The Villain Princess survived the Imperial Riot

"Deserved it?" Hestia shook her head. "Are you talking about the student at Opha College who's working part-time to pay for his studies? Or the cleaner with seven children to support? Or the slum girl whose parents are seriously ill and whose family is struggling to make ends meet, hoping to make some money selling dolls at the festival?"

"This, this is impossible..." Gros Lier opened his mouth, "No one has ever mentioned this to me."

What he did was upright and aboveboard, and it brought welfare and hope to the entire Yunling community. How could he be a murderer?

"I'm very sorry. You were a promising young man who could have served the empire, but you were led astray by the rebels' words." Hestia said regretfully.

"No! The Empire is the culprit of everything!" Gross struggled to stand, then quickly sat down again within the constraints of the chain code. He glared, "Countless people have been bullied and exploited by the Empire's machine, living lives worse than even the dogs of the rich..."

"If they're not doing well, that's their own problem. What does it have to do with the rich?" Hestia pressed her palms together, signaling him to hold his breath. "You work as a catcher on a fishing boat. On average, you earn 150 to 180 shillings a week. It's not a life of luxury, but you get fish and vegetables, and you get a day off every month."

"So... so what?"

"Cloudtop City has eighteen thousand ratmen," Hestia said, "but you rarely see them. They live in filthy sewers, working as scavengers plagued by poverty and disease, earning a meager salary of less than thirty shillings a week. So, can I say that the ratmen's lives are unhappy because you have a better life than they do?"

"That's different..." Gross muttered, racking his brains. "Since they're not doing well, shouldn't the Empire give them the care they deserve?"

"Deserved care?" Hestia sneered. "You keep talking about bullying and exploitation, but the ones who are most prejudiced against the lower classes aren't the nobles or the rich, but you, the vested interests."

Gross was stunned, his mind was confused for a moment - when did he become a vested interest?

"The Empire treats all its citizens equally. If it weren't for the fact that the wider population complained that the ratmen had taken their jobs and ruined their cities, beating and humiliating them, why would the ratmen have lived in hiding?"

"..."

Gross thought about the few ratmen he had met, and felt that what the fourth young lady said seemed to make some sense.

Is the problem with him?

"That's different!" Gross said anxiously. "What about those rich but heartless imperial officials and the upper class? We laborers are providing them with our lives and health at the cost of their fine clothes and delicious food! Yet they leave us to fend for ourselves..."

"Have you left yourself to perish?" asked Hestia.

"Uh……"

"You didn't fend for yourself. You have a job, a career, and one day you'll even have a wife and a healthy, fulfilling life." Hestia smiled faintly. "But if there were no rich people, no businesses, no factories, I ask you, how many people would lose their jobs? How many would be torn apart by poverty? And do you know that the terrorist incident you orchestrated directly led to a 70% decline in Cloudtop City's business? Those who lost their livelihoods, and suffered from hunger and cold, shouldn't the Empire also be held accountable?"

"That's not true!" Gross scratched his head. "If there were no Empire, then all of us would naturally be better off—"

"If there were no Empire, the Ross herders would have expanded their pastures to the Cloud Ridge Coast, and you would be no more than a slave and groom for the barbarians! If there were no Empire, the birdmen of the Eternal Heaven would have turned humans, dwarves, gnomes, ratmen... all the citizens of the Empire into experimental subjects to be slaughtered at will, studying their eternal lives and paths! If there were no Empire, would those greedy elves on the land of Avalon have treated you as a human? It is the Empire that protects you fools from war and chaos!"

Hestia argued convincingly, how could a hot-blooded young man fishing at sea come up with any countermeasures?

He seemed to think that what the girl said was right, but he also felt that there was a problem in some key link.

"But those nobles..." Grolinus was about to recount the atrocities he had committed to his wife (which he had memorized in great detail).

"Let me ask you, if the gangs, beggars, and drug dealers in downtown aren't upper-class people, do their evil deeds represent the general public?"

"Uh...can't."

"Then why can't there be bad people among the nobles and wealthy businessmen? Can a few individual cases represent all of them?"

"Do not……"

Gross no longer had the same arrogance as before. His mind was full of what the girl had said before, the figures of 4 deaths and 13 injuries due to the Rongguan Square incident.

At the same moment, a moth crawled into his shoulder. As the fungus poison was absorbed, his previous will seemed to plummet to the bottom in an instant, and he was no longer the same as before under the blow of Hestia.

"There are bad people in Free Will," Hestia said again, "How do you think you were able to sneak into the Upper Town undetected?"

"Uh?"

"You are a secret cultivator, right?"

Speaking of secret cultivation, Gross finally perked up. He said firmly, "Yes, I am a glorious freedom fighter. Even if it leads to the wrong consequences, I believe our original intention is correct. I will never surrender to the Empire..."

"Do you know about the war between secret cultivators?"

"Secret cultivation...war?"

"If I say that you attacked the statue because of the secret instigation of other factions of mystics, who want to promote a complete confrontation between free will and the Empire, thus bringing about your destruction and the disaster of thousands of common people..."

Hestia knocked on the table, striking a heavy blow to Gross's defenses. "Are you willing to become a sinner to the world for your false illusions?"

Volume 28: Dreamers: . The Greenhead

Hestia was not the princess she used to be, and she had no desire to kill this worthless young man.

Kill him so he can be canonized and become a propaganda banner for free will?

She doesn't want it!

Not to mention the worm's instigation behind this matter, even if there were no worms and everything was a choice of free will, Hestia would not order the execution of the two.

It is necessary to first tarnish their name and then destroy their heart.

Gross was in a trance after being asked by Hestia. He suddenly felt that he was overwhelmed by an unprecedented fear - that fear was not the fear of death, but the pain of his actions, which were contrary to his aspirations.

"But you could never have sneaked into Crown Plaza and planned that terrorist attack without anyone noticing," Hestia whispered. "For the safety of the people of Cloudtop City, if you still have any conscience left, tell me who instructed you to do this, and where is your base?"

Gross was in a painful struggle. He couldn't believe that his act of justice led to the death of four innocent lives, nor could he betray his companions who fought alongside him.

Otherwise, it would be a blasphemy to the victims.

"I can't say..." Gross gasped, as if he was trapped in a heavy depression. "You'd better kill me..."

"The Empire strives for order and justice. As a princess of the Empire, how can I disregard the law and arbitrarily order the execution of others?" Hestia said kindly. "Even if your crimes are heinous, I know you were deceived. That person might not even be your own free will, but a spy lurking among you. Think about it, do terrorist attacks, other than harming innocent people and angering the Empire, actually cause any damage to the Empire?"

Gross was startled, then trembling, he said, "He's willing to sacrifice his life for his ideals, how could he be a spy? At least we resisted..."

"he?"

"No, I won't tell you." Gross said, but his eyes were glancing around the cell environment, appearing very anxious.

"Actually, I know a thing or two even if you don't tell me. I'm not telling you just to give you the chance to regret it. You are a brave young man from the empire and should not be taken advantage of." Hestia paused and said softly, "Little Demon Rat Boutique Alley, right?" Gross's pupils shrank slightly. Although he tried his best to restrain his shock, Hestia still saw the clue.

Sure enough, the boy named Ryan was no accident.

Hestia's reason for this speculation was based on the assumption that the worms were instigating a complete confrontation between the Empire and free will.

"The brutal and inhumane imperial censorship carried out a brutal crackdown on the slums, resulting in countless casualties." If this had appeared on the front page of the next day's newspaper, it would have aroused immense public outrage.

Under normal circumstances, public outrage wouldn't have a significant impact on the Empire. Even if free will were to rise, it would only result in the High Knights leading the Iron Army. But with the Worm's conspiracy mixed in, it was a different matter.

She smiled and said, "As for the man you believed was willing to sacrifice his life, are you so convinced just because he shared the same cell with you for several days?"

"..."

"I'll give you time to think about it," Hestia said. "The Empire has never been your enemy. Tell me about your base and the members of your organization. As long as they sincerely repent, the Empire will spare their lives. Otherwise, everyone you come into contact with, your friends and neighbors, may be labeled a traitor."

After saying that, the princess left the interrogation room and went to the next room.

The rebel prisoner next door was slightly older, in his early twenties, unshaven and haggard. But despite his haggard appearance, he stared at the princess with a hawk-like gaze, as if he wanted to peck at the beautiful girl's flesh and blood.

"Vellen Crete, right?" Hestia pulled out a chair and sat down. "You know me?"

"..."

"It doesn't matter if you refuse to cooperate, because your companion has confessed everything about how you deceived him. Including who you are and what your plans are."

"Impossible, I know Lille's character, he will never surrender to you--" Crete retorted subconsciously.

"Normally, not." Hestia smiled as she watched Chloe's moth rest on Crete's head. "But if he stops being bewitched and confused about right and wrong, he'll immediately know who to turn to."

Crete lowered his voice: "I don't understand what you are saying..."

Hestia stared at the other.

The spirituality presented by Veron Crete in the Witch's Book is rather strange. It is a curved spiral blade with insect eggs on its surface, but it is not as strong and alluring as the worms that twist the path. It is just elusive and sometimes disappears.

It felt as if he was controlling the worm rather than the worm controlling him, and he didn't seem like a completely twisted mystic who had become the worm itself.

Therefore, Hestia immediately determined that Veron Crete was no ordinary free will member.

He is not powerful, but crucial.

"Aren't you curious about what he told me?" Hestia asked.

"..." Crete was silent for a moment, but he couldn't help being led by the nose. "What did Lil say?"

Hestia looked into his eyes, his dark pupils were like a gravitational abyss.

He did not show any emotional changes due to the invasion of moths. He remained very stable, like a deep pool without ripples.

This guy firmly believes that Gross will not surrender. Is it because he trusts his companions, or is he simply confident in the effectiveness of the bacteria and virus?

He knew about the existence of bewitching.

Hestia made an immediate judgment.

"From the time he joined you, to the time he accepted the Blade's favor, to the time he embarked on the path of esoteric cultivation, I know everything he experienced, including your secret base."

"Gross couldn't have known that the person he saw was Zhiren—" Crete was speechless as he blurted out the words. He asked gloomily, "How do you know that Zhiren saw him?"

Because this is the free will tradition that is publicized in the forum.

Hestia narrowed her eyes and smiled, looking unfathomable.

There are not many free-will members who truly become secret cultivators. Every blade cultivator must pay homage to one of the Six Blades and become his disciple.

Gross Lier hadn't yet become a full-fledged Blade Cultivator, but he had already embarked on the Dream Realm and possessed the aura of a Blade Cultivator. This indicated that he must have had contact with a Blade Wielder.

But the question is, why do people who are stared at by the knife still suffer from bacterial and viral infections and face the temptation of worms?

Could it be that Zhiren is collaborating with the worms?

This is impossible……

Hestia subconsciously denied this idea, but she also felt that this seemed to be the most reasonable answer.

"Because he's already suspicious of your purpose," Hestia said meaningfully. "Cooperating with the worms, do the other Blades know what you're doing?"

Crete's ten fingers clasped on the table suddenly clenched tightly.

"No, Gross couldn't have known—" Crete's eyes were bloodshot, scarlet and ferocious.

He knew very well what kind of disaster would happen if this news was leaked.

"Of course he couldn't have known. But if I told you that being locked in the same cell with you was just a feint to confuse you, and that he'd already defected to us back in the police jail, how would you react?" Hestia counted on her fingers, her posture leisurely. "Why do you think the prison break failed? And how do you think I got the information about you wielding the blade?"