Fangzhou Xier, starting with failing the art exam

Behind the barrier, Lacey's army was unharmed, and their formation remained intact.

Lacey maintained her raised hand gesture, remaining calm and composed.

"No...impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Otto's ferocious smile froze completely, and he cried out in disbelief.

The wine glass in his hand crashed to the ground with a "smash," and the crimson liquid spilled out.

"This...this was a strike from the tower! He...he was all alone..."

The seven sorcerers inside the tower were ashen-faced. Two of them, whose spells had been forcibly interrupted, suffered a backlash, spitting out blood and collapsing to the ground.

How can it be?

There was only one person on the other side!

How did he manage to block such a massive attack?

Is he, Yueyi, the reincarnation of the Witch King?

Otto's body began to tremble uncontrollably, not from anger, but from a long-forgotten fear.

He suddenly realized that his proud tower might be utterly vulnerable in front of the man before him!

Lacey's strength has far exceeded their expectations!

The tower is currently sparsely defended, and the enemy could easily break through its defenses with just one person.

Even if they could barely hold off Lacey with the tower sorcerers and the remaining Golden Law Guards, what if the Sarkaz mercenaries behind him charged forward...

The few remaining guards in the tower were no match for them!

He's done.

"My lord... my lord..." The chief of staff was deathly pale, his voice trembling, "What... what should we do?"

Otto did not answer; he stared intently at Lacey's calm face on the screen, trying to find a flaw in it.

But he failed; his face showed only absolute confidence and composure.

Just then, a member of the military police rode forward on horseback and shouted:

"Otto Gladstone!"

"Give me a straight answer! Do you surrender or not!"

Otto swayed, and he managed to steady himself by holding onto the table.

surrender?

The Gladstone family ruled the Wasser territory for centuries and had never surrendered before.

But... not surrendering means certain death, and a death without any dignity.

Inside the tower, the few remaining tower sorcerers looked at each other, their eyes filled with fear.

The staff in one of their hands clattered to the ground.

They were sorcerers who served the Elector, not assassins who would be buried with him.

Otto listened to the deafening clamor outside urging him to surrender, and then looked at the guards and sorcerers around him who had lost their will to fight.

He slumped into his chair, looking as if he had aged ten years in an instant.

He lost, lost miserably, without a doubt.

Continuing to resist will only lead to a more humiliating death.

Perhaps... there is still a sliver of hope to preserve the last vestiges of dignity for the family.

Otto took a deep breath and ordered in a hoarse voice, "Disarm...disarm the defense."

The chief of staff was stunned for a moment, then felt as if he had been granted a pardon and scrambled off to deliver the order.

A moment later, the energy circuits surrounding the tower flickered a few times before going out completely.

“Bring Lacey up here alone,” Otto’s voice came through the amplification array. “I need to talk to him.”

The gate beneath the tower slowly opened.

“Mr. Lacey, be careful, this might be a trap!” Taylor immediately stepped forward, his face full of vigilance.

"Yeah, boss, this old guy is definitely up to no good. Why don't we just storm in and drag him out!" W held her bomb, eager to try.

Lacey shook her head.

"He has no more cards to play."

He looked at Serafina: "Wait for me down here."

"No way!" Serafina refused without even thinking.

"I will go with you!"

Her Originium Arts allow her to sense emotional fluctuations; if Otto harbors any murderous intent, she can detect it immediately.

Seeing the determination in her eyes, Lacey didn't insist any further and nodded.

He turned to Taylor and Hedley and instructed them, “You wait for me outside. If I haven’t come out in half an hour, you storm in immediately.”

“Yes!” Taylor answered loudly.

Hedley nodded, which was taken as agreement.

He watched Lacey's retreating figure with a complex expression.

This young man not only possesses terrifying strength, but also the courage and strategy to match it.

Perhaps Kazdel's future truly requires more interaction with people like this.

……

Inside the tower.

On both sides of the corridor, the Golden Law Guards who should have been on duty all had their heads down, placed their weapons at their feet, and avoided eye contact with Lacey as she approached.

Serafina followed closely beside Lacey, her hand always on the communication device at her waist, ready to unleash her Originium Arts.

However, she did not sense any killing intent from the guards, which made her breathe a slight sigh of relief.

After walking through a long corridor, they arrived at the throne room on the top floor of the tower.

……

Holy Lytanian Empire: Chapter 42: The Elector! The Elector!

Otto Gladstone sat on his throne, trying to straighten his back and maintain his last vestige of dignity as an elector.

He had changed out of his military uniform and into a relatively simple aristocratic dress, but that could not hide the air of defeat about him.

On the table in front of him were two wine glasses and an opened bottle of red wine.

When he saw Lacey and Serafina walk in, Otto's eyes flashed with complex emotions. He did not get up, but simply made a "please" gesture, indicating that they should sit in the chairs opposite him.

Lacey sat down calmly, while Serafina chose to stand behind him, warily scanning their surroundings.

Otto poured himself two glasses of wine and pushed one of them toward Lacey.

"Try it, the best stuff from Syracuse."

"Looking back now, all I've been pursuing over the years is these things."

Lacey didn't touch the glass of wine; she just watched him quietly.

Otto chuckled self-deprecatingly, picked up his glass, and downed it in one gulp.

"I have to admit, you are very strong, stronger than I imagined."

"But I refuse to accept this!"

"Oh?" Lacey finally spoke.

Otto slammed his glass down on the table, looked up, and stared directly into Lacey's eyes: "You won, only because you were lucky."

"If it weren't for that bastard Kester stabbing me in the back in Kazdel, causing me to lose 80% of my elite troops!"

"If it weren't for me sending out the last of the tower's guards to suppress the mob!"

"You wouldn't be standing here today!"

After he finished speaking, he tried to see a look of pride or agreement on Lacey's face, but he was disappointed; Lacey's expression remained calm and composed.

“You’re just lucky!” Otto’s voice suddenly rose, as if trying to convince himself.

However, Lacey just smiled.

"luck?"

He shook his head: "Otto Gladstone, don't you understand why you lost?"

"What do you mean?" Otto frowned.

"Do you think that the opportunity in Vassehr is my only option?" Lacey said slowly.

"My success was not accidental, and your failure is even less accidental."

"Your expedition to Kazdel was a foolish move in itself. Do you really think the Duke of Victoria would genuinely help you?"

"They just want to use you to weaken the Sarkaz's power and, incidentally, weaken you as the Elector of Letania."

"Whether you win or lose, you are a loser; your defeat was already predetermined."

"As for your sending troops to suppress the strikes within the territory, that was exactly what I expected."

Lacey strolled to a floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the red flag fluttering on the plain outside.

"A lord who has just suffered a crushing defeat on the front lines and is eager to save face and maintain his authority has no choice but to suppress the internal challenges with bloodshed."

"The more brutal you are, the more the people of Vaser will side with me."

"It was you who personally pushed them to my side."

"You sent out the suppressing troops, which drained the tower's defenses and created the perfect conditions for my attack."

"Therefore, there is no such thing as luck. This is all your own fault, and you have brought this situation upon yourself step by step."

Otto sat blankly on the throne, all color draining from his face.

But he still asked somewhat resentfully, "I'm curious... what would you have done if I hadn't gone on the expedition to Kazdel, and if my army had remained intact in Vaseland?"

"You can't exactly say that this is also part of your plan, can you?"

"As I've said before, my success is not accidental."

Lacey revealed her original plan: "Even without all the stupid things you, Otto, did, I could still achieve my goal."

“The Ston Territory of the Hochberg family,” Lacey uttered a term.

“Shi Tongling?” Otto uttered the name in a trembling voice.

Lacey nodded. "The former Elector Hochberg and his eldest son died in the September Uprising. Now his second son, Werner von Hochberg, has succeeded him."

"He was a young, inexperienced, and unstable new lord. During his succession, there was bound to be a lot of internal power struggles and instability."

"Moreover, Shi Tongling has equally abundant mineral resources and an industrial base, and the people there are no less oppressed than you are here."

"Mein Kampf also has a large readership there, and taking over Shitong territory would not be much more difficult than taking over Waser territory today."

Lacey's words shattered the last shred of hope in Otto's heart.

He finally understood that Lacey's success was not due to luck at all.

I was just unlucky. I wasn't originally in their plan, but I was chosen as their target because a flaw happened to appear.

Even if he hadn't lost here today, Hochberg, or some other elector, might have fallen tomorrow.

From the very beginning, their sights were set on the Electoral class of Letania.

He deserved to lose.

Otto remained silent for a long time.

Serafina could clearly sense that the intense emotions in his heart, such as anger, resentment, and despair, were slowly fading away, eventually turning into a deathly silence and desolation.

　"I lost," Otto said calmly.