Chapter 158: The Second Transaction

In the Eastern Territory, within the base.

The castle had long since become unrecognizable, now featuring an ever-expanding study that spanned over three hundred square meters.

Qin Le looked at Irene sitting across from him. This time, his gaze did not instinctively and uncontrollably drift downward.

"Her Royal Highness Princess Irene, I have a piece of good news and a piece of bad news. Which one would you like to hear first?"

Irene did not answer. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her voice carried a trace of a tremble as she asked, "Is the old bastard dead?"

"Yes, exactly ten minutes ago, we confirmed the King's death," Qin Le said without beating around the bush. "Right now, His Majesty's remains and the Dawn Sword are returning to the capital under the escort of the Kingdom's Knights."

"In other words, you can leave now and go back to prepare for the Royal Election, to select a new King of Dawn within three months. During this period, as a witness, I can ensure that the winner of the Royal Election carries the bloodline of Dawn."

This time, it would be a true Royal Election, no longer the petty squabbling and empty rhetoric of the past. This time, it was a game of chess among various factions, a struggle without any restrictions.

Without the supervision of a king, the Royal Election would become exceptionally fierce and bloody. The only restriction was the bloodline of Dawn, and the sole objective was to ascend the throne. For this purpose, any means—including warfare, assassination, and poisoning—would be permitted.

Since the Dawn Sword lacked a distinct autonomous will, as long as the claimant to the throne had no major disqualifications, only the final outcome mattered.

Irene said with a sour tone, "To ensure Olina's victory."

"Personally, that was my intention, but unfortunately, your recent series of maneuvers completely muddled the whole thing," Qin Le shrugged in regret, showing no regard for her feelings whatsoever.

Irene had indeed secured a degree of support during this period. The general direction of Xuanlv would remain unchanged, but the details would shift due to certain factors.

Seeking a shield to transition into the new world—who should bear this shield could, in a sense, be negotiated. Especially after Olina demonstrated her innate talent, the arguments had never ceased.

Of course, if he insisted firmly, he could push Olina onto the throne, but unfortunately, she remained visibly hesitant and elusive.

Although he no longer managed affairs, nor possessed the capacity to do so, his words carried immense weight—to a degree that most people could not possibly imagine. It all came down to whether Olina was willing and dared to accept it.

Irene bit her lower lip, a trace of annoyance appearing on her cold and striking face. She felt that this guy was deliberately trying to infuriate her.

"However, I still haven't figured out how to build a centralized state. This is an entirely new system; it is both magnificent and complex. And my followers—they are not yet ready to become officials."

After just a few months of study, even though they studied every day from dawn (around 5:00 AM) to the boundary hour (around midnight), spending time only on meals and minimal sleep, it was still not enough to master such a vast system.

Many concepts were clear to them at a glance, and they could extract answers from this concise and lucid language, yet they remained forever unable to truly comprehend those answers. It stood there quietly like the legendary City of Gold, and while you could perceive its greatness and preciousness, and even reach out to touch it, you could never truly possess it.

At the mere thought of this, Irene's heart was filled with restlessness.

It was not that she failed to learn; on the contrary, she learned faster and understood more thoroughly than anyone else present. While others were still listening to dry and tedious theoretical knowledge, Irene had already begun putting things into practice, plunging deep into the grand construction projects of Xuanlv.

From that moment on, Irene was completely captivated.

It was an inexpressible shock, a profound force that struck straight at the soul, an unparalleled beauty.

Tens of millions of people acting as a single entity, a single person, a single will.

It turned out that in this world, besides transcendent power, there existed another power of comparable magnitude. This power required no desperate pursuit, nor did it demand passing through repeated trials of life and death to bow in reverence.

It lay right beneath her feet, within arm's reach, waiting to be touched! Yet this power had been ignored by everyone, trampled underfoot, and rendered invisible.

Now she had seen it, and she would never allow herself to foolishly let this power slip away.

"Over the past seven or eight years, I have traveled through many countries, and almost all of them are cut from the same cloth. Commoners are never treated as human beings; only those with transcendent talent are considered people. Before that, they are merely goods and tools. But in the Kingdom of Dawn, they at least possess the status of human beings, and at the very least, they are not treated as lowly as weeds."

Qin Le raised an eyebrow, feeling more and more that these high-tier transcendents were biased to varying degrees.

"Assuming the intelligence we gathered is correct, the Kingdom of Dawn is indeed far, far better than other places."

"Yes, so the reforms I wish to implement will be much easier to carry out," Irene's beautiful amber eyes burned with fervor.

"But I am not ready yet; I do not have enough talent to drive this earth-shattering transformation. I need time."

Xuanlv had not been stingy with Irene, who had delivered such precious knowledge, providing almost all the assistance they could muster. All related knowledge and the finest teachers had been dispatched to help them become barely competent officials.

Unfortunately, Irene's ideological focus had drifted slightly; the followers she had gathered were almost entirely transcendents, allegedly originating from the Hunters' Guild. This resulted in a mere hundred or so personnel, a force far too small to form a brand-new bureaucratic apparatus.

In contrast, Olina possessed a much larger pool of talent. To date, including followers in their probationary period, her numbers had reached the thousands. The drawback was that their quality was uneven, and the group invariably harbored individuals with ulterior motives.

Moreover, their operational capacity and efficiency clearly lagged behind the transcendent powerhouses under Irene, suffering from the inherent flaws typical of ordinary mortals.