EOL Chapter 27

The day the Crown Prince arrived at the main planet, everyone on the ship breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter how luxurious the spaceship is, the space is so big. The two forces have been facing each other in a closed space for a long time, maintaining a fragile and delicate balance. Everyone’s nerves have been tense for too long.

In the last few days, the conflict was almost on the table and was about to break out, and there were constant frictions among the people below. Although the two princes did not have a head-on confrontation, they frequently exchanged blows in the air and refused to give in to each other.

For example, the day before the spacecraft landed, when the crown prince was dining, his guards blocked the corridor outside the restaurant as a security area. A soldier who was returning to the main planet with Austin passed by and was detained. On the same day, the third prince’s command came, using the temporary command of the legion to order several soldiers to break into the guard’s dormitory to investigate the attack on the soldier.

This matter went on for quite a while, but in the end, the soldier was released unharmed, and the guards did not arrest him. However, the next day the crown prince promoted the guard who “attacked the soldiers” to the rank of the guard, commending him for his ability and alertness in his work.

The atmosphere on the entire ship was tense, and no wonder everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they landed.

Compared with the people on the spaceship, the people on the main planet were exactly the opposite.

The two princes, the son of the high priest and the son of the grand marshal returned to the main planet in a low-key manner. Although there was no report, everyone who was paying attention to the situation had already received the news. Most of the nobles were a little confused this month.

They originally thought that after the youngest prince became the king and gained a certain amount of power, the crown prince’s party supported by the third prince and the second prince’s party supported by the emperor would officially begin to fight. In any case, it would take twenty years to fight until the emperor died. After one hundred years of age, one begins to age and then enters the fierce stage of the life-and-death competition for the throne.

Unexpectedly, before the little prince grew up and took power, he would make a major command error that shocked the entire empire. At that time, many people secretly speculated that this incident was planned by the second prince and his party.

This battle for the throne seemed to have started a little early, and it started with the sacrifice of an entire planet’s civilian population. Although there was no attempt to seize power in previous dynasties without blood, the smell of blood in this dynasty seemed to have been there from the beginning and it was too heavy.

The crown prince’s side was caught off guard and lost a general. The situation seemed very unfavorable, but who would have thought that two years later, this matter would be turned around overnight, and a bad thing would turn into a good thing. What’s even more outrageous is that not long after, the second prince died directly. When he died, the other two princes were far away at the border.

To say that all the major events in the past two years were coincidences, with no one behind them, they were afraid only naive children would believe it. However, the situation had become complicated and confusing, leaving the nobles of the main planet confused and at a loss as to what to do.

The crown prince seems to have won, but the news that the crown prince and the third prince are not getting along has been vaguely circulating in the circle for the past two years. No one dares to take sides at this time. The entire main planet is blocked, and the public debate is boiling, but the aristocratic circle is on the contrary eerily peaceful.

Not only the aristocratic circle but also the Shengjin Palace was filled with an eerie calm, including the emperor himself.

Xiu and Alfred paid tribute to the emperor turn by turn. The emperor seemed to have aged a lot in the month after the death of the second prince.

He is not yet eighty years old this year. Genetically superior nobles live longer than common people, especially the royal family. According to the average age of nobles, he can still live for forty years.

Although the emperor was past his prime, he looked well-maintained and looked younger than his actual age. But now, his eyes were loose and dark, and his black hair was a little long. It seems that he has not been taken care of properly. His originally clear light yellow eyes seem to be much cloudier.

He is sitting on that majestic, luxurious, and huge throne, but it is not like the glorious sun, but gives people the feeling of the twilight of a dying star.

The emperor said to his two legitimate sons: “You are back. Go see your second brother, and then go back to rest for two days. If you have anything to do, we will talk about it in two days.”

None of the countermeasures Alfred had planned all the way were used, and the emperor didn’t attack them at all.

Although he was surprised in his heart, he remained calm on his face. He lowered his head and said “Father condolences” and other useless nonsense after Xiu, and bowed to leave.

Compared to Alfred, Xiu was less surprised, because, unlike the youngest prince, he had dealt with the emperor more often, and he knew the emperor far better than Alfred.

The current emperor Wan Ni ascended the throne when he was fifty years old. He is the eldest son and has only one sister who is many years younger than him. He has been the crown prince since he was a child. When he reached his prime, his father abdicated the throne in old age. The road from Dawn Palace to Shengjin Palace was very smooth, without any hindrance.

It is precisely because of this that Wan Ni has an arrogant nature. He was defiant at a young age and was unwilling to be restrained. He was determined to gain power as he should. He was worried about the decentralization of power among his relatives, so he was unwilling to choose a princess among the big nobles, and he was unwilling to challenge the rules to marry his commoner lover, Hart, so he finally chose an age-appropriate young lady from a low-class noble family.

He had no children when he took over the throne. People who want children should be anxious if they don’t have children at this age, so when he allowed his mistress Hart to become pregnant, the clansmen turned a blind eye.

He is the emperor who was born and destined to be in this position. He has been playing with power and manipulating the situation all his life. Xiu had conflicts with him several times. Naturally, he understood better than Alfred that their father did not just want a peaceful era. The arrogant emperor who is so happy with his achievements may be too comfortable on the throne. He doesn’t need to show any government ruling skills on weekdays, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any.

“What are you thinking about, brother?”

Alfred’s voice made Xiu take his thoughts away from the emperor.

They have arrived at Xinghui Palace, which is very close to Shengjin Palace. This is the palace where the second prince lived before his death, and the coffin of the second prince was also kept here.

After passing through the luxurious courtyard of Xinghui Palace, as soon as they entered the palace gate, they saw a large and empty reception room. There are not many furnishings in this hall, but its luxury is not in the furnishings, but in the feet.

At the foot of the hall is a solid and transparent crystal glass floor. Under the transparent floor is clear blue sea water. Walking in this hall feels like walking on the sea. As a few people walked in, a huge piranha, more than four meters long, slowly swam under their feet and circled them several times.

It is said that in ancient times, most of the planet where humans originated was near the oceans. So scientists speculate that this is how ancient humans lived on the sea.

The main planet is close to the star. Although it is warm, water resources are scarce and the ocean area is very small. The extravagance of this antique earth architectural style hall is evident.

Xiu and Alfred have long heard about the luxury of Xinghui Palace. When they saw it for the first time today, neither of them showed any emotion. Even though the extremely intimidating piranha was spinning around under their feet, no one showed any emotion or looked down.

After turning around the corridor next to the hall, they saw the second prince’s coffin.

Looking through the crystal coffin lid, the black-haired man inside seemed to be just asleep. However, if you look closely, you will find that the muscles in the body and face are abnormally stiff, and he is already a corpse.

It had been a month, and the emperor not only had no intention of mourning but instead asked someone to take care of the body so that the second prince could lie here in his original state, which looked very scary.

This made the servants guarding here a little nervous. They were either trembling or timid. However, the expressions of the two princes who came in were more magnanimous than the other, and they were very comfortable as if they had returned to their palace.

Alfred said: “How come the eldest brother didn’t say a word when I met the second prince? I don’t know what to say when you call me your younger brother.”

“It’s a pity that my second brother died young,” Xiu said. “I’m so sad that I can’t speak.”

That’s what he said, but in front of so many slaves, he didn’t even put on a sad expression. His expression was like saying “Today’s food is not to my taste”. It was simply saying: I’m too lazy. There is nothing to say about the deep brotherhood played here.

“Yes, indeed.” Alfred agreed perfunctorily, pointing to a servant who was keeping watch, “Come here. Let me ask you, what is going on? Why did Nient die?”

He opened his mouth with the word “die”. He didn’t even use euphemisms like “pass away” or “leave”, let alone “second brother”. He called him by his first name without any respect. Everyone who heard it was secretly shocked. The servant whom he pointed out looked even more ugly.

“Your Highness… Your Highness, Third Highness, I don’t know anything. I just came to keep vigil for His Highness The Second Prince.”

Xiu, who had been standing aside with no expression, suddenly glanced at the servant.

Alfred said: “You said you didn’t know how your master died? Who would believe it?”

“Your Majesty. Third Highness, my master is Your Majesty.” The servant said, “I am not a servant of Xinghui Palace but of Shengjin Palace.”

“Where are the people from Xinghui Palace?”

The room was silent, and no one answered.

“Okay.” Alfred nodded to himself and did not embarrass them anymore. He walked around the coffin and carefully looked at the body inside, which made the servants in the palace tremble with fear.

Not only did he look, he even bent down without hesitation and put his hands directly on the coffin lid to see clearly. Now that this was done, the person keeping watch couldn’t sit still. A higher-level servant stepped forward and said, “Your Highness, this glass may be fragile…”

“Who told you to change his name and call him His Highness?” Xiu suddenly asked.

The servant was stunned and replied after a few seconds: “No… no one. His Highness is an adult and ranks third…”

“Don’t call him that, it’s unpleasant,” Xiu said calmly, his tone was not serious, but it was an order that could not be argued with. “You should use the previous name to call your Highness back. There is no need to change it.”

The servant bent down deeply and said, “Yes, Your Highness.”