Why are all of us who transmigrated at the same time demons?

Therefore, many adopted sons were nothing more than cattle and horses. Nobles used the title of adopted son to keep them in their possession, giving them a nominal title and a bone. On the surface, they had the obligations of parents, but in reality, they did not enjoy the treatment and rights of parents.

Even so, many people still flock to be adopted by nobles. Why? The empire now places more and more emphasis on birth, and being adopted is the only way for many people from the lower classes and foreign ethnic groups to rise in society.

Tilsius used a similar tactic. Although Loran was Cassius's adopted son, Loran did not inherit Cassius's title. Lucius and others had previously produced a similar "adoption invalid" document, which Tilsius could then use as a pretext to directly declare the "adoption invalid."

In this way, Loran would not be someone else's adopted son, and Tyr'sius could take advantage of the situation.

However, based on Loran's understanding of Tilsius, the latter simply treated him like a beast of burden. Tilsius had already decided to transfer his most valued illegitimate son to his brother-in-law's name, and then have his wife adopt him.

Don't think that your wife's family is at a disadvantage; many families that can't produce legitimate offspring do the same thing.

Marriages between noble families were essentially alliances between two clans. If the couple had no children, it meant that the alliance between the two families was no longer secure.

Once an illegitimate child is registered as an adopted child, it means that the illegitimate child has no inheritance rights to his wife's family and doesn't need to worry about threatening his wife's family through this registration. However, because he was first registered under his wife's family, in the eyes of imperial society, the illegitimate child is now tied to his wife's family.

By having the child influenced by both families, both sides can pretend they don't know the truth and continue their cooperation under this pretext.

Of course, none of this could be told to Loran. In Loran's eyes, Tyrcius had simply taken in another adopted son; Tyrcius remained the same childless adoptive father.

The empire has many adopted children, and since he is not their biological son, Loran has a good chance of inheriting Tyrcius's title and property.

In this way, Tirseus can use the inheritance to keep Loran hanging on, making Loran work for him.

At the same time, we can also find a way to take over the legion under Loran's command, and in the name of brotherly harmony, we can get Loran to share some of our son's military achievements. It would be even better if we could let our son learn Loran's military skills.

After he has completely taken advantage of Lorraine, he will find a way to kick her aside and leave everything to his own children.

A mere barbarian from the East, does he even deserve to inherit the title and property of my Oaklius family? Bah!

But these plans could not be hidden from Loran, whose "other-transformation" exposed Tilsius's thoughts completely.

Tyrcius had the idea of ​​taking advantage of Loran and then kicking him to the curb, and coincidentally, Loran had the same intention towards him.

"Just wait and see. In the end, we'll see whether you, Oakius, will devour me, or I will devour your entire Oakius family."

Loran fired an arrow, striking a huge wild boar squarely. The thick arrow pierced the boar's left eye and went straight through its brain. Soon, the boar lay prone in the grass, no longer moving.

"General, you're a master archer!"

Many soldiers who accompanied Loran on his hunting expedition cheered.

Loran put away his purple-robed longbow and laughed, "Skin and debone this wild boar. I recently bought some spices from the East from a merchant. Today, everyone can try my cooking!"

Chapter 242 The Godfather's Game: The Dragon-Riding Family Came from the South, and the Calamity of the Underworld Originated in the Northern Frontier

With both Loran and Duke Tilsius harboring their own schemes, an adoption ceremony rife with intrigue proceeded smoothly.

"I have spent half my life wandering, never encountering a wise ruler. Now, I have met the Duke, which is like seeing the moon through the clouds. If you do not abandon me, I am willing to become your godfather!"

"Godfather?" Tyrius felt like he had misheard something. "Foster father, right? What's a godfather?"

As an adoption ceremony witnessed by many people was completed, a mysterious connection was formed between the two, and their fates, like a train on a fixed track, began to head towards a predetermined destination.

............

"The Draconis family from the Southern Islands?" Loran looked at the official letter delivered to his desk, stamped with a seal resembling a long red snake on the papyrus, and felt a sense of doubt. "A nobleman from the Southern Islands of the Empire wants to pass through our Northern Lands? And he even sent me an official letter requesting an escort?"

"Claudius, have you heard of this family?"

Claudius shook his head. He had never left the North and his family was only a minor noble family. He knew the North fairly well, but he was completely clueless about the southern part of the empire.

"In that case, let's go ask Old Deng!" Loran happily decided to ask Tyr'sius; if Old Deng could be used, then so be it.

At this point, Tyrius was still quite amiable towards Loran and answered readily.

"The Draconis family was the first obstacle the Empire encountered during its conquest of the South. However, it was precisely because the Draconis family chose to join the Empire that the subsequent conquest of the South proceeded so smoothly."

"This family is known as the Dragon Riders. Legend has it that long ago, this family rode dragons and flew across the sea, conquering the entire southern archipelago and even venturing onto the mainland."

"However, with the start of the Seventh Age, the gods rarely set foot on the earth, and dragons were nowhere to be seen. Even wyverns were rare. As a result, the Draconis family declined, but they are still a first-class noble family in the Southern Islands and have produced several governors."

"They have no dealings with us in the North, so why did they hand over the official letter to you and request the 37th Legion to escort it?" Tilsius was also somewhat puzzled and dissatisfied.

After all, Loran was his adopted son, and he was also the Duke of the North, a true local tyrant in the Northern Frontier. It was outrageous that the Draconis family wanted to cross the border into the Northern Frontier without sending him a message!

"Dragon riders?" Loran became somewhat interested. Like Targaryens?

"Does the Draconian family have business here?" Loran asked.

Tilsius shook his head.

"The businesses run by Draconis have nothing to do with our Northern Frontier. To be honest, they have quite a few iron mines, and our Northern Frontier is also a famous iron smelter in the empire. That's all. We've never had any major interactions before."

"Could it be that you've come for the dragon?" Loran smiled. "After all, you're a dragon rider!"

Tilsius waved his hand dismissively: "Where would we find dragons these days? At most, we might have a sub-dragon."

"The Draconis family is talking nonsense. Why don't they catch the dragons in the south and instead come to our northern border to catch them?"

As if struck by a thought, Tyrius quickly rose. He paced around the study a few times, then looked at Loran.

“My son, the Draconis family definitely has ulterior motives. You should agree to the escort, and go there yourself. Pay close attention and figure out their purpose.”

At this moment, on the main road thirty miles outside Winterfel, the capital of the Northern Frontier Province, a group of horsemen dressed in a style quite different from that of the people of the North were galloping along.

"I didn't expect the roads in the North to be so well-maintained. Unlike our roads, which are all broken and dilapidated." A purple-haired girl wearing a heavy black cotton robe and a felt hat with a dragon emblem looked at the road beneath the horse's hooves with some surprise.

An older young man walking in front of her nodded approvingly.

"The people of the North are also masters of road construction. I've heard that they use huge stones as a base and mix clay with iron slag to compact the foundation. Roads built this way can last for hundreds of years without breaking down."

"When the rebellion broke out in the northern frontier, many nobles united against the rule of Emperor Gaius and colluded with the barbarians in the northern plains. It was the emperor who quickly assembled the Imperial Guard and rushed to the northern frontier at superhuman speed to quell the rebellion. The emperor's speed in marching was inseparable from the roads that the empire had carefully maintained."

"It's a pity that in the northern frontier, you can still see the remnants of the empire's heyday. But in our country, all we see is corruption and turmoil. The empire's incompetent bureaucrats care about nothing but collecting taxes and making money."

The purple-haired girl suddenly looked worried.

"Brother, will we succeed this time? Ever since the last dragon of our family, the Flame King, died three hundred years ago, we can only see real dragons in the family's picture books."

"Now a prophecy has suddenly appeared, saying that a true dragon will descend to earth in the Northern Plains. Is this true?"

The young man, who also had purple hair, turned around on his horse, looked at the girl, and said solemnly.

“Iris, we have no choice. Our family has been cornered by the Emperor.”

“My aunt and nephew have been ordered to be executed by that tyrant. He is eyeing us covetously, coveting the enormous wealth that our family has accumulated over the years. The empire's warhammer is about to fall on our heads. We need a true dragon to deter them.”

Iris asked, puzzled, "If that's the case, then why did you inform the Northern Frontier of our itinerary? Wouldn't that directly attract the Empire's attention?"

The purple-haired youth's face turned cold: "Iris, our whereabouts cannot be hidden from the Empire. If we were in the south, we could still conceal it to some extent, but now we are traveling from the south to the northern frontier, almost traversing the entire Empire. How can we possibly escape the tyrant's notice?"

Iris stared wide-eyed, utterly bewildered: "But if that's the case, Brother Lucius, why weren't we arrested?"

Lucius's face showed humiliation and anger: "Because of that tyrant, he wants to watch us go into the North."

“Once we enter the North and make contact with the Duke of the North, he will declare our Draconis family as traitors, and then declare the North nobles who have been in contact with us as colluding with traitors, and then deal with them all.”

Iris's eyes widened, clearly not expecting the emperor to be so despicable.

Lucius looked at Iris with eager eyes.

“Iris, your dragon-riding bloodline is the best in our Draconis family. You are the only one who is most likely to tame that newborn true dragon. The safety of the family rests entirely on your shoulders.”

Iris nodded.

"Don't worry, brother, I will do my best."

Beside the brother and sister, a burly man in armor and carrying a sword secretly rolled his eyes.

"Only a fool like Iris would believe such a bullshit lie. Although the emperor is cruel, he is not stupid."

The northern nobles had no intention of rebelling. On the contrary, they stabilized the northern border of the empire and did not owe too many taxes. The emperor had nothing better to do than force them to rebel.

Moreover, it was while fighting the South that the North was forced to rebel.

"Does the empire seem too stable? Do you want to experience the taste of national subjugation?"

However, the burly man didn't say anything. After Iris did that "stupid thing," she was already considered a dead person in the family's eyes.

How to maximize the use of this "dead person," such as using her blood to bring back the ice dragon that was on the verge of death, is what they are currently doing.

"It's a pity that the ice dragon was already in the gap between the underworld and the mortal world, and the sacrificial knowledge passed down in our family was lost in that war. So, in order to avoid the spirit of resentment polluting the sacrifice, we had no choice but to coax this fool."

A barely perceptible hint of dissatisfaction flashed in the burly man's eyes. This kind of thing should have been done secretly, so why did those old bastards insist on making such a big fuss about it?

A prophecy? Hasn't the prophecy already ruined the great Draconian family, the dragon riders, badly enough?

Chapter 243 The Godfather's Game: The Origin of the True Dragon Stirs Up Storms, and the Pen of Fate Writes History

The pantheon of the Plantagenet Empire was quite similar to the pantheon of ancient Rome, with the relationship between gods and humans resembling that of unequal collaborators or patrons and patrons.

God possesses immense power, but needs human offerings and commemoration to maintain his glory; humanity needs God's help, but this help can be "asked" or "obtained" through proper rituals.

I offer sacrifices, and you bestow grace upon me.

If my wish is granted, I might offer even more lavish offerings in return. If the gods fail to keep their "covenant," people might feel disappointed, even dissatisfied, or even expel them from the pantheon.

Unlike monotheistic justification by faith, the Plantagenets' pantheon of gods places great emphasis on external rituals, with the precision of the rituals taking precedence over everything else.

A single mispronounced word or a wrong step could render the entire ritual invalid and require starting over.

The degree of inner piety in one's faith is far less important than the correctness of one's outward behavior.

This led to the belief system of the Pantheon placing knowledge at the top of the hierarchy; only by mastering the knowledge of the gods could one receive their blessings.

Knowledge, however, can be monopolized.

In a world where true gods exist, knowledge of gods is power, status, and glory.

After the beginning of the Third Age, the influence of the gods on earth began to decline, which also marked the beginning of the rise of the Plantagenet, which represents secular power.

Therefore, the original Plantagenets, and even the nobles and kings in various places, were all priests at first. In the process of conquering various places, the Plantagenets incorporated the gods worshipped by these priests into the pantheon, thus leaving a place for these conquered people in the empire. This inclusiveness is also the fundamental reason for the empire's continuous strength.

The Pantheon of the Golden Plant is a union of the gods, a collective divine race led by the King of Gods, the Heavenly Father.

The Draconis family was originally a theocratic nobility, and their deity was named "Tim, the Mother of Dragons." In the earliest Draconis view, the Mother of Dragons gave birth to twelve true dragons, and these twelve true dragons each gave birth to twins.

The eldest son is the "true dragon" in people's minds. They are incredibly strong, with sharp teeth and claws, scales as hard as steel, powerful wings that can propel their heavy bodies to fly freely in the sky, and they can also control various elements and spew out terrifying dragon breath. However, they are inherently irritable and lack wisdom.

In Draconis's view, these "true dragons" in the eyes of the world are not true dragons; they can only be considered "secondary dragons" or "dragon sons."

According to Draconis, each of the twelve dragons gave birth to twins, with the eldest being dragon-like and the youngest being human-like, who were their ancestors.

While Draconis's body was strong for a human, it was still weak compared to his dragon-like brothers. However, he possessed wisdom and rationality that his brothers lacked.

Only when wisdom and strength are combined can the true dragon's power be displayed in the world.

Therefore, in the eyes of the real Draconis, the so-called "true dragon" actually refers to the lesser dragons and Draconis as a whole.

The Empire dismissed this as nonsense.

The empire has its own explanation for the origin of the dragon.

Many of the gods in the Pantheon are associated with dragons, a powerful magical species. The most popular saying in the Empire is that "dragons were born from the blood and fire of the gods' battles and were first raised by the God of War," while Tim is classified as a subordinate god of the God of War.

Draconis does not want to acknowledge this claim.

But with the arrival of the Third Age, the gods began to disappear, and the dragons closely associated with them gradually withered away. After the death of the last dragon of the Draconis family, the Flame King, only dragon beasts and wyverns with dragon blood could be seen in the world.

Having lost the power of dragons, the Draconians reluctantly accepted the official explanation given by the Pantheon under the empire's fists, but internally they still adhered to the faith of the Mother of Dragons.

"Is there a gap between the mortal world and the underworld in the Northern Plains? Is an ice dragon lost there? Are they planning to sacrifice a Draconian and use his blood to bring him back?"

Loran looked at Lucius, whose eyes betrayed his contempt, and felt a strange mix of emotions.

With so many advantages, Loran will never have a problem learning any knowledge without a way to do so.

Therefore, in terms of relevant knowledge, Loran, who appears to outsiders as a simple warrior who cultivates martial arts, can actually be called a "high priest" or a "great sage".

That's why he was puzzled.

“There’s a rift in the underworld in the Northern Plains. How could I, a high priest who has spent years in the Northern Plains and the northern frontier, not know about it?” Loran saw off the Draconis family, who thought they had behaved very well and won over the “Eastern Barbarians” before them.

"Arriving according to the family prophecy? It seems like some group excluded from the material world has made their move! Perhaps I can add something to it?" Loran asked with great interest. He reached out and a quill pen appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The quill pen began to write on its own on a piece of papyrus on the desk.

"The arrival of the Draconian family has stirred up the already predetermined river of fate in the North, and a new tributary is about to form, as an invisible hand reaches into the Father's domain."

"Under the arrangement of an unseen force, Iris Draconis Marco, who had an affair with a member of the Julius family, was sacrificed as the chief offering at the Northern Altar, along with the Draconis members who accompanied her, and then..."

At this point in the story, Lorraine immediately grabbed the quill pen.

"Then, Iris Draconis Marco was pregnant, and she told no one. This wicked mother hid her slightly protruding belly under her wide robes, and the sacred blood of the Julius family and the blood of the dragon riders were combined in her womb."