4.2 - Rebellion was not a simple thing
“The Zerg on the frontlines are becoming more rampant, and Luther wanted to settle the war earlier so that he can come back and accompany you before your estrus arrives.” The old King smiled as he made excuses to Xue Ling for his son"s rudeness, but in fact they both understood that it was not first or even the second time that His Highness the Prince had given Ashley a hard time.
Xue Ling smiled very calmly and behaved very appropriately, pouring himself a small gla.s.s of water without shifting position. His movements were so elegant that one could not see half a point of semblance to an omega that had been abandoned on his wedding night. "It doesn"t matter. It"s natural for the affairs between the two of us to be delayed a little for the future of the Empire, and besides, I"m still underage so there"s nothing His Highness and I can do. Going out and venting some extra energy is a good thing."
His words were spoken ingeniously, with the intent of showing the old King that he did not care about the young and impetuous actions of the Prince, and that he had properly adjusted his mentality towards his position a long time ago. He was the Princess, the future Queen of the Empire, and could consider things from the perspective of the Empire rather than from the perspective of their personal love affairs.
Especially since they had never had any sort of relationship based on love.
The old King was very satisfied with Xue Ling. “It seems that over the years, the Rhine family has been very good regarding your education.”
Xue Ling curved his lips, drank a mouthful of water, changed the subject and began to make small talk with the old King.
The Rhine family education was indeed excellent. Although Ashley was the only omega in the current generation and the future Queen of the Empire, they had not spoiled the child. Ashley received the best aristocratic education from childhood, and had always been learning with an eye to becoming the Queen. He had long ago researched all of the famous Queens in history, and developed his own unique set of views on politics.
If it hadn’t been for His Royal Highness’s short-sightedness, having become blinded by power and ambition and led astray by that civilian omega, he would have found Ashley to be the most qualified queen.
It’s a pity that in the end, Ashley died a premature death. He had been full of ambition but finally lost to the two protagonists.
Xue Ling felt very sorry for him, and finally decided to make sure he took proper revenge for his sake and fulfil all his wishes.
The most urgent thing that he needed to do was to make good impression on the people by making full use of the advantages he had been given to stand at the height of morality, so that when His Highness the Prince cheated on him, the whole Empire would mob together to crazily scold the Prince and his little lover without him even needing to shed a tear. If he acted pitiful at that time, or even showed magnanimous understanding, perhaps the old King would directly grant him a divorce, unable to bear the idea of him being treated that way by such a person.
His Royal Highness"s ambitions were too big; it would be better to have him remain as a Prince forever.
The old King had no idea what bold thoughts had flashed through Xue Ling"s mind as they discussed interstellar history and national politics together.
“Oh, right.” The old King remembered one thing. “This was originally something that Luther should have brought you to go do, but since he"s gone to the frontline, why don"t you join me to go in a few days?"
Xue Ling was surprised. “What’s the matter?”
“A person from the royal family.” The old King looked sad and said, “As long as you enter the royal family, you have to greet the royal family ancestor, the Founding Emperor of the Empire. It was supposed to be Luther’s task, but he’s not here now, so I’ll find another time to take you with me after you"ve returned back to visit your family as part of the wedding rituals."
“The Founding Emperor…”
“Yes, the only Emperor of this Empire.” The old King seemed to be lamenting something, but he only spoke a few more words before shifting the topic. Xue Ling stayed until lunch before he was finally allowed to return to his own palace.
When Xue Ling had left in the morning, he had asked his trusted subordinates to change the style of the chambers from the wedding arrangements of last night. When he returned, it had already been restored to the original owner"s style and tastes. He had no intention of changing it again, and only had servants come and prepare lunch before opening the nano-computer and asking the system to look into the existence of the Founding Emperor.
It had been 700 years since the Empire was established. It had always relied on its powerful army to maintain its territory within the universe, and the royal family had always been the strongest fighting force of the Empire. For many years, the Zerg had been blocked off at the border by successive generations of Kings.
The royal genes were very peculiar, and every generation they would only produce one descendant. The inheritance has always been pa.s.sed on in a single line, and the genes were extremely powerful and domineering. They were basically all alphas, and there had never been a beta or omega birth recorded in royal history.
All of this was related to Augustine Ludwig, the Founding Emperor of the Empire and the first member of the royal family.
He had established the boundaries of the Empire, and determined the existence of every single tree and every blade of gra.s.s within. The Zerg suffered a great blow under his reign, and were unable to establish a foothold at all. While he was on the throne, he was an unrivaled ruler.
But he disappeared under strange circ.u.mstances. One day, the royal family simply introduced a new person as Augustine"s heir, and indicated that the Empire would be led by him from then on. The people were suspicious and questioned the royal family, but no response was given. After Augustine"s disappearance, the supreme leader of the Empire was only ever crowned as King, and never as Emperor.
There was only one Emperor of the Empire.
He was the Empire"s most dazzling existence.
Xue Ling was surprised after going through the Empire"s history. Had the Founding Emperor always been there? What happened that year? Was the Emperor now dead?
Although somewhat curious, these people would not suddenly reappear, and Xue Ling did not investigate deeper. Instead, he began to study and formulate his own future strategy after lunch.
In about ten days, the Prince would encounter an accident, become an amnesiac, and meet that omega.
Xue Ling had no intentions of interrupting their budding love. He wanted to use this as a reason to divorce the Prince, so he would leave His Highness alone for the time being.
But leaving him alone did not mean that he would ignore his troops. His Royal Highness’s army was the most elite military division in the Empire. Xue Ling rubbed his chin and began to consider the possibility of bringing this team under his own command.
The system flickered to one side, indicating that it could provide a lot of information for the host. Based on the host"s current body const.i.tution, piloting mecha in s.p.a.ce to perform ma.s.s slaughter on the Zerg was absolutely not a problem.
Xue Ling clapped his hands together and made the decision to begin training in piloting mecha.
Of course, that would have to wait until after he came back.
Xue Ling needed to return to the Rhine family on the second day after the wedding. In order to protect the original owner"s family, he felt that it would be necessary to talk to them. Since it was unlikely that a family who were willing to die for the Empire would listen to him and agree to rebel with him, Xue Ling had set his sights on his brother, the General who was stationed on the front line and would who would later be killed by His Highness the Prince, Warren Joan Rhine.
Well, according to the original"s memory, this elder brother loved him very much, and was not always adamant about putting the interests of the royal family first. He also felt particularly disdainful towards the Prince, and had been very upset over his marriage to his younger brother.
His military ability was also very high.
After making such an a.n.a.lysis, Xue Ling had determined his goals.
He then had the system pull out a list of the world"s leaders. He wanted to find out where that man might have transmigrated into. According to his understanding from the three previous worlds, the man was generally wealthy and handsome. In a world where force would be needed, his ability to influence the world would definitely be very high, given his level of power even within peaceful worlds. The important point was, he usually chose an ident.i.ty that was relatively close to him.
Even if he was not close, he would make opportunities to become closer.
In fact, the Empire has long lost its glory. The power of the royal family seemed to be weakening from generation to generation, and even the overall power of the Empire"s leading alpha seemed to be gradually weakening. Genetics were a very mysterious and fascinating thing; the Academy of Sciences had still been unable to decipher it, and so the main fighting force of the Empire has been slowly deteriorating for nearly a hundred years. Although His Highness was now the leading alpha of the Empire, in actual fact, he was completely unable to crush Warren Joan Rhine in a fight.
Especially since the Rhine family was still strong even as everyone was turning weaker due to a particularity of their own inheritance. Fortunately, they did not revolt, and had always been loyal to the Empire, sending their family"s forces to the front lines and acting as one of the Empire"s trump cards.
The Alliance, the Empire’s rival, had been undergoing political unrest in the recent hundred years, and due to constant political changes and civil war, their ability to resist the Zerg has been relatively small.
Star piracy was rampant amongst the planets. This was a time when a single misstep could cause all political systems to collapse, and the Empire might never have the hope of rising up again.
Xue Ling didn"t care too much about these things. The system a.n.a.lyzed a lot of information, but he only glanced at it before finally setting his eyes on the list that had finally been pulled together.
The most powerful person in the world was this body"s "husband". Xue Ling resolutely crossed him out from the list. If that man really transmigrated into the body of that sc.u.m, he would rather stab him to death and then commit suicide. They could start over again in another world.
Next, there was the Empire"s Left General. He was the youngest general of the Empire, Cheryl Jean Archicky. He could be considered a newcomer to the Empire"s aristocracy, and was a hero killed on the front lines by the Zerg.
Xue Ling looked at the three-dimensional, brightly smiling image of the Left General and decided that it didn"t seem like an expression that sullen and repressed man would have if he had transmigrated into that body.
The system also provided detailed information on the leader of the interstellar pirates. Xue Ling glanced at the holographic image. The woman had her head slightly raised as she stepped on a pile of gold with one foot, one side of her mouth curved up; she appeared very roguish, and her pose could not be more provocative. And that look in her eyes, oh… it was really tantalizing.
“Why are you providing me with information on a woman?” Xue Ling"s lips twitched a little as he expressed that he had not been attracted by a woman at all. Especially not the type that would walk up and hook a finger under your chin.
“This is Antalya, a fallen n.o.blewoman. She is a female alpha that has great strength and courage.” The system"s voice was smooth, as though making a simple introduction. “She once pursued your current body, but was rejected, and later became a good friend before going on to become an interstellar pirate. She still wields quite a lot of power. I pulled out her information to show you in order to remind you of her existence."
When Xue Ling searched through his memory, he indeed found a picture of the original owner being pushed up against the wall by the pirate queen and getting his chin hooked by a finger.
Xue Ling’s face darkened, and he did not hesitate at all before moving on to the next candidate.
“These are all the kings that you can choose in the future. I’m also not sure where that person is. In case you can’t find him by the time your heat arrives, you"ll have to find someone to subst.i.tute first…"
Xue Ling told the system to shut up and began to read through the information it had given.
After integrating with the Empire"s network, the information that the system had found was very detailed and complete. He had listed out anyone who had the ability to fight with the Prince throughout the entire galaxy, many of whom were attractive alphas. But Xue Ling looked through them all, and did not feel that any of them were that d.a.m.ned pervert.
Did he change his gender this time?
“By the way, there’s also this person. Honoria is a female beta, and the current spokeswoman for the royal family. You should develop a good relationship with her in order to make it easier for her to run public relations for you and improve your impression in the hearts of the people.”
“Got it.” Xue Ling stretched, and felt deeply that he had already become a workaholic in this world.
As a person who had been served by others for two successive worlds, and was inherently lazy, he really was somewhat unwilling to have to use his brain and do work.
But now there was no other way. He was a princess walking on a tightrope. One wrong step, and the consequences would be very serious.
Perhaps he would not be able to become the Queen.
Besides, this world held one of his tails. Although the system was not very clear, Xue Ling had a premonition that it had something to do with the rampant Zerg. Putting it another way, he could not let the struggle for power and ambition destroy the foundation of the Empire, because he would need it in order to fight the Zerg.
For his tail, he was willing to do anything!
editor: alamerysl