To be fair, that voice was brimming with girlish delight and excitement, like a little bird dancing in the sunlight. But Yu Lian didn't feel cheered up in the slightest. He only got goosebumps.
Yes, there was only one person in this world who would call him "Lianqing," but she had absolutely no business being here. And yet, she really had appeared.
So what could possibly explain this? Yu Lian pondered briefly, then decided it could only be some terrifying hallucination.
Yes, a very, very terrifying hallucination—one that absolutely required a heavy-handed response.
Since this was a trial of the heart during his ascension, everything here had to be an incarnation of his inner demons. Yu Lian reminded himself of that.
But inner demons usually represented the people and things one feared most. They were the opposite of one's dreams, the nightmares that held one back, and the unbearable pain of life. So could Brunhild—the one person who called him "Lianqing," and who treated him with such kindness and admiration—really be his inner demon?
She probably was, Yu Lian thought.
Miss Brunhild, Queen of Suluka, was also a typical saintly ruler of the Dawn Royal House. She had the benevolence, generosity, and compassion of a wise monarch, while never lacking the decisiveness, clear judgment, or even ruthlessness of a great ruler.
Moreover, compared with the previous emperor, Elyser, who had seemed like an arbiter in his early years and a puppet master in his later ones, Brunhild had more of a reformer's touch after ascending the throne.
In her era, the privileges of the military aristocracy and local lords were being further curtailed. The barriers between commoners, citizens, and nobles seemed to be coming down. The systemic discrimination against alien species under the Empire's rule also appeared to be undergoing