Become their wicked yet gentle lord.

Looking at the map, Otus's situation resembles a pressure cooker. Although the Payne family and other restless forces are still obeying the Empire's orders, it's because they are waiting for the old emperor to die...

Internal corruption, financial shortages, the hedonistic lifestyle of the capital's nobles, and infighting among the imperial heirs... Ottos even showed signs of being weak internally than externally. Take the fourth prince, Elias, for example; he was a typical example of someone who believed that political struggle was more important than force.

Externally, the Vino barbarians to the north have long been a threat, while other states in other directions are also eyeing the empire with predatory intent. Many local nobles have effectively broken free from the empire's control. Even a powerful figure like Traul Nikolai, the Ice Dragon Hunter and Heavenly Rank General guarding the northern border—a Heavenly Rank expert who should have been a deterrent to the local nobles and barbarians—has gradually become entangled with them…

"Due to their constant engagement in small-scale external warfare, the armies under the command of the Heavenly Generals possess greater combat strength than the Empire's Central Legion. Although their individual strength is weaker than the Imperial Guards, they have a numerical advantage, and other Imperial Legions cannot compare to them..."

Heflian spoke earnestly, slowly recounting her understanding of the composition of armies in various regions. She frequently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, a habit that had become almost ingrained since she had her hair cut short once. Even now, as her hair gradually grew back, this gesture of brushing her hair with her fingers remained. This added a touch of girlishness to Heflian's already delicate features and aristocratic air, creating a stark contrast with the wild, warlike heart within her.

"Moreover, since the empire began to face financial difficulties, the emperor has tacitly approved some instances of soldiers being recruited and funds being raised independently... What are you looking at?"

“Look at my woman.” Ryuka said bluntly when Heflian noticed his gaze and looked up.

Heflian was slightly taken aback by Ryūka's sudden frivolity, spat lightly, but a slight smile appeared on her lips. However, she still feigned slight anger, hands on her hips, and asked Ryūka:

"Aren't we talking about serious matters? Ryuka, are you even listening to me?"

"Listen, the emperor has tacitly approved some instances of soldiers being recruited independently and funds being raised on their own..."

Compared to the sense of accomplishment she felt as a beautiful woman, Hafren valued the sense of accomplishment she felt as a soldier and a general far more. If Ryūka didn't value her military talents and worth, Hafren would become withdrawn for a long time.

So Ryukatsu immediately repeated what she had just said, which made Hefleen smile with satisfaction.

This was the first time Liu Xia had heard this. He continued to ask Haifulian, "Won't there be instances in those regions where people only recognize their generals and not the emperor? And in that case, the number of troops in various regions that the capital controls might not be accurate..."

"What can we do?" Hefley shrugged. "We can't pay them. In Sochi, I've never heard of anyone besides the Imperial Guard who can guarantee that every soldier's pay will be issued on time and in full. And the Imperial Guard is almost entirely composed of noble sons, so theoretically they're the least short of money among all the legions..."

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"The situation may be even more serious than that. Mages are better off, but many commoner knights who come from military academies either find their own way after their service ends, or become private soldiers and bodyguards for nobles."

Many of Hafley's private soldiers came from this source.

Therefore, sometimes you shouldn't look at the size of a nobleman's title, but rather at how much money he has. For example, Earl Duke, though also an earl, was far less wealthy than the Payne family; the knights Lady Mara brought with her were enough to rival him…

Now, with its 5,000-strong armed force, Ryūsha is undoubtedly a behemoth in the East. The majority of Ryūsha's army consists of ordinary civilians, which alleviates the immense pressure on its military pay. However, the recent turmoil in Sochi has significantly impacted tax revenue, making this expenditure particularly noticeable. Kira had previously proposed a one-month delay in paying military salaries to use the funds to salvage the market, but this was vehemently rejected by Hafulen.

Although Ryūsha was able to recover the money Adela had stolen within a month, and the ransom he received from the Clovis and Harvey families had also recouped some of his losses, Hafren objected to Kira's statement that "it's only a month late, and we can make up for it immediately."

"This involves the issue of trust within the military. For example, the city garrison—if they go hungry this month, do you think they'll try to find a way to survive while on patrol?"

Ryuka still remembers Heflint's words vividly.

"In my opinion, what's keeping Autus from falling apart is probably the reclusive Three Saints."

"And witches..." Ryuka added to Hefren's words in her mind. The world doesn't know of the existence of witches, but the Holy See does.

Compared to the restless noble forces, the Papacy is Ottus's greatest enemy. And all the hidden ambitions are waiting for the right opportunity…

That is the death of the current emperor.

When the time comes, princes will fight princes, witches will fight witches, and all sides will truly show their true colors.

If the Payne family were to recognize Clovis as their ruler, they could legitimately contend for world domination. Other royal heirs and their vassals would likely follow suit; as for who would ultimately swallow whom up in the end, that remains to be seen.

After all, the Ottus dynasty was always a fragmented feudal empire.

And the Emperor? What is he doing in the current situation? Ryusha pondered, focusing his gaze on the capital. As it stands, he probably intends to exploit the infighting among the nobles to implement a provincial and bureaucratic system, thereby changing the empire's structure and centralizing power. Moreover, the provincial system generates more tax revenue for the empire than the feudal nobles, and even if it's not universally implemented, partial reforms can alleviate the empire's financial pressure.

However, in Ryuka's view, this goal requires many preconditions.

First, controlling local areas requires rapid information transmission. If a letter takes ten days or half a month to arrive, local nobles and officials will inevitably deceive their superiors and subordinates.

However, in Ryuka's view, this goal requires many preconditions.

First, controlling local areas requires rapid information transmission. If a letter takes ten days or half a month to arrive, local nobles and officials will inevitably deceive their superiors and subordinates.

Secondly, it's crucial to free violent rule from its reliance on individual military force; otherwise, it will forever need a group of capable knights and mages to control its territory. Whether noble or high-ranking general, they all believe their status stems from their own strength, not from the system or institutions. (The remaining text appears to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated gibberish.)

Of course, the most important condition is time. Many victories in history were not because the winners were the strongest, but because they outlasted the other old men in a contest of endurance.

However, that's a matter of fate... But now, there is something that can solve the emperor's first two troubles at the same time.

That's magic technology!

The communication crystal ball made rapid message transmission no longer dependent on high-level magic and powerful magicians who possessed spells.

The performance of magical weapons on the Sochi battlefield demonstrated that ordinary soldiers also had the potential to defeat noble knights and mages.

The fruits of decades of development in magical technology gave the emperor the confidence and motivation to carry out reforms.

Then, he needed an opportunity. A dispute between nobles, creating a power vacuum in a portion of the territory, would prevent the nobles from being emboldened to establish the first province…

This province doesn't need to be too successful, nor does it need to have a very perfect system. As long as it can be established, it will be the beginning of reform!

Alongside these two achievements in magical technology, which appeared before the world, was himself marching from Linhu Territory towards Sochi...

Thinking of this, Liu Xia couldn't help but laugh. From this perspective, her rise to prominence and the outbreak of war in Sochi were truly a godsend for the emperor—a stroke of luck, like someone handing you a pillow when you're dozing off. No wonder her appointment as governor of Sochi was so smooth, and all her subsequent actions received the emperor's tacit approval.

Circumstances create heroes, and heroes are also created by the times...

"Unfortunately, I'm no 'hero' of Otus..."

When the birds are all gone, the good bow is put away. Liu Xia understood that no matter how important his existence was to the emperor now, once the emperor no longer needed him, he would immediately remove this arrogant 'local emperor' who controlled an entire province!

Like the Payne family, they must have rendered great service to Otto. Now, however, they are a thorn in the emperor's side! Even if they haven't harbored rebellious intentions or supported Clovis and others, no emperor would allow them to exist!

In particular, Ryūka possesses a terrifying asset: youth…

This time, Princess Tipalotura's personal visit to Sochi must have some political purpose! As for whether this 'purpose' is her own or that of the emperor behind her, Ryūka has no idea.

So now he only has one thing to do: further strengthen his own power before the princess arrives! He needs to improve his personal strength, and even more so, the military strength of his territory!

This is actually a matter for Ryūka, since the power of the Leader's Certificate determines the degree to which the territory submits to him, and the stronger he becomes.

As for the nobles surrounding his territory, such as the Harvey family of Raven Ridge in the south, the Pain family's subordinates behind the Abyss Mountains in the north, some scattered minor nobles in the west, and even the nobles placed in the Sochi province to divide the power of Ryukyu...

According to Heflian, they had no right to be worried about by Ryuka.

The reason is simple: five thousand men, fully equipped and well-funded, armed with heavy magical weapons. Sochi itself is a major grain-producing region with abundant granaries, while the hills and mountains of Linhu Territory are teeming with various mineral deposits. The magical workshops are operating at full capacity, and the refining and production of iron, cloth, and magical crystals are on a completely different level compared to other places!

Without the support of the Payne family or the empire, the surrounding nobles, scattered and unable to contend with Ryukyu, would be completely outmatched.

"So as long as I don't do something stupid and become the target of everyone's criticism and the emperor's thorn in his side, everything will be fine."

As Ryusha spoke, she pointed on the map from the capital to Sochi, which was the route Tipalotura was about to take.

Even if one holds great military power, if something goes wrong on a key political issue, the advantages one has accumulated could easily be lost.

And all of this depends on what the princess's arrival means...

The discussion ended, and although Ryuka had other things to attend to, seeing the boy standing silently and seriously on the world map, Hafulen felt a burning, itchy heat in her heart.

Damn, this really hits her fetish!

A fragrant breeze wafted into his arms, and the female knight, still in her armor, threw herself into his embrace, her tall figure kissing him passionately from head to toe. Although the armor was a little uncomfortable, this just-right pain only amplified the passion, not to mention that Heflian had grabbed one of his hands, pressing it beneath her armor and inside her long, blue skirt, sliding down her silky stockings to reach the dark, damp secret realm of the hot spring…

Chapter 5: The Carpet Battle and the Gasps in the Laboratory

After a long while, until both of them felt like they were about to suffocate, Ryuka finally parted her lips from Heflian's. The female knight's delicate face wore a triumphant smile, as if she had just returned victorious, her clear pupils still carrying a hint of aggression.

Ryūka's competitive spirit was also ignited by the provocative and aggressive deep kiss. Their hearts pounded in their chests, and amidst heavy breathing, Ryūka's hands brazenly squeezed Hefleen's soft yet firm thighs. The technique wasn't flirting; rather, it was a wild, haphazard grabbing and gripping. His five fingers pinched Hefleen's thighs with all their might, all the way down to her groin, leaving faint bruises on her fair skin through her pantyhose.

Painful, yet exhilarating. Haifulian narrowed her eyes, letting out a series of pleasurable hissing sounds, and instead of stopping Ryuka, she forcefully pressed her hand to the deepest point.

"Push harder..."

Hearing Haifulian's slightly hoarse, warm voice in his ear, Ryuka's palm grasped the firm yet soft mound, feeling its sultry heat and the slippery dampness seeping through the pantyhose. What was even more stimulating was that Ryuka could feel the mound, still slightly red and swollen, encasing the delicate crevice, not yet fully recovered from the frenzy of the past few days, yet its owner had willingly placed it in his hand…

"Are you sure?"

Ryuu chuckled wickedly, tightening his grip with enough force to lift Heflian's body. The female knight hissed as she rose on her tiptoes, arching her back high. Feeling the immense pressure between her legs, Heflian's big toes twitched restlessly on the carpet, causing her pantyhose to crease uneasily at the bend of her toes…

She stands on the map of the entire world.

Although the boy she chose has not yet begun to compete, Hafulen believes that when that time comes, Ryusha will be invincible.

And she, too, can ride her horse amidst the fluttering battle flags, writing her own legend with her spear, turning the screams of her enemies into the accompaniment of her sonic battle aura.

Just imagining it made Haifulian feel like her skin was about to burst into flames.

She hugged Ryūka tightly around the neck and whispered in the boy's earlobe:

"Use force, use battle aura, use magic, make it more intense..."

With a loud crash, Ryusha shoved Hefleen onto the carpet, her armor rattling violently. Hefleen, impatient, began to unfasten her armor. Even before the armor was fully removed, Hefleen had already grasped Ryusha's spear—a spear thicker and hotter than her own—and was rapidly thrusting it into her body.

"Come on~ my lord~ my monarch~ let me see if you can give me 'enough pay' too~~~"

Since the female knight had said so, Ryuka naturally stopped holding back and began to conquer Heflian's body with all his might, using every means at his disposal.

The heavily armed forces surged forward! Dark magic stripped away Heflian's resilience, leaving her like an unprotected recruit facing the fiercest hail of bullets and arrows. Each strike felt like a blow to her heart, every crease of her skin bearing an attack several times stronger than her senses with negative defense...

Screams, curses, sobs, and soft moans... Her hands pounded on Liu Xia's back as if in retaliation, but each time Liu Xia tried to pull away, she would pull him back tightly, deliberately using her most tender depths to groan as she crashed into that thick 'battering ram'...

Faced with the overwhelming force coming from all sides, Ryuga naturally showed no mercy, unleashing his battle aura to churn and stir the sand deep within the enemy ranks. He usually didn't need to do this, as he could easily achieve victory after victory against them with sheer strength. But since this was something Heflian had chosen herself, he showed no more mercy, mercilessly using his battle aura and magic to erode every inch of the enemy formation, destroying Heflian's senses and reason, like a relentless tsunami destroying soft sand, or armored cavalry crushing unarmed recruits, mercilessly grinding over every soft fold…

Cries, fluids, tears, breath, fragrance; these things seemed to be forcibly squeezed out of Hefren's body, bursting forth in waves with each impact, until she completely collapsed unconscious on the carpet, and her deepest core was completely taken over by Ryūka's seed, only then did the battle come to an end...

"Really..."

Looking at the messy carpet beneath Haifulian, Ryuka couldn't help but complain:

"Now we have to clean it again, don't we..."

Inside the highest-level magic laboratory at Sochi Academy, Anjaberg was leading a group of magic engineers in debugging a massive magic instrument.

"Magic crystal loading complete, 3, 2, 1, activate! Check magic power!"

70%, 80%, 90%... Anjaberg watched as the gauge on the table reached 95%, at which point the magical instrument in front of him suddenly burst into light, followed by wisps of blue smoke...

"It still doesn't work. It's not something that can be achieved simply by superposition. Interference is still occurring..."

Anjaberg flipped through the data records in his hand, grabbed his dry, frizzy hair, and let out a dejected groan.

The experiment she was conducting was testing a heretical magic interference device used to unlock the heretical ruins beneath Dongtian Lake.

While small magical bombs have proven effective in testing, achieving sufficient energy seems beyond the reach of simply stacking volume and magical crystals. Just as countless ordinary knights combined can never equal a single Celestial Knight, if the problem of mutual interference and cancellation of magical energy after stacking cannot be resolved, she would have to carry a magical bomb the size of a small mountain to the bottom of East Heaven Lake. Considering transportation, launching it into the water, focusing the explosive energy onto a single door without affecting others, and avoiding attracting attention, this is clearly impractical.

Just then, an assistant came over and brought news that Anya Bergliusha was coming to see her.

"Tell him to wait a few minutes."

As Anyaberg spoke, her eyes never left the experimental data in her hands, but her body began to move.

She removed the goggles from her glasses, took off her white lab coat, and quickly dabbed it with alcohol on her somewhat dirty face, wiping away the grime. Then she ran her fingers through her slightly disheveled hair, and finally checked her face against a smooth lab mirror. Satisfied, she nodded and tossed the experimental data aside.

"That'll do... Oh! I almost forgot..."

Anjaberg, who was just about to leave, shrank back, opened his drawer, and took out a small bottle.

She glanced at her classmates in the lab; both men and women were diligently cleaning up the aftermath of their failed experiments, or discussing and calculating the reasons for the failures with pen and paper. No one was looking in her direction.

Anjaberg breathed a sigh of relief, unscrewed the bottle, and quickly sprayed some of the liquid on herself. Enjoying the fresh scent emanating from her body, she finally put the small bottle back in the drawer and locked it.

"What...what did Anya use? Perfume?"

Just after she left, the female magical engineers finally looked up and began to whisper among themselves. If Ryuga were here, he would definitely recognize these as the girls who had jeering at him and Anyaberg in Linhu Town.

"That's right, she refined it herself... but..."

A mischievous-looking girl put her hand to her mouth and said mysteriously, "I've checked all the raw materials used for extraction in the warehouse. Guess what's missing besides the common aromatic plants?"

"Some drugs that can fascinate men!"

"Ah... As expected, it's the young governor."

"Anya, she also has times when she uses her talent in this way~~"

"Really..."

In Anyaberg's private lounge, she glared at Ryuka with a hint of annoyance.

"Did you come looking for me after fooling around with them again?"

Even though Ryuka had changed her clothes and quickly cleaned herself, Anjaberg could still smell the woman's unique scent through the fabric of Ryuka's clothes.

"You can even smell that?"

Seeing Ryusha's surprise, Anyaberg wrinkled his nose: "Green sap grass, fragrant berry... it's Hefleum, isn't it?"

"If you're not going to be a magic engineer, you could apply to be a hound."

In response to Ryusha's joke, Anyaberg kicked him with her slipper-clad little foot and cursed, "Go to hell."

Seeing Ryuka's nonchalant attitude, Anyaberg felt incredibly angry. Damn it, didn't this make her look like a fool for all that tidying up, fixing her hair, and spraying perfume?!

Liuxia seemed oblivious to her subtle mood, and simply took out cup after cup of special drinks from her bag—the same chilled fruit tea that Esther thought would make her a fortune.