Chapter 33 (2/2)

Gawain looked at him and heard him speak solemnly. “Anzu is blessed by the gods that we have the honor of witnessing the pioneering hero who lived seven hundred years ago. We are grateful to you and your generation for your sacrifices and contributions. This land and everyone on this land will never forget the great pioneers. As the successor of the Moen clan, together with all the descendants of the pioneers, let us salute our ancient hero.”

The King bowed down, and every descendant of the pioneers (including the three grand dukes) did the same.

Now, the King had declared that Gawain Cecil had indeed been resurrected.

With regards to the issue of whether it was appropriate for the King to bow down to the Grand Duke, there was nothing wrong with that. After all, Gawain, who died seven hundred years ago, was not just a Grand Duke here. He was a symbol. Every year, everyone here would bow to the statue of Gawain Cecil and the other pioneers several times. Now that there was an actual pioneer standing right before them, what was wrong with bowing?

But Gawain had a feeling that there was something not right. A second later, he realized it, and his expression was odd. “The last time so many people bowed to me was when I was lying in that coffin…”

Everyone: “…”

The whole atmosphere became awkward.

Fortunately, everyone here had also gone through their share of awkward situations(although this was the first of its kind). They quickly recovered from it and stood up. The King laughed, “It’s only natural that the younger ones salute their elders.”

Gawain laughed too. Although on the outside, he was much younger than Francis II, his tone was exactly like an elder, “Although we have quite the age gap, your expression when you make excuses is exactly the same as Charlie’s back in the day.”

Gawain Cecil also declared that Francis II was truly of the Moen bloodline.

With that said, Gawain and the old King smiled at each other. The King in particular heaved a breath of relief and even looked a little pleased with himself.

Everyone at the scene was very sharp (perhaps with the exception of a certain dense descendant who was so unlike her elders), and had the ability to analyze the dispositions of one’s eighteen generations of ancestors from just a whiff of one’s fart. Thus just the simple exchange between Gawain and Francis II was enough to inform them of the tone of the meeting, and they could also tell that the ancient Grand Duke and the King probably had already reached some common understanding beforehand.

The lady sitting on the left side of the King seemed to frown slightly, but upon taking a second look, her expression had returned to normal. As one of the three grand dukes, she caught Gawain’s attention.

She was a woman in her thirties, as mature and beautiful as Herti, but much more colder and aloof than Herti. She wore a white dress, silver fox fur over her shoulders, white silk gloves, and a head of curly silver hair. She seemed like she was surrounded by ice and snow. Her ice-queen-like beauty was so eye-catching in the oak hall, a good example showing that the color white was indeed very reflective.

The left side of Francis II was brighter than his right side…

That was the current Grand Duke of the North, Victoria Wilder. Gawain compared the information he had just drawn from the memory to the person before him. At the same time, he recalled the establishment of the Second Dynasty. It was the northern Wilder Clan that brought the bastard child into power.

But now it appeared that the descendant of the bastard child was no longer controlled by the Wilder Clan.

Noticing the ‘Ice Lady’ looking across at him and nodding with a serious face, probably saying hello, Gawain waved back. “You have facial paralysis just like your ancestor. I told Wilder back then to marry a lively southern girl so as to counteract that face of his, but he wouldn’t listen. Now see what it did to his descendant…”

The Grand Duke of the North twitched in the face slightly. Then Gawain looked at the Grand Duke of the West and the Grand Duke of the East. With what information he had from his memories, he chatted a little about things regarding their ancestors. Then he finally turned to look at the empty space between the King’s Hand and the Grand Duke of the North. There was no chair in that spot.

That was originally where the Cecils should be seated, but the chair was removed ever since a hundred years ago. Since then, the four Grand Dukes was reduced to three, and there were no more Grand Dukes from the south of Anzu. The nobles directly subordinate of the royal family became the group of rulers in the south, and the Cecil Clan was pushed into the farthest corner.

Noticing how Gawain was looking at the seat, everyone, including Francis II, could not help but hold their breaths. The atmosphere seemed to become tense for a moment. Then the meeting went from friendly greetings and chats into the meeting’s main segment, the part where the arguments begin.

But Gawain only gave it a brief glance before he gave a relaxed and even disdainful smile. He looked at the King across the table. “Let’s get on with it. My descendant, Rebecca Cecil, will now tell you about the disaster that occurred south of the kingdom. Everyone, that is the real problem.”