Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

…………

Royal Palace, Sleeping Chamber.

The candlelight illuminated the edge of the bed, while the rest of the palace was shrouded in darkness. Queen Alvira rested against the pillows with her eyes closed.

She was only in her forties, but her face looked like that of a ninety-year-old. She had very few strands of dry, white hair left, and her skin clung tightly to her bones. The contours of her cheekbones, the arch of her eyebrows, and the lines of her jaw all protruded from under her thin skin.

The imperial physician knelt beside the bed, holding a silver bowl in both hands.

The Queen opened her eyes, looked at the bowl of medicine, then her lips trembled slightly as she chuckled self-deprecatingly:

"...Even you betrayed me."

The royal physician's hand trembled slightly, and he raised his head shakily, only to find that the Queen was not looking at him at all.

"As expected, nothing could escape the eyes of the legendary 'Empress.'"

The drop of medicine that had seeped onto the quilt began to wriggle, gathering into fresh blood, and then transformed into a golden thread that suddenly pierced into the imperial physician's head!

The imperial physician shuddered, then exploded, leaving behind a trail of blood that sprouted skin, bones, and pale golden hair, transforming into a human form.

The guardian spirit summoned by Harari, the first progenitor of the vampires, a vampire determined to die a thousand deaths—

His Holiness Distobia Vitoso Suised stood quietly by the bedside.

"Who sent you?"

The Queen asked softly.

“A ruthless person.” The Lord tilted his head slightly. “She sacrificed more than twenty members of her family to beg me to kill you… and I agreed.”

As she spoke, her sharp fingertips stopped three inches in front of the Queen's brow, and then she stabbed hard!

"what……"

The master stopped, his fingertips digging into his skin, and looked down at his abdomen.

She didn't know when, but her belly had started to swell slightly, like a woman several months pregnant, and something seemed to be moving inside her—

"Is it the authority of the 'Empress'?" the Venerable One asked with a smile. "You only have one month to live, yet you forcibly use your authority... You're going to die anyway, so why bother?"

"It's just fulfilling a dying wish," the Queen said softly. "Aren't you going to stop it?"

"My mission was simply to kill you. Now that you're about to die, it doesn't matter." The Lord shrugged. "Anyway, I'm just a projection."

As she spoke, her belly swelled up like that of a woman in her tenth month of pregnancy, and then suddenly burst open!

An infant slid out of the womb and began to grow the moment it hit the ground. Within three seconds, it had grown into a graceful young woman, with features, figure, and hair color that were exactly the same as the Lord.

At the same time, the Lord's body withered and decayed, turning into ashes.

The newborn girl touched her belly, watching it swell as two new babies slid out of her abdominal cavity.

A baby is born, grows, becomes pregnant, and is born...

The pace of childbirth and growth accelerated, and the newborn lords soon filled the palace!

They had changed their clothes sometime during the night, and each of them possessed the cultivation level of a Gold Saint. They turned towards the bed and knelt before the Queen.

"Mother."

"The Empress!"

This card is also known as "Mother," symbolizing abundance, life, and intellect. It can give life to both living and inanimate objects—living objects will reproduce, while inanimate objects will develop their own intellect.

And all beings that are given life will regard the Empress as their mother and obey her every word!

Even more terrifying is that if used on a living being, the newborn will absorb all of the original being's power and memories, while the original being will die on the spot after giving birth to the child!

The Queen leaned against the pillows, her face even paler than before.

"I'm dying." Her lips moved, and her voice rose from deep in her throat. "Call your sister Freya back... tell her to stop playing around."

Dozens of lords bowed their heads at the same time:

"Yes, Mother."

They turned around, walked barefoot across the ground stained with amniotic fluid and blood, and one by one walked into the moonlight and disappeared.

The bedchamber fell silent.

The candle finally burned to its end, the wick tilted into the wax, the light shrank to the size of a pinhead, flickered one last time, and went out.

The Queen slowly closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

Then a phantom scepter floated up from her chest. The scepter was completely transparent, as if it were made of crystal, and it contained memories of time.

The palace began to shake, and the edges of everything in the room began to blur before disappearing into thin air, sealed in time by the scepter. A palace guard burst through the door, nearly stepping into the void. He grabbed the doorframe, his gaze sweeping over the illusory scepter slowly rising in mid-air, and his face paled for a moment.

Then he turned around and shouted:

"His Majesty has passed away, and the Source Essence is spiraling out of control. Quickly, raise white smoke!"

The people behind them had already run away.

A minute later, a thin wisp of white smoke rose from the chimney atop the tallest tower of the palace, drawing a pale line against the deep black sky.

…………

The Claire family estate, banquet hall.

The explosion did not stop Sylvia's coming-of-age ceremony; the ball began.

Waiters carried freshly replaced wine glasses among the guests, the band started playing again, and the guests gathered in twos and threes. Some were on the phone, some were repeatedly refreshing their phone screens, and some were standing by the window with wine glasses, looking through the gaps in the curtains at the still burning fire in the east of the city.

Sylvia moved among them, talking to each guest and calming their emotions.

They quickly arrived in front of Cheng Cheng.

“Father has already gone to handle it, but I don’t know what happened.” Sylvia finally showed a hint of worry. “Something feels off, but I can’t leave right now…”

"It's alright, we'll go take a look in a bit." Li Xianyu patted Cheng Cheng's shoulder. "Your Highness, what are your thoughts on Sylvia's campaign speech?"

Cheng Cheng shook his head: "I only care that my own people become queens. I don't care who the queen is."

"Freya, you're quite magnanimous..."

The group was chatting when their phone suddenly rang.

Not just one, but hundreds of cell phones in the hall rang simultaneously, the chaotic ringtones drowning out the band's performance, like an unrehearsed band playing the first note of "Spring Shadows" all at once.

I looked down, opened my phone, and found a breaking news story—no headline or text, just a picture.

Above is a castle chimney, from which wisps of white smoke are rising.

"The Queen has passed away."

Someone muttered to themselves, and four words fell into the hall, but the entire banquet was silent.

“How is this possible…” Freya’s voice murmured in his mind, “But… Mother Queen clearly still has at least one month left to live…”

Even though Cheng Cheng was in control of the body at this moment, he could still sense Freya's soul-deep pain and trembling through his mind.

He opened his mouth, unsure how to comfort him.

Li Xianyu and Sylvia looked over with concern, opening their mouths to offer comfort, but worried that Freya would be too distressed after hearing the bad news; meanwhile, Princess Mary stepped out from the crowd in the distance, grabbed Sylvia's wrist, and led her to the high platform.

"A country cannot be without a ruler for a single day," Princess Mary declared loudly. "Now that His Majesty has passed away, I recommend Heidi—"

"Oh no!"

Someone in the crowd raised their phone and interrupted: "Harari announced his coronation live!"

"what?"

The phone was snatched away, and then a monk projected the video directly into the air.

In the footage, Harari stands in front of the main gate of the palace, wearing a deep red dress, and announces to the national news cameras:

"With the passing of the Queen, I, Harari, as the only officially elected candidate, am now broadcasting the coronation ceremony live from the main gate of the Royal Palace. All ministers are requested to assemble at the Royal Palace immediately to attend the ceremony."

Princess Mary's lips tightened into a thin line, trembling with anger: "Who does she think she is, to ascend the throne so easily? Did the royal family agree to it? Did we consent to it?"

In the video, the palace gates are wide open.

Two bronze doors were pushed open from the inside to the sides, and court guards filed out from inside, lining up on both sides, seemingly to welcome the arrival of the new king.

A figure emerged from the depths of the royal palace.

The light shone from behind, casting shadows over his face until he stood still next to Harari, at which point the light finally climbed onto his face.

"Father?"

Freya's bewildered voice echoed in his mind.

The man before you is Prince Konoma, the husband of Queen Alvira who disappeared ten years ago, and the father of Princess Freya!

The prince raised his head, facing the camera directly, a slight smile playing on his lips, exuding gentle elegance and refined manners.

“Harari is my daughter.” He reached out and gently patted Harari’s shoulder. “Now that Freya is missing, on behalf of the royal family in the name of Prince Konoma, I hereby declare Harari as the first in line to the throne.”

The hall was silent for a few seconds.

The crowd's gaze shifted from the prince's face to Harari's, then to Sylvia's, unsure of what to do... until Navel, who was attending the banquet, drew her sword, and the surrounding crowd dispersed from her like a receding tide.

"Her Majesty the Queen has treacherous advisors!" Navel roared. "The throne should belong to Sylvia! All of you, follow me—"

"Purge the court of corrupt officials and set the record straight!"

The nobles were in a state of confusion. Some supported Sylvia and followed Navel in drawing their swords and storming the palace; others thought that Harari, having gained the prince's approval, was the most qualified... while many more were still observing and waiting to see what others would do before making their own move.

Cheng Cheng stood at the edge of the crowd, lost in thought.

He remembered the witch's trials, and the cave allegory the witch had told him and Freya:

“A group of people were locked in a cave, facing the cave wall, unable to turn around. Behind them was a fire, and someone was moving in front of the fire holding animal models, casting shadows on the cave wall. The prisoners could only see these shadows and thought that this was the real world.”

If the witch's trial is like the shadow cast by a flame on a wall, similar in form but different, then could the content of the trial foreshadow the ending in reality?

He began to recall and compare—in the trial, Freya's father disappeared after having a baby with the Queen at the beginning, but no one cared; in the trial, someone also stormed the palace under the pretext of purging the court of corrupt officials, except that it was Cheng Cheng himself who did it, not Navel…

In the trial, Karen and Vilette were entangled with themselves, while in reality, one was transferred to the border and the other was drawn by an explosion; as for Queen Alvira, she also died, only she died from her own rage.

as well as……

Thinking of this, Cheng Cheng suddenly froze on the spot, his pupils contracted, and cold sweat poured down his face.

In the final trial related to him, it was Freya...