A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 311 The Secret of the King
The kingdoms of the Southern Continent all originated in the era of the hero Link. Most of the ancient noble groups were meritorious officials during the First War Against Demons. The nobility system was also unified, with the ranks divided from top to bottom as Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron.

In addition, there were "lifetime titles" bestowed by the king upon commoners as a reward. These titles were not hereditary and did not involve land; they were merely honorary titles and were not recognized by the nobility in most cases.

Rewards? What rewards? Is that something noble gentlemen should do? Ever since our great-grandfather followed Link into the pass a thousand years ago, every single one of them has shed blood and fought battles for Temurian. They've already set up all the credit for their descendants! What kind of ancestor are you to dare call yourself a nobleman and mingle with gentlemen?
There is an unspoken consensus among the kings of the Southern Continent—the number of fiefdoms and titles that can be passed down to descendants has not increased much in these 1,400 years. Even if there are any, they are only ordinary viscounts, and there are extremely strict rules for the inheritance of titles. The descendants of those who are not heirs are commoners and cannot enjoy any preferential treatment.

There are many reasons for this. With the support of multiple factors such as the Church and superhumans, the regimes of the kings in the Southern Continent are extremely stable, unless there is an extremely exceptional event such as the emergence of a prophetic child. Even if the princes turn against each other, they do not need to worry about the throne falling into the hands of another family after their death. They do not need to appease the nobles in various places, so the existence of nobles is purely a burden for the king.

Take viscounts and barons as examples. The territory of these two lowest ranks usually does not exceed ten acres, but the industries on these ten acres are completely tax-exempt. It doesn't matter if you farm or raise cattle, but if you set up factories or banks, the tax revenue lost by the country in a year can be huge. Over a thousand years, even the lowest noble can make astronomical sums.

The territories of counts and marquises are even larger. Counts can own extensive agricultural and pastoral industries around cities, and the major grain merchants in the Southern Continent are almost all nobles, who can profoundly influence the people's livelihoods, which are crucial to the prestige of the royal family. Marquises, on the other hand, have their territories within cities. For example, Allison, a first-year student in the Demon Defense Department, has a father who is a marquis in Bavaria. His influence extends beyond the economy; through generations of management over thousands of years, he has practically controlled the political power of his territory.

Dukes—also known as grand dukes, super nobles comparable to princes—number no more than twenty in the various countries of the Southern Continent. Most of them are concentrated in Britain. They can own an independent province as their territory and even have military power, making them a country within a country.

Link had warned the rulers of the great harm that allowing nobles to annex land would do to the country. The great decline of the Philip Empire that began in the 400th year of the Divine Calendar, apart from the relocation of Grindelwald, was caused by the emperor's inability to control the northern nobles who wantonly annexed land. Therefore, the kings of the south were extremely cautious about increasing the number of nobles. The political history of the Southern Continent for 1,400 years was actually a power struggle between the royal power and the nobles.

However, all this power struggle was completely disrupted with the appearance of a divine king.

That is Satili Ron, the greatest and wisest ruler in the Kingdom of Ron today.

The question of how an unprecedented "King" was born in the Kingdom of Ron is a murky affair. This matter cannot be entirely attributed to King Satili, since the decision to confer the title was made by his father, the deceased King Ron.

The prevailing view is that King Ron believed his youngest son would definitely win over Yuu Amamiya, and since the Cavendish family had no other heirs, the title of king would simply fall back into the royal family's hands after the marriage. In any case, the spoils would remain in the royal family's hands, and giving the king more power would only help his son woo women.

However, no one expected that the little prince would fail in his attempt to woo a girl. Amamiya Yu was married to an unknown fortune teller, and the title of king was thus lost, rotting and stinking across Ron's vast territory.

Yuu Amamiya's father was merely a count, his territory located on the outskirts of the port city of Akenitz. While he was a prominent figure locally, he was insignificant outside the city. By the time of Yuu Amamiya's father, the Cavendish family had already declined. The maritime trade industry was impacted by steam trains, and the family was dwindling, threatening to become a laughingstock among counts. Fortunately, the young Count Cavendish had one advantage—his modeling and character illustration skills were quite good.

With his astonishing modeling skills, the unassuming count met an ordinary girl while studying in the Eastern Kingdom. The two quickly fell in love, got married, and settled there.

Because of the democratically elected parliamentary system, the Eastern Kingdom has no nobles. Instead, there are "noble families" with black hair or black eyes as their distinctive feature. These families are all descendants of the illegitimate son of the hero Amamiya Tetsuya. The girl that Count Cavendish married was not from a noble family, but she had noble black hair and black eyes.

Her surname is Amamiya, and she is a member of the royal family.

At that time, the Eastern Kingdom was an ally that the Southern Kingdoms had tried their best to win over. As the regime supported by the Phileasian Empire was sweeping across the Western Continent battlefield, and the rigid Grindelwald was unwilling to sell arcane weapons, the war situation forced the Southern Continent to seek help from the Eastern Kingdom and needed the advanced weapons of the Clock Tower to reverse the decline.

Through 99% business effort and 1% help from his father-in-law's family, Earl Cavendish secured the exclusive distribution rights for Eastern arms in the Southern Continent. The Cavendish family thus turned its fortunes around, and the stock market of the Kingdom of Ron also soared, showing a strong trend of surpassing its old rival, Britain.

Unfortunately, his good fortune was short-lived. The Earl of Cavendish, still in his prime, died of illness, and his wife, overwhelmed with grief, also passed away not long after, leaving behind a daughter who had just come of age and hurriedly returned to her hometown to inherit the title.

As the daughter of a count, Amamiya Yu inherited her father's striking features and her mother's gentle grace. This young woman, later known as the most beautiful woman in the Southern Continent, stunned her homeland upon her return. The king was almost eager to make her his crown princess. Besides her extraordinary beauty that captivated the prince, the young woman also possessed the Eastern Kingdom's weaponry, which was coveted by all the southern kingdoms.

Although the king was anxious, he could not force the marriage. After all, although the girl was alone, her relatives were quite powerful. Specifically, there was "My Imperial Grandfather and Prime Minister Uncle". It was hard to believe that this poor child was being bullied in her hometown. "The stinking southern nobles have come to the Eastern Kingdom to beg for food. What were your ancestors doing when my ancestors killed the Demon King?"

That year, the fifth prince, Satili, who had not yet inherited the throne, frequently traveled to Aknets in order to woo a woman. However, according to rumors, although Amamiya Yu appeared innocent, she was actually a wicked woman who had the prince hooked up with her. She repeatedly rejected him on the grounds that "I am a nun of the White Church and cannot get married so early," which forced the king to increase his stakes in his son's womanizing endeavors.

Back then, many people suggested elevating Amamiya Yu's title from Earl to Marquis. Because of a serious wizarding incident, a Marquis of Akenet was stripped of his title, and giving the vacated territory to Amamiya Yu wouldn't be a big deal. Even more extreme suggestions included luring her with a Duke title, firstly because her bloodline was noble enough, and secondly because it could be reclaimed anyway, with the future king simply marrying her.

However, for reasons unknown, the final title conferred was an extremely rare one – "King" (or "Prince").

Throughout history, several kings have emerged in the Southern Continent. Most of them made great contributions in the war against demons and were all high-sequence extraordinary beings. Such worldly honors were merely an added bonus for them. However, even though high-sequence extraordinary beings rarely had children, past kings only dared to grant them "lifetime kingships" and dared not allow such titles to be inherited.

King Ron, however, granted her an inheritable royal title.

Its impact is too great to list. The most direct result is that this reward made Ron the richest man in the Southern Continent, and her territory Aknets became a country within a country. Although Amamiya Yu herself had no intention of interfering in politics, she even had the means to split the royal power if she wanted to.

This is different from the British Civil War. No matter how fiercely the British Civil War unfolded, regardless of who won, the throne would not belong to Archduke Lawrence or the nobles who supported the king; control of all of Britain would ultimately remain in the hands of the royal family. However, the Cavendish family's influence extended to nearly a quarter of Ron's territory, mostly the richest port cities and grain-producing regions. Furthermore, the Cavendish himself was a cardinal of the White Church, wielding both papal and political power, which had a disruptive impact on the monarchy.

Strangely, the other kingdoms of the Southern Continent had no objections to it. After all, they still had to consider the Cavendish family's wishes when buying weapons, and they all believed that Ron would eventually take back the title of king through a marriage alliance.

What King Ron was really thinking remains a mystery. Like many kings of the Southern Continent, he was unlikely to achieve much in times of peace, but he was by no means mediocre. It's hard to believe that his doting on his son would lead him to bestow a dukedom upon him to help him woo women. Even if the Cavendish family's arcane weaponry was incredibly tempting, a dukedom was already the maximum. Didn't any of the king's advisors or ministers object?

This messy situation became a disaster as Prince Satili's pursuit of women failed and Amamiya Yu got married. Ron and Britannia, the two brothers, couldn't laugh at each other. One was fighting a civil war, the other was becoming king, and everyone had a doomed future.

As time passed, people always discussed why Queen Amamiya's husband was so mysterious. Could it be that the Queen was never actually married and had simply created a husband to maintain her title? After all, the Ron royal family was more likely to cause trouble than to achieve anything, and no noble could possibly marry into the Cavendish family. So she had to pretend to be married to make Prince Satili give up.

Amamiya Yu is very low-key, so this duke has not had much impact on the situation in the Southern Continent so far. It's as if he is just doing business and making money peacefully. Even the fact that he has a daughter who is a teacher in Grindelwald is unknown to most people.

"Do you have any clues?" Standing beneath the painting of the demon-slaying war, Sissa gazed at Quinn, her eyes serene and profound. Quinn certainly had clues.

In order to investigate that mysterious fellow countryman, the Cavendish family was investigated by him both openly and secretly. As the largest noble family and the richest man in the Southern Continent, Amamiya Yu was still the subject of many reports and information, no matter how low-key he was. However, no matter what channel he investigated, the origin of this title of nobility was still a bit of a mystery.

Upon closer reflection, the strangest point isn't why King Ron bestowed this title, but rather...
No one questioned it.

Whether politicians, commentators, journalists, business people, or even the mystical world, everyone in this era seemed to accept Yuu Amamiya as a queen. No one questioned whether she was worthy of the title. However, there were quite a few people who thought King Ron was brain-dead, especially in Britain.

It's like having wind, rain, sunshine, and royalty—it's all natural, ingrained in our subconscious as "this is normal."

Quinn was well-versed in the modern political history of the Southern Continent. Because of the mutual animosity between Britain and Ron, he could buy many critical books in the neutral city of Aswell. Ron's former king was no fool; in Quinn's view, his governance had many merits. Under his rule, Ron became the nation that benefited the most from the Western Continent wars. The reason why King Aaron of Britain had spent ten years failing to fully stabilize the domestic situation was partly due to Ron's underhanded tactics, clearly demonstrating his deep understanding of the power dynamics among the nobility.
The reason given for a king to create a major threat to royal power, namely "helping his son pick up girls," is clearly untenable.

Fellow villager, what exactly did you do?
Quinn paused, meeting Sissa's gaze: "She hasn't told me much about her family."

Xisa suddenly realized.

"No wonder."

"What's the wonder?"

“No wonder you two still have this kind of relationship.” Sissa began preaching: “You should quickly ask her if she has any childhood trauma, family background, or past depression that she needs to explain.”

Quinn asked, puzzled, "What can you do after asking?"

"Making love."

"."

Quinn laughed in exasperation, "My eyes are damaged, but my brain isn't."

"You don't understand—"

Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of the church, casting a holy glow on the priest's face. He explained with a short story: "It's like how sometimes, no matter how much money you offer, a prostitute won't kiss you. After all, for her, it's her last vestige of dignity and chastity; she wants to save the kiss for her lover. But if she's attracted to you, she won't give you a kiss so easily. These painful past experiences and inner turmoil are necessary steps to go through. You have to listen patiently before you can take it any further."

"What are you trying to say?" Quinn had really encountered a huge ladybug; it sounded exactly like a trick to avoid paying after prostitution.

"What I mean is, she's fallen for you. That's why only you can get her blood and solve the mystery."

Sissa opened the "Golden Commandments" and declared loudly, "God says that we must implement the reform tasks and better leverage the role of church organizations in innovatively promoting the development of marriage, childbirth, and family."

Quinn remained silent for a long time.

What a joke—he thought absurdly, if that's the case, then everything that happened this afternoon was because the little witch was jealous?
That's not how it works in Galagame! You should chat with me more to increase my affection level. Occasionally give me gifts, and have special interactions with me on special holidays. Finally, during some mysterious event in my heart, confess your feelings to me.
"Heh, heh." Quinn chuckled twice with a forced smile. If Amamiya Nene could fall for me, then so could the Demon King.

If I hadn't been helping her find her father, she probably would have been kicked out of Grindelwald's school long ago, just like the previous assistant professors in the divination department.

"So, you think his father's disappearance is related to the demons?" Quinn didn't want to talk about his colleague anymore.

“At least I saw Gungnir, and a maid with a halo above her head.”

"So."

Quinn's gaze was sharp as a knife, wanting to cut into the man's eyes hidden beneath his smiling facade, to see what was concealed in that darkness.

"What does this have to do with you?"

"Private, 気になります."

Without hesitation, Sissa uttered a phrase in a language that did not belong to this world, in perfect and clear pronunciation.

Then, he tilted his head and looked at Quinn, sighing with slight disappointment, "Haven't you heard of it? It means 'I'm curious,' a dialect from the Northern Continent."

(End of this chapter)