Chapter 134: Panda-Man Li Ming

Chapter 134: Panda-Man Li Ming

“My lord Earl.” Louis asked with some curiosity, “I heard from the princess that many years ago, His Majesty once intended to marry her off to the dragon… to a foreign land. To these Nephars?”

“Indeed.” Crowley sighed with a somewhat strange expression. “What a farce… Brother Louis, Earl Yingling, please wait here for a moment. The Bishop and I will go down first to ask Bishop ‘Alwyn’ where they are.”

After saying this, Crowley and Bishop John got off the carriage.

Louis blinked, still pondering Earl Crowley’s words ‘farce.’ So, he looked at Yingling, the ‘know-it-all guide’ he had specifically sought out.

Yingling was also a little puzzled. She didn’t understand the meaning of this ‘farce’ either. Her eyes darted around as she made a wild guess: “My lord, Dragonborn have a very low status in Muggle society.”

Unlike those Dragonborn nobles in Sacred Oak with decorative horns on their heads, the Dragonborn in Muggle society did not know that magic and wizards existed in the world, and they didn’t even know there were dragons!

Most of them came from the slave trade during the Age of Discovery. The Dragonborn slaves captured by humans were all from primitive tribes. Therefore, they had no unified nation and no education. They were mistakenly considered low-intelligence by people and could only do manual labor. So their social status was very low.

Yingling said, “In the eyes of Solerndor people, they are just African chieftains. How could the only princess of the great empire where the sun never sets marry an African chieftain?”

Feeling she was making more and more sense, Yingling couldn’t help but wave her little fan excitedly. She said, “So in the eyes of the ministers, the marriage alliance was just ‘you’re kidding me’?”

After saying this, Yingling softly snuggled into Louis’s embrace, pouting and acting coquettishly.

Louis pushed her away, but his expression was a bit strange. Those Nephars outside the window clearly looked like people from a civilized world, right? They looked like foreign nobles of high status!

They looked different from all other Dragonborn. Their skin didn’t have mottled scales. Their demeanor was noble, gentle, and refined. They had a rich noble heritage and astonishing wealth—look at the attire of those Nephars and their Dragonborn guards! Human nobles compared to them seemed like country bumpkins.

Moreover, the Nephars had helped Solerndor in war, and they knew magic!

So, logically, this mysterious Nephar Kingdom, in the eyes of the nobility, should be an ally to be curried and wooed. So why, when Delphinia and Ign proposed the marriage alliance several times, did some ministers think it was a farce?

“And that Nephar Prince is quite tall and handsome, right?” Louis slapped away Yingling’s hand reaching into his chest and said, somewhat puzzled.

Yingling snuggled up again, cooing and fondling him. “Not as tall as you…”

“Ahem, young friend…” Bishop John suddenly opened the door and saw the embarrassed Louis and the dazed Earl Yingling inside the carriage. He blinked hard. He gave Louis a meaningful smile, then closed the door.

Louis pushed Yingling away, rubbed his forehead, and pulled her out of the carriage.

At this moment, ‘old brother’ Crowley also returned. He and Bishop John directly led Louis and Yingling towards the direction of a garden.

It seemed things were already settled. Bishop John smiled and said to Louis, “Young friend, a mere Nephar princess, how could she compare to you—your identity is more mysterious and more noble.”

These words left Louis somewhat bewildered.

Just then, everyone suddenly walked around a building, and the view opened up. Louis stared blankly, finding the style here somewhat resembled a quaint heavenly dynasty style. Though there were some differences, there was a bamboo forest and many small pavilions. The lake shore also had many lotus flowers.

A ‘Grandmaster Mage’ (Bishop) in a bright red robe, along with a group of ‘Mages’ (Divine Officials), were gathered under a bamboo thicker than a large tree not far away, discussing something. Some little Priests were holding objects like altars and holy water. But what stunned Louis was that there were also many Divine Officials holding cameras, light reflectors, and backdrop boards—it was like getting an ID photo taken.

“Indeed, we need to prepare some documents here.” Bishop John stroked his beard, pointed at a small blackboard on the backdrop, and said with a smile, “That place is for writing your origin. Later, we need to summon a dragon to help write it for you—don’t worry, everything is already arranged.”

“D-dragon?” Louis was dumbfounded.

At this moment, the Red-robed Bishop, seeing Louis approach, already had cold eyes. He picked up his grand staff and walked over with the Divine Officials.

The Red-robed Bishop was named ‘Alwyn.’ He was a little excited today—this extradition was a great achievement! From now on, he would be this Paladin’s sponsor!

John was really clever—giving this young lord a foreign prince’s identity. With this, there would be diplomatic merit too.

It was just that bribing that monk was a bit costly.

Bishop John introduced everyone. After some greetings, Louis learned they were preparing to conduct the baptism here. At the same time, they were here to ‘process’ his identity as the Prince of Cloud Kingdom.

It seemed these guys were already in cahoots. Everyone around was on their side. And arranging foreign noble identities for people was probably not the first time they did this, so their discussions were a bit blatant.

“Humph! Scheming and plotting!” A cold snort suddenly came from not far away. Louis looked over and saw a figure sitting cross-legged on a large rock under that big bamboo tree. It wore monk robes, was covered in fur, and had black eye circles.

[Cloud Kingdom, Yunmeng Province, Panda-Man missionary ‘Li Ming’]

“P-panda-man?!”

“That’s Pandea Monk ‘Li Ming.’ A missionary from Cloud Kingdom. It’s fine, it’s fine. He’s a good friend of mine. We’ve already discussed it.” Bishop Alwyn whispered somewhat awkwardly, then quickly beckoned the Divine Officials and walked over with a large gourd of fine wine.

Several Divine Officials hurriedly offered the wine. After some flattery, the Panda Monk glanced at Louis and snorted coldly. But then, he started eating and drinking—clearly, the food and wine were quite fragrant.

Immediately, Louis heard him speak a dialect from ancient Nanjing or the Jianghuai region!

“Studying abroad without a passport, what a mess. Little punk, clearly an illegal immigrant, don’t dare to get a passport in Yun Country. A prince? Prince my foot! All a sham.”

Louis was completely lost.

“Haha, this is the official language of Cloud Kingdom. Mr. Li Ming is greeting you.” Bishop Alwyn stroked his big beard and whispered with a laugh, “Rest assured, rest assured, young friend. Cloud Kingdom is separated by tens of thousands of miles. Their vassal states are dozens in number. Numerous princes are subjects under one emperor, with countless descendants. So, there are many people with royal blood. Plus, there is almost no contact between the two places. So even if someone occasionally claims to be of Cloud Kingdom royal blood and arrives by ship, the royal families of other countries can’t tell—but the Lunar Court can know.”

Bishop Alwyn’s words carried a meaningful tone—the meaning was, we will help you cheat.

Louis and Yingling looked at each other, both a bit curious.

“How… how do you know the identity and bloodline?”

“Young friend, there are things you don’t know.” Bishop John laughed, leisurely showing off his knowledge. “Our missionaries from the Lunar Court once visited Cloud Kingdom and obtained the sacred water from the ‘Divine Dragon River’ of Cloud Kingdom and the sacred soil from the Loess Highlands.”

As he spoke, Bishop John pointed at the small lake water, the soil on the ground, and those particularly large lotus flowers and bamboo. “Specifically used to grow these magical (herbs), ahem, sacred trees and sacred flowers.”

Louis’s jaw dropped as he looked at those bamboos.

This is bamboo, right?

It’s bamboo, right?

“But this soil and water have other wonderful uses.” Bishop Alwyn said mysteriously.

“What uses?” Louis blinked.

“People of Cloud Kingdom are all descendants of dragons. They all have Dragon Clan bloodline. And whenever the blood of a Cloud Kingdom person mixes with this water and this soil, there will be a reaction—so as long as an image appears, it proves you are a descendant of dragons. There are twelve auspicious signs, and Cloud Kingdom has twelve provinces. Each auspicious sign represents a royal family member from a province.”

Louis blinked—Made up, right!

That sounds like the twelve zodiac animals, right?

It’s the twelve zodiac animals, right?!

Royal bloodline my foot! Anyone who comes here would be royalty!