Dyon continued to spend his time diligently combing through the records. Although he was young in the eyes of his ministers, he had already been in power for a few decades, so asking for a summary of all important events from so far back left him with a lot to read.
He noted a few things.
The first was that he had taken a Princess of the Royal God Clan as his queen. It seemed that he was quite infatuated with her, not taking any other wives. That said, his Imperial Harem was still quite large because he had taken a few dozen concubines.
This told Dyon something else about Angel Clan culture. The concubines that made up his Imperial Harem were actually from major families within the clan. It was clear from this that they married into the King’s bloodline in order to solidify ties.
Dyon managed to pin down multiple problems with this. The first was that because he was so infatuated with his queen, he completely neglected his harem, completely defeating the purpose of solidifying ties.
This wasn’t explicitly written into the report, but Dyon read into it and made inferences. The major clue that led to this conclusion was that fact in the decades he had been married to them all, he had not birthed a single child. This would only be possible if he had limited interaction with multiple sets of women.
The reasoning was simple. The Queen was a high-grade talent, comparable to even himself. It made perfect sense for the two of them to not birth any children for even centuries, as this was the way of the martial world. However, the concubines, although high-grade in their own right, couldn’t hope to match up to the Queen. As such, birthing children with them should be easier. And yet, he had no children.
All of this may seem unimportant, but in reality, it made Dyon’s frown deepen. Loving one’s wife was a great thing, however, neglecting the culture and traditions of such a long-standing clan was foolish.
If Dyon neglected his concubines, it would breed discontent not only within them, but also their families. No wonder they had such a traitor problem, the families of the Angel Clan had lost faith in their King.
When Dyon thought to this point, his gaze grew cold. Mistakes of his predecessor or not, he would not tolerate traitors. Unfortunately, even if he could access all of the memories of this supposed King, it wouldn’t be helpful. After all, if he was ignoring his concubines, how could he tell just who was more likely to have betrayed them?
There was, of course, a passing thought that maybe Dyon could use the Queen as leverage against the attacking Royal God Clan. But, that just wasn’t his style. Using a woman who trusted and loved him in such a way was despicable, even if it was a trial.
The more interesting point was that they had decided to attack even knowing who the Queen of these lands were. Were they really okay with making their most cherished Princess a widow?
However, that was when the second tidbit of information was caught by Dyon. It seemed that the King of the Royal God Clan had died as well, and he was replaced not by a brother of his wife, but instead a man that married into their family much like Dyon had.
‘This is too… Convenient…’ Dyon eyes sharpened when he saw this, because the date of the death of their King was much too close to the death of his father.
At this point, Dyon had already delved further into the game than any participant before him. He had, obviously, not broken any records or made any waves on the rankings just yet, but his grand teacher had quite an interesting gleam in his eye as he watched.
One has to note that even for his grand teacher, the setting of this trial was beyond his time. The only way he could replicate it so accurately was because of a few key pieces of their history that he had accumulated, some of which functioned as rewards, in combination with a unique path of his time will that allowed him to replicate the past.
All Dyon’s grand teacher knew was that this was the last Angel Clan that survived the test of time, but something would be coming to wipe them out. He didn’t know why, nor did he really understand how, all he knew was that the answer was within this trial. He himself had never found that answer, so maybe Dyon could.
**
For the moment, Dyon put aside his reports and decided to do some reporting of his own. His first destination? The Imperial Harem.
Even without his soul, Dyon’s eye for detail and ability to read people was something few could match. Couple this with the boost in perception the previous trial gave him, and Dyon felt that if anything was off, he would be the first to know.
As Dyon walked there, weaving through the simple, but well-kept streets, he reflected on his experience in the first trial. There, he had stumbled on something quite interesting. Usually, in the martial worth, one would learn a technique, and then said technique would boost some aspect of themselves. However, Dyon had noticed a marked increase in his perception, yet he hadn’t learned any techniques at all. It seemed much more reminiscent to learning a skill in the mortal world.
What Dyon didn’t know is that he had stumbled into what was called a Martial Art. This school of thought was a branch of the Body Cultivation school of thought. An ability learned by purists who believed that the basis of power should be found within the body and not its exterior.
Before Dyon could ponder on this any more, he realized that he had already made his way through his palace and now stood in front of a gate of pearly whites and yellow golds. It seemed to lead toward an inner garden where he could hear the sound of running, natural water and the delicate voices of the fairer sex.
However, as he reached for the entrance, the gates opened on their own, greeting him with three startled beauties.
