Chapter 226 : The Work of Being a Princess
In the brilliant and bright royal palace, the morning court session was proceeding in an orderly manner.
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"Your Highness Princess, due to the ongoing warfare, the tax systems in various regions have experienced some chaos. We cannot rule out people embezzling funds and withholding payments. Should we dispatch special investigation teams to conduct inspections?"
"Mm, but there's no need for a thorough investigation—just find the main culprits and make an example of them."
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"Your Highness Princess, our demon tribe allies have provided us with some magic crystals as support. The logistics minister has already transferred them to the frontline warehouses, but there are still some special magic crystals without marked purposes, and we don't know how to use them."
"Store them in the royal treasury. I'll send specialists to appraise them."
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Looking at the officials who came to report one by one below, it would be impossible for Lonis to say she wasn't nervous... In fact, she was very afraid of suddenly being exposed and having these people discover some clue.
But perhaps thanks to being trained by Elucia on a daily basis?
Plus, Lonis was originally a boy, so that brave instinct was still there.
When encountering key issues, Elucia would even guide her responses through hints. So the handling of affairs along the way was relatively smooth.
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The morning court proceeded in an orderly manner, and Princess Sethilu's appearance greatly relieved people's anxiety over the past few days... because rumors had already begun circulating among the people that Princess Sethilu was severely injured and didn't have much time left.
As the Bright Ember Kingdom at the border between humans and demons, although the people were prosperous and the country's military strength was formidable, it even had the 'Pure White Walls' known as humanity's first defensive power.
However, the Bright Ember Kingdom itself had many unstable factors.
First was the questioning voices regarding the royal family...
In this world, there weren't no humans who had obtained transcendent power, such as 'Rainbow Abyss Inheritors' and 'Clear Academy Deans.'
But like the Bright Ember Kingdom, where the royal family and nobles had extraordinary power generation after generation, was extremely rare.
Take Princess Sethilu for example—performing ultra-long-distance group teleportation was magic that could be called forbidden arts. If used properly, one could completely dispatch an elite assassination squad for sabotage operations, instantly changing the battle situation.
But how old was Princess Sethilu?
Around 20 years old.
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Such a young princess being more powerful than a bunch of old folks inevitably made people suspicious. Naturally, rumors spread that the Colotia royal family was ruled by demons, and they were exploiters enslaving the people.
This rumor itself wasn't wrong—the Colotia royal family indeed had demon bloodline, but unlike demons... they were special demons who had lived with humans from the beginning.
And after so many generations of reproduction with humans, although the royal family's power was always preserved, their characteristics were almost indistinguishable from humans.
And Princess Sethilu had no selfish motives, only hoping for the entire country to prosper.
But the existence of the demon theory greatly affected the Bright Ember Kingdom's mobilization power, resulting in few other human nations in the world being on good terms with the Bright Ember Kingdom. (Clear Academy was an exception.)
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On another front, the appearance of Black Scale Disease left everyone somewhat at a loss.
This was a chronic illness with symptoms that weren't particularly severe—just gradually blackening skin and the appearance of some hard lumps on the skin.
But the doctors of the Bright Ember Kingdom had no idea where this disease came from or how it formed.
Black Scale Disease wasn't contagious, but there was no specific cure. Even when Dean Cuibia arrived with professional equipment, she couldn't cure it.
Analysis would also take some time to make progress.
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So due to the appearance of Black Scale Disease, some opposing voices began to emerge among the people.
These people claimed that precisely because of the Bright Ember Kingdom's improper leadership, black filth had spread across the land. They should establish a crusade army, eliminate the royal family's leadership, and return the entire Bright Ember Kingdom to sacred purity.
However, because the royal family's prestige was always there, the crusade army had no real influence—at most, they were just a group of bored people with wild fantasies.
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But the premise for all this was that Princess Sethilu must be safe and sound.
That is to say, Lonis had to perfectly fulfill Princess Sethilu's duties, otherwise, just like the Snow Kingdom back then, the Bright Ember Kingdom would instantly fall into chaos.
(Lonis, pull yourself together—right now, only you can do this.)
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Of course, Lonis didn't face only challenges. There was occasionally good news from demon territory.
Perhaps because the Bright Ember royal family also had demon bloodline, the demon side wasn't monolithically united either. Several demon lords had reached trade agreements with the Bright Ember Kingdom, sharing certain resources.
It was precisely due to their existence that the Bright Ember Kingdom and demon tribe reached a temporary ceasefire agreement, currently having a chance to breathe and deal with Black Scale Disease.
In other words, although demons had many mindless races that only knew invasion—such as goblins, gnolls, and barbarians—they also had many shrewd races, such as vampires, dark elves, succubi, terror demons, etc.
Invading human territory, while serving demon interests, they also knew to fear the strong.
For example, King Prince Ruowei Palace and Princess Sethilu of the Bright Ember Kingdom were targets many demons feared. And more crucially...
Last night, when training Lonis, Elucia had said:
"Hehe, Lonis, you probably don't know? Most demons also find the Trickster Demon Lord's existence quite delicate."
"Wha, what do you mean?"
"When the previous era was destroyed, it was the Trickster Demon Lord and many other terrifying Exotic Decay royalty who served as commanders, leading various demon tribes to destroy that world. But this doesn't mean that most demons now still want to obey the Trickster Demon Lord's commands."
"Ah?"
"In fact, all people have second thoughts, let alone demons? Although they have bloodthirsty genes, nowadays they're no longer satisfied being ruled by demon lords. And this is precisely what we can exploit."
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To put it simply, when the previous era was destroyed, most demons were soldiers, demon lords were generals. Soldiers could only obtain spoils of war and habitats by following generals' orders.
However...
After many years had passed?
These soldiers had already reproduced and even intermarried with humans, so they weren't as obedient to those terrifying demon lord commands anymore.
From Elucia's words, Lonis also obtained a key piece of information:
"The current Demon Leader is called Candel, and she's just a young Vampire Princess."
"Va, Vampire Princess?"
"That's right, she can also be called Vampire Queen. Although her strength is quite good and she has the boldness of a newborn calf not fearing tigers, her experience is somewhat lacking and can be schemed against."
"Schemed against...?"
"That's right, but this kind of brain work? I'll handle it. Lonis just needs to obediently be a princess puppet."
"Wuu wuu..."
Lonis blinked—she had a feeling she was going to be unlucky again.
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Story Combat Power Rankings:
Trickster Demon Lord: Unknown, at least Rank 9
General Caster (Demon Lord level): Rank 8.5
Queen Candel (Demon Lord level): Rank 8
Elucia (Demon Lord level): Rank 8
Rainbow Abyss Inheritors (like Yi Cheng, without weapons): Rank 7
Demon Great Lords (Exotic Decay Lords, demonized Dr. Ma Run): Rank 7
Demon Ordinary Lords (such as Pearl): Rank 6
Rainbow Abyss Certified: Rank 6
Ordinary Shield Guards: Rank 5
Demon Lesser Lords: Rank 5
Advanced Demons, Large Monsters: Rank 4
Beastmen, Magic Academy Students: Rank 3
Ordinary Soldiers: Rank 2
Ordinary People, Goblins: Rank 1
Lonis: Rank 0.5