"That's true." Annan sat beside Ash, though whether to hide her awkwardness or cover for him, she said, "They're all in the trial."
Ash glanced at her and said, "We stayed in Azula for half a month before... right inside the Funeral Agency."
"Then remember to pay me half a month's rent."
"How petty... During that time, I looked into things and found that you did a great many things this past year. You reformed the systems of Van Mula, Memphis, and the various Consortium cities, guided institutions and organizations to reduce their reliance on the Gospel System, and promptly invested resources into the technological Tide brought by the Emptiness Concept." Ash said, "In the year I was gone, Gospel changed a lot."
"It wasn't all my credit." Annan said, "Some of it was Diya's farsightedness... Our Empress can govern this country well as long as she works hard."
"But now it's Five Kingdoms United. You're not only facing the conservative forces at home and the corruption and internal friction within the bureaucracy, but also the challenges from the other four kingdoms. This is an upheaval unseen in a thousand years. You won't find any precedent to reference in the history books, so you can only grow quickly through competition... Are you sure you want to keep going?"
"What do you mean?"
Ash tugged with his fingers, and an illusory chain connected from Annan's Collar to his hand. "This is a soul Miracle I invented. It can not only suppress the Stars Blessing, but also extract the Stars Blessing from your souls. But if you still want to continue ruling the Gospel Country, then you can't remove the Stars Blessing. After all, you're one of Gospel's highest leaders, and the Starry side is very likely to pay close attention to