Outwardly appearing respectful before the crown prince, those three rebel soldiers were actually covertly preparing magic. Suddenly they attacked the crown prince all at once. Their real identities were all Western spies. When the cat is away the mice will play — taking advantage of the king being away at war, they wanted to execute the crown prince and reap great rewards from the Western Country.
And their sneak attack succeeded. Even though Dietrich was a genius, he was still just a four-year-old boy. In reality he could not withstand such powerful magic.
Seeing this, the empress was extremely anxious. She immediately rushed over to shield her young son from the magic, using her own body. Dietrich loved his mother so much that he burst into tears. He could only scream for the empress to get away — someone with no magic like her would surely die.
At the moment the empress fell, protecting her child, a familiar angry voice shouted at the three rebels, calling them scumbags. The blue dragon appearing was the king's magic taking form. The king of the Southern Country had finally returned, which meant those traitor spies would have to pay a heavy price.
The emperor helped his wife up, speaking gently and affectionately. "How foolish. Weak, yet still liking to show off."
Hearing these fierce words from his father, Dietrich felt this was the love-each-other-deeply, hurt-each-other-bitterly of legend, while Anissa was unhappy, silently cursing the dog king as a scumbag. Seeing his wife's courage, and yet not knowing to praise her. What was with that contemptuous attitude?
Yet the empress, on the contrary, seeing the king alive, was extremely moved. She leaned into the emperor's arms, smiling happily. Poor Anissa panicked at nearly becoming a sandwich.
That traitor still would not shut up, insisting that this time the king meeting disaster was surely due to those two women's faults. He stubbornly asked for him to execute them to maintain the country's peace.
Seeing this rotten bunch of men who could not fight battles themselves yet blamed women, Anissa was extremely resentful. She and her mother had never borne this crime.
The king laughed drily upon hearing this. He embraced his wife and daughter. His women, his daughter — what right did scum like them have to judge?
His magic dispersed, and the scumbags began to panic, shakily asking what the king was trying to do. Not until the magic tightened around their necks did they perhaps have their own answer. They shrieked like pigs being slaughtered, up until near death still defending themselves as doing it for the Southern Country's sake.
The intelligent little princess saw through the truth in a second. Killing the princess and empress was for the Southern Country's good? They were likely spies for another country.
The king just smiled coldly, his iron fist closing tighter. The scumbags were squeezed tighter still, until slimy blue fluids oozed out, dirtying the floor.
Only now did everyone shudder, because that was dark evil. Only those who walked the path of evil could obtain this magic.
While all were still shocked, the king spoke up, confirming everyone's guesses were right. This time, on the expedition against the Western Country, before their troops had even marched out, the enemy already knew their military plans. It was because of these scumbags that the Southern Country had suffered a great defeat, with heavy casualties — thirty thousand brave soldiers killed.
Before everyone present there, the emperor walked toward his son and unexpectedly knelt down.
"Dietrich, my son. Father has wronged you."
As soon as he finished speaking, a beam of magical light appeared before everyone. Two fully armored figures emerged from it, saying it was time to take Prince Dietrich with them somewhere. The emperor also immediately encouraged his son to follow them, telling him to go and diligently study their techniques, and not to fail his father's hopes.
Dietrich now understood: this was why his father had apologized. He obediently and understandingly agreed, though he was extremely reluctant inside. His small feet stepped closer, gradually entering the magnificent magical light. Before leaving he briefly bid farewell to his father, his mother, and Anissa.
Finally Dietrich disappeared.
Seeing her father smirking afterwards, Anissa felt extremely unhappy, cursing him silently as a bastard. The country had lost over thirty thousand men in the great defeat, yet he had even sold his own son, and not only was he not sad, he looked so happy.
Then she tried hard to think seriously, suspecting that perhaps this defeat was intentional on his part. But for what reason?
The emperor stood before the throne, reassuring everyone not to worry. He said that this time, the prince leaving would herald ten years of peace.
Hearing the number ten years, the empress could not help being moved, feeling sorry for her poor son, while Anissa contemptuously spat. Judging by his hateful face, she was certain he had intentionally lost the battle for some secret reason.
At this time his rotten hand reached toward her. The emperor lifted his daughter by the neck, saying it was time to test her intelligence.
The empress, sitting above, now felt extremely uneasy. A mother's mood right after being separated from her son, now having to witness a test directly related to her daughter's fate, is truly agonizing.
The group of officials below also started gossiping that in so many years, this was the first time seeing one so young having to take an intelligence test. They did not even know if the princess could understand the test questions.
The dog emperor now coldly told his daughter that the Southern Country already had enough princesses. If she was not a genius, then she need not live any longer.
Anissa was extremely angry, continuously using her childish, unskilled voice to curse her wolf of a father, kicking him in the face. After struggling for a while she got so angry that she tiredly flopped down. She felt this emperor really had gone crazy. If every parent demanded their child be a genius or else kill the baby, then wouldn't mankind be doomed?
The emperor was extremely angry, flinging the child onto a nearby cushion. He knew his daughter had started cursing her father. It looked like this brat was pretty confident. He then smiled and started the test.
Dr. Bowen, seventy-five years old that year, an archaeology professor, would be the one administering this test. This intelligence test had a total of three questions. They would go through them one by one. If the princess could not answer any one correctly, she would be drowned on the spot. But if the princess could answer all three, proving herself the Southern Country's genius, the king would reward her.
Then he smiled and told Anissa that later, when the question was revealed, she could wave her hand, and when she thought of the answer, just clap her hands that many times. He even stroked the child's head, saying it would be even better if she could speak the answer directly.
The doctor's hand performed magic. This was the first question.
White doves immediately flew around the doctor. He told the princess to look: there were a total of seven birds here. Suddenly, four died. As soon as he finished speaking, four small bird corpses dropped down before the princess, vividly illustrating it.
The question was: how many birds were in the sky?
Old Minister Shu, upon hearing this math question, stroked his beard, unsatisfied, because this was seventh-grade math. The princess might not be more intelligent than others — how could she answer such a difficult question?
Anissa felt very confused. Wasn't this just seven minus four equals what? What was so hard about this?
Then she let out a shout and held up three fingers. She wondered — though she could not speak clearly, this hand gesture should make it clear to them, right? Moreover, such a simple question. Could this really be seventh-grade math? Were people's math skills in this world really that bad?
Dr. Bowen's face bloomed like a flower, congratulating Anissa for answering correctly.