Chapter 443 The War Is Coming

The day after the Candle Festival was the official funeral of Queen Sophia.

At 7:07 a.m., the Candle Cathedral in the Red Queen District rang the dull funeral bell again.

After the 79 funeral bells were rung, no bells would ring in the entire Avalon today. The dark silence surrounded the entire Avalon.

The funeral procession set out from the Saint Guinevere Chapel and will circle the Red and White Queen District for a week before returning to the Candle Cathedral.

Seventy-seven pure white griffins with black scarves and seventy-seven knights in silver armor wearing black cloaks guarded the dark coffin in the middle. In the front was Isabel riding the Griffin Minister, followed closely by Ligeia and Aiwas riding a slightly smaller griffin.

If it were before, perhaps people would question how these two young people, who seemed to be less than 30 years old in total, could stand in such a front position.

But today, no one would raise any questions.

Reporter Dimitri - now the editor-in-chief of "Glass Steps", the photo he took personally is on the second page of "Glass Steps".

The glass steps were shattered, and the Great Guardian and his griffin were seriously injured and dying.

Minister Moriarty closed his eyes and prayed, and the new Great Arbiter held the scepter. They stood behind the queen, protecting her from injury, and all the knights of the Arbitration Hall knelt in front of them because they were late, respectfully and seriously confessing.

If that photo was put on normal days, it would definitely be on the front page.

It was because there were too many major events on this day that it was squeezed to the second page.

The newspaper also recorded in detail what Aiwass did, so people knew that it was Aiwass who saved their queen.

Except for the Great Guardian who almost died, Aiwass's reputation almost instantly rose to the extreme.

No one will question this young Minister without portfolio anymore.

Most of the people in Avalon are ordinary people. They don't know what "energy level" is, let alone how strong Aiwas is, and they don't know what Emma's strength is. These things belong to the secrets of the extraordinary field.

In their opinion, Emma can turn the noon of the Candle Festival into the night of the blood moon and rain blood on the entire Glass Island. That is simply the power of the evil god. And Aiwas can defeat her, which means Aiwas is stronger than her.

Such a young strong man is naturally worthy of respect.

They don't know that Aiwas is only at the third energy level.

And those who know this matter don't dare to stand up at this time to explain "this is unreasonable". They will only be besieged by angry people.

More than a thousand guests accepted the invitation from the Silver and Tin Palace. In addition, people on Glass Island spontaneously took to the streets.

They surrounded the funeral procession, with solemn faces and silence.

Not only for the queen's funeral, but also for yesterday's big news.

Yesterday was the Candle Festival, and the queen was assassinated. Such a big thing can't be concealed at all.

And Aiwas and Isabel didn't even want to hide it.

All the newspapers published in Avalon today have Queen Isabel with a grim face and bloodstained clothes on the cover. The front page only writes two things without exception. One is that Queen Sofia's funeral and state funeral is today, and the other is that Queen Isabel was attacked yesterday.

Star Antimony's diplomats directly assassinated the monarch, and Isabel is their only monarch - her father and brother are not recognized by the Avalon people. Whether it is a coward who abandons his responsibility and escapes, or a baby who can't even write his own name, it is obviously impossible to become a qualified monarch.

This has angered most of the Avalon people. The fear and panic caused by the sudden arrival of the ominous blood moon during the candle ceremony yesterday were also attributed to Countess Emma.

The sacred candle ceremony was disrupted, and the queen was attacked - and the people who did this were the Star Antimony people who were generally hated by the Avalon people.

Coincidentally, the funeral of Queen Sofia was the next day.

Although most Avalonians don't know Isabel very well, she is the heir chosen by Sofia herself. Her ring of authority was even transferred when Queen Sofia was still alive.

And Queen Sofia's reputation in Avalon is extremely high.

All Avalonians now only experience and know two monarchs. That is Queen Sofia and the previous tyrant "Hanging King".

The "modernization" of Avalon was basically completed under the rule of Queen Sofia.

Before she took over, Avalon had no railways, no bicycles, no factories, no telephones, no electric lights, no electricity facilities, and even no newspapers for civilians. Most people can't read, and only a few can enter university and become extraordinary people; more than 90% of the land in Avalon is rural, and there are gangs and pickpockets everywhere in the city, and bandits outside the city.

Since the appearance of Prince Lloyd, Avalon has been declining generation after generation.

Because people no longer believed in the Knights of the Round Table and their monarchs from the bottom of their hearts. The compatibility of the Avalonians in the path of authority has greatly declined, whether it is the number and strength of the extraordinary people, or the economy and infrastructure, they are all declining.

In the era when the Hanged King succeeded, Avalon had declined to the limit. By then, there were only six universities in Avalon that could still operate normally. The silver and gold held in Avalon were rapidly flowing overseas, and many knight families even left Avalon with their assets and went to Star Antimony and Iris.

At that time, the most profitable industry in Avalon was still shipping, because there was really no output worth paying attention to in the local area. The most valuable thing was actually griffins. Even though stealing griffins was a felony punishable by death, there were still people who smuggled griffin eggs to goblin merchants.

To be able to contact griffins, at least you were already a middle-level leader.

There were also poachers with extraordinary professions, who hunted extraordinary animals in the wild and sold materials, which directly led to the extinction of many extraordinary animals in the wild in Avalon today. However, such risky and illegal professions were called "brave men" and "adventurers" by children and were praised by the people. Even many parents thought it was a good way out.

——This shows that the economy of Avalon had completely collapsed at that time.

It was precisely because the whole of Avalon was plunged into chaos and sin that Tudor III, who didn't know what to do, became the "Hanged King".

He was not very smart, but at least he was brave. There were no smart and trustworthy confidants around him who could put forward constructive suggestions to save Avalon.

So when the whole of Avalon was gradually falling into chaos, Tudor III chose the most straightforward way.

--That is killing.

Kill all poachers, kill all corrupt officials, kill all fallen knights, kill all thieves, kill all robbers, kill all profiteers and smugglers.

Kill the extraordinary people who took illegal paths, kill the publishers who printed and promoted "brave stories", kill the bards who praised adventurers, kill the teachers who escaped, and kill those who did not work and the farmers who did not pay taxes.

Kill all knights and ministers who did not obey him, kill those who intended to start a rebellion, kill all foreigners who set foot on the land of Avalon except elves, and kill the civilians who intended to escape from Avalon.

Tudor III's way to solve all problems was to kill people. If the problem was not solved after killing, it was because he killed the wrong person or did not kill enough - his atrocities even alarmed the Theocracy, and the Theocracy sent two people to dissuade him on average every year.

During the entire reign of Tudor III, all the gallows in Avalon were lined up. Therefore, other types of death penalty such as beheading, water torture, and burning at the stake also appeared in the early days.

There was no complicated sentencing.

Because before the "treadmill" was invented, managing prisons also required costs. In order to prevent prison riots, Tudor III did not throw people into prison at all. It was precisely because he killed so cruelly that the judges had to find ways to save people.

The reason why there was no rebellion under such a level of killing was entirely because he killed too quickly. The power of the authoritarian path was fully exerted - examining property, searching memories, and identifying lies. The Inspectorate searched villages one by one, and ordinary people could not keep any secrets in front of them.

At that time, the "Inspectorate" was synonymous with executioners.

They would even examine the documents and property in everyone's home, and then carefully check where they came from.

When almost everyone was afraid of the Hanged King, only the Inspectorate and the Inspectorate truly felt the necessity. They stood firmly beside the monarch and trusted the tyrant absolutely.

Because they were the only ones who had been in contact with sin and chaos.

By the time of Tudor III, many prosecutors and inspectors had become desperate and self-destructive, because they were completely unable to stop the sin. The person they saved in the morning might die in the afternoon, and the victim they saved last week might become the perpetrator next week. They had no idea what to do, and many even had mental problems.

After they obeyed Tudor III's orders, they were surprised to find that the situation had really improved.

——Don't even mention the family members, killing them all actually worked.

So they were more determined to believe that what they did was right.

Sin and chaos decreased at a very clear and immediate rate... although the population also decreased.

Some were killed, some starved to death.

Some risked the death penalty and fled overseas with their families.

Aiwas checked the data - in fact, after the first wave ended, the number of death sentences had decreased a lot. There were too many people who died in the first wave, more than the victims of all the foreign wars since the founding of Avalon.

After that wave ended, the almost completely collapsed order of Avalon was rebuilt again.

Other types of death sentences caused by gallows overload have actually been basically discontinued. The gallows that are always "full of popularity" are more like a continuous deterrent. This is why gallows everywhere are always full, but no new gallows are built - he wants the effect of "full".

In the later era of Queen Sophia's reign, that is, the era in which Aiwas lived, most people no longer remember what the Hanged King did.

But their fear of the Inspectorate seems to be engraved in their genes.

The fear, hatred and distrust caused by Tudor III did cause a lot of trouble for Sophia who had just ascended the throne. But from another perspective, it was because he really killed all those people and cleared away these obstacles...that was why Sofia's policy was implemented so smoothly.

Because what she had in front of her was a ruin, not a fortress that was still hostile to her.

And it is precisely because of the comparison with Tudor III that people know how kind, diligent, gentle, and kind Queen Sophia is. With the trust and support of the grassroots people, Sophia can implement more policies that benefit the people-this is the merit of mutual benefit.

It was Queen Sophia who saved all this from the abyss.

She only lived for seventy-nine years, but saved Avalon from two hundred years of decline.

Avalon rose again from the ruins, and under the leadership of Queen Sophia, in less than sixty years, it became a country that must be valued by powerful neighbors.

But it also ushered in new problems-the rapidly developing economy, the prosperity that came too easily, and the capital from foreign countries gradually corrupted the knights of the old era. The merchants who grew rapidly in the tide of factories, alchemy and modernization also had to pay attention.

When Avalon regained its vitality, someone was destined to become rich. Knights represent the power of the old era, while merchants represent the power of the new era.

In the peaceful times, the knights were almost completely unable to shake the position of the merchants - because the knights also wanted to live a good life, and most knights did not know how to manage their assets and had no energy to make money.

Because of this, the wealth of most knights was shrinking.

That's why there were new knights who compromised with merchant groups like Lloyd's, and ministers who were corrupted by the Star Antimony and Iris people.

And such days are coming to an end now.

Because the war is about to begin.

If there is anything missing in Avalon during the reign of Queen Sophia... it is that there are too few wars.

The people of Avalon are not weak, nor are they timid.

They are a knight country after all.

The original citizens of Avalon came from those local human slaves who hated the giants, and from those warriors who voluntarily joined the expeditionary army from the Helasar Empire. They have fighting blood flowing in their bodies, so they formed a powerful army like the Griffin Legion that was born only for extreme attacks.

Since the founding of the country, Avalon has never stopped active or passive wars. In the heyday of Avalon, even the Herasl Empire, which had not yet disintegrated, was wary and in awe of Avalon.

But in the era of Queen Sophia, because the economy developed too fast - it was naturally fast enough to regenerate from the ruins - this directly led to the fact that the Avalon people had not had a war for a long time.

Queen Sophia was indeed a gentle and kind queen, so she always tried her best to avoid all unnecessary wars. When facing the pressure from Iris and Star Antimony, she always chose to give up interests or compete on an equal footing, and only solved political problems on the table.

Even when the royal family was cursed one after another, her subconscious choice was to resurrect Lancelot I through the Avalon Shadow Ceremony. Use this real top powerhouse to protect Avalon and deter the ambitious Star Antimony people. And this is still essentially a "defensive" strategy.

In fact, this did wear down the bloodiness and aggressive desires of the Avalon people.

But when Isabel appeared in the newspaper in a blood-stained queen's dress.

The Avalonians were really angry-

Queen Sophia's mourning period hadn't even ended yet!

Their new queen hadn't even been crowned yet!

The people directly blamed the Star Antimony people for the previous royal family's deaths due to the curse.

Then the Star Antimony Count's attack on Isabel at this moment was undoubtedly an act of annihilation!

When everyone longed for war... war was bound to come.