novelraw #175 - Section 175
#175 - Section 175
The Eternal Night Empress felt a warmth in her eyes, deeply moved.
Had the little boy she'd been raising for so long finally become her knight, ready to protect her and offer her everything?
But then Roger added, "For this empire, I will also become omnipotent."
Eternal Night Empress: ...
I was wrong, so wrong. How could I have thought this blockhead would ever get the hint?
Chapter 153: The Empress's Thousand-Layered Scheme
Although Roger mistakenly dedicated his loyalty to the empire in the end, missing a golden opportunity to greatly increase her favor, he still got the chance to "take a casual stroll" with the Eternal Night Empress this evening.
He's a blockhead, but the Empress can take the initiative herself...
No, she's just proactively creating a romantic atmosphere, not doing anything messy!
The empire has a typical four-season climate, but spring and autumn are short. After a rain a few days ago, the night wind already had a bone-chilling coolness.
This temperature change doesn't really affect professionals much.
Magic is also a form of energy, and after merging with the body, it has a protective effect. Although it doesn't make one immune to heat and cold, theoretically, even a magician should be physically stronger than an ordinary person.
The reason magicians aren't physically strong isn't due to the cultivation system, but rather their long-term lack of exercise, exposure to various toxic and harmful magical materials, and the endless stream of bold ideas in their heads.
Only a certain unskilled novice magician, who doesn't study much or do many magical experiments, gets to enjoy the attribute rewards from the magician profession.
As for the Eternal Night Empress, her various attributes cannot be guessed according to common sense.
She can switch to a battle mage form and fight in close combat with Nali Nair, so her physique is definitely not low.
After slightly concealing their appearances, Roger and the Eternal Night Empress slipped out of the civilian area, where many people were still gathered, and strolled leisurely, passing through areas they rarely visited on weekdays.
Both had things on their minds and didn't take the initiative to speak, walking in silence.
Occasionally, they would steal glances at each other, and if they noticed the other was intently looking at the scenery, they would pretend the scenery was even more beautiful and continue in silence.
But what's so beautiful about the scenery!
When a man and woman take a walk, their attention is definitely more on each other.
It's just that these two, who usually have countless topics to discuss, suddenly didn't have anything particularly good to say.
Perhaps it was a case of extremes meeting, as everyone they encountered on the street was discussing politics, military affairs, and the empire's development path. The two instigators found it all boring.
Subconsciously, they felt that in this atmosphere of fallen leaves, lamplight replacing sunlight, and the city filled with the air of everyday life, continuing to discuss those national affairs was a bit of a mood killer.
Please, they're already constantly discussing these things on weekdays. Now, they just want to take a walk while they have no schedule tonight, but they still have to keep talking about it?
If two doctors went on a date, would they continue to discuss the five-year survival rate of cancer, abduction plasty, and the surgical techniques of total aortic replacement under the moonlight?
Dame dame, it would really make you sick!
But here's the problem: if they don't talk about these things, these two guys, who usually have a whole set of arguments at their fingertips, think they can easily win each other over in a few moves.
But when it comes to the moment to really show off their skills face-to-face, they both chicken out.
These two embarrassing guys are all waiting for the other to break the ice first.
In this breath-holding contest, someone will eventually run out of air, right?
The Eternal Night Empress finally squeezed out a sentence: "Are you hungry?"
Roger touched his stomach: "I don't seem very hungry."
The Eternal Night Empress smiled: "What a coincidence, I'm not hungry either."
So the conversation died right there, and the two continued to stroll slowly forward.
They couldn't really continue discussing the follow-up disposal of the captured angels and the detailed refinement of the empire's foreign strategy, right...
That would be worse than window shopping, so let's just keep window shopping!
Yeah, just hard-core window shopping, just racking up steps!
These two idiots can't think of anything else to do, and besides hard-core window shopping, there doesn't seem to be any special program they can arrange.
If it were modern times, they could go see a movie, but unfortunately, there are no performances at the theater or concert hall in Odu tonight...
To ease the heavy atmosphere, they both diverted their attention to the street.
Fortunately, the topic of the Arcane City tonight is a bit boring, but the atmosphere on the street is very lively, and many new things can break out, so it won't be particularly awkward even if they don't talk all the time.
Because the Eternal Night Empress personally announced the dismantling of the Heavenly Dawn Army, the Dark Night Guard began to clear out the remnants they had been watching for a long time, and then Roger gave another "ideal prosperous age" speech, which really inspired many people.
For the common people of the empire in this era, the news of the nobility giving way, the empire stopping wars to recuperate, and the start of magical industrialization will make them feel happy instinctively.
But they can't predict what specific changes these will bring and what the empire will become in the future.
The limitations brought about by the times, education, and culture, coupled with poverty limiting their imagination, how could they know how abundant human material resources would become in the future?
Even for rabbits, it only took a few decades to go from not having enough to eat to dieting becoming a national routine.
Humans have completed the past few thousand years without change in the past two hundred years. In this magical world where no major changes have occurred in tens of thousands of years, everyone has lived similar lives for generations, and it is indeed impossible to imagine the future.
Although Roger's speech can't get rid of the suspicion of drawing a pie, it is indeed what the people of the empire need now:
Let more people understand why they are fighting, stimulate their subjective initiative, build a better country for future generations, and have the upper levels provide guarantees for the future, so that even if they encounter any setbacks, more people will choose to persevere together.
The empire no longer has the burden of the noble class, but the other countries and races in the Eternal Night World can't do this, which creates a strong sense of superiority in horizontal comparison.
The Eternal Night Empress has to admit that even if she gave a similar speech, it wouldn't be as detailed and beautiful as Roger's.
She lost in bragging, and she lost completely.
In her opinion, this was Roger's impromptu performance, but who knew that this was just someone's ordinary past life, and simply stating some of the things that rabbits did well was much better than what this backward era could come up with, so how could the Eternal Night Empress win?
It is expected that the "Queen's Vow Newspaper" will definitely excerpt Roger's speech tomorrow, the bards will also work hard to spread the "ideal prosperous age", and the official will also launch promotional items in the form of comics, so that more imperial people can imagine their future beautiful lives.
This kind of thing is actually very easy to spread, because the rulers of this era have not yet evolved to the stage of constantly promising empty checks like Western democracy, and then changing governments and pretending nothing happened.
The story of the boy who cried wolf has not been staged, and the common people still quite believe in this kind of promise.
After all, the ruling class in this world used to have too much force and didn't care about the thoughts of the people at the bottom at all, so naturally they were too lazy to give them any promises or comfort - cavalry charging to tear up the rioting ants was more efficient.
So, in just one night, they saw the future... cough, it was with the enjoyment of a beautiful future, and the entire Arcane City entered a festive atmosphere.
His Majesty said that eating will be cheaper in the future, and drinking will be cheaper, so it's not a big problem to splurge a little tonight, right?
On the lively street, people who were drunk were constantly singing and howling, and everyone would look at these indulgent guys with tolerant eyes.
There are indeed too few happy things in ordinary people's lives, and just the safety brought by the absence of the Heavenly Dawn Army threat is already worth celebrating.
Although it is not a celebration day, it has a hard-won festive atmosphere, which also represents a further improvement in the living standards of the empire.
Increased commercial vitality and people's willingness to spend will make merchants willing to create this atmosphere through various promotions.
If everyone was very poor in the past, no matter how much they promoted, no one could afford to spend, so naturally there was no need to work hard.
The two walked through the civilian area without using any magic, and came to the commercial area.
Seeing a dessert shop with a good decoration on the street, the Eternal Night Empress finally found an excuse. Even if she wasn't hungry, she could go in and drink some sugar water and eat some cake, right?
This shop is decorated in a very good style, and the desserts sold are made of very exquisite materials. There are many ingredients that are not produced in the empire.
As the empire entered a state of truce, even the church could not continue to suppress the desire of its followers to make money.
Although official trade has not yet started, the trade circulation with the surrounding areas has secretly recovered a lot.
Those rare and exotic fruits from the Elven Empire, fierce prey from the Underdark, and fresh seafood from the Sea Country have gradually resumed supply, even if they are not the top restaurants.
And the awkward atmosphere between the two finally opened up a new topic, starting with eating.
The Eternal Night Empress was a little princess who used to eat, drink, and play in her early years. Later, she traveled through different planes (challenging those legendary magicians), killed many strange prey, and also liked to eat. She had too many topics to talk about in terms of the breadth of ingredients she had tasted.
Roger, on the other hand, had the backing of the earth's rich productivity, and also brushed out almost all schools of cooking skills from the system treasure chest. Even the most common ingredients could be made into hundreds of unusual dishes.
This is a collision between two foodie actors: one is curious about ingredients they haven't eaten, and the other is amazed by methods they haven't eaten, and the collision is really one that neither loses out.
"Actually, this shop uses a lot of good materials, but the taste is just so-so," Roger commented regretfully.
"Little Roger, do you want to show off your skills?" The Eternal Night Empress used a provocative method.
"Milk tea, coffee, cocktails, you can order whatever you want," Roger said with a very confident expression.
"Then make them all and let me taste them."
"There aren't enough materials here..."
"Then see where there are enough, and go there."
"My house is nearby."
"Let's go!"
The Eternal Night Empress waved her finger nonchalantly, fearless, and changed the venue as soon as she said so.
With her combat power, how could she suffer a loss?
Because the topic was light, the Eternal Night Empress naturally didn't have the usual majesty. Tonight, she was also wearing easy-to-move combat clothes, like a beautiful and powerful adventurer.
She was definitely not a silly white sweet, but she was able to laugh, scold, and express herself freely, which gradually relaxed Roger.
He even had the illusion that he was chatting with a modern outstanding woman.
The women Roger has come into contact with, even Angelina and Tasika, who come from very good backgrounds, will have some era-bound thoughts such as male superiority and loyalty to the monarch.
They have confidence, but not the kind of flying self of modern women, and they have many things to worry about.
Xia Na may have it when she enters the little madwoman state, but she doesn't have the femininity yet.
So when the Eternal Night Empress put down the airs of a monarch and communicated with Roger on an equal footing, and the two could also enjoy the extravagant eating methods that even the Versailles nobles could not enjoy, they were really very speculative.
Tonight, the Empress's appearance, temperament, conversation, and three views are all very touching.
Dusk has passed, and a faint fragrance is floating.
After a successful project, a beautiful female leader takes you out to celebrate, chats about fantastical topics, and suddenly says she wants to go to your house. Who can refuse this?
It just so happens that the house in the Dior commercial district is really not far away, and there are enough ingredients and utensils, so Roger happily agreed and prepared to change the venue to continue this round.
Stepping out of the dessert shop and into the brilliant night, the Eternal Night Empress unconsciously fell behind a step and rubbed her numb temples.
It took a thousand layers of schemes to get to this point. It's so hard for me!
...
...
Conqueror's Canyon.
The War Goddess Tabera, the Sea God Derya, and the Dragon God Saimbes were comforting the God of Hope Tesles.
These four gods are among the weaker of the seven gods. It is difficult for them to single-handedly conquer a plane on their own strength. Recently, they have begun to try to cooperate in groups, and the speed of conquering the world and then "voiding" it has become much faster.
The tasks arranged by the God of Knowledge have rewards. The higher the conquest efficiency, the more faith they receive in addition to the faith harvested from the world, which is definitely a profitable business.
After doing this a few times, the other three gods have developed steadily, but Tesles is too young. The faith he handles comes easily, and then he becomes arrogant.
In the end, he was harvested by Nali Nair, and instantly returned to before liberation.
Although he himself also had reasons, the predecessors present had also suffered a lot from that angel, and hearing his experience, they had a strong sense of shared hatred.
"How much hatred is there to tear down the kingdom of God? This is too much!"
The Dragon God Saimbes's several heads rarely reached a consensus. Even if he usually disliked Tesles more than he disliked being promiscuous, he unconditionally stood on his side at this time.
"Interest Shepherd, as expected, lives up to his name..."
Tabera thought of Nali Nair's nickname, and the four gods all sighed.
Interest is like weeds. If you are not careful, it will grow very tall. The consequences are not as tragic as Tesles, but it is also heartbreaking.
The four gods denounced Nali Nair for three full days, finally relieved their anger, and began to discuss subsequent cooperation.
Cooperation is good. The four gods affirmed the value of cooperation and were willing to give Tesles a little faith each because of his recent losses.
Otherwise, he really can't hold on, and even the operation of his church is having problems.
"Don't worry, as long as we continue to cooperate, we can earn back the faith soon."
Tabera encouraged Tesles, who was still in low spirits.
Just as they had discussed the route of advance, they suddenly received a message from the God of Knowledge in the divine power communication channel.