Chapter 56: “There are only a few ways for brothers to make up.”
“It’s like this, please hear out.”
“In Sagteni, fifteen is considered adulthood, and the average age of marriage is around sixteen. You’re eighteen now with no prospects, which is considered a late marriage.”
“In this era, human ‘marriage’ and ‘procreation’ are highly intertwined, especially for the royal family. A king who lacks heirs often finds it difficult to secure his throne. The reason they have so many children is because they truly have a throne to inherit at ho.”
“But you’ve chopped down everyone who usually pressures you about marriage, and last ti Katur ‘proposed,’ you burned him back... You are an outlier among outliers, a thorn among thorns.”
“This has directly led to everyone paying close attention to your marriage. And since you seem determined to spend your life with the crown, no one dares to ask about it. Naqiya is worried you might have so strange preference; she respects it, blesses it, but doesn't understand it.”
“This isn't an isolated case either. The old King of Sagteni liked to do this, and Naqiya isn't much younger than the old King. After all, she often saw him bring...”
The system in Chu Zu’s consciousness racked its brain for the right words.
It talked for a long ti, but the host gave no reaction.
The little yellow chicken was also puzzled.
Why did the host always get entangled in rumors that grew stranger with each telling?
This kind of thing never happened in the main storyline!
The system couldn't just say sothing like “chop down everyone who starts and spreads rumors.”
Because Naqiya did it too.
Naqiya did it too, of all people!!!
The little yellow chicken planned to keep up its efforts and help its host overco his lancholy soon.
Chu Zu suddenly asked, “What is the average age of a Sagteni person?”
The topic jumped so much that the system didn't react in ti: “Huh?”
Chu Zu repeated it word for word.
“Oh, oh, oh!”
The system checked the average lifespan, “Due to limitations like environnt and technological developnt, it’s probably between thirty and forty years old.”
“That is to say, I’m considered middle-aged, while Feian has already lived five lifetis of an ordinary person—she’s already very old, but still has the appearance of a six-year-old child.”
“If you calculate it by the numbers... that is correct.”
“Do you rember what Hikta said?”
Chu Zu narrowed his eyes slightly, “Aturu sees Feian as her child.”
He recalled, “I keep feeling like this model is so familiar...”
“Familiar...?”
The system thought for a long ti but couldn't recall any similar relationship.
It had to be a similar structure, or rather, it gave Chu Zu a similar feeling, otherwise he wouldn't subconsciously make the connection.
After pondering for a while, his train of thought caught up with his intuition, and Chu Zu’s eyelids suddenly twitched.
“In Neon Crown—”
He spoke quickly, trying to grasp the fleeting thought.
“Upper-district people buying android children followed this model too.”
System: “Huh?”
“Upper-district people purchase android children, hoping the children will have a normal ‘growth process,’ so they constantly replace the android children.”
“But Aturu is the complete opposite. A god's ti doesn't flow, so the chosen Feian must be six years old, forever six years old. She cannot grow up, cannot age, this is what Aturu perceives as a 'child'.”
Chu Zu said, “But the essence is the sa. Both are shaping an image that fits their own internal standards.”
System: “You an... the way gods see humans is like how upper-district people see androids...?”
Chu Zu: “Yes. Now the ‘android’ is quitting—why does Feian have to target the gods?”
The system wanted to say, what is there to question.
When Feian discovered that her ti was forever frozen at a certain mont, the people who grew up with her would die before her, and the people she watched grow up would also age one after another, returning to dust.
And she could only live on as the god’s “android,” fixed at the age of six.
Feian’s mind was far superior to people of the sa age, yet her physical constitution was far inferior to people of her ntal age—no, there were no living people in the world with the sa ntal age as her.
System: “She’s human, not a truly unconscious ‘android.’ It’s normal for her to want to get rid of Aturu.”
Chu Zu didn't answer.
He hadn't finished asking the question, and the system failed to grasp the entirety of Chu Zu's understanding.
Humans were the “creators” of androids, but the first attempt to “anthropomorphize” intelligent machinery was not for entertainnt.
Every iteration of machinery was to expand human capabilities, increase efficiency, and grant humans abilities beyond their own physical and intellectual limits.
Only when technology beca oversaturated would people shift from practicality to entertainnt.
And the iteration of androids in “entertainnt” would only decrease their practical utility as tools and increase their symbolic aning.
For example, being an ornant that was pleasing to look at.
Could this analogy also hold true for the relationship between gods and humans?
Betrayed by a “cherished child,” Aturu should be more than capable of handling an oversaturated entertainnt product.
Ultimately, to Aturu, Feian was just an old yet young ornant that had lived for over a hundred years.
But why didn't Aturu show up from beginning to end?
To be precise, apart from Hikta, the other two gods seed to be trying their best to avoid running into Zui.
Furthermore, Hikta only appeared once, failed to warn Feian, and then, contrary to his usual pestering, never appeared again.
And it was only after Hikta’s failed intervention that Feian shifted from her initial “destroy all of Aturu’s kingdoms” to “choosing to entrust all hope to you.”
It wasn't a risk, nor was it a gamble.
She seed to have seen a solid conclusion in Hikta, to the extent that she dared, on that basis, to act as the representative of “wisdom” in front of everyone and directly hail Zui as the “King of All Kings.”
This was no longer as simple as “trying to get rid of Aturu.”
She made a judgnt in an extrely short period of ti, and in the end, stood with Zui, declaring war on all three gods at once.
...
All of Chu Zu's logical leaps were too fast.
Explaining them step by step was too troubleso and risked losing his train of thought, so he simply skipped the interdiate steps and asked the final, simplified question.
He wasn't in a hurry either.
The retrospection didn't follow a normal tiline, so he had plenty of ti to mull it over.
“The clues are fragnted right now, and the key information to connect them is missing. Fortunately, Feian probably won't hide things from . I can always find out by asking.”
Chu Zu said flatly, “If she still tries to be a riddler with , pulling that priest-like rhetoric, I'll throw her into the next Aturu temple to fend for herself.”
The system nodded: “Okay! Then let’s go ask now!”
Chu Zu: “Not asking, ending the retrospection first.”
System: “?”
“I am very concerned about Nilia.”
Clearly different from when his nerves were tense from thinking just now, Chu Zu visibly relaxed, emptied his mind, and said slowly.
“Not just his progress in secret arts, but also his ntal health. I think it’s necessary to go back first. There’s still a long way to go in the main plot, there’s no need to advance the grand background setting so much all at once, don’t you agree?”
The system was silent for a long while: “You’re not still thinking... about how to make Nilia forget what he saw, are you?”
Chu Zu smiled: “What did he see?”
The little yellow chicken slled a hint of danger and imdiately straightened its attitude:
“He shouldn't have seen any plot that would ruin your reputation! Nilia is sharp, he definitely wouldn't see what he's not supposed to see!”
Chu Zu continued to smile: “Heh.”
Nilia was jogging.
He woke up in the morning, glanced at the sundial, and saw it was only five-thirty.
He imdiately put on his clothes, slipped on his shoes, and ran to the spacious training ground prepared for the trainee knights at the academy for a frantic run.
The trainee knights who were up early to practice looked like they had seen a ghost.
It was true that they often saw Nilia, but back then, Nilia was working hard to clean the training ground for 0.01 academic credit.
First, he would rake loose the sandy soil that had been compacted by endurance runs, then he would move the dummies used for swordsmanship practice to their proper positions.
Nilia would even proactively ask the trainee knights if they needed errand-running services, three runs for the price of one, good value for money.
This was the first ti they saw Nilia yelling “awooo” while sprinting around the training ground, sweating profusely.
“Are you... finally planning to change your profession to a knight?”
Seeing Nilia finally stop, bending over with his hands on his knees and panting heavily, soone ca up and handed him a towel.
“You can't rush these things. This is already your third academic year, right? Since you've already missed the best ti to switch professions, you might as well slow down and build a solid foundation, otherwise your body won't be able to take it.”
The trainee knights at Saint Imolai were exceptionally simple-minded, or to put it bluntly, their heads were full of muscles, one-track minds.
They didn't pay attention to the studies of their secret artist classmates, so naturally, they were unaware of the astonishing talent Nilia had displayed these past few days.
The trainee knights all thought Nilia had finally co to his senses, given up on his prospects as a secret artist, and was planning to find a new path by switching majors.
Nilia was out of breath from running, half-dead, but he was finally feeling much better than when he had just woken up.
Heaven knew how much he wanted to imdiately shake Polika out of bed and vividly share the scene he had witnessed.
The god parted the river, so the king conquered the entire river basin.
Dust obscured the sky as the Sagteni iron cavalry swept through the enemy like thunder.
Raging fires and war drums sounded in unison, city walls crumbled, and the lion banner fluttered proudly under the blood-red sunset.
Victory belongs to the king.
In that era, what other king was there?
Just thinking about that scene made Nilia’s eardrums vibrate slightly.
He couldn't tell if it was the lingering drumbeats from the dream or the sound of his own heartbeat.
His pulse was racing, and his hands always wanted to grip sothing, then raise it high and shout the sa cries as those soldiers.
Sagteni I was truly a terrifying person.
Nilia wasn't even sure if that was a person.
The king had turned war into sothing strange.
He gave war aning, but at the sa ti, it felt as if his existence was the aning itself.
Why conquer?
There were reasons, but they weren't important.
The king who expanded territories seed to be born on the battlefield.
He was ant to stand amidst blood and flas, to be looked up to.
The clamor could not hide the sharp glint of iron weapons.
Only then did he begin to breathe.
And his breath was the breath of the battlefield, his heartbeat the heartbeat of the battlefield.
It was less that those warriors were bloodthirsty from the slaughter, and more that they were bewitched by “war”—bewitched by their king.
Nilia was sure it was bewitchnt, because as he watched the dreamscape, he felt as if ants were crawling all over his body, restless yet unable to move.
After waking up, he writhed on the bed like an earthworm.
After much thought, impulse took over, and he rushed straight to the training ground to run wildly.
Now that burst of excitent has passed.
But a new impulse began to stir in Nilia's heart.
As everyone knows, gossip is human nature.
It is also known that the higher the class, the wilder the style, the more it can arouse one's desire for exploration.
It is further known that Nilia is human.
Question: Did Sagteni I... ever get married?
Even now, every family treats their children's marriage as a major affair.
It was just that Nilia’s parents had ascended to heaven early, and the early stages of the great plague were still at the “if you dare to get into puppy love and not study hard, I'll rip your head off” phase.
Look at Polika.
He was the sa age as Nilia, sixteen, and his family had already urged him several tis, and even seed to have arranged a blind date.
Even if nobles had fallen on hard tis, they were still used to bringing out the old tricks to tornt their children.
So his roommate didn't go ho during the holidays either, staying in the dorm with Nilia as brothers in misery.
Nilia felt that Sagteni I definitely got married.
With the king's charisma, it would be strange if he didn't get married, right?
It's just that it wasn't recorded, and all the literature that can be examined at this stage is unofficial history.
How can unofficial history be taken as truth?
He had been secretly pondering this, and for so reason, he took the books Three Things You Must Know as a Knight and Trainee Knight Nickna?
Nothing is Impossible! from the trainee knight and returned to the dorm with them in his arms.
Polika was already awake, sitting at the long table, looking with a puzzled face at the sweating, book-hugging Nilia.
“You're going to change your profession to a knight?”
Polika frowned, “Is the pressure of studying secret arts that great? You'd rather get beaten up by the knights?”
Nilia: What do you an get beaten up, is that what you think of ?
The right now is a little genius who has mastered secret art number 138!
Show so respect.
Even if I can't beat them, can't I dodge them?!
Polika's expression turned strange: “...Number 138? Weren't you still stuck beyond 1600 just a few days ago?”
Nilia threw the books on the table, collapsed onto the bed, and buried his face in the quilt.
“Sigh, I still have to cram up to number 100 in the next few days. It's all the result of being forced... encouraged!”
Nilia actually didn't want to talk about this.
Dreaming while sleeping was to escape studying.
How long had it been since he woke up, and he was already facing the deadly sea of learning again.
Painful, extrely painful.
Normally, in the past, Polika would have pointed out his roommate's sloppiness at this point, and for the sake of the entire dorm's cleanliness, would have dragged him from the bed to the washroom, then forced his tired body to wash up and change.
But Nilia didn't hear Polika's voice for a long ti.
Unable to distract himself, Nilia began to let his mind wander again.
He really wanted to share it with his roommate.
Things like “The history of the mythological era is so wild, huh? First, there were sisters and mothers, then younger sisters and great-great-grandmothers.”
And “Do you think our king’s love life was fulfilling or not? It feels very fulfilling, but it's also basically all rumors, which shouldn't be the case.”
Nilia could even write another short essay, with the title:
The Essence of War: Territory? Authority? Or the Enemy's High Priest? A Closer Look at the Tyrant's Unknown Rumors and Truths!
Sigh, he couldn't say it, couldn't write it.
A belly full of talent with no outlet, Nilia started to feel miserable again.
“Classes are resuming in two days.”
Polika suddenly spoke, and the mont he opened his mouth, the content was extrely painful for Nilia, “Go to the library, Nilia. You don't have much ti, don't stay in the dorm and be lazy.”
Nilia was incredulous: “What good does it do you to force to study?”
“Are you really... an idiot?”
Polika said coldly, “The headmaster asked to pass on so many things to you, and you didn't rember a single one.”
He seed a little annoyed, “Forget it, do whatever you want. Why should I care so much about you? Get lost.”
Nilia: “...”
To be honest, Nilia didn't know why Polika suddenly got angry.
He rarely got angry.
Even when exasperated, he would rember the so-called noble etiquette.
People from the Landor family did not easily show their emotions... and so on.
This ti, not only was he genuinely angry, but he didn't even argue.
He didn't get physical, just left directly, leaving the dorm.
“I can't just say... because I'm about to go fight the Death Cult, and I'm scared to death, relying on that little bit of passion and gossip from my dream to distract myself...”
In the quiet dorm, Nilia murmured to the air alone.
“Although you won't be coming along to die, telling you this would feel like moral blackmail. We're brothers, how inappropriate would that be.”
Nilia's mory was very good.
Of course he rembered the words Polika had relayed to him.
Whatever you gain, you have certainly lost sothing unseen.
The only difference is whether you can bear it.
He had gained a lot from Sagteni I, and the monarch believed that these things were enough for him to pay with this worthless life of his.
Of course, that's not entirely true.
At least for a few monts, Nilia almost really thought he could follow the King of All Kings.
He could go to the most dangerous places with composure.
There was nothing to fear.
The wind, carrying secret arts, echoed in his ears.
Dark clouds pressed down on the mountains, and a torn sun was carved upon the unknown wilderness and secret relics.
And all calamities would make way for him, because this was the sole principle permitted by the king.
But it was just a thought.
Dreaming of real history at night, dreaming of fantasies during the day, they complented each other perfectly.
Daydreaming didn't cost academic credits, so why not dream.
Sigh, dreaming was also useless.
Sagteni I had once acknowledged the identity of those refugees.
They were Sagteni people, and the king acknowledged that these weak and powerless people were also his subjects.
But Nilia felt that he probably wouldn't receive that acknowledgnt.
He was, at best, the tyrant's choice when there were no other choices.
So it still ca back to the asure of “gain” and “loss.”
None of this needed to be told to Polika.
Polika only faced the risk, without any gain, so of course, he didn't need to repay it together.
Nilia rolled over and sighed slowly.
So annoying!
...
“Host, calm down.”
In his consciousness, the system spread its little chicken wings, trying to block the host from the list of secret arts.
“Nilia just went for a simple jog, simply maintained a twisted, shifty-eyed smile the whole way. He wasn't actually thinking about anything.”
Chu Zu pushed the system aside with one claw and closed the secret arts list under the little yellow chicken's apprehensive gaze.
“I was also just taking a casual look, not actually thinking about anything.”
Seeing the system's completely disbelieving expression, Chu Zu said helplessly, “I can't possibly turn the male lead into an idiot. At most, I'll look for a secret art that can make him bleed from all seven orifices, so I can go out and give him a couple of kicks. Is that too much?”
The little yellow chicken breathed a sigh of relief: “Not too much, not too much, it's what should be done, what should be done.”
“But what’s going on with Polika?”
Chu Zu said, “He shouldn't be the type of person who changes his attitude upon sensing soone else's talent.”
System: “Because he's worried about Nilia? After all, he doesn't know what the situation is between Nilia and you right now. Your reputation... is indeed not very good.”
“No.”
Chu Zu was very certain, “Polika is a very considerate roommate. He's considerate to everyone at Saint Imolai, basically helping whenever he can. At critical monts, even when he knows he can't help, he'll still grit his teeth and step up.”
“Even if he occasionally nitpicks Nilia's living habits, it's only because he needs to maintain his own living environnt—he has always adhered to the Landor family's ways, but he just hasn't learned the essence of being a noble.”
The system was curious: “What is the essence of being a noble?”
Chu Zu: “Either suppression or patronage. Suppression is direct rule, while patronage is gentle control—you’ll understand if you look at Katur and Aturu.”
Indeed, the system was instantly enlightened: “The Landor family is in decline, they can't achieve suppression. But Polika seems to only offer patronage, not control...”
Chu Zu nodded, then asked: “I rember he follows Nilia on adventures because... he wants to get the inheritance to revive his family?”
“Yes.”
“The situation has changed now. I won't make any agreent with Nilia regarding the inheritance, and Polika knows I'm listening, so he definitely won't dare to ntion anything about the inheritance.”
“...Oh, right.”
The little yellow chicken was suddenly horrified, and alarm bells went off in its mind.
“Oh, right! The news about the inheritance has already spread. It's just that Nilia has been buried in his cram list every day and hasn't noticed!”
Chu Zu had the system switch perspectives.
Polika was the second male lead of King of All Kings, considered a core character, so his situation could be checked at any ti.
Sure enough, after leaving the dormitory, Polika took out a slightly crumpled piece of letter paper from his pocket.
System: “When Nilia entered the room just now, he was reading this letter. He put it away imdiately, and Nilia didn't notice either.”
This letter also existed in the original novel, with the exact sa content.
The Landor family was once one of the most prominent noble families in Vidalia.
In the beginning, the Landors gained wealth by earning military rit following the king.
Wealth consolidated their status, and their status brought the Landor family's secret artists closer and closer to the king.
This cycle repeated itself.
And as the world's structure gradually stabilized over ti, the Landors also lost their battlefield.
The inco level of any profession is entirely determined by the scarcity and irreplaceability of the value it provides.
In tis of war, every secret artist was very “valuable.”
When the war ended, the king of Vidalia at that ti, who could be considered far-sighted, imdiately issued an order to open secret arts courses in schools in all major cities across the country, making it one of the two cornerstones of education alongside trainee knight training.
The threshold for becoming a secret artist was suddenly lowered.
And a hidden characteristic of all low-threshold professions is:
The low threshold leads to a large number of competitors.
Unless you can rise to the top of the profession, where the returns are still far above average, if you can't, you might even have difficulty supporting yourself.
The Landors were not among the best.
At that ti, the old master of the Landor family had not realized the family's decline.
In the royal capital, the manor's iron gates were still open every day, its opulence built on money welcoming esteed guests from all directions.
Even the royal family would occasionally show favor, and the grand banquets seed as if they would never end.
When the family coffers were full enough, even the mud on the soles of the Landors' shoes was cleaned by servants.
But after only one generation, the manor's garden was already overgrown with weeds.
The towering statue once praised by the king had toppled over.
The wind blew through the tattered curtains, and the house was so quiet that only the slow ticking of the old clock could be heard.
The descendants of the family were unwilling to let go of their noble dignity.
Looking at the few remaining pieces of old furniture in the old house, they said to the owner of the pawnshop, “Take it away, I'm really sick of this old-fashioned, ugly style.”
They wouldn't even haggle with the owner.
By the ti Polika was born, the Landors were no longer in the royal capital.
The family crest still sat on the dusty fireplace.
By the crackling firewood, his parents repeatedly ntioned its glory.
When it got cold, they added the last piece of firewood and continued to repeat Polika words that were even harder to understand than secret arts.
During his childhood, Polika often saw his older sister sitting alone at the empty dining table, clutching a yellowed account book in her hand, her eyes gazing blankly out the window as if waiting for sothing.
The days passed one by one, and it was unknown if his sister ever got what she was waiting for.
When she got into that creaking carriage, the smile on her face made Polika run forward, grab the hem of her dress, and cry loudly, begging her not to leave.
His parents carried Polika away, lifting their chins to the person in front of the carriage and saying, “You should be grateful to be able to marry a daughter of the Landor family.”
Afterward, the Landors moved to a smaller house closer to the royal capital.
The house was clearly much more comfortable than before, but it was far from his elder sister.
It would take at least a week's journey to see her.
Little Polika still didn't understand what the honor of the Landor family ant, and even after searching the entire house, Polika couldn't find a single piece of evidence.
What made him understand “family honor” was the birth of his younger sister.
He abruptly rembered his older sister's smile.
It was the closest thing to crying that he had ever seen.
Family honor was that kind of thing.
It had to be defended, fought for, and its glory reshaped at all costs.
Otherwise, it would take away everything you cherish.
The cabinet you like, the cotton coat you need, the people important to you.
And now, three years after Polika Landor left ho to study at Saint Imolai, he received a letter from ho.
It was written by his ten-year-old sister.
She said in the letter that an esteed guest ca to their ho today, and Father and Mother were very happy.
The guest even gave her a very beautiful ring.
She really liked this gift, was happy all night, and wanted to share this with her brother Polika.
She hoped that brother Polika was doing well at school.
The letter had already taken nearly a month in transit.
This morning, Polika Landor finally received the letter from a classmate at Saint Imolai.
At that mont, Polika rembered what the headmaster had said.
Whatever you gain, you have certainly lost sothing unseen.
The only difference is whether you can bear it.
Polika could completely understand.
He understood the aning of this sentence even before he enrolled.
He had been living on the balance of gain and loss, and the balance could not always remain stable.
What he lost was often far more than what he gained.
Then, he saw the lackadaisical Nilia.
Just seeing Nilia made it impossible not to think of Sagteni I, and then of the recent, widespread talk of the “Tyrant's Inheritance.”
The headmaster said that it contained not only the treasures of a myriad of kingdoms, but also things plundered from the gods.
Polika wasn't interested in gods or whatever, but he needed those treasures.
There was no more thorough, no faster opportunity to restore the glory of the Landor family than obtaining the inheritance.
But Nilia's attitude was extrely infuriating.
He was not only not wary of the gift from the tyrant, but he also didn't care at all.
Polika couldn't sort out his own thoughts; they were too complicated.
He coveted the Tyrant's Inheritance, which seed to be within reach, but he didn't dare to make a sound.
He was worried that Nilia would fall into a situation worse than trouble, and perhaps he already had.
But at the sa ti, he was secretly glad, glad that among all the people searching for the inheritance, he was the one closer to the end.
He was also annoyed.
Because all these thoughts were indecent, veiled.
Polika Landor did not want to admit that all of these things ca from his own mind.
This made him ashad and furious.
...
“I get it now.”
Chu Zu tutted, “It's nothing serious. Both of them are having a tough ti. They're sixteen and just hit puberty, but they're not rebellious enough, still quite well-behaved.”
“Now that they've run into sothing a bit complicated, they're starting to think it's the Waterloo of their lives. They're not thinking about how to solve it, just busy fighting with themselves.”
The system still rembered that the main storyline focused on aweso combat: “...Are you going to appropriately handle the two teenagers?”
“How to handle it? Act as a dorm manager and diate for them?”
Chu Zu smiled: “Letting a tyrant diate harmonious dorm relations. I might dare to diate, but would they dare to be diated by ?”
The little yellow chicken imagined the scene and felt a deep, empathetic shudder of horror.
“Aren't they dorm brothers? There are only a few ways for brothers to make up.”
Chu Zu said, “The simplest way is to find a random reason and let them get a good beating together.”
System: “...”
Chu Zu opened the secret arts list again.
This ti, he had a legitimate reason, so although the little yellow chicken stamred and looked pained, it couldn't stop him.
Although it felt very much like.
The host had been pondering giving Nilia a physical amnesia art, using a bodily lesson to blur his mory of the gossip.
Polika just happened to be caught in the crossfire, getting dragged along for the ride.
The system glanced at the two angst-ridden youngsters on the projection.
Between the host's wishes and the youngsters' physical and ntal health, it chose the forr without hesitation.
To have the great Sagteni I diate their brotherly affection, even if it ant getting a beating, was a huge gain!
Just look at the result of the conflict between Zui and those unlucky brothers of his.
So many brothers, every single one of them, all hung on the city walls!
The system felt it was on the right track, and the little chicken clenched its fist.
You two boys have really hit the jackpot!
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