Arknights' Lock of Heaven

“Of course I’ll stop you,” Zofia rolled her eyes at her, sighed, and said, “Do you know what the headlines are in today’s sports news?”

"Ha, what is it?" Maria lowered her head guiltily.

Of course she knew; the news had spread far and wide.

"The Radiant Knights have reappeared? The new knight of the Nearl family makes his debut; can he reclaim the glory that belongs to the nobility?"

Zofia sneered, "Heh, these media outlets that profit from human suffering..."

"Haha, my sister is really famous," Maria could only manage a forced smile.

"You're still laughing!" Zofia glared at her, then sighed and said, "Although those media outlets that are capable of anything will definitely use strange headlines and rumors to create hype, it's not too late to back out now, really."

Then she met Maria's determined gaze.

"Sigh, you're not going to give up no matter what, are you?" Zofia said with a headache.

“Your talent is not bad. Your aptitude for Originium Arts and swordsmanship is quite good. After all, you are of the Nearl family bloodline. You have been practicing swordsmanship with me since you were a child, so I know this very well. But in recent years you have been obsessed with mechanical engineering. I thought you might want to become a craftsman.”

"Craftsmanship is just a hobby, and although I don't want to give it up... but what I have to do is more important, right?"

"While I admire your willingness to risk everything for your family while maintaining an optimistic attitude, the Knights' Games are not as glamorous as the audience and tourists imagine."

At this moment, bald Martin, who had been wiping the wine glasses, said, "It's not just about the scenery."

Old Martin raised his hand; most of his arm had been replaced with metal machinery, the joints making delicate sounds.

"This is just the result of a careless move."

“Yes…I remember. Your opponent was a Victorian who wielded two swords,” the old knight sighed, looking at his mechanical hand, “but you still won in the end.”

“Yes, I still won,” Bald Martin replied. “This is what you call glory. I can’t even wipe a cup now.”

"Knightly competition, huh," the old knight said disdainfully as he drank his wine in silence.

Conquering knights have always looked down on competitive knights, even those who have retired.

"I was serious."

Maria looked up at the elders.

"My uncle always said that even if they were stripped of their noble status and the Linguang family crest disappeared, it wouldn't mean that 'Linguang' would cease to exist..."

"But I still want to protect those things, protect my sister and grandfather... the things they have always defended."

"My sister is gone. As the youngest member of the Linguang family, I cannot stand idly by and watch the Linguang family decline."

"Otherwise I would hate myself to death."

"You, alas..."

Zofia looked at her and was about to say something, but in the end she just sighed helplessly.

“Knightly arena,” Xia Yu, who had been watching them, suddenly spoke up at that moment, “If I’m not mistaken, at least it’s not as dangerous as the battlefield, right?”

“Of course,” Zofia replied. “Knightly competition is just a game after all. How could it be as risky as the battlefield?”

"But the key question is, how long has it been since Maria practiced swordsmanship? Even if it's not as dangerous as on the battlefield, it's still not something children can play!"

"And what's more, there's Margaret too..."

At this point, Zofia suddenly stopped talking, her expression growing increasingly melancholy.

“Hmm, in that case, I might be able to help,” Xia Yu said, stroking her chin as she looked Maria up and down.

"While we can't make her invincible on the field, at least we can prevent her from suffering serious injuries."

"Maria, right? I heard your hobby is craftsmanship?"

"Do you have any armor that you've crafted yourself?"

166 Social Animal Ma Enna

“This is it,” Zofia said, leading Xia Yu and the other two through the door. A hint of embarrassment flashed across her face as she looked at her meticulously maintained yard.

“This is my home,” she said quietly, turning her head to the side. “This is the yard I bought with the prize money I earned from reaching the round of 16 back then.”

"It's just that over the years, well, it's been somewhat neglected. Although it looks a bit dilapidated, the rooms and such are all well maintained by hired people. It's just this garden..."

What appeared before them was a garden overgrown with weeds.

Rather than a garden, if you disregard the artificial decorations and traces of civilization surrounding it, it is just a typical desolate wilderness.

Moreover, the area is large enough.

This shows that being a gladiator knight in Kazimierz is quite lucrative, enough to buy such a large estate and maintain it until now, and continuing like this is not a problem.

As long as you can make it to the round of 16.

Yeah, to be honest, it's really hard.

It's extremely difficult, and champions like the Black Knight and Blood Knight, who have grown wildly, are even rarer.

Objectively speaking, the knightly competition that swept Terra was not without its benefits to Kazimierz.

Kazimir earned enough from this tournament alone to cover government expenses and maintain several large armies on the border.

This even led to the gradual neglect of the vast Kasimir countryside, with many places, like Drip Village, abandoning tax collection altogether.

Why? Would a high-ranking knight give up the taxes he was entitled to?

It's not that the taxes collected in those impoverished rural areas in a year aren't even enough to cover a few games at the Cavaliers' Stadium.

Therefore, most of the impoverished villages were simply abandoned. No one would come to collect taxes, nor would anyone come to protect the area or drive away bandits.

The Securities and Futures Commission knows that things can't continue like this, but what good does it do them to know?

Are there still any fools these days who can be fooled into protecting the countryside with some kind of chivalrous ideal?

The people of Kazimierz either join the army to slowly gain seniority, hoping to get promoted and make money, or return to the mobile city to become competitive knights and make money.

Otherwise, why would the Commercial Federation have such a great deal of influence in Kazimierz? It could even force the Conquering Knights to withdraw from the Great Knight Territory.

It's not that the country's financial power is actually in their hands.

By controlling the finances, the Business Federation gradually infiltrated the Kasimir National Assembly, sharing the power to rule the country with the Supervisory Council, and even the power of the Knights' Association fell into their hands.

The Securities and Futures Commission can only take strict precautions against their encroachment.

Kazimierz, a nation founded on knighthood, requires the consent of the Merchants' Guild and participation in the main tournament of knightly competitions to inherit a knighthood title...

To outsiders, this seems utterly absurd.

The succession and awarding of knighthoods—shouldn't this be the lifeblood of the Securities and Futures Commission? Without it, how can they compete with the Commercial Federation?

Perhaps it's too early to tell now, but what if, decades from now, this generation of knights all grow old, and the new knights, apart from those from traditional knightly families, are all from the commercial guild's competitive knights...?

By then, what's the point of the Securities and Futures Commission?

No wonder the Grand Knight Commander was in such a hurry to contact Nearl to return home, and even went so far as to invite Rhodes Island under the pretext of providing security checks on the new site and preventing the spread of infected individuals.

Yes, although it is unknown whether Kal'tsit played a role in this, Rhodes Island's invitation to the Grand Knight Commander is inextricably linked to Nearl.

She knew why the Grand Knight Commander had invited her back to the country, and she also knew that she wouldn't be able to do what she wanted to do if she went back alone.

Several factors combined to bring about this trip to Kazimierz on Rhodes Island.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has no intention of compromising with the Business Federation anymore.

If this continues, the Knights Association will have to change its ownership to the business world; their roots will be completely destroyed by the Business Federation.

And Lin Guang is the best candidate to break the deadlock right now.

This was exactly what she wanted.

The reason for all this is that the Commercial Federation controls the economy of Kazimierz, which is why they have been able to force the Supervisory Council to make concessions time and time again. It is also because they have provided enough benefits to the Knights.

So no matter how much the knights and nobles disliked them, they never considered killing them and taking their place.

Oh, maybe someone mentioned it, but by then they had become too powerful to control, and the Business Federation was not a tightly organized group, but rather a rather loose alliance. No one had the ability to wipe them all out at once.

But if you don't eliminate them all, it's pointless.

But if they were all wiped out, Casimir would be finished.

They failed to control and restrict the rise of capital power in the early stages, so now we can only share the power to rule the whole of Kasimmir with them.

Even though they dislike each other, the Business Federation is wary of the Securities and Futures Commission's military presence, which the latter relies on for its economic support.

Both sides have become inseparable from each other, resulting in the current distorted political system in Kazimir. What's that saying again?

Tolerance is for the sake of the country.

Ha ha.

"Please excuse my poor appearance," Zofia said, her cheeks slightly flushed. She carefully walked around a discarded car hood and led the three of them toward her house.

"Actually, I didn't plan to buy such a big garden, but I had no choice. If I wanted to buy a house, I had to buy this garden first. The surrounding area was also good, and I liked the house. Plus, the seller's asking price wasn't too expensive, so I just bought it on impulse."

"After I got it, I realized how troublesome and expensive it was to maintain such a large garden, so it gradually... fell into disrepair."

“That’s already quite remarkable,” Xia Yu replied admiringly. “Miss Zofia is so young, yet she has managed to buy such a large piece of land in the Great Knight Territory on her own merits. She has already surpassed the vast majority of people in the world.”

"Besides, I bought the garden with my own money, so what if it's abandoned? It's all up to my own mood."

"If you're in a good mood, surely you can afford to maintain the garden?"