The Rosa Merchant Confederacy’s capital, Rosa City, was actually quite an interesting place.

  There was one common trait shared by cities known to be trading hubs—an open market. Without this, the variety of goods and market outreach would be severely limited.

  Conversely, a country that practiced isolationism was described to be a closed market, and they were often accompanied by poverty and rampant smuggling. If a country remained closed for too long, it might find itself lagging far behind the rest of the world, resulting in its decline and eventual elimination.

  Rosa City was definitely not isolated, but compared to other trading hubs, its towering city walls felt like the very antithesis of open.

  It stood as a fortress as much as it did a trading hub. In terms of defensive capability, it surpassed even that of the Saint Mesit Theocracy’s capital, Loren. Yet, beyond its thick protective shell, the level of prosperity on display was incomparable to anywhere else on the Sia Continent.

  It formed quite an interesting contrast.

  It couldn’t be helped though. Rosaians were terrified of invaders and with good reason. Rosa City had been invaded no less than ten times throughout its history, and the traumas it suffered resulted in its civilians suffering from a series of incurable mental diseases ranging from ‘invadephobia’ to ‘starvephobia’ (borborygmi phobia). The side effects manifested in how they liked things to be big and thick.

  Anything that could be scaled up would be scaled up, be it the city walls or the moat. All weapons in their armory had to be ready to be drawn at any moment. Granaries must be full at all times. In fact, the citizens of Rosa City had a habit of stockpiling food in their own homes.

  This was a city that was extremely afraid of being plundered, but admittedly, their wariness actually did them some good. More than a century ago, when the Austine Empire finally recalled its troops and the Theocracy decided not to interfere in Rosa’s affairs anymore, there were numerous smaller countries in the vicinity who were tempted to take a slice of this rich and delicious pie. However, all it took was a walk around Rosa for their ambitions to be quelled.

  Holy shit! The first thing you do right after ending the war is to repair and fortify your city walls? Do the Rosaians have a screw loose?!

  That was the common thought shared by the rulers of nearby small countries back then.

  Clearly, the invasion would be much tougher than they expected with those whopping huge walls standing in their way. In order to conquer the fortress known as Rosa City, they would have to invest significant military forces, and if things went wrong, they could very well suffer grievous losses.

  And there was indeed plenty of room for things to go wrong, for Rosa had close ties with the powerful neighboring Ascart Fiefdom back then.

  Roel’s grandfather, Blanc Ascart, had just signed an engagement contract with the Sorofyas back then. Given that they were planning to affirm their close ties with a bond of marriage, the Ascarts and the Sorofyas were practically one big family then. Needless to say, if the Sorofyas were in trouble, the Ascarts would stand up for them.

  It just so happened that the Ascart Fiefdom had nothing but military prowess. It was almost as if they were a group of barbarians obsessed with fighting. The rulers of those small countries did a quick estimation and realized that even if all of them formed an alliance, they still stood a high chance of losing the battle.

  So, they slapped their thighs heartily, stood up, and returned back to their own homes. This incident further reinforced the ties between the Ascart Fiefdom and the Rosa Merchant Confederacy, building a strong foundation for friendly relations between both lands.

  Due to this piece of history, the Ascarts wielded significant influence in Rosa, especially within its military. The military of both lands often interacted with one another to exchange insights and conduct training.

  In the war back then, while the Ascart Fiefdom had been able to clinch victory after victory against the imposing army of the Austine Empire and eventually drive them out of Rosa, the Austine Empire wasn’t a pushover either. Despite being caught off guard, they still managed to deal significant damage in return. Many soldiers serving under the banner of the Ascarts lost their lives on this piece of land.

  During that tumultuous period, they had no choice but to bury the deceased wherever they could. When peace finally returned, many of the Ascart Fiefdom’s citizens traveled over to Rosa in order to either bring the bodies of their loved ones home or to pay their respects.

  The Rosaians were quite meticulous on this aspect. They built a cemetery for the kind-hearted neighbors who had sacrificed themselves for the freedom of a people they barely knew. Every year, the Ascart Fiefdom would send someone over to pay respects to the dead. It was only in the last twenty years that they reduced the frequency of the visits to once every five years.

  As a result, most of the top brass of Rosa’s military, especially the senior veterans who wielded the bulk of the military power, were extremely pro-Ascart and anti-Austine. It was this group of people who had displayed the most vehement objection to Bruce’s engagement back then.

  In their view, a political marriage with a noble of the Austine Empire, even if it was one of the more moderate ducal houses, was still an act of submission toward their former overlords. It was an insult to the bravery and sacrifices the military made in order to fight off the Austine Empire back then. They felt that the political marriage was trampling all over what Rosa stood for.

  They weren’t exactly wrong either, for Bruce’s wife, Adelicia, turned out to be a fervent bloodline purist.

  The engagement stirred up a huge storm in Rosa’s upper echelon back then. Many of them couldn’t accept Adelicia, and they vehemently voiced their objections. The stress they heaped on the woman was one of the key reasons she eventually returned to her homeland.

  However, things weren’t over just because the descendants of the abhorred invaders had left their country. Adelicia’s vile attitude had left repercussions within Rosa, most notably for Charlotte.

  Charlotte Sorofya was a member of the Sorofya House, but she possessed half of the Austine bloodline too. Not to mention, her mother was a fool who had been brainwashed by the so-called Pure Bloodline Theory. These were huge minuses in the eyes of those old guards, which was why Bruce entrusted Charlotte with major responsibilities so as to build up support for herself within the Sorofya House.

  However, none of these were important anymore……

  In the Sorofyas’ meeting room, everyone present stared agape at the golden fluid that was moving swiftly in accordance with Charlotte’s orders, almost as if an extension of her mana. Even Bruce, who usually made sure to keep a poker face regardless of the situation, had his face flushed in excitement.

  “T-this is the ‘Living Gold’ depicted in the ancient records of the Sofya Kingdom? Amazing! I never thought that I would see it in my lifetime!”


  Bruce was moved to see that a product of their ancestors’ glory recreated in present times, but little did he know that this was just the start.

  Charlotte moved on to demonstrate a series of new spells, explaining that the highest level of their bloodline ability was to influence the Balance of Fate itself, she showcased a blueprint of the Golden Fleet, and revealed many more spoils of her recent adventure. Seeing all of this had Bruce so shocked that his mind went completely blank.

  What Charlotte whipped out was shocking to the point that Bruce couldn’t process it all in a moment’s time. He hurriedly had his close aide, Andrew, check on the authenticity of the items, though he was already pretty certain that they were real. Every single one of these items were vaguely resonating with his bloodline.

  Without a doubt, Charlotte had made a massive contribution to the house this time around. The Sorofyas’ weakness from their missing heritage had been a sore spot for them for several centuries now, but she actually managed to resolve this issue. In terms of merit, this was doubtlessly far above that of developing the Land of Chaos or Twohorn Port.

  The Sorofyas wouldn’t rise to the top right away from regaining their heritage, but in the decade to come, there was a good chance that they could become a powerhouse comparable to the Xeclydes.

  This contribution would become Charlotte’s greatest foundation within the Sorofya House. No one would be able to shake her position as the next matriarch of the house anymore.

  In any case, the knowledge Charlotte had brought back with her from the Witness State pleased the executives of the Sorofya House gathered in the meeting room to no end. There were smiles on everyone’s faces, except for the old man sitting by Bruce’s side, Ugin Sorofya.

  Ugin was the oldest elder of the house at the moment, and he had experienced the war prior to the establishment of the Rosa Merchant Confederacy, which played a huge part as to why he was in the extreme anti-Austine hawk faction. He believed that there was a need for both countries to eventually fight it out. For the same reason, he had always disliked Charlotte, who bore the bloodline of the Austine Empire, not to mention that she was a woman on top of that.

  In his view, it was a huge risk to let a woman like Charlotte take over the helm of the Sorofya House. What if she, like her mother, subscribed to the nonsensical Pure Bloodline Theory and married herself and the entire Rosa back into Austine? Wouldn’t that spell a huge disaster?

  Ugin’s deep hatred for the Austine Empire made him loathe Charlotte too for her mother’s bloodline, and he couldn’t help but view anything she did with skepticism. He, too, was excited by the discoveries Charlotte had made, but knowing the implications of them, and what it meant for internal politics, left him unable to smile at all.

  “I never thought that you would be able to find the ruins of the Sofya Kingdom. You have done well,” said Ugin impassively.

  This was already the highest compliment he could bring himself to offer to Charlotte. Unexpectedly, the latter didn’t accept his compliment.

  “No, I didn’t do it all alone.”


  Charlotte bowed slightly to the crowd in the meeting room before calmly revealing the ‘truth’.

  “Father, it’s with the help of the proxy fief lord of the Ascart Fiefdom, Roel Ascart, that I managed to find all of these items. Roel got severely injured in one of the battles we went through in the ruins, so I brought him back to Rosa without permission to have him treated.”


  “What?”


  Charlotte’s words stirred a huge uproar in the meeting room.

  No matter how lightly she tried to bring it across, everyone present in the room immediately realized that this could potentially be a huge diplomatic issue with their neighbors in the Ascart Fiefdom. Some of the wiser ones were able to immediately link it with the reports they had received about the peculiar military movements of the Ascart Fiefdom along its borders. Upon realizing what was going on, they began to persuade her against it.

  “Charlotte, we understand how you feel about your companion, and there’s no doubt that he would be the closest friend of Rosa in the future after what he has done for us. However, you shouldn’t have dealt with this matter in such a manner……”


  “Utterly ridiculous! The Ascart Fiefdom has been our military ally for generations now, but you actually privately took their sole successor out of their territory? Did you even consider the consequences of your actions?! Your deeds would sully the close relations we have painstakingly maintained over……”


  “We are engaged. I wish to marry him.”


  “Regardless of whether you are engaged or not, you still shouldn’t…… Wait a moment, what did you just say?”


  The obstinate old man had been finding an opportunity to put Charlotte down when her words suddenly sunk in, leaving him momentarily dazed.

  “I said that we’re engaged.”


  Charlotte calmly repeated her words.

  There was a moment of silence before the crowd, who were clearly ignorant of the engagement agreement, began widening their eyes in shock. Ugin stared at the determined auburn-haired girl with his mouth agape for a long while before a shudder suddenly ran through his body. For the first time throughout the entire meeting, his austere expression finally cracked to reveal a delighted smile.

  “Wonderful! I knew that you were a true patriot! Since you’re engaged to Roel Ascart, there’s no problem here whatsoever! You have my full blessing for the marriage!”