I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Helena glanced at Roland but said nothing.

Roland realized he had hit the nail on the head.

Helena sighed and said, "It's not as bad as you think."
The wizards of the Hermitage are the largest group in the entire Eastern Kingdom. They are all people who came from among mortals, and many members of the Twilight, Black Abyss, and White Chess schools also come from mortal backgrounds.

Therefore, although this parliament is called a parliament, it is actually distributed among various schools of thought.

These people all share very similar thoughts—they are all utterly unbelievers and deeply despise monopolistic systems of advancement.

Roland nodded deeply; he himself came from the countryside. And he was extremely anti-God.

If the wizards hadn't eradicated the theory of bloodlines and fully popularized magic twenty years ago, then the East would have been in serious turmoil after the Hermitage helped the White Twilight Council deal with the Yellow Fern King.

The Secret Order represents all the mortals and rural wizards in the East. They may seem low-key, but their power is the most terrifying.

If the Order were to truly launch a revolution, all the noble wizards would die, and even the throne of the Thousand-Eyed King would be in jeopardy.

Wizards who try to monopolize knowledge will be overthrown. Let alone the gods.

Helena continued, "As for the White Wizards, well, you know, you know, the White Wizards come from the Southern Church and have a certain affection for the Church."

The wizards who grew up in the White Chess Academy were also very innocent.

To put it bluntly, they're just too easy to fool.

They haven't experienced enough hardship, and they always hold onto beautiful fantasies about the outside world. Therefore, young people still have high hopes for the future.

Helena sighed, as if thinking of something unpleasant. She had many friends, and most of these young people were like that.

"However, although the older generation has a certain emotional attachment to the church because they came from it, they are also very clear about certain things precisely because they were once members of the church."

Or rather, everyone feels that this belief-based political system, where everything is controlled by gods, has some inherent flaws.

Everyone came to the North to escape the gods and the church. Over the years, White has maintained communication with the South, receiving countless promises of benefits from the gods and numerous underhanded dealings from the church.

Those who had ideas left long ago.

Those who didn't leave were thoroughly wiped out before the Eastern Frontier began its conquest of the South.

The remaining older generation are staunch anti-theism advocates. They understand this political system and oppose it, which makes them even more clear-headed and thorough in their opposition.

But Her Majesty the White Queen is very worried that future generations will not have the courage to rebel.

Roland said, "Three generations later, the new generation of Black Abyss and Twilight will be just like the young people of White Chess. If White Chess really makes peace now, in less than twenty years, they will become guys like Olivia."

Helena said, "You and your senior thought the same thing."

Helena didn't seem jealous at all, as if they were discussing a normal topic. But she deliberately tightened her grip on Roland's arm.

Roland didn't notice Helena's subtle movements; he was still thinking about something.

'I wonder what my dear father-in-law will think. But my senior and many high-ranking wizards are probably planning to hold the war at a truce, build up their strength, and then launch a blitzkrieg.'

I wonder what everyone's thoughts will be after learning about the 'big hand and the balloon' story.

The wizards were far more resolute than Roland had imagined.

However, there is no absolutely steadfast or monolithic group in this world.

The East has never lacked traitors; Roland saw a whole ship full of them on his way from the East to the South.

The world is like a balloon that must be held in the hands of the gods. This truth is despairing and makes many people feel that it is pointless to rebel against the gods.

Malrod is indeed working on a submarine project, but it's being carried out in secret, and few people know about it. Moreover, whether the submarine can even reach another world is entirely uncertain, and adding the 'dropping of a cable' would double the difficulty.

In this situation, even Roland lacked confidence in the future. How would others react?

Lost in thought, Roland and Helena entered the castle building in the fourth courtyard.

The moment Roland stepped through the door, he suddenly felt the whole world slow down, and the surrounding environment turned into black and white.

Inside the hall, several white chess wizards were present. Time seemed not to stand still for them. They scanned Roland's direction with their crystal balls, then nodded and began manipulating the crystal matrices around them.

One of the young white chess wizards stared at Roland curiously for several moments. When Roland smiled and nodded at him, the wizard was so frightened that he fell to the ground as if he had seen a ghost.

At the same time, some runes jumped out from the crystal matrix in the distance. Then, all the wizards and magic circles in the hall disappeared, the faded world returned to normal, and Roland's world was no longer static.

"A bottle?" Roland looked at Helena uncertainly: "After you came here during the day, you put this into a 'bottle'?"

The bottle is a sealing technique used by the Virmyk Dawn Order. In heaven, it also has a very famous name—'the Garden of Eden'.

According to the Old Scriptures, this was a forbidden seal used by sorcerers to deal with the god of madness.

The church has made several attempts to recreate this technology during its reforms, but each attempt has ultimately failed.

But later, after the old Black Abyss members entered the mental hospital, they solved the final technical bottleneck.

They used it once when Roland traveled to a parallel world to deal with Koled.

Helena gave a thumbs up and said, "Senior, you're really amazing! How did you figure that out?"

Roland said, "There was clearly a two-second delay just now."

Roland pointed to an empty corner in the hall and said, "I just saw a few young White Chess Wizards. So they must be the 'gatekeepers' in the back corridor, right? Did we just pass through the back corridor?"

Helena wore an extremely strange expression.

There is indeed a 'back corridor' between the bottle and the outside world. They have just passed through the back corridor.

However, the rear corridor is completely 'transparent' to those entering and exiting. In other words, when travelers enter the rear corridor, they do not perceive that time has stood still.

They would be as if they had entered the 'event horizon of a black hole', where they would be completely still, but they would not be able to perceive that time had stopped.

To those who were allowed to enter, it was as if they had stepped through a normal door, and they were completely unaware of the existence of the back corridor.

Those who are not allowed to enter will feel as if they are stepping through the door while simultaneously exiting it—they are entering, but the scene inside is the outside. The back corridor is an independent world separate from both the outside and inside of the bottle; neither people inside nor outside the bottle should be able to see it.

But Roland saw the back corridor and the people inside.

This is a situation that has never occurred in any of the tests.

Wizards all know that the 'bottle' technique still has many flaws. The back corridor exists to compensate for these flaws.

It allows wizards to intervene against gods who attempt to break through the bottle. Judging from various tests, the results are very good.

Even Darak, the god of the abyss, couldn't escape once he was trapped in the bottle. Let alone see the 'back corridor'.

If the entire bottle system is likened to a software program with only graphics, then Roland saw the underlying code at a glance through the screen.

This is highly illogical.

Helena thought to herself, 'My senior really shouldn't be out on missions; he should be locked up in the lab and thoroughly studied.'

After the brief incident, Roland followed Helena upstairs.

Roland had visited this castle before, but the layout and decoration inside are completely different now.

Along the way, the two also saw many wizards renovating the castle, and many of the decorations were made according to the standards of Black Abyss Academy.

The castle not only contains many "living creatures" such as living staircases, living armor, living statues, and living oil paintings, but also many secret realms specifically designed to house these mysterious creatures.

The Black Abyss Academy's defense standards are exceptionally high. Even during the most decadent era of the Black Abyss wizards, no wizarding school dared to touch it.

Countless intruders have died in the Black Abyss Academy. Many of them died at the hands of the 'gatekeepers (mysterious creatures, demons)' before they even saw a wizard.

Now that wizards have acquired additional technologies such as bottles, if they really put their minds to it, they could create a 'Gods and Demons Fortress' in the East.

This fortress of gods and demons is a true fortress of gods and demons, because it is guarded by both angels (mysterious creatures) and demons.

It seems the wizards not only intend to stay on the riverbank permanently, but also plan to transform Greyhawk Keep into a fortress on the front lines.

Although peace talks have begun, the wizards have not let their guard down at all; on the contrary, they have become even more cautious.

The castle is now several times larger than before, but since most people have gone to a banquet, the two only encountered some construction crews on the way.

Catherine has a separate area here, which has already been renovated. This area is very large, and since there is no one in the castle at this time, it seems particularly spacious.

The two searched for a long time, visiting several rooms, but still couldn't find Catherine.

As she passed the doorway of a room that resembled a small training ground, Helena spotted several familiar Dawn Knights.

The female knights were wiping their sweat, drinking water, and chatting idly at the door.

They were dressed very lightly, or rather, their clothes were mostly torn and tattered. Having just finished exercising, some of them had even taken off their tops, leaving only a bralette.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that some of the female knights' corsets were torn. The tattered fabric hung loosely over their chests, almost exposing their breasts.

Strictly speaking, this is Princess Catherine's private palace, and the area under your feet is a very private place. Even people who come to do business would never walk this way.

Therefore, almost everyone staying here is a woman; no one would expect a man to come.

In addition, these young ladies were all martial arts practitioners and had rather rough and unrestrained personalities, so no one paid much attention to their image.

Roland glanced at it from afar and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.

'Ha, they're all peak second-tier and third-tier Dawn Knights!'

It seemed the young ladies were training with wooden swords or something similar, but their physical abilities were so strong that they could cut through steel even without normal weapons. So, although they weren't physically injured in the fight, their clothes were all torn.

Looking closer, it seemed that among the female knights at the entrance, there were also a few elves.

Roland raised his eyebrows slightly and took a second look.

At this moment, an elf girl noticed Helena leading a strange man over. She quickly blushed and retreated inside, then drew a white gauze curtain over the door.

The other elf ladies also saw Roland and, filled with shame and anger, hid inside the door.

These elf ladies didn't recognize Roland, and were probably wondering why outsiders would allow this man into such a private area.

However, the other human ladies, upon seeing Roland, not only did not avoid him, but instead boldly sized him up with shining eyes.

Seeing the curious and bold gazes of those young ladies, Roland couldn't help but feel curious as well.

These young ladies of the knights clearly knew him, but Roland had no recollection of them whatsoever.

Although the Dawn Order has many members, very few possess such a high level of cultivation. The strongest among them is Charlie. Roland had met almost all of these people back when the Sanctuary was being forged in Vermik.

There were four female knights standing at the entrance to the training ground: two demigods and two peak second-tier warriors. Roland didn't recognize any of them.

The leader of these demigods possessed an aura even more powerful than Charlie's.

Suddenly, Roland saw a glimpse of light wings flashing behind them, and he immediately understood their identity—the Angels of Dawn.

Roland thought to himself, "There is indeed a group of people in the Dawn Order whom I have never met. They are the group of people who went to the Yellow Fern Forest and the 'Araka Prison' to participate in the divine war."

These two must be the angels who went to the Yellow Fern Forest and later to the Arakka Prison. After returning south, apart from Charlie and a few others, none of them returned to Vermeek, so I haven't seen them much.

Charles was also a participant in both Battles of Yellow Ferns and suffered there. However, he was among the last knights to enter the Yellow Fern Forest to suffer.

If these two demigods had also been to the Yellow Fern Forest, then they must have been among the first to enter. They were the first to suffer, and they participated in the most dangerous and fiercest battles.

Moreover, both of these demigods are angels, and judging from their aura, they are far more terrifying than Charlie.

Roland thought to himself, 'Even if they aren't Charlie's superiors, they are still his seniors.'

Roland guessed the identities of the two demigods, but the identities of the two peak second-tier Dawn Angels left Roland with many doubts.

These two young ladies were so young, they looked like they had just come of age, and they were clearly newcomers. (End of Chapter)