Knight Lords: Infinite Simulation and the Path of Light

Chapter 153 Your Position Determines Your Stance (Part 2)
"Havent, do you know how many children His Majesty the Emperor has?"

Faced with his elderly mother's question, Haven pretended to think for a moment, then very straightforwardly replied:
"I think they probably have a daughter..."

Seeing her son start acting so nonchalant and irresponsible again, Louise couldn't help but roll her eyes. This father and son had absolutely no airs of high-ranking nobility. They were both equally oblivious and never really followed the rules.

To be more specific, in a normal royal succession, any normal nobleman would choose to wait for the final victor to emerge before making their own decision: whether to continue serving the monarchy or to pledge allegiance to the new emperor in order to seek greater benefits.

This has been the case for thousands of years. It was only when the Church's presence became too obvious that some of the old noble families became restless. After all, for them, no matter which prince inherited the throne and became emperor, they all needed to rely on them. But the appearance of the Church would obviously break this balance.

After all, there has always been an irreconcilable contradiction between the church and the nobility. The church needs more and more believers to provide faith in its gods, and if possible, it even hopes that every believer can become a fanatical believer who is willing to give everything for the gods at any time.

The nobles, on the other hand, hoped that the number of people in their territories would increase so that they could continuously expand their territory, acquire more wealth for themselves, ensure their status would become more and more secure, and through their continuous management, ensure that their families would last longer and longer.

The fundamental difference in their objectives also prevented the nobles and the church from truly coexisting. As the existing beneficiaries, the nobles were naturally unwilling to give up what they had already gained and to redistribute the pie with the church.

Despite this, Kevin Hylan, born into an upper-class noble family and a powerful nobleman, did not hesitate when faced with his brother's request. Just like in the bard's tales, he led his personal guards and Frederick on a journey back to the capital. Of course, most importantly, after experiencing various hardships, Frederick did indeed successfully ascend the throne.

Even now, Louise sometimes recalls those moments late at night and feels a lingering fear, especially the battle in Victory Square at the Platinum Palace where Kevin was carried back with his stomach completely open. She could even see his pounding heart through the overflowing blood and his tangled internal organs.

Later, he even asked his lover if he had ever thought about what would have happened if they hadn't been able to defeat those three veteran Sky Knights. Unexpectedly, Kevin shrugged nonchalantly.

'How could I possibly lose to them? Before they even attacked, they had already lost the most important thing a knight possesses: unwavering courage.'

"To be honest, I was a little worried at the time, but this thing is great. If it really comes down to it, it's a fight to the death. If you can't win, then you just die."

Listening to the other person's nonchalant words, Louise had a different picture in her mind, but fortunately, the worst outcome did not occur.

Thinking of this, Louise turned her head to look at the lazy man reclining on the sofa. To be honest, although she was Haven's biological mother and had participated in his entire upbringing, as Haven grew older, she, as his mother, found it increasingly difficult to understand her son's thoughts and feelings.

Back in Whiterun, I already had some vague feelings, but at the time I just thought it was because I was growing up and had my own ideas, so I didn't want to be close to my parents anymore. After all, when I was that age in Haven, I was also quite rebellious and not particularly willing to talk to my parents. I always felt that my parents were subtly restricting my thoughts.

As time went by, Louise gradually realized that things weren't like that at all. She slowly came to terms with it and discovered that her son wasn't what she had imagined. Rather than her efforts to make him better in various ways, it was more accurate to say that Haven's efforts to cooperate were just to make her happy.

This strange feeling is becoming clearer and clearer. Even though Haven is sitting right in front of her, Louise has no idea what her son is thinking.

But at this moment, Louise gave up trying to find out what her son was thinking. Her own father had told her that it was a good thing if Havet had his own ideas and his own independent consciousness. A child like him was destined not to be bound by rules and regulations. So instead of restricting him from doing anything, it was better to tell him what he would face and believe that he would make the choice that was best for him.

This is why Louise insisted on having Haven come back after communicating with her father.

“Havent, you have arrived in the capital. No matter what you were like in the North, you still need to be clear about some basic things after arriving in the capital. Otherwise, if you make mistakes because of some small things, it will damage the reputation of the North, and this reputation was fought for by the blood of generations of people in the North.”

Hearing that his mother was about to give him another political lecture, Haven immediately sat up straight, looking like he was seriously listening to the lesson. After all, if he hadn't been paying attention, he would have been faced with another long lesson in aristocratic etiquette.

"Yes, yes, yes~ Mom is right. I'll do a thorough review of the relevant things later. So, just how many children does our Emperor Frederick IV have?"

Seeing Haven's scrunched-up face, Louise helplessly rubbed her forehead and silently muttered to herself.

"It's my own child, my own child, the child Kevin and I finally had. We have to be patient, we have to be patient."

After silently repeating it to himself a few times, he suppressed the small flame that had risen in his heart.

"Alright, listen carefully to what I'm about to say. Our current Emperor Frederick IV has a total of eight children, five of whom are princes and three are princesses. However, in the past, one prince and one princess unfortunately passed away, so there are currently only six children left."

"Tsk tsk tsk~ That's incredibly fertile! But speaking of which, how come you two only had me as a child? Was it in response to the country's one-child policy? Or is one of you incapable of having children?"

After saying that, he glanced at his mother twice with a sly look.
Listening to Haven's rambling nonsense and his infuriatingly gesticulating actions, Louise, who had just managed to quell her anger, felt a surge of inexplicable rage rise up. She stood up and, without a care for her image, gave Haven a sharp rap on the head.

“I told you to study hard and read more books, but you never do. Your father was already a Sky Knight when we got married. Don’t you know that the higher one’s strength, the harder it is for a strong person to have offspring due to the modification of the human body by battle qi and magic?”

Haven, who was suddenly hit, immediately covered his head with both hands. He was just joking to lighten the mood, it wasn't that serious.

Having already been slapped, Haven didn't dare to continue his banter and sat obediently on the sofa without making a sound. "Um, um, Mom, calm down. I was just joking, just joking, trying to lighten the mood~ Please continue, please continue."

After speaking, he gave a very standard aristocratic smile.

"Seriously, if you could be as well-behaved as Lori, I could get fewer wrinkles every day. Okay, okay, where were we?"

"Six~ I just said that His Majesty Frederick IV had a total of eight children, and then a son and a daughter died a few years ago, so he now has six children."

Looking at the somewhat obsequious Haven, Louise became increasingly distressed. Her son's flexible and multifaceted bottom line always made her feel that all the years of nurturing he had invested in him had been in vain. In this state, he could easily be thrown into a small town shop as the son of a merchant, let alone be the heir of an upper-class noble family.

"Yes, His Majesty Frederick IV currently has six children, and the only one who is not yet an adult is Princess Alice, whom you know. What I'm telling you today is simply to tell you about the process and outcome of some things. As for what you plan to do after you know all this, that's your own business. And I hope that whatever decision you make, it will be after careful consideration."

Haven sensed the seriousness of the matter from Louise's words and nodded seriously.

"Okay, I understand. Go ahead and tell me, Mom."

"You probably know about your father and His Majesty Frederick IV. After this incident, the White Lions were completely tied to the royal family's chariot. Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It was because of Frederick IV's support that the construct knights, which were originally just a powerful force in the empire, have become one of the top three large legions in the empire after more than ten years of development."

In this respect, His Majesty Emperor Frederick IV has indeed fulfilled his promise. Your father now commands seven fully-equipped armored knight orders and three heavily armored swordsman orders. In terms of military strength alone, his forces are stronger than the legion under Duke Oliver stationed in the Northwest Province.”

At this point, Louise couldn't help but sigh slightly, and her expression became somewhat ambiguous.

"While you reap the rewards, you must also pay a price. The greater the reward, the greater the price you have to pay. In recent years, the service rate in our Hailan Territory has been the highest among the many nobles in the North. As a result, every family in the Hailan Territory has had a child die on the battlefield."

Although your father has used half of the subsidies to improve soldiers' allowances and benefits, as well as the quality of life for the people in the territory, the population of Hyland has inevitably declined. This has led your father to be less accepting of some of the orders issued by His Majesty Frederick. Although I often hear your father talk about things from the past in private, once a rift is formed, it's impossible to go back to the way things were in the beginning.

Louise, who was somewhat sentimental, quickly composed herself and changed the subject, continuing:
"Of course, those are things for us adults, but as the new generation, you are facing some other things now."

"His Majesty the Emperor will soon be sixty after the Winter Sacrifice. Although sixty is still a very young age for the ruler of an empire, there is one thing that has always puzzled everyone: the princes and princesses are basically adults, but..."

At this point, Louise paused, thought for a moment, and then said:
"However, our Emperor has not designated any prince as his successor."

"Hmm? What's wrong with that? If it's not confirmed, it's not confirmed. Are you afraid that our Emperor will die suddenly and mysteriously like his father?"

Louise was momentarily stunned, clearly not expecting her son to have such a peculiar way of thinking.

"No, such things can't happen one after another, otherwise it would be a challenge to the entire ruling class of the empire. At that time, the Dark Alliance would face encirclement and suppression from nobles of all sizes throughout the empire. After all, no one wants to lose their head and neck after sleeping."

What I want to say is that Frederick IV's move was indeed very strange in the eyes of us nobles. After all, even in the time of Sleeping King Keane, His Highness Prince Gillian was declared the heir by His Majesty Keane early on.

Our current emperor has not made any choice; his mind is free to act. Frederick IV has always been open to all the princes' self-expression, essentially giving every prince with aspirations for the throne a chance.

Hearing this, Haven clicked his tongue. He could only say that there were no new events in this world. Even though he had transmigrated to a magical world, this familiar trope of raising venomous insects was still as classic as ever.

"This... if we do it this way... hiss... then these princes will have to fight tooth and nail for the throne. After all, if they have the emperor's position to choose from, who would want to be a prince?"

Hearing Haven's感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection), Louise echoed the same sentiment:

"Yes, so your arrival in the capital, your identity, and the historical background of the Bai family mean that you cannot escape from this matter. Your father is a staunch royalist and commands one of the top three military forces in the empire."

As a junior, they naturally couldn't possibly plot against your father. Your appearance, however, gave them the perfect opportunity. After all, you are the sole heir. If they could cultivate a good relationship with you, and even replicate the bond between Emperor Frederick and your father, and gain the support of the White Lion Legion, they would have a very good chance of inheriting the throne.

Hearing his mother's explanation, Haven touched his chin with a look of sudden understanding.

"Searched inside the temple~~~~~"

(End of this chapter)