Heir to the Kingdom of 1.4 billion people

Chapter 96 Timeline Closure, Leo's Life

"Are you okay, Leo?"

Xia Mingyu came to the corner of the hall with the book "Biography of Crimson Fire" and asked softly to the boy who was squatting in the corner with his head down.

After hearing the voice of His Royal Highness the Prince, the boy raised his head from his arms and forced a smile.

"Your Highness, I am very confused now. I feel that I have failed you and my master in teaching me."

"You transformed me from a starving beggar into a knight, where I have enough food and drink, am respected, and even have a noble lady as my romantic partner."

"But how have I ever repaid you? You and Master taught me justice, yet I watched helplessly as my colleagues slaughtered defenseless, starving people, including those who had once saved me."

"The armor I wear, every piece of white bread I eat, and every mouthful of potion I swallow all come from the hungry people who work hard all year round but cannot even afford a bite of black bread."

"Are all my efforts just to allow myself to live a good life sucking the blood and flesh of my compatriots?!"

"Your Highness, what should I do? What can I do?"

The boy confided to Xia Mingyu in pain that his body was safe and sound, but his soul was suffering from questioning.

Just like a drowning person entangled in water plants at the bottom of the lake, unable to live or die.

Looking at the boy huddled in the corner in front of him, his forehead covered in cold sweat, which slid down his pale cheeks onto his trembling knees, Xia Mingyu began to understand why he would become the famous Red Flame in the future.

Not everyone will encounter this dilemma of moral torture.

Most people will quickly integrate with new friends after a class transition, completely forget their previous situation, and instead fight for the interests of the new class.

In other words, the butt determines the head.

"Justice doesn't mean you have to give up everything. It's also justice if you can go against the crowd," Xia Mingyu said calmly.

"Leo, I just gave you a good starting point. Becoming a knight is your own hard work, so there is no need to feel that you have let me and Tamerlan down."

"As for what you should do next, it's up to you, but I suggest you read this book first."

Xia Mingyu handed the book "Biography of Crimson Fire" to Leo.

The boy took the book weakly like a puppet, but after flipping through the pages and taking a few casual glances, his numb and painful expression was quickly covered by shock.

"Your Highness, is this my future?"

He looked at Xia Mingyu in panic, wanting to ask for confirmation, but saw that the other party just made a slight hushing gesture.

"Let's finish reading the book first." Xia Mingyu said gently, and pulled the boy up from the ground and pulled him to the long bronze table.

So Leo sat on the bronze seat and read the "Biography of Crimson Fire" in his hand with full concentration.

His eyes were unblinking, his gaze was as sharp as torches, as if he wanted to engrave every word in the book into his mind, not daring to miss any details.

Crimson Flame Leo Masha, born in the slums after his parents starved to death, entered Red Fox Castle to work, became a Transcendent Knight at the age of fifteen, a Morning Star at sixteen, won first place in the Southern Tournament, and married Rosa Masha.
In the Battle of Dragon and Lion, he captured the head of the rebel leader, Grand Duke Mason. When he was dying, he asked Sosia IX to exempt the grain tax in the southern region. His request was granted, and countless people in the southern region were blessed.

——This book is dedicated to the memory of the greatest knight in the history of the Southern Territory, the author was the former steward of Red Fox Castle.

After a long time, the boy finally closed the book. The pain and numbness on his face had disappeared, replaced by a pair of eyes as bright as fire.

"Your Highness, thank you for giving me such a wonderful life." He said gratefully.

"So, you don't intend to change your doomed future?"

"Everyone will die. Even if I die at that time, I have lived longer than most people. And judging from the fact that I couldn't tell the scale of time before, everything may have been destined." Leo smiled bitterly.

"Thank you for your hard work." Xia Mingyu was silent for a moment and squeezed out these words.

He knew that Leo's path was more difficult than his, because he still had a group of like-minded companions around him and the paradise of the South as his foundation.

But Leo has to fight alone in the dark past. His opponent is the almighty King of Gluttony and the whole world.

"Your Highness, please do not grieve for me. Although I already know the end, every moment of the journey fills me with longing."

"Before reading this book, I was always worried about the future."

"I was constantly worried about whether I would degenerate into a beast who only knew how to enjoy myself, whether Rosa would abandon me, and whether I should risk my life to avenge my benefactor. And so, the day passed in sorrow."

"But now I know that every day in life is a gift from God."

"I will cherish them from now on."

After saying that, the boy showed an unprecedented bright smile on his face, as bright as a burning flame, making people unable to help but get closer.

Xia Mingyu knew that from this moment on, the Crimson Fire was truly born.

"Take it. Return it to me after you die. There's a book called 'Internet Slang Encyclopedia' on the third bookshelf. Remember to take some time to read it."

Xia Mingyu took off the ring on his finger and handed it to Leo.

"Your Highness, does this ring have a name?" The boy looked at the ring in his hand curiously. The crimson ruby ​​inlaid on it was as beautiful as solidified flames.

"It's called Sparks."

As if in response to Xia Mingyu's words, the stone emitted a faint fluorescence, shining brightly under the torchlight in the hall.

In the following month, Xia Mingyu took Anlia and Berg to travel around the entire southern border.

Because the song "Hymn to the Sage" spread quickly and black hair and black eyes were extremely rare, Xia Mingyu would be recognized immediately almost every time he arrived in a village and would be warmly welcomed by the villagers.

They offered the sweetest fruits, white bread made from the best wheat, and the most delicious and sweet spring water to entertain the wise man.

Since he really couldn't refuse, Xia Mingyu could only accept it calmly.

But in return, every time he passed by a village, he would do a good deed for the village or solve a problem.

Or they promoted hygiene knowledge and food storage techniques, or helped the village to solve the problem of the monsters that were rampant nearby, or left behind the basics of arithmetic such as the multiplication table.
In this way, when Xia Mingyu finally arrived at the core of the southern border, Twilight City, which is also one of the top five prosperous cities in the entire Kingdom of Sosia, he had already left behind his kind deeds in hundreds of villages.

As a result, the sage's reputation not only spread throughout the entire southern border, but was also gradually spreading to the entire kingdom.

Meanwhile, in the distant past
Red Fox Castle.

At this moment, there are many people waiting in front of the confinement room.

Miss Rosa, the Knight Commander, a group of knights, the butler and even the owner of the castle, Count Martha, were all there.

Because Rosa insisted on seeing Leo as soon as he was released from solitary confinement, and according to experience, people who have been locked up in solitary confinement for a long time are prone to go crazy when they first come out.

Therefore, Count Martha, who loves his daughter and is a Crescent Knight, condescended to come in person.

Now that the Earl was here, his attendants and his attendants' attendants naturally had to follow.

Under the gaze of everyone, the door of the confinement room slowly opened, and a tall young man slowly walked out of the dark room.

To everyone's surprise, his face did not look haggard or crazy. Instead, he had an extremely bright smile on his face, as if his entire body was shrouded in a golden halo.

This immediately made the knights alert, because being too normal is the biggest abnormality.

"Rosa, be careful, this kid might have gone crazy..."

Count Martha grabbed his daughter who was about to rush over, but before he could finish his words, he was shocked by the scene in front of him.

Wow!
A crimson torrent of magic surged from the boy's body into the sky, and the gusts of air it created bent the weeds on the surrounding land.

At the same time, the emerald green Knight's Protection above the boy's head gradually disappeared, replaced by a new line of text - the deep purple Red Fire Knight.

Sixteen years old. Became a Morning Star Knight?!
After realizing the absurd fact, everyone was completely stunned, even Countess Martha widened her eyes.

Only Rosa took the opportunity to break free from the count's arms, rushed over and hugged the boy's already broad shoulders tightly.

"Leo, don't leave me again!" the girl cried.

The young man still had a bright smile on his face. He stroked the girl's silver hair and whispered a promise:
"Rosa, from now on, only death can take me away from you."

Seeing his own daughter throwing herself into the arms of a commoner boy in public, Count Martha was so angry that his beard stood up.

He wanted to pull his daughter away, beat the guy up, and put him in solitary confinement for a whole year!
Ronan thought so, but when he saw the dazzling dark purple protection above the boy's head, he couldn't move forward.

Being able to become a Morning Star Knight at the age of sixteen despite having a civilian blessing, which is a variant profession, means that the Crescent Moon rank in the future is set in stone, and even the Brilliant Moon rank known as the pillar of the kingdom can be glimpsed.

Having lost their direct male heir, the Martha family was about to fall into decline. However, with the addition of this carefree young man, perhaps they would be able to shine again.

Thinking of this, Countess Martha closed her eyes and turned away.

Out of sight, out of mind. Let the young choose their own affairs.
After seeing the Earl leaving, the Knight Commander, the Butler and others realized that the boy would most likely have to have Martha's surname added to his name in the future.

The next moment, eyes filled with envy, jealousy, and awe converged on the young man, nearly drowning him. Another two years passed.

Eighteen-year-old Rosa completed her coming-of-age ceremony with the blessings of hundreds of distinguished guests.

As the overlord of the southern territory, the only direct member of the Martha family, a female and beautiful woman, naturally attracted countless admirers.

There were powerful young knights who took the initiative to woo her, elegant bards who recited poems about love, and even powerful nobles who sent treasures and love letters.
This made the young man, who had witnessed the girl's current beauty, panic.

Even though he already knew the future, he was still in a panic because of his concern.

Fortunately, when they were shopping in Twilight City, the girl took the initiative to give her an answer - as long as he picked a bunch of blooming violets from the roadside for her, she would agree to his courtship.

Upon hearing this, Leo was completely ecstatic. He gently picked bunches of violets with dark purple petals from the roadside at the fastest speed in his life, and finally tied them into a bouquet and wanted to present it to Rosa.

However, just as he was about to present the violets to the girl, a carriage passed by and its wheels splashed mud on the ground.

Wow!

The fragrant flowers, still wet with dew, along with his clothes, were stained by the dirty mud.

Leo stared at the scene blankly, his mind going blank.

His nose felt sore, his eyes misted over, and he even wanted to cry on the spot.

At this time, Rosa didn't care about the mud on the man's body, and hugged him tightly even if it would stain her gorgeous long dress.

"Now we're all dirty."

The girl bit Leo's ear and whispered in the sweetest tone.

After that, there was a kiss that was so long that it was suffocating.

Another two years.

A martial arts tournament was held in Twilight City, with the age limit for participants being under 20 years old. It was said that this was to choose a husband for Miss Rosa, the flower of the Southland who had not yet married.

So all the young talents in the entire southern region came at once, and some even came from the royal capital, the north, the east, the west valley and other places.

After all, if you succeed, you might be able to become the master of a realm in this life.

However, this fantasy soon encountered the reality of Waterloo
Looking at the young man in the conference venue whose body was wrapped in red flames and with a deep blue protection on his head, all the participants fell silent.

Gods be upon me, a twenty-year-old reaching the Crescent Moon level?!

How can we fight this? How can we fight this?

Most people chose to give up, but William, the new young lord who succeeded him, stubbornly chose to go into battle.

However, the ending was tragic. Under the gaze of countless people, the young man knocked the young lord off the field and onto the ground with just one blow.

A girl holding a forget-me-not hurried over to help him up, but the young lord, feeling deeply humiliated, pushed her away in anger.

The girl lost her balance and fell to the ground, light blue flowers scattered all over the floor, and a kind young man came over to help her pick them up.

After this, Leo married Rosa, and his name was officially changed to Leo Martha.

The marriage between the common boy from the slums and the flower of the South Territory was undoubtedly talked about by countless people and added a lot of joy to the people of the South Territory at that time.

However, this still could not change the difficult and miserable life of the people in the southern border at that time.

The food tax has been rising year by year, so many families can no longer afford to raise children and have to reluctantly abandon their newborn babies in the wild.
In order to change this situation, Count Martha at that time spent a lot of money to recruit a large number of harvesters to use their abilities to increase farmland yields, and studied how to promote farmers to harvesters in batches more simply and with less resource consumption.

This move greatly improved the lives of the people in the southern border, but just when the research finally began to show some light a few years later, Count Martha suddenly fell seriously ill.

The Crescent Knight, who defeated an army single-handedly, collapsed in bed within a few days and could not get up again. He even needed help to breathe.

So the Count chose death, and before dying he kissed his beloved daughter's forehead again, just as he had done during the baby's honor ceremony decades ago.

Finally, he had a last moment of clarity, kicked Leo's butt with all his strength, and then closed his eyes contentedly.

After the Count's funeral, Rosa succeeded him as the new Countess Martha.

She still maintained her father's policy of focusing on breeding the Harvesters. However, soon, the Harvesters that had consumed huge amounts of resources to breed suddenly died one after another due to various bizarre deaths.

Some were killed by monsters while using their powers on the farmland, some were crushed to death by chandeliers, and some fainted and drowned while bathing.
The ways of death were more unique than each other, and it was almost completely unlike the way a transcendental person should die.

When more than half of the harvesters died inexplicably, the remaining harvesters were like frightened birds and quickly packed up their bags and left the southern border.

Out of desperation, Rosa had to stop the policy of cultivating harvesters.

As a result, the people in the southern border returned to their previous miserable lives.
After that, many years passed in a flash.

Leo and Rosa already have three children, two disobedient calves and one lovely angel.

The man who has been promoted to the Knight of Shining Moon loves nothing more than to put his daughter, Danielle, who is as cute as his wife when she was a child, on his neck and take her to pick red fruits from the trees.

Hearing his daughter calling "Daddy" in a tender voice is the happiest moment of his day.

However, at this time, the Kingdom of Sosia was like a powder keg, ready to explode with just a spark.

The annual increase in food taxes has caused large numbers of people to starve to death across the country.

Cruel lords could turn a blind eye, but some kind-hearted lords even spent all their wealth to buy food to feed their people.

Finally, driven by unbearable anger, Grand Duke Mason, the most distinguished nobleman in the Kingdom of Sosia besides the royal family and the lord of the Duchy of Mason in the East, chose to rebel.

Under the inspiring slogan of rejecting the grain tax, the flames of rebellion instantly spread to the entire eastern region.

The King of Sosia issued a call to all lords in the country, and those who refused would be regarded as traitors.

In order to intimidate the nobles, the royal family's strongest force, the giant dragon Molten Gold Fire Valgalon, which was hundreds of meters long, soared over the castles of the other three lords of the first realm for a few days.

Under pressure from the dragon's overwhelming power, the lords of the southern territory, led by the strongest knight, Red Flame, rushed to the battlefield in the east.

That day, after hugging and kissing his wife, son, and daughter respectively, the man calmly chose to leave, leaving only his cloak rustling in the east wind.

War is terrible. Some people are born warriors. A young man named Karen killed many extraordinary knights in his first battle and was successfully promoted to Morning Star.

Some people chose to escape and lay on the ground pretending to be dead.

What these young lords had to face were at most some Morning Star Warriors. As the commander, Leo had to face the initiator of this war - Grand Duke Mason.

Boom boom boom!
Roar!
The roar of the giant lion and the bombardment of magic power almost deafened people's ears.

Leo fell into the huge pit covered in blood, looking up at the blond man who was looking down at him from above, as majestic as a lion.

He was already on the verge of death. If it weren't for the Red Fire Knight's special ability that kept him alive, he would have gone to see his father-in-law long ago.

But even so, once his magic power is exhausted, he will surely die.

This man is really too strong. The biography records that he cut off the opponent's head. Unless he broke through the Sun Wheel level on the spot, how could he turn the tables in this situation?

"Why would you, such a brave knight, go to such lengths for that madman, the Lord of Gluttony? Is death so terrifying to you?"

Grand Duke Mason slowly descended and asked coldly.

Leo opened his mouth with difficulty, wanting to explain, but he heard Grand Duke Mason mutter to himself:
"Forget it, I'll just watch it myself!"

"Hmm? Ah!"

Surprise, shock, relief, regret. In just a few seconds, Grand Duke Mason's expression changed several times, and in the end, only a relieved smile remained.

"Red Flame, you are a great knight. Now, take my head and complete your unfinished mission!"

“The future is bright!”

The blond man laughed, and then, under Leo's incredulous gaze, he turned his head away.

His headless body was still standing straight in the same place, with only the bright red blood spurting from his neck, staining his body red.

When the dying Leo returned to the military camp with the rebel's head with difficulty, he immediately caused an uproar.

In recognition of his sacrifice, the King of Gluttony brought a group of nobles to his bedside and granted him the right to make any wish.

"I request the exemption of grain tax in the southern border"

After experiencing countless sacrifices and sufferings, the former beggar finally shouted out the most important words of his life at the moment of his death.

(End of this chapter)