Game of Divine Thrones

Chapter 192: Edda Chronicles 1

After the long journey, Woohyuk accelerated the Edda Chronicles restoration process.

It wouldn’t take him long to do so because the characters that appeared within the lost parts were with him.

In addition, he began to reconstruct the Erendia Kingdom and foster talented individuals at the Academy.

As a result, astronomical amounts of funds were consumed.

In the west of the western continent, trade and human fluxes were extremely high, and most of it was centered on the Rhine Kingdom.

This was thanks to Woohyuk's solid foundations through his conquests.

He was quite powerful and influential, since he had acquired the sovereignty of the six kingdoms of the West.

"You’ve been getting huge profits from maritime trade lately, right?"

“Yes. Everything is thanks to Your Majesty.”

Erica, dressed in a gorgeous red dress, politely expressed her gratitude.

She is in possession of the commercial supremacy in the northern waters of the Rhine Kingdom.

She had become the de facto leader of the free city of Landium.

“Have you found the ingredients I mentioned before?

“Apologies, Your Majesty. Unfortunately, we haven’t obtained any information. But I will report immediately if we find any clues.”

Erica knew that the man in front of her was in fact the red-haired young man who had helped her before.

She hadn’t noticed it herself. Woohyuk had called her privately and had told her.

Therefore, even though she was a profit-seeking merchant, she did not hesitate to lose some funds if it was to help Woohyuk.

"Understood. You may return now.”

“It was an honor to meet you in person, Your Majesty.”

Erica slightly lifted the hem of her dress with both hands and excused herself, and then left the room.

Next to Woohyuk was Joanna.

She tilted her head in confusion and asked him a question.

“What is it that you’re searching for so far and wide that you had to get the help of a merchant from the free city?”

“If you get those items in my hand, I could easily conquer the Eeth Continent.”

The materials for the Seven Color Rainbow Ring and the Tokens of the Nine Dragon Tribes.

The sooner he collected them, the better.

'I only have 6 items missing. 3 materials and 3 tokens.'

He wanted to go to the east and obtain the ingredients as soon as possible.

However, he couldn’t do so yet.

There was the Edda Chronicles to restore, and the issues with Rosenkreuz and Alice the Queen of Thorns remained unresolved.

Woohyuk lifted the white coin in his hand and stared at it.

[Token of the White Dragon]

Category: Personal Item

Effect: One of the nine tokens required to become a Dragon Lord. With this token, you can increase your affinity with white dragons and make contracts with them.

An object that Aris had found in Neustein's storage room.

He had a lot of work to do in the Rhine Kingdom, so he couldn’t leave the country.

He had sent Catsy instead to retrieve it from Aris and she had returned a few minutes ago.

As Woohyuk sat silently, Joanna spoke up again.

“Recently, many people have been worrying about your health, Your Majesty. Including all your vassals. You’ve been working and moving around without taking breaks...”

“What do you think personally? Do you think I’m overworking myself?”

“It would be a lie to say that I’m not worried at all. In any case, you’ve finally returned from a long trip, so take a break to rest your mind and body.”

“You worry about me as if you were my wife.”

“You are our only hope, Your Majesty. Personally speaking, you are also an unparalleled benefactor.”

Joanna blushed in embarrassment.

She was currently sitting on the Queen’s throne, next to Woohyuk.

Woohyuk stared at Joanna for a while and opened his mouth.

“Once I obtain the Holy Aperian Empire, I will return the Rhine Kingdom to you. That would be the right thing to do.”

“… Are you going to wage a war against the Empire this time?”

“No, there’s no need to go that far. The situation is going pretty well.”

As long as Princess Eleonora was on his side, the Holy Aperian Empire would not turn its back on him.

Unless the Light Doctrine took political initiative like in the past.

However, since they couldn't talk about this here, Woohyuk stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“I have some things to do at the academy.”

Today was the day the first batch of people would enter the training center.

The training center was a spacious area beneath the academy, and he would place the Hourglass of Time in there.

There would be some people who would try to steal the Hourglass of Time, so Woohyuk decided to appoint Leifina as an assistant teacher to supervise them along with the Maester teacher.

Her mission was also to watch over the two baby dragons who would join the batch.

“Dad~! I wore the school uniform!”

Once he left Blackburn in a disguise, Lia ran towards him with a big smile on her face.

Woohyuk lifted her up and placed her on his shoulders.

“Are you looking forward to your academy life?”

"Yeah! I've been studying at home all this time, so I want to go to school with my friend!”

Lia pointed to Carnelian who was next to Leifina.

She was also wearing the school uniform.

However, unlike Lia, she looked quite uninspired and unenthusiastic.

“My Lord, what should I do in the training center?”

“Anything you want to do. Anything except cooking.”

At Woohyuk's sharp point, Leifina made a shocked and pained expression.

Everyone had suffered from the food she had prepared through great lengths last time.

Even her mentor, King of Cooking Hans, couldn't say anything about it.

Carnelian silently recalled the nightmarish experience, and shook her head.

“Aunty’s cooking is terrible. It’s worse than my mom's.”

"Haha... How cheeky of you...”

Leifina tried to overcome the gloomy situation with a laugh.

She didn’t really like being compared to Tinia.

Woohyuk coughed in slight fear and headed to the academy with them.

“It's been a long time, Your Majesty. How have you been?”

Upon arriving at the entrance, a white-haired elderly man in a robe greeted Woohyuk.

[Maester Liberto].

He was once the chief court magician of the Holy Aperian Empire who had made a name for himself.

However, he didn’t like politics where he had to struggle against others’ schemes constantly.

When he got older, he retired from his position and lived in seclusion, but Woohyuk persuaded him through letters and brought him here.

“I was busy going on some journeys. But I’ve obtained many things during my adventures.”

“I’ve indeed heard the rumors. They say you've captured the notorious pirates this time.”

The members of the Blackbeard Pirates and the Golden Rose Society were currently held in Blackburn's dungeons.

It was a zone where escaping was impossible for them since they had demonic energy.

In addition, Blackburn had defenders and protective barriers all over the place, so it was difficult for their allies of the Demon Faction to help them.

As Liberto praised him, Woohyuk reached out his hand.

"I was just lucky. In any case, they are valuable prisoners we could use for our benefits, so I kept them alive.”

“I’ve heard that Your Majesty has the ability to rehabilitate criminals and evil beings. I hope those ferocious pirates become good citizens of the kingdom in the future.”

The rumor Liberto was mentioning was about the clan masters recently released from Blackburn’s dungeon.

Liberto was using a fancy word like ‘rehabilitate’ since he was in front of Woohyuk.

But in truth, he was an excellent magician who knew about Woohyuk’s innate attribute.

He was just pretending not to know about it.

Although he had never revealed himself, Liberto was a member of the divine lineage like Helena.

“In any case, how are the disciples doing? I especially want to hear about Song Anna’s performance.

“… She possesses innate talents in communicating with elementals. Moreover, she’s an excellent hard-worker. Thanks to that, she has recently obtained her fourth ability.”

The Child Blessed by the Seven Stars was able to acquire a total of seven abilities.

She abilities she had obtained until now were:

One: Giving a physical body to elementals.

Two: Directly possessing natural beings such as animals and plants.

Three: Transforming animals and plants into anthropomorphic entities.

Four: Creating a new elemental.

“As I thought, they’re all related to nature and elementals.”

“No, it's hard to say that because of the fourth ability. Not all elementals necessarily have natural properties.”

A prime example was Agnes, who was of the darkness property.

Woohyuk nodded and then asked a question again.

“What about the others?”

“Silvia is also an excellent soul enchanter. She will become a prominent figure in the future. Yoo Kayoung and Undine are also far above average.”

They were all growing rapidly, just as he had planned

As Woohyuk received additional reports regarding the operation of the academy, Irene appeared in the distance and approached them.

She was also wearing the school uniform.

As she was a hidden reward from the Twilight Tower, Woohyuk had a lot of expectations for Irene.

"It has been a long time, Your Majesty."

“… Since when do you talk like that, Irene?”

“I learned to speak like a lady from Lady Joanna. Do you not like it?”

Irene tilted her head and stared at Woohyuk in confusion.

The men in the royal palace had responded favorably when she had talked like this.

Woohyuk shook his head, grasping the situation.

“No, it’s much better now. It's just that your behavior was so different from before that I was taken off guard.”

“Lady Joanna said that a woman's transformation is innocent, and that it isn’t gentlemanly to point it out and reproach her.”

… It seemed that Joanna had taught her some useless things.

Woohyuk sighed and headed to the basement of the academy with the others.

“The preparations are all over. We have enough food and household goods to be self-sufficient, and we have resting facilities.”

Liberto took the lead and continued reporting to Woohyuk.

The contents were mostly about the training center.

Since they would live in a confined space for a long period of time, they needed a lot of items and goods.

They not only had dormitories, but also various places such as restaurants, libraries, sports facilities, and artificial gardens on each floor.

He had taken this idea from the Valkyrie’s ruins.

As long as it was a sealed space, the Hourglass of Time’s effect would be applied no matter how large the space was, so Woohyuk had deliberately placed the training center underground.

As Liberto's report ended, a huge bronze door emerged beyond the dark passage.

It was the boundary between the training center and the outside.

Creak.

As Liberto approached it, Aiden opened the door himself as his soldiers stood next to him.

Woohyuk said some words of encouragement to him.

“Good work until now, Aiden.”

“Compared to when I was at the Northeastern Guard Camp, this is nothing.”

Aiden was previously the corps commander whose mission was to defend the capital city Heidelberg.

Tennan, his former lieutenant, had taken over his position as the commander during Aiden’s absence.

“No matter what happens, this door mustn’t be opened from outside without my permission.”

“I will make sure to check the perimeter thoroughly so that it never happens.”

This time, the training period was one month long.

However, within the training center, time would be accelerated by ×500.

Therefore, the internal time would be around 41 years.

For reference, the reason the efficiency had improved compared to last time was because the Dark Magician Maester Liberto would operate the Hourglass of Time.

Since he was an excellent magician, he was able to draw out the full potential of artifacts better than the current Woohyuk.

“Dad, give me a kiss. I won’t see you for 41 years from now on.”

Lia grabbed onto Woohyuk's arm while he said goodbye to the others.

Woohyuk gave her a peck on the lips.

“Listen to your mom, alright? Don't cause any accidents as well.”

"Yeah! I'll be good!”

Lia ran towards Leifina with a satisfied expression.

Afterwards, Woohyuk's gaze turned to Carnelian, who was hesitantly approaching him.

“Do you want one too?”

“...”

Carnelian blushed and couldn't respond.

Because she had been under Ivanov’s control for a long time, she could not express her emotions clearly.

Woohyuk stared at her with a lonely look and repeated the same action he had done to Lia.

“If something happens that requires you to come out before the month ends, open the door first, Leifina. I can’t have telepathic conversations with you unless you do so.”

“I understand, My Lord.”

The space where the Hourglass of Time operated would be completely disconnected from the outside world.

In other words, unless the enclosed space was open, those outside would not know what was going on inside it.

However, Woohyuk was somewhat relieved because Leifina was going inside together with the others.

She was a vassal who would never betray him under any circumstances.

In time, the bronze door closed shut, and Woohyuk turned to head back to Blackburn.

All that was left to do was to trigger the epic quest contained in the Edda Chronicles.