Book 10: Chapter 534: The Mysterious Visitors of the Alphine Grain Road District in the Snowy Land
The Alphine Grain Road District was an important area at the north of the Manasvir Empire as it served as the border between the Manasvir Empire and the Octavia Empire. If one were to follow this road and head to the north of the Manasvir Empire, they would eventually reach the Octavia Empire.
The climate in the human continent was divided into extreme polar opposites. This extreme weather was caused by the first war waged by the Ancient Twelve Demon Kings who had invaded the continent thousands of years ago.
In the southern kingdom where the Gabriel Empire was located, the weather here was hot all year round, while the northern kingdom of the Octavia Empire was experiencing a totally different climate. In fact, all four seasons of the year were composed of only the winter season in the Octavia Empire. The only difference in the daily weather was the degree of the snow, whether it was a blizzard or mild snowing.
The only empire with all the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter was the Manasvir Empire, located in the middle of the continent. The two opposite empires located at the north and south had only the winter or the summer season through the entire year. However, the empire located in the east, the Aldridge Empire, had only ever experienced spring all year round. As for the Kristoff Empire located in the west, autumn was the only season throughout the year.
At the Alphine Grain Road District, a team of knights was moving in an orderly manner. Upon closer inspection of this small team of knights that consisted of only a few people, one would realize that they were all female knights and the horses they rode on and the armor they used were all basic and ordinary items. All of the female knights had put on a gray cloak, hiding their beautiful faces underneath it.
This team was escorting an unmarked carriage. From a glance, they looked as if they were a small mercenary group that had taken on the task of escorting the carriage. However, regardless of how menial they looked, the actual capability of this small team of knights was beyond terrifying as even an average S-ranked mercenary group would not be able to put up a fight against them.
In fact, this very team was made up of Bella and her companions who were on their way to the Octavia Empire. Sitting in the unmarked carriage was the most recent political figure that had emerged from the human continent, the newly appointed ruler of the Gabriel Empire, Empress Kriss, along with her supporting team. As promised, Bella was on the way to bring Kriss back to the homeland of Princess Felia, the princess who Bella was currently impersonating.
As for the political operation of the Gabriel Empire, Empress Kriss had entrusted it to her sisters and the newly appointed Princesses and Grand Duchesses. As a fallback, Bella had also asked Time Space Magic Demon Noesha to set up aMagical Teleportation Array purposes so that Bella could easily travel back in case of emergency.
The dynamic lineup of the knights was made up of impressive knights who were closely related to Bella. This particular team included the younger sister of Princess Felia, the Magic Dragon Knight Princess Lisha, and Felia’s two elder sisters, the Golden Knight Princess Irene and the Retribution Knight Princess Luce.
Along with them, Bella had also brought along the Chief of the Disciplinary Committee of the Olsylvia Academy, Frost Knight Natasha, and the two vice presidents of the student union at the Filomena Nobility Academy, Thunder Knight Aurora and the Dusk Knight Daphne. Also joining the impressive lineup of knights was the beautiful teacher of the Holy Dragon Knight Legion, the Beauty Dragon Knight Ingrid, and of course, Princess Manas Pamela, the Scarlet Knight, who was sent as a special envoy from the Manasvir Empire, was also a worthy mention of this lineup.
When Empress Kriss was enthroned as the ruler of the Gabriel Empire, Queen Manya Felan had also concurrently declared herself as the reigning empress of the Manasvir Empire with the support of Bella. To gain support from the neighboring empire, the Manasvir Empire had sent out Princess Pamela as their envoy to contribute to their diplomatic activities and try to win over at least one more empire as their ally. As long as the three empires were cooperating together, they would be able to ignore the will of the Imperial Union.
Among the team members, the Dragon Knight General Olya was also present to escort the team to the Octavia Empire. She was also seen donning ordinary armor like Bella and the other companions. For an average person, this team of knights was outlandishly strong. Even the lowest grade of them was a knight of a Holy Knight level. Including Bella, this small team of knights consisted of three Dragon Knights (Bella, Lisha and Natasha) and one Dragon Knight Captain (Ingrid), as well as a Dragon Knight General (Olya). With these few knights alone, they could easily take up and destroy any major duchy in the human continent.
Among the beautiful knights, only Bella’s strength had yet to be determined, but she was expected to be placed in the higher order of the Dragon Knight level. Aside from Bella, the most feared by Olya was the female knight currently in charge of driving the carriage that Empress Kriss was sitting in.
This temporary coachman wore a mask at all times to conceal her identity. Although the mask that the female knight wore could hide her identity from a passerby, it did not manage to conceal the murderous aura that she had accumulated through countless battles. Even Olya was shocked when she learned that the female knight who was driving the carriage was not only much stronger than her, but in fact, she was the legendary renowned Dragon Knight King. To the public, Bella claimed that this female knight was a temporary coachman that she had found. When Olya found out that the strongest person in the whole team was the coachman, Olya was embarrassed and handed the title of the Captain of the team back to Bella.
This said masked female knight was none other than Knight King Ayden Liath, whom Bella had “picked-up” a few months ago. Although this legendary first generation of the Knight King was more commonly seen as a foodie girl, she was a terrifying person. Even the guardians of the Octavia Empire, the Twelve Divine Knights of the Ostafa family, had only reached the level of a Dragon Knight General, which was far from a Dragon Knight King. If confronted with Liath, they could only submit to her command.
The fact that the Knight King Ayden Liath was a female was a secret that even the Dragon Knight General did not know about. Olya couldn’t have guessed that the beautiful girl beside her was a Dragon Knight King. All she knew was that Liath was a subordinate of Bella.
The Ninth Princess of the Octavia Empire, Princess Felia, who had disappeared for a few months, must be terrifying as well if she could recruit such a powerful subordinate under her lead. Even Olya could not accurately evaluate Bella’s strength as a Dragon Knight.
“Elder sister Bella, what are you thinking? I am aware of your engagement with elder sister Kriss. Sister Kriss is too cunning, how could she get away with it!”
“Sister Lisha, even when I am engaged to Kriss, I won’t be cold towards you. Regardless of it, you are my sister too!”
“Sister Bella, I know that. I’ll let it go this time since I get along well with sister Kriss.”
Heading the team were Bella and her sister Lisha. For this particular trip, the only intimate companions she had bought with her were Kriss and Lisha. She had left Ariel, Noreya, and the others at the Olsylvia Academy to help protect the important area of the Rose Society.
To prevent the headquarters from being taken over, Bella had to keep her strongest intimate companions at the academy to help her guard the territory controlled by the society. This was to guard against the possible attack from their two arch-nemesis, the Golden Legend Society and the Mask of Darkness Society, when Bella was away.
Presently, they were not far from this year’s Twelve Academy Summer Joint Human Race Competition. In fact, Bella and the rest of the team had actually sneaked out to play while school was still in commenced. They were able to do it with the help of the Ostafa family, the guardian family of the Octavia Empire, and the Dragon Knight General Olya played a huge part in the plan.
The person in charge of supervising the team was none other than Dragon Knight Ingrid. This glamorous big sister, who was also their teacher, had actually submitted to Bella a long time ago. In fact, the role of a supervisor was just in name, as Ingrid could never prevent Bella from doing what Bella wanted to do. As such, Ingrid’s role as a supervisor was merely an act for the public eyes.
The current situation in the north was exceptionally calm. As opposed to the Gabriel Empire in the south or the Manasvir Empire at the center of the human continent, there was no inter rivalry between the imperial family in the Octavia Empire. The main enemy that the Octavia Empire had been fighting against for years had always been the demons from the Demon Continent across the sea. Every year, the demons across the sea would send in a fleet of the army to attack this empire located in the northern area of the human continent.
A large portion of the main army that belonged to the Octavia Empire was situated to guard the northern defense line. As such, only a small portion of the military forces was left to help deal with the affairs that were going on in the center of this empire. But regardless of it, they could not afford to slack on the northern defense line because if the demons managed to break through their defensive line, the Octavia Empire, known as the Nation of Knights, would be the laughingstock of the entire human continent.
Like every other year, the demons had already launched several attacks against the Octavia Empire this year as they tried to break the northern defense line that was guarded by the army of the Octavia Empire and the priests of the Radiant Church. Since the Demon Continent was also separated into a few different empires, they could not unify and launch a large-scale attack on the land across the sea. Otherwise, the joint forces between the Octavia Empire and the Radiant Church alone would not be able to withstand the large-scale attack by the Demon Continent.
The headquarters of the Radiant Church, the Holy City, was located in the northern part of the human continental, the Octavia Empire. Bella planned to drop by and visit the Radiant Church as she returned to her homeland. The Radiant Church held the most influence in the northern part of the continent, while their opponent, the Darkness Church, held their influence over the western part of the continent.
At the edge of the Alphine Grain Road District, Bella and her companions were fortunate enough to have witnessed the beautiful scenery of the empire known as the “Snow Kingdom.” Not far away from the district was a world blanketed in white snow. Looking around, it looked as if the whole place were a piece of the silver plain. As Bella and her companion rode towards her homeland, they did it in a very discreet manner. Even those with the strength of a Dragon Knight did not summon their flying dragons. All of them were donning plain regular armor and rode on a regular warhorse as they made their way.
Even the high-level officials of the Octavia Empire were not notified of the arrival of Bella and her companions. There was no one to welcome their arrival and escort them from the gate of the empire, so they had to make their way to the city by themselves. Like the Gabriel Empire, the Octavia Empire also did not have any Magical Teleportation Array that could connect the cities together, so they would need to travel through the cities using more conventional methods.
Bella and her companions didn’t make any unnecessary stops. After they had exited the Alphine Grain Road District, they came to the intersection that was the border of the two empires. There were only a few high-ranking knights who guarded the border. Since the border guards who belonged to the Manasvir Empire were not immune to the cold weather, they had already sought refuge at the warm guard tower that was far away from the border.
There was a vast difference in the effectiveness of the soldiers on both sides of the borders. The guards of the Octavia Empire were those who had been dispatched to the battlefield before, so they were much more resilient than the soldiers from the Imperial Army of the Manasvir Empire. Since Bella and her companions were currently here on a discreet visit, it wasn’t convenient for her to comment on their tardiness. The guards at the border of the Manasvir Empire didn’t even bother to check their transit certificates as Bella and her companions made their way out of the empire.
On the contrary, the senior knights in the opposite empire were much more dedicated to their jobs. They checked all the entry and exit documents of Bella’s team according to the proper regulations. Unlike the guards at the border of the Manasvir Empire who had simply let them through because they were dressed as mercenaries, Bella had to show the high-level knights at the Octavia border all her entry and exit documents and get the documents reviewed.
In the clearance documents that Bella had produced to the border guards, every other detail except for the name was in accordance with the facts. Bella did not use the name of the princess that she was impersonating, but instead, she used an alias, and like her, every member of her team also used an alias. Since the rest of the details were real, the guards who reviewed it confirmed the rest of the details written in the documents and did not find any problem with the name that they were using. After the review, they were allowed to enter the empire.
“Captain Bella, the wind and snow is too heavy. I suggest that you enter the country at a later time after the wind and snow had subsided.”
“There is no need for us to wait. My team members are very resilient and are not afraid of hardship. Furthermore, our employer in the carriage is in a rush to enter the country.”
After hearing their voice, the guards who realized that the team was made up of young ladies decided to forewarn them of the climate condition in the country out of chivalry. They had suggested Bella and her companions to wait until the snowstorm had subsided before entering since it might be too dangerous for these young ladies to be on the road in the current situation.
Naturally, Bella had declined the kind suggestion of the guards and thanked them. When she did, the knights continued to persuade Bella and her companion to reenter the country a little later, but this time, instead of warning them against the climate, they cited the unsafe roads as a reason for them to wait. According to them, the Octavia Empire was made up of mostly plain terrains. Since many places were inaccessible grasslands, these places that were not inhabited by the people would often be infested by snow beasts.
These snowy beasts often made their appearances in the snowy weather as the snow wolves and the polar bears were a common threat to the travelers. Many mercenary teams had fallen into the hands of these beasts during the snowstorm.
Bella and her companion had stated that they were merely high-level knights on the entry registration documents. Without the escort of at least a Holy Knight, they would be taking a huge risk to journey through the snowfield. The knights who were guarding the border couldn’t bear to watch these beautiful female knights perish in the snowfield, so they had kindly advised Bella and her companion against going into the country when the blizzard was still going strong.
It would have been safer if they could join and travel along with another mercenary group that was also entering the country. The rank that was stated on the official documents of Bella and her companions was deliberately lowered so that they would appear less intimidating. In actual truth, the weakest person on Bella’s team was already on the level of a Holy Knight, and the strongest that they had was that of the legendary Dragon Knight King. In terms of strength, they had no worries against the snow demonic beast. Even though they looked weak as they were only using ordinary-looking equipment and mounts, the actual fact was that they were extremely strong.
“No, we are in a hurry. We would be able to make it through the wind and snow. I heard that your country is very good in terms of security and there are hardly any bandits.”
The male knights who were communicating with Bella were too embarrassed to inform Bella that there was once a band of bandits that was rampant at the grassland. However, these unlucky bandits had perished in the hand of the snow beasts even before the knights could manage to round them up. When they were attacked by the snow wolves, not even one corpse was left after the attack. After that incident, no other bandits had dared to terrorize the northern part of the human continent and had all fled to the central and southern parts of the human continent.
After bidding farewell to the knights, Bella and her companions marched relaxingly towards the snowy area. This small team of knights didn’t only come with strong members but also strong support that was hidden in the carriage. In the humble carriage that Kriss was riding in, the combat power that it was packed with could easily defeat all the members of the beautiful girls who were escorting on the outside.
Great Evil God Mia, Time Space Magic Demon Noesha, and a few terrifying lolis were disguised as ordinary little maids. The Collapsing Evil Dragon Emperor Tiffany Lolita, Devouring Holy Dragon Euphenisia, and the Cursed Demonic Dragon Queen Stimmons were also traveling in the guise of support. Although they had been positioned correctly, they would not be able to use the full terrifying power of these supports in reality.
Along with them, there were also six other supporting dragons in the carriage for Bella to use according to her will. The dragons were Thunder Dragon Queen Geleman, Crystal Dragon Princess Purple Crystal, Gem Dragon Queen Lolifel, Emerald Demonic Dragon Princess Bess, New Moon Demonic Dragon Dorothea as well as the Sea Demonic Dragon Amy Beth. Since it would be inconvenient for Bella to bring her army of demons back to her homeland, it would be much more convenient for her to bring the dragons that soared in the sky back to her homeland. In case the emperor turned unreasonable, Bella would simply take the opportunity to mount her dragons.
The Dragon Knight General Olya obediently followed Bella’s arrangement. There were actually a lot of them that could take her on in this team of knights, and if anything were to occur, she would hardly need to take action. The nine beautiful girls who were transformed from the special dragon species that were in the carriage with terrifying strength had all signed a master-servant contract with Bella. As for how Bella had managed to achieve it, Olya had given up on the thought. After being around Bella for a while, such an incident no longer surprised her.
Since Bella still intended to keep it a secret, she had not summoned the dragon princesses she had managed to subdue. Moreover, she had yet to confirm the relationship between the Ostafa family and the dragons, so in the meantime, it would be best for Olya to not know that she also had other dragon princesses under her command. Otherwise, it wasn’t difficult for her to equip every single knight with one high-level dragon mount.
The two members of the Ancient Twelve Demon Kings that had submitted to Bella, Lost Demon King Hailey Layman and Moon Demon King Gonias, had separated from Bella since they left the Gabriel Empire. Bella did not know their current location and had not spoken with them in a while, but she did, however, acquire a way to summon them. It would come in handy if she were ever in need of them in the future.
The three Demon Kings of the new Demon King faction that was supporting Bella, the Sky Demon King Doris, the Underworld Demon King Cornice as well as the Blood Demon King Eleanor, did not follow her on this journey because they needed to guide the demons that had come out during the usurping of the throne back to the Darkness Sacred Region. Bella was a little regretful that she could not bring any of her Demon King sisters along with her on this trip. As for the beautiful maidens of the Darkness Church, she had temporarily let them go back after confirming that the contract between them was not flawed.
“Sister Bella, don’t think about dirty thoughts. Your expression has totally exposed you. If you wander aimlessly in the snow, you would be caught by a snowman!”