356 A Filthy Mouth

Elizabeth slammed the desk heavily with force in anger, causing cracks to form on it while scattering some more paperwork. Heinrich looked at his wife's agitated reaction with a rueful look.

"What did you say?! You let our son leave for some unknown land that could be thriving in demons?! How could you let him go to such a potentially dangerous place?!" Elizabeth roared. 

At the same time, Aria and Lynne slightly paled at the news. Demons were depicted as the definition of evil and cruelty in stories. They treat all life as insignificant and wantonly slaughter humans for their pleasure. 

And now they were told that Leon went to such a place? Was Leon going to be okay over there?!

"My Queen, calm your anger."

"Calm? How do you expect me to be calm after hearing my son went to the land of demons?!" Elizabeth quickly rebuked.

"Haiz…" Heinrich sighed and said, "I also wanted to stop our son from going. But you should know that once our son makes a firm decision, there is no stopping him from changing his mind."

"…"

Seeing his wife fell silent, Heinrich took the chance to change the topic. He asks, "How is the situation at the frontlines now? I heard you charged all the way into King City."

"Surprisingly, the Burning Heaven Sect eradicated the Bloodfiend Sect by the time we got there. Afterward, the Valaran Kingdom submitted to our ruling. No surprises there. We rushed back after we failed to locate the Sect Master."

"I did not expect that the Bloodfiend Sect's Sect Master really snuck into our kingdom and launch an attack on our city. It is good that everything is fine now. We were fortunate to have Uncle Don hold the fort." Elizabeth said with relief.

There was no need for her to mention what she found back in the Bloodfiend Sect's headquarters. There were tens of thousands of bones hidden under the Blood Mountain, and it was indeed a horrid discovery. It was better left unsaid. 

"Actually, it was also our son that dealt the finishing blow to the enemy. It was truly a close call. Things could have gone terribly wrong at the slightest misstep." Heinrich corrected with a sigh.

His hand subtly clenched into a fist as he mentioned this. He was too weak to contribute to the battle. It was apparent that he needed to put extra effort into reaching Transcendence as soon as possible. 

The times have changed. He had been aware of this more than once.

Heinrich shook his head, and he asked with a frown, "The Burning Heaven Sect of the Ishaan Kingdom eradicated the Bloodfiend Sect within the Valaran Kingdom? What did they want?"

"Friendly relationship between us. They do not seek domination of the lands like the other two sects." Elizabeth answered.

"A few days later, the Durham Kingdom's surviving royal members will arrive to speak with us further on this matter. If we do happen to assimilate both kingdoms under our ruling, I think it will be appropriate to rename ourselves under the Crawford Empire."

"Crawford Empire, huh?" Elizabeth quietly muttered before she smiled, "Sounds powerful enough. But unfortunately, you will need to work hard to truly make it a powerful empire, my King."

"Haiz, this… can't be helped." Heinrich smiled ruefully. 

After some small talk, Elizabeth left with the two ladies to check out the site of Leon's disappearance and left the messy study room for Heinrich to clean up.

A moment later, Lily entered the room with freshly brewed tea after a polite knock on the door. Heinrich's eye lit up at once.

"Please collect the scattered papers for me, Lily."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lily complied at once. Nevertheless, she was taken aback as she asks, "What happened here?"

"This… Haiz, you don't need to worry about it." 

Heinrich smiled wryly with a shake of his head. He did not want to talk behind his wife's back. It would make him seem petty.

"I see…" 

Lily looked a bit hesitant, seemingly having something to ask but not sure whether to ask. Heinrich managed to notice from the corner of his eyes and said, "Speak freely if you have something to say."

"Ah? Y-Yes, Your Majesty. Do we have a new chief physician? I have been asking around the palace, but no one seems to have heard or seen this young divine doctor." 

"A new chief physician? Not that I am aware of." Heinrich answered before he had a flash of realization. "Are you asking about the one who cured your mother's illness?" 

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lily nodded. 

"Hmm…" 

Heinrich smiled with interest. 

He found it amusing that none of the daughter and mother knew who treated them was. 

"Only one person has been hailed as a young divine doctor in this city. You really don't know who that person is?" Heinrich asked vaguely.

Lily shook her head. She rarely leaves the palace. She would not know about the rumors outside.

"I see, I see." Heinrich laughed. "You will know if you ask around in the Upper District."

…

At another location within the Royal Palace, three junior maids were sweeping the fallen leaves off the ground.

"I hope the prince will make it back safely. I heard there are demons where the prince was headed to." Ellie said concernedly with a distant look.

Sherry clenched her fist and said, "His Highness is extremely capable with extraordinary means. He will definitely make it back safely." 

"En, you are right. His Highness definitely will." 

"Shh, the senior maids are coming," Melody warned with a cautious look. 

Having been bullied by the senior maids and nearly killed by them in the past, it was normal for Melody to fear them. After all, she almost saw Ellie die in front of her. 

"Eh?" Sherry notice who the two senior maids were and smiled evilly. She pompously said, "There's no need to be afraid of them. We are no longer the same as we were in the past."

Shortly after the incident with the senior maid Darcy and Claire, they were picked on by another two senior maids shortly before all the senior maids were strictly warned about bullying. These two senior maids were precisely the two people currently passing them. 

However, things had played out differently after Sherry gifted them the cultivation pills from Darcy's flowerpot.

"Greetings, Senior Josie. How did the cultivation pills you took from me last time taste?" Sherry greeted superficially. 

Barf!

Senior Josie immediately started gagging with a pale face. Her stomach felt queasy every time she recalls the incident. 

Who would have thought an opportunity to extort more cultivation pills from the junior maids would turn into such a terrible lesson? If she had learned what happened to Darcy and Claire sooner, she wouldn't have dared to bully the junior maids.

"You! Don't take things too far!" The other senior maid glared at the three junior maids before she helped drag her friend Josie away.

"Hehehe!" 

Sherry smiled victoriously as she watched them leave in a hurry.

"You are so mean, Sherry! How could you remind Senior Josie of that incident? Now we have to clean up her mess too." Ellie complained as she looks at the small patch of bile on the ground.

"But it was worth it, right? These senior maids have always been overbearing, looking down us junior maids of common birth and bullying us too much." Sherry said with a grin.

"They cannot bully us anymore thanks to the king's warning to them, but you are right! They deserve it!" 

Not far from them, two palace guards witnessed the short exchange.

Bullying had become so serious of a matter that it had even reached the ears of the king. As palace guards, they had naturally heard of the details.

One of them shook their head and said, "Josie is so unlucky, but her reaction is way too exaggerated. Isn't it just some cultivation pills that have been inside of Darcy's bearded clam? Just give it a wash, and it'll be clean for ingestion."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you were in her shoes. How would you feel if you found out you ate something stained by my baby batter? Not so good, right? Just like how straight men are disgusted at the thought of sucking another man's Herman Von Longschlongenstein, it is the same for straight women."

The analogy provided by the palace guard mildly grossed the other palace guard out as he retreated a few steps from the person.

"You and your filthy mouth. Nothing clean ever comes out of it." The other palace guard shook his head before he said wryly, "But when you put it like that, I guess I can understand how disgusted Josie feels..."