Today, they too are going to their deaths.

The joy that had appeared on Cui Xun's face from receiving the interesting gift vanished completely, leaving only a businesslike indifference.

Then he opened the door.

Outside the door stood a "maid" with a sweet smile, pushing a food cart. Even seeing Cui Xun's indifferent expression, she showed no fear whatsoever, simply saying politely, "Mr. Cui Xun, your complimentary dinner from the hotel has arrived. Please allow me to come in."

"Come in?" Cui Xun narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the woman. "I'm not used to having strangers watching me while I'm eating."

The maid explained, "Mr. Cui Xun, tonight's dinner features some special dishes, please allow me..."

"Kara".

Alice summoned her contracted rifle, pointed it at the maid, released the safety, and said coldly, "It seems you're not very good at playing the maid. Maids who work at the Royal Hotel don't chase after VIPs to serve them."

The maid's expression froze. She quickly raised her hands and said in a panic, "Don't shoot! I mean no harm. I just finally got this job and wanted to chat with our distinguished guests more."

"You're lying!" Cui Xun interrupted the maid's lie, but he didn't raise his weapon. After all, he himself was the strongest weapon here, capable of killing the other person with his bare hands.

Moreover, from his perspective of understanding crimes, the maid had no history of intentional homicide; at most, she was acting out of excessive self-defense, so he was willing to give her a few more chances.

The maid remained silent for a long while.

While her true strength wasn't top-tier, it was still first-rate, far surpassing Alice who was pointing a gun at her. In terms of escaping and hiding, she was unique, creating many exclusive spells that couldn't be broken by ordinary means.

According to the intelligence she gathered, Cui Xun's system is similar to that of ancient heroes, with terrifying combat capabilities, but lacking in other aspects, so he should not be able to detect her disguise.

But now...

Well, she had no intention of, nor dared to, contend with such a powerful figure. If she couldn't accomplish what she wanted to do quietly, then it wouldn't hurt to reveal her true purpose directly.

The maid introduced herself: "My name is Rowena. In a way, I'm a cousin of the blue-haired girl you met."

Alice frowned and interrupted, "Lovina! You are the daughter of Hengist, the Lovina who seduced King Albion fourteen hundred years ago and ultimately assassinated him?"

Rowena nodded, then shook her head: "I am indeed the Rowena you think of, but I did not bewitch Voughtan. He's almost old enough to be my grandfather. It's just that we happened to be born in the same era, and later bards have made far-fetched connections."

"Votingan's true cause of death was that years of indulgence weakened his body and martial arts skills, ultimately leading to his being killed by my father in a direct confrontation."

Cui Xun verified for Alice: "This is the truth."

Upon hearing Cui Xun's assessment, Alice lowered her gun. She said somewhat blankly, "Logically speaking, you should be the Queen Mother of the modern Albion Kingdom. Why would you visit so late at night? And how could that blue-haired girl possibly have a cousin like you?"

Cui Xun recalled the history of Albion.

The main characteristics of the Albion royal family are three: oaths, white dragons, and red dragons.

The oath originates from the ancient Albion myth of the king who swore an oath to the sun. The birth time of the white dragon myth is unknown, and related documents are missing. It can only be confirmed that a certain king was called the incarnation of the white dragon.

The birth of the red dragon occurred between the end of the myth and the formal birth of history.

Legend has it that a dragon slayer named Hengist killed a terrible red dragon, then crossed the ocean and landed on the continent where the Kingdom of Albion was located. He first used a scheme and a marriage alliance to get Vortigane, the then ruler of the Kingdom of Albion, to grant him a territory. Then he conserved his strength and, at a crucial moment, had his daughter poison Vortigane, and he took the opportunity to conquer the leaderless kingdom.

This story is somewhat dishonorable, but because Hengist maintained the royal lineage, the country was peaceful and prosperous during his reign, and many races were integrated, allowing the Kingdom of Albion to regain its glory. There are even many epic stories of Hengist and his heroes hunting giant beasts that have been passed down, so the people of Albion are still willing to acknowledge King Hengist.

After him, the ruler who maintained the status quo was called the White Dragon, the conqueror was called the Red Dragon, and the daughter of Hengist was regarded as the queen mother of the newly established Kingdom of Albion.

Cui Xun is quite similar to that King Hengist; both of them gained further extraordinary power by defeating powerful monsters, and then prepared to borrow the kingdom for their own use.

In this situation, Rowena should have an extraordinary status, especially since she has survived to this day. Under normal circumstances, she would definitely be the ultimate protector of the royal family. However, in reality, she is not familiar with Alice at all, and not even with the royal family.

Rowena said awkwardly, "Although I am the daughter of Hengist, I am not familiar with my father. He does not like daughters who play with witchcraft, and I do not like his rough personality, so after he became king, I moved to live in the forest."

"After that, I planted flowers and grass and studied magic. I spent more than a thousand years like this until the forest where I lived was cut down."

"When I finally realized that I had been paired with Vottigan, I was initially furious and wanted to correct the misunderstanding, but I found that I couldn't change the story that had been passed down in countless versions. So I prepared to use this identity as Queen Mother, which came from the misunderstanding, to go to the royal family, which can be considered a way of exchanging positions for losses."

"The king at the time was very angry. He questioned me about why I had never paid attention to Albion's affairs. He kept scolding me and finally, in his name, permanently stripped me of my status and told me to get out, so I left."

Alice's expression twitched.

Cui Xun lightly punched his palm and cheerfully summarized: "A thousand-year-old shut-in girl who is not good at communicating met a young king who cares about the world. The king could not accept someone who has power but does nothing. He was angry, but did not want to use such a person and cause her to be dragged into the vortex, so he directly drove her out."

"Actually, you weren't considered an enemy; even Alice didn't know you'd been removed from the list."

Rowena asked doubtfully, "Is that so? William actually thinks that way?"

Alice exclaimed in surprise, "William? You mean William the Conqueror! You actually met him! He doubled the size of Albion's territory in his lifetime, and completely subjugated papacy to royal power, abolishing the pope and establishing a universal patriarch!"

Rowena's expression turned bitter: "Yes, I know him. If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have hidden myself. I would have stayed in the kingdom and would be enjoying the respect and hospitality of the younger generation now."

Cui Xun corrected him, "It's also possible that he might be sent to the battlefield in some war, or be assassinated by foreign enemies and die young."

Rowena's mood calmed down again: "Indeed, but now I have to make a change."

"Human settlements are expanding, undisturbed forests are becoming increasingly scarce, and the power of artillery is growing stronger, even capable of breaking through my protective barrier."

"At the same time, being in a position of power offers far more enjoyment than it did hundreds of years ago."

"In order to make a better living, I had to form a society and climb the ranks, but I was hit by one blow after another. One minute it was the royal family wiping out the superhumans, the next it was the Serpent Cult swallowing up its own kind. I hadn't even enjoyed a few years of happiness before I had to rebuild the society."

"So, I decided to find a powerful backer like my father."

Alice suggested, "So, would you like to join us?"

Rowena shook her head frantically: "No, not at all. In my prophecy, you are like a raging wildfire, about to engulf the entire world. Mr. Cui Xun, like my father, is entangled in the fate of dragons and heroes."

"Fate?" Cui Xun frowned.

He had been affected by Andrew's magic and had not yet completely shaken off that untriggering, fate-like power.

He immediately pressed on, asking, "Is there a way to break free from this fate?"

Rowena continued to shake her head: "There's nothing we can do. Fate is an intangible thing, not an objectively existing substance. In a sense, it's just people's perception of the past and the future."

"To break free from fate, one must at least drastically change one's personality; however, such a change is so drastic that it is as destructive as death."

"Besides, the fate of dragons and heroes isn't necessarily a bad thing. You'll just frequently encounter conflict and might one day go mad. Even the most tragic hero is better off than the ordinary people, better off than the enemies crushed by heroes, isn't he?"

Cui Xun readily agreed.

If there is a way to change things, he will naturally seek to change them; if there is no way, then he will let things take their course.

Cui Xun steered the conversation back to Tessa: "So, Tessa is the new backer you've chosen?"

Rowena nodded vigorously: "Yes, she is the 'Child of the Earth,' born from the power of the stone that reflects the sky and the wheel that turns the earth. She has bloodlines similar to mine and is destined to become a great person."

Cui Xun heard two more strange terms and asked, "What are the Stone Reflecting the Heavens and the Wheel Turning the Earth? Are they some kind of deity?"

Rowena pondered for a moment, then hesitated before replying, "Based on my knowledge, they are similar to the sun, only much more hidden. But according to modern science, they may be meteorites that struck a planet tens of millions of years ago, determining its rotation direction and the force that drove the planet's rotation."

"According to astronomers and physicists, the rotation of the Earth's wheel might be due to gravity, which causes our planet to rotate?"

"Of course, this answer is not necessarily correct. We are still in the process of understanding the world, and any new discovery may overturn existing theories."

"However, I'm quite good at archaeology and have found many records about the Children of the Earth before the advent of writing. Would you like to hear them? They're all from my own research, but I can't guarantee they're absolutely accurate."

Cui Xun replied affirmatively, "I want to hear it."

Rowena took a moment to organize her thoughts before slowly describing the story of the Children of the Earth, as if telling a story: "The Children of the Earth are born at the moment when the forces of stone and wheel meet; they are a manifestation of the eternal movement of the world."

"The most typical children of the earth are giants. They may be the earliest intelligent beings in our world. However, because they were too powerful, they did not develop a society through cooperation. Instead, they completely withdrew from the stage of history due to continuous degeneration."

"In addition, each race has a chance to give birth to its own 'Children of the Earth,' who have larger bodies, more abundant spirituality, and longer lifespans."

"Most of the heroes with enormous physical forms in early human mythology were 'children of the earth,' and those colossal beasts that were as big as mountains were also very likely 'children of the earth.'"

"There are too many other details, so I wrote them all down in 'A Study of the Sons of the Earth,' which I recently sold."

"Is it possible that it was sold to you?"

Alice was momentarily speechless. She had never seen such a rare book containing ancient knowledge sold for money before.

In her memory, it was often after a bloody battle that she would break through the heavy protection of evil forces to discover such original texts.

They may be bait thrown out by the forces behind the scenes to achieve their goals, or they may be legacies left to future generations by extraordinary experts, but they could never have been written by the author himself to make money.

However, she remained calm and, while Cui Xun and Luo Weina were talking, quietly went to the study, found the book, and brought it to Cui Xun.

"Yes, that's the one!" Rowena looked quite happy, pointing proudly to the original text she had written. "It sold for a lot of money, directly filling all my funding gaps for the past three years."

Alice didn't think this was anything to be proud of. Most of the other powerful people who could write original texts of this caliber no longer cared about money in the ordinary sense.

Cui Xun briefly flipped through the original text, while Luo Weina stood proudly to the side, seemingly anticipating Cui Xun's evaluation. However, what she received in the end was not Cui Xun's praise, but rather an exclamation: "How could any fool use such an inconveniently readable classical Chinese to write a book about a money-making original text, and even mix in so many messy thoughts while writing it!"

"No, how come you still like using lead in cosmetics and sweeteners!"

Rowena said awkwardly, "Oh dear, I wrote quickly back then, and I was thinking about making money, so I didn't consider the quality. As for lead, it's useless to me anyway. I've been using it for hundreds of years, and I still find it useful now."

"Lead-added grape juice is fantastic."

Cui Xun warned, "If you want to teach Tessa and get her to support you in the future by helping her, you must change this habit."

"Lead is bad for children's brain development and can cause irreversible damage."

Rowena really wanted to say that according to her research, even if the Children of the Earth were not fully awakened, they would be immune to this level of metal poison. However, considering Cui Xun's attitude, she held back her words and said seriously, "Don't worry, I am over a thousand years old and have run my own supernatural organization. I know very well how to educate children."

"Don't worry about Tessa, leave her with me!"

Facing the lying Rowena, Cui Xun smiled and said, "Well said. That's why she'll get into the Royal Academy of Sciences Affiliated School. You can forget about ruining the child!"

"Alice, see the guest out!"

Alice raised her gun again and aimed.

Rowena said in a panic, "We can continue... Hey, don't put your finger on the trigger. My body is very weak. If you shoot me, I will really bleed."

Alice responded with a harsh command: "Get out!"

Rowena didn't like this woman who was using her position to intimidate others, but under Cui Xun's gaze, she still took a step back: "Okay, I understand, I'll leave now."

She walked away step by step, leaving the hotel, avoiding the surveillance of others, and returned to her hiding place.

Then, she faced the black mirror and switched her personality.

"all the best."