- A great spell.

There are only six treasures left in this world, and they are far more powerful and great than the curses of the gods, as their name itself is.

Just knowing its name is equivalent to being part of the ritual.

At present, the distribution of great-level spells is one each for Noah, Winter, and Denisoah, and two for the Sect. There is still a ...... sunk at the bottom of the maelstrom It is said that the wise men of the underworld are also trying to salvage it.

It can even be said that the current countries are all relying on great-level spells to rebuild after the disaster. If they hadn't mastered the Great Spell, there wouldn't have been a god who would have chosen to rebuild the barrier around them.

- It is precisely because of the great level of spells that cannot be lost. The theocracy and the nascent kingship reached a certain degree of compromise.

And this great-level spell held by Winter......

Is it this three-color scepter that has always been used as a crutch by Ivan?

At first, he thought it was proof of the power of the Duchy of Winter...... He didn't expect it to be true, but it was a little different from what he thought.

Annan couldn't help but take a closer look at the scepter.

It is made of silver, black, and dark blue, and is intertwined like a hard vine. At the bottom, the three colors untie each other and protrude in three directions, forming a non-slip bracket-like shape.

At the top of the motif, it forms a handrail-like structure made up of silver rings set with each other, a black cross, and a large eight-edged dark blue diamond in the center of the entire pattern.

Normally, when Ivan wanted to stand up, he would reach into the middle of the ring and hold the part of the cross on it. And when he is standing, he puts his hands on the ring, as if he were holding a steering wheel.

This would allow Ivan to stand firmly.

Rather, it is precisely because its function as a "crutch" is too perfect that Annan did not doubt whether it had other uses......

“…… But it's too dangerous, isn't it? ”

Annan still couldn't help but say, "I remember that other Winter Hands have touched it. What if the news leaks and the Tricolor Scepter is stolen? ”

"It is precisely because no one can trust that it is necessary to hold it in your hands; It is precisely because it is not safe to hide anywhere that it should be left out in the sun. ”

Ivan said slowly, and glanced at Annan deeply: "It is precisely because neither the Grand Duke nor the Scepter can afford to be lost that it is necessary to use it as a sign of the Grand Duke's power - so there is no need to consider the consequences of the accidental loss of one of them." ”

It is significantly different from other countries.

The cold winter side is to highlight a "few people".

Noah had more than 200 attendees at a dinner party in the royal palace alone; Denisoa and the United Kingdom of the Field Islands are even more - counting the royal family members who live in the palace for a long time, there are more than 300 people including harems, servants and eunuchs.

And look back at the Duchy of Winter.

In the current Winter Grand Duke's Mansion, there are only a few people in total. Ivan no longer has a wife, and he has no elders - the only child at home is Annan.

In addition to the two of them, there were four people in total. All of them are the leaders of the Winter Hand...... There were only six chiefs, two of whom were not at home.

Yes.

In the Duchy of Winter, there are no slaves to serve the Grand Duke. That's why a separate department will be pulled from the hand of winter to deal with the internal affairs of the Grand Duke.

On the one hand, this is because the Duchy of Winter lacks everything - you know, one of the duties of the Winter Hand is to keep an eye on the local nobles so that they don't waste too much; And in order to achieve this goal logically, the Grand Duke must also lead by example.

On the other hand, it is also responsible for the safety of their lives. If attacked, the Winter Hand may be able to protect the Grand Duke, but ask them to protect their servants...... That's impossible.

Despite the watchful eye of the Hand of Winter, and the survival of Winter's Blood to suppress the Frostbeasts, the Duchy of Winter should theoretically be the most firmly ruled. But in fact, Grand Duke Winter and his direct descendants are the most attacked among the leaders of the countries...... Not one of them.

This wonderful phenomenon has also attracted the attention of scholars in other countries.

According to the findings of one sociologist, this should be related to the mechanism of the "winter year".

Because in the winter, the people of winter must rely on the protection of the small barrier to avoid being frozen to death by the cold wind...... As a result, the Winter people mainly relied on the city-state to live. As the connection between the cities becomes looser, the reverence of ordinary people for the blood of winter and the laws of the principality will drop dramatically.

In its place, there was the direct control of the local aristocracy and a variety of local laws. The Grand Duke's own ability to supervise and control the local aristocracy would also be effectively weakened.

But ordinary people don't care about this - the dissatisfaction with the extravagant, wasteful, and reckless local aristocracy will still radiate directly to the Grand Duke in the end. This has to do with the fact that the local aristocracy consciously drew people's attention and hatred to the "Winter Hand", who was actually responsible for supervising them.

The merits of Grand Duke Ivan are undeniable. But the aristocrats had other tricks.

One theory is that the Hand of Winter controlled the Grand Duke's access to information, much like the Denisoa kingdom ruled by eunuchs - but this is a claim that only a somewhat literate person can understand.

Another, more common version is to blame the fact that Grand Duke Ivan is not in good health.

Why do you pay so much tax, because you have to use a lot of resources to hang your life for the Grand Duke; Why did the Hand of Winter or the nobles act recklessly, because the Grand Duke was not in good health, so he could not leave the Frost Province.

As a result, the Grand Duke of Winter is often attacked by people of various types.

Of course, there are very few "Avengers" who are completely brainless.

Most of the attackers knew that Ivan must have the Winter Hand by his side.

They all hoped to achieve their own goals by kidnapping the Grand Duke's heirs, wives, or other relatives.

either to demand the release of an important political prisoner (usually a spy from another country, or linked to the icebreaker); There are also some whimsical people who demand that the Grand Duke pass one or several laws; Others, in the hope that the Grand Duke would punish certain local nobles. Of course, their kidnapping is almost impossible to succeed.

But there are some of the more clever ones who will directly assassinate the Grand Duke in the name of some local nobles. I hope that after the Grand Duke can find out, he will retaliate against a certain nobleman.

This is also the reason why it is clear that the Northland Alliance assassinated Annan, but Annan still has to investigate carefully.

Neither Annan nor Ivan wanted to be used as a gunman - they had to find out before they could do it. Because in the history of winter, there have indeed been such incidents of blaming political opponents.

In addition, it is necessary to prevent the possibility of being poisoned by spies from other countries in the diet, or the possibility of servants being bribed, eavesdropping, and stealing important documents. For the Duchy of Winter, which can be said to be a "poor country", it is not too simple for a person with the status of "servant" to be bought.

Even if they are both countries protected by the righteous gods, this does not mean that the relationship between countries will be good.

Regardless of the border friction, the radically different cultural atmospheres alone can lead to a lack of communication.

In addition, the previous generation of King Noah, the one who claimed to unify the five kingdoms and rebuild the Great Barrier.

Although Annan knew that in fact, it was because he was a "child in the cup" whose life was locked up, so he deliberately planned to make enemies for Noah in this way and take revenge on the Noah Kingdom that gave birth to him...... But the people and the top brass of other countries don't know about it.

As a result, the revenge of this cup boy not only injured Noah, but also directly disturbed the troubled waters - his declaration of war on the cold winter made Denisoa and the church vigilant and had to start an arms race.

And after the strength of the Church and the United Kingdom of Denisoa increased, Winter had to be wary of them.

As a result, the peace, which could have been maintained after the bloody battle, is now more and more shaky.

In addition, the matter of the Winter Rebel also reminded the Winter family that even the Winter Hand, who was bound like a caged bird and could not disobey the orders of the Grand Duke of Winter, could not be absolutely trusted.

And it turned out.

Grand Duke Ivan must not only find a way to lead the whole people through the difficult winter year.

He also had to do his best to maintain a diplomatic deterrent externally, suppress the alliance of northern nobles who had long been opposed internally, and befriend several extraordinary nobles in the south.

In addition, there is also the mess left by the Icebreaker Army and the Winterbreaker - there are always people in the Frost Beast Army, who are also restless, and lost a very important Frost Beast some time ago. It is suspected that there are still people doing frostbeast experiments.

And in turn, Annan was assassinated again...... According to Annan's feedback, it seems that it is not just a desire to overthrow Dmitry's forces. If the bloodline of "Gryaznoha Rindon" is found, then the situation is even more complicated.

It is still unknown how the Winterbreakers used to break the spell of the "Winter Hand" and take the other Winter Hands out of the control of the Grand Duke.

In this case, the tax withheld by the local aristocracy and the reckless behavior of relying on "local methods" can be regarded as the simplest state of affairs.

- It's all about the people.

And with so many troubles intersecting, Ivan's body can't hold on.

“…… The situation facing the winter is very complicated. Good thing you're back. ”

Ivan said slowly: "I must first hand over the position of Grand Duke and the spell to you. In order to do some research as I thought...... and action.

"Follow me, Annan. I'm here to teach you how to use the power of the scepter. ”