Chapter 198 (1/2)

Becky was foaming at her mouth, telling stories about the female marshal. Hao Ren however was not that interested; for one, she was not related to their mission, and also, he did not think that he was going to have anything to do with this otherworldly hero.

Anyhow, he had heard enough of this legendary Marshal Ophra.

When speaking about the marshal, it was necessary to look into something they called, “the Ancients”. It was a new term Hao Ren had encountered. He was lacking an excuse to openly ask about it. Becky’s narrative was the only source by which he could find out about the race. The Ancients were an almost human-like, unique race. Most of the time, they mingled with humans. Their population was small, scattered all over the world, without their own cultural identity. They totally assimilated and co-existed with humans. The Ancients were different from humans in that they lived much longer and were far more stronger. They were better in every single aspect from their physical to mental states. Many of the Ancients were remembered as heroes in history. Ophra was one of them. She had been the most renowned for the last several hundred years.

Other than that, Hao Ren was totally clueless regarding the origins of the term “Ancients”, and as to how they acquired such extraordinary qualities.

Marshal Ophra had been the most active descendent of the Ancients for the last several hundred years. Back then, King Geddon III, the Iron Fist helmed the throne of the Kingdom of Holletta. At the time of Geddon III’s coronation, the Kingdom of Holletta was experiencing severe changes and turmoil. This oldest kingdom on the continent had seen the rise of the art of alchemy and new academics. Emerging civilian R&D alchemy factories and production models challenged the old Royal Academy of Magic. More and more advanced technologies were being invented by the civilians instead of being under the control of the Royal Academy of Magic. This caused a rift between the elites and the civilian class; at the same time, a faction within the elites opposed the conservatives—an inevitable fate as a result of the feudal dynasty becoming too old and bloated, and also from the massive achievement of social progress. At that time, newly emerging countries around the Kingdom of Holletta were adopting new technologies and social ideologies with tremendous pace. Within a short period of time, these kingdoms had left the arrogant and old kingdom in the dust—at least, in terms of technology.

The Kingdom of Holletta back then was not as moderate as it was in the present—there were no more radicals now on the outside. They were a superpower and, had a dominant spirit, so they found themselves quite a lot of enemies as a result. Because of that, during the reign of Geddon III, the Kingdom faced a multitude of crisis: factionalism of the ruling class, royalty losing grip on social order, and old-fashioned royal advisers struggling to handle new social problems. At the same time, there were at least dozens of newly emerging, technologically-advanced, smaller countries, planning to invade his kingdom.

That was when Ophra came into being.

There were many versions to the legend about how the new king and the Ancient met, and how they had become comrades in arms. The stories became much talked about topics among historians and playwrights alike. As a retarded fan of Marshal Ophra, and a typical gossiper, Becky was a proponent of the dramatist’s narrative: the young Geddon III was touring the Kingdom in search of solutions to the problems in his kingdom. When he arrived in the east of the Kingdom, he was ambushed by his enemies.

At that critical juncture, Marshal Ophra, who was then an adventurer—there was no differentiation between an adventurer and a mercenary back then—came to his rescue. They fought their way out, and the fate of the Kingdom as well as their own were sealed from that moment.

The ambitious young king and the skilful knight began their fateful relationship. Together, they suppressed the revolts within the Kingdom. Subsequently, Geddon III, against all dissenting views from the old elites, declared the knight a new elite, and placed the Kingdom’s military in the hands of his confidante. The talented, bold, young king and the battle savvy, female fighter put an end to all the internal rebellions, and rebuilt a new ruling order. Not only that, they suppressed external enemies.

From that day onwards, the famous Iron General became the protector of the Kingdom of Holletta for the next 435 years.

Any qualified dramatist would have noticed something else: Geddon III and Ophra were trying to work out their relationship since the very first chapter but still nothing had come to fruition after 40 over chapters. At the end of the day, Geddon III lay on his deathbed, holding Ophra’s hand and saying his last wishes, “My reign will soon end in two days. You must make sure my son succeeds my throne…”