A Record of Ash & Ruin: The Grieving Lands - Chapter 13Book 1: : A Test of Iron

“Any who don the title of 'king' or anything of the sort in my presence is nothing more than an ignorant fool. This is my land and I shall be reclaiming it soon. I am Cacophony, the Vampire Empress!”As those words left her lips, every cell in my body reacted. It was unreal—no, it was otherworldly. Her beauty, her power, and her overwhelming arrogance. It might've been then that I realized that my normal life had ended.How did it come to this?Ah, it was curiosity. Yes, a deathly curiosity brought me to that graveyard that day.It was there that I stumbled upon her coffin. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing then, and even now I have no idea what possessed me to touch it—that single moment changed the course of history for the entire world. I found myself delving into a completely unknown world.Should I regret it? Maybe. But the truth is, I don't.Exploring the world’s hidden secrets, forging unexpected bonds, and living alongside the revived empress—it’s exciting.“Even if it's wrong, I think I'm going to enjoy every moment of it.”

Rihannan Alessin, a queen rotting in prison.

Despaired and without hope, she drank poison and died. But… unbeknownst to her, the deity gave her a second chance at life. She was twelve again. And this time, she would live life differently.

Six years later, she chooses to become Arundell’s queen…

“If you’re asking me to step down from the marriage proposal, I can’t.”

“Marry me and let us divorce after a year.”

And this time, the time limit of their marriage would last a year.

A husband she knew who was different than before… she tried not to love him again, but each time, her heart kept shaking.

It was in the middle of the night that the woman who would be the Duchess came to see me.

She said my father and mother died, and my kind uncle became king.

She said it’s not worth it for me, the crown prince, to be living in hiding, too.

“A while ago, Your Highness had been hiding from me. With all due respect, is that for the sake of survival? Just because your parents died doesn’t mean you have no reason to survive. Actually, that fact alone made it all the more reason why you should live. If you die now…”

If I died now?

When I asked her while looking at her eyes, the woman eventually brought out the harsh truth with empathetic eyes.

“It’s like a dog’s death.”

“That’s rude….”

It’s been a long time since I said that. In a short while, he has been treated as a madman and beaten to death just by saying similar things. She loosened her arms that held me and I suddenly stiffened up due to it. Because I thought she might have loosened her arm to hit me. But she didn’t.

She knelt down with one knee in front of me, just like a knight.

“Hastred’s Sarian raised her salutations. May you accept it gladly.”

My first knight is beautiful and kind.

“Are you on my side?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

It was all a lie.

“If he’s being badass, I’m gonna plant my own crops. If he messes with me, he will not live past next year.”

Homebody Zhao Hai brought ‘QQ Farm’ along in his traversal to another world and resided within the body of a fallen noble. His fief was a black land which nothing could be planted, and more importantly, he even had a peerlessly powerful fiancee, who was actually the successor of a duchy and future Grand Duchess!

Even more importantly, he is a magical and martial cripple who could not learn magic and martial arts. His crippling was very thorough.

“I can’t learn magic, but I have the farm. You dare attack me? I’ll release bugs to eat up your rations and crops, and put pesticides and weed agents into your water sources to make your lands grow weeds. See if you dare to attack me. What? You wanna hire killers to assassinate me? Hehehe. I’ll hide inside the little house in my farm and see how you can attack me. When you leave, I’m gonna terminate your country’s crop productions, and then all of your people will revolt. See if you dare to kill me.”

Watch how this somewhat black hearted hobo uses his QQ Farm in the world of swords and magic to become a globally known nightmarish existence.