Flillian, I want to live.

Lord Alden patted Guter's shoulder and spoke to her in an approving tone.

"Really? Are you willing to agree to it?"

Guter turned his head and asked the other party in a tentative tone.

"Not yet, because I don't know if you're lying to me."

Lord Alden shook his head and gave a negative answer.

"Cut~"

Guter curled his lips in dissatisfaction.

It's just as expected. If I had known, I wouldn't have wasted my time arguing with this guy - she muttered to herself.

"Don't be so anxious. I said 'yet'."

Lord Alden replied calmly.

"What do you mean?"

Guter asked back impatiently.

"How do you think you can judge whether a person is good or bad?"

Lord Olden walked to the wall on the side of the study with his hands behind his back. He raised his head, looked at the portrait hanging on the wall, and asked Gutel a question.

"Good or bad?"

Gutel blinked. She had never thought about such a question before. After all, for the demons, the concept of good and evil was very vague. In her subconscious, people like Xinmei were probably the so-called good people, and those who were against Xinmei were probably the bad people.

"Let's put it this way. Do you think I'm a good person?"

Lord Alden turned his head and looked at Gutel, who seemed a little troubled.

"You? Should... count, right?"

Gutel looked at the majestic man in front of him and answered hesitantly.

"It seems you do have quite a grudge against me. That Fulilian also said that I am just like my grandfather, a tyrannical fellow, isn't it?"

Lord Alden did not hesitate to reveal the fact that Fulilian had been gossiping about him behind his back.

"Uh...that's just Fulilian's one-sided prejudice..."

Guter said with some embarrassment.

"She's right. I'm a tyrannical fellow. I rule my army with ruthless cruelty, force my son into a political marriage, and even ask Hugh Tark to pretend to be Welter and go on a blind date with Miss Elu. Guter, do you think these are things a good person would do?"

Lord Olden, however, did not care and generously showed his unkind side to Gutel.

"This……"

Gutel was stunned. If Sinmeier's code of conduct was used as a standard, Lord Olden's actions were definitely not considered that of a good person.

"But everything I did was to protect this city, and I did it. So you should have seen at the triumphal ceremony today that the residents of this city trust and love me, and this is also a fact."

Lord Alden continued.

"really……"

Gutel nodded. Although Lord Olden did make various unreasonable demands on them, he also led the troops in the front line against the demons and protected the city from the demon invasion.

"Humans are complex, Guter. Perhaps this is why demons cannot understand human emotions. Good and bad are just vague labels. There is no magic in this world that can distinguish good from bad. Therefore, people only judge good and bad with their eyes and their hearts."

Lord Alden pointed at his only remaining left eye, then turned his finger to point at Gutel's chest.

"Eyes and heart?"

Guter repeated, seemingly understanding.

"Do you know who is in this portrait?"

Lord Alden turned around and once again cast his gaze towards the huge portrait hanging on the wall of his study.

"Yeah, he looks a lot like you, but he's a little older."

Gutel observed the portrait on the wall. It was a half-length portrait. The person in the painting was wearing a red suit and his expression seemed a little restrained. His face was about 70% similar to Lord Olden, but he looked older and had several more conspicuous scars on his face.

"He is the ancestor of our Olden family. Without his achievements, our family would not be granted territory as one of the three great knights of the kingdom. I would not be standing here talking to you. Instead, I would be killed by the demons in the Warrior Village of the Central Kingdom like the rest of Hewtark's family."

Lord Olden introduced it to Gutel with some emotion.

"That's really remarkable."

Guter nodded flatteringly.

"Yes, according to legend, our ancestor left his homeland to save the Northern Kingdom, which was plunged into dire straits by the demonic invasion. He embarked on a solo adventure, slaying the dragon that plagued the land and eliminating the great demon that threatened the region. He was ultimately crowned a hero by His Majesty the King..."

Lord Alden raised his head and told an ancient legend about his ancestors.

"But those are all lies made up by the bards of later generations."

However, after retelling the legend of his ancestors, Lord Olden's expression suddenly changed, and he denied the legend he had just mentioned.

"In fact, the ancestor was driven out of the village by the ancestors of Xiutalk, the leaders of the Warrior Village."

Lord Alden said to Guter in a serious tone.

"what?"

Gutel was shocked and glanced at the half-open door. If these words were said by Lord Olden himself, it would probably become explosive news if they were spread out.

"When our ancestor was young, he relied on his origins in the Warrior Village to bully the weak and fear the strong. He ran rampant in the village, causing widespread resentment among the surrounding villagers. Because he damaged the reputation of the Warrior Village and was considered a nuisance by the nearby residents, the Warrior Village's leaders unanimously decided to expel him to the northern continent, never to return."

Lord Alden bluntly exposed the past of his ancestors.

"So, how did he become a hero?"

Guter, who had eaten the big melon, asked curiously.

"Having stumbled upon a treasure hidden in a dragon's lair, the impoverished ancestor, driven to wealth, chose to fight the dragon to the death. He sacrificed his leg to slay the dragon and obtain the treasure. On the way to transport the treasure to the capital, the ancestor was attacked by a great demon. Unable to outrun the others due to his leg injury, the ancestor had no choice but to lie down and feign death. As a result, the great demon passed by and was able to kill it unexpectedly."

Lord Alden said this seriously.

Chapter 175: The People's Eyes Are Sharp

"Ah this..."

After listening to Lord Olden's story, Gutel, who was a little embarrassed, curled his lips. He didn't expect that Earl Olden, one of the three great knights of the Northern Kingdom, had such an embarrassing experience.

"Is it really okay to tell me about this?"

Gutel tilted his head and looked at Lord Olden with some confusion. Isn't it a bit too much to spread such negative secrets about the ancestor to outsiders?

"Of course it doesn't matter. Do you think this is some unspeakable secret? No, in fact, these things were spread by our ancestors themselves."

Sir Alden put his hands behind his back and walked to the window facing the portrait. He placed his hands on the windowsill and gazed at the city that had been passed down from his ancestors to him.

"Perhaps, initially, our ancestor accomplished his feat of subduing the dragon and killing the great demon out of selfish motives and coincidence. But it was precisely because of this strange combination of circumstances that he was treated as a hero and sent to the capital. He was welcomed by the people and received the King's commendation."

Lord Olden paused at this point, turned his head, glanced at Guter, and said meaningfully:

"Just like you."

"I……"

Guter was stunned for a moment.

"In his memoirs, the ancestor said that he had always been a selfish and arrogant man. He never thought of becoming a hero in the eyes of the public. But when he walked on the streets of the royal capital and was welcomed as a hero by the people, he felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction."

Lord Alden raised his head and stared at the portrait behind Guter.

"From that moment on, the tyrannical bully Olden vanished from this world. In his place was a heroic lord who bravely fought on the front lines of this city's struggle against the demons. Until his death, the ancestor acted like a role model. He was a true hero to both the residents of this city and the entire Northern Kingdom."

Lord Alden said proudly.

"However, before his death, the ancestor himself said that he only enjoyed being treated as a hero. After being praised and unable to back down, he deliberately pretended to be a hero. He also had his subordinates spread the notes that recorded his true side. He told everyone that if he repented now, he might be able to ask the goddess to punish him more leniently when he met her later..."

When he said this, a faint smile appeared on the face of the usually serious Lord Olden.

"But even if the ancestor admitted everything, the residents who learned the truth all said, 'This must be a joke from Lord Alden! I didn't expect him to be such a humorous person.' Not only did no one believe the ancestor was a selfish villain, but they even deliberately made up a later version of the legend."

Lord Olden shook his head. As time passed, the facts acknowledged by the ancestors themselves gradually disappeared, while the exaggerated heroic legends became widely circulated and were even regarded as facts by those who were not in the know.

"what do you mean……"

Although Lord Olden was telling the story of his ancestors, Gutel saw his own shadow in this story.

"I believe that no matter what a person's original intentions are, as long as they have truly accomplished heroic deeds, they will naturally be treated as heroes, even if they are actually a villain, or even a demon."

Lord Olden turned around and walked to the long desk where he worked. He bent down, picked up a letter that had been prepared long ago, and handed it to Gutel.

"This is?"

Gutel took the letter with some doubts, looking at the wax seal with the Olden family crest on it.

"I can accept your request to cast a bronze statue for you, but before that, I need you to pass some tests," Lord Olden said, looking at Guter with a sly smile. "On the high ground outside the city lives a woman called the Stubborn Granny. If you wish to add a statue to the city, you must first find a way to convince her."

"Stubborn mother-in-law? What a weird nickname."

Guter blinked and complained in confusion.

The next day, in front of the door of an isolated old house on a high ground outside the city.

"No."

An old woman with a hunched back and wrinkled face due to age, after seeing the handwritten letter from Lord Olden handed to her by Guter, she threw the letter on Guter's forehead without even reading it, and then slammed the door shut.

"Hey!"

Gutel whimpered cutely because the letter hit her head, and rubbed her forehead with her hand. Although she had made mental preparations before coming, the speed at which she was rejected was beyond her imagination.

"Hey, Granny, can you please listen to us?"

Philen, who came with Gutel, looked at Gutel with some heartache, then walked up and knocked on the door with the back of his hand, shouting inside.

However, there was no movement in the stubborn mother-in-law's house, as if she didn't hear Philen's voice.

"Forget it, maybe the stubborn mother-in-law is in a bad mood today. I'll come another day."

Gutel looked at Philen, whose cheeks puffed up in dissatisfaction, and waved his hand.

"I've heard from everyone in the city that the Stubborn Granny seems to have always had a conflict with Lord Alden, and that this conflict was passed down from the generation of the Stubborn Granny's deceased mother, the Stubborn Old Granny."

On the way back to the city, Fearon told Gutel about the rumors he had heard before.

"What a stubborn family... Well, thank you for accompanying me, Philen."

Gutel scratched his head helplessly and spoke to Philen in an apologetic tone.

"Nothing much. Anyway, we're rushing back to the city now. It's almost time to wake Lady Fulilian up and wash up."

Philen shook his head indifferently and replied to Gutel with a smile.

"It's already this late..."

Gutel raised his head and looked at the sun which was already high in the sky in the east. In a while, it would probably be time for lunch.

"You're spoiling Fulilian a little too much..."

Guter curled his lips and complained to Fierlen who was doting on Flillian.

"Since entering the Northern Continent, we've been either fighting or traveling. Now that we finally have a chance to rest, I think we should reward Lady Fulilian."

Philen turned around and explained to Gutel why he was so indulgent towards Fulilian.

"That's right..."

Gutel recalled the conflict between herself and Frelian last night. She didn't know if it was her illusion, but she always felt that Frelian was a little strange after entering the territory under the rule of Lord Olden.

Thinking about it this way, it would be a good thing if Fulilian could return to her leisurely life and slack off.