Chapter 1234 - The Secret Chamber of Rudolph III (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
While the princess led the knights in flanking the enemy, Hao Ren was bringing on a storm of flames and explosions before Fort West. The shouts of battle rose at the west gate of the kingdom, but the hinterland of the ancient kingdom remained calm. But amid the calmness, there was a depressing atmosphere brewing underneath.
White City was a magnificent city on the plain. Taros I together with his followers built it nearly three centuries ago. At that time, the tide of Chaos had retreated, it was the end of the turbulent period. The Ansu Continent was as ruined like the others. The Accipitridae Empire, once ruled the south of the mainland, fell during the tide of Chaos. The remnants of the Accipitridae Empire and several kingdoms in the mountains formed into a new race with Taros I as its first leader. When he built the city, he only wanted to provide his people with a place of shelter. Never did he think that after the end of the tide of Chaos and the prosperous period on the continent would make him the founding king of a dynasty.
The former sanctum became the sacred capital of Taros after undergoing numerous rebuildings and expansions.
White City derived its name from its color. Eighty percent of the buildings in the city were white—the color of sacredness. When the tide of Chaos retreated, and sunlight reappeared and sprinkled on the land, White City was as bright as the white jewel. This unique appearance had also made it the most prestigious and magnificent city on the continent of Ansu. Even the envoys of the Theocracy from the sanctum had once lamented, “This small country in the corner of the mainland has a pearl-like capital.” Though this comment was heavily laden with the arrogance of the people of the sanctum, the people of Taros felt vindicated and was proud of their city.
The earliest cornerstone of White City was the white rock from the Tashiri Valley in the eastern plain. According to historical records, the Tasiri Valley appeared out of thin air within a month after the end of the War of Chaos. So scholars believed that the rock was a product of cleansing of the power of Chaos by the Order. In Collow, this incredible thing was part of the law of nature. It was because of the constant reshuffling of Chaos and Order that the world was able to continue circulating and surviving until the present. Today, the quarry in the Tashiri Valley had long closed down, and the primary building materials of the city had changed from stone to magic and alchemy materials. But the people of White City had not changed the color of their city. They collect white clay from the plains to use as paint and maintain the pride of White City.
Or more precisely, it was the pride of the aristocratic class in the city. The civilians could not have cared less about the color of the house they live in, but the nobles hoped that the name White Jewel in the south of Ansu could last forever. So they incorporated the ‘holy color of the city’ into law. White clay became one of the means by which these proud aristocrats amassed their wealth.
“Their pride should be thrown to the frontline before the Chaos; I would like to see if the skin of these smart alecs could stop the claws of the monsters when attached to the wall!”
A loud voice broke the quietness of the Palace of Golden Roses in the Royal City. A strong man, with a short red flame-like hair, a scar on his face, wearing a kingdom uniform holding a parchment in his hand paced back and forth in the room with anger. This rugged-looking middle-aged man had privilege in the palace; he was the most famous warrior in the kingdom, the highest commander of the Royal Knights, the Eagle General, Gloen Mordrick.
He was used to yelling in front of the king. His habit came when he and the king spent times secretly climbing the trees in the palace.
Of course, at that time, he and Rudolph III were only kids.
There were several others in the room; one of them was a middle-aged man wearing a lilac robe, with purple-haired but slight white, and a majestic face was sitting expressionless on a gorgeous chair in the middle of the room. Next to the man stood a girl who looked only 16. Having a bright lavender long hair and wearing a moon-white princess dress, the teenage girl was elegant and dignified. If Hao Ren saw her, he would be surprised; the girl looked identical to Veronica.
The last person stood was further away from the rest. He wore a dark-red thick clothe with two rows of shiny copper buttons that the nobles often wore. His body was thin, face solemn, hair light brown and curled hanging down his cheeks, making his thin and long face looked even impersonal.
“Gloen, let’s be quiet. I know that at least half of them are an abbreviated piece of nothing, but the nobility is still necessary for this country,” the middle-aged man on the chair said when General Gloen circled for the third time. His voice was calm but powerful, “including the abbreviated piece of nothing.”
“What can they do?” Gloen replied bluntly, but still, he calmed down. He was notorious for lack of etiquette before the king, but as the general of the kingdom, he knew his place.
“At least you could scold them to vent your anger,” the man on the chair, Rudolph III, quipped. “And what they said made sense. The defeat on the western front has brought shame to us in Ansu, even the entire Collow. Honor might be meaningless to the monsters of Chaos, but it is a real benefit and opportunity for politicians. If we can’t keep the last land of Order in the southern part of the continent, then others would be more than happy to ‘help’ us guard the land. The magic-guided airships of the Radiant Continent and the Matthiola Empire have begun to assemble.”