I will be crowned king

Under the moonless midnight, a lonely steam train runs across the desolate land, heading towards the darkness with no end in sight.

Looking at the girl opposite him happily enjoying the cake, Anson gradually calmed down.

Obviously, the current head of the dignified Rune family, Thalia August Rune... couldn't come to me to chat in the middle of the night for no reason. There must be a purpose.

Judging from the content revealed in her words and the previous information, Anson made a bold inference that the Franz family...more accurately, it should be Luther Franz himself, who should have reached a certain agreement with the Luen family. This kind of alliance should at least know each other's ins and outs.

This can explain why Luther Franz allowed himself to go to the Lund Manor of the Rune family - he must know - and why Thalia was able to appear in Clovis Cathedral openly and talk to the female inquisitor. It didn't cause any commotion afterwards.

Including the subsequent emergence of the August Military Factory, the Rune family, which had always kept a low profile in Clovis City, began to invest heavily, build and acquire industries... With the grassroots power of the Church of Order, Anson believed that as long as he wanted to, Luther Franz You can definitely know the identity of the investors behind the scenes.

And there is another support for this conclusion: Sophia Franz once visited Lund Manor when she was very young, but she did not know that the owner of the manor was a blood magic apostle.

An archbishop of the Church of Order took his little daughter, who knew nothing about it, to the apostle's house as a guest... If he wasn't absolutely sure, Anson himself might not have had the courage.

But this "alliance" should only be limited to families. At the level of the Church of Order and the Old God Sect, the two sides are still unrelenting enemies.

Therefore, Thalia's sudden appearance may not only represent herself, but also Archbishop Luther Franz; the reason she has made it very clear is because of the Judgment Knights of the Battle of the Royal Court of Iser.

The Church of Order's rash act of disturbing the balance made the Luen family very nervous; this kind of thing would happen countless times the first time, and it would never stop unless it encountered great resistance.

The false balance is shattered...not just the Ring of Order and the Three Old Gods, but the entire world.

The Ysel elves are eager to re-establish their glory, the emperor of the empire hopes to unify the world, and reunite the land that has been divided for hundreds of years. The Clovis people are increasingly dissatisfied with the land they have obtained, and the old god sects all over the world are here. Calling for a "big plan", the Church of Order is filled with voices calling for the restoration of the "Kingdom of Heaven on Earth"...

Luther Franz made a last-ditch effort, trying to use Clovis's invasion war to reduce the matter of the Thirteen Council to a trivial matter.

But he failed... because even though he knew he would become a puppet, the Ysel elves were no longer satisfied with being a small border country at the mercy of others.

The Church of Order was even more focused on breaking the predicament after forty-seven years in the Saints Calendar. It was impossible to resist the fat man Yisel, and the two sides hit it off immediately.

War is inevitable... Even if it is just to protect themselves, the Old Gods must start preparing for war.

To be honest, before the appearance of the airship, Anson's impression was that the strength of the Church and the Old Gods were both 50-50 - the difference between the two sides was that the Church had a more advanced organizational model, while the Old Gods were completely in disarray.

But in terms of mid-to-high-end combat power, if Mace Hornard's "Research on the Three Old Gods" for himself was not overly exaggerated, considering the strength of the blasphemous mages and apostles, it is really hard to imagine anything that can stop these monsters.

But now...it's really hard to say.

What's more, even within the church, there are not no spellcasters, and as the basis of universal faith... it has been reduced to an underground group in the entire world of order, and it is indeed difficult to see the possibility of a comeback for the Old God Sect, which has been surviving for many years. .

So the purpose of Talia's sudden appearance is already clear...

"Ah, right."

The girl suddenly snorted and stopped holding the cake in her hand: "I have good news and bad news to tell you."

"The bad news is... Dear Anson, the previous order has been cancelled, and you and your army no longer need to go to Clovis City."

Um? Ansen was startled:

"No need to go?"

"Yes, this is an order for temporary adjustment." Thalia leaned on the back of the chair and swayed her little feet hanging in the air casually:

"Luther Franz...he specifically asked me to tell you this."

"Why?"

……………………

"Spellcaster?"

Sophia's surprised voice echoed in the quiet smoking room.

"That's right." Looking at his stunned daughter, Luther Franz smoked his pipe and nodded lightly:

"Our outstanding army colonel, the supreme commander of the Storm Division that you invested in, a loyal subordinate in the eyes of your brother Ludwig, the winner of the Hantu War, and the famous celebrity in Clovis City, Anson Bach... is a An Old God sect that perfectly meets the standard definition.”

"And, he's also a spell caster."

Plop!

Unconsciously, Sophia sat on the sofa beneath her, with cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.

"This...he...Anson Bach...is...a spellcaster..."

"To be more precise, he is a conjurer." The old man nodded slightly:

"According to the standards of the Old God Sect, he was even a talented conjurer - he had only been exposed to conjuring magic for less than three months, and he had already reached the standard of a third-level spellcaster; and the caster he killed had already reached the level of a third-level spellcaster. Approximate the number of two hands.”

"Including but not limited to the famous blasphemous mage, Mace Honard...his mentor."

Black mage? !

Sophia's eyes widened and her lips trembled.

"But, but I...I never noticed...him..."

"oh?"

Luther Franz raised his eyebrows, took the wine glass that was about to fall from his trembling daughter's hand, and gently placed it on the coffee table: "Then did you notice the little girl next to him?"

Little girl... A certain girl wearing a small skirt and always holding a borney in her arms appeared in Sophia's mind.

"You mean Lisa Bach?"

"I'm referring to Lisa August - or as a friend said, the last blood of August." The archbishop said solemnly:

"Tell me you never noticed anything unusual about her."

"I……"

"That's impossible, because she is a direct descendant of the famous blood magic apostle August. She can easily kill half a platoon of grenadiers even without awakening power - so you must have noticed something abnormal about her. , I just didn’t care.”

"Because..." The old man bit the filter of his pipe, his pupils becoming brighter in the dim light:

"She's just a little girl."

Sophia trembled slightly.

"Is it because of this?" She twitched her throat, forced herself to calm down and said:

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

Luther Franz did not answer directly. He looked at his little daughter, his bright eyes piercing the swirling smoke, making the latter feel even more stressed.

After a long time, the old man sighed.

"Sofia...my dear Sophia, what should I tell you?" the old man said lightly, with a hint of helplessness in his tone:

“If a man never asks, can he expect others to tell him the answers to his questions?”

The cheeks of the sarcastic girl turned red, but she still snorted: "But you told me now."

"Yes, because you must know now." Luther Franz picked up the wine bottle and refilled the glasses for the two of them:

"If Anson Bach appears at the Central West Station of the Royal Capital tonight and enters the city with a grand welcome ceremony, do you know what will happen next?"

"He will be published in the newspapers, and he will quickly become famous, becoming the most popular soldier in the entire Clovis City. Thousands of people will want to know his details, and countless families will seek out all information about him. "

"Then... within three days at the latest, Clovis Cathedral will issue a wanted warrant to arrest the Old God fugitives Anson Bach and Lisa Bach."

"The Royal Army will be disgraced, the Franz family will be disgraced, and the newspaper you run will be turned into a piece of waste paper because of all the previous 'positive reports'..."

The old man said calmly: "The entire city of Clovis will be in chaos."

Sophia pursed her lips.

"But he... Anson Bach, he is from the Franz family... and also yours." Sophia stared at her father:

"You are the Archbishop of Clovis."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can do anything." Luther Franz played with his pipe:

"If Anson Bach's identity is exposed, I will immediately order the Truth Seeking Order to arrest him, imprison him in the underground prison of Clovis Cathedral and execute him secretly, and make his death known to the public twenty-four hours later... because I am Archbishop of Clovis."

"Don't doubt that I'm threatening you, my lovely Sophia, because I really am not."

Sophia was startled, feeling a biting chill on the back of her neck.

"Of course, doing that will also have extremely irreparable consequences. The most serious one may destroy a third of Clovis City, or even the entire city; so I will do my best to avoid such results, such as..." He Glancing out the window:

"Suspend someone's welcome ceremony and interview activities, and move the guy who may cause a bad influence to a place that won't attract a lot of people's attention... because I am the archbishop of Clovis."

The room fell silent.

Once upon a time, Sophia thought she knew her father far better than her "beloved brother" and knew everything her father had done.

But now... looking at the indifferent archbishop across from her, she was horrified to realize that she probably knew nothing about her father.

Maybe staying away from his father like Ludwig was the right choice.

Maybe……

"wrong."

Sophia, who had calmed down from the initial shock and gradually regained her composure, frowned slightly: "It's probably not just because of these."

"What?"

"If it was because you were worried that the identity of Anson Bach's Old God Sect would be exposed, you should have taken action long ago instead of delaying it until now."

Under the dim gas light, the drunken Sophia squinted her eyes and tried hard to observe her father's every move: "According to what you just said, you should have noticed that he was a spell caster from the beginning, right?"

"So why wait until now instead of taking action long ago? You already know what I am doing, and you know that I will make Anson Bach famous in order to surpass my beloved brother Ludwig."

"You have countless opportunities to stop me, countless opportunities to make Anson Bach and Lisa disappear from the world, opportunities to kill everything in the bud..."

"But you did nothing... why?"

Without waiting for the old man to answer, Sophia gave the answer coldly: "Because you don't care."

"Because you are the archbishop of Clovis, as long as you speak, no one in the entire Clovis city will pay attention to this issue; even if there are one or two minions who make good decisions, they will not be able to cause much movement and will disappear from the world. Lose."

"Anson Bach is a spellcaster... What does it matter? No, it is better to say this, because if one day he plans to betray the Franz family and betray you, he will die without a burial place in an instant. "

"So I can conclude that the identity of the spell caster is just your excuse." Slowly straightening her trembling body, Sophia said calmly:

"But... it's never the real reason!"

"Snapped!"

The old man's wine glass fell to the ground, and his pupils suddenly widened with a bright light.

Sophia was so frightened that she almost collapsed to the ground.

But the next second, his eyes softened again, and he held the pipe in his right hand with the corners of his raised lips.

"Very good... don't blindly believe, don't be gullible, make a calm judgment based on all the known information, and come to a reasonable and objective conclusion." Luther Franz, who suddenly became rosy and round, almost laughed out loud:

"Dear Sophia, you are indeed much better than your brother!"

The girl with an unchanging expression nodded slightly and tried her best to control her heartbeat that was about to rush out of her chest.

"You guessed it right, this is just an excuse - of course, more accurately, it is part of the reason." The old man said slowly:

"To be honest, apart from these, I have countless excuses that I can use to excuse you and your brother; such as the dissatisfaction of the army's top brass with Anson Bach, such as that he is too young, such as that he should be refrigerated for a period of time, in a certain It’s a good place to get some qualifications.”

"I can tell you that just yesterday, a dozen officers came to the door angrily, hoping that I could 'persuade' the army's top brass to exile Anson Bach to some uninhabited island, or somewhere where no one can find him. "

"He is just the second son of a small noble family. His ability to climb to the rank of colonel has already made many people jealous; not to mention his achievements in Hantu are enough to disgrace a bunch of officers - they can't explain why on the Western Front battlefield After a year of fierce fighting with the empire, the most glorious victory was actually achieved by a levy corps."

"But these are just excuses."

"Why transfer him? It's simple, because I need someone I can absolutely trust to fight a war that I'm about to lose."

"This bad news is the real reason."