Clearly, the Azeroth Continent, where Sun Fei had transmigrated, was a world that placed extreme faith in strength and the gods. Many people believed that deities truly existed, and because of the constant warfare, countless people fanatically worshipped the god of war above all others. Thus, attributing everything to the god of war, the most absurd explanation in his previous life, was in this world the most reasonable and unassailable excuse.
Sun Fei needed an excuse to explain everything that had happened to Alexander.
Now, he had found one.
Sun Fei believed that before long, everything he had said tonight would spread throughout Chambord City through the mouth of the straightforward, openhearted black-haired man before him. After that, he would no longer have to go through the trouble of explaining everything to each person.
Sometimes, rumors were more readily believed by outsiders than words spoken in person.
Of course, Sun Fei had been a little crafty in the process. He had deliberately suggested a vague connection between himself and the god of war, whom most people in this world worshipped. Much of the history he knew from his previous life had taught him that a cult of personality could sometimes be a good thing, offering enormous, unimaginable help when one least expected it.
"I don't seem to remember anything about a lot of what happened before today... Brook, tell me about Chambord City and the whole kingdom."
Sun Fei appeared calm and casual, pretending the question was an idle one, but he was actually fishing for information again.
"As you command, Your Majesty. Your kingdom consists entirely of Chambord City. According to the classification of nations on the Azeroth Continent, Chambord City is not an independent empire, but merely a vassal state of a great power. Its total population is less than 10,000, and the king's guard has an official strength of only 400..." Suspecting nothing, Brook scratched the back of his head and tried to make himself as clear as possible, honestly telling Sun Fei everything he knew.
"A sixth-tier vassal state?"
Sun Fei had a bad feeling. The term filled him with foreboding.
Sure enough-
"Yes, Your Majesty. Chambord City's suzerain is the Zenit Empire, which has 250 small vassal states under it. Those 250 vassal states are divided into six tiers according to their strength, and Chambord City belongs to the lowest tier." Brook explained in detail, "There are 68 kingdoms under the Zenit Empire's rule that, like Chambord City, are sixth-tier vassal states..."
Sun Fei fell silent, feeling utterly disheveled in the wind.
This was the truth.
So his kingdom was just this tiny scrap of land. He had thought being king would be wonderful, only to discover that all the territory under his rule amounted to this one city. As for its population, it was even smaller than that of a township in the impoverished northwestern mountains of his previous life. Did that mean he was worth less than a township chief?
For the first time, Sun Fei realized that reality was not as wonderful as he had imagined.
He lowered his head and thought for a moment, then asked, unwilling to give up, "Brook, from what you're saying, our suzerain, the Zenit Empire, must be a very powerful force on the Azeroth Continent?"
Brook's expression turned strange.
But after hesitating for a moment, the straightforward man honestly told him everything he knew. "The Azeroth Continent is vast beyond measure. Legend says that even the gods cannot travel across the entire continent. There are countless nations here, and they can be roughly divided into nine levels according to their strength, from level one to level nine. Level-one empires are the weakest, while level-nine empires sit at the very top of the continent's pyramid. Chambord City's suzerain, the Zenit Empire, is just one of countless weak level-one empires..."
Sun Fei's heart turned ice-cold.
He had never imagined that Chambord City's status would be so low, much less that on this so-called Azeroth Continent, the king of an actual nation would be worth so little-there were practically more of them than fresh university graduates in his previous life.
Scowling, Sun Fei thought it over. From what Brook had said, anyone with a few acres of land could put in a little effort, gather a force of three or four hundred men, claim a territory and become a king. Such a king was scarcely any different from the mountain bandit chiefs who had carved out their own domains in ancient times in his previous life.
"What the hell kind of world is this? After all that, I'm just a mountain bandit chief-and a weak one at that."
Sun Fei felt like crying. He had thought that being the ruler of a kingdom meant he had everything, but who would have guessed that he was the toad sitting at the bottom of a well, seeing only a patch of sky and thinking he had the whole world in his grasp?
After a moment of confusion, Sun Fei suddenly thought of something and asked hopefully, "Then... the relationships between the countries on the continent... I mean, there shouldn't be wars very often, right?"
"On the Azeroth Continent, war is the most ordinary thing there is..." Brook seemed to have become addicted to contradicting Sun Fei. His expression darkened as he said, "Everyone is born in war and dies in war... My parents and family all died in war. People die every moment of every day."
Sun Fei was dumbfounded.
Good grief, doesn't that mean a king like me could be wiped out by one of those superpowers at any moment? When war came, on a meat-grinder battlefield where millions fought, no matter how great an individual's strength was, it had its limits.
"Then why don't we ask our suzerain for help now? As our suzerain, the Zenit Empire should have an obligation to protect its vassal states, shouldn't it?" Sun Fei had found the key point.
This time, Brook's answer finally did not disappoint Sun Fei-
"If it knew about the situation here, the Zenit Empire would probably send troops and powerful fighters to help, but the problem is..." Brook pointed to the black camp across the Zuli River and said helplessly, "They've completely sealed off the roads leading out of Chambord City. We can't get a request for help out at all."
So that was it.
Sun Fei quickly grasped the structure of the powers on the Azeroth Continent from Brook's words, and also found the key to surviving on this war-torn continent.
There was no doubt that the Azeroth Continent was vast, its area far exceeding that of any continent on Earth in his previous life-even far exceeding the area of Earth itself.
Naturally, it also far exceeded what Sun Fei had previously imagined.
Worse still, this boundless continent, which even the gods of legend could scarcely traverse, was clearly a world riddled with chaos and endless campaigns of conquest. Killing took place at every moment, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of nations constantly waged war on one another, and war was the continent's eternal melody.
Once again, Sun Fei felt the pressure of survival bearing down on him.
"Damn it, no wonder the previous king was named Alexander. The fucking pressure really is greater than a mountain... These are obviously chaotic times, just like the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in China's history!"
Even so, Sun Fei keenly picked out a key point in Brook's words.
Prosperous times had their own splendor, and chaotic times naturally had their own rules for survival. From Brook's less than clear answer, Sun Fei dimly perceived that perhaps, over countless years of constant warfare, the Azeroth Continent had developed a very interesting pyramid system suited to survival in chaotic times. Within this system, even the weakest nation seemed able to survive as long as it attached itself to someone stronger.
A gust of night wind blew in, carrying waves of moisture from the distant river.
The atmosphere was a little gloomy.
Sun Fei decided to stop thinking so far ahead, and his thoughts returned to Chambord City. "Brook, tell me about Chambord City in detail. As king, I still don't know what my kingdom is like. For example, besides me, are there any nobles in Chambord City with influence and power?"
Sun Fei had made his intentions clear: he was taking advantage of an honest man to learn everything he wanted to know from Brook.
Brook thought for a moment and said, "Apart from Your Majesty, the most powerful person in Chambord City is Lord Bazel, the herald. Because before this, you..." At that point, Brook scratched the back of his head, unsure how to describe Sun Fei's previous idiotic behavior. After stammering for a while, he could only skip that part and continue, "For the past two or three years, Lord Bazel has exercised the powers of Chambord City's king in your place. Aside from the army, which he cannot control because of Lord Frank Lampard, Lord Bazel has the final say over everything else..."
"Bazel the herald?" Sun Fei thought of something and suddenly asked, "He has a son as fat as a pig named Gejir, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Gejir used to be your closest playmate!"
That fucking fat pig was my best playmate? Sun Fei sneered inwardly. Bazel and Gejir-those two are probably both bad news. One controls the king's power, while the other is at my side all the time. Could they be another pair of treacherous father and son, like Yan Song and Yan Shifan, abusing their power and bringing disaster on the people?
"Go on. Besides Bazel, are there any other powerful people?" Sun Fei quietly took note of the father and son, forming a rough idea of what to do.
"Besides Bazel the herald, Conca the military magistrate and Oleg the warden are both among the people who hold real power in Chambord City. Lord Petr Čech, the former captain of the king's guard, could also be counted among them. But half a month ago, Bazel the herald suddenly discovered a great deal of evidence exposing Lord Čech's plot to betray the king, and Lord Čech was thrown into prison."
Sun Fei nodded.
He keenly noticed a very interesting detail: Brook dared to address Bazel, the most powerful man in Chambord City after the king, by name, but spoke respectfully of Petr Čech, the former captain of the king's guard who had been imprisoned for "conspiring to commit treason," calling him lord... Did that mean something?
Sun Fei had a feeling that although the kingdom of Chambord City was pitifully small, there seemed to be no shortage of stories unfolding there.
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