"..."

Lan Qi felt that this woman named Gloria didn't seem like an enemy.

She didn't harbor strong malice towards him, but rather more complex emotions, perhaps jealousy, doubt, or unwillingness to accept, which didn't quite amount to hostility.

Lan Qi quickly understood that this person should be a direct subordinate soldier lurking in the Protos Royal Academy.

Also, a member of their Batian Branch.

His authority was higher; as long as he used the [Saint's Proof - Batian] to sense, anyone holding the [Resurrection Proof - Batian] would be subtly sensed by him.

But she seemed a little unhappy.

Lan Qi could only smile helplessly, expressing his friendliness to her.

His emerald green eyes were naturally flawless, and his expression carried a hint of sorrow and concern.

"...!?"

This made Gloria clench her fist, the veins on the back of her hand bulging.

In her view, Lan Qi's expression at this moment was like saying: Xi De just prefers me, there's nothing I can do about it.

Gloria forcibly restrained the throbbing veins on her forehead, turning her head away from Lan Qi.

She really wanted to punch this green tea man!!

He hadn't said a word, but it seemed even more excessive than directly calling her stupid.

How could the Batian Church favor such a guy!!

This bastard didn't seem like a member of their Batian Branch at all, but rather more like those guys from the Silent Extinction Branch. If he also happened to be a seal master, then he would be a strong contender for the Silent Extinction Holy Son.

Gloria didn't plan to say anything more to this Batian Holy Son.

He was indeed favored, and she couldn't do anything about it.

Today, she followed the Batian Holy Son here just to see what was so good about him!

As the two stopped communicating, the students gradually arrived in the classroom and sat down individually, with hardly any conversation. The slight sounds of desktops and heavy books echoed in the classroom.

Every corner of the history classroom was immersed in the pale white tone of the winter morning's natural light. The historical maps and timelines on the walls swayed gently in the breeze, and the vines and leaves outside the window swayed with the wind, occasionally bringing a touch of light and shadow changes to the glass windows.

The sound of footsteps increased, and the light and shadow outside the window also became busier.

The classroom was always surrounded by a kind of cold silence.

Until the noise in the classroom stopped as the clock pointed to the hour, all the students consciously waited quietly for the start of the class.

A steady, rapid series of footsteps sounded by the door.

The door slowly opened, and a figure appeared in the classroom, outlined by the light.

A young man about 1.85 meters tall, he had medium-length hair as black as ink, which occasionally covered his deep, starry eyes, which carried a hint of deep melancholy, as if the mysteries of the universe were hidden within. He wore a black long coat, giving him a sense of freedom.

His face was handsome but slightly haggard, and it could be seen that he had been staying up late quite a bit.

The lecturer for this class, Sidor Arundel, associate professor of the history department at the Protos Royal Academy.

"Alright, students, although I prefer to maintain an interactive approach with students in most history courses, I hope to finish this class on *Modern Imperial History* smoothly by myself, without being interrupted too many times. Of course, you can still ask questions at any time, but I may not answer them. Is that alright?"

Sidor's voice wasn't deep at all, but rather leaned towards clear and casual.

The students didn't express any opinions on Sidor's straightforward declaration of giving up, but simply replaced their response with silence.

They also knew why Associate Professor Sidor would say that.

The Protos Empire was currently in a sensitive situation, and a kind of Wilfordism was now prevalent—

Once they find an opportunity, they will first identify you as having an "incorrect stance," and then make you desperately prove yourself. If the self-certification is not convincing, they would rather kill by mistake than let it go.

This doctrine was resisted by many people, and also advocated by many people.

And modern imperial history involved the modern history of the Northern Continent, which was closely related to the current situation of the empire. Every time Sidor talked about the Holy War, the current situation, the causes, and the connections, some students might get worked up and argue endlessly, even making it impossible to continue the class, and even start questioning Sidor's position.

Sidor applied to the academy for a teaching assistant, but there was no suitable candidate who could help him maintain classroom discipline.

After all, there were many children of powerful nobles in the Protos Royal Academy, and no one with a normal brain would want to or dare to offend them.

Sidor placed the yellowed book in his hand on the desk and opened the magical energy projection behind him.

First of all, he didn't say anything, but just played a video.

Dusk deepened, and the colorful霞光霞光 was blocked by heavy black clouds, casting an ominous shadow over the entire sky.

In the distance, something was slowly approaching. The seemingly bottomless black hole, when observed carefully, would reveal many humanoids wearing jet-black heavy armor, but they were not humans, but a group of ferocious demons. Each demon was engraved with deep scars, and their eyes flickered with fanatical flames, as ferocious as if they had crawled out of hell.

And when this force arrived, everything changed.

The sky was swallowed by a thick, crimson mist, like a magical eye about to burst, staring at the earth.

This was once a peaceful town, but now it had become a slaughterhouse of death. The shadows of gunpowder smoke and war flickered between the broken walls. The shattered, unrecognizable corpses were scattered under the ruins of the houses, and the blood had become a dry, dark red mark. The bloody smell in the air was more disgusting than any stench.

This land had been cursed and become no different from hell. Every inch of air was filled with suffocating fear until the breath of life completely disappeared.

Only those mountains of corpses remained, their faces twisted in pain, despair, and terror.

Those seemingly existing blood-colored figures, like ghosts, quickly roamed every corner of the town, carrying broken flesh and a hungry thirst.

"This video didn't happen a hundred years ago, but a year ago. People suspect that the ghosts of the Demon King's special assassination unit have returned."

Sidor said faintly as the image behind him flickered.

The people in the north were panicking.

They even craved the protection of the Silent Extinction Church, rather than face those cruel demons.

And the other northern kingdoms didn't admit that these demons came from their countries.

But even if these demons came from the depths of the Calamity Soil in the far north, they would need to pass through the northern countries, and they would definitely need a stronghold.

Later, more and more evidence and accusations pointed to problems with the Kingdom of Esther Tielan.

The investigation report also pointed out that the proportion of missing persons in the border towns near the Kingdom of Esther Tielan was extremely high for many years.

Finally, starting with everyone in the north being in danger, the panic gradually infected the imperial capital, and finally they chose to expel the Church of the Goddess of Destiny, which had a deep relationship with the Kingdom of Esther Tielan, and welcomed the Church of Resurrection. But this kind of thing didn't seem like a conspiracy of the Church of Resurrection, because the several bishops and branches in the Northern Continent had great contradictions, couldn't unite, and even the person in charge of the empire had to compete to get a result.

"From the current point of view, this war between the Protos Empire and the Kingdom of Esther Tielan is inevitable, and the other northern kingdoms will not sit idly by and watch the Kingdom of Esther Tielan be annexed by the Protos Empire. In any case, this is a..."

Sidor's voice stopped there, and he didn't continue to speak.

This was a terrible war with no winners.

But this war was in line with the historical foundation and trend of the Protos Empire over the past century. Going to war with different races can only be said to be the general trend.

Even if this opportunity wasn't needed, there would be other opportunities to detonate it.

Perhaps there were also many students in the classroom who had their own ideas, such as questioning whether there were problems with the cause of this war, whether the evidence, including this video, was true, and whether there were other conspiracies behind this war.

But anyone who was sober wouldn't ask these questions in public, otherwise they would be questioned for having a serious anti-war stance.

"..."

Lan Qi sat in the back row of the classroom, staring thoughtfully at the images of the Demon King's army that were recorded on the screen.

In the main story of the game, which was about a year later, the Northern Continent would fall into a prolonged war.

The cause was also the same as Sidor described.

Actually, nothing was wrong.

From Lan Qi's perspective, the only thing that didn't match up was one point—

That was the number of provinces.

After Lan Qi came to the Northern Continent, he repeatedly confirmed that the Protos Empire currently had 17 provinces.

But in a year, the territory of the Protos Empire would change, and there would only be 15 provinces in the homeland.

After Lan Qi checked the map, he found that two provinces in the north had disappeared out of thin air.

In other words, he didn't know what kind of changes would happen in this war in the future, leading to an unknown and huge tragedy in the northern provinces.

If he wanted to cause this kind of harm, the power of the natural disaster caused by the failure of the eighth-order Shadow World wasn't enough, and the failure of the ninth-order Shadow World was too small, so it didn't seem like it was caused by a natural disaster.

"What's with that expression?"

Gloria, the direct subordinate soldier of the Batian Church, stared at Lan Qi strangely.

She found that the gentle and harmless Lan Qi frowned slightly.

The dignified Batian Holy Son, could it be that he would be alarmed by the demons?

"I always feel like these guys don't seem like demons."

Lan Qi muttered confusedly, holding his chin.

Compared to the five Ikerite disciples he had cultivated with the orthodox teaching ideas of the Purgatory Corridor Academy, this troop was still lacking something.

(End of this chapter)