With a crash, the priceless purple-gold silk black pottery was hurled away by the furious Marquis Kritos, shattering into fragments of all sizes against the hard floor tiles. A treasure worth nearly a thousand gold forties — gone in an instant. Kritos had not forgotten to bring this prized piece with him when he fled the Commerce Alliance on that chaotic night, and he had never let it out of his sight, often holding it in his hands to admire. Yet now he had smashed his beloved possession on the ground — one could well imagine just how furious he was…
Today was the tenth day of the eighth month of the common calendar year 1783 on the Galentea Continent. It was the day the Kingdom of Andinac restored its former name as the Krisen Empire, and the auspicious day on which King Auguselo I of Andinac bade farewell to his royal title and ascended the throne as Emperor of the Empire. From this day forward, Auguselo I would become Krisen IX — or be known as Emperor Auguselo the Great. His hapless father, the late King Andinac I, was posthumously honored as the titular Krisen VIII…
The entire imperial capital was suffused with an atmosphere of joy and festivity. The streets rang with merry songs and the clamor of gongs and drums. Floats and parade formations streamed past one after another. The capital's residents fulfilled their duty to celebrate His Majesty's glorious coronation most admirably, and His Majesty — the great, benevolent, and generous Emperor — decreed that all citizens of the capital would be rewarded with free food and drink. In short, eat well, drink well, and revel to your heart's content, for this was a day to feast without paying a single copper…
From time to time, the streets echoed with cheers of "Long live the Emperor!" and "Long live the Krisen Empire!" For Marquis Kritos, the celebrations and grand ceremonies of his enemies were the source of all his anguish. The pain of his physical wounds paled beside the waves of grief that gnawed at his heart. After extricating himself from the Commerce Alliance and enduring many twists and turns, he had finally arrived at the imperial capital. Following his plan, he had skillfully befriended Count Vexax and, with his outstanding intellect, won the Count's patronage, making himself into the trusted advisor whose counsel Vexax followed without question.
At that time, Count Vexax had still been merely a knight. Having offended the
It was Marquis Kritos who, at this critical juncture, stopped Count Vexax from setting out for his fief. He urged Vexax to go to the palace and throw himself before the Second Prince, pleading pitifully until, through the appeal of familial affection, the Second Prince relented and rescinded the order, allowing Count Vexax to remain in the imperial capital. After all, Vexax had spent his entire life growing up among the streets and alleys of the capital, never having traveled far from home — sending him off to a fief in the Province of Majik was indeed rather heartless.
Kritos remembered what he had told Count Vexax at the time: once you leave the capital, that throne is forever out of your reach. Stay in the capital, and there remains a chance you might one day sit upon it. Although His Majesty the King had recently fathered another son, it would take more than a decade before the legitimate heir came of age. In such a long span of time, anything could happen…
Count Vexax heeded Marquis Kritos's counsel. He went to the palace, prostrated himself before the Second Prince, and begged in the name of his deceased mother until he had his wish — he was allowed to remain in the capital. And with Kritos's assistance, he established the Antalio Commerce Guild, using the excuse of conducting trade and earning revenue for the royal family to regain the Second Prince's trust and support, ultimately obtaining the sales rights to several mineral deposits within the kingdom.
Another jolt of pain struck him, and Marquis Kritos's body trembled once more. The two scars that ran from his forehead to his chin on his pallid face twisted into grotesque shapes. In that moment, his expression was so hideous and monstrous that he looked like a demon.
However, he was alone in the room. For the sake of his revenge, Marquis Kritos had personally carved these two scars upon his own face, ruining his once handsome features. This was the only way he could move freely through the imperial capital without fear of being recognized as the former special envoy of the Commercial League, Marquis Kritos.
Perhaps I shouldn't pin my hopes on Vexax, Marquis Kritos thought, trembling as he extracted a small vial of blue potion from inside his coat. He twisted off the pine stopper and slowly poured the blue liquid down his throat. As the potion settled in his stomach, the Marquis’s complexion finally returned to normal. He slowly sank into his chair and reached out for the black clay teapot threaded with purple gold wire—a habit when deep in thought—only to grasp empty air. He then remembered that in his rage, he had thrown his beloved item away moments ago…
With a lingering, regretful glance at the shattered pieces on the floor, Marquis Kritos began to calmly analyze what had transpired. Why had Grand Duke Norton, the State-Protecting Sword Saint, and the three other Grand Dukes from the Northland, all of whom had publicly fallen out with the Second Prince, appeared at his coronation ceremony as if nothing had happened? The entire atmosphere between the ruler and his ministers seemed amicably harmonious…
Two days prior, it was reported that Grand Duke Norton and the Second Prince had a spectacular falling out in the palace’s great hall, in front of numerous kingdom nobles. The Grand Duke had kicked open the hall’s two great doors and stormed out, subsequently departing the capital with the families, household troops, and nearly five thousand servants and maids of the four Grand Dukes, preparing to return to their respective territories.
Upon first hearing this news, Marquis Kritos had been ecstatic. The Northland four-family alliance was the premier noble power within the Andinac Kingdom. The Norton Family household troops were hailed as the strongest military force on the Galentea Continent, and the Commercial League’s forces could be considered their defeated opponents. Coupled with the State-Protecting Sword Saint, the Northland Grand Duke, if this led to a rift with the Second Prince and war broke out again, it would be incredibly good news for Marquis Kritos.
His own Golden Swordsman, Maecius, and over forty loyal Silver Swordsmen serving as the guild’s guards had fallen in the streets, ruthlessly slaughtered by Grand Duke Norton and his personal guards. Yet Marquis Kritos believed that as long as he could incite conflict between the Norton Family and the Second Prince, causing a definitive break, then the sacrifice of these loyal subordinates would be worthwhile. For then, his chance of revenge would have arrived.
In truth,
And Lorist had assumed all of this was being paid for by the Second Prince on behalf of his bastard son, Count Vexax. He did not know that Marquis Kritos was suffering in silence, having no choice but to act this way. Because the Second Prince’s bastard son, Count Vexax, was truly hopeless and could not be helped. If Kritos did not step in to clean up the mess Count Vexax created, the Count would soon be sent back to his territory in Majik Province by the Second Prince. And when that happened, Marquis Kritos’s plans for revenge against the Second Prince would be delayed indefinitely.
Clearly, on the night two days ago, Grand Duke Norton and the other three Grand Dukes’ families and household troops had not returned to the capital. This was something Marquis Kritos’s trusted agent stationed at the city gate had witnessed with his own eyes. At the time, it was said that the Second Prince had personally led several dozen cavalrymen in pursuit. Shortly after, other kingdom nobles also rode out to try and persuade them to stay. Yet in the end, the four Grand Dukes’ families and troops did not return. When the Second Prince’s party re-entered the city, their faces were as dark as thunder. Last night, news even arrived that the four Grand Dukes’ column had reached Qilin Harbor and was preparing to board their ships.
But then what was the explanation for Grand Duke Norton and those three territorial Grand Dukes appearing at the coronation ceremony today? And where had those one thousand Norton Family household troops come from—marching with the Norton Family’s Angry Bear Banner, striding proudly and arrogantly at the head of the parade formation, shouting “Long live the Empire, long live the Emperor”? It wasn’t just the Norton Family troops; the household troops of the other three Grand Dukes in the alliance were the same. Three battalions of a thousand men each followed directly behind the Norton Family forces, undergoing the Second Prince’s inspection and marching down the imperial capital’s streets while chanting slogans of loyalty to the Emperor and the Empire…
While Marquis Kritos was overjoyed at the rupture and falling-out between the Northland quartet alliance and the Second Prince, eagerly anticipating a renewed fire of war in the Kingdom of Andinak and gleefully watching the Second Prince's coronation ceremony turn into a farce, he never expected to see Grand Duke Norton and the other three Grand Dukes appear at the Second Prince's side during today's grand ceremony, as if the murderous incident two days prior had never occurred. This unexpectedly harmonious scene nearly drove Marquis Kritos mad. As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Upon finding his desires thwarted, Marquis Kritos returned to his lodgings and began smashing things.
With a "bang," the door was pushed open, and a figure agilely slipped into the room, turned and shut the door behind them, then leaned against it, panting and clutching their chest. "That scared me to death! I nearly ran into Grand Duke Norton. Good thing I'm fast. Otherwise, you'd never see me again, Selig."
Selig was Marquis Kritos's alias. He had told Count Vexax that he was the eldest young master of a trading house from the Roman Empire in the south of the continent. Having offended a Grand Duke of the Empire, he had fled to the royal capital of the Kingdom of Andinak. He planned to re-establish a trading house in the capital and had therefore invited Count Vexax to partner with him to make money.
I might have found myself a pig teammate... Marquis Kritos thought helplessly, rubbing his forehead. The person who had barged into his room without a word was none other than Count Vexax. In Marquis Kritos's view, this bastard son of the Second Prince, aside from inheriting his father's handsome appearance, was essentially a worthless blockhead. Raised amidst the city's common folk, Count Vexax was, to put it accurately, a qualifying rogue and hooligan.
Perhaps not even qualified as a hooligan. If not for his adoptive father, an aging knight, laying a solid foundation for Vexax from a young age and passing away only after Vexax awakened his fighting qi at sixteen, the unawakened Vexax would likely not have survived the capital's wars and famines and would have reported to the War God's realm long ago. It was precisely because of his fighting qi that Vexax survived until he was found by those sent by the Second Prince.
In Marquis Kritos's eyes, Count Vexax had no merits to speak of, let alone the knowledge and refinement befitting a noble. He was greedy, lecherous, rash, and impulsive—virtually useless in every way. Of course, Count Vexax was still quite loyal, though his loyalty typically manifested when he himself fell into a pit by ensuring he dragged his friends in with him to share the hardship. Just like with Marquis Kritos, who had been dragged into a pit by him twice in less than a year...
The first incident was the competition with the Snow Salt Trading House. It was common knowledge that the nobles of the Galentea Continent habitually consumed rock salt. Sea salt was bitter and cheap, generally consumed by commoners. Although the Snow Salt Trading House's salt was as white as snow, it was ultimately refined sea salt, a stopgap alternative for some nobles when rock salt was unavailable.
Through Count Vexax, Marquis Kritos had obtained from the Second Prince the sales rights to three rock salt mines—or, in a sense, had monopolized the kingdom's rock salt industry. He planned to start with the noble circles, introducing rock salt to the dining tables of the kingdom's aristocracy as a premium condiment. However, rock salt required multiple processing stages to become refined salt. Due to his poor health, Marquis Kritos had entrusted these matters and the promotional work outside to Count Vexax.
Count Vexax, using the Second Prince's name to visit those kingdom nobles and promote the rock salt, could easily achieve results. But what he hadn't anticipated was that when he learned the profit from a small bottle of rock salt was less than a single silver coin, he felt making this money was too much effort. So, he took a friend's advice, bought a large batch of snow salt, mixed it with the rock salt, and sold the mixture. This instantly increased the profit several times over.
Count Vexax was smugly pleased, thinking this was a brilliant scheme. But he forgot that the kingdom's nobles were no fools. To be precise, snow salt was white, while rock salt had a slight bluish tint. Count Vexax's "blue-and-white salt" soon became a joke. Marquis Kritos had no choice but to silently dip into his private funds to fill the enormous hole created by the production, storage, and processing costs of the rock salt. Upon tallying the accounts, he had lost nearly a hundred thousand gold Fords. Incidentally, the friend who gave Count Vexax this idea received a reward of a thousand gold Fords from Count Kelmess...
The second big trap was Marquis Kritos's suggestion that Count Vexax cultivate connections and reputation among the kingdom's nobility by hosting banquets and balls, with all expenses naturally covered by the Antaly Trading Company. Count Vexax was delighted by this suggestion—indulging in wine and revelry was his favorite pastime, and he went so far as to start intercepting noble ladies shopping along the Royal Avenue to forcefully hand them invitations to his balls. Relying on the Second Prince's authority, the kingdom's nobles—who knew the prince was the king's illegitimate son—could only swallow their grievances and play along.
Until they ran into the Norton Family. The so-called ball invitations became yet another massive pit, one that swallowed Marquis Kritos's personal bodyguard, Golden Sword Warrior Machus, along with over forty Silver Guards. Even the Antaly Trading Company was more than half destroyed, suffering enormous losses. It was worth noting that when Marquis Kritos had come to the imperial capital, he had brought fewer than a hundred trusted guards—and now half of them were gone...
"Wow, why did you throw that treasure away? What a waste! Last time Miss Belice said that if I gave her this treasure, she'd be willing to spend three wonderful, romantic nights with me... If I'd known, I would have given it to her last time..." Count Vexax spotted the fragments on the ground and made a great fuss about the waste.
"You..." Marquis Kritos was seething with anger but had no choice but to explain. "It slipped and broke by accident. By the way, do you know why Grand Duke Norton showed up at the ceremony today? Didn't you say last time that he had fallen out with His Majesty and left the capital with his family and armed forces?"
"Oh, that? My father the King went after him and eventually talked him into coming back. But Grand Duke Norton and the other three Grand Dukes only brought about a dozen personal guards back with them. They've been holed up in a villa next to the palace these past two days, never venturing out. Their 'family forces' at today's ceremony were all Royal Imperial Guard soldiers in disguise." Count Vexax answered nonchalantly.
"Then why didn't you say so earlier?" Count Kritos was furious—he had been excited for nothing.
"What good would telling you have done? Haven't you noticed I've been hiding for the past two days? I nearly ran into Grand Duke Norton just now!"
Marquis Kritos was rendered speechless. Come to think of it, he sometimes couldn't help but admire Count Vexax's sheer luck. This time around, Count Vexax was arguably the one most responsible for offending the Norton Family, yet he had gone to complain to the Second Prince, twisting the facts, which nearly caused a falling-out between the Second Prince and Lorist. By the time the Second Prince had pieced together what actually happened and rushed to chase after Lorist's party, he had no time left to settle accounts with Count Vexax.
Since Lorist had refused to bring his family and armed forces back to the imperial capital, the Second Prince had been simmering with frustration. Back in the capital, he had been busy dispatching Royal Imperial Guard troops to impersonate the four Grand Dukes' family forces and inspect the preparations for the various ceremonies. Meanwhile, Lorist and the other three Grand Dukes played it low-key, holing up in their villa and venturing out nowhere, which meant they simply forgot about Count Vexax. As a result, Count Vexax spent the past two days gallivanting about freely, even blending in with the kingdom nobles' ranks to attend today's coronation ceremony...
"My lord Count, as your friend, I must advise you: if you still hope to sit on that throne, you need to change your bad habits and become a true noble. Only then might you earn the genuine support of the kingdom's nobility and eventually become a great ruler..." Marquis Kritos began his persuasion once more.
"Alright, Selig, I got it, stop nagging, I will definitely become the heir to the imperial family..." Count Vexax replied impatiently. "By the way, do you still have that black ceramic with purple gold threads? If you do, hand it over to me for safekeeping, lest you accidentally smash it again."
Marquis Kritos: "..."
……