Chapter 299: Options

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"King, it is about time," a voice spoke out.

"Haven’t those annoying people gone yet?" Yolanthe closed the file on his desk as he massaged his eyebrows. He looked a little tired.

"You have not made a decision yet. How could they dare to leave?" A grey shadow showed behind Yolanthe. He gently put a fox fur cape on Yolanthe. "King, winter is coming. Please take care of your body."

"It is indeed a "winter" for me. I have to admit I am getting old." Yolanthe got up from his throne and smiled.

"King, if you do not want to be bothered, you do not have to care about those people." The grey shadow had previously sounded humble, but suddenly sounded cold. The temperature dropped as winter had approached. "As long as I have a breath left, no one can force our king to do anything."

"I remember when I first heard you say it. I was still young. How many years ago was that? Is it about thirty years ago?" Yolanthe squinted, looking like he was trying to recall his old days. "You have been with me for the past thirty years, like a loyal shadow. You even forget who you are to me. To be honest, my old friend, I owed you so much."

Bells rang in the distance. The grey shadow moved his body sideways to listen. "King, it’s time now. Have you made your decision yet?" The shadow did not look comfortable showing his emotions. He changed the topic to cover his uneasiness.

"They will wait for me," Yolanthe said with a smile. "Patience and ambition are equally important. If they did not have this much patience, they would not have the right to sit there." Yolanthe tapped the floor with his scepter a few times. He looked playful, sentimental and thoughtful, but lacking respect. Scepter and throne represented the highest power, which did not allow anyone to blaspheme. If the government officials were here, they would have been startled and thought there was something wrong with Yolanthe’s head.

"King, you…" the shadow said.

"Don’t worry. I just vented a little bit." Yolanthe raised his scepter and smiled. He carefully looked at the scepter to make sure it was still all right. He looked like an angry kid who was worried he had broken his toys after throwing a fit. "My old friend, do you know back then I had to be the king only because I wanted to achieve my dream?"

"King, I think no one knows you better than me," the grey shadow said quietly.

"Young men are always too optimistic. I did not understand that dream has always been dreams to this day," Yolanthe said with a bitter smile on his face.

"King, I remember you had a philosophical saying," the grey shadow said.

"Oh, what is it? I have said many philosophical things. I do not remember which one you are talking about," Yolanthe said, smiling. "Sometimes even when I coughed, or laid my eyes on someone, it would make people wonder. If they could not figure it out in the palace, they would not be able to fall asleep when they went back home."

The grey shadow did not know whether he should cry or laugh. The time for regret over getting old was gone. "King, you have said as long as you tried, you would not have regrets. You also said we need learn to enjoy it as we worked towards the dream. Since you took over the throne, you have been trying to make our empire stronger and to reform it to get rid of rotten traditions. You…"

"Those are lies," Yolanthe interrupted the grey shadow with a smile. "Losers always think about ways to make excuses for themselves. So did I. Enjoying the work? Haha. A farmer worked hard in the sun and cold because he wanted the harvest. A blacksmith sweated so much in front of the iron smelter because he wanted to produce something. For me, I wanted a brand new and powerful Maho empire. If you had told them early on that what they had tried would not have gotten them anywhere, do you think they would have tried?"

"Well…" The grey shadow did not know how to answer Yolanthe.

"Don’t believe those bards. No matter how deep philosophies are, they are not as practical as having a handful of grain in your hands. Sometimes, do not even believe my words, I know better how to lie to others than those bards." Yolanthe tidied his gown and fell into thought.

The grey shadow heaved a sigh. He closed his mouth. He had been waiting for a long time, but Yolanthe did not move at all. There was another sound of bells from outside. The grey shadow could not wait any longer. He tried to ask again, "King, have you made a decision yet? How about we go to Christian’s place today? Today is his birthday."

"No. He has made his decision. We are not going to trouble him. We need to respect his decision," Yolanthe said.

"Do you mean to go to Granden’s place?" the grey shadow asked.

"He’s smart, brave, and strong-willed. Of my children, he looks like me the most," Yolanthe said.

"I am confused. Are you giving compliments to Granden or yourself?" The grey shadow smiled.

"I am just recalling that time." Yolanthe sighed. "I like him a lot, but I worry about him the most as well, because he has never experienced any bad failures. I picture him as a bird singing in a spring breeze. He only knew the warmth of the spring, but never experienced the annoying summer, depressing fall, or brutal winter. It is my fault. I never let him experience any difficulty."

"Granden loves you so much. When the news that you died arrived on the battlefield, didn’t Saul said Granden passed out when he heard you passed away? He even passed out a few times from crying. Compared with Granden, Wester did not seem to care too much. He was busy socializing with other government officials," the grey shadow said.

"As a supervisor for the North Line unit, did he try to attack his opponents with his tears?" Yolanthe said, shaking his head.

"It’s still better than Wester," that grey shadow said. In fact, he should not have given his opinions on these kinds of issues, but he really disliked Wester. Wester had brought that water series senior magister who had tried to assassinate Yolanthe. Luckily, he noticed there was something odd about that Brufit. What would have happened if he had not noticed? He did a thorough investigation and proved Wester was not part of the assassination plot. However, he still held a grudge towards him. He did not want to see Wester have any advantage in this game.

"Never mind. We should not talk about it anymore," Yolanthe said with a smile. "We’d better go to Wester’s place. Philip is going as well. He recently has been very close to Wester. You know he was not very happy with me. Today should be a good time to talk it over."

"That old man is getting weirder." The grey shadow did not sound too nice when talking about Philip. "He likes to blame others when things happen. Why didn’t he realize the reason Zeda became a spoiled wealthy kid was because he spoiled him too much. Zeda was smart and cute when he was little."

"There is nothing wrong with spoiling his own kid. Saul spoils Niya as well, just not as blindly as Philip." Yolanthe sighed. "I still remember the time when Niya ran to the palace at night, yelling for help."

"I remember that time too," the grey shadow recalled with a smile.

"No matter what, Philip has contributed so much to the empire. I prefer to focus more on what he has done for the empire. Philip is getting old. I had a good start with Philip. As long as he is doing so much, I will protect him and give him a good ending," Yolanthe said slowly.

"King, you should not let him know what you are thinking on this issue," the grey shadow said, looking serious. "No one knows what Philip could do."

"He does not dare," Yolanthe said casually. Yolanthe had always been a self-critic. He was honest with himself as well. For example, he knew he was neither as good as Baery on the battlefield, nor as knowledgeable as his two prime ministers. However, he was good at appointing people to the right positions. It was not bragging. From the day he succeed to the throne, Yolanthe rarely appointed the wrong people. He thought he had total control of Philip as well. However, Yolanthe was wrong this time. A person who knew he was going to die soon could hold hatred that he could not let go of. His behavior could become very crazy. Because of Yolanthe’s history with Philip, he tried to give him a good ending. However, the nice gestures he gave to Philip to try to rebuild their relationship were interpreted as support for what he was doing.

That grey shadow was silent. He was a top power, but quite different than Saul and Philip. Yolanthe had saved his life, held the funeral for his parents, and killed his enemies. The grey shadow had thought himself to be Yolanthe’s most loyal servant since that day. He trained himself extremely hard for the sole purpose of better protecting his master. He was not afraid to hurt others for Yolanthe, including Yolanthe’s sons.

He had organized a group of terrifying spies for Yolanthe for the past few decades. He learned not to show his feelings, even doing what he believed was the right thing to do behind Yolanthe’s back. He had recently contacted Philip’s favorite student Shawn and reached an agreement. In fact, if Yolanthe could meet Shawn, they could agree on more than what the grey shadow and Shawn had agreed upon. Shawn could have shown his loyalty to Yolanthe. However, he did not dare to tell Yolanthe, because Yolanthe had attachment to people and would not allow him to set Philip up.

Yolanthe slowly walked to the palace gate, but he suddenly stopped. He turned around and smiled. "Guess what I just thought of."

"King, you are giving me a hard time. Very few people could guess what you are thinking," the grey shadow said.

"To you guys, I am picking a person to succeed my throne. To me, it seems like I am looking for someone who is better than the young version of me," Yolanthe said.

"King, you are…" The grey shadow looked like he did not know whether he should laugh or cry.

"In fact, everybody is a loser from the perspective of time." Yolanthe pushed the door open as he shook his head. Outside was a group of very quiet government officials.

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