Their world doesn't need gods.

Chapter 281: Duke of Leopold, Philip, the Desperate gambler

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—Alfred—

Early in the morning, Alfred woke up with Illya and Yvengelin by his side.

Looking at the sleeping Evangeline sandwiched between him and Illya, clinging to Illya like a child, Alfred smiled gently.

He is not a lolita complex, and of course he did not make any move on Yuwen Jielin.

It would be better to say that thanks to Yuwen Jielin's sudden intervention, nothing happened between him and Illya last night.

Finally, finally I can get a night's rest!

Even though they felt a little sorry for Illya, the three of them spent the night like a family.

"Good morning, dear."

Illya smiled mischievously and whispered to Alfred.

Illya woke up a long time ago, but in order to avoid waking up Yiwenjielin, she didn't get up.

In fact, it was quite tiring to keep being held by Yuwen Jielin, but Illya was very happy.

"That's not it, dear, it's a bit..."

"Hehe, I know. Because Al, there are a lot of girls around you. If they hear you, someone will get mad, right? When we're alone, there's no problem with using honey, right?"

It was obvious that she wanted to tease Alfred, but Illya became shy when she said the latter part.

This is the same as before, she has turned back into the arrogant and willful Illya.

"I understand. It's up to you. Then Illya, take a break while Ewen Jielin is still asleep. I'll go prepare breakfast for Rose and Lily."

Alfred couldn't help but laugh, and got up and left the room.

After breakfast, Liliana and Sheryl, who had nothing to do for the time being, stayed in the dormitory to play with Yuwen Jielin.

Alfred took Illya to visit the principal's office in the tower of Illya's main castle.

There, Alberta and Sabrina were waiting for them.

"Hey, Al, you finally..."

Alberta spoke to Alfred in her usual nonchalant manner.

But when she saw Illya, who had changed from a beautiful elf girl to a cute little girl, following behind Alfred, she immediately froze.

Illya and Aaliyah are twin sisters who look very similar.

Although she looked much younger, seeing Illya now must have reminded Alberta of Alia who had passed away a long time ago.

"Long time no see, Alberta."

Illya smiled lovingly and greeted Alberta.

In the past, Alberta and Sabrina had also reached the deepest part of the time and space maze once.

At that time, the two of them had met Illya and Ivenjielin.

"I'm so glad you're safe."

Alberta got up from the sofa out of control and hugged Illya's now petite body.

Illya also hugged Alberta and gently stroked her head to comfort her.

As outsiders, Alfred and Sabrina tactfully prepared to leave the room.

"Wait a minute, Al. Um, thank you."

Before Alfred could leave the room, Alberta called out to him.

Alberta blushed and said to Alfred.

"Um, as per the previous agreement, whether it's a favor or something, I will pay you as agreed. You, you just wait and see!"

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—Philip D. Opold, Duke of Opold—

On the eve of the Holy Fire Festival, the common people of the imperial capital are preparing for the festival, and the whole city is filled with a vibrant and festive atmosphere.

However, happiness among people is not universal.

Located in the imperial capital, in the mansion of Duke Leopold's family.

A group of prominent nobles in the empire gathered together secretly at this moment to have a very serious discussion.

Normally they always acted arrogantly, but today no one had the time to do so.

"What should we do next? We already have enough evidence to confirm that the little girl Erica has indeed won over the Duke of Elect... Many low-ranking nobles have begun to plan to defect."

A man with a bright red beard said to the others, with his index fingers interlocked on the table.

His expression was solemn because Duke Leopold's faction was facing a huge crisis at this time.

"That little girl just used her beauty and thin body to win over Alfred, that little bastard, right? There is no evidence yet that the entire Duke of Elect has sided with Erica."

Another aristocratic uncle with a Mediterranean hairstyle tried to tell some incisive jokes to ease the atmosphere.

But the temperature in the meeting room dropped a few degrees because of his boring jokes.

Everyone present knew that it didn't matter whether Erica won over the Duke of Elect's family or Alfred personally.

Because both of them have enough financial resources to overturn the current balance between Charles and Erica.

And Ron has always doted on his children.

He is the kind of idiot who would sacrifice his entire family and noble status for the sake of his own children.

If Alfred truly supported Erica, there was no need to think about what Ron would choose.

The situation of Duke Leopold's faction is now extremely embarrassing.

In terms of influence, Charles and Erica are now roughly equal, with only a slight advantage.

In terms of military strength, Charles has a greater advantage, but it cannot be said that he can absolutely defeat Erica.

In terms of economic strength, they lag far behind the other party due to the interference of the Duke of Elect.

The northern nobles, who now possessed powerful fighting power, were busy dealing with the undead swarming from the Hague Peninsula. None of them had yet expressed their views on the conflict between Charles and Erica.

If the Duke of Elect used his huge financial resources to provide material assistance to the northern nobles in exchange for their support, the Duke of Opold's faction would surely be defeated.

Although the core members can be considered reliable.

But most of the nobles in Duke Opold's faction are still fence-sitters who hope to gain benefits by currying favor with others.

If the situation gets bad, these guys might turn against Charles and show goodwill to Erica at any time.

In order to ensure the status of the Duke of Opold's faction, the core members of the Duke of Opold's faction have also been working hard to maintain the Duke of Opold's faction's strong and powerful image in the aristocratic world.

But this image is now gradually collapsing.

If the eleventh princess Erica continued to grow in power, Duke Opold's faction might shrink to half of its current size. The original plan to support the third prince in launching a palace coup to seize the empire would also be hopeless.

To be honest, the backbone members of the Duke of Leopold's faction are now beginning to doubt whether Prince Charles has any hope of ascending the throne.

“It’s not just the low-ranking nobles…Now even that old fox, Duke Gabriel, is planning to use his precious granddaughter’s close relationship with Alfred to try to establish a channel with Princess Erica.

He and his nobles may have already contacted Erica secretly and are preparing to defect."

A nobleman stroked his gray-brown mustache anxiously and spoke to the others.

This piece of information has not been confirmed yet. He deliberately said it at this time to test the reactions of members of other factions.

This nobleman also did not intend to follow Duke Opold and fight to the death with Erica and others.

If necessary, he would not mind betraying Duke Opold and acting as an insider for Erica and the others, as long as the other party was willing to save his life and family after victory, and offered a suitable reward.

Duke of Leopold, who had remained silent the entire time, and Philip sat at the top seat and watched everything silently.

As the leader of this group of people and a man who had served as the prime minister of the empire in the past, he had always been extremely calm and observed every member of the faction's backbone without making any movement.

These people are already at their limit.

Although no one dared to mention it directly, most people should have received the information.

The bases of the Annu Cult in the imperial capital were completely destroyed, and the nobles associated with it were assassinated one after another in strange ways. There was no evidence, but everyone knew that it was done by Alfred's subordinate [Nether].

This piece of information itself was probably released intentionally by Alfred.

Moreover, the purpose was probably to cause panic within the Duke of Opold's faction and cause its internal collapse.

Humans are creatures who only remember to eat and not to be beaten. These nobles had long forgotten the horrible appearance of Ron, the current Duke of Elect, less than twenty years ago.

Now, the [Ghost] under Alfred's command once again reminded them of the fear they felt back then.

Now everyone is still unclear about the relationship between Alfred and Erica.

If it is true that they are having an affair as Erica showed in the palace...

These nobles felt terrified just thinking about the fact that Ron had once massacred nobles in the western and part of the southern part of the empire through assassination because of his current wife Carolina.

Whatever Ron would do, his son Alfred would probably do too.

Moreover, Alfred [Ghost] is much more terrifying than Ron's personal maid and her subordinates back then.

Duke Philip of Leopold realized that if these cowardly guys were to collapse, he would have no hope of returning to the throne of the imperial chancellor and monopolizing the power of the entire empire.

He had to do something to strike at Erica's faction and stabilize the morale of his own people.

"Attack that girl, and in the best case, just get rid of her."

Philip spoke word by word in a cold and murderous tone.

The other nobles in the faction were stunned for a long time and could not react to what Philip meant.

"But, Master Philip, you said you wanted to attack that girl. When should we do that? Are you planning to attack her on her way to or from Illya and Arya?"

The noble who asked the question opened his mouth in fear.

Illya Alia College is less than ten kilometers away from the imperial capital.

There were no good attack points along the way, and because the distance was very close, it was difficult to cover up and shirk responsibility afterwards.

In case of failure, the entire faction will suffer huge losses.

However, launching an attack in Illya would likely anger the Elf Empire.

With the Duke of Opold's faction now, it is not a good idea to provoke those troublesome elves in the west...

"Attack them on their way back to the imperial capital. Contact the imperial army defense forces at the east gate and tell them not to do anything even if they find that little girl Erica has been attacked."

Philip said.

Without any explanation, he just gave orders majestically, like a tyrant who absolutely ruled the place.

The other nobles said nothing more.

They did not have the courage to contradict Philip face to face, but they also understood that if they wanted to save the Duke of Leopold's faction, which was on the verge of collapse, they had no choice but to take this extremely radical approach.

With less than five days to go until the Holy Fire Festival, there is no possibility of making any detailed preparations.

If he fails, Erica and the others will definitely catch him with countless evidences.

But if they succeed, they will be able to eliminate their biggest enemy and win outright.

The probability of success is not high, but people are easily dazzled by huge benefits.

These nobles, including Philip, saw this as a last resort to save their faction.

Little do we know that this may be the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

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—Erica—

"How long are you going to live here?"

Erica looked at Vivian, who had already changed her clothes, and sighed deeply.

"Until it's no longer necessary."

Vivian replied coldly, not even looking at Erica.

She also quite disliked Erica.

During this time, Vivian had been staying in Erica's room, under the pretext of enhancing their relationship and letting other nobles see the close relationship between Erica and the Duke of Elect's family.

Erica has no such fetish.

Even if there was one, she would not choose a girl like Vivian...who is very heavy in delicate areas, as her partner.

Vivian didn't want to stay in the same room with Erica either, and if it weren't for Alfred's order, she would have left Erica's room long ago.

During this period, [Netherworld]'s subordinates collected intelligence that Duke Opold's faction had made some strange moves.

Vivian speculated that those angry bastards probably wanted to assassinate Erica.

But these guys are not parameciums that have no learning ability at all. They are very wary of information leaks.

At present, [Yu Ming] has not yet investigated any specific plans.

For Alfred, if he wants to completely eliminate the Duke of Opold's family within three to five years without causing serious damage to the empire, the presence of Princess Erica is indispensable.

There was no way she could cooperate with the Duke of Leopold's family.

And Philip, Duke of Leopold, would never tolerate the existence of a Queen who was unwilling to cooperate with him and was completely out of his control.

As long as Erica is there, Alfred will have the righteousness and reputation to make the Duke of Leopold's family disappear.

In order to protect Erica closely, Vivian moved into Erica's room without hesitation.