The king was coming!

Since Roland Wimbledon's troops were stationed in Redwater City, the discussion over this event filled the streets and alleys of the old king's city and reached its peak when the Lord of Silver City submitted to Roland. Although a fraction of people repeatedly emphasized that Roland did not ascend the throne, compared to his previous t.i.tles as rebel king and invader, most of the civilians still believed that the future King of Graycastle was none other than Roland. A coronation was probably the exact purpose for this trip.

The new king did not seem to be in a hurry as he stayed in each one of the cities for several weeks. By the time he made his way toward Redwater City, it was already mid-summer.

The increasing temperature did not decrease people's enthusiasm, however. Taverns were still full of voices talking about Roland's inauguration; main streets were decorated with colorful ribbons, houses over two stories near the palace were all leased out. The desolate old king's city seemed to have been restored its former glory. Perhaps only during such occasions the citizens in the city were reminded of the style and features a king's city should have.

It had been over a year since Roland last stepped onto this piece of land.

The moment he walked through the city gate, pedals collected by the local girls covered the sky; cheers from the audience instantly ignited the city—they were not praising the new king's wisdom and benevolence, it was merely a habit of the people here.

Nini and Pod were among them.

The two of them happened to live in a tower building close to the main street, which offered them the best seats that overlooked the entire scene. Their parents were too busy serving potential tenants to stop them, enabling them to freely climb to the top of the tower, lie on the red-brick roof, and watch the grand occasion of the army going into the city.

"Here they are... Is that His Majesty standing in the carriage? He looks so much younger than the Second Prince," Nini shouted with surprise. "Wow, look! He's waving at us! Lord Timothy would never do that!"

"He's waving at everyone in this direction." Pod shrugged. "We climbed so high. There is no way for him to see us."

"We're also included in everyone, am I wrong?" Nini said righteously. "Judging by his appearance alone, he looks much nicer than the Second Prince."

"So the nice king hanged a big batch of n.o.bles, including His Highness Timothy—his biological elder brother. The temporarily constructed gallows are still standing in the square. He must be the ruler who has killed the most people in the king's city, even if you include the Rats."

"Hey, why do you always talk contrary to me?" Nini glared at Pod.

"I don't like him," Pod said with a pouted mouth. "He's never taken this city as his home. He advocates that in Western Region, there are more working opportunities and encourages people to go there, but what about us? Nowadays the number of customers that come to father's tavern has reduced by half. Isn't he the one to blame?"

"So who do you like? The Second Prince?"

"I disliked him too. In order to catch witches, he caused turmoil over the entire city... The old king is the best, at least he wouldn't—"

"G.o.d! Look at the girl next to His Majesty!" Before Pod finished talking, Nini had put aside the topic they were discussing. Pointing at the carriage the king was standing on, she cried out, "She's turning back. Oh G.o.d, she's so beautiful!"

Pod had no choice, but to sigh.

Her discovery seemed to have attracted the crowd's attention—if one could ride on the carriage with the king, the significance of that person was self-evident. Discussions in the streets got hotter. Obviously, people were full of interests toward this strange yet pretty girl.

Suddenly, Nini and Pod heard a clear, peculiar roar.

Before they realized it, a gray figure, like an arrow shot from a bow, dashed in front of them and went directly into the tower building. Downstairs, a series of sounds followed as panic shouting, someone falling on the ground, and wine gla.s.ses smas.h.i.+ng to pieces filled the air.

"What was that?" Nini asked in surprise.

"I've no idea, but it seems it came from our home!" Pod hurriedly stood up. "Let's get back and take a look."

"Ok!"

They climbed down the brick wall, the same way as they went up, and hopped into the tavern from a window. To their surprise, several armored warriors were surrounding the guests. On the floor, there was sprayed alcohol, water, bowl and cup fragments, and a few feathers everywhere.

The first thing that came into Nini's head was that Pod's complaint about His Majesty was overheard by somebody, and she wanted to m.u.f.fle Pod's mouth, hide somewhere , and make no sound no matter what they saw.

Yet she could not manage to do that.

In actuality, when Nini and Pod came in from the window, the warriors had noticed these two "uninvited guests". The warriors did not come to arrest them. Instead, they smiled at them. After a few minutes, the warriors went out one after another, leaving Pod's astonished parents and the guests behind. A man who seemed to be the head of the warriors even took out 10 silver royals and put them into Pod's father's hand.

Waiting until the warriors all left, Nini hesitantly went to her parents and asked, "What happened?"

"It was unbelievable," out of excitement, her father answered with exaggerated body gestures, "when the king's honor guards pa.s.sed by the street corner, a guest suddenly took out a loaded crossbow and aimed at the king!"

Nini could not help but gasp in astonishment. "And then?"

"We were frightened. If that arrow had been shot, all of us would have been in trouble. Luckily, at that moment, a bird, no, a person flew in and stopped that guy!"

"A person?"

"Not exactly. When she flew in she was a bird, but when she hit that guy on the head she became a person—a little girl about your age." A guest then said, "We didn't come back to our normal selves until the crossbow fell to the floor. We went and tightly pinned down the a.s.sa.s.sin, then those warriors broke down the door."

"Are you sure about what you saw?" Pod asked doubtfully, "That bird, no, the person who can transform into a bird, where is she? Could it be that you secretly drunk Dreamland Water and were hallucinating?"

"By the time we had subdued the a.s.sa.s.sin, she had already left." Pod's father raised his palm and slapped at the back of Pod's head, which made Pod stagger. "You dare doubt what I said. You're in for punishment!"

The crowd burst into laughter.

The feathers attracted Nini's attention—they had similar colors to ordinary Goshawk's feathers but were much wider and softer. She carefully collected those feathers, pined them to her head, and looked up and down at herself.

She felt she could fly too... Her heart was full of satisfaction, thinking she could use them as a headpiece.

This seemingly thrilling a.s.sa.s.sination did not draw much attention. Soon enough, people began to talk about the king and his followers. They were not aware of it but at least ten such incidents had already happened.

Fortunately, with Sylvie on guard, all the individual a.s.sa.s.sinations that relied on luck ended up in failure. Furthermore, the patrol team silently caught most of the criminals before their plans could be carried out.

"Well done." While constantly waving towards the audience, Roland took a second to nod and said toward the carriage behind him, "I didn't expect that there were still so many remnant factions left in the old king's city. It seems the situation isn't as stable as we imagined."

"My pleasure, Your Majesty," Sylvie replied.

"Since you knew it wasn't stable, you shouldn't have chosen to enter the city this way," Agatha said coldly—not sure whether it was age related decision, Roland felt her temper had become more and more similar to Scroll when it came to the matter of security. "Common people like you are too fragile. Sometimes an obscure wound can kill you," Agatha said.

"I'd stop any attack," next to Agatha, Anna said calmly. "Besides, Nana Pine is also among the security team."

"You are spoiling him."

"Ahem..." Roland hurriedly cut in. "In order to improve myself in the eyes of the people, such a risk is worth taking. After all, as a new king, I need to become acquainted with my subjects."

In the carriage, there was Sylvie, Agatha, Isabella, Phyllis, and Zooey. Additionally, the elites of the First Army were in the surrounding area. Theoretically, such a powerful combination of guards could guarantee zero chance of an incident occurring.

"That's irrelevent. You could have chosen a safer way, such as standing on a platform in the palace and speaking to your subjects."

Indeed, he did this for no other reason than to enjoy the fun of making an inspection tour. If he could, he'd prefer setting up two voice tubes in front of the carriage and greet his subjects with words like "h.e.l.lo, my people...".

"Your Majesty, we're arriving at the palace," his guard said, which also had the effect of stopping Agatha from complaining anymore.

Roland sighed in relief. Through the redecorated inner city gate, he saw a group of nearly 100 men standing respectfully, waiting for his arrival. Some of them were the Western Region's old officials, such as Theo and Barov's disciples, some were new officials who were originally surrendered small n.o.bles, but most of them were newly enrolled scholars and civilians.

Since the completion of the previous reform, the entire Central Region of Graycastle was officially in his control. When the Eastern Front Army took over the Seawinds.h.i.+re region, Graycastle would basically be an integrated kingdom.

When the carriage stopped, Roland lifted his cloak in high spirit, got off the carriage step by step, and waved toward the audience behind him.

"Let's go. Follow me to the palace!"