Chapter 406.5: Shared Future (2)

After hearing Roel’s reasoning, Wilhelmina decided to try putting aside her prejudice to accept them. She looked at him with a grim face and said.

“I’ll allow them to join the Dawnbringer Order, but I forbid them from bringing politics into the organization. The Order is an organization similar to the Twilight Sages Assembly; it serves to protect humankind from the crises, not to negotiate national interests.”

“Definitely. I can’t say the same for others, but I’m willing to vouch for them,” replied Roel with a nod.

Charlotte and Nora were both descendants of the Tripartite Alliance, and Lilian possessed the Ascart Bloodline. Alicia was unlikely to be too concerned about the fate of humankind, but she was very supportive of anything Roel did.

He determined the four of them to be trustworthy, and that was why he wanted to bring them into the Dawnbringer Order first. There were also others whom he wanted to pull into the organization, such as Paul and Geralt, but he decided to take things slowly for them.

Paul and Geralt were still young, and it was unlikely they would connect with the ideals of the Twilight Sages Assembly. They would still join the organization when prompted to, but they would be confused by it as well.

Roel thought that it would be better to go with the flow and invite them if an opportunity arose in the future, which should be aplenty. As members of the protagonist’s party in Eyes of the Chronicler, it was almost fate that they would have to fight for humankind.

With this matter resolved, he started approaching the topic of what he had been working toward over the last few weeks—the liberation of Astrid Arde.

That was his primary goal for approaching the transfer students in the first place.

According to Antonio, the Knight Kingdom opposed the liberation of Astrid Arde from the Chaos Dream, thinking that it could lead to the awakening of the Savior. However, Roel, who had come into contact with Astrid in the Witness State, knew that there was no link between the two.

He explained the situation to Wilhelmina, who then promised to try her best to convince the elders from the Twilight Sages Assembly about it when she returned to the Knight Kingdom over the holidays. She wasn’t too optimistic about it though, saying that it would require quite a bit of effort to persuade them given her past experiences.

Roel understood that. He was prepared for the long haul from the very start.

There was no question in his mind that Astrid had to be saved, but it would likely have to wait till he, Wilhelmina, and the others became stronger and gained greater say.

In this half an hour conversation, Roel managed to resolve most of the problems clogging up his mind. The two of them continued chatting till they heard calls for them coming from the distance.

It wouldn’t do for the stars of the show to be absent from the party, so they had no choice but to head back. Roel first returned to the banquet hall whereas Wilhelmina went off to put on her armor.

By this point, Antonio and the staff members had already left the venue, allowing the students to go wild. Transcendents were particularly resilient to alcohol due to their enhanced constitution, and Roel ended up getting roped into some of the drinking circles.

The aftereffects from his three days of disappearance right after winning the Challenger Cup were finally starting to show. A long queue of students were waiting for their opportunity to propose a toast to him, leaving him flabbergasted. Wilhelmina was faring much better in comparison, not because she had less fans but because she could use her knight’s chivalry code to turn down the drinks.

The crowd understood that the culture over at Pendor was different, not to mention that she was a member of the royal family. She had a duty to lead her people by example, so no one tried to peer pressure her into drinking. As a result, the pressure over on Roel’s side intensified.

Over the clinking of wine glasses, Roel’s social circle swiftly expanded. Thanks to the noble conferment he had received from the five major countries, there were many non-Theocracy students who approached and befriended him too. This was a sign that his influence was expanding beyond national borders.

It took an entire hour before Roel was done greeting the excited students—most of them noticed his increased mental fatigue and were considerate enough not to tie him down in a lengthy conversation. He spent the remaining time at the party chatting with Charlotte and the others.

The party finally ended at the strike of midnight.

…

Students of Saint Freya Academy were granted two days of rest after the party to adjust themselves lest they came to class inebriated.

Roel woke up without a hangover thanks to his powerful constitution as an Origin Level 4 transcendent, but Paul and the others weren’t as resilient. The sheer amount of alcohol they chugged left them sluggish for the entire day.

The excitement over the Challenger Cup in Leinster finally died down after three days of wild festivities. Tourists began leaving the city, and most merchants closed their shops to rest after having overworked themselves.

It was as if the partying youthful city had suddenly transformed into a peaceful old men’s land.

The Challenger Cup was a win-win-win situation. The spectators were satisfied by the high-quality fights, the merchants made huge bucks from the celebrations, and Leinster’s administration raked in a record-high tax revenue.

This was good news to Roel, for one of his rewards as the champion was to receive 30% of the tax revenue earned by the Leinster’s administration during the event. His eyes nearly popped out when the clerk handed over 300,000 gold coins to him.

He was shocked by the sheer amount of money Leinster had earned due to the Challenger Cup. The event had only lasted for two months, but they actually managed to earn more than a million gold coins of tax revenue from it. This was unbelievable!

The Ascart Fiefdom’s annual tax revenue hadn’t even reached a million gold coins yet!

But again, Leinster was the capital of Brolne. For many years it had been carefully managed, so it was only natural for it to be more economically developed. Not to mention, the Challenger Cup was a huge event that drew in rich people all over the Sia Continent.

Looking at it from this perspective, the high tax revenue was justified.

If a city wanted to be rich, it needed to develop a unique strength of its own that set it apart from the others. Leinster had chosen to specialize in the education route, and it had a thousand years of accrual, which ensured that it was so ahead in the field that no other cities could compete with it.

Having thought things through, Roel could only give up on the idea of holding a tournament back at the Ascart Fiefdom too.

As the seasons approached autumn, the students began looking forward to their most anticipated event for each—the holidays.

Saint Freya Academy had students from all over the world, some living far away from Leinster. Roel himself needed an entire month just to return from Leinster to the Ascart Fiefdom. If the break was only two months long, all he could do upon reaching home was to have a cup of tea before preparing for his journey back to Leinster. That would be tragic.

For that reason, Saint Freya Academy had chosen to set its holidays to be the end of autumn to the start of spring, thus catering better to the needs of the student populace. It just so happened that nobles tended to be the most busy over the end of the year, be it carrying out winter hunts and organizing all sorts of new year festivals.

As soon as the academy released its students for the holidays, those who lived nearby swiftly hired a carriage and traveled back home. Those from foreign countries had to take more time to prepare for the long journey.

As for Roel, he had other matters to attend to, such as paying a visit to a person whom he hadn’t been able to meet much over the past year.

Lilian Ackermann.