What did you do with the dice?

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Phoenix, please go to the kitchen and get some snacks. Since this story is so long, it will only be more enjoyable if you eat while listening to it."

Phoenix nodded, jumped off his lap, stood up and went out.

Ai Li also stood up and caught up with Phoenix: "Then I'll go get some food too!"

Sanitieta couldn't help but remind him, "Don't call for help anymore."

"Good~"

After saying that, the two of them left.

Facts have proved that as long as you are thick-skinned enough, it is others who are embarrassed. This was originally a very serious matter, but Rusalka turned it into a story conference with just one sentence.

As a result, Challens, who couldn't start his lecture before Rewi and Phoenix brought back the food, could only drink water to hide his embarrassment.

Chapter 170 The Great Prince's Perspective

Phoenix and Ali each pushed a small snack cart for afternoon tea, and then placed the plates and teacups on the small square table one by one, poured hot tea and milk into the cups, and placed all the snacks and sugar in the middle for them to take. Then they sat down on the left and right, Phoenix sitting side by side on Rusalka's left, and Ali turned a corner and sat on Phoenix's left.

Sanita closed the door of the conference room, activated the soundproof barrier, and sat at the corner to the right of Rusalka, while the eldest prince sat on his right.

Thus, a pleasant afternoon tea party, no, a reminiscence party of the eldest prince Charlence, began.

Let him tell us what happened in Alice Castle, and why he was suddenly "resurrected" after being sentenced to death by the Church of the Seven Sins?

Challens took a sip of milk tea and said with emotion, "I really miss it. It's been a long time since I attended a tea party like this. I didn't expect that the party I was most reluctant to attend would become my last memory in Alice City."

Rusalka proudly displayed her hospitality as a host, "I can't guarantee anything else, but we'll definitely have plenty of snacks and desserts."

Rusalka added in the PL channel: (Tata is also enough.)

Sanita: (For a mouth like yours, the greatest virtue is to eat more and talk less.)

Challens smiled and said, "Thank you for the hospitality, Lord Pearl Tear. I will get started right away. It was an impressive party..."

----

Time goes back to the night before Alice changed her owner.

dong dong dong.

The old butler, with gray hair but still very energetic, knocked on Challens' door. With a word "Come in", he walked into Challens' room and quickly closed the door.

After confirming the doors were securely closed, the old butler coughed dryly and whispered, "Your Highness, Charrons, it's time to prepare for the dinner to be held in the Eight Directions Hall tonight. Most of the city's powerful nobles will be in attendance. This is a very serious succession vote, so you must not act too casually."

The old butler continued earnestly, "I know you're different from the other princes, but you were the King's favorite heir before his death. You must shoulder this heavy responsibility. Tonight is your chance to gain the support of the majority of the nobles. Once tonight is over, you can officially take over the kingdom."

Challens chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Does it make a difference? Ever since the Fourth Expedition failed, the Fifth Westward Expansion failed again, and the descendants of the Guardian Knights joined the God of Law and Contract, the royal family's prestige and power have plummeted.

My father, as the sixth king, was, to put it bluntly, nothing more than an obedient king. It's because the things in the royal treasury are needed by our Mebius family that we are the royal family. If one day they are no longer needed, I'm afraid the royal family will no longer have any reason to exist."

The old butler was silent for a moment, then replied, "At least we still have the unbreakable Alice City, the kingdom's strongest wizard team, the kingdom's treasury, 50,000 elite troops nearby that can be mobilized at any time, and the hostages of the noble families in the city."

----

Rusalka interrupted him quickly: "What do you need?"

Challens was stunned for a moment, then replied, "It's hard to describe in a few words. It might not be called a thing, but rather a prophecy."

There was no need for Sunita to complain about his interruption, as Mao Mao immediately glared at him and made him shut up immediately to indicate that he would not interrupt anymore.

Sanita: "Just keep talking. If there's anything unclear, we'll ask after you finish speaking."

Challens continued his story.

----

"Fifty thousand elite soldiers, and I wonder how many of them are still loyal to the Mebius family." Challens sighed, "Never mind. If this is my destiny, I will accept it."

"It's best that you've figured it out. Everything isn't dead yet. I believe that after you inherit power, you'll be able to restore our family's former glory as we founded the kingdom."

After the old butler finished speaking, he called the servants, helped Challens to dress carefully, and took him to the banquet hall.

As he approached the venue, he was treated to the spotlight. Soon, a man came up to him and said, "Brother, how are you? Tonight is an important day for you. You must enjoy yourself."

The man was none other than the fourth prince, Mebius Vanyin, who was gesturing to him with a glass of red wine. The waiter beside him hurriedly brought a plate and handed the eldest prince a glass of red wine in response.

Brothers address each other as "you". Although it is not as elegant as the elegant words and four breaks in one second of the 21st century, it can be regarded as the "sarcasm" of this world.

Challens took the red wine glass and clinked glasses politely with his brother, with whom he did not have a good relationship. In such an occasion, even if he knew that the other party was mocking him, he could only go along with the situation.

The reason why he and his brothers did not have a friendly relationship was because Challens felt that each of his three brothers had a very strong personality, in a negative sense.

It's not that he couldn't understand them, but he was obsessed with his ancestral teachings and the virtues of chivalry and disdained to associate with them.

The Fourth Prince was certainly no exception. He was a man very loyal to power, and his desire for power was stronger than any of his brothers. Because of this, if the other two brothers were only looked down upon by Charlene unilaterally, then the Fourth Prince was the one who had direct friction with him, both openly and covertly.

After the old king died of a sudden illness, the fourth prince secretly tried to win over many nobles, trying to get them to support his rebellion. However, the funny thing is that there is an ancient rule in Sinidi's law, which is also a rule handed down from the founding period of this Knight Kingdom - if the previous king dies for special reasons after designating an heir but before the heir is publicly recognized, then the other candidate heirs are eligible to launch a challenge for the inheritance right.

The challenge requires two conditions to be met:

1. Gain support from two Grand Dukes, or at least one Grand Duke and 40 points. Earls, Marquises, Viscounts, and other titles can provide different points. Only when a certain number of points are accumulated can the first requirement be met.

2. The outcome of the knight duel is used as the result.

If the first one could still be done, the second one would have directly killed the fourth prince's ambition.

It can only be said that the old king was still cautious. When he was alive, when no one thought that anything would happen to him, he had already written a will and handed it to the Royal Mage Council, stating that if an accident happened, he would choose the eldest prince as his heir.

In this way, the sudden death of the old king met the triggering conditions of the will. Now even if the fourth prince is unwilling, he has to follow the rules. He can only make things difficult for Charens in secret, but dare not challenge him openly.

Apart from this minor unpleasantness, the banquet was still quite lively. Almost all the noble representatives with names and surnames toasted the eldest prince, and so did the representatives of the three dukes. They all looked very harmonious, as if everyone had tacitly agreed to let Charrones perform the ceremony of succession to the throne.

The second prince, Mebius Quirion, was said to be one quarter elven. His ears might indeed be pointed higher than those of humans, but the brim of his hat covering his ears and his long hair made it difficult to tell from his appearance that he was of elven descent.

He also toasted his brother with a glass of wine at the banquet, and Challens described the second prince as "indecisive".

Perhaps because he inherited elven blood, he is just like the male elves in handling interpersonal relationships. He is very weak and passive. He hesitates when making decisions and his judgment is easily influenced by outsiders.

Although he was proficient in archery and martial arts, and was even an entry-level wizard rather than a wizard apprentice in the field of magic, he was not fit to be a leader, let alone a king.

However, he is different from the fourth prince and has no desire to be king, so from a relationship perspective, the second prince Quirion has the "best" relationship with Charrons.

As for the third prince, he never came to the capital at all.

The third prince, Mebius Trevor, was a pure dandy in Challens' eyes. He had no ability, no ambition, and no courage. He spent his days in pleasure, living a life of idleness and waiting to die. He didn't look like a descendant of the Knight King at all.

The only advantage he had was that he had never gotten into any major trouble. As for those minor affairs, the royal family could handle them for him and just turned a blind eye.

He never cared about family matters and was rarely in Alice City on weekdays. If he had no money, he would ask someone to send it to him. He only showed up at the old king's funeral, where he pretended to cry. A few days after the funeral was over, he went out again to have fun.

Rushaka asked Sanita in the private chat channel: (What is wan ku?)

Sanita: (Dandy.)

Rusalka looked at the translation in the private chat: (I see, it's not pronounced zhi kua.)

Sani Iron Tower: (Congratulations! You've planted a new cactus in the boundless cultural desert.)

So, without being too boastful, the eldest prince, Charens, is indeed the only one who is qualified to inherit the throne of the orthodox knight king, Snidi.

Nearly two years had passed, and Challens no longer had a clear memory of the many conversations at the banquet that day, which were filled with flattery and compliments from the nobles. The only thing he remembered clearly was that after he announced that he would take over what the old king had left behind, promised that he would not disappoint everyone's expectations, and supported his becoming king and guaranteed that he would not regret it, and so on, when he walked backstage to use the restroom, a man in a black windbreaker met him at the restroom door.

The location of this meeting was so subtle that it left a deep impression on Challens in another sense.

The man called out to Charrons, "Your Highness, it's a pleasure to meet you."

At first, Challens simply assumed this was an envoy from a noble family or an heir to a noble family, trying to get close to him. So he nodded, intending to end the conversation with a few pleasantries. However, the other party's next words completely wiped out his urge to urinate: "Young, upright, full of hope, with goodness still in your heart. It would be a pity if you died in vain in a place like this."

"Who are you and what do you want to do?" Challens didn't expect the guy who looked like an assassin to answer honestly. He reached out and touched the hilt of the sword at his waist. He was a warrior at the level of a great knight of the kingdom. In a one-on-one situation, calling the guards would be worse than him doing it himself.

But he didn't expect the other party to actually answer. He put his hand on his chest and gave a very standard Kingdom Knight salute: "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I am the Seven Sins Agent. As for the purpose of coming here, it is to take over Alice City."

Challens thought that the other party was probably crazy, but no matter what, he must be a fanatic of the Church of the Seven Sins. So he drew his sword without hesitation and prepared to subdue the other party, and then slowly interrogate him to get useful information.

The long sword made a clanging sound, and the energy infused into it made the sword body burst out with a transparent sharp edge. This sword was the fastest straight stab in knight swordsmanship, also known as the shadowless sword, which tried to injure the opponent first with the shortest distance and fastest speed.

This move, when used in conjunction with invisible sword energy, will give the enemy an illusion: it seems that the long sword is still some distance away from the abdomen, but in fact the sword energy has already penetrated the body, and it is too late to defend.

However, Challens' sword was blocked by a blood-colored barrier that emerged from the opponent's abdomen. Not only did it block the sword energy, but even the sword body made of the magic-forbidden stone of the magic nemesis was entangled by the blood-colored magic power when it hit the barrier, and it could hardly move forward or be pulled out.

The Seven Sins Agents ignored his attack and continued calmly, "There are too many people who want to kill you. If you live, you will definitely die; but if you die, there is still a glimmer of hope. Besides, I just want to inform you now. Goodbye."

After saying that, the opponent really intended to pass by Challens, and Challens certainly would not be intimidated like this. When the opponent walked to the maximum distance of less than one meter away from him, he quickly threw away the long sword entangled by the blood-colored magic, and made a direct move, bending his five fingers into claws, intending to grab the opponent's shoulders.

But just as he raised his hand, he was blown away. The man who claimed to be the Executor of the Seven Sins slowly retracted his arm that had just hit him in the abdomen. Without even looking at him, he continued to walk forward slowly, as if he had casually pushed aside a door curtain blocking his way.

"Wait, why did you choose to say this to me here? If you want to attack Alice City, you might as well kill me now."

The Seven Sins Agent stopped and replied, "Because you will definitely come here, I am waiting here. Besides, what does it have to do with you if I want to take over Alice City?"

After saying that, he left.

Chapter 171 Now that things have come to this, let’s upgrade first

That night, the Church of the Seven Sins attacked the banquet. Although the attack ultimately did not cause any casualties, perhaps their purpose was not to kill but to confine people, so apart from covering the venue with a hood, they did not take any other action.

The senior generals were trapped at the banquet, and no one would have thought that when there was no movement in Alice's outer city, there would be troops that could directly attack the inner city. So, it was natural that Grand Duke Oaks's troops easily took over the inner city under the cover of night, just like a great victory in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Challens initially said that he was rescued by Anthony. In fact, on the way to escape, Anthony once told him that the Agent of the Seven Sins did not lie to him. Although he did not know the reason, the other party really let him go, which allowed him to leave Alice City alive.

Otherwise, if any high priest of the Church of the Seven Sins was sent to intercept him, or if the agent himself went to cause trouble for Anthony, Challens would not be able to escape unscathed.

And what the Seven Sins Agents said was right. On the night when Alice City was broken, the biggest enemy was not the Seven Sins, but the people of the Fourth Prince and Grand Duke Oaks.

They really received an order to kill the eldest prince, whether he was alive or dead. Even the people on Grand Duke De Lai's side received a similar order - to capture him alive.

Charens couldn't understand why the other grand dukes wanted to kill him, but the Church of the Seven Sins wanted him to live. Not only did they conceal the fact that they let him go, they even spread false information that he was dead. It seemed that they even found a scapegoat to act as his corpse, and hung it together with the corpses of several mages of the Royal Mage Corps, making it particularly realistic.

To Challens, this reality was indeed a bit magical. His fellow countrymen from the Snidi Kingdom wanted to harm him, but the cultists next door who were his mortal enemies saved him. Could anything be more outrageous than this?

Oh, it seems there are. For example, during the war last month, the Lord of Pearl Tears next to me forced me to play the role of the eldest prince in the form of a contract. In the middle of the process, he also pointed fingers at me, saying that my acting was not realistic enough and that there was still a lot of room for improvement. He also asked me to read "Noble Etiquette" more when I return.

The story almost ends here, and what happened afterwards is similar to the version that Rusalka knows.

Charens finally finished, which meant Rusalka could finally speak. However, he was very frustrated. As a judge, he would definitely rate the story first. "It's not that long. I feel it's not as good as Phoenix's story. I give it 7 out of 10. Phoenix gets 100."

Seeing Phoenix's tail standing up, Rusalka quickly changed his tone before Phoenix could whip him with it: "But from what I hear, the Seven Sins Agents sound so electric. Is this what the Chaotic Evil camp feels like?"

"What is the radio wave system?" Ai Li next to her questioned the new word that came out of Rusalka's mouth.

Sanita: "You can think of it as a hallucination. Everything he does is his own, he's so self-centered, and he rarely communicates with others."

Ai Li nodded with an expression that said, "I've learned a lesson."

Sanitieta still hoped that she would forget the words that came out of Rusalka's mouth after waking up. Recently, Phoenix has begun to imitate her. Although she can't speak abstract words like Rusalka, she can already do some abstract things - such as putting a piece of roasted ginger coated with flour in a plate of biscuits given to Ai Li, which made Ai Li nervous when eating biscuits for several days.

You said that this was her own invention, but Sanitieta didn't believe it at all, because when Ai Li was critically attacked by Ginger, Rusalka was not at the crime scene.

It wasn't a time for fighting or handling official business, but snack time, so why should he separate from Phoenix?

What's more, Phoenix committed the crime, and it would be abnormal for him, a pure fun-loving person, not to watch the joke.

There was only one possibility left, and that was that he was guilty. This idea must have been his. He couldn't bear to pit Rewi Alley, but he couldn't help but share some of his genius ideas with Phoenix. These were the only experimental subjects Phoenix could use, so in the end, Rewi Alley was the unlucky one.

The saying "marry a dog, follow the dog" is really true. Although Phoenix is ​​a cat, Sanitieta always feels that if she stays with Rusalka for too long, she will definitely become the most dog-like cat in this world.

Rusalka: "Then please explain the prophecy you mentioned earlier."

Challens frowned and recalled, "My father actually mentioned this to me. It's said that the Mebius family bloodline is blessed or cursed. If the family bloodline is cut off, the seal of the artifact in the treasury will be released, causing a great disaster."

Rusalka: "Let's be more conscientious in our storytelling. You've already mentioned the artifact, so there's no need for me to ask you 'what artifact' again. It makes me seem ignorant by constantly asking questions."

Sanita: (Isn’t it?)

Rusalka: (I, with my foresight, relied on deliberately exposing my weaknesses to the enemy, luring them into an attack, and thus achieved the great victory in Sicily!)

Sanita: (Editing the history book, right?)

Challens gave an awkward smile and ate a cookie: "Well, I don't know what this artifact is. I've never been into the treasury."

He paused, and seeing Rusalka looking at him, he continued without hesitation, "The royal treasury is a special place. It's said that only direct descendants of our Mobius family can enter in times of national crisis. I didn't go in then because the entrance was already heavily guarded by my fourth brother, so I didn't have the chance to enter. But I suspect the Seven Sins Agents have already obtained the artifact, since my fourth brother is also a direct descendant."

Rusalka: "Why would we need to guess? It's certain. They've already officially announced that they have a magic weapon! It's a key."

There was a hint of surprise on Challens' face. It seemed that he really didn't know about this. He had been hiding in Marquis Banner's house for a long time, and there was some information gap.

Sanita said to Rusalka, "Do you have anything else to ask?"

Rusalka tapped the table with her fingers. "The round is over. It's your turn."

To be honest, Rusalka didn't know what else Sanitieta wanted to ask. He felt that he had already planned everything out and asked every detail of the story without leaving out a single detail. Now he was looking forward to what new things his brother could come up with.