Ryan truly should have collapsed.
Many people thought so, especially after the battle of Unholy Hymn, where Ryan had suffered its first catastrophic defeat on a frontal battlefield.
Even if this empire that had acted so arrogantly for over a thousand years worshipped the Lord of the Dawn, wasn't it about time for its sun to set?
Everyone thought so, and the people of Ryan were no exception.
After all, the more confident and arrogant one was, the harder a defeat was to stomach. Though this loss was far from breaking Ryan's foundation, it dealt a vicious blow to their pride.
The claim that "Ryan is finished" circulated endlessly among the common folk.
While it had not yet sparked nationwide turmoil, it undeniably affected the entire empire's operation.
Yet at this very moment, the instigator behind it all stepped forward.
Weeping tears of remorse, the young emperor read aloud an intensely sincere edict of self-reproach. He deflected no blame whatsoever, admitting that this was his first time on a battlefield, that he had lost all courage in terror upon seeing the red dragons from the Astral Plane, and that in his panic he had caused Ryan's disastrous defeat. All the guilt and blame rested squarely on his shoulders.
This apology cooled the anger of quite a few people.
When had an emperor of Ryan ever been so humble and subservient? Moreover, he did not shy away from his errors in the slightest. For a boy who was not yet eighteen, wasn't it only natural to be terrified upon entering battle for the first time?
Yet had he merely admitted fault, many Ryan citizens still would have found him difficult to forgive. After all, the young emperor's crash had killed countless Ryan soldiers, proving more terrifying than the Githyanki or the red dragons.
The families of those soldiers would not necessarily forgive him so easily.
Only no one had expected that the edict of self-reproach was just part of what he had to say.
Price Ryan dropped a second bombshell: the entire Ryan imperial clan would pay the price for this crushing defeat. They had failed the expectations of Holy King Arthur Ryan and defiled the name of Ryan, so Price Ryan would be the last Ryan emperor.
To prove this was no lie, the entire Ryan imperial clan had already committed suicide in shame. They would rather take their own lives and descend into Hell to face punishment than let the name of Ryan be tainted any further.
This news was utterly earth-shattering.
The number of Ryan royals was staggering. Young and old added up to over ten thousand, and from inside to out, top to bottom, the imperial palace was filled with clan members.
And that counted only the blood relatives living inside the palace, without even factoring in the collateral branches that had married out over the years.
The royals mentioned in the proclamation surely referred only to those within the palace. But did that mean everyone in the palace was dead? Was Price Ryan the only remaining descendant of the Holy King's bloodline?
When word spread, everyone was shaken to the core. Elder statesmen who had long since withdrawn from worldly affairs came out of retirement one after another, all converging on the imperial palace in the capital to verify this claim.
And then they saw Price Ryan confessing his misdeeds through streaming tears, declaring that he would sire no heirs and that the next emperor of Ryan would be chosen from the other noble houses.
This sensational revelation struck like a heavy club, leaving everyone completely dazed.
Beyond that—sure, the young emperor had committed a foolish blunder that cost Ryan dearly, but surely it shouldn't warrant burying the entire royal family alongside the fallen! More people had died here than on the battlefield!
Yet whether or not such an apology was excessively extreme, using the lives of the entire royal family as the price finally quashed all grievances completely. Many people even urged Price Ryan not to forfeit the throne, telling him that while he was young, he should hurry and father children.
How had the Ryan Empire gotten its name? Did anyone not know? If a Ryan wasn't the emperor, who dared take the throne? Who had the qualifications to sit on that chair, and who possessed achievements comparable to Arthur Ryan's?
However, all these people were kept outside by William Garrison, the Shield of the Empire, under the pretext that the emperor had suffered a severe emotional blow, needed time to calm down, and would not grant audience to anyone for the time being.
With the veteran general speaking out, no one else dared press the matter.
Indeed, something of this magnitude transpiring in just a matter of days naturally warranted letting the emperor compose himself. These old figures had not emerged from retirement to spectate; they had come for Ryan's sake. Every one of them was either a military veteran or a provincial governor, and there was even a former Supreme Arbiter so aged he could barely walk. While these elders might severely lack vigor, their prestige was undeniable; if they pulled together, they could swiftly stabilize the entire empire.
Thus, Ryan transitioned from unrest toward stability, and the people's morale gradually coalesced anew.
With a royal family willing to sacrifice themselves for the empire's honor, what more could anyone complain about?
Price Ryan hid within the palace. A faint scent of blood still hung in the air—the lingering odor left behind after the deaths of countless people and a massive purge.
Though he hadn't seen anyone for days, he felt not the slightest gloom. Instead, an irrepressible smirk curved the corners of his mouth.
Price Ryan said to Artross the Eternal in his mind, "Truly impressive. You truly are the monarch who once ruled the entire continent. I'm not surprised that you can rewind memories so precisely, but to think that with just a minor alteration, an old fellow like William Garrison is standing on my side.
"If he hadn't shielded me, we wouldn't have had the time over these past few days to lock down all information."
Slaughtering the entire Ryan royal family was impossible to accomplish in a mere half day, nor could the Dragon Tyrant Armament constantly reverse time across the entire Ryan Imperial Capital just so Price Ryan could indulge in a massacre.
Therefore, the actual time of death for many royals was in fact after Price Ryan proclaimed that all the royals were dead.
Time had become a toy in Artross the Eternal's hands. People who only died days later were, in everyone else's minds, already long dead.
This method left none of the Ryan royals any chance to escape, or even to send out any word.
When those people died, they couldn't even tell which timeline they were in. Many were driven mad upon seeing their own corpses due to the temporal confusion, subsequently turning into butcher's knives against their kin, only to ultimately perish in their madness.
And the key to this plan was William Garrison; it was he who kept all the heavyweight figures outside the palace. These old men were legendary powerhouses or, at worst, high-ranking paladins—vastly stronger than that pack of good-for-nothings in the palace who knew only how to breed children.
Thus, someone had to hold the gate.
The power of time had caused William Garrison to forget the moment the young emperor courted death on the battlefield.
William Garrison only remembered the young emperor being besieged by red dragons high in the sky; all memory after that was a blur.
Artross the Eternal said calmly, "Human memory is a critical thing; emotions stem from memory. This old man was originally a staunch royalist. As long as he forgets your most foolish actions, even if he hears of the crimes you committed from others, his distaste for you will be significantly lessened. Stories heard second-hand never leave an impression as deep as what one witnesses with one's own eyes.
"So long as this old fellow is no longer staunchly opposed to you, playing the two cards of repentance and mass suicide is enough to make him serve you once more. Against such self-righteous do-gooders, this method is extraordinarily effective."
Price Ryan asked again, "But he will sense something is off. A gap in memory is always a flaw."
Artross the Eternal replied confidently, "No rush. He has too much on his plate right now. Like I said, he is a good-natured fellow; for the sake of the Ryan Empire's stability, he won't dwell on such trifles for now, but will instead devote all his energy to restoring calm across the empire. When he finally finds the time to ponder this, I will slowly restore his memories for him, making it feel as if he remembered them bit by bit on his own. That way, he will merely assume his memory is failing due to old age."
"If he remembers, won't he just oppose me all over again?" Price Ryan's expression turned sinister. "Should we find an opportunity to take him out?!"
Artross the Eternal was silent for a long moment before saying, "Do you truly have no confidence in yourself? With such a long buffer of time, can you not even win back an old man who originally supported you? Even if you can't, by then you should have thoroughly seized control of this empire's power. Why would you still fear a mere legendary paladin?"
Price Ryan argued, "Wouldn't it be simpler to just kill him directly? We possess this invincible power!"
Artross the Eternal shook his head. "Little fellow, the power of time is mighty, but it is not omnipotent. How do you think I was killed by Arthur Ryan back then? Even deities can be slain by mortals. If you cling to the belief that the power of time can solve everything, you might as well flee right now. Otherwise, you'll soon end up like the Demonic Dragon back then, your head lopped off by a paladin."
Price Ryan frowned, feeling reluctant, but still asked, "Then what should I do?"
"Do your job as emperor. The lives of all the royals have bought you a buffer of time. Go be a competent emperor, go win back the trust of your subjects, go rally all of Ryan's strong to your side, and go become the next Arthur Ryan. Surely you don't need me, a Demonic Dragon Tyrant, to teach you how to be a Holy King, do you?"
Chapter 367