Hearing Cecilia's words, he showed a smile.
This was exactly the answer he wanted!
It seemed Cecilia was still that upright knight from before.
She hadn't shown him even the slightest favoritism because of this hard-won reunion.
Even knowing his life was short, she hadn't thought of saying even one insincere word to make him happy in his final moments.
He knew very clearly what kind of person he was.
To protect his brothers' families, he had chosen to do everything possible to devise strategies for the [Goblin Emperor's] plan to attack the Imperial Capital.
He had almost wished for the capital to fall early.
He knew very clearly that once the capital was breached, there would inevitably be massive casualties.
But as long as he could protect his brothers' families, he didn't care whether those people in the city were innocent or not, pitiful or not.
In his eyes, strangers' lives weren't lives at all—only the lives of people close to him were lives.
He knew very clearly that by normal people's values, no one would call him a so-called "hero."
So he also knew very clearly that even if he killed the [Goblin Emperor], the Elasians couldn't possibly forgive him.
Looking at Cecilia, he showed a quite happy smile.
Being able to meet her at the end was truly his great fortune.
Throwing the tattered glove from his hand to Cecilia's feet, he said:
"Then, I want to ask you to help your senior with something."
"Senior's final request—you should agree to it, right?"
Looking at Heo, Cecilia answered extremely seriously:
"Of course."
Cecilia knew very clearly what Heo wanted to do.
If Heo were caught by the Elasians, only trial and execution awaited him.
Even if the tribunal spared him, Her Majesty Elashia couldn't possibly spare him.
Through her long interaction with Elashia, Cecilia had gained sufficient understanding of Elashia's character.
Although Her Majesty Elashia was definitely a girl as gentle and kind as a mother who respected life, this absolutely didn't mean she had no edge.
If Elashia were merely gentle and kind, she wouldn't have used [Mind Control], which caused controlled subjects to lose lifespan, to control those inhuman officials during the coup.
If Her Majesty Elashia only respected life, she wouldn't have directly killed the old emperor in the throne room to prevent complications from delay.
Moreover, most importantly, in Her Majesty Elashia's conception, the importance of the concept "humanity" was even greater than the concept "Elasia" itself.
Heo, who had advised goblins, had simply crashed right into Her Majesty Elashia's firing line!
Seeing the grave-faced Cecilia, Heo laughed loudly:
"You know, as a knight, being subjected to trial is simply the greatest humiliation!"
"A true knight should die gloriously in battle!"
"Death in trial is absolutely not the end a 'hero' should have!"
"Therefore, [Guardian Knight] Cecilia, I, [Guardian Knight] Heo, challenge you to a duel!"
Hearing Heo's words, Cecilia sighed deeply.
She naturally couldn't accept Heo's philosophy.
He only cared about people close to him while scorning the lives of strangers.
He stubbornly pursued the so-called "hero" dream, but being able to respond to admirers' desires definitely didn't make one a hero.
However, although this person was bad, he was at least openly bad, clearly bad.
Moreover, Cecilia and he were old comrades who had known each other for so many years after all.
Fulfilling an old comrade's final wish was indeed something she should do.
Looking at the ardent-eyed Heo, Cecilia picked up that tattered glove.
"I, [Guardian Knight] Cecilia, accept your duel request."
"Good!"
Cecilia's words immediately excited Heo!
Blue flames immediately reignited on his body!
Watching Heo with blue flames burning on his body, Cecilia also gripped the long spear from her back.
Facing Heo who had entered the awakened state belonging to [Guardian Knights], Cecilia also knew she absolutely couldn't hold back in this battle.
If she held back, it would be equivalent to insulting her old classmate.
So this battle ended in an instant.
"Swoosh!"
Cecilia's long spear instantly pierced through Heo's heart the moment the battle began.
Looking at his heart bleeding like a fountain, Heo first showed an incredulous expression.
Had Cecilia already become this powerful?
Then he smiled again.
What was surprising about this?
Living in the past world could be fatal.
He had understood this principle clearly these past few days.
"Good... Cecilia, you've improved again..."
"Dying at the hands of such a powerful and upright knight, I have no regrets..."
"Thank you..."
Heo, whose heart had been pierced, fell to the ground.
He looked toward the sky.
The sky before him was so azure, just like the day they graduated from knight academy...
...
"Holy shit!"
Seeing the reward content, Elashia immediately exclaimed!
At first, hearing the system notification, she was only surprised about why the [Goblin Emperor] had died.
But seeing this task's reward, the [Goblin Emperor's] matter was immediately thrown to the back of Elashia's mind!
Five hundred thousand gold coins? Five hundred thousand tons of grain?
Throwing so many gold coins into the empire's market would definitely directly cause malicious hyperinflation, right?
Elashia didn't understand economics, but as someone who had been a modern person before, she still understood inflation!
Previously worried about this problem, Elashia had specifically asked Candice about it.
Only after asking did she learn that in this era, almost every country was in a deflationary state, and the government issuing more money indeed wouldn't cause any adverse consequences.
But this was five hundred thousand gold coins!
In the past, this would have been enough to build five magic academies and create hundreds of magic crossbows!
Previously, the Elasian Empire's annual tax revenue was only about one hundred thousand gold coins!
Throwing so many gold coins into the empire's market would definitely trigger malicious hyperinflation!
Setting aside the money issue, the grain matter was even more overwhelming for Elashia!
You had to know that the central and local granaries of the Elasian Empire combined simply couldn't store this much grain!
This was the weight of "greatly changing humanity's fate"?
Elashia found it somewhat incomprehensible.
Was this [Goblin Emperor] really that important?
Or was Elasia this important?
You had to know, in the game's original plot, current Elasia would have long since fallen!
In the game, Elasia was originally just a tool country used to set off the arrival of the great villain "Elashia"!
What exactly was important, Elashia didn't know.
But now, what was truly important for her was how to use these resources that had become somewhat ridiculously abundant!
Just as Elashia was troubled, the system's voice rang out again.
[To avoid accidents caused by objective reasons, the system will provide the following services]
[Distributed resources will be stored in system space, with the host designating areas for placement, location unlimited]
Oh?
A strange idea immediately appeared in Elashia's mind.
Could she directly smash enemies to death with grain and gold coins during future battles?
However, the system seemed to have heard her thoughts and supplemented:
[Life forms cannot appear around resources, or transmission will be impossible]
Well, it seemed that wouldn't work.
Candice watched the battle situation before her with even stronger shock in her heart.
In previous communications with Imperial Sister, Imperial Sister had said that in the prophecy of the [Forbidden Book], Elasia would suffer extreme damage in this goblin disaster.
There was even a certain possibility of direct national destruction.
However, watching the medics on the battlefield who didn't know what to do and many of whom were even dozing off, Candice knew that the [Forbidden Book's] prophecy had once again been wrong.
Looking at Her Majesty Elashia beside her whose expression seemed somewhat strange, Candice finally understood one thing.
Why Imperial Sister said that Elashia was a "variable."
The tragedies described in the [Forbidden Book], as long as they were related to Elashia, were very likely to be changed!
Seeing Candice staring at her with burning eyes, Elashia, still immersed in thought, asked somewhat strangely:
"Aunt, why are you... staring at me like this?"
Candice said with an extremely serious expression:
"Your Majesty, could you spare some time to meet with Alexandra afterward?"
Imperial Sister's guess was correct—Elashia was the "variable" that could change humanity's destined destruction!
Candice had to make Elashia recognize her own importance through communication with Alexandra!
However, what Candice hadn't expected was that upon hearing her mention her nominal mother, Elashia immediately answered excitedly and loudly:
"Great! Let's do it tonight then!"
She knew how to use that massive amount of resources!