The Long-Awaited History

After the battle concluded, Albert and Aila departed from the academy, each accompanied by Jo and Mitchell respectively.

Albert returned to his manor in the suburbs, while Aila headed back to the Swan Knights (TL Note: A knight order within the Holy Lohiris Empire, known for their distinctive swan emblem and strong combat prowess.) garrison in Saint Mir City.

Fú Nī Yà, however, remained at the academy.

Afternoons were typically reserved for Master Valentin’s one-on-one lessons, so Fú Nī Yà accompanied him back to the mage tower.

Yet, for reasons unknown, she spent the entire afternoon distracted, her mind clearly preoccupied.

Master Valentin frowned, perplexed by her demeanor, but chose not to delve deeper.

After all, probing too much was often ill-advised.

If Fú Nī Yà truly struggled with something, he knew she would seek his help herself.

That evening, upon returning to Albert’s manor, Fú Nī Yà remained as distracted as before.

Martha Idis and the old butler inquired with concern, but Fú Nī Yà simply shook her head, refusing to answer.

In truth, she herself couldn’t fathom why her spirits had been so low since that afternoon.

That night, as Fú Nī Yà drifted into sleep, she found herself caught in a hazy dream.

In her dream, the earth was awash with the beauty of spring, vibrant flowers blooming everywhere, and meticulously planned fields shimmered with countless emerald wheat stalks.

Following a small river, Fú Nī Yà discovered a village nestled along its banks.

A gentle breeze stirred, causing the windmill’s blades to creak rhythmically, while humble thatched cottages lined the paths in neat rows, each chimney sending plumes of cooking smoke into the midday sky.

The joyful cries of children gradually subsided under the calls of their parents—lunchtime had arrived, and everyone was summoned home.

Fú Nī Yà gazed at the scene, which felt less like reality and more like a painting meticulously crafted by a goddess.

Yet, in this world, there were always those who failed to comprehend beauty.

A rumbling of hooves gradually echoed from the ground, heralding a contingent of cavalry, who arrived trailing bloodlust, their faces twisted into savage smiles, instantly staining the beautiful canvas a vivid crimson.

“My lord, Sir Knight, please spare us…”

“Money, I have some here—”

“This is our family’s food, our very lives!”

“Mama…!”

Cries, wails, and pleas for mercy instantly filled the entire village; horses neighed frantically, spurred by the scent of blood, as soldiers plundered valuables, allowing flames to consume the homes unchecked.

In a daze, Fú Nī Yà felt her perspective shift to that of an unfamiliar young child.

A knight burst through the door, a wild, frenzied smile on their face.

From their physique, they appeared to be a woman.

The child cowered in their mother’s embrace, while the mother trembled in a corner.

The father stepped forward, kneeling before the knight and kowtowing repeatedly, attempting to beg for his family’s lives, but in the next instant, he was cleaved in two by a sharp sword-spear.

‘A sword… spear…?’

Realizing something, Fú Nī Yà, controlling the child’s body, lifted her head.

The knight who had slain the child’s father slowly approached her.

The knight’s face was unmistakably Aila’s!

“Aila… Big Sister…?”

In the real world, Fú Nī Yà curled up in bed, whispering weakly.

Within the dream, she uttered the same sound.

Aila, standing before her, met her gaze with cold eyes and mercilessly raised the sword-spear, as if Fú Nī Yà were a stranger.

Fú Nī Yà’s eyes widened in disbelief; suddenly, the Aila before her transformed into Albert, then into Master Valentin, Jo, Mitchell, the old butler, Martha Idis… until finally, everyone coalesced into the figure of a burly s*ave trader.

He held a s*ave-catching rope in his hand, eyeing Fú Nī Yà with malicious intent.

The mother who had held her vanished at some point, leaving the child utterly alone.

The child quickly grew, transforming into a beautiful half-elf maiden clad in coarse linen.

The rope snaked towards the maiden!

“No!!!”

Fú Nī Yà shrieked, bolting awake.

She gasped for breath, her wide-open eyes filled with terror.

‘What was that just now…’

The maiden whispered, the dream’s images replaying endlessly in her mind.

After a long while, Fú Nī Yà, having regained her composure, let out a bitter laugh.

“The previous self’s influence on my psyche is far greater than I imagined… Or perhaps, am I even the same person I was in my past life?”

A person is the sum of all their social relations; having arrived in another world, transformed into a girl, and merged with the soul of a half-elf maiden.

No matter how one looked at it, she could no longer be the boy she was in her past life.

If she still possessed her past life’s personality, how could she possibly act so coquettishly and adorably every day?

These feminine behaviors were merely influences from her previous self.

Furthermore, if her dominant consciousness now wasn’t her own, but that of the love-starved half-elf maiden from her previous self, she would have undoubtedly fallen completely for Albert’s meticulous care by now, wouldn’t she?

“Forget it, what’s the point of thinking so much?” Fú Nī Yà shook her head. “I am Fú Nī Yà, nothing more.”

Just as she finished speaking, Martha Idis’s knock echoed from outside her door.

“Miss Fú Nī Yà, it’s time to wake up.”

“I understand, Martha Idis.”

Fú Nī Yà replied loudly, then looked towards the window.

The sky was already faintly lit with dawn.

Picking up the neatly folded maid uniform beside her, Fú Nī Yà sighed softly.

She now understood why her spirits had been so low yesterday afternoon.

****

After breakfast, upon being escorted to the mage tower by Master Valentin, Fú Nī Yà requested a leave of absence from him.

“Is something the matter?” Master Valentin inquired.

“There are some very important matters I wish to research in the library,” Fú Nī Yà replied.

Observing the resolute glint in the maiden’s eyes, Master Valentin nodded with a sense of relief.

“It is good to have your own thoughts,” he stated. “Previously, you seemed utterly lost, unsure of your path. Such a person, no matter how gifted, can never become a legend.”

“I understand, Master,” Fú Nī Yà affirmed.

She then departed the mage tower and made her way to the academy’s library.

However, this time she sought not magic scrolls, but information on the world’s geography and history.

Her previous self’s mind was a complete blank regarding such knowledge, compelling Fú Nī Yà to search the library herself.

After a thorough search, she located what she sought.

—The History of the Barbarians.

Originally, there were no barbarians in this world.

Approximately twelve hundred years ago, the eastern border of the Holy Lohiris Empire (TL Note: A powerful, religiously-driven empire in this world.) extended to the vicinity of the Blackwater River, and their neighbors were the Orcs.

The Orcs bore a striking resemblance to those described in the fantasy novels of Fú Nī Yà’s past life: robust bodies, deep green skin, and formidable tusks.

Their civilization was relatively primitive, subsisting on gathering and hunting, and they dwelled year-round in the frozen tundras of the continent’s northeast.

The howling cold winds had stripped away any gentleness from their character, leaving only a reverence for strength, belligerence, and a thirst for slaughter.

They frequently advanced westward, invading Lohiris along the Blackwater River, plundering wealth, capturing populations, and enslaving humans.

The offspring resulting from interbreeding between Orcs and human slaves were the barbarians.

Also known as half-orcs, barbarians possessed dark brown skin, the Orcs’ physical prowess, and human intelligence, yet they never reached the peak of either race.

With the passage of time, the barbarian population within Orc society grew increasingly numerous, drawing the attention of the Orc royal court.

One day, a thousand years ago, the Orc royal court finally made a decisive move, raising their butchering blades against the barbarians.

After pleas and surrenders proved futile, the barbarians raised the banner of rebellion, receiving aid from the humans of that era.

Following a century of bloody struggle, the barbarians finally drove the Orcs to the continent’s most remote and frigid territories, seizing the majority of the lands the Orcs once held—the remaining portions were too cold, suitable only for the Orc physique.

Subsequently, the newly liberated barbarians, before they could even catch their breath, were met with a spectacular betrayal from the Holy Lohiris Empire.

Lohiris’s invasion of the barbarians was not a full-scale assault, but a relentless, continuous attrition, a constant bleeding.

The Swan Knights and another Imperial Knights (TL Note: A powerful military order loyal to the Holy Lohiris Empire, distinct from the Swan Knights.) order were established during that period.

Nominally, the Swan Knights answered to the Southern Holy City, while the Imperial Knights answered to the Imperial Emperor.

However, after centuries of development, both knight orders had evolved into semi-autonomous organizations, possessing their own lands, subjects, and officials.

Both knight orders employed a military electoral system to choose their legion commanders.

The Swan Knights, to which Aila belonged, alone had twenty-three such commanders.

These commanders would then elect a Grand Commander, who, in turn, appointed key officials such as the Chief Priest, Inspector General, and Chief of Internal Affairs.

Additionally, the knight orders boasted over a hundred division captains and more than six hundred knights.

To become a knight, a minimum of Fourth-tier strength was required.

Below the knights were over four thousand squires, typically around Second or Third-tier in strength, mostly drawn from the un-inheriting noble younger sons across the empire, serving as the primary source of new knights.

These constituted the ruling class of the Swan Knights.

The order currently governed over two hundred thousand people, all managed under a military system: soldiers in times of war, civilians in times of peace.

Through this system, a single division captain of the Swan Knights could easily mobilize several hundred men to raid barbarian tribes.

After annihilating or driving off a tribe, these hundreds would then settle there with thousands of serfs, establishing roots.

Subsequently, every ten to twenty years, the Imperial Emperor would conduct a “feudatory reduction” (TL Note: ‘削藩’ – A historical Chinese political strategy to weaken powerful vassals by reducing their territories and influence.) on both knight orders, reclaiming half of their lands for direct imperial control, thereby incentivizing them to continuously expand into barbarian territories.

This policy proved highly effective.

Over the centuries since the establishment of the two knight orders, the Empire had collectively seized over 1.6 million square kilometers of land east of the Blackwater River, equivalent to three times the landmass of Fú Nī Yà’s past life France.

Presently, these newly expanded territories comprised three provinces, were granted to countless nobles, and housed over fifty million humans, establishing them as the Holy Lohiris Empire’s undisputed “ancient lands” (TL Note: ‘自古以来’ – A phrase commonly used to assert historical claims to territory, often implying a long-standing and undeniable right.).

As for how many barbarian skeletons lay buried beneath these “ancient lands,” that remained unknown.

“…”

Having read all of this, Fú Nī Yà sat motionlessly for a long time, utterly silent.

‘Humans, Orcs, Elves, barbarians, half-elves… everyone played the role of victim while simultaneously acting as perpetrator.’

‘Who was right? Who was wrong?’

‘And regardless of right or wrong, to whom could the unwilling spirits buried beneath the soil voice their grievances?’

A peculiar light flickered in Fú Nī Yà’s eyes; she resolved to have a serious conversation with Albert about the future.

Some matters, she had simply been too lazy to ponder before.

After all, Albert had often not bothered to conceal much, and while some things might be unimaginable to the people of this world, Fú Nī Yà, having experienced an information explosion in her past life, had heard of even the most outlandish concepts.

Now, it was time for an honest discussion.

She gathered the books she had found, cradling them in her arms, then went to the administrator to obtain a library card before heading outside the academy to hire a carriage back to the manor.

Under the astonished gazes of the manor staff, Fú Nī Yà arrived at Albert’s door, adopting as serious an expression as possible, and knocked.

“Come in.”

Albert’s voice came from within, so Fú Nī Yà opened the door and entered.

Albert sat at his desk, a notebook resting upon it.

Seeing that it was Fú Nī Yà, he asked, puzzled,

“Fú Nī Yà, aren’t you supposed to be studying at the academy?”

“I took a leave of absence,” Fú Nī Yà replied. “There are some things I wish to discuss with you, Albert.”

“What is it? Speak freely.”

Albert smiled, his expression relaxed.

In his estimation, Fú Nī Yà was merely going to ask some strange questions, as she often did.

This time, however, the maiden’s question surpassed his wildest expectations.

“Do you… intend to become the Emperor of the Empire?”

The maiden’s question hung in the air.

“…”

Albert froze instantly, his eyes locked onto Fú Nī Yà’s.

Fú Nī Yà met his gaze without flinching.

For the first time, a chilling tension began to settle between the two of them.