The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Chapter 158: The King Sets Off

Rochester Maenhardt had been ruling over the Terrans for over five decades now, and never in his life had he expected to encounter such a huge setback right when his dream seemed to be within arm's reach.

Terrazyme had already been on a meteoric rise before he took the throne, and Rochester knew that his decisive nature had only sped things in the right direction, even destabilizing the so-called 'strongest' superpower of the continent for the last few centuries. No one dared to look down on the Terrans anymore, and king Rochester knew that things would only get better.

The war with the western empires of Lavinia and Gwyntere wasn't something that could be concluded in a day or two, however, and neither could such a victory be achieved without paying a certain price. But Rochester knew what it would take to fulfill his dream, and he would do anything to make it come true.

His dream wasn't something small and insignificant like making the Lavinian Empire concede defeat and make trade concessions, he wouldn't even be satisfied if they agree to hand over some of their territories. The only outcome he would accept would be completely wiping out the Lavinian royalty and claiming the entirety of the empire as the new territory of Terrazyme.

From there, he would then conquer Gwyntere, and then set his sights on that ever disobedient Aquavahn. As for Lumenzarha they had been quite obedient so far, so he was willing to spare them for the last and allow them to decide what they wanted to do for themselves. At the very least, he would give them a chance to surrender.

But all these dreams seemed to show signs of falling apart when his ever-dependable son, the one he had always been proud of, didn't return in time with the thing he had sought.

Delaying his plans for a while was, of course, not completely unforgivable. After all, this was his trustworthy heir, one who had never disappointed him. Even if he encountered some setbacks, they would only make him stronger.

What wasn't so forgivable, however, was the malicious rumor being spread around the kingdom that the crown prince had perished, and even lost many of their national treasures in the Wonderland of Doom.

He knew why and where these rumors were born. When Craig had gone missing after stealing the eye of the 'Thousand Eyed God' by sacrificing one of their legacy artifacts, there would of course be some rangers who witnessed the scene and spread such 'slander'.

Obviously, these lowlifes could never comprehend the strength of the Terran legacy, and Craig carried dozens of exceptional defensive artifacts on him to carry out the task he was given. Even if the 'Thousand Eyed God' attacked him, he would still be able to escape!

Rochester had never been a benevolent king, and needless to say, he had dealt with the morons who dared to spread such garbage with extreme prejudice. They may be able to run their mouth elsewhere, but when in Terrazyme, they should either maintain the Terran dignity or be ready to face the consequences.

But although he dealt with these pests, there was no doubt that their slander did somewhat manage to sow a seed of doubt within Rochester's heart when combined with the disturbing lack of reports from the Wonderland of Doom.

Not only was there a lingering fear that somehow, something must have happened to his son, but there was also the terrifying threat of someone managing to discover what they had been planning to do.

After all, while Rochester was overseeing the war, he had trusted his son to handle this matter by himself as a 'test'. By now, he should have already met up with the teams he had sent into the forest to assist him and completed the task, but that clearly hadn't happened.

Considering that even the Guardian Beast of Earth had been killed, and one of his trusted aides hadn't returned either Rochester knew he couldn't rely on anyone else anymore. There was too much at stake.

He had to go look for himself, and demand an explanation from the academy, too.

"We're ready to set off, your majesty."

Meanwhile, back at the academy, Evelyn memorized the array on Aurora's back after she manifested it again, and once she was sure she wouldn't forget it, she redid the strings to close the back of her teacher's frock.

The platinum blonde kept her head turned away, and the pink haired girl had no idea how to console or apologize to her teacher at all. In the end, she could only start with cleaning her room from the 'trash'. 

Well, they were still decent artifacts in the end, and they could even be of more use later. Evelyn didn't think many of these girls knew about the fate awaiting them if they had married Craig, but those that did would surely have been very unwilling. 

Given that Aurora knew about it, even if the general populace was unaware of how the wives of the crown prince would be treated, surely the upper echelons must be aware as well.

Depending on how these 'promises' were handled, it was still possible to extract some benefits from some of them without exposing herself, though she would have to be careful.

Of course, this was only a possibility for the future, and until she got a good chance to use them, Evelyn had no problem keeping these items saved in her inventory. She had plenty of space, after all.

Before 'acquiring' Craig's legacy, her inventory had been 85% empty, and now... it was still 83% empty. Moreover, at least 10% of the contents were things like candies and knickknacks that she could easily discard to make space if needed, though she didn't think that would be necessary unless she had a massive windfall.

The pink-haired girl tapped her chin in thought after putting away the last of the artifacts. 'Now that I think about it, if some of those girls hate Craig, would they pay me extra to get the chance to punch the bastard's corpse?'