Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

“I have failed both the people and my mother, so I have no choice but to die to prove my innocence and persuade her to change her mind.”

She paused, looked down at her toes.

"Although I don't want to die either. I also have my own dreams and life, but there are some things I have to do."

Li Xianyu remained silent for an even longer time.

The corridor was quiet, with only faint sounds of commotion drifting in from afar.

“Your Highness already possesses the qualities of a king, but unfortunately, you were just one step off course…” she sighed. “However, I have no right to stop my benefactor from doing whatever he wishes to do—in truth, in my heart, suicide is the most beautiful way to die. Because the person who commits suicide has already prepared for death and faces it with equanimity. I will witness Your Highness’s death and, in the end, transform you into the most perfect spirit.”

Freya thought for a moment and nodded seriously: "Thank you, you can come with me then."

Li Xianyu was stunned: "Am I going to die too?"

"Correct."

Freya replied matter-of-factly, "I am a traitor, and you are my guardian sorcerer. If I'm dead, how could you possibly survive?"

Li Xianyu's expression shifted several times before she finally sighed, "...To be honest, I really hate people who commit suicide. Cutting off the branch of life prematurely is the most irresponsible thing to do. I can't watch my benefactor commit suicide!"

As she spoke, she took out a small porcelain bottle from her bosom, uncorked it, poured out a brown pill, and slapped it into Freya's hand.

The pill was only the size of a soybean, with a smooth surface and a faint medicinal fragrance.

"If you eat this, you will stop breathing within a breath, and your heartbeat will be almost imperceptible as you enter a state of suspended animation. You will naturally revive after a day."

Freya's eyes lit up: "Thank you! What's the name of this pill?"

"Because people will eventually leave this world, this medicine is just a fake death pill for necromancers to experience death in advance, hence the name 'Fake Death Before Death'," Li Xianyu explained. "And the pill formula was created by the golden alchemist 'Weaver' at his peak, so it is also called 'Weaver's Peak'."

Freya held the pill, repeating its name several times. She felt like she'd heard it somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.

"Never mind." She put the pills away. "Anyway, let's go inside."

Li Xianyu followed behind her, and the two of them pushed open the heavy bronze door of the audience chamber, one in front of the other.

…………

The audience chamber was very large, with a dome so high that the top was not visible. There were only layers of murals and reliefs that stretched from the walls to the ceiling.

Beneath the dome, a huge golden throne stands at the highest point of the steps.

Queen Alvira sat on her throne, wearing a crown and holding a golden scepter in both hands, silently watching the newcomers.

Below the steps, two rows of nobles stood in neat rows, their expressions indifferent and their eyes vacant.

No one looked at Freya, nor at the army surging in behind her; Freya's mutiny was as if it had never happened to them.

Freya walked to the steps, stopped, and looked up at the woman on the throne.

"Mother Queen, I'm back."

The Queen did not respond immediately, but looked at Freya quietly, her eyes full of pity, from her disheveled hair to her dusty nightgown: "Freya, you have suffered during this time."

"My body is not suffering, but my heart is suffering greatly," Freya said. "Does Your Majesty know that the people of the world have long been dissatisfied with His Majesty?"

"It seems my little Freya has a problem with her mother."

Alvira sighed, "Tell me about it."

Freya stood at attention and solemnly declared, “The laws of the kingdom have long since betrayed the original intent of justice, becoming a means for nobles to legally plunder the people—now Your Majesty has driven out the virtuous and appointed the wicked, leading to the desolation of the land and the plight of the common people. The people toil, unable to find even a day's food; the masses struggle, barely able to ward off the chill of half a night… The world is exhausted and the people are resentful; the state is crumbling and the world hangs in the balance!”

"May I ask Your Majesty, is this the kingdom you envisioned? Is this still the pure land protected by the gods?"

The hall was as quiet as a tomb, and the nobles stood motionless, their faces expressionless.

Freya.

The silence was broken by the Queen's voice: "You have your own ideas, I see your growth, and I am very pleased."

She straightened up slightly, her blue eyes, the same as Freya's, looking at her calmly: "Now that you have your own political views, let me ask you a question—what is a nation, what is a king, and what is the world?"

Freya was stunned.

She pondered for a moment and slowly began to speak: "Gathering people together makes a family, gathering families together makes a nation, gathering a nation together makes the world... Therefore, the world and the nation, this person is the only one who is the emperor, the ruler of men..."

After listening, the Queen slightly turned her head and looked at Li Xianyu behind Freya:

"The principles you've put forward, including your previous manifesto, all sound so eloquent and powerful. Did that elf beside you teach you that? Who is she?"

"She is merely my guardian sorcerer; these are principles I discovered while browsing through the royal palace's collection."

“I thought you only read fairy tales in the collection.” The Queen raised her eyebrows slightly, her voice tinged with a hint of satisfaction. “Little Freya, you’ve been working hard in places I didn’t know about.”

Freya's heart skipped a beat at her mother's praise, but she quickly calmed down: "Mother, do you have the answers in your heart when you ask me these questions?"

The Queen glanced at her, then leaned back on her throne.

Her gaze passed over Freya, over the nobles, over the doors of the audience chamber, and looked out at the gray sky.

“The exact opposite of yours,” she said.

"The state is nothing but a violent machine in the hands of the ruling class. The king is merely a representative of the ruling class, therefore everything should serve the ruling class. Who is the ruling class?"

"Nobles, wealthy merchants, and officials. As long as their interests are protected, what does it matter if the common people suffer a little?"

Freya immediately retorted, "The people are the foundation of the nation."

The Queen chuckled and continued, "A single Gold Saint can slaughter a city in a single day, and a single Silver Saint can create far more wealth than thousands of ordinary people... And all the silver and gold within the kingdom comes from nobles, officials, and wealthy merchants!"

"But those people are also His Majesty's subjects!"

"So what?" the Queen said, sighing. "To give you an example, if a dragon were to attack, would you save the people of a city or a golden prince?"

"Of course, we should save the majority of people."

"You save one city, but the dragon will go and kill another; you save a golden man, but he can kill the dragon—is it hard to see which is more valuable?" the Queen said. "In this world that is about to end, the people are like weeds in the field; once cut, they will always grow back, but the strong are the real wealth and need to be carefully protected... You will understand one day."

"But what should be done if the powerful commit evil?" Freya asked.

"Bound by rules, educated by morality."

"What if we fail?"

“Then kill them.” Alvira raised her eyes. “Use the virtuous when they are wise, discard the wicked when they are wicked. If they do not obey the law, they can be killed even if it is gold.”

"But right now, it is those powerful people who are committing evil according to the law!"

Freya recounted in detail what she had seen and heard, from Liu Ruyan and Harari's massacre of citizens by imperial decree and the implementation of the policy of turning people into souls; to the depravity of the church priests, who obeyed His Majesty's orders to conduct heinous experiments; and finally, to the nobleman Fran, who enslaved an entire city's people with his own resources, treating slaves as livestock...

Freya became more and more impassioned as she spoke, and finally couldn't help but kneel down: "Please, Mother Queen, dismiss the treacherous minister and stop the evil laws!"

Alvira shook her head: "No."

Why?

Under Freya's puzzled gaze, Alvira said, "Have you forgotten what your mother just taught you? As long as the strong can carry out the king's orders, what does it matter if they kill the people of one or two cities? They'll just grow back anyway—besides, I'm the one who ordered them to do these things."

"what?"

"By altering human souls, a large number of unconscious blood slaves can be created to provide food for the vampires, whose average silver coin count is high, thereby strengthening the nation's power. And once those souls enter the Celestial Realm, they can quickly promote the financialization of all things, further consolidating the kingdom's competitive advantage."

“Father Puzi is conducting experiments on fusion warriors as ordered, striving to surpass the Holy Kingdom in this regard. Killing a few people in the process is no big deal. Fran is not only conducting experiments on the ‘End Producer’, but also an important force in promoting the Celestial Realm. Besides, the people he kills are his property.”

“These people are all loyal ministers, all serving the country and the king, and all upholding the law. How can they be called treacherous ministers?”

Alvira stood up, walked down the steps, and approached Freya step by step. Her blue eyes were so close that they seemed like two mirrors, reflecting Freya's pale face.

Freya lowered her head and looked at her bare feet.

Her fair soles were already covered in dust, red from the cold, and her toes were curled up. Stepping on the cold marble made her numb with cold.

The attempts to persuade her failed, and the Queen Mother remained obstinate.

She remained silent for a long time, then reached into her sleeve and touched the pill.

In the end, she could only believe that her mother loved her—or at least wouldn't be indifferent to her death.

Even a slight change would be a good thing for all people.

Freya never considered killing her mother, nor did she ever think of becoming queen—if she could, she would rather not have embraced the dragon that night and continued living in this fairytale castle, completely unaware of everything outside.

She really didn't want to, and didn't like to, take on those responsibilities.

But she had already seen it, and could no longer ignore it—unless she was no longer a princess.

"Mother Queen," she said softly, as if talking to herself, "am I considered a strong one?"

Alvira nodded: "You are a princess, capable of subduing a dragon single-handedly, commanding Fran's 30,000 troops, and have even found a gold-rank guardian sorcerer—you are naturally a powerful figure."

"Then, could I offer my life in exchange for Mother Queen stopping the evil laws and implementing benevolent governance?"

Freya raised her head and put the pill in her mouth.

Li Xianyu's eyes widened suddenly. She saw Freya's Adam's apple move, and then the color drained from Freya's face at a visible speed, her lips turning from pink to white, and then from white to purple.

Her body swayed, like a sapling broken by the wind, and then fell straight forward.

"My benefactor!" Li Xianyu rushed over to catch her, tears streaming down his face. "How could you take the poisoned purple clay?! This is the most poisonous half-step poison in the world! Even a golden healing sorcerer cannot cure this poison. Why would you be so foolish?"

Freya leaned against her, her eyes half-closed, a slight smile on her lips, as if she had finally put down something very heavy.

Li Xianyu looked at her; her eyes were red and her hands were trembling. Then she took out another pill from her sleeve and put it in her mouth.

"If you die, there's no point in me living." Her voice trembled with tears. "I'll die too!"

She swallowed it, then collapsed to the ground with a thud, lifeless.

Two bodies fell onto the cold marble floor.

Alvira: "..."

She desperately wanted to say that she had overheard the conversation between the two in the palace, as well as their plan to feign death and plead their case, all through the wind spirit…

However, these two naive and innocent girls are not the main point, nor are the 30,000 Immaculates in the city. The real problem lies with the Platinum Dragon King that hovers over the kingdom.

"Send the princess back to her room and erase her memories of the last few days." Alvira paused. "Interrogate this elf first. If she's not an imperial spy, erase her memories and send her back."

The palace maid beside them received the order and walked towards the two of them step by step.

Just then—

"boom!"

The ceiling exploded.

Broken tiles and rubble fell with a crash, and amidst the billowing dust, a gigantic figure blocked out the sunlight—it was a dragon.