Dragon Raja: History Simulator

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Chapter 43 The Failure of the Powerful

Is that how you see him?

Princess Honoria spoke softly. She hadn't expected her brother to view her teacher, Aquitaine, in this way. After all, Aquitaine's Secret Society was an important force that checked and balanced the Church, and its leader, Aquitaine, was far from being as unruly as Pope Leo I, showing great respect for the royal family.

Without hesitation, the emperor said:

"When my mother was alive, the empire lost North Africa, lost Spain, had poor relations with the barbarians in Gaul, and its relations with the Germanic barbarians of Great Britain and the Atlantic coast became increasingly tense. The Huns in the east were completely unified..."

The emperor recounted his mother Placidia's great achievements one by one. Without a doubt, she was another figure like Wu Zetian. However, compared to this empress, Placidia was incompetent in both foreign and domestic wars, and even lost to the domestic warlord Aetius, causing the imperial power to be swept away once again. This was intolerable.

Looking into his sister's beautiful, dark eyes, the emperor countered, "...Aren't these all Aquitaine's fault?"

Aquitaine was a man of Roman descent born in southern Gaul. In the Roman hierarchy, he was second only to the Gallic and Germanic barbarians who refused to be assimilated. He was granted permission by the emperor to become the leader of the Secret Society, a position more similar to that of a "national advisor" in later times, much like Yao Guangxiao to Zhu Di and Wu Sidao to Yongzheng.

However, he was unable to maintain his rule and the dignity of the emperor domestically, and he was also powerless in foreign affairs. His only achievement was the reconstruction of the city of Rome, which allowed the empire to have a place to rest after the fall of the capital Ravenna.

In fact, this was a futile effort for the entire empire over a period of forty-two years, a waste of national resources without any achievements.

Even if they won this war, Rome's rule would be shaky because they would lack the ability to march north and reclaim lost territory.

The difference between Rome and Italy is enormous.

Of course, most importantly, the emperor knew very well that this mysterious man was only thinking about slaying the dragon and burying the Dragon King completely. As long as Attila the Dragon King could remain on Roman soil, he did not care about the rise and fall of the empire.

This is even worse than the Church, which at least for now is firmly tied to the Empire.

Princess Honoria smiled and said ambiguously, "Brother, I think you really can be a good emperor."

The emperor nodded, while the dragon girl behind him turned her head away nonchalantly. What skills did the emperor need? As long as he killed enough people, that was enough.

Princess Honoria ignored their subtle actions and asked again, "So, brother, are you planning to capture the teacher and imprison him like you imprisoned me?"

The princess's tone was somewhat subtle; she wasn't as angry as the emperor had initially expected.

In fact, this is quite normal. According to Aquitaine's prophecy, Ravenna should have fallen during Attila's first westward expedition in 451, and the Hunnic army would have marched straight to the gates of Rome.

However, the unexpected victory of the Battle of the Salon led by Aetius surprised everyone, extending Rome's reign by twenty years. But those ambitious men in Rome who wanted to plot against Attila were utterly disappointed.

This shattered everyone's expectations.

Princess Honoria was one of those in the know, and she understood that her teacher's plan had in fact already failed halfway.

As originally planned, she sent Attila a marriage proposal letter in 450. In 451, Attila launched his westward campaign and invaded Rome, stopping at the gates of the city. This was exactly 42 years later, the age of the new Rome was exactly the same as the lifespan of Attila in this incarnation.

In the ancient past, during the reign of Nidhogg, the place where Rome now stands was a towering tower inhabited by the King of Earth and Mountains, who looked down upon his empty land.

At that time, in the territory of the King of Earth and Mountains, there were few other dragons. The vast land was inhabited by "them alone," and there were no other dragons or "gods" associated with them.

Nidhogg, the Black King, has two palaces in the world. One is on the Tibetan Plateau, where the weight of the roof of the world, like the Black King's throne, subdues the unruly dragons' ambition and fiery dragon blood.

Firstly, under the influence of the cold currents blowing from the Arctic Circle, the four monarchs gradually decreased in number. At that time, the city of Rome was called Helheim, the name of the underworld, because it was the farthest from the throne of the Black King in Europe.

The further north you go, the more dragons there are. The Bronze and Fire King has the most dragons, followed by the Sky and Wind, then the Ocean and Water. As for the Earth and Mountains, they don't have many dragons that have pledged allegiance to them.

Therefore, once the city of Rome, this fortress of war, was fully completed, its purpose would only be to become the king of the earth and mountains.

The reason for choosing 42 years later is that "6" in Kabbalah symbolizes creation, and "7" represents a sacred cycle. The combination of the two represents a unified field of matter and spirit, tangible and intangible. The number "42" symbolizes the 32 paths and 10 source substances of the tree of life, which together constitute the 42 channels, signifying the complete path for consciousness to ascend from the material world to the divine world.

The most famous line in The Jade Record is: "Ascend from the earth to the heavens, and descend from the heavens, and gain the power above and below. In this way, one can obtain the glory of the world and be far from darkness and ignorance."

It is precisely this reverse interpretation of the above content that brings down the lofty "dragon" or "god" from its pedestal and buries the Dragon King completely in his former fiefdom.

Of course, this content was naturally obscure and incomprehensible to Wang Anzhi, a liberal arts student, and Xia Mi, a mediocre student among the dragons. It was just like Jormungandr, who had clearly seen the entire core of the Alchemy Matrix, but knew nothing about it except for feeling a deadly threat within it.

This is not surprising. Times have changed. In this era, Rome is the dawn of civilization, while the north is inhabited by barbarians. In the ancient times when dragons lived, Jormungandr was considered a "barbarian" among the dragons, so much so that few dragons were willing to serve her.

As for the East, that was the territory of the Elder Council, and there was a deep separation between it and the "throne" of the entire West. The main battlefield of the White Emperor's rebellion was there.

Therefore, when news of the victory at the Battle of the Chalons arrived, it terrified countless Roman subjects. They were well aware of Rome's weakness—which was their doing—and were intimidated by Aetius's defeat of the Dragon King, and even more horrified by the failure of this 42-year-long plan.

They had prepared their tickets for the new era, only to discover that their dream Titanic had sunk.

The inner transformation he underwent remains unknown to others.

What they care more about is whether they can still defeat the Dragon King and inherit his legacy without the occult connection.

Chapter 44 The storm is coming

Looking at Princess Honoria, who was filled with mixed emotions, the Emperor said bluntly, "I will not imprison him. Imprisoning him is pointless. I only want to know what he knows that I do not know. This is an unknown that I cannot tolerate."

Princess Honoria smiled and then said, "It's a pity, my dear brother. I don't know where my teacher Aquitaine is now."

In the princess's memory, the last time she met Aquitaine was a year after she sent her marriage proposal letter to Attila.

That time also happened to be the time of victory in the Battle of Shalon.

Her teacher, Aquitaine, held the letter of triumph, his face filled with disbelief, repeatedly muttering, "Impossible, impossible."

This usually calm and composed old man lost his usual composure and became flustered like a child.

At that moment, Princess Honoria couldn't help but ask, "Teacher, we've won, isn't that good? Wasn't sending the marriage proposal to Attila for the sake of victory?"

Aquitaine's face was full of bitterness. He said, "We should have won, but not in Chalons, but in Rome. We should have failed there, but succeeded here. I don't know if this victory will ultimately lead to our defeat, nor do I know what its ultimate outcome will be..."

Aquitaine kept muttering to himself. This Roman from Gaul had lost all his aristocratic air. His eyes were fixed on the news of victory, and he kept repeating "Impossible."

Princess Honoria looked at her teacher without feeling the slightest surprise.

She knew that her teacher's words of wisdom were "prophetic," a kind of extremely mysterious power that was said to be able to foresee the future.

Princess Honoria, however, never believed in such things, so in her view, the fact that her teacher's prophecy had been broken was not a big deal.

However, what truly surprised her was that her teacher would panic over such a small "accident"—an accident called "victory."

This caused Aquitaine's image as an omniscient figure in the princess's mind to crumble.

Of course, even so, the princess was still willing to support him.

But Princess Honoria understood all too well the wide ripples that the failure of this prophecy had stirred within the Secret Society.

Aquitaine was not of noble birth; he was merely a commoner with barbarian blood. He rose to prominence in the Camarilla thanks to the Emperor's trust and further solidified his position within the Camarilla through his prophetic abilities.

Now that his prediction has failed and 42 years of hard work have gone down the drain, everyone has begun to doubt him.

And so Aquitaine disappeared without a trace.

Perhaps he was aware of his situation and understood that he could no longer control the behemoth that was the Camarilla with just a nominal leadership position, so he disappeared cleanly and went into hiding.

Princess Honoria never saw her teacher again after that, and her teacher Aquitain never contacted her again.

After listening to Princess Honoria's account, the emperor said with certainty, "Aquitaine must be in Rome."

The princess smiled, looked at her overly confident brother, and asked, "Why?"

The emperor said, "Aquitaine devoted his entire life to building this city of Rome, spending more than two-thirds of his life on it. He cannot leave at the last moment; even in death, he will be buried in this city of Rome, to which he poured his heart and soul."

In the end, even the emperor couldn't help but feel a little melancholy, and made a final judgment on this current leader of the secret society, a hero on the path to slaying the dragon:

"Perhaps in his eyes, this city of Rome was his final resting place."

At this moment, Jormungandr, dressed in a nun's habit, spoke up. Her voice was heavy, with a low tone and timbre.

"The only question is, how could Aquitaine be able to foresee a dragon king? He was just a human. How could a mere mortal be qualified to glimpse the true face of a god or a demon?"

In this era, primitive beliefs are prevalent.

Even though Rome established Christianity as the state religion, some small sects still existed in the surrounding wilderness, each worshipping their own god.

Most of these so-called gods are actually dragons in disguise.

In this era, dragons were essentially equivalent to gods or demons.

Of course, in the Christian system, dragons were stripped of their divine status and given the new title of angels.

But this still cannot deny that they are creatures completely different from humans, a new life form that connects humans and gods.

Pure-blooded dragons have always been a life level that humans and hybrids have found difficult to completely surpass.

Within the strict system of the dragon race, fourth-generation and fifth-generation dragons cannot be considered true dragons; their status is similar to that of slaves in a slave society.

As for the third generation, they are like the knightly class in the ancient West. Compared to their inferior counterparts, the third generation at least possesses their own "dragon rights" within the dragon race.

Second-generation descendants are usually vassals directly under the four monarchs or the council of elders.

Of course, some of them remained independent, but most were directly subordinate to the Black King Nidhogg, and were subjects who swore allegiance to him.

As for the first generation, strictly speaking, only the four monarchs belong to the complete first generation.

The members of the Elder Council and the White King are remnants of the old era and cannot be considered as a complete first-generation species.

However, they cannot be simply classified as a secondary species; their status is more similar to that of medieval electors, a position of great detachment.

Jormungandr didn't take those minor characters like the fourth and fifth generation races, whose past had been forgotten over time, seriously at all.

For ordinary third-generation races, these dragons are not worthy of being called the same race as her, let alone her, the great monarch.

Such a tight and strict order is in no way inferior to India's caste system, which is known as the third largest in the universe.

Theoretically speaking, even a second-generation species could never possibly foresee the Dragon King's fate, yet here, a mere hybrid has done so. Such an anomaly must be suspicious, and this undoubtedly deepened the gloom in Jormungandr's heart.

She looked at the emperor and saw that he showed no sign of tension, as if he were simply having a casual chat with his sister.

This situation made her somewhat embarrassed and angry.

This is his country, his city, and he shows absolutely no concern about it.

At that moment, another loud bang came from the city gate, and everyone present felt a chill run down their spines, and couldn't help but look towards the city gate to the north.

"Is that Attila's call?" Princess Honoria seemed to see the figure of her childhood playmate.

“Brother.” Jormungandr didn’t say anything, but just murmured it to herself. The closer she was to Rome, the more she could sense the conspiracies and intrigues there were. She even had a glimmer of hope that her brother Fenrir would withdraw his troops and leave this city full of danger and conspiracy.

The emperor paid no attention to the two girls' inner thoughts, but instead recalled the major events of this time in the past, and then said in a low voice:

"It's time to negotiate peace."

Chapter 45 The Senate

As night fell and dawn broke, the depths of the Roman palace were as silent as if they had sunk into a frigid ice cave.

Emperor Valentine III slowly opened his eyes and looked out the window; the sky was gray.

The bone-chilling coldness brought by the Dragon King's world-destroying words yesterday has not completely dissipated and still seeps into the marrow.