This year’s winter seems particularly long.
At least, for those residing in King City Yale, it is.
Recently, the temperature around King City Yale has plumted, causing the sky to turn gray and even snow to fall.
This appears to be a forewarning, making the atmosphere of King City Yale no longer as luxurious and prosperous as in the past, but sowhat cold and desolate.
People on the streets hurry along without talking, heads down, emanating a tense atmosphere.
Carriages run one after another on the main road, splashing several feet of flying snow.
Armored knights patrol the major streets in groups, with serious expressions and sharp eyes, making passersby hastily flee in fear.
Lately, King City Yale has entered an unprecedented state of high alert, as if an enemy nation is about to invade, with the figures of countless knights faintly visible on the city walls, making King City Yale more heavily guarded than even the military city of Bethale in the pros territory.
Under such circumstances, the mansion of the Franzel family is also greeting this winter, with thick layers of snow piled on the roof and courtyard.
Upon closer inspection, this mansion, which was once dilapidated due to attacks from the Black-eyed Knights and magical automata, has now been repaired.
In one of the rooms of the mansion, Reiger awakes from his sleep.
"Mmm..."
"Mm..."
Beside Reiger, a soft moan arises from both sides, reaching his ears.
Reiger instinctively turns his head and suddenly sees two faces as beautiful as goddesses.
Who else could it be but Liz and Yuloli?
The two won are still asleep and have not been woken by Reiger’s awakening.
Looking at the delicate shoulders exposed outside the quilt, it’s clear Reiger must have tired them out last night.
Reiger reaches out, gently caressing the faces of the two young won, then quietly slips out of bed.
"?"
Yuloli suddenly opens her eyes and looks at Reiger.
Clearly, no matter how soft Reiger’s movents are, he can hide them from Liz but not from Yuloli.
"Shh." Reiger imdiately raises a finger, gesturing for silence, and then says quietly: "It’s nothing, you can continue sleeping, no need to get up with ."
Hearing this, Yuloli nods without objection, closes her eyes again, and falls back into slumber.
Only then does Reiger dress and quietly leave the room.
"Master."
As Reiger walks out of the room and quietly closes the door, Lilith’s figure appears at his side as if out of thin air.
"Are you standing guard outside again?" Reiger says with no surprise: "Didn’t I tell you, here, you don’t need to guard at all tis?"
"Sorry, Master, but please forgive for not being able to comply." Lilith bows her head, respectfully saying: "King City Yale is currently in a state of unrest, and recently, many noble families have been looted, leading to downfall or even death. Under such circumstances, it’s hard to guarantee that so will be arrogant enough to think they can challenge Master’s authority and co disturb you."
"So, please allow to guard you twenty-four hours a day, or it’s hard to feel at ease."
Lilith’s words carry a touch of earnest persuasion.
"I already have Liz and Yuloli by my side, can’t you guard Yuri?"
Reiger smiles wryly.
"But Lord Liz and Lady Yuloli are not currently with Master." Lilith insists firmly: "When those two are not around, please allow to serve by your side."
"Alright." Reiger can’t argue with Lilith and can only nod: "When Liz and Yuloli are around, I need you to protect Yuri, understand?"
"Yes."
Lilith imdiately agrees with a bright smile.
Only then does Reiger bring Lilith with him to head to the top floor office of the mansion.
He knows that at this hour, Yuri must already be up and handling work.
Sure enough, when Reiger arrives at the top floor office, not only Yuri and Marilyn are there, but also Ai En and Ian.
"Good morning, everyone."
Reiger greets everyone.
"Mr. Reiger."
"Hello."
Ai En and Ian promptly bow to Reiger, with a very respectful attitude.
"Awake already?" Yuri glanced at Reiger, saying with a hint of a smile, "Finally willing to leave your cozy bed?"
Although it seed like a tease, there was a subtle undercurrent of dissatisfaction and lancholy that others might not detect.
Reiger gave a dry laugh.
Ever since Liz, blushing, told Yuri she wanted to stay in the sa room as Yuloli and Reiger, Yuri seed to have sensed sothing, and from ti to ti, she showed a slight dissatisfaction and lancholic mood.
It’s not just Yuri, even Marilyn had secretly stared hard at Reiger several tis, and after being caught by Reiger, she wasn’t embarrassed at all; instead, she glared at him for a while, forcing Reiger to avoid her.
"Are you still busy?" Reiger quickly changed the subject, asking, "Isn’t everything at ho settled yet?"
"Is it that easy?" Yuri gave Reiger a sidelong glance, it was unclear if she noticed his intentional change of subject, and said, "Repairs at the estate are a minor issue, hiring a court magician proficient in structural magic can resolve it in a short ti, but other matters aren’t so quickly solved."
"For instance, the reprogramming of the estate’s magic defense system and the recruitnt of knight order mbers are things that cannot be accomplished in a short ti."
"Not just in my family, other noble families are definitely facing these difficulties as well."
The turmoil initiated by Solok Jinas was eventually quelled by the combined forces led by Reiger, but the casualties and losses during this period were not sothing that could be quickly repaired.
Take the Franzer family, for example; during that tumult, not only were the buildings damaged, but even the magic defense system was dismantled, and many knights were killed in battle. The current Franzer family is weaker than ever and desperately needs new combat power.
"Did many people die?"
Reiger sat down in front of Yuri and asked.
It was not Yuri who answered this question, but Ai En and Ian, who were responsible for leading the Franzer knights.
"During the last turmoil, our knights lost a total of 431 lives, and another 127 were severely injured or disabled, unable to continue to serve as knights. They could only choose to retire."
Ian reported to Reiger with a sigh.
"Now, only 242 knights remain in our order, less than forty percent of our peak strength."
Ai En also gave a low-voiced report.
"That can indeed be considered a significant loss."
Reiger nodded, indicating his understanding.
Within what the kingdom allows, a marquis family like Yuri’s should have an order of about seven hundred knights at full strength.
Yuri, being a strategic-level magician and the chief court magician, even had the privilege to incorporate an additional hundred knights, creating an eight-hundred-strong order.
Nowadays, out of these eight hundred, 431 lost their lives, 127 severely injured or disabled retired, and only 242 remain. The strength has indeed been weakened considerably.
How to quickly reorganize the knight order and restore the family’s strength amid the current unstable national situation is sothing every kingdom noble who suffered significant losses must consider.
"We’re considered fortunate enough." Yuri laughed, finding joy in bitterness, "At least, everyone in the royal capital knows you’re here, and no one dares to have designs on the Franzer family."
"Oh?" Reiger smiled and said, "Does that an others are having a tough ti now?"
"It’s worse than tough." Yuri said with a bit of helplessness, "After this turmoil, nearly every noble in the royal capital has suffered more or less damage, so even had their entire family wiped out, with not a single survivor."
"The turmoil may have ended, but a new one has arisen."
"So are eyeing the lands and rights of those nobles who can’t climb back up, so are squeezing the small nobles below them to make up for their family’s losses, and so smaller nobles, driven by ambition, are challenging the greatly weakened grand nobles, intending to replace their position."
"At this precise mont, the king unfortunately passed away, and the royal faction and the duke faction’s survivors are fiercely battling over succession, unable to attend to other matters."
"It can be said that the royal capital has beco a great battlefield for power struggles, with overt and covert strife everywhere, and even those who wished to avoid the fight are being forced into it."
"The fact that we can still calmly discuss how to replenish the knight order’s ranks is all thanks to you."
After all, anyone who knew anything about the incident would know that, in today’s royal capital, Reiger was the last person to provoke.
Reiger’s power was too formidable—so much so that even the venerable sword saint Redson Alleyman admitted to being greatly inferior, not to ntion he had two mysterious female sword saints accompanying him.
A Franzer family that secretly held three sword saints, who would dare to stir up trouble?
Thus, the Franzer family is likely the safest and most peaceful place in the entire royal capital.
"What’s the situation over at the palace now?"
Reiger asked conversationally.
"There’s still no agreent, and no result has been reached." Yuri shrugged and said, "The royal faction has put forward the eldest prince and the seventh prince for election, hoping one of them can smoothly claim the throne and beco the next king."
"Although the duke faction suffered heavy casualties and was greatly weakened, Saint Nidor eventually stood out, bringing the greatly healed One-eyed Sword Saint Dihart to participate in the election fiercely."
"The Bolelei family holds the power of the kingdom’s knight order but chooses not to help either side."
"In the end, Lord Redson was forced to step forward again to take the side of the royal faction."
This ans that a new king has not been selected yet, and the election is still ongoing.
Ultimately, who will erge victorious is still anyone’s guess.
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