1161 The Ruler of the Southern Continent

"ALL HAIL THE RULER!"

"ALL HAIL THE RULER!"

The people viewing the coronation chanted all at the same time as the crown was placed on Scarlet's head.

She stood tall in front of everyone with not a single emotion on her face to betray what she was feeling or thinking on the inside.

Her eyes drifted across the room, looking at all the different people that were in there, and then closed them. Then, she reopened them and moved.

The chant stopped awkwardly as no one was sure what was going on. Scarlet was supposed to be giving a small speech of her own to the people after her coronation, so it was unexpected.

The 10 elders ran beside her and secretly asked what she was doing.

"I will address everyone at once," Scarlet said as she walked out of the door.

The elders were confused, but they at least knew what was going on. Two of them stayed behind and addressed the throne room.

"Her Majesty, the Pheonix is going to be addressing the entire continent at once. Please go outside if you wish to hear her speech," the elders said.

People started leaving one after another, and Alex walked out as well. The elders grabbed him as he left the room and brought him along with them to the stage where Scarlet stood tall in the sunlight.

Her crown glistened with colors of gold, red, blue, purple, and orange. Even so, it couldn't overshadow the majesty that came with Scarlet herself.

She stood up high, waiting for the people to gather.

The people on the outside were excited to see the Phoenix after she had been crowned and were more than excited to cheer for her.

Once more, another chant could be heard from the crowd around Scarlet. Only this time around, there were so many people that the air shook with each utter of the chant.

They chanted so loudly that their words could likely be heard from the other side of the dome.

"You're going to address them this quickly?" Alex asked softly after he got up on the stage next to Scarlet.

"The sooner the better," Scarlet said.

Alex sensed some sort of distress in her voice. She was nervous for some reason.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked. "You sound nervous."

"Do I?" she asked, before taking a deep breath. "How about now?"

"That's better," Alex said. "But why were you nervous? You're already the ruler, so you should be fine, right? Or did you not remember to write the speech"

"I haven't written anything," Scarlet said. "I spent way too long just deciding, so I didn't have the time to write anything."

"Deciding?"

"People are gathering, your majesty," one of the elders spoke as they all gathered behind Scarlet. They looked in front of them and saw nearly 10 thousand different individuals gathered in the area around the palace.

Beyond that, the entire capital city was completely covered in random people as well, who were viewing the ceremony from massive screen formations that were laid around the city.

Scarlet noticed that people had started to slow down with the cheer and the people that were coming out of the palace had already gathered in the yard outside.

She took a single step forward and everyone stopped making a noise. They all looked at her, silently, waiting for her to start speaking.

Alex felt unnerved by such a sudden silence. He couldn't imagine having to address this many people at once. But, he wasn't worried about Scarlet at all. She had done this before, a long time ago, so she would be used to it.

"Watch out for anyone that might try to attack her highness," one of the elders spoke into his mind, reminding him that not all that were gathered here were necessarily here to watch her ascend the throne.

There were most likely some here that were hoping that she wouldn't take the throne at all. After all, the freedom that came with not having a proper ruler was not something a few people could suddenly get rid of.

Alex doubted such a small group of people would make a scene, but he still couldn't leave it to chance. He looked around the crowd for any disappointed or angry faces, but it was hard to tell how someone was feeling or what they were thinking from the way they looked.

Scarlet viewed the crowd one last time, took a deep breath, and then started speaking.

"People of the Southern Continent. I, Feng Nuanhuo, a phoenix, am the ruler of the Southern Continent."

Everyone cheered when they heard her, cheering for nearly 10 seconds before Scarlet gestured for them to stop with her wings.

"Right now, the purpose of me being on this stage is to make you feel happy and better about having me as your new ruler by promising you many good things in the future that may or may not be capable of performing."

"However, I am not here today to do that to you," Scarlet said. "Today, I'm here to speak the truth."

"Your majesty?" a few of the elders felt warnings blare in their heads from what Scarlet was talking about. Alex was surprised too and he couldn't help but wonder what she was talking about.

"The truth is simple," Scarlet said. "You do not have a new Ruler. I, Feng Nuanhuo have been your ruler for the past 14 thousand years."

"Huh?"

"What?"

"What is going on?"

"What is her majesty talking about?"

Everyone except for the ones on top of the stage was confused about what Scarlet was talking about. Nothing about it all made sense to them at all.

One by one, the people started requesting an explanation, while the elders were fully working on controlling the damage. They requested Scarlet to speak sweet nonsense to the people, but she had gone and started giving them the bitter truth.

"What I said is correct. I came to this continent 14 thousand years ago to replace the Phoenix before me as the ruler of this continent. So, for the past 14 millennia, I have been your ruler."

"I ruled over this continent for 9 thousand years. However, 5 thousand years ago, due to some accident, I was forced to stop ruling over you, and these 10 had to temporarily step in to keep the continent from being doomed without a ruler."

"I'm sure many of you were dissatisfied when you learned that your rulers, the phoenixes were hiding inside the metal dome. However, that was never true."

"The truth is, the reason you have these 10 ruling over you for the past 5 thousand years is that I have been dead for that very long."

Scarlet's words confused even more people, but they did not ask her to continue this time around as they waited for her to do so on her own, and she did.

"For the past 5 thousand years, there has been no Phoenix ruling over you. All of that was because the only phoenix that was on this continent for the past 14 thousand years was me."

"Then, when I died, my throne was left vacant for 5 thousand years."

The crowd looked at each other, trying to digest this new piece of information. They weren't sure how to process it all.

From what they had heard before, it usually sounded like the Phoenixes had abandoned them and gone into hiding. However, they were now learning that the Phoenix had died, and had then gone through rebirth.

Which was to say that she would've been their ruler, even without the ceremony to make her their ruler.

Alex watched Scarlet fully give away all the secrets that was supposed to be bad for the succession to the throne.

"I will be honest," Scarlet said. "I had no idea 5 thousand years had passed by the time I was completely done with rebirth."

"For me, it felt like I was gone for 10 years. But for you, I had gone for 5 thousand years, and all that time, the throne was empty," Scarlet said. "If you despise me for that, I would understand."

"However, I am not here to simply talk to you about what I have done wrong in the past, but rather what I will do right in the future."

"I might be strong, or I might be Immortal. But that does not mean that I will forever remain on this continent. Either it will be my time to leave, or somehow, I might die again."

"Or I might just feel bored of ruling over a bunch of humans. Whatever the case, if anything happens to me, making me unable to rule properly, you will all once again become without a ruler."

"And I do not want you to be left in such a situation ever again. So, I have decided to fix that today," Scarlet said. "I have decided to follow in the footsteps of those from the rulers from the other continent and have taken an inspiration in the way that they rule."

Alex felt a sudden coolness in his mind that he had never felt before in his life. This sort of unnatural coolness couldn't possibly be something that he was simply imagining.

So, he reached for his head to see what it was. When he did, his eyes went wide. Spiritual sense rolled out of him as he used it to check what was happening.

Then, he saw the crown.

It lay on his head.

"This is Alex," Scarlet spoke. "From today onwards, in my absence, he will be the Ruler of the Southern Continent."