, is this heiress willing to take the position of Grand Guardian, as you and I wish?"

Wow! Why does Master Swarovski speak like that?!

As Wendy was troubled by this misleading conversation, Bronya, as expected, became nervous again after originally relaxing.

Although she did not run away or choose to fight out of trust in Wendy, she still felt a little uncomfortable.

She didn't want to break up with Wendy, but she also didn't want this precious experience to become a scheme for the other party to control her.

"Wendy, what exactly is your promise to Mr. Swarlow? And what are your thoughts on the position of Grand Guardian?"

Bronya didn't know why she was so anxious, but she held Wendy's hand tightly, hoping to get an answer from him.

"If you can't explain it clearly, I will never allow myself to become a puppet controlled by others!"

Chapter 33: The Fool - Xili'er

Bronya's reaction to stress stems from the past.

During the reign of "The Fool" Shiril, the eighth Great Guardian of Beloberg, an extremely serious incident occurred.

The incident was so sensitive that even the city builders were extremely reluctant to mention it.

And most people know him as a "fool".

The glory that should have been bestowed upon all the great guardians of the past was completely wiped out, leaving only the indelible lead black.

In order to understand this incident, we must mention three crucial people: the first is Cyril, the second is her sister Cyril, and the third is Stepan Marcuse.

Born in a remote suburb of an upper-class area, Xili'er lost her parents at a young age. She lives under the same roof with her older sister, Xiliya, who is one year older than her.

There is not much worth recording about her childhood. On the contrary, her elder sister showed extraordinary intelligence from a young age, and displayed amazing talent in many fields such as language, mathematics, and logic.

Moreover, when Xilia was eleven years old, she passed Beloberg's collective test and was officially selected as the successor to the Great Guardian.

However, just before the builders were about to move her residence to Krippenburg, Celia disappeared mysteriously.

After several days of fruitless searching, some city builders advocated abandoning the search for Xilia and restarting the successor selection process.

Another key figure in this incident, Stepan Marcuse, then Minister of the Interior, firmly opposed restarting the selection process and instead pushed for Celia's younger sister, Celia, to take over as the Grand Guardian's successor.

He claimed that during his long-term contact with Hillary and Celia, he found that Hillary possessed outstanding talents that were no less than her elder sister.

In addition, since the previous Grand Guardian had recently passed away, delaying the successor selection process would inevitably affect the stability of Beloberg's political situation.

Taking various reasons into consideration and the power shift involved, after a fierce debate within the City Builders, they finally passed Stepan's proposal and made Shirley the new successor to the Grand Guardian.

However, history has proven that Hillary's rise to power was a political scam carefully planned by Stepan Marcuse.

Hillary, who should have been a leader and demonstrated excellence in all areas, not only had extremely mediocre qualifications, but also seemed very dull in social interactions, not looking like a qualified leader at all.

This shortcoming, which could be forgiven in an ordinary person, was infinitely magnified because she was the Great Guardian, but this was still not the main reason why she was called a "fool".

The real reason why she was given this name by later generations was that she lived under the deception of others throughout her life and had no autonomy. I am afraid that she was full of confusion in her last moments of life.

She was forced to take the position of Grand Guardian by Interior Minister Stepan Marcuse, and lived like a puppet.

Because he was deceived by him, he no longer trusted other city builders, which led to the growing power of the Minister of the Interior during his reign.

Stepan's cronies quickly gained absolute control of Krippleburg and issued many harsh and draconian decrees.

The name "The Fool" also spread among the people at this time, and people's dissatisfaction with this "puppet" guardian and his close ministers grew day by day.

Finally, in the fourteenth year of his reign, a rebellious group within the Builders began secretly planning to overthrow Stepan and his followers.

At that time, the resistance group won over the garrison officers of the Silver Mane Iron Guard, planning to lure Shirley and Stepan to the Iron Guard restricted area under the pretext of military exercises, and take the opportunity to launch a mutiny.

On the day of the military exercise, Grand Guardian Shirley attended as scheduled, but Stepan Marcuse was nowhere to be seen for a long time.

In order to avoid any mishaps in the plan, the City Builders sent a team of Iron Guards to pretend to escort Shirley to inspect the restricted area's armaments, and then pushed her into an open armament box when she was not paying attention. They then rushed to the far north of Beloberg under the cover of night and pushed the armament box containing the unconscious Grand Guardian into the cliff.

Afterwards, in order to prevent the Interior Minister's faction from reviving, the resistance group launched a three-day and three-night manhunt in Beloberg. Many of Stepan's followers were arrested, but his whereabouts were never found.

To this day, popular opinion still attributes the death of the Seventh Grand Guardian and the disappearance of Xilia to Stepan's political conspiracy.

Despite this, historians at Belloborg have not yet been able to obtain conclusive evidence.

But Bronya, who is also the heir to the Great Guardian and has been educated by Cocolia since childhood, can basically be presumed to be inseparable from it.

Because of the special status of the Grand Guardian, his successor will also be trained during his reign, which can take anywhere from a few years to several decades.

The case of a great guardian like the seventh who died suddenly is shrouded in doubt, with many unclear discrepancies in the records.

However, this is a case that is tainted with scandals after all. No one would take their future lightly, and there is also a lack of conditions for verification at present.

And in Shirley's diary, which is currently unknown to people, there is actually evidence that Stepan had already had a conspiracy.

Stepan was different from those city builders who came to meet Cielya. He had been paying much attention to Cielya since his first visit.

If we infer from the results, it is not difficult to conclude that compared to the difficult-to-control Celia, she possesses outstanding talents.

From the very beginning, the other party had planned to approach Hillary, who was easier to deceive and control, and gradually gained her trust in preparation for the subsequent pursuit of political power.

At this point, it goes without saying that Xilia's subsequent disappearance is most beneficial to certain people.

Because this incident was extremely serious, almost all subsequent successors to the Great Guardian will be required to learn about this history and strengthen their education in this area.

If Wendy also had such intentions towards her, then it must be said that she would be very disappointed and even sad.

However, she is still willing to give the other party a chance.

Not only did she feel that the other person was not the kind of person who was greedy for power, if that was the case, he should have taken decisive action when they first met instead of acting on impulse and ending up in jail.

What benefits would this bring to Wendy at the time?

He could have simply become her friend and, under the pretext of caring for the lower classes, amassed a fortune and gained both fame and fortune.

In fact, with Wendy's power, how difficult would it be for him to get all these?

Besides, since coming to the lower area, Wendy has never shown any desire to control her, and just does what he is supposed to do.

If these were all Wendy's disguises, then she was willing to be deceived.

After all, the current Grand Guardian is in his prime, and unless something unexpected happens, there will definitely be no possibility of a replacement for at least ten years.

This period of time was more than enough for her to find out what kind of person Wendy was.

Perhaps this period of reflection cooled her originally excited mood, and she also felt disappointed that she had previously questioned Wendy because of Swarovski's words.

After saying these words, Bronya's momentum did not increase but decreased, and she became a little weaker.

Wendy just sighed and told him about the first half of the plan and the disaster caused by the star core.

Chapter 34: Having to make a choice

After listening to Wendy's explanation, Bronya felt a sense of melancholy and confusion.

She was not a stubborn or blindly loyal person. If she were, she should have cut ties with him and broken off relations with him as soon as Wendy expressed her views on the Great Guardian.

But, at the same time——

Bronya has a deep affection for her adoptive mother, Cocolia, that is difficult for ordinary people to understand.

The beautiful memories of childhood, the educational philosophy I have received since growing up, and the responsibility of being the "Great Guardian" that I will inevitably inherit from my mother in the future.

In every scene that makes up Bronya's life, there is the figure of the other person.

Sometimes she would think that perhaps it was because her mother poured all her tenderness into her that she seemed too cold and ruthless to the people, and even indirectly took the lives of too many people.

However, all this can never be summarized as "necessary sacrifice", and she, as the beneficiary, should not forgive her mother on behalf of the victims.

Even the sacrifice of the Iron Guards was based on their own consent. Only those with such great courage who are willing to sacrifice themselves for others can be called heroes.

Otherwise, if one forces some people to die unconditionally for another group simply because one holds power, how can such an approach be consistent with the concept of preservation?

Therefore, Wendy and the others' idea of ​​ending their mother's term and having the City Builders push for an emergency acting bill to allow her to serve as the Grand Guardian cannot be said to be wrong.

But in order to push this bill forward, the mother of the Great Guardian must have committed an unforgivable mistake, like Hillary who was killed by her people in history. Otherwise, the prerequisites for the Emergency Act will not be met at all.

Unless... she could get her mother to step down and pass the position of Grand Guardian to her early.

However, the succession of the position of Grand Guardian was not a trivial matter, not to mention that in the mother's view, this position originally belonged to her, so why was she so anxious?

This is something that would definitely not be allowed according to common sense. No matter how much her mother loves her, she would not indulge her in such a big thing.

As for convincing her mother with reason? If she could still listen to everyone's advice now, the situation would not be like this.

In that case, Bronya would have very few options left.

Once she really joins the resistance organization, her mother will definitely be furious and disappointed with her own "betrayal", and will become even more indifferent and extreme.

This is a difficult choice for Bronya.

Even though I know in my heart that letting my mother step down is the best thing to do, how can I just give up the family affection that has been with me for so long?

This question made her so painful that she even wanted to avoid answering it.

Wendy sighed helplessly. He knew something like this would happen, so he didn't want to tell the other party in a hurry.

But unexpectedly, it was accidentally revealed by Boss Swarovski first. No... it’s not Boss Swarovski’s fault. He underestimated the deep feelings that Bronya had for Cocolia.

In order to make the other person feel better, Wendy also chose to speak out.

"I can see that it must be difficult for you to accept this for a while. Whether from the perspective of a daughter or the perspective of the Grand Guardian's heir, you need some time to think about it—"

"No, don't comfort me. I know it's the right thing to do according to your plan. I just... I'm just hesitant."

Bronya shook her head, looking lonely and depressed.

"I'm sorry. I really need some time to think about this. Can I give you my answer later?"

Wendy and Swarlow looked at each other, and the latter knew that he had done something wrong, so he handed the control of the conversation to him.

Knowing that things couldn't be hasty, Wendy didn't continue discussing this practical issue, but instead brought up the matter of the sisters in the Rift.

This cheered up Clara, who had always thought she was useless. She found the automated robots that had survived from Rivet Town and helped them search for information records.

Since the girl's sister would exchange things she scavenged, it was only necessary to set a few conditions and then ask other gold diggers about the corresponding characteristics to quickly locate the possible candidate.

Although their names are unknown, some people have indeed seen them there, and it can be confirmed that they are real humans and not Bronya's "hallucination".

An old gold digger who was impressed by this also told them that there was a defense line arranged by automatic robots on the street not far from where the girl lived.

Although with the erosion of the Rift and the wandering of monsters, it has now become a place like an "automaton graveyard".

But because there were many piles of scrapped mechas, gold diggers at the time would often go there to try their luck, and the girl's sister might have gone there to look for valuable parts to sell.

With this information, it is much better than searching around like a headless fly in the past.

In order to divert Bronya's attention, Wendy, who actually had some impression of this incident, chose to continue taking her to Rivet Town.

Although it may sound a bit cruel, Wendy will not tolerate Bronya indefinitely just because she has a secret crush on her.

He was well aware of the other party's hesitation and understood that it was difficult to make a choice that would affect the lives of so many people and even the fate of Beloberg.

Compared to them who suddenly appeared, no matter how cold and ruthless Cocolia was to others, she did give all her tenderness and love to Bronya.

The depth of this emotion couldn't be completely dispelled by a few words from outsiders. It was natural for Bronya to feel hesitant, but the situation was such that everyone had to find their proper place.

It is true that Bronya is Cocolia's daughter, but she is also the heir to the Great Guardian, a leader who should consider her people and find a way out for them.

She could indeed plead for Cocolia, saying that these measures were all based on hardship, but how could those poor people who were homeless and whose lives were changed by Cocolia's decree speak out about the injustice?

If Bronya really didn't want to rebel against her mother, he wouldn't force her, but would look for another more suitable candidate.

But by then, I'm afraid the two of them will no longer be able to call each other friends when they meet.

Although she believed that the other party would make the right choice sooner or later, when she thought about the possibility of the friendship ending, Wendy felt that she should take action.