The old king’s full name was Londox Fareins.

  He was a man-child.

  Although he was in his fifties, his personality was sincere and passionate like a child’s. That was the evaluation of the nobles.

  In reality, old King Londox was not very capable as an individual and was of average quality as a king.

  But as the king of the strongest human nation in the world, he didn’t need to be too capable, because, with great ability and personal qualities, he was bound to think of progress and development.

  Now the Fareins Kingdom had expanded to a point where any further expansion would inevitably affect ruling and cohesiveness, and eventually, the country would fall apart.

  The most important task for the king of Fareins now was to maintain the balance between the great powers in the country. To have a good relationship with the lords.

  To have a good emotional intelligence.

  If these three requirements were satisfied, one would be a good king of Fareins.

  In reality, Londox did so well that the vast majority of the nobles and lords thought he did his duty as king. In the last thirty years, there were no major incidents in Fareins.

  It was only during the past two days that something went wrong. Stephanie was missing.

  The king’s mistress was dead.

  Biden seemed to have betrayed the king, and his arm was severed.

  But the noble powers of the capital were calm, expressing that none of this was a problem. It wasn’t far from the point where the old king would retire and Stephanie would take the throne as queen, the so-called transition from old to new, and so it was only natural for some strange things to occur.

  After all, with the addition of illegitimate children, Londox had more than a dozen sons, most of whom were adults, and it was normal for one or two of them to be displeased with Stephanie.

  It was just internal royal strife, a minor matter.

  It would be fine after a while.

  This was the underpinning of the most noble empire in history, the most powerful nation of intelligent beings.

  So what if the royal family was in turmoil! As long as most of the lords and most of the forces were not in disarray, who would dare to invade the Fareins Kingdom?

  Even if the dragons attacked, they wouldn’t fear.

  The dozen or so Legendary Mages, two dozen or so Legendary Warriors, and more than a hundred other Legendary professionals in the Fareins Kingdom weren’t there for nothing. And there was also the pope of the Church of Light and Blackthorn Gus, two rivals, who were both making their way to Demigod.

  Usually, they didn’t like each other, but once a strong enemy attacked, everyone believed that the two of them would put aside their prejudices and work together to defend against the enemy.

  Now, almost all the nobles, including Alfred, were watching the show.

  In fact, with Alfred’s rank and ability, all he had to do was open his mental power field on Stephanie’s manor and he would soon be able to spot Roland and the others hidden underground

  But after talking with the old king, he found out that this incident seemed to be just a farce, a farce of a father testing his daughter.

  The incident wasn’t created by the king, he just knew something and went along for the ride.

  Figuring out what was going on, Alfred was able to calm down.

  An immortal Golden Son, so gifted that he seemed to be able to compete with Mordenkainen and Melf, was the one Alfred valued.

  It didn’t matter if Stephanie died or lived in this farce, or how far her relationship with Roland would progress.

  It would be nice for her to live and have some kind of spark with Roland, naturally.

  If she died, he’d sigh a little, but that would be all.

  Stephanie was indeed pretty, and a widow, and might be to Roland’s liking.

  But there were plenty of wives in the capital

  For example, Phyllis, the daughter-in-law of the Impaler, had the plumpest, whitest, tenderest body in the capital, a woman at her best and ripest, and she was also a decent person, with no negative rumors surrounding her, so if Stephanie wouldn’t do, Alfred wouldn’t mind introducing her to Roland.

  And the red fox marquis’ half-Succubus wife, although already forty-seven years old, still had a face like a young girl’s, and more importantly, she had the dignity of a legitimate noblewoman but also gave people a kind of libidinous sensation that only Succubi could. This kind of mixture of temperament would probably also be to Roland’s liking.

  There were many other similar candidates, and if the capital had no suitable ones, there were over a hundred other large cities and thousands of medium-sized cities with hundreds of millions of beautiful and mature women; there was bound to be those to Roland’s liking

  There was no shortage of beauty in the great Fareins.

  There was never a shortage.

  Using one or more women to tie a talented Mage to the chariot of Fareins was a super-cheap deal no matter how one looked at it.

  Alfred had a few words with the old king and left.

  Almost all the forces in the city were waiting for the result.

  Only a handful of forces were still investigating these things. The Saint Samurai Schuck of the Temple of Light. He lived in a house built for him by the Holy Realm, low-profile on the outside and upscale on the inside, and was looking over the information his men had acquired.

  Margret, the little red dragon princess, wandered down from upstairs with bare feet, then laid down on Schuck’s lap, yawned widely, and said softly, “After all these days of searching, have you found out anything yet?”


  “Things are a little strange.” Schuck freed a hand and stroked the little princess’s smooth hair. “It’s odd that the whole capital is watching the show.”


  “What’s wrong?”


  Schuck explained, “It’s normal for the royal family, the Association of Mages, and our Temple of Light to watch the show. After all, we have to maintain the balance of power, and won’t get involved easily. But it’s not right for those medium and small powers to be watching the show as well. It’s reasonable to say that now is the time for them to perform, and their performance in this farce will directly affect their impression in the hearts of the big powers, and if they’re lucky, they can rise to greater heights and hang onto the larger forces, using them to intimidate others.”


  Margret was almost asleep again. “What you’re saying is so complicated, I can’t understand you.”


  Schuck chuckled. Margret was underage and dragons had never been ones to think too much about things.

  It was true that she didn’t like to listen to these musings.

  After reading the information, Schuck was not discouraged, even though he didn’t come up with any useful clues.

  Just because he met a dead end didn’t mean that Roland didn’t obtain anything.

  At this moment, Roland was standing in front of a bookshelf. He looked at the arrangement of books on top of the shelf, then turned his head and asked, “Stephanie, who else have you given the key to this library to besides us?”


  “I’m the only one with a key, no one else gets in.”


  Stephanie was leaning against the wall, chatting quietly with Andonara, and continued in response, “Besides me, only my dead husband had the key, but I retrieved it too. What happened?”


  “It seems that other people besides us have been in here,” Roland said, pointing to the bookshelves. “I’ve used this shelf before, and the books weren’t laid out like this when I left.”


  What!

  Stephanie’s expression froze, then became a little nervous. “I heard the maidservants say earlier that strange noises are coming from the library from time to time, is there something evil lurking around?”


  Roland shook his head slightly. “But I don’t sense any gloomy, cold magical elements, or evil mental power.”


  Stephanie asked helplessly, “Could it be that you’re mistaken?”


  “No way!”


  Roland pulled up the photo he’d taken earlier before he left the library to confirm how many books were in the collection, and took a picture of each shelf in high-definition, which he then used as a directory.

  Then a comparison was made, and sure enough, the books on the shelf had changed positions.

  Next, Roland checked and cross-referenced each shelf once and then realized that only that one shelf just now had two books that were switched.

  One of them was a diary and the other was the experience of some dark magic Mage.

  Roland thought for a moment, then pulled out this diary and continued to read it.

  July 18, XX1.

  “I’m a little surprised that Stephanie cares a little about my feelings…… she doesn’t seem as dominating as she appears on the outside.”


  January 9, XX2.

  “Some turtledove coat of arms nobleman actually tried to invite Stephanie to his house right in front of me, he thinks nothing of me.”


  February 27, XX2.

  “This nobleman’s wife has been seduced by me, she’s far worse than Stephanie, but somehow I feel excited. Shallow Charm really works.”


  March 13, XX2. “Went hunting with some soon-to-be-adult eighth prince who accidentally shot a little girl who went into the woods to search for money, and then this prince threw the little girl’s body to the hounds. It was so cruel, but for some reason, I felt a little excited.”


  June 10, XX2.

  “The eighth prince who’s reached adulthood has been driven off to another territory, and I have one less friend I can talk to. I’ve hooked up with the wife of a turtledove noble again, and for some reason, I feel a little disgusted.”


  September 13, XX2. “The fourteenth princess is so whorish, she actually called eight strong men for a group exercise, and looking at her face, which bears some resemblance to Stephanie’s, and watching her maneuver between many men, somehow made me so excited.”


  July 14, XX3.

  “The seventeenth book on princesses I bought was discovered by Stephanie, who looked disappointed. I was scared on the outside, but excited on the inside.”


  November 4, XX3.

  “Stephanie didn’t want to go to those parties, what will I do…… She even got into a heated argument with me. She told me not to hang out with those scum. What does she know, it’s those scum that make it interesting.”


  July 6, XX4.

  “Stephanie is too stubborn and careful, she avoids a lot of my set-ups. It’s so boring. I expected to see the same plot as in the princess books, but Stephanie doesn’t take the bait. Why are you so upright, can’t you learn from some of your sisters?”


  August 9, XX4.“I’m out of patience, I decided to use the Charm on Stephanie.”


  The diary ended here and there was no follow-up.

  This was a summary of the essence of the diary after Roland skimmed it and read only the important information.

  No wonder Stephanie killed her husband. If it were any other woman, they probably would have wanted to kill the princess’s husband.

  This is why…… you shouldn’t read those perverted books, read too many of them and your mind will be contaminated.

  A good couple was indirectly ruined by perverted stories. Roland put the diary back on the shelf. He had doubts as to who else had come into this library beside them and was only interested in the diary and dark magic.

  Could it be……?

  Roland walked back to the corner and asked, “First Princess, I have a question. Did you really kill your husband? Did you confirm that he truly died?”