Rise My Elementals!

Chapter 236 The 12th city of the Silver Kingdom

Author: M_W Cancer

Grammar checker: M_W Nomral

Arriving downstairs, Leo then walked towards everyone.

"Everyone, let's go, we have already been granted the right of entry." Leo said before walking towards a giant open path leading towards the inside of the Mischievous Lion organization's Headquarters.

"Leo, you know that you can only get my approval so that you can get inside, right? It's against our rules to abuse your power." Blaze quickly chases after Leo.

"Actually, we can also get the right of entry from those people in-charged with the Consciousness Labyrinth. And I've already been given one. If you are worried that I'm lying, just go up and ask them." Leo replied as he motioned for everyone to follow after him, "What are you guys waiting for? Let's go, we still have a lot to do!"

Seeing Leo motioning them to come, Charlotte and the others didn't hesitate anymore to follow after.

Meanwhile, Blaze, Haze, and Glaze could only go up to ask for confirmation. Although they knew that Leo wouldn't really lie to them, they still need to make sure why he was granted the right of entry.

.....

The moment Charlotte and the others entered the Mischievous Lion organization's, what greeted them immediately made them feel doubtful and confuse.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, there were no other strange things around. In fact, it's actually like a city hidden in the middle of 8 tall hills.

There was a big clock tower in the middle of the city, surrounded by 8 fountains on all sides, seemingly depicting the 8 hills surrounding the city.

There were also 8 roads, leading straight to other open paths just like what they went through before entering this city.

"Welcome to the 12th city of the Silver Kingdom, the Lion Heart city. Take note, this actually doesn't belong to the Silver royal family, but since it's location is inside the Silver Kingdom's territory, then it's just right to call it the 12th city." Leo introduced to everyone. Simply put, Lion Heart city belongs to Silver Kingdom geographically.

Lion Heart city, this was a hidden city in the middle of the Hundred Hills that his Master Olivia secretly built through the 12 Zodiacs, the 24 Elders, and the Vice-president of Mischievous Lion organization's help.

Aside from members of the Mischievous Lion organization, no one knows about this Lion Heart city, even the King of Silver Kingdom is no exception.

Also, Lion Heart city doesn't need any Kingdom Protection Array similar to those other 11 cities of the Silver Kingdom due to the fact that the ruler of Hundred Hills is a tamed Magical Beast of Sagittarius Sandra.

Lion Heart city has 8 districts, or more appropriately called streets, situated in the 8 different directions in a compass.

The North and Northeast is the Business street, the Northwest is occupied entirely by the actual Mischievous Lion organization's Headquarters, the West and Southwest is the Industrial street, the South and the Southeast is the Residential street, and lastly the East is the Magical Beast Breeding and Training Ground.

Aside from that, there are also another 4 streets under the Lion Heart city, specifically the capital of Underground World of Silver Kingdom.

All of those streets directly represent the 12 Zodiacs, with 2 Elders guarding each street.

The Underground World is controlled by the Smiling Lion Leo, Gemini Dagger George, Claw of Cancer Charles, and Aries Weapons, while the rest above ground is for the other members of the 12 Zodiacs. Though, 2 of each street above ground are actually still under the control of Leo, George, Charles, and the Aries Weapons since they are practically their men.

Just like any other ordinary city of Silver Kingdom, the Lion Heart city also has citizens living within aside from the members of the Mischievous Lion organization.

These people though were those the Mischievous Lion organization has saved from their past missions, particularly related to the corrupt officials of the Silver Kingdom, the Black organization, and the Bandits.

However, unlike the other citizens of the 11 cities, the people here are less free because of the restrictions they have sworn an Oath on before being granted the right of entry inside the Lion Heart city, specifically an Oath that no one can reveal the whereabouts of this place or else they will die along with their soul. To be honest, no one really cares about that sort of Oath because to swear this Oath was in exchange for their lives being saved by the Mischievous Lion organization.

Moreover, the citizens of Lion Heart city also can't casually leave the city. Aside from the risk that they might reveal the whereabouts of this city, they are also located right in the middle of the Hundred Hills, therefore leaving without any escort is suicidal, especially to ordinary people, and so is going back. That's why they need members of the Mischievous Lion organization to come with them every time they want to leave and when it was time for them to come back.

Along the way, Charlotte and the others can't help noticing the peacefulness and liveliness of this place.

Although Leo had just explained to them that the citizens in Lion Heart city are less free compare to the other cities, there are actually almost no signs of such a thing as being restricted seen in the people's faces. In fact, with almost no Nobles dominating the place, everyone can basically do whatever they want to do, of course, as long as it's within the rules and laws of this city. Simply put, there is more freedom in this city compared to the other cities of Silver Kingdom, excluding Heart city, even though the citizens were being restricted.

At the side, Princess Elaine was wearing an amazed and astonished look on her face. Not only because the Lion Heart city was a hidden territory but also because this city is a lot better compared to the other 11 cities of the Silver Kingdom, which meant to say that the moment the Silver Kingdom falls into the Mischievous Lion organization's hand it would soon develop better compared when it was under the rule of the Silver royal family.

To be honest, the cities ruled by the Silver royal family, excluding the Heart city, in Princess Elaine's opinion, were actually nothing but just a bunch of facades, especially nice on the outside but disgustingly bad on the inside.

Basing on Princess Elaine's experience ever since she started living in the Silver Kingdom, every city is basically ruled by one Noble Household representing the City Lord, but almost all of the other Noble Households living in that city is actually trying to gain control of the city in the shadows, causing countless of fights and deaths in the dark of each of that 11 cities.

Although there is nothing wrong with that because as long as light exists so would be the dark, but with the existence of a City Lord in the city, such a thing shouldn't even exist on such a large scale. Why? Because the City Lords are people agreed by everyone, including all the Noble Households that live in that city, to rule the territory. Therefore, for disputes in such a large scale to still happen and even caused by almost all the other Noble Households, it only meant to say that those City Lords were not agreed upon by everyone to become the ruler of that said city, but were assigned through other means, maybe through the help of the Silver royal family or the 5 Major Noble Households, which also meant that the Silver Kingdom isn't as connected as what it was imagined to be.

The peace that people see outside was nothing but a mere cover to hide how wretched the territory was already. Like for instance, the White River city, although it is a beautiful city from the outside because of its countless flowers and the famous white river, the inside of the city was actually full of infighting and disorganization, specifically the White Noble Household fighting for the rights to rule the White River City. In fact, the White Noble Household actually only rules 40% of the White River city despite being a Viscount Noble Household and the City Lord, while the rest of parts were being shared to the likes of Floye Noble Household where Dandelion that Leo had met in the past belongs to, and many more other Noble Households. And what's even more shocking is, the White River city alone actually has more than hundreds of Barons, which is almost like having 100 Noble Households, and the same kind of situation could also be found in the other cities, excluding the Heart city though.

It is so shocking because in the Blue Fin Kingdom there are limitations for all of the ranks. For example, the Viscount can only assign 5 Barons, Barons is separated into two which is the Barons, which is a rank given personally by the Viscounts, and the Honorary-Barons or otherwise known as Knights, which is a status given by the Barons, Viscount, and the other higher ranks, and it is then the Knights themselves that can assign an infinite amount of soldiers as long as they and the Noble Household they are serving at can handle the numbers. Also, the City Lord is actually equal in status to Viscount, but they can assign 10 Barons, 5 more than the normal Viscount.

However, the cities in the Silver Kingdom actually have over hundreds of Barons, not the Honorary-Barons, but the actual Barons.

In Princess Elaine's opinion, that is very disorganized and impractical. There is even a big question of where did those hundreds of Barons even come from?

Also, because of that disorganization and impractical, the cities under the rule of Silver Kingdom shouldn't even be befitting to be called cities, but instead towns. Those City Lord's are Village Chiefs or equal to Barons in rank, those hundreds of Barons are the Knights, the Knight's soldiers are then the villagers, while the citizens are nothing but mere serfs, meaning they are prisoners of war of that Town and were then forced into labor in order to have their freedom back once again.

And the entire Silver Kingdom is likewise not befitting to be called a Kingdom, but rather a city ruling 11 villages equally representing 11 Barons. Or was it even 11 villages? Considering the fact that there are 5 Major Noble Households and that the Heart city belongs to the Mischievous Lion organization.

Princess Elaine can't help assuming that the Silver Kingdom is following the structure of Empires, but they had just downgraded it to the level of Kingdoms, or maybe even worse; the ruling system that they are following might just be something that they personally created themselves.

On the other hand, the Lion Heart city ruled by the Mischievous Lion organization is the only city in the Silver Kingdom territory that, in Princess Elaine's opinion, completely follows with the correct structure of a territory ruling system.

12 Zodiacs equals to 12 Barons, although they added 2 more it's still organized considering it is a balanced number of 6 is to 6 and also because it wouldn't really affect the Lion Heart city that much. The 24 Elders equals to the Knights, which is actually a very good number too, considering that most of the Barons are almost always assigned with only 2 Knights.

Basing on all of that, Princess Elaine fully believes now that her mother agreeing on an alliance with the Mischievous Lion organization is just the right thing to do.. No, it's the perfect thing to do in order to help her husband's territory to become much more better and so that he can also finally have his desire freedom from the Crown Prince position.