Four Split Personalities

The agile Duntis family had brought the Gold Coin Commerce Association and the Steam Consortium to settle in Violet, forming a host of consortia, working hand in hand with the Hussein Family to trade anything that could be turned into money, and then exchanging the money for supplies accumulated by the Empire...

The Simon Family was like the entire Empire’s espionage department, they were not only tasked with wiping out the brutal remnants of the former dynasty but also had to suppress various riots stirred up by ambitious individuals, and to be on guard against infiltration from other forces, wishing each person could do the work of ten.

The Crystal Wolf Family was in charge of logistics, mining operations, and education. These people, with no relevant experience whatsoever, were practically learning as they went along. The ordinarily gentle and elegant Clan Leader lived and ate with the miners and blacksmiths every day, and eventually transformed into a muscular hunk. The Clan Leader’s father, who couldn’t recognize a single character, ended up mixing with scholars to research teaching methods, eventually becoming the founder and the first Dean of the top academic institution in Violet, a place once attended by contemporary representatives of both the Simon and Marshal families — all because he couldn’t handle mining.

The Flame Claw clan, even more formidable in combat than the Baroca Family, was stationed at the far west, constantly vigilant against the threats from the Mystic Dark Forest, as well as the dangers lurking behind it. At the same time, they also played the role of deterring the Scarlan Duchy and escorting volunteers from the Holy Church Union. Ironically, while the Flame Claw warriors were busy with these various tasks, it was precisely the Marshal Family that was in charge of constructing their territory.

The founding Crystal Wolf Duke, Elan Wolf Crystal, once joked: in the entire Violet Empire, if one were to look for a pair of friends closer than Godrick Bresen and Phineas Duntis, the only candidates would be Kegs Fire Claw and Nutt Marshal, whose perfectly harmonious acts often made people want to grab anything at hand and throw it at them.

As for the Fernan family, their task was simple, similar to that of the Flame Claw, but even more challenging — that was to guard the northern borders of the Violet Empire and keep the mounting threats outside the nation’s gates.

This mission had been decided from the very beginning when territories were first divided. From the start, it was predetermined that Fernan would defend the treacherous northern region — not because the founding Duke Fernan was unpopular or anything of the sort, but rather because only the Fernans had the potential to withstand the threat that no one knew how many years would persist.

Others couldn’t hold out, not Fire Claw, not Baroca, no one!

It wasn’t a matter of strength or weakness but in terms of defensive warfare, if the Fernan family claimed second place, no one in the entire Violet dared claim the first.

In fact, if not for these people from Fernan, the Empire probably would not have even been established to start with. At least half of The Nine Great Families back then would have been wiped out by the retaliations of the dynasty right before its downfall.

Therefore, the founding Duke Copper Rod Fernan happily led his family and troops to the North Territory, becoming an iron gate solid as gold, standing guard for sixty years.

The second-generation Duke Fernan held for sixty-four years, the third for seventy-two years; the fourth for thirty-five years, and the fifth for fifty-one years...

Then, driven by major forces, a diverse group of people established the City of Freedom, hundreds of miles from the Violet northern border.

Years passed, and with the continuous settling of speculators, outlaws, wanted criminals, various Holy Churches, various Heretical Churches, those with nowhere else to turn, libertines, and those afflicted with second-year syndrome, the City of Freedom quickly became a huge and complex entity beyond anyone’s control — and they concocted a set of tacit, superficial rules that everyone was happy to follow.

This was an interesting phenomenon because in many places that seemed orderly, various accidents and incidents occurred every day. Yet in the City of Freedom, the most chaotic place on the continent and a haven for countless criminals, not even a dine-and-dasher was to be found, at least not on the surface.

The reason was not complex — simply put, if you dined without paying in the City of Light, at most you would be subject to a lecture; if the owner was a devout believer, you might be able to atone with a mere few words and even get the meal for free, worst case, you’d wash dishes for a couple of months.

But in the City of Freedom, if you dined without paying today, tomorrow you might be made into a ’meal’ to be served...

Of course, these are merely the ’surface’ rules. As for those ’beneath the surface,’ well, a certain individual has not yet made their way to the City of Freedom, so we’ll talk about that later~

All in all, with the establishment and growth of the City of Freedom, as well as the rules it set forth, the dire situations in the Northern Border of the Violet Empire had quickly alleviated. Those low-level criminals were wiped out in just a few years by the city’s warriors, and those who were lucky not to die either fled or became part of the City of Freedom. As for the Mystic Dark Forest that harbored numerous demon beasts and made life unbearable for the people in the surrounding regions, it was burned down entirely by a Gnome Mage who resided in the City of Freedom, proficient in Dragon Breath, held a grudge against the Red Dragon clan, and wished to remain anonymous.

Before the City of Freedom cleansed what they saw as unsightly weeds and incidentally solved a host of troubles for the Violet Empire, the Fernan family had stood guard in the North Territory for four hundred and eighty-three years. It wasn’t until the 10th Duke of Fernan reached his fifties that the Northern Border of the Empire finally settled into tranquility.

Throughout those nearly five hundred years of history, the Fernan family didn’t allow any existence that could threaten the Violet Empire to cross into the nation. They were like an iron sluice that never fell, guarding the land beneath and behind them, keeping threats at bay.

In the family motto of the Fernans, the word ’protect’ appeared most frequently. What they had to protect was this very Empire, even if it was no longer pure, even if it was decaying and corrupting, even if it became increasingly detestable, even if it had long veered off the right track; they had to hold onto it.

This was the lifelong mission of the Fernan surname, as well as the sacred duty of every generation’s Duke of Fernan.

They didn’t care about the internal struggles and machinations, nor did they want to partake in them. But if the Empire was threatened or on the verge of breaking apart, then the Fernans would stand forth, become the iron sluice of the Empire, and continue protecting the land of the Violet.

"And after getting this point straight..."

Motan, who had wandered over unnoticed, looked cheerfully at that ’battlefield,’ watching the one-man show of Mercury Core Fernan, and said leisurely with a laugh, "As long as you tell this Mediterranean sea the series of terrible outcomes that would follow Clive Bresin’s death, he naturally wouldn’t ignore the risk of the entire Empire collapsing. Thus, he won’t be able to continue playing the fool."

"And others will receive a misguided signal."

The girl standing behind Motan yawned lazily and said, "’Fernan stands with Shu Bresin,’ even though that isn’t the case. But since Mercury Core has already been dragged into this game, it’s now impossible for him to stay uninvolved. He must be feeling extremely stifled right now~"

"He’s definitely a bit unhappy, but probably not so stifled."

Motan lifted the corner of his mouth and watched the Mediterranean Dwarf, who had already begun to throw out his seventh shield, and said with relish, "Since Shu has already let him know about the short-term consequences of Clive’s death, that baldy can definitely guess who the final victor is. I’ll go and give him a little push later. Even if he still doesn’t know about the Crown Prince’s demise, it doesn’t stop him from making the right choices in the future. As for what others think... Hah, someone who cares about others’ opinions, could they play fool that long?"

"Hey, he’s not really bald, is he...?"

"With that few hairs, it’s pretty much the same."

"Uh, that’s true."

"Right?"

Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty-Six: The End