How to Save Humanity After Transmigrating into a Villainess Princess? Chapter 361 : Male or Female

"I think you should also know—humans cannot gain even the slightest advantage over demon races, blood races, or even those races we call sub-humans in terms of intelligence and strength."

"What makes humans truly powerful is—humans possess common faith."

"This faith manifests in many forms, such as your Holy Kingdom's worship of deities, Elasia's knightly spirit, the Iron Empire's dreams of a strong nation..."

"Ten thousand years ago, the human leadership who recognized this early on split into two factions over the issue of unifying the supre faith."

"These were the [Religious Faction] that advocated religion as the supre faith, and the [Order Faction] that advocated common dreams as the supre faith."

"Stiel herself was a proponent of the Order Faction, while Joshua, who was the second-in-command of humanity at that ti, was a proponent of the Religious Faction."

"One country cannot possibly have two supre faiths... so after Stiel proposed the immigration plan, Joshua voluntarily requested to lead all followers of the [Religious Faction] away from the Iron Empire."

"After Stiel agreed to his request, he made a guarantee to the suspicious Stiel—whether himself or his descendants, they would forever be vassals of the Stiel family, and when the holy nation established by Joshua contacted the Iron Empire in the future, Joshua family descendants would unconditionally obey Stiel's descendants..."

"No... this Stiel... isn't she too suspicious?"

Caroline complained:

"The ancestor of humanity... was actually this bad?"

"The second-in-command voluntarily proposed to leave with his people to avoid conflict, but she still forced him to make such a contract..."

Elashia nodded, but then shook her head.

"Well... it is like that, but not entirely like that."

"Stiel herself probably wasn't an overly suspicious person, but the era she lived in forced her to be on guard against everyone around her."

"Because... her margin for error was too low. Just one mistake would doom both her and humanity."

"Whether for her own safety or out of responsibility for humanity's future, she had to nip all possible dangers in the bud..."

After Elashia finished speaking, everyone in the carriage seed sowhat silent.

Caroline even lowered her head sowhat shafully.

Those who hadn't experienced that era naturally had no right to criticize this ancestor, let alone the fact that every human could now live with dignity entirely due to the legacy left by this human ancestor...

"Alright, alright, Her Majesty Stiel isn't the type of person who would be hurt by hearing such words."

Seeing the atmosphere in the carriage becoming sowhat heavy, Elashia quickly smoothed things over:

"So... you can imagine how difficult the situation she faced at that ti was..."

"Her own life was nearing its end, the demon race might attack again at any ti, and humanity internally had extrely strong centrifugal forces... so she had to use relatively intense, even sowhat cruel thods to ensure the stability of order within the Iron Empire."

"And where there is oppression, there is resistance."

"Although Stiel's purpose in doing all this wasn't for herself, it equally aroused dissatisfaction among many high-ranking officials within the Iron Empire."

"To ensure that no internal strife would occur in the Iron Empire after her death, she spent the final period of her life arresting all those suspected of potentially disrupting the future Iron Empire's order and sending them to a prison in the northern part of the Iron Empire."

"However... this wise woman made a very elentary mistake at the final mont of her life."

As Elashia reached this point in the story, the atmosphere in the carriage beca tense again.

Everyone held their breath and watched her, nervously anticipating the continuation of the story.

"Because she was overly worried about the possible turmoil that might occur within the Iron Empire after her death, Stiel adopted a strategy of 'better to wrongly arrest ten than let one escape' when arresting this batch of political prisoners."

"With this approach, the political prisoners treated as enemies of the state numbered in the thousands."

"Most critically—because she was certain that those about to be taken north would never dare resist the Iron Guards responsible for escorting them, Stiel only sent fewer than a hundred Iron Guards to escort these people."

"The result... she never expected—the scene of her leading humanity to break through demon territory in all directions was repeated."

"Under the leadership of a man nad 'Elashia,' these prisoners killed the Iron Guards escorting them and rushed headlong into the Northern Forests..."

"These people were much luckier than the Joshua family. They found a livable area after advancing through the forest for less than ten days, and thus Elasia was established."

"Wow... it feels so grand."

After listening to the story Elashia told, Caroline sighed:

"Listening to the stories of our ancestors from ten thousand years ago, thinking about it still makes one's heart surge with excitent."

Adeline nodded.

"Warriors with great ambitions, conflicts between racial righteousness and personal morality, tragic battles and plans to preserve the fla... these have always been the most moving."

Among everyone in the carriage, Ileina was the first to notice the most important information in the story.

"So... we are actually all descendants of Joshua?"

Elashia looked seriously at Ileina:

"Yes, so the leaders of the Holy Kingdom can never achieve imperial status no matter what."

"Because that would break the [Vassalage Contract] made with Stiel in the past."

"Oh..."

Ileina nodded, then asked Elashia:

"Then... you are a descendant of Elashia... no, so you are a descendant of Stiel?"

Elashia smiled and nodded.

"Yes."

Ileina covered her mouth and laughed:

"Then my ancestor was really pitiful, bullied so badly by Little Shia's ancestor..."

...

After everyone played around for a while and the atmosphere cald down sowhat, Caroline asked Elashia sowhat gossipy:

"Speaking of which... this human ancestor nad Stiel... is she male or female?"

Adeline's question again attracted everyone's attention.

"Stiel" could be "Stiel" (feminine) or "Stiel" (masculine). Just from this na alone, it seed difficult to determine the character's gender.

"Well... Miss Caroline, you've focused on a very interesting point."

When Caroline asked this question, Elashia showed a sowhat strange smile.

"Actually, this question is really hard for to answer... she can be treated as a man, but strictly speaking... she should be considered a woman."