You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 342 The War of Kings
What sins did I commit to have such a daughter?
Io III thought sadly.

How adorable and cheerful she was as a child! The whole kingdom celebrated her birth, and Ulster even gifted her a piece of the purest and hardest diamond.

But after learning martial arts, she changed completely, becoming as cold and hard as a diamond.

Never using sweet talk, unable to conceal one's true feelings, and disregarding the feelings of others—such a personality will suffer greatly in the court.

He dared not entrust the kingdom to her; her temperament was not temperable enough to make her a queen.

Outsiders thought she was calm, gentle, elegant and generous, and some of the palace maids thought so too.

Very few people know what she really looks like.

He suffered greatly as a result; what did his princess think of him?
He raised her for over twenty years—and she thought her father was a good-for-nothing!
God!

Gods above!

Is this something a child should be thinking?!

"Tana, our family's mission is to maintain the order of the late king..."

He's going to launch into another long-winded speech.

Tashina couldn't understand why her weak father valued this illusory order above all else.

He would rather let the black iron land rot in his hands than give it a new lease on life.

She truly believed that she could make the Black Iron Lands great again.

With overwhelming martial prowess, what is impossible?

He was afraid of this and that, afraid of the wind and the rain, like a quail or a drowned rat.

Because he was a coward by nature.

She could see the true nature of those people.

The Conqueror family has a vast family lineage, but only the line of the Black Iron King is legitimate. Unless the line becomes extinct, they will not choose a successor from a collateral branch.

All three Black Iron Dukes have the right to elect a king, but the Black Iron line has never died out.

Even if Iolion was a timid and cowardly crown prince from childhood, it wouldn't matter. As long as he wore the crown forged from black iron, the powerful will of the former king would subtly influence the successor king, giving him an indomitable fighting spirit.

The only thing Tassina admired about Iolion was that he had worn it for over ten years and still looked the same.

"...So, Tana, do you understand?" King Io III asked after he finished speaking.

He tried to reason with Iotashina, using the principles passed down through his family.

The Conqueror's Order is the order that maintains peace. The Black Iron Kingdom is the core of this order and must never be the first to initiate a war, otherwise this order will be destroyed, leading the vast kingdom to ruin.

But he also knew that Tasina craved war, so he never let her wield power. He had her stay by his side to learn, but forbade her to speak and only allowed her to observe.

They were afraid she might say something shocking or outrageous.

"You coward!" she said coldly with contempt.

It was so aggressive that it made Iori's vision go black.

Tashina turned and left.

She was fed up with Éolien's lecturing.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Damon happened to be passing by. Upon seeing Tasina emerge from the hall, he immediately bowed and said, "Good afternoon, Your Highness Tasina."

"Mm." Tashina nodded, her face as calm as a still lake, as swift as a gust of wind passing through the corridor, her steps never faltering.

Iorion's voice came through: "Damon, if it's bad news, then don't say it."

Damon entered the royal hall and said respectfully, “As you wish, Your Majesty, the good news is that the Holy See’s holy war army will not arrive at Blackburg for another seven days… I mean, it will take them to surround us.”

"Ah! They just got here like that?"

"Our Lord Fury Tide has been angered by you and left. There are signs that Stone Castle is mobilizing its troops, but another piece of good news is that Lord Fury Tide doesn't seem to have any intention of joining the Holy War Army. The whereabouts of his troops are unknown—there are too many nobles who oppose you, and things are too chaotic outside. We are already quite fortunate to have this much good news."

The minister clearly saw that after hearing these words, the Lord of Blackburg's face showed an expression of distress, suffocation, and unbearable burden.

But the seven sharp swords of the black iron crown stood tall within, as heavy as mountains, tightly binding his head, as if causing him unbearable pain.

Damon pondered to himself, when someone with limited talent is thrust into a high position, is the happiness greater than the suffering, or the suffering greater than the happiness? He twirled the cat's-eye ring on his finger, and then thought of the princess he had just met…

She possessed the blood of the former king and was always calm and composed in the face of adversity.

Unfortunately, even without wearing amber, her will was as resilient as a pine tree in the snow, making it difficult for her to penetrate the depths of her thoughts.

Even if he could, he wouldn't dare to speculate.

Not all those in power are like Iorion; some are terrifying beings like the King of the Valley.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

……

"Is that all?" Tashina asked.

The old eunuch Tussos said, "Your Highness, this is all the troops within the royal domain that we can muster and that are willing to listen to us."

Tashina was somewhat dissatisfied.

The king led hundreds of thousands of men, but this year, due to disaster, he could only muster five thousand conscripts—most of whom were there for the provisions and pay. She was confident that she could crush them with just over ten knights.

Of course, defending the city is another matter.

"That's not enough."

"We still have the Iron Guard of Blackburg."

“Iron Guard…” Tashina fell into deep thought.

With the Iron Guard and conscripts combined, can they hold out until reinforcements arrive?
Or perhaps not; we'll need to make other preparations.

She recalled what Duke Payne had said when he left—that the duke was unpredictable, never revealed his emotions, and was one of the very few people she couldn't understand.

He said, "Tahina, Blackburg will fall. Don't put up a fight."

She replied, "The Black Fortress is on my sword, and the sword comes from the great former king."

“That greatness is gone, and no one can hold onto it,” he said. “Tahina, give up the fight; you are outnumbered.”

"My father has ordered all the kings to raise an army and send Uncle En. This is a war of kings, a war of kings!"

“You crave war, but that war may not be what you desire. Éolien is on the wrong path; he is inflexible. Perhaps the crown has changed him too much—when Ulster brought me and Gael to Blackburg, Éolien was incredibly thin. He cried and sobbed when the old king reprimanded him at the crown prince's banquet. Ulster couldn't stand it and punched the old king, which frightened Éolien into stopping crying… What I mean is, what was right a hundred years ago may not be right now; it needs to change.”

"The Grand Duke of Ulster died a violent death."

“It wasn’t me, nor was it Gale… but the rest are all untrustworthy, including Oak, for they have foreign blood flowing through their veins.”

“Grand Duke of the Raging Tide, but I’ve heard that you are also of a different race.”

"We have long since shed our deep-sea bloodline. The people of the deep sea have long since vanished. We are pure-blooded humans. Tashina, the biggest mistake Iorilian made was using pirates to deplete Gael's power. Do you know the consequences? The Highlands are on the verge of destruction. The War of Kings you were looking forward to will be the first to be absent from the Highlands. The power of Winterfall has fallen into the wrong hands, and after years of civil war, it will also be absent. Oakwood may not even be willing to send troops—that family's army has never set foot in the heartland in the past hundred years."

Tashina remembered that after Payne said those words, he left the Stone Castle with his personal guard. This also indicated that the Raging Tide and the Papacy no longer had the patience to play the game of power with her father.

Sure enough, war has broken out everywhere, and flames of war are everywhere.

And those terrifying forces never seen before will appear, like swifts returning to their nests, stepping into this war one after another.

……

Book Title: This Ship Girl is Strange
Introduction:
Lin Ling enjoys playing a 7+ game with a Kantai Collection mod.

As a commander, Lin Ling led the ship girl civilization to conquer countless star systems, suppress the War of Heaven, and ultimately rule the entire galaxy.

Upon completing the game, a notification window pops up:

"Commander, your chief science officer has lost contact after piloting the research vessel through an unfamiliar wormhole."

Lin Ling didn't pay any attention to it; the matter was unremarkable.

However, in the outer reaches of space, a research ship of ship girls suddenly appeared.

"Commander, we've finally found you!"



(End of this chapter)