Their world doesn't need gods.

Chapter 264 Princess Erica “Fell in Love”?

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—Erica—

"Mrs. Setra, how is the skin care lotion I gave you last time?"

Erica held the teacup elegantly and spoke to the noble women in front of her with a sweet smile.

She is now holding a large tea party in the palace, and the position of the invitees is quite delicate.

The two wives of Duke Oupold, the leader of the faction hostile to Erica, and his eldest and second daughters who are already married. The two daughters of Duke Kovalop, and the wife and daughter of Duke Gabriel.

These nine women all belong to Erica's hostile faction, that is, Erica's enemies in the palace.

Although on the surface everyone may still drink tea in a friendly manner, in private these women may be more dangerous than their husbands or fathers.

In addition to these women, there are also families that are currently in the neutral camp.

The Marquis of Lespinasse, who has gradually recovered from the war more than a decade ago, the Marquis herself and her second daughter Veronica (Ella's mother and sister). The daughter of the Marquis of Roscoe (Cecilia's aunt, Ariel's aunt).

And the Duchess of the Duke of Ottilay, who established the last family line among the Seven Dukes, and her daughter, the twelfth princess of the empire, Alice R. Elizabeth.

These families also have considerable influence in the empire, but they are still taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the conflict between Erica and Charles.

In other words, they are all fence-sitters waiting for the opportunity to join one side.

The last ones to be introduced are Erica’s friendly forces.

The seventh princess of the empire, Silja, the heiress of the Duke of Christiana's family, Violet, and the adopted daughter of the Duke of Elect, Alfred's other nominal adopted sister, Vivian.

The purpose of Erica holding this tea party was to use these women to officially publicize to the outside world the news that she had formed an alliance with both the Duke's family of Elect and the Duke's family of Christiana.

"Thank you, Her Highness Erica, for your care. The effect of the lotion is excellent. It makes my skin smoother than the one I used before. I am very satisfied."

The eldest daughter of Duke Leopold gave a social smile in response to Erica's question.

The women sitting around her also smiled and responded.

"Sister Erika, you invited us to the tea party today. It shouldn't just be about talking about skin care products, right? I heard that you seem to have been spending a lot of time with Miss Vivian recently, and your relationship is quite close, like best friends."

The twelfth princess, Alice, asked with a smile.

Different from her childish and cute appearance, this girl is very smart, thoughtful and scheming.

Although her personality... well, it's hard to say that she is without any flaws, but she can be considered a good girl.

If she was also Erica's biological mother, the biological daughter of Rosalind II, Erica would definitely try her best to push her sister to the throne while constantly buying favors for her.

In this way, Erica and her cousin Siliya can stay away from the smoky palace and enjoy a stable life.

However, the reality is quite cruel.

Alice is the sister of Rosalind II, the daughter of the current and first Duke of Ottilea, Ottilea.

Although Alice also obtained the status of a royal family member and had certain rights to inherit the throne due to the tradition of the Elizabethan dynasty, her succession to the throne was very late, and it was basically impossible for her to ascend the throne and become emperor.

"Yes, after all, we have a lot to discuss between us."

Erica replied, looking around at everyone present and announced.

“In fact, Duke Elect’s eldest son, Al, recently designed a new type of magic armor with his mentor at Illya Alia Academy, and he intends to mass-produce and sell this magic armor, which has better performance than the old armor, in his own chamber of commerce.

I contacted Al, and he was willing to send the first batch of prototypes to me and Miss Violet as new equipment for my personal guards, and also to test the use of these armors for him. The person in charge of this matter was Miss Vivian. "

Erica stretched out her hand and directed everyone's attention to Vivian, who was standing silently beside her.

Vivian bowed her head slightly with an expressionless face and said nothing.

Vivian was from the Duke of Elect's family, but she was only an adopted daughter. Her status and position were weaker than those of the other people who attended the tea party.

This is just Vivian's superficial excuse for trying to remain humble and play a role in the background.

In fact, she simply didn't like the noble women Erica had summoned.

But Erica couldn't let Vivian play the background all the time. Today, Vivian had to accompany her to perform a good show, so that these noble women at the top of the empire would watch carefully.

By the way, the story about the new armor was completely made up by Erica.

A few days ago, Charles wanted to use a tough approach to force the Duke of Laillect to join his faction. This made Alfred very unhappy, and he happened to be planning to destroy the Duke of Opold for no apparent reason.

Erica took this opportunity to ask Alfred for some powerful weapons and equipment for her own guards.

These new armors were also one of the gifts given by Alfred.

The performance of these new armors is so exaggerated that they can really make an ordinary knight become a warrior who can defeat ten people at the same time.

This made Erica, who had always been at a great disadvantage in military strength, feel a lot more at ease. Although these equipments were provided by Alfred, this made her feel a little unhappy.

"A new type of magic armor~ My youngest son, who is studying at the Empire's No. 1 Puppet Master Academy, is about to start his field practice course. I wonder if you still have any stock, Miss Vivian?"

I think the magic armor designed by the master of alchemy, Madam Carolina's son, must be very reliable, right?"

The Duke of Gabriel's wife and the Duke of Opold's wife exchanged glances secretly and then asked Vivian tentatively.

"I'm very sorry. That new technology is quite special and we can't produce finished products right away. However, if Madam Valerie is willing to wait, a new batch of armor should be ready in three months."

Vivian answered while maintaining her humility.

This made the smiles of the noble ladies who were hostile to Erica become a little stiffer.

Erica and Alfred have a weapons deal, which is completely different from the cosmetics deal between the two parties. If Erica and Charles go to war for the succession to the throne, who will Alfred sell the weapons to?

Although no one explicitly stated this question, everyone present must have the answer in their hearts.

The atmosphere of the tea party suddenly became tense.

"Royal Sister Erica, you used to call Argo Alfred, why are you calling him so affectionately recently? I heard that Argo is very popular in Illya, Royal Sister Erica, you are not the same?"

The twelfth princess Alice deliberately stopped talking midway.

At the same time, she also looked at the Marquis of Lespinas, the daughter of the Marquis of Rosk, and the two people from the Duke of Gabriel's family beside her.

The people in their family were close to Alfred in Ilia, and they had received some information to some extent. Especially the Marquis of Lespinasse, Alfred had fought with the son of Ulysses, who was praised as a hero by Duke Leopold, in school for her daughter.

Alice's joke piqued the nerves of the others present.

If Alfred and Erica are having an affair, then the Duke of Elect's family will definitely fully support Erica in the future.

Almost all of these noble women had this idea in their minds.

Except for Erica's companions.

Siliya, the seventh princess who had a crush on Alfred, looked very flustered, while Vivian was expressionless and gave off a dangerous aura. As for Violet, she felt helpless and unhappy at the same time.

"Who knows~"

Erica's cheeks flushed, and she covered her mouth with her hand and gave an ambiguous answer.

She now looks just like a girl in love.

Of course, this was all Erica's acting. If Alfred really dared to chase her, Erica would definitely slap Alfred twice with all her strength, knock him to the ground, and then kick him a few more times.

Not to mention liking Alfred, Erica was furious just by seeing that guy.

For some reason, Alfred always reminded Erica of the bad guy she met in her previous life. That man picked up a goddaughter for himself, died without permission, and left the goddaughter to Erica to take care of.

And Alfred had caused Erica a lot of trouble in the past.

Erica was full of resentment towards Alfred. Love? It was impossible! It was good enough that Erica could resist stabbing that guy with the sword.

But the other women who attended the tea party didn't know Erica's inner thoughts. In addition, the Duke of Elect had a family of playboys almost every generation, so they all began to speculate about the relationship between Erica and Alfred.

Erica's plan went smoothly.

(Phew, that’s enough for today…)

After the tea party, Erica received an invitation from the Marquis of Lespinasse to hold a private tea party.

The wife of the Marquis of Rosk is also expected to visit the palace from the manor next month. Her two daughters also asked Erica to hold a tea party with them next time.

As for the Duke of Ottile's family, they have actually been Erica's partner for a long time.

However, in order to confuse Charles and Duke Leopold, Erica has never made public the partnership between the two parties.

As long as Erica can successfully win over the Lespinas and Roscoe families, her faction will basically be able to have the same influence as Charles' faction.

Although there is still a gap in military strength, as long as Charles does not dare to launch a coup to seize the throne, this is enough for Erica.

But Erica hadn't been happy for two minutes before the twelfth princess Alice came to ask for her reward.

"Hello~ Sister Erica, I'm here to see you."

Not long after the tea party ended, Alice broke into Erica's room.

In addition to Erica herself, there were also the seventh princess, Siliya, and the leaders of the [Underworld], Vivian and Violet, in the room.

"Alice...you came straight into the room so quickly. Didn't I tell you that you had to be careful now?"

Erica warned helplessly.

The palace was full of enemy spies, and Alice's actions had probably been noticed by Duke Leopold's men.

"Don't worry, I'm very cautious."

Alice shook the invisibility cloak in her arms and said to Erica with a smile.

"You're actually running around the palace wearing something like that. Aren't you afraid of being discovered by the guards and being arrested as a suspicious person?"

"Don't worry~ I won't be discovered. Let's not talk about this anymore. I'm here to ask for my reward, my sister."

Alice put away her mischievous expression and spoke to Erica like a cunning businessman.

But in fact, her request was nothing to Erica.

Rather, Erica still wants to persuade Alice, are you serious?

"Are you sure you want me to be the middleman to help you and that guy Al? I heard that your relationship with him is not bad. Isn't it better for you to go by yourself?"

Erica asked with her shoulders slumped, somewhat dumbfounded.

"That won't do. I want to marry Argo simply because that old man Opold is so annoying and always wants to push his stupid sons and grandsons to me."

Alice explained.

"But I actually just want to put my marriage with Argo in name only to prevent that old man Opold from bothering my mother with my engagement.

But Argo, Rose, and Lily have a good relationship, right? I don't want to destroy the relationship between the three of them because of this willful request. So I'll trouble you, my sister, to mediate~"

Alice winked at Erica and made cute gestures.

In addition to Erica, Violet and Vivian also looked unhappy. Siliya blushed and looked a little overwhelmed.

"Oh... I understand. After all, this is the reward we agreed to with you this time..."

Before Erica could finish her words, a female knight knocked on the door and entered the room in a panic.

Erica initially thought that the knights had discovered Alice's trespassing into her room, and was about to explain, but the female knight simply bowed to everyone in the room and then whispered to Erica and Violet.