In terms of architectural grandeur, the Royal Palace of Chambord City could definitely rank among the top three in the many vassal states of the Zenit Empire. All the buildings were constructed from massive white stones, with an extremely spacious stone square in the very center. To the east, west, and north stood Dashi thirty to forty meters high and statues of gods more than ten meters tall. Behind the pillars and statues was the majestic palace, which was open to the north, allowing commoners and soldiers to enter the Royal Palace Square.
Tonight's victory celebration banquet will be held in this Dashi square.
The jubilant crowd had slowly gathered in the square, where six huge bonfires were burning brightly, turning the star-studded sky red. In the very center of the square, ten enormous wooden towers, each six or seven meters high, were temporarily erected, with the bodies of the soldiers and civilians of Chambord City who had died in the battle laid out on them.
The King's Guard, clad in bright armor and armed with Long Spear, patrolled around the palace and square. Commoners, dressed in light white robes, sang and danced. Acrobats somersaulted on the ground, and beautiful women ran and danced hand in hand around the bonfire. People held aloft green branches, symbols of life and hope, and laughed with abandon.
Night fell.
Amidst the sound of horses' hooves, Prince Tolbinsky of the Zenit Empire finally arrived at the square with his guards. The handsome old Prince Best led his servants to the VIP platform beneath the giant stone statue to the west. Since Zenit was a monarchy, the citizens of Chambord City warmly welcomed the Prince's arrival, showering them with fragrant flower petals and clear water.
Tolbinsky found the scene quite enjoyable.
At this moment, Tolbinsky unexpectedly displayed the air and demeanor of a prince from a great King, a charming smile on his face as he waved to the surrounding poor people. However, the cavalrymen following behind the Prince clearly had no affection for these lowly commoners from a small country. Seeing the smiling faces around them, they were haughty and arrogant, as if they were watching their own guard dogs wagging their tails and fawning at them.
Seeing that only Prince Torbin had come to the banquet, the handsome old man Best was slightly disappointed. The eldest princess was the most important person in the delegation and controlled everything, but he had never been able to figure out this woman's attitude. This banquet was supposed to be a good opportunity to observe her, but she did not attend... However, even so, Best did not neglect her in the slightest and instructed his servants to take care of all the formalities.
After about ten minutes, the cheering and dancing crowd finally quieted down, and the square became silent.
Just then, two squads of guards in magnificent armor emerged from the massive stone hall on the north side of the square and lined up neatly on both sides. Then, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, King Alexander, hand in hand with his beautiful fiancée Angela, slowly appeared on the high steps in front of the hall.
At this moment, Sun Fei had changed into a sky-blue King robe. The robe fluttered in the wind, perfectly accentuating his tall and muscular physique. He wore a crown shaped like golden leaves, his long hair was as black as ink, and his eyes were clear as lightning. He was handsome and refined, with a majestic and otherworldly air. The absolute majesty he had accumulated in the ruthless killing over the past few days combined perfectly with his innate affability in this instant. He was dignified and noble, looking from afar like a high and mighty deity, perfectly embodying the demeanor of a king.
Beside him stood the beautiful Angela, also dressed in a sky-blue robe, its waist gently cinched with a gold sash. Her figure was slender and shapely, her skin more crystalline and delicate than the millennia-old snow atop a snow-capped mountain. Angela wore a floral crown woven from various colorful flowers, and a gentle breeze ruffled her hair. She was like Goddess descended from heaven, her beauty unparalleled, her skin like jade, pure and noble, so that one dared not look directly at her, and could not harbor the slightest thought of profanity.
The two appeared on the high stone steps with smiles on their faces, instantly stealing all the light from the entire square. Even the countless stars, as dazzling as gems embedded in the blue Heavenly Curtain, seemed to lose their color in an instant.
The citizens of Chambord City knelt on the ground in the square, shouting, "Long live King Alexander!"
Many people were also discovering for the first time that their King was so majestic and extraordinary. At this moment, no one could associate the perfect image of the King before them with the foolish and idiotic Alexander they knew before. They knelt humbly in the square, shouting with their lives and souls.
Prince Tolbinsky, seated on the VIP platform of the colossal stone statue on the west side of the square, couldn't help but stand up. During the day, he had been utterly disdainful of the rumored King, and even now, attending the banquet, he was there with the intention of watching a spectacle and causing trouble. He had no doubt about his own charisma and handsomeness; he thought that simply standing in the square would instantly steal everyone's thunder... But now, the Prince of this mighty empire suddenly felt a sense of shame and inferiority. Looking at the group of perfectly matched young men and women in the distant main hall, the young Prince was astonished to find that his previous dissatisfaction and disdain for this country, this castle, and this King were miraculously and rapidly disappearing.
However, the Prince did not notice that his guards and cavalrymen did not feel the same way. Beside the Prince, a burly knight in full armor and a red cloak stared intently at Angela on the stone steps in the distance, his eyes gleaming with greed, amazement, and lewdness. The dozens of guards and cavalrymen around this knight did not try to hide the lewd looks in their eyes either.
The edge of the square.
Unnoticed by anyone, three figures draped in black cloaks lay silently in the shadows of the statues at the very back of the worshipping crowd. When they saw King Alexander and Angela emerge, the figure at the front suddenly uttered a soft, weak "Eh," as if recovering from a serious illness, his tone revealing considerable surprise. This caused the two figures behind him to exchange a glance; they had never seen the person before them display such astonishment.
After the King and the future queen appeared, the revelry in the square finally came to a gradual end.
The atmosphere became solemn and respectful. The crowd consciously made way for them as Sun Fei and Angela descended the high stone steps and slowly walked to the base of the ten rough wooden towers temporarily constructed from logs in the center of the square.
The atmosphere grew even more tense.
The Azeroth Continent has been plagued by constant warfare since ancient times, with countless soldiers dying on the battlefield every day and every hour. Burying these fallen soldiers has become a massive and time-consuming undertaking, wasting vast amounts of land. To avoid this, the tradition of cremating warriors was established long ago. Whether King, nobles, commoners, or slaves, after dying in battle, they would be sent to wooden towers for cremation. People believed that in this way, the souls of the warriors could be Redemption, and they would be with the God of War in the realm of the gods.
Following his previous cramming on traditional etiquette with Angela's help, Sun Fei climbed the wooden tower's ladder, turned around, and took the golden coins from Angela's hands, placing them over the eyes of the fallen soldiers—a tradition in the Azeroth Continent, where people believed that covering the eyes of fallen warriors with coins would help them reopen their eyes in the flames and find the correct path to heaven.
This is a tedious task.
In the defense of Chambord City, a total of 131 brave soldiers were lost. There were designated personnel to arrange coins for the fallen soldiers, but Sun Fei unexpectedly insisted on doing it himself. Traditionally, only high-ranking nobles or heroes who had contributed to King King were entitled to such treatment. Sun Fei's actions bestowed upon these ordinary soldiers an unprecedented Glory.
Clearly, this is yet another tactic by someone to win over people's hearts.
The square was quiet; no one spoke, and even the wind seemed to have stopped. Only a few women in black robes, who were equivalent to temple priests, were chanting an ancient and melancholic ballad on the stone steps of the main hall in the distance. This ballad had no melody or lyrics, but it was sung throughout the continent as a farewell song for loved ones.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Sun Fei patiently covered the eyes of each fallen soldier with coins, then personally set fire to the herbs laid beneath them. The flames roared and consumed the king's body, while the families who had lost their loved ones wept bitterly...
This process took about an hour.
After the fire finally reduced the soldiers' bodies and the ten wooden towers to ashes, the atmosphere in the square eased, and the weeping gradually subsided. The remaining ashes were carefully collected by the soldiers and doctors and placed in a huge black coffin. Twelve days later, this coffin would be buried on the highest peak of the mountains east of Chambord City, so that the souls of the warriors could see the beautiful sunrise on the horizon first thing each day—this was Chambord City's own tradition.
After all this was done, the atmosphere in the square became cheerful and lively again.
People began to sing and dance, celebrating the victory in the war. The frenzied atmosphere intensified with the roaring bonfire in the center of the square. Men, women, young and old, regardless of social status, danced hand in hand. Even the soldiers guarding the square joined the jubilant crowd. Sun Fei and Angela were also pulled into the crowd by some enthusiastic young girls. In the midst of the celebration, there was no distinction between high and low status. Prince Zenit, sitting on the platform beneath the giant stone statue on the west side of the square, and his knights and squires were also invited to join the crowd.
The women laughed and carried platters filled with fruit and roasted meat as they moved through the crowd.
The young Prince, Tolbinsky, was infected by the atmosphere. At this moment, he finally put aside all his previous arrogance and indifference, and seemed more like a seventeen-year-old boy. He held hands with a group of young men and women, formed a large circle, and ran and danced around the campfire, like a little bird that had finally flown out of its cage, flying joyfully.
However, neither Tolbinsky nor anyone else noticed that the burly knight and cavalrymen in red cloaks who had been standing behind him were now squeezing into the center of the square, grinning maliciously, their eyes gleaming with an indescribable lewdness.
In the direction they were pushing past, in the center of the square, Angela, as pure as a Goddess, was dancing joyfully with the blonde little Loli, Jima, and a group of her sisters. The girl smiled happily, her peerless face filled with smiles and happiness, like a transformed little angel.
First update today.
I'll try to write two more chapters.
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