"Empress Elashia... what does that mean?"
Hearing Elashia's strange statement, even Adeline, who previously didn't care about this matter at all, became curious.
"Well... regarding the gender of the human ancestor Stiel... it's actually an issue that Iron Empire historians have been debating."
"According to the Iron Empire's official position, Stiel was naturally male, because Stiel claimed to be male from birth, and she actually lived a male life throughout her lifetime..."
"But among the folk historians who have always been called 'narrative historians' by the Iron Empire people, quite a few believe that ancestor Stiel was female."
"And their reason... is actually somewhat strange."
Elashia smiled and continued:
"They only have one reason—Stiel looked like a woman."
"Looked like?"
This strange reason made everyone laugh.
Ileina joked to Elashia:
"If it's just about looks... I think probably no one in this world would mistake Little Shia for a majestic empress."
"Hahaha... exactly."
Hearing this, Dorothy laughed heartily.
After laughing, Dorothy shamelessly told everyone in the carriage about her past experience of being captured by Cecilia and brought back to Radiant Emperor City in Elasia.
"Back in Elasia... I initially didn't know that Little Shia was actually the Empress of Elasia, so after being caught by Little Shia's Military Minister and seeing Little Shia in the dungeon, I thought she had come to rescue me..."
"It wasn't until later when Elasia's Military Minister called Little Shia 'Your Majesty' in front of me that I realized—Little Shia was actually the 'Radiant Emperor' of Elasia."
"It took me quite a while to adapt to Little Shia's new persona."
"After all..."
Dorothy looked somewhat mischievously at Elashia and Ileina and smiled:
"Who could have thought that the two little girls who used to have runny noses and call me Big Sister Dorothy are now leaders of a great empire."
"Big Sister Dorothy..."
"Master..."
Being told this by Dorothy, Elashia and Ileina looked at Dorothy somewhat shyly.
Especially for Elashia, Dorothy's sudden words immediately reminded her of the feeling when elders revealed embarrassing childhood stories...
Blushing, Ileina quickly changed the subject:
"Alright... Little Shia hasn't finished talking about Stiel's gender issue."
"Yes... the story isn't finished yet."
Elashia also quickly nodded.
"Hahaha... alright, sister was indeed speaking too casually."
Seeing that both Ileina and Elashia were blushing and changing the subject, Dorothy laughed heartily and stopped her next words.
This feeling... was actually quite nice.
It made Dorothy feel like she had returned to when she was in her teens, just graduated from the orphanage, and lived together with two young girls.
Seeing that no one in the carriage was speaking anymore, Elashia quickly continued narrating:
"Anyway... Lord Stiel's gender is actually neither the male that Iron Empire official historians unanimously determined, nor the female that some folk historians claimed."
"Actually... the question of whether ancestor Stiel's gender was male or female is very complex."
"Because if we're talking physiologically, ancestor Stiel was indeed female."
"But if we're talking about gender identity... ancestor Stiel was actually male."
"Ah?" x4
Everyone in the carriage was stunned.
Especially Caroline, whose wine-red beautiful eyes trembled due to Elashia's strange words just now.
This... when she realized what she had heard, it was already too late.
"Empress Elashia... what exactly do you mean?"
Even Adeline, who usually appeared extremely calm, couldn't hide the shock in her heart when faced with Elashia's worldview-shattering words.
"Ah... sorry, it's my explanation that's the problem."
Suddenly realizing that people in this world seemed to not know the concept of gender identity, Elashia quickly explained:
"Actually, it's like this... because the demon race believed that human females matured earlier than males, they would eat many females around age twenty, while males were usually eaten at twenty-five, so to let her live a few more years, Stiel's parents always required her to pretend to be male to live longer."
"Later, when leading humanity to establish the Iron Empire, Stiel, who had always told others she was male, was afraid of causing problems and didn't dare tell her subordinates her true gender, so when the Iron Empire was founded, she kept pretending to be male..."
"Even when she died, she was unwilling to let her subordinates touch her body, fearing this secret would eventually cause problems..."
"So, Stiel, who presented as male from childhood and pretended to be male until death, always lived a male life, and over time, even though she knew she was actually female, she instinctively considered herself male."
"I see..."
Finally understanding the meaning in Elashia's earlier words, Caroline nodded with emotion again.
"Sigh... our ancestor really sacrificed almost everything for humanity..."
"A perfectly good girl, not only had to stay constantly alert to eliminate all possibilities that might threaten the country and humanity, but also had to pretend to be male her entire life for the burden on her shoulders..."
While Caroline was expressing emotion, Adeline asked Elashia with a puzzled expression:
"Empress Elashia... I don't mean to disbelieve you, but... the information you mentioned seems... a bit too specific."
This wasn't Adeline doubting Elashia, but Elashia's speech just now was indeed too specific...
It made people feel as if she had lived ten thousand years ago and lived with Stiel every day...
"Empress Elashia... may I ask where you got all this information?"
"Well..."
Elashia thought for a moment and directly told Adeline the explanation she had prepared long ago.
"Our Iron Empire has some treasures that can reproduce information from that era, and we also have the habit of valuing history, so when I was with mother, I learned these things through those treasures."
"Oh..."
Upon hearing "treasures," Adeline felt it would be somewhat impolite to ask further.
Although Elashia was like a savior with deep kindness to the Holy Kingdom, this wasn't a reason for Adeline to continue questioning.
After all... information related to treasures of this level was all state secrets... it really wouldn't be appropriate to ask further.
"Ah... I really want to meet this Empress Stiel... too bad she's already passed away."
After listening to the story Elashia told, Caroline sighed with regret.
"If she could see what the Iron Empire looks like now, she would surely be very gratified..."
Hearing Caroline's words, Elashia smiled.
"Actually... we still have a great chance to meet Empress Stiel."
"After all... although her physical body has been destroyed, her soul is still protecting humanity's future..."