The first ray of morning light slowly shone from the east, and the scene on the battlefield slowly appeared in everyone's eyes.
The originally pristine white snow was completely dyed red with blood at this moment, and it was still expanding at a very fast speed, after all... the blood from the corpses had not yet drained dry!
The soldiers surrounding the area under the prince's name, despite wearing heavy armor, had bodies that seemed to be frozen, completely unable to move their gaze away from the center of the battlefield, simply because a young girl was standing there...
A beautiful woman would naturally attract the attention of countless men, but this statement clearly did not apply here, as the woman in the center of the battlefield had accomplished an astonishing feat.
Relying solely on one person and two swords, she had completely routed the sixty-thousand-strong army sent by the nobles to intercept and kill the Northern Kingdoms Prince, Numa Seika!
And after the sun rose, the surrounding soldiers discovered an even more terrifying thing... There was no blood on her!
On the battlefield, whether killing enemies or being killed, one would more or less leave some blood on their body; whether it flowed from oneself or splashed from the enemy, there would eventually be some "traces" of battle.
But Hysilens was completely different. Relying on her superb combat skills, after slaughtering sixty thousand enemy troops with absolute strength, there were absolutely no bloodstains on her, except for the crimson on the sword's edge!
"What a beautiful and powerful person this is!"
After a soldier sighed, the weapon in his hand slowly fell to the ground, making a crisp sound that was exceptionally obvious in this silent snowy field.
Such a sound also brought the others who were in a daze back to their senses, and they began to lay down their weapons while raising their hands...
Of course, they were not doing this to surrender, but to cheer!
If it weren't for this powerful young girl, all of them would likely have lost their lives that night and would not have been able to see this morning's sun.
Thus, the soldiers used all the strength in their bodies to begin cheering for the victory of the battle.
Whether it was the army under Numa Seika or the thousand-man army brought by Hysilens, everyone had an excited expression on their face.
But among these people, only three did not show a smile... Meela. Taeko. Chelsea.
As the collaborative targets of the former Imperial resistance, and now captives seized by Cerydra, there was no expression on the three's faces other than solemnity.
"Sister Meela..." "What's wrong?"
The silent Taeko suddenly spoke, immediately drawing the attention of Chelsea and Meela. The young girl lowered her head, and her eyes revealed endless confusion.
"Among the people you know, is there anyone as powerful as Hysilens? If the resistance were to face her, could they win?"
This sentence was like a heavy hammer, smashing fiercely into Meela's heart, because the moment this question was asked, countless figures flashed through Meela's mind.
There were people from the resistance, people from the Empire, and countless powerhouses who had appeared on the continent... finally resting on the faces of a very select few.
"Yes!"
Meela nodded forcefully, as if using her actions to tell Taeko and Chelsea that she had already thought of someone who could deal with her.
"Whether it's the Empire or the resistance, there are powerful Teigu Users! If those Teigu Users were to make a move, even someone as strong as Hysilens... would not be able to come out unscathed!"
Meela had wanted to say "even someone as strong as Hysilens would definitely die," but when the words reached her lips, she couldn't bring herself to say them, and in the end, she could only change it to "would not be able to come out unscathed."
"Hysilens is not a Teigu User. If she were to also become a Teigu User, would we still have any possibility of defeating her?"
As the question was posed by Taeko once again, Meela was uncharacteristically silent. The reason she had said what she just did was based on the premise that Hysilens was not a Teigu User.
Then what if Hysilens also became a Teigu User? Perhaps only the legendary supreme imperial arms could fight against her!
"..." Despite having such thoughts, Meela did not dare to voice them, because she herself could not imagine what it would be like if two people who exceeded her cognition were to fight, so she could only remain silent.
Click—! At this moment, a sound suddenly reached everyone's ears, immediately attracting the attention of all the soldiers, because it was the sound of the castle gate opening.
Several figures slowly walked out from the castle, and upon seeing the three people in the lead, Meela immediately understood Cerydra's approach.
"So that's how it is..." "Is this your plan, Cerydra?"
On the other side. After a wonderful night, Esdeath successfully used the methods she previously used to deal with Danger Beasts to turn this Northern Kingdoms Prince, Numa Seika, into a puppet willing to obey their orders.
Although the outcome was still miserable, at least he escaped the ending of being kicked to death in the original work; that could be considered changing his fate, right?
You become my puppet, I let you live; such a trade seemed very fair to Cerydra.
As for whether Numa Seika would secretly rebel... Hahaha! Who do you think you are worried about?
Before becoming a well-known empress of Amphoreus, Cerydra was just an ordinary little girl who begged for food, and she wasn't even a Golden Descendants.
But Cerydra exchanged her permanent youth for the Golden Blood, and by utilizing those ambitious nobles, she obtained power step by step, finally killing the powerful officials and becoming an empress of a generation!
If one were to use historical figures as an analogy, Zhu Yuanzhang and Yuwen Yong would be the most appropriate.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the commoner emperor, had begging experiences in his childhood, which trained his spirit of endurance, and he relied on hard work to seize the world.
Yuwen Yong, the puppet emperor, was enthroned by powerful officials only to eventually kill those officials; his methods were brilliant, and he finally held power alone.
When it comes to enduring hardship or political maneuvering, how could Numa Seika compare to Cerydra?
Moreover, the current Cerydra has once again completed an evolution, becoming the historically famous "Caesar"!
Even if Numa Seika's methods were formidable, he would ultimately only end up as a plaything in Cerydra's hands, until the day Cerydra deposed the emperor and established herself...
Cerydra was not at all worried about being threatened, because Numa Seika, who could be called the "Little Spear King of the North" on the battlefield, and who was not at all inferior to those veterans and generals on the battlefield, was just "that" in Cerydra's heart.
So, in order not to let Numa Seika's heart completely collapse, Cerydra still left him a sliver of hope... although this hope was no different from despair.
"Now is not the time to claim the title of Emperor, so let me have a good experience... the fun of holding the Emperor to command the nobles!"