After Crusch, other Royal Selection Candidates also declared their statements. The second to appear was a woman named Priscilla, who had long brown hair and wore a bright red dress, displaying an arrogant and conceited attitude. She believed her reason for becoming a ruler was due to her Divine Protection; because of Priscilla’s Divine Protection, she would always be a victor cherished by the world. Therefore, anyone standing by her side would gain victory, and those who desire victory should follow her... at least, that’s what she said.

Of course, in Fang Zheng’s perspective, this seemed more like a female version of "I have Long Aotian Aura, so you should kneel before me."

Compared to Crusch’s ideals and Priscilla’s arrogance, the reasoning of the third person to appear, Anastasia, was more practical — she was an outstanding merchant, and the Kingdom of Lugnica’s finances had already faced issues (definitely not Fang Zheng’s fault for taking advantage), so the best choice was to let Anastasia, with her merchant skills, inherit the throne to subsidize the kingdom’s finances.

At least for now, it indeed seemed so.

Next was Felt.

She boldly walked forward with her cumbersome skirt, glanced around, and then apologized to Emilia with clasped hands.

"Sorry, Emilia, I have to break my promise."

"Eh?"

Facing Felt’s response, Emilia was momentarily stunned, but then Felt had already turned to everyone else and continued speaking.

"Honestly, before I came here, I wanted to give up participating in the Royal Selection, because for me, the position of the King held no attraction or any interest... but..."

At this point, Felt gritted her teeth, revealing sharp little canines, and flames ignited in her scarlet eyes.

"But now, I’ve changed my mind! I hate Knights, I hate Nobility, and I hate this country even more! You are all corrupt bastards! Do you look down on people just because they’re from the slums? What a joke! It’s not like I willingly grew up in the slums! It’s the same for everyone! And you Nobility wouldn’t understand, right, thinking highly of yourselves since birth is so impressive, right?"

At this point, Felt stomped her foot forcefully, then pointed to the others.

"So, I want to destroy it all, destroy Knights, destroy Nobility, destroy this country! I want everyone to have equal opportunities, even if you’re Nobility, so what? Just because you’re Nobility, do you think you can look down on others? What about the Knights? Just because you’re stronger, do you think you can do as you please? What has this country done for us? Does anyone care about how hard life is in the slums? No! You all lounge at banquets eating and drinking, then use people from the slums as jokes, isn’t it so fun! You don’t even know that the people in the slums are fighting over a single piece of bread!"

Ugh, pent-up anger indeed.

Watching Felt shouting loudly, Fang Zheng chuckled quietly. Although he didn’t know what Felt had gone through with Reinhard these days, he could somewhat guess. Being born in the slums, she would definitely be criticized, and given Felt’s personality, tolerating until now was already commendable.

"Thus, I want to pull down all you high and mighty bastards, and by then, I think this country will surely change!"

Felt ended her declaration proudly, and at that moment below, there was a deafening silence of another kind.

From a certain standpoint, compared to Crusch, this was truly rebellious.

Soon, an eruption occurred.

"What a joke!"

"Are you trying to destroy the entire country?"

"After saying things like this, do you still think you can become King?"

"Who knows."

Facing the righteous indignation of the crowd, Felt laughed heartily.

"Hasn’t that guy said it already? Your opinions are worthless, in the end, it’s the Divine Dragon you have to listen to, isn’t that right? Maybe when you all choose someone else as King, the Divine Dragon might still choose me!"

"This..."

At Felt’s rebuttal, for a moment, everyone was speechless; indeed, as Felt said, this possibility could not be excluded...

"Humph!"

Seeing the nobility below rendered speechless, Felt hummed proudly before she stepped down.

Next was Emilia.

Emilia stepped forward, then looked towards the crowd; she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again.

"I am Emilia, just Emilia, as you can see, I am a Half-Elf."

Looking at the crowd before her, Emilia continued speaking.

"Honestly, I’ve always felt troubled, because I never thought of becoming a King, nor do I possess the abilities of the other candidates. Being frank, until just now, that was still my thought."

Saying that, Emilia looked towards Felt.

"But after hearing Felt’s words, my thoughts changed... I think this should be an opportunity. As a silver-haired Half-Elf, I’ve always been hated, feared. But, what wrong did I do? Just like Felt said, she didn’t live in the slums out of love, and I didn’t choose to grow up this way, so why should I bear the consequences for things I never did?"

Emilia’s tone carried underlying anger, and hearing this, Fang Zheng raised an eyebrow, it seemed this young lady wasn’t as "saintly" as she seemed on the surface.

That’s normal; if she’s not angry after being treated this way, she should just go to the slums to become an RBQ to please men, surely a crowd would line up to enjoy.

"Not just me, but other Half-Blood Species too, being looked down upon just because of our mixed heritage, I believe this is wrong."

Speaking of which, Fang Zheng did hear that in this country, perhaps due to the Witch, there wasn’t much kindness towards Half-Blood Species. In fact, they were rarely seen in other places.

"Therefore, I also want to participate in the Royal Selection."

Emilia seemed to have made up her mind.

"I want to transform this place into a country where people aren’t judged by birth, where they can coexist harmoniously. Whether human, alien race, or Half-Blood Species, everyone can live happily together."

That’s all Emilia had to say.

Thus, the first stage of the Royal Selection comes to an end here. Strictly speaking, aside from Emilia and Felt, among the other three candidates, Crusch and Anastasia enjoy relatively higher support. Many people agree with Crusch’s ideals, while Anastasia’s influence on the Kingdom’s current finances cannot be ignored. From both idealistic and realistic perspectives, these two have garnered considerable support.

However, this does not mean that the others have no chance at all.

Although the declarations of Emilia and Felt have essentially made them the targets of all anger, logically speaking, if it were a voting election, these two would definitely be the first to be eliminated. But as Felt said, everything depends on the will of the Divine Dragon; perhaps they might instead be chosen by the Dragon?

In terms of reputation, Emilia and Felt are the least popular, but in terms of strength, it’s just the opposite.

Crusch’s knight, Felis, doesn’t have any combat ability at all, and Anastasia’s knight, Urius, although currently the First Knight, is far inferior in strength compared to Fang Zheng and Reinhard. As for the third candidate, Priscilla’s knight is actually an alien sword slave from outside the Great Waterfall.

In contrast, the knight most resented by the Nobility, Felt’s knight, is Reinhard, the Kingdom’s veritable First Knight. Emilia’s knight, on the other hand, is Fang Zheng, whose ability to defeat Reinhard with one sword is enough to demonstrate his terrifying strength, not to mention Fang Zheng’s previous actions also show he’s not as "harmless" as Reinhard.

This means that even if someone tried to kill these two to eliminate the "threat," it would be impossible, especially with Fang Zheng. Reinhard is at least easier to negotiate with, but if they dared to make a move on Emilia, Fang Zheng would definitely go over and slash them, completely indifferent to their rank and status.

Like that previous official, who just died quietly, Fang Zheng didn’t even know his name, dying so silently—it was really humiliating!

"I never thought you two would change your minds in the end."

After the Royal Selection meeting concluded, Fang Zheng smiled warmly as he greeted Felt and Emilia, and upon hearing Fang Zheng’s words, Felt chuckled.

"How was it, big bro? What I just said?"

"Very good, promising."

"Hehe."

Receiving Fang Zheng’s praise, Felt proudly raised her head, while Emilia apologized and bowed her head.

"I’m sorry, Lord Fang Zheng, I didn’t inform you beforehand..."

"It’s okay, I could pretty much guess it, don’t worry about it."

Fang Zheng waved his hand, having somewhat anticipated Emilia would actively participate in the Royal Selection, given that she had been scolded by him, naturally receiving a lot of stimulus, and having her own thoughts was quite normal.

"However, boasting might feel good at the moment, but do you know what you’ll face next?"

"What?"

"Participating in the Royal Selection is not just talk; there’s a lot you need to learn. Are you ready?"

"Ugh..."

Upon hearing this, Felt’s expression immediately turned sour.

"Do I really have to learn it?"

"You don’t have to learn, just give up the Royal Selection; otherwise, if you know nothing, how will you implement what you’re talking about as King? Surely you don’t think the King just sits there issuing orders, and people down below meekly follow them?"

"I want to learn."

Compared to Felt, Emilia seemed much more determined.

"I realize there’s so much I don’t know, and I want to learn more, so I can become a qualified King."

"Alright, then I’ll start classes for you both when we return..."

"Huh? Can I go too? Can Rom come with me?"

"Of course, after all, you don’t like staying at Reinhard’s place, right?"

"Obviously, big bro, you don’t know how annoying he is!"

As soon as she said that, Felt began to scream.

"Every morning, I’m dressed by others, and someone serves me meals, just short of stuffing food in my mouth—I have hands myself! Plus, everyone watches me, demanding I maintain etiquette... Oh my God, I’m really fed up!"

"You’re truly miserable."

Fang Zheng could imagine how miserable Felt must be. Indeed, Reinhard wouldn’t abuse her, but his family’s people are definitely loyal worshippers of the Knight, following Reinhard’s requirements strictly to serve Felt, which would drive her insane.

After all, Felt is used to living freely, completely different from someone like Reinhard.

"Exactly, big bro, I want to go back with you; it’s still more comfortable at the castle, at least not so nauseating..."

Felt spoke genuinely, for although there were maids at the castle, it was currently managed by Meiyin, who believes that "those who don’t work can’t eat," so even the orphan children at the castle would go into the forest during their spare time to learn how to gather vegetables, fruits, and mushrooms, according to Meiyin, to prevent these kids from starving when they leave.

Naturally, Fang Zheng supported this, so the whole atmosphere at the castle was basically like this, with everyone having something to do. Of course, the Priestess of the Goddess and her group were different, more like tenants in an apartment, staying here and paying part of the lodging and food fees—since Fang Zheng mentioned that while water and electricity are free, accommodation and meals were to be sorted out by themselves.

So, besides generating money with a paper machine, Meiyin also collected fees for accommodation and meals—others felt nothing special about it, because firstly, Meiyin’s fees weren’t high, and secondly, the castle’s environment was far better than other inns or the like, and spending so little money for treatment comparable to high-class Nobility was more than worth it.

Faced with Felt’s choice, Reinhard couldn’t say much, for Felt was determined to leave and Fang Zheng was unbeatable; if it were in Lugnica, Reinhard would certainly follow, but alas, Fang Zheng’s castle is located within the Kingdom of Tyes...

If Reinhard were to go, it would be like openly transporting a nuclear warhead to another country.

Thus, Reinhard could only resign himself.

Thus, after the Royal Selection meeting concluded, Fang Zheng brought Emilia and Felt back to the castle.