A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 190: Chapter 153 Expansion (The Complaining is Back Again)_1

The tumult of the banquet thus concluded.

But it didn’t end there.

The King had ordered that everyone present at the time must not disclose this.

As for the scandal of the broken engagement at the banquet, it was declared to the public that the Duke’s eldest son was infatuated with another woman and unrepentant, and Angela was painted as the kind of green tea bitch who would do anything to ascend to power (which was more or less true). Of course, it was announced to the public that both of them had been detained.

Indeed, the Duke’s son was detained. If it wasn’t his own son, the Duke would have wanted to behead this idiot himself. It was heard that after this, the stubborn fool was still unrepentant, insisting that he and Angela were truly in love, and stating that everything Angela, a succubus, had done could be forgiven… Honestly, if it were Duanmu Huai, he would have directly beheaded this idiot himself.

Keeping him was just a disaster.

Not only that, after this, the issue of how to deal with demons was also brought up to the agenda.

Why hadn’t Angela been discovered before? The reason was that she had infiltrated the Magic Academy, where magic power was greatly inflated and a little demonic qi could easily be concealed. Even if someone felt something was wrong, they would only think it was the aura revealed by the magic books in the library, and would not think of it as a demon beast.

But now this problem must be addressed; as to how, it seemed His Majesty the King planned to consult with the Holy City before making a decision.

Of course, Duanmu Huai didn’t care about political affairs; he was only responsible for dealing with aliens, heretics, and demons.

So he quickly made a decision.

That was to travel to the western land mentioned by the succubus and find out exactly what happened.

As for whether Fafner had completely resurrected, Duanmu Huai wasn’t concerned about this. With Fafner’s strength, if it truly resurrected, it would have come raging at them long ago; there would be no need to use this method to weaken the enemy. Moreover, according to the records of the magic academy, Angela was a freshman who enrolled this year. Even if her plan went smoothly, it would take at least two or three years to cause the Kingdom of Manaria to collapse as she claimed.

So Duanmu Huai was sure that even if Fafner had resurrected now, it was probably just for show, completely lacking the strength to deal with the Kingdom of Manaria; otherwise, it wouldn’t have used this method to weaken Manaria’s power in advance.

Therefore, Duanmu Huai intended to head west to see what was going on there.

And those who would accompany him were still Ogis, Ann, Greiya, and Lorena — and Saharir.

Yes, this Lord Angel wanted to join the journey too. Clearly, as an angel, she couldn’t ignore the fact that the demon was rampantly domineering on the ground.

But for Duanmu Huai, it was…

“Finally, some growth in this world…”

Yes, while this was a nuisance for the Kingdom of Manaria, for Duanmu Huai, this was proof that this world fragment was growing.

Of course, according to the game setting, when a world fragment breaks out of the cycle and starts to grow, it will attract other world fragments to gravitate towards it, like a magnet. Just like when Duanmu Huai solved the demon summoning event in the Holy City, Heaven and Angels materialized in this world. Now Manaria was in the same situation. Since Manaria, Regnes, and the Holy City had all been joined together by Duanmu Huai, their “magnetism” was becoming stronger and naturally attracted other world fragments to come here for “convergence”.

In the game, it was like a DLC had come out, expanding into new events and maps.

As long as this continued, this world fragment could successfully expand into a planet, or even continue into a galaxy, a universe…

This mode was widely popular among lone wolf players who preferred single-player games. In fact, many people in the virtual world do not wish to interact with strangers. Moreover, the more players there are, the lower the overall quality, and there are often disputes and quarrels in random instances. Therefore, some players detested group dungeons and preferred to immerse themselves in world fragment questing instead.

Duanmu Huai remembered that in the game, the strongest player had a world fragment area equivalent to about one-fifth of the Milky Way. That player almost never appeared in any player gathering areas, and could be considered the epitome of a social anxiety player…

“I didn’t expect this to happen.”

When he returned to his residence, Ann huffily found Duanmu Huai and began to grumble and complain.

“Those fools! That they could do such a thing is simply unacceptable!”

“Speaking of which, what will become of Miss Audrey?”

Greiya also opened her mouth with confusion. Hearing Greiya’s question, Ann extended a distressed hand to hold her head.

“I don’t know… But after this, I’m afraid it will be even more difficult for Miss Audrey to get married. Although she’s not to blame, but…”

As she said this, Ann sighed helplessly and sat down on the chair.

“Even though I don’t want to say this, perhaps Miss Audrey also carries some blame herself.”

“What? Is it not said that it takes two to make a quarrel?”

Duanmu Huai took a sip of tea, curiously looking at Ann, who helplessly shook her head.

“Political marriages are like this. How should I put it, Audrey might make a good wife, but not a good partner… In fact, in the academy, even when Angela’s not around, I never saw Audrey and Yald being close…”

That’s just how political marriages are.

Ann helplessly spread her hands, and Duanmu Huai seemed to understand her meaning.

In simple terms, while Audrey accepts her fate of marrying the duke, for her, the marriage felt like a job. As such, she and Yald didn’t have much in the way of personal feelings for each other. According to Ann, Audrey was indeed trying hard to play the part of future duchess, but that was it. At least from Ann’s perspective, there was no particular intimacy between the two.

In such a situation, it’s not entirely unreasonable for Yald to be duped by Angela’s sweet words, and unconditionally follow her. After all, men can be emotional creatures too. Being expected to marry a woman who doesn’t love him and whom he doesn’t love, is likely something not everyone would be willing to do.

In fact, according to the information Ann later gathered from the duke, Yald also had his own “life plan”. He believed that his happiness should be in his own hands, and in Yald’s view, this kind of union between nobles that disregards emotions and only talks about interests is outdated. Hence, he wanted to change this system. That’s why he hid it from his father and publicly tore up the engagement at the banquet. In Yald’s view, he was declaring war on the outdated customs of the old world… He had even thought of leading the commoners to overthrow the current system and create a brand-new world where everyone was equal and free…

Well, it must be said that this idea was beautifully noble.

Unfortunately, reality didn’t seem to share his dream.

Anyway, given what has happened, Audrey’s marriage is completely ruined, and even if she’s not at fault, this still leaves a stain on her.

That’s like the superstition about “Kiev”; few nobles would dare to propose to Miss Audrey again. Furthermore, Miss Audrey, as the daughter of an earl, must find someone of similar status. And rather unfortunately, those of similar status to hers, who are potential suitors, are mostly the same group of fools who previously accused Audrey at the banquet.

So… it doesn’t look very promising for this noble miss.

“It’s bad luck that they expect you to worry about this.”

Looking at Ann who was sprawled across the table, Duanmu Huai shook his head helplessly as the latter threw herself onto him.

“What can I do, I’m a princess. If I don’t handle it, who will? Ah… wait a moment!”

However, at that moment, Ann looked at Duanmu Huai as though she had just thought of something, lighting up her face. Seeing this, Duanmu Huai raised an eyebrow.

“I’m warning you not put any ideas on me.”

“Eh? Why not? The knight’s status is high enough, and even if he can’t become the main wife, he could be a concubine. I don’t mind!”

“But I do mind!”

Duanmu Huai reached out his hand and lightly flicked Ann’s forehead.

“I agreed to your marriage proposal because I somewhat liked both of you. But sorry, I won’t randomly get together with a woman I don’t know. There’s a limit to using me as a tool. Solve your own problems and don’t always ask me to solve these troubles for you.”

Duanmu Huai didn’t like to get involved in these women’s disputes. What he despised most were those idiotic 8:00 pm melodramas. Duanmu Huai had watched these with his mother before, and while she enjoyed them, they only made him feel irritated. Both men and women in those dramas were idiots, making irrational decisions like drug addicts, constantly complaining about love… Duanmu Huai even suspected that half of all cases of high blood pressure in women were caused by watching those dramas.

Duanmu Huai had never had a girlfriend—one reason being his fierce appearance which made people reluctant to approach him and another reason being those urban romantic dramas. The thought of potentially getting stuck in such a stupid love life scared him away from any interest in love or marriage.

“Er…,”

Ann held her forehead and stuck out her tongue at Duanmu Huai, but she didn’t say anything more.

“Your Highness.”

At that moment, a maid entered and respectfully bowed to everyone.

“Count Hasha and his daughter Miss Audrey request an audience.”

“…,”

Hearing the maid’s report, Duanmu Huai and Ann looked at each other.

It seems that speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.