Cloud Thinking

Claude fell ill, suddenly and seriously, to the point where he had to prepare for his death.

Eric took over the affairs of the empire and was busy dealing with state affairs and taking care of his old father.

When Starley learned that Claude was ill, she begged to come back to see him for the last time. Adwin always doted on her, so he let her go back.

As luck would have it, Claude passed away on the day she came back. She was unable to see him for the last time, nor was she able to hear Claude's last words.

"I'm leaving now. You have to take good care of yourself and don't let me down..."

His gaze passed over Eric's shoulder and fell on a corner of the room. In a trance, he seemed to see a familiar yet unfamiliar figure.

Is it Aya...?

Or Madeline…?

Is she here to take him away?

His pale and dry lips moved, and he continued with his last breath:

"I'm sorry, Aya... I'm sorry to you... I'm even more sorry to your mother..."

"Perhaps, I shouldn't have nodded and allowed her to stay that day. In this way, maybe everything can still be saved..."

Claude watched the red figure walking towards him step by step, and the blurry face gradually became clearer.

Flame red hair, deep blue eyes...

It turns out it’s really Aya…

Wattsise walked to the bedside, looked at Claude, who was almost unrecognizable due to illness, and listened to his heartfelt words before his death, with a mocking smile on his face.

The ghost of Helia on the side didn't wait for Watersiser to say anything sarcastic, and directly stretched out her hand to Claude, "Father, come with me."

He widened his eyes slightly, and stretched out his hand with the last bit of strength in his body. The moment his fingertips touched Helia's, he lost the last bit of life and left this world.

His soul left his body, but unlike Helia's, he did not linger in the world. Instead, he floated straight into the sky and disappeared.

Eric held a solemn funeral for Claude, but except for Stella, not many people shed tears for his death, and some were even very happy.

But these restless guys failed to cause any trouble. Eric, who was brought up by Claude, was as decisive and ruthless as his father, and it could even be said that he was better than his father.

He crushed to death all the old guys who wanted to take advantage of the death of the old lion to fish in troubled waters. In a sense, he sent them to be buried with his father so that he would not be too bored after his death.

Not only did Starley not have the time to see Claude for the last time, she also did not have the time to leave before the imperial war broke out.

Before Eric could even get comfortable in his seat as king, the Xiali Empire revealed its former mask and launched an aggressive attack on the Otis Empire.

The war broke out and the enemy was well prepared, almost using the entire country's strength, which was obviously a long-planned plan.

In addition, war broke out in the southern continent at this time. The people of the southern continent rose up in rebellion, broke through the defense line of the Suomifei Bridge, rushed into the northern continent, and captured five towns in succession.

People throughout the empire were in panic, and the atmosphere of uneasiness was spreading. Some people who were afraid of death planned to move their families to the neighboring Turton Dynasty.

When one person took action, the others followed suit. Large numbers of war refugees rushed into the dynasty, causing chaos everywhere.

Even though the two countries had just recently consolidated their cooperative relationship through marriage, the dynasty could not help but feel dissatisfied at this moment.

Not to mention, in the face of interests, who can resist the temptation, and who will care about those empty-headed cooperation and alliances.

No matter how capable Eric is, he is unable to cope with the dual concerns at home and abroad and fight on two fronts.

Not to mention that the Turton Dynasty even planned to abandon the cooperation, wanting to be the oriole after the mantis stalks the cicada and reap the benefits.

Starley had no choice but to write a letter to her husband, the current king of the dynasty, Yadwin, asking the dynasty to send troops to aid the empire and help the empire through this crisis.

After much persuasion, Yadwen did send troops, but the number was small, and the generals did not listen to Eric's command and only assisted in fighting against the enemies on the southern continent.

How could Eric not see what they were thinking? They just wanted to take the opportunity to infiltrate their troops into the empire, so that they could tear off a piece of meat after the war and expand the territory of the dynasty.

But he couldn't help it.

After Helia's death, the Antonio family completely cut off contact with the Abraham royal family, and after the border war broke out, Marshal Hawke lost contact.

No one knows whether he is dead or rebelled.

Eric had to take command in person and rush to the battlefield.

As luck would have it, a legion of Warcraft appeared in the Sad Forest on the border between the two countries and dealt a heavy blow to the armies of both countries in one fell swoop. They had to put aside their grudges and work together to solve the problem of Warcraft first.

The situation at the Turton Dynasty was also bad. Large numbers of monsters were invading and they could barely protect themselves, so how could they have the time or energy to help Eric?

He no longer cared about the plan of expanding the territory and hurriedly recalled the troops he had sent out.

The people of the Southern Continent were now also facing the continuous emergence of Warcraft armies in the rear, and the plan to attack the Northern Continent had to be temporarily shelved.

Because of these intelligent monsters, the whole continent was in chaos. The gods in the sky could no longer sit idly by and took action openly and covertly.

Eric was seriously injured in a war against monsters and was on the verge of death.

It is at this moment that Starley reveals her greatest secret - her flesh and blood have powerful healing properties.

She used her blood to save Eric, and found ways to contact the group of fish in her own pond, and together they helped the empire overcome the crisis.

Eric, now free, would naturally retaliate as appropriate, not only against the Xiali Empire that had been plotting for a long time, but also against the people of the South Continent who were making trouble and rebelling, and the Turton Dynasty who saw the situation was not good and wanted to stab him in the back.

After Starley got married, she was no longer considered a princess of the Otis Empire. Eric, remembering that she saved his life, did not make things too difficult for her and let her go back.

Little did she know that Starley's nightmare had just begun.

Her husband was injured, and she used her own blood to treat him. Her secret was exposed, and then -

She became the blood bag of the dynasty.

Faced with Eric's revenge, in addition to resistance, Yadwin will naturally vent his anger on Stella from the Empire.

She suddenly went from being a princess and queen who was held in the palm of her hand and received everyone's love to being a tool imprisoned in a dark cell and exploited by others.

She saw with her own eyes how the person she loved changed his face, and how her most trusted relative ignored her requests and continued to pursue revenge, causing her to be the target of retaliation, revenge and torture.

She didn't understand why she ended up like this.

She was so happy before, and she thought she would always be so happy.

Watersise and Helia were standing in front of the skinny, lifeless, and lifeless Stellar, watching her hands and feet locked in heavy shackles. Her exposed skin was covered with needle marks, and even had whip marks and bruises from beatings.

She was wearing a tattered white dress, slumped on the ground, her belly bulging with the child of the man she now hated the most.

They sucked her life force from the outside and the inside, trying to drain her dry.

"You don't look happy." Wattsiser noticed Helia's silence.

Logically speaking, seeing her enemy suffer such a tragic end, she should be happy that she had gotten her revenge.

But she remained silent, saying nothing, with no expression on her face, and no one knew what she was thinking.

"Did you foresee her ending long ago?" Seeing that she was not surprised, Watersiser even guessed that this was the case because he had repeatedly mentioned that Stella would not have a good ending.

"No." Helia gave a negative answer.

She squatted down, stretched out her hand, and lightly touched Stellar's bulging belly. She said with a complicated look, "I didn't expect that man to be such a beast."

In the future she foresaw, Starley finally hanged herself because she couldn't stand being used like a blood bag.

She came this time not to see how miserable her life was, but to calculate the time to collect her body.

But what she didn't expect was that Starley was pregnant.

And it seemed that she did not seek death for the sake of the child in her belly. She continued to be that man's blood bag and slave, allowing him to suck her blood, torture her, and violate her.

This is even worse than beasts.

"I want to take her away." Helia said suddenly.

She looked at Wattsise, and a tear rolled out of her eye and slid down her expressionless face.

"Are you crying for her?" Watsise asked puzzled.

"No, I'm crying for us," Helia said.

For me, for Starley, and for all the sad women of this era.

Her death was not entirely due to poisoning Starley. Even though the final charge was murder of the royal heir, Helia knew very well that she died because of the emperor's suspicion.

She wanted power, and that touched Claude's bottom line, so she died.

Helia has close contact with Antonio's family, but this is not explained in the original book, after all, it is not an important matter.

The Antonio family did not approve of Eric, but accepted Helia, even though everyone was saying that Hawke hated the niece who killed her sister.

Hawke searches for Madeline in her, while Helia uses the power of Antonio's family to build connections for herself.

She was unwilling to be just a princess waiting to get married, unwilling to be a vassal of men, she wanted to be in power, she wanted authority, she wanted the power to dominate.

But this is not allowed.

Claude would not allow her to play with power, Eric would not allow her to compete with him, and the men of this era would not allow a woman to dominate them.

So she died.

She did not die because of so-called jealousy among women, but died because of her resistance to patriarchal society.

And Starley, is she really happy?

Or is this happiness just a packaged beauty, used to cover up the power she lost that should have belonged to her?

If Starley thinks carefully about how she has come to where she is today, she will find that all her happiness and joy comes from the men around her.

Be it her father, her brother, her admirer or her pursuer, they were all just a beautiful dream that the men painted for her, a fleeting firework.

Those in power use their endless love and favors to cover up the deprivation of the princess's inheritance rights, and even hypocritically tell you that you have enjoyed it for so many years and it is time for you to make contributions to the empire.

Then they sell you like a commodity in exchange for commensurate profits.

But, why can the prince enjoy all the good things and inherit power without even paying any price?

Why do all the benefits fall on men, while women are exploited to their utmost?

This is not fair.

She advised Starley to give up everything and stay away. She would give her more money than she could spend in her lifetime as long as she was willing to leave.

She had foreseen her tragic end, and she also knew very well that the so-called high and mighty royal family, wealthy and glorious, was nothing more than a hellish pit where people were eaten without leaving any bones.

She thought she could help as many people as possible, and she wanted to push her out of this fire pit, but Starley didn't agree.

She couldn't stop someone who wanted to die, and she couldn't stop someone who was looking for death.

Helia simply changed her track and planned to seek power, hoping to use it to defend the few rights she had left.

But she failed and ended up dying.

The Antonio family supports her, or to be more precise, it is Hilda who has always supported her.

Hawke stood on Madeline's side out of guilt for her, but he still couldn't get rid of the ideas instilled in him by this era. He could only give everything he could within his ability.

Including but not limited to power and status, but also the army under his command.

This violated the rights of some people. They could not accept a woman becoming the commander of thousands of soldiers, and they could not accept a woman riding on their heads and giving them orders.

So he died too, and was sent into the monster tide by his trusted confidants, leaving no trace of his body.

Hilda escaped and Okale was elected, but he was just a puppet in the position of marshal.

When he learned the truth, he couldn't accept that his trusted uncles killed his father and drove his sister away, so he went crazy.

He led these people who betrayed Antonio's family to the depths of the Sad Forest, and watched with his own eyes as they were torn apart and eaten by monsters, all as if they were to be buried with his father.

Lady Iyena had been ill since Hawke's death, and passed away not long after, to join her husband in the underworld.

Blot inherited Antonio's family under great pressure, but he had no talent for being a general. However, the army of monsters was already approaching the city, and behind him was the territory of the empire and the people of the empire.

He had nowhere to retreat.

In order to avoid bringing disgrace to his family, he finally defended the city in another way - sacrifice.

He sacrificed himself in exchange for the attention of the God of Light, temporarily forcing back the invading monster army and buying precious breathing time for the empire.

Avril knew very well that she could not take that position or else she would end up like Hilda, so she pushed the still young Hutley to inherit the family, and she assisted him from behind.

They held on for a long time, but no reinforcements came.

After Helia's death, due to Claude's suspicion and to prevent him from killing them, they reduced or even stopped contacting the imperial capital, so they didn't know why the reinforcements had not arrived for a long time.

Maybe Eric just wanted them to die...

The city gate was broken and monsters entered, but Avril had already taken advantage of the time bought by Blot's sacrifice to disperse the people in the city, so Sutterd had long been an empty city.

Those who stayed behind were good soldiers who were not afraid of sacrifice and were loyal. They vowed to defend Saturde, Antonio's family, and their homeland to the death.

That day, Avril and Hutley sat quietly on a high seat in the castle, dressed neatly and elegantly, listening to the wailing and roaring coming from afar, waiting for death to come.

She could not forget her younger brother looking at her, trembling with fear, yet still holding her hand tightly and saying firmly:

"Sister, let me protect you."

Antonio's family was destroyed.