章節 12: Riel Empire
To Liliana's surprise, the man who claimed to be William Kane was surprisingly quiet along the way.
Other than asking her a bunch of historical questions on the first day, he either closed his eyes in thought along the way or took out an ancient book from somewhere to read. Other than any necessary communications, he almost didn't take the initiative to talk to her.
Liliana had wanted to ask him in detail a few times, such as whether he was really William Kane or what he planned to do in Thorn City.
However, she ultimately couldn't muster the courage. Regardless of the authenticity of the other party's identity, and regardless of what the other party planned to do in Thorn City, it wasn't something a mere Apprentice mage like her could interfere with.
Knowing too much wasn't a good thing. It was best to pretend not to know anything.
The only thing to be gratified about was that the other party had listened to her suggestion and changed his outfit before setting off.
He had switched his exaggerated dragon bone armor for a simple and elegant mage robe, and the magical medium in his hand had changed from an ice staff she had never heard of to a simple yew staff.
Although she could tell that these things weren't cheap, they looked much more low-key.
Of course, in fact, they were still especially eye-catching along the way. It wasn't because of anything else but their ride.
After retrieving the identity tokens and remains of the archaeological team members in the Grief Mountains, Liliana found the carriage they had taken with William's help. Unfortunately, the horse tied to the side was already dead.
After firmly rejecting the other party's suggestion of summoning a griffin, Liliana ultimately didn't refuse his decision to pull up two zombie horses to draw the carriage.
As a result, they were stopped and interrogated at every checkpoint they passed along the way.
There was nothing they could do about it. Although Blackwater Province's attitude toward Undead magic wasn't like Platinum Province or Emerald Province's, where they viewed Unholy doctrine as prohibited from public dissemination, they ultimately didn't advocate it. Even in Blackwater Province's Arcana University, the mage tower that symbolized the Undead faculty was buried deep underground and rarely showcased in public.
When they were stopped by the guards at the first checkpoint, she was extremely nervous, afraid that the person beside her would call himself William Kane and make shocking remarks.
However, he only calmly gave an alias. Then, he handed over the book he had been flipping through as a document to the guard for inspection.
After the guards carefully read the book, they solemnly returned it to William and allowed them passage. Before the guards left, they even reminded them that it was illegal to summon undead creatures that were five kilometers from a city. It was best to buy two living horses in the next town.
It wasn't until he used the same book to pass the third checkpoint that Liliana finally couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked how he did it. What did he do to the book?
"It has nothing to do with the book. I just used an Illusion spell, Human Befuddlement. In fact, no matter what I hand them, they would think that they were reading legal documents."
William answered without looking up from his book.
Illusion spell? As a practitioner of illusion magic, she had never heard of such a use.
"Illusion spells can be said to be the most profound spells among all the spells. This usage can only be considered a parlor trick."
This was the other party's answer to her sincere praise.
She couldn't understand how profound the Illusion field was. In any case, the Illusion field was ranked last among the 13 spell types in Blackwater Province's Arcana University.
"Right. After all, the spells you're learning now are severely neutered versions. Any advanced application will be labeled as heresy."
William sighed with emotion at her puzzlement.
…
When William first discovered that Twilight Fortress had been reduced to ruins, he vaguely felt that something was amiss.
The headquarters of the Doomsday Watchers was the strongest and last fortress in the continent standing against the Moon Realm's invasion. Twilight Fortress should be irreplaceable in terms of memorial value and strategic value. Even if more than 1,000 years had passed, and history had turned into legends and legends into myths, it shouldn't have been left forgotten.
Moreover, as a magic chanter, Liliana actually didn't know what a Lunar Monster was, which intensified his uneasiness.
And after he roughly understood what had happened in the past thousand years from Liliana, he roughly understood his current situation—and felt deep disappointment.
To put it simply, there had only been two major events in the past thousand years. Someone had used his reincarnation as a pretext to unify the continent and had used the Astral Laws to completely monopolize magic.
Regarding the former—after William Kane suddenly disappeared a thousand years ago, every country on the continent wanted to bring the Doomsday Watchers—a transcendent but borderless military organization—into their sphere of influence. But because of the lack of pressure from external enemies, this attempt at control quickly turned into a violent military conflict between countries. During this period, the Doomsday Watchers—which lacked a leader—finally fractured, starting an era of chaos lasting more than 100 years.
More than 800 years ago, a Stormland noble named Terra Riel claimed to be the reincarnation of William Kane. It was said that he was born wearing a Bronze crown that symbolized supremacy. At the age of 15, he went to the Dragon Bone Islands in the extreme north alone and signed a contract with a dragon.
At his coming-of-age ceremony at the age of 20, the local Holy Spirits Church claimed to have received an oracle from the Seven Holy Spirits, acknowledging Terra Riel as the reincarnation of Hero Kane. He would end this chaotic era and join Them after completing the unification.
Under the joint witness of the dragon and the Holy Spirits Church, the entire Stormland bowed to him. The local citizens shouted that he was Orayal, meaning Overlord of the firmament. Then, he led his troops from Stormland and headed south, launching what later generations called the Unification War. After 15 years of prolonged war, he finally ended the chaotic era after the Doomsday Watchers' fracture and unified Vic Continent, establishing the current Riel Empire.
Terra Riel's rule lasted for another 80 years. After his death, he was consecrated as the eighth Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirits Church.
Of course, these statements were all learned from Liliana's history books. William believed that other than the fact that he had eventually unified the continent, everything else about his legendary nature was probably nonsense.
For one thing, the Bronze crown that symbolized the supreme royal authority was definitely a replica.
This was because the true Bronze crown was still in his Treasure Hall.
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