The King of Black Fog

Things were more troublesome than he had imagined.

Li Changzhou originally thought that arriving early with the Invisibility Lantern, coupled with the High-Level Power Armor he had acquired by chance, would be enough to treat the royal palace like his own home.

If he wanted to show off, he could even offer some youthful care and warmth to Margaret III while she was bathing and needed someone to scrub her back.

But the moment he stepped into the main palace complex, a guard beside him received a notification.

"G2, there's a response from Power Armor on your side."

The guard quickly looked around, "No target found! Requesting backup!"

"Backup team is on the way, don't cause a disturbance!"

"Understood!"

Li Changzhou heard the sound of numerous Power Armors approaching, and he retreated.

It seemed that the Royal Family had kept a trick up their sleeve against the pilots of the Imperial Mecha; the High-Level Power Armor he wore could still be detected by some means.

Or perhaps Wen Carol knew as well. Not mentioning it might have been because she never thought he would dare to break into the Royal Palace.

Should he rush out now, or wait for Margaret III to finish her bath and come out herself?

Li Changzhou looked at the soldier beside him, pretending to be calm, and the patrol that pretended to stroll past, and couldn't help but fall into thought.

Forget it.

He turned and left.

To the people coming and going, he was invisible, carrying the Invisibility Lantern, like a ghost in the Royal Palace.

Instead of leaving directly, Li Changzhou entered and exited the palaces he could access, hoping to gather some useful information.

"The new Imperial Mecha will be displayed in the Imperial Square tomorrow. The Empire will have five Mecha this time!"

"Heard that Baron Aznavour participated in the selection again. Maybe he'll become the new pilot of the Imperial Mecha!"

"Impossible, how could the Empress let two closely related individuals become pilots of the Imperial Mecha at the same time."

"Maybe not even Di'en himself."

"By the way, did you see Di'en's fiancée at the dinner tonight?"

"Saw her, saw her, I didn't understand why His Highness would marry a princess of a fallen country, but she's so pretty! Her blonde hair is almost as good as the Empress's!"

"His Highness isn't marrying her for her looks, it's to appease the ministers and people of the Lestein Duchy; after all, the princess's children might have a chance to inherit the Empire!"

This was the conversation among the maids.

"That mother and daughter are so beautiful! Just looking at the Queen's waist and the curve of her hips, I can't take it! Especially when she wears black mourning clothes on purpose, I really want to ravage her!" one man excitedly rubbed his hands.

"That fallen princess too," another licked his lips, "that noble demeanor, and that blonde hair, I really want to dirty it!"

"Shut up! You dare to talk nonsense about such things as hair!"

There was a brief silence.

"Those mother and daughter will eventually belong to Di'en, right? I wonder how they'll address each other after having a child."

A lewd laugh followed.

"Maybe they'll give it to some Imperial Mecha pilot or a high-ranking minister, damn, I really want a taste."

"Princess lives in Rank Hall, we can't get in, but you can go to Harvest Hall; that's where the Queen lives."

"Are you trying to get me killed?!"

"How to get to Harvest Hall?"

"You really want to go? Eh?"

An eerie wind blew through as a figure clothed in a black cloak, wielding a huge White Bone Scythe, appeared indoors.

Under the light, this floating, aberrant Mecha without a shadow was not actually a Mecha.

One person opened their mouth to scream, another reached to press the alarm.

A flash of white light, and both men fell to the ground, their eyes wide open, pupils swallowed by the whites, giving them a bizarre appearance.

The white skeleton, with blue flames burning in its eye sockets, turned to the three remaining men.

"Draw me a map to Harvest Hall. Whoever draws something different will face the same fate as these two, understand?"

"Under, understood."

True to being servants attending to the Royal Family, the more frightened they were, the quieter they got. They didn't break down screaming in a panic, instead cooperatively complied.

Li Changzhou stood beside the three, watching as they completed the maps. After confirming no one was lying, he knocked each on the back of the head, rendering them unconscious.

After some thought, he decided to kill all three using the Death God.

Whether he left them alive or killed them, it would expose that someone had broken into the Imperial Palace tonight. But if they lived, it would reveal his intent to go to Harvest Hall.

Visiting a widow in the middle of the night was always untoward—it shouldn't become public knowledge. Hmm.

The lights in Harvest Hall had been extinguished. Queen Alicia lay on her bed, eyes open, her tears warm on her face, drying and then moistening again.

After quite some time, she would occasionally, as if remembering, wipe them away with her hand.

"Queen."

Alicia started, sitting up with a blanket clutched to her chest, on instinct about to scream, but she restrained her primal impulse at the sight of the man's posture before her.

A figure in Power Armor knelt on one knee beside the bed.

From that morning, no one would salute her again, unless—

The Power Armor's helmet opened, and by the clear radiance of the triple moons, she could see his black hair, and beneath it, the delicate and handsome face.

"Wis? Is it you?!" Alicia whispered quietly.

"It's me, Queen."

"How are you here? I heard you were being held at the Rite Royal Hotel?"

"I escaped." Li Changzhou lifted his head. "Queen, do we still have a chance? Even at the cost of sacrifice, a chance to make the Empire pay?"

In the pitch-dark bedroom, all was silent.

Alicia's intense heartbeat, even an ordinary person could hear it clear as a bell.