Goddess Kaleidoscope

Furthermore, Winnig told Ludwig that the Kingdom's army in the Southern Territory had completed its recruitment, totaling 30,000 men, organized into three 10,000-man squads. This new army was a true national force, under the command of the Cabinet's military department, not a private army of any particular lord.

The training of the new army was handled by the former Northern Allied Army, which had been reorganized into the Northern Legion of the Kingdom Army. The soldiers' training syllabus followed the original process exactly, while the officers were assigned to the military academy at Brewster College in batches for further study.

The future military strength of the Kingdom of Duran will mainly consist of five major legions in the east, west, south, north and central regions, totaling 150,000 regular troops, supplemented by local security guards and militia. The quality of the regular troops may not reach the level of the Imperial Legion in the short term, but at least it will not be too far behind.

As Ludwig was chatting with Winnipeg, Romian rushed in from outside and told Ludwig some unexpected news—King Durand's royal entourage had arrived in Pinetown on a northern tour.

"What? The king has arrived?"

Upon hearing that His Majesty the King was coming in person, Rudd was taken aback, as he had never heard of it before and was quite bewildered.

Romian explained that news of the king's northern tour had actually been sent by ravens long ago, but unfortunately it was the day after Rud set off into the forest, so he didn't see it.

The letter only stated that King Duran planned to inspect the northern regions and would be visiting Pinetown, so he was informing us in advance, but the exact time of his arrival depended on the situation.

Romian had written this down carefully in her memo, which was placed on Lud's desk. Unfortunately, last night when Lud was looking through the memo, just as he was about to turn to this page, Aina and Shanis arrived, and the memo, which he hadn't finished reading, was left there unfinished.

Upon learning that King Duran was coming, Ludwig gathered his disciples and Winnipeg, who happened to be there, and went out to greet him outside the town.

As a king, Ludwig believed he would not kneel before royal authority, but he also wouldn't feign arrogance and deliberately give others the cold shoulder.

The group quickly arrived at the town gate. The Kirk family had already arrived ahead of them. Mrs. Srina was directing the servants she had brought to make arrangements. When she saw Ludd arrive, she smiled and nodded in greeting.

After the war, although the kingdom declared a constitution and reclaimed the legislative and governance powers over the territories from the feudal nobles, it did not reclaim ownership. The Cork family, because of their merit in serving the king and also because of Lord Lu's influence, was promoted one rank and is now Viscount Cork.

The old lady plans to enroll her son in Brewster Academy next year when he turns six. As the saying goes, proximity to the water tower gives you an advantage; while others are scrambling to buy houses in good school districts, the Cork family simply owns a school district, and it's the top-ranked school in the country.

The crowd waited at the intersection for less than half an hour before spotting a large procession approaching from afar. Several banners embroidered with the royal insignia of the Durham royal family fluttered in the wind, making them virtually impossible to mistake.

Soon, the procession arrived before the crowd, with King Durand and Queen riding side by side at the head of the line. Many commoners on the town's side immediately knelt in respect, while the religiously privileged class, including Ludwig and Winnipeg, only needed to bow slightly.

"Welcome, Your Majesty the King and Your Highness the Queen."

"No need for formalities, Madam Srina. It's nice to meet you again, Master Lud."

Waving for the old lady and the young lord to rise, King Duran nodded to Ludwig beside him, then looked at Pine Town before him. Gazing at the rather sizable town, King Duran couldn't help but feel a sense of感慨 (gan3kai3, a feeling of mixed emotions, including nostalgia and reflection).

Two years ago, he granted this place to the newly appointed Baron Cork, because all the good places had been granted, so he had to look for new territories in the North, and finally chose Pinetown.

King Durand was quite embarrassed at the time, feeling that he had sent the orphan and widow away with a remote and dilapidated piece of land, making it seem like an exile. Therefore, he took a sum of money from the royal treasury to subsidize the Cork family.

It wasn't until later that he realized how outrageous the land he had granted to a newly ennobled baron who was only three years old at the time was.

At the Dragon and Lover Open-Air Opera House near Pine Tree Town, Lu De, who was present at the scene, was directing many craftsmen to set up the venue in full swing, so as to present the best effect when the Music God Festival officially begins next week.

The Music Goddess Festival is a special training program that Lude specially prepared for the Music Goddess Deli. Among the second-generation gods, she is currently the weakest, so she needs to be given special attention and strengthening.

In Lud's vision, although the Pantheon adopts the "divine sea tactic", it is not completely indifferent to quality. The passing grade must be at least the fourth tier.

Among the four second-stage gods, the God of War Sula benefited from the war and broke through to the fourth stage. Now she is a top-tier fighter in the Pantheon. In Pine Town, she uses the alias of a riding instructor at the Military Academy. Due to her noble and aloof appearance and heroic temperament, she is extremely popular at the school.

Jessie, ranked second, is already at the peak of the third stage and is about to break through. Her disguise is the general manager of SF Express, who manages Lude's group of troublesome oversized couriers.

Third is Alma, the Goddess of Balance, who also reached the third tier. Her strength is only slightly inferior to Jessie's. She is a lecturer at the law school and also runs a private law firm in the local area. Under the pseudonym "Lovely," she accepts cases to defend people. With her outstanding professional skills in litigation and her charitable act of defending the poor pro bono, she quickly made a name for herself.

Perform normally, and you'll be undefeated in every case!

He performed exceptionally well, and even sent the opposing defense lawyer to jail.

Compared to her three sisters born at the same time, the music goddess Deli is undoubtedly the worst off. They were all born at Tier 2, but now she's stuck at Tier 1.

After analyzing the situation, Lude concluded that Deli's slow growth was partly due to the war, which was detrimental to her collection of faith, and partly due to the cultural atmosphere in the Kingdom of Duran.

It's important to know that the empire to the south has always looked down on the Durans, calling them uncouth barbarians. Besides the inherent arrogance of great power chauvinism, another major reason is the backwardness of the culture and entertainment in the kingdom.

When painting and sculpture became popular in the empire, the Durans were wrestling.

While the empire was beginning to compose poetry and songs, the Durans were wrestling.

Later, when the empire officially entered the Renaissance period, and even the common people began to be obsessed with watching song and dance dramas, the Durans finally stopped playing one-on-one wrestling because they found it more fun to wrestle together in the snow with a large group of men shirtless.

Looking across the entire Duran Kingdom, only Yanmu City has a relatively developed cultural and entertainment industry due to the severe cultural invasion by the Empire. Secondly, the capital city, as the political center, is also passable.

According to Servis, the director of the Rainbow Dance Troupe, the entire Kingdom of Duran is a cultural desert, dotted with a few "oases." Some places are said to have opera houses, but upon closer inspection, they're just stables!

It wasn't until Ludwig emerged and "invented" the film that the Duran Kingdom was able to turn the tide and successfully launch a cultural counterattack against the outside world.

Therefore, if the goddess of music, Deli, is to thrive in the Kingdom of Duran, Lud must first help the people of Duran cultivate "cultural germs" and establish cultural confidence.

This concert marks the beginning of a new round of cultural warfare, for which Pantheon is sparing no expense. Lud has even come up with the ingenious idea of ​​live streaming, sending the beautiful music to all parts of the country, and even further afield, in real time.

To achieve this effect, divine magic is the only option.

In fact, the divine art of projecting sound across thousands of miles has existed for a long time, and basically every god knows it. However, traditional gods don't know how to do this, obviously because they don't realize the wonder of this technique.

Thanks to the Pantheon's current status and power in the Kingdom of Duran, which is almost equivalent to that of a state religion, Lud has already set up stations all over the country and done a lot of pre-event publicity.

When the concert officially begins, the divine magic will transmit the live footage to stations in other towns, conservatively estimated to reach millions of viewers. Afterwards, the recording crystals and projectors will allow mobile broadcasting teams to tour various locations.

It's worth mentioning that the Church of Light also provided strong support for this concert. They were responsible for broadcasting the event outside the Kingdom of Duran, and even had a broadcasting station in the City of the Sun.

At first, the Vatican's leadership hesitated, with some cardinals feeling that this was helping to promote heresy and was not in the interest of the Holy Church.

After the bishops finished expressing their objections, Pope St. Leonid, who had remained calm and composed throughout, slowly took out a gold scroll and handed it to the high-ranking officials present for their review.

The cardinals naturally recognized the golden scroll as a supreme oracle from the Holy Lord Carius, which contained only one word: "Help."

Since it's our boss who's spoken, there's not much more to say.

This was the first time Lud had fought such a high-stakes battle, and he was putting in all his effort, intending to turn the concert into another "miracle." To this end, in the underground hall of the temple, Deli and several other goddesses who were chosen to appear were undergoing intensive training.

While Ludd was arranging his work, on the other side, King Durand and his queen, who were on a temporary stay in Pine Town during their northward tour, were enjoying a local delicacy—hot pot—hosted by the Kirk family at the Viscount's mansion, together with the two great magicians, Hamilton and Debra, who had just arrived from the south.

In terms of strength, Hamilton and Debra are the leading figures in the magical world of the Duran Kingdom, the two saints of water and fire, and strategic-level mages capable of casting forbidden spells.

In terms of relationship, one was the maternal uncle and the other was the paternal aunt. As a junior, even though King Duran was already the ruler of a country, he still treated them with great respect when they met.

The situation in the south is becoming increasingly stable, and the Empire and the Kingdom are gradually withdrawing their frontline troops and high-end combat forces in accordance with the signed ceasefire agreement. As a result, Hamilton and Debra were able to return to the north.

Anyway, Songshu Town is the headquarters of Shunfeng Express. If trouble really breaks out again in the south, a dozen dragons are fully capable of launching a strategic deployment and sending these high-end combat forces there again within 24 hours.

At the dinner table, Hamilton, who hadn't enjoyed spicy food in a long time, was happily feasting on hot pot meat, while Debra and Duran were discussing recent developments in the South.

Debra won't be leaving Pine Town anytime soon. The Three Towers and Lude have partnered to open a magic branch within Brewster Academy, where the three chiefs will take turns serving as branch deans.

In fact, Brewster Academy's magic branch had been established for almost a year and had even held classes for a period of time. However, the outbreak of war forced the Three Towers to transfer all their mages to support the front lines, leaving the branch without teachers with no choice but to suspend classes until now.

On the day of the music festival, before it was completely dark, local people began to flock to the opera house in small groups.

The students who received free group tickets gathered on the playground after dinner, and then, led by their teachers, marched in formation toward the opera house. Their neat and orderly ranks and steps immediately attracted many surprised glances as they walked down the street.

The locals and merchants familiar with Brewster College's educational style remained relatively calm, but for newcomers, seeing a group of eleven or twelve-year-old children marching in formation better than many old noble private armies was quite unbelievable.

"Could this Brewster Academy be a military academy?"

Although some people were talking about it, the general reaction was friendly, especially from parents with school-aged children, who craned their necks, trying to find their little rascals in the queue.

However, not everyone's attention was focused on the students. Under the shade of a tree by the roadside, a tall man dressed plainly but exuding an air of nobility was staring intently at the elementary school students' teacher who was passing by.

"It really looks like it."

"Your Majesty, please be careful. Local regulations are very strict. Staring at young children will attract the attention of the sheriff."

"What kind of talk is that? I was looking at my daughter... she's my teacher."

"Then the sentence will be even harsher."

"..."

At the urging of his attendants, the wealthy middle-aged man reluctantly averted his gaze from the young female teacher with Argonian blood. However, just as he was about to wander off elsewhere, he saw a familiar face smiling and waving at him from a nearby alley.

The middle-aged man sighed softly and walked toward the other party with his attendant, whose head was covered by a turban.

Good evening, Master Lude.

"Good evening, Mr. Adrian. What brings you here?"

"Uh... I... just came to take a look."

"Sir, please have some self-respect!"

Looking at the man before him, who was feigning composure to hide his embarrassment, Lud was rather speechless. It was one thing for the emperor of a mighty empire to engage in incognito visits, but to actually do it in a hostile country was another matter entirely.

Do they really think that signing a ceasefire agreement will turn the two sides from enemies to friends?

Lude was certain that if Adrian's identity were exposed at this moment, even if he had a master like Bourne protecting him, Lude would not make a move. The hospitable Durans would still swarm him and not rest until they had torn him and his clothes to shreds!

Of course! With Ludger around, such a thing would never happen.

Following Lude, the three of them moved to a quieter spot to talk. Lude was curious as to why the other party had come to his territory without a word. Adrian sighed and said that he had been exhausted by various upsetting things lately, so he had come out to get some fresh air and stopped by to see his daughter.

Lu De couldn't help but complain in his heart, "Your capital is at least two or three thousand kilometers away from Songshu Town, what kind of road is this?"

However, Lude did not expose the other party's little scheme.

Without making things difficult for Adrian, Ludwig gave them a few words of advice, gave him and Bourne each a ticket, and then turned and headed to the temple.

Ludd was originally directing the event at the opera house when Hume suddenly approached him and said that the "two gentlemen" had arrived and were at the temple. Without saying a word, Ludd handed the matter over to someone else, but on his way back, he happened to run into the Emperor.

Soon, Rudd returned to the temple. Upon entering the reception room, he saw Kumirad and Karius, but also two unfamiliar faces, a man and a woman, were present. Sensing the overwhelming pressure emanating from these two, which was clearly not something ordinary people could possess, Rudd couldn't help but exclaim inwardly, "Holy crap!"

Holy crap! The three great gods have gathered here? Do they think I'm in some otherworldly Yalta?

Lu De was familiar with the Heavenly Mad War God and the Goddess of the Four Seasons, but this was the first time he had seen their true forms, or rather, their projections, in person.

One of the musclemen, like his idol, was tall and strong, with muscles so developed they looked like he'd taken performance-enhancing drugs. The Goddess of the Four Seasons, on the other hand, was a cold and aloof beauty who glanced at Rudd once and then ignored him.

In contrast, the God of War's expression was clearly unfriendly. He was about to stand up and do something when he noticed that Kumirad and Karius were looking at him from the left and right, so he sat back down awkwardly and unwillingly.

After the Gadu War, while the number of followers of the Cult of War did not plummet dramatically, its decline was undeniable. Many followers turned to the Pantheon, where one of the twelve goddesses was sure to suit their taste.

To say that the God of War doesn't care is something even he himself probably doesn't believe.

As for the Four Seasons Goddesses, Lude had indeed had some minor frictions with them before, but compared to the War God Cult, which had engaged in serious and large-scale conflicts, it was nothing.

It is worth mentioning that when introducing the goddess of the four seasons, Karius refers to her as "Catherine" instead of "Hararea".

Seeing that Lud was somewhat puzzled, Kumirad explained.

"This is actually the goddess of winter. You should have heard that the goddesses of the four seasons were originally four goddesses, each in charge of one of the four seasons. Later, they merged into one and became the goddesses of the four seasons. For the past three hundred years, the original goddess of summer, Hararea, had been in control of the body, but this time the breakthrough failed and Hararea's divinity had some problems, so Ekaterina stepped in to take over."

"Don't they know about the Four Seasons Sect?"

"I don't know, because Catherine is rather aloof and rarely interacts with her followers. If Karius hadn't come to our door in person, we wouldn't have known that she had come out."