Chapter Twenty-One: Conspiracy

Three months after arriving in the Empire of Anglia, Sun Li finally found himself aligned with Victoria—not in the way gossip might imply, but in a genuine, formal partnership. The ten elven maids Victoria had gifted him at the beginning he, for reasons even he couldn’t quite fathom, truly treated as mere attendants, never crossing the line. A month later, when Victoria discovered that the ten maids remained untouched after living with Sun Li for so long, and after learning about his daily habits, she realized she had been misled by rumors from Jinzhou. This great knight was, in fact, no lecherous rake!

Understanding she had failed to grasp Sun Li’s true inclinations, Victoria began to probe from other angles. The results came swiftly.

Sun Li’s resistance to gold was practically nonexistent.

Thus began the episodes where Victoria allowed Sun Li to take freely from the royal treasury, and sent him all manner of gifts and gratuities under various pretexts. Sun Li’s image of lofty integrity crumbled completely; from the moment he accepted those treasures, he found himself indebted—first by mouth, then by hand—no matter how much he tried to tell himself he’d leave after one big score.

Yet day after day, faced with a beautiful woman whose temperament so perfectly matched his own, who gently eroded his defenses, even Sun Li, thick-skinned as he was, couldn’t bring himself to betray her utterly after accepting so much.

Fortunately, Victoria seemed to sense that Sun Li was not inclined to linger, and she proactively proposed a “deal.”

“I hope you’ll help me with something. I’ll provide you with one hundred thousand Madrid gold coins as operating funds, and upon success, there will be another million golden pounds as your reward. And for you, this task is not difficult,” Victoria told him one evening in a secret chamber.

At the mention of the reward, Sun Li’s eyes lit up. The golden pound, newly minted in recent years since the rise of Anglia, was a high-purity gold coin, even more valuable than the Madrid coin, and had become the hard currency most coveted by merchants across Europa. Only a nation as wealthy as Anglia could afford to issue so many. A million golden pounds, transferred to his system, would be enough for Sun Li to double the size of his army—recruiting entire formations of all sorts of troops.

Sun Li couldn’t help glancing curiously at Victoria. What matter could be worth such a price? “Let’s hear it,” he said. “If it’s within my power, I would be more than happy to serve a beautiful lady.”

“When you travel through the other nations of Europa, you need only stop by the Holy Kingdom of Light, and then…” As Victoria explained, for the first time Sun Li grasped just how far-reaching the influence of the Anglian Empire and the Norman family stretched across the continent. If not for the fact that the people of his Song nation were all system-born, Sun Li suspected he would have no secrets left before Victoria.

“Are you sure your information is accurate? I don’t want to show up in the Holy Kingdom and get thrown in a madhouse!” Sun Li still felt some doubt.

“You needn’t be direct once you’re there. Just make contact with the Grand Master of the Holy Paladins, Orleans. The Hammer’s daughter, Anna—the Hammer being the Saintess of the Church of Light. Her Holiness will seek you out. For the Church, your potential is greater than anything you could offer Anglia. All you need do is hint at an interest in aligning with the Holy Kingdom, and they’ll spare no expense inviting you into their plans. As for us in Anglia, we don’t expect any particular outcome. As long as you can help set this plan in motion, the million golden pounds are yours. It’s easy, isn’t it? All you need do is meet someone in the Holy Kingdom, agree to a trivial promise, and proceed. You needn’t worry—if this action is carried out, whatever the result, the Holy Kingdom will have no energy left to concern themselves with you.”

Victoria made it sound so simple that Sun Li couldn’t help but grumble inwardly: Easy for you to say—if things get out of hand, I’ll have no choice but to fight for my life. Still, this aligned perfectly with his purpose in coming to Europa. If he succeeded, the rise of Song would be at hand. Clearly, Anglia’s ambitions were also fixed on the fertile central plains of Europa. In the end, everyone would get what their abilities allowed.

So, naturally, Sun Li gladly reached an agreement with Victoria. Just as Victoria kept some cards close to her chest, so too did Sun Li harbor his own calculations.

It seemed that after only two years of peace, Europa was on the verge of another cataclysmic war. For some reason, the continent’s population was far greater than that of Earth in modern times. After several wars, with the exception of the Madrid Empire, the other nations’ armies only grew through conscription, and there was no fear of population decline. In fact, Europa now faced a surplus of people.

Sun Li could only sigh in resignation. These people of another world were astonishingly fecund! And the agricultural yields—utterly unscientific—without hybrid rice or advanced farming techniques, their land produced ten times what Earth’s fields did in modern times. And the martial prowess of individuals in this world outstripped anything on Earth.

Measured by prosperity, this world far surpassed Earth.

After this mutually beneficial “transaction,” Sun Li’s relationship with Victoria warmed considerably. At least, on the surface, that’s how it appeared. Sun Li, for his part, had no resistance to this beautiful noblewoman; her intelligence, beauty, and gentle understanding were irresistible to any man.

As for Victoria, outwardly gentle but inwardly proud, this genius young lady understood full well that her marriage must benefit her family. Whether by her family’s expectations or her own desires, she would one day seek a match that would serve a political alliance. Sun Li, young, witty, powerful, and immensely useful to her family’s military, was obviously high on her list of prospective suitors. More importantly, Victoria had come to see that Sun Li’s upright conduct was genuine—no matter his status, she was still a woman, and fidelity did count for something in her eyes. While infidelity wasn’t a decisive factor for her, what woman wouldn’t wish for a husband who loved her alone?

In fact, Victoria thought to herself: if Sun Li could return unscathed from this mission in the Holy Kingdom, marrying him would not be a bad choice at all. After all, she was already eighteen, and in this era, girls were often wed at fourteen or fifteen.

Human lifespans were far shorter than those of elves, and so humans married much younger. That was why Sululu, though already twenty, was still considered a maiden among the Wood Elves; in their eyes, twenty was but the age of a young girl.