Vol 5 Chapter 6

"Brando, do you remember when we were just back at Toniger, I asked you to keep track of our whereabouts, don't tell the public about it?" In the smoky room, Veronica finally opened first. mouth. Brando nodded. What happened was indeed, so Princess Griffin also had to wait until Freya arrived in Wallenburg, to learn about their good news. The injured Nimesis and his party included The wounded of the Folding Knights were also placed in Shavrund. Sister Kouhua went to Valhalla, and only a few people of Metisha Hipamil's range of activities were also confined to the castle, although on weekdays There were also people in the castle and Shire's apprentices, but in fact these people generally would not leave the castle except for the festival celebrations. Antitina even issued a strict order, at least until the harvest festival, should No news leaks.

On the princess's side, although this was a bit unkind to an older sister who cared about the safety of her brother, Veronica warned him so solemnly that he reluctantly agreed. He looked at the anxious look on Veronica's face, and for a moment he wondered if he had missed the news?

That problem may only be at the Shepherd's Hostel, but the owner of the hotel is an old subordinate of the Red Copper Dragon. The veterans who experienced the November war are absolutely reliable and are unlikely to be bought. Either the young people of the Knights of the Folding Sword are seen by interested people, but the chance is too small. Today, Gries is a business port. A large part of the merchants from south to north are Cruzs, a few young People are so inconspicuous here, not to mention they don't wear military uniforms.

Brando thought about it and finally decided to wait for Veronica to speak.

Antitina stood behind him without interruption, her eyelashes were lowered. There was an inconspicuous light flashing in the dark eyes hiding underneath, and he was also thinking about something. The smoke ring was rising inside the house, forming the shape of a mountain or a monster. Marshal Mangrove smoked the pipe one by one, and the pipe flashed dark red. He supported the pipe with his elbows on his knees. With one hand on his thigh and a coat, he stared at the sheepskin map on the lower legs without raising his head, as if there was some treasure buried there.

Veronica smiled bitterly and continued, "Do you want to know why?"

Brando shook his head: "I'm not used to exploring other people's secrets, but I know it's necessary for you and it's just a hand for me, so I'm happy to raise it."

"Thank you, Brando." Veronica nodded. Looking at him with some appreciation.

At this time Mangrove choked the pipe a few sides short, and finally raised his head. He looked at Brando up and down with the left eye, but it was strange that Brando did not see Cruz's consistent arrogance in the deep but sharp eyes, but instead It gives the feeling that the general is looking at the soldiers.

"You're fine, Mr. Count, not ashamed of your grandfather." Mangrove uttered the authentic Bankelian cruz, born in the northern part of the Four Realms. With the wild nature of Cruz northerners on his body. However, the burly veteran also commented on this, as if raising his head just for such a sentence without end. Then he bit his pipe again without a word.

Brando was almost a bit flattered, knowing that after one year in history, the other party would become the commander-in-chief of the Cruz Army, succeeding his grandfather who once served as the marshal of the coalition. His authority in the empire was only under the Empress. The Most High of the Temple of Fire was just as good as him.

"Brando. In fact, we want to keep Rainarette in your territory, and don't make the news public." Veronica hesitated again and again, finally speaking with some difficulty: "I mean, you It's better to let the outside world think he is dead, do you understand what I mean? "

Brando paused.

Court struggle. The word seemed to come to his mind naturally. A series of plots of conspiracy and strife have been rehearsed in his mind several times in a flash. The first thing he thought of was that other successors in the empire may be tempted to move after the Big Bang. After all, it is unlikely that anyone can do that. Survived the explosion, but in this case, shouldn't it be timely to announce the news that the eldest son is still alive, what is Veronica's plan for?

Could it be that there are others supported by the military and they want to imprison the Cruzs' eldest son in Tonigel forever? This idea was too dangerous. Brando was frightened by a cold sweat, but in his opinion, Lenarette's look did not seem to be the same. If so, the eldest son of the emperor should now be under house arrest.

He looked at the female legion with great suspicion.

Veronica and Mangrove exchanged a wink. The former looked very embarrassed, but the latter took off the pipe, spit out a ring of smoke, and nodded firmly to her.

"We suspect that Her Majesty wants to kill his eldest son." The head of the army commander finally said.

"What!" Brando and Antitina cried out in unison.

The two looked at each other as if they saw the shock in each other's eyes.

Antinina's eyes were incredible, and she instinctively suspected that it was a conspiracy, and she almost stood on the spot. But Brando himself was much calmer. He took a breath and forced himself to calm down and asked, "Why?"

Brando's calmness also called Veronica a high look, she replied: "You sit down first, I slowly tell you the ins and outs of this." Brando nodded, leading Antitina in Sit across from the sofa. Mangrove was still smoking a pipe, and Veronica had been brewing for a while before continuing to talk about the beginning and the whole thing. "This matter starts with the political environment of the empire. Our situation is different from yours in Eruin. During this millennium, the main problem facing the empire has always been the dispute between imperial power and religious power." She said, voice She is not ill, but she is very gentle; her eyes flash a faint green luster behind a layer of smoke, her fingers are staggered, and she lies flat on her chest, but some of the facts mentioned in her mouth are not so obvious to Brando. mysterious.

The Cruzians established their country because of the king of flames, Gilt, just like the predecessor Ek of Eruin, and Gilt, one of the four sages, left a belief for the Cruzs. He used this as a doctrine to establish the Temple of Fire. After Gilt's death, there was no such great king among the Cruzites. In the history since then, politics and religion began to gradually separate, and from that moment on. The hidden danger of the dispute between religious power and royal power was planted.

In the following thousand years of history, the dispute between the priesthood and the kingship has never stopped, but unfortunately most of the leaders of the temple of the flames are wise men, so the empire has never been divided by this kind of battle. It is just that the power of the king and the power of the religion have come one after another, as if forming a historical law. In this tide of history, the empire gradually separated several traditional forces. One is the representative of the church's interests in the secular world. The Cecil family is one of the best. The Williams who killed him is from this. Family. It is blunt to say that most of the Templars, the Cardinals of the Temple of Fire, came from these forces.

The second is the so-called imperialism. Although the empire maintains a high degree of centralization, two of the only three archduke dominions are die-hard imperialism who maintain a marriage relationship with the royal family. Among them, the Koch family of the flower-leaf collar is the representative. Archduke Kirk married the royal family for almost all generations, and almost all members circulated half of Cruz's royal blood. They are so closely related to the Cruz royal family that they can hardly distinguish one another and spoil one another. Faina, who Brando encountered in the Ring of Trade Winds, is from this family.

The third faction is the military forces. The Cruzs are still martial arts, and the military and aristocrats enjoy a very high status. The four chiefs of the empire were born from three prominent northern aristocratic families. The northern nobles in Cruz are almost synonymous with military nobles, because they are always the main enemy of the empire— The Hazels fought. As a result, prominent soldiers in the north of Bankel emerged, and most of the backbone generals in the army actually came from the major aristocratic families represented in the north by the families of Ashiriko, Nigel, and Nona. Military and aristocrats favor royalism, with the exception of the navy. Most of the imperial navy came from the rich areas of the south. These rich children usually attended church schools. Having received a higher education, he is the firmest supporter of the Temple of Fire.

The three factions are at odds with each other, no matter inside or outside, but about 150 years ago, after the death of the devout one, Lean, the sectarian authority began to decline. One hundred years ago, the Supreme Empire at the time was the prime minister in Nedervan. The power was refocused under the crown, and it should have been a new cycle afterwards; until the silver queen came to power, the queen was a relatively rare emperor in the history of the empire-she hated her mother, Ko. The Ke family also lacks trust in the imperialism, but it also hates the sectarians. She plays with power in the chapel and supports the now prominent Parut family to suppress the other two parties, but in fact she does not play this hand. Beautiful, except that Vala, the main sacrifice of the current generation of the Temple of Flame, saw the toughness and rigidity of Her Majesty's character, and took the initiative to give in to compromise-but during the reign of Constance, almost all the aristocratic forces were offended. In the last years of his life, there was nothing to end. Immediately after Lenarette's succession, he was forgotten by the world, and it did not seem to have ended.

However, Her Majesty has created a miracle, that is, she has been in the hatred of almost everyone for almost forty years, and during her forty-year ruling period, she has almost determined the empire's The center of power became her own words.

After all, the so-called queen of the iron blood is not stigmatized.

"Your Majesty is crazy," Veronica sighed. "She ordered someone to draw a map of the entire continent in her room. More than once in a private setting, her goal was to unify the entire Warnde, Cruz was near We have been intensively expanding for ten years, and we very much doubt that your Majesty wants to take the opportunity of jihad to launch a full-scale war. "

"Isn't it possible, just because of this suspicion that she will kill her son?" Brando shook his head, feeling a bit ridiculous.

"Certainly not. It would have been two or three years under the rule of His Majesty's physical condition, but it would be possible to unify Warnd within two or three years. How likely is this to Brando?"

"So you doubt she will fall in love, but can her physical condition allow it?" Brando asked suspiciously. In his memory, the Silver Queen did abdicate after two years.

"Brando, I mean 'as it was', but Her Majesty is getting younger every day, and her health and energy are recovering to the heyday of her life. Her Majesty has had an adventure when she was young, ever since After that, her face was fixed at the age of fifteen, but that only affected her appearance. This time, Her Majesty seemed to be rejuvenated from the inside out. "

Brando's first reaction was that it was impossible. After the mortals of the Warnd world came into contact with the law, they would extend their lifespan. Being like a sage, it is common to live for hundreds of years, but they have never heard of it. Someone can return to old age. Even the fountain of youth. It's just changing the appearance back to what it looked like when young, and reversing the process of life, which has violated the most basic laws.

Veronica smiled bitterly: "I knew you wouldn't believe it, but it's true. Mangrove wouldn't lie to me. Rainerette is also the heir chosen by our military. On this issue, we It is a matter of honor and shame. "

Brando was silent for a moment, and said, "So that's why she didn't want Linaret to stay in the empire?"

Veronica nodded and said a secret: "As an exchange of compromise to the Temple of Fire. Her Majesty once secretly exchanged an oral agreement with Vala, that is, fifteen years later, to pass the first order in the throne. Heirs. Fifteen years after the year of praying for fire, there is only one and a half years left. "

"In that case, wouldn't the temple of Yan's temper be chaotic by her?"

The head of the women's legion heard Brando talking about the temple, and couldn't help feeling a little bitter. She said, "It's not that simple, Brando. In fact, the reason why Walla chose to give in was because Her Majesty was standing behind the Dragon."

"Dragon?" Brando froze, and he heard the secret for the first time. Lifting his head to look at the two, Veronica was helpless, Mangrove just took a sip and then drank the pipe until the dark red light in the pipe gradually faded, then he put down the pipe, but from the coat again Take out the box containing the shredded tobacco. It seemed that he was totally absorbed in his cigarette addiction, and he didn't care about the life of the empire. The two men didn't seem to lie to him.

Veronica nodded: "We don't know the specific situation, but the Dragons really owe a bit of affection, it seems to be related to her getting an old face that year." She paused. Difficult to continue to answer: "Although it is a bit offensive to talk about Her Majesty's personal **, now I can't care much about it. Brando, in fact, Her Majesty's temperament was not like that before she became what she is today. She Previously, she was gentle and demure, and she was the most beloved princess in the empire. It can be said that she is even a star of the royal family. Even the previous high-prize had been jealous of her; but after that, , Her temperament changed drastically, becoming tough, indifferent, and self-conscious. Few people knew the truth about what happened during that time, but one thing is certain, the Dragons played a major role in the process. "

"This happened forty years ago?" Brando asked.

"Yes, after that, the Dragons secretly signed an agreement with the empire to compensate her. The content of the agreement was only known to Her Majesty the previous generation, and it was possible to prove that this agreement existed. Only the Her Majesty's succession later had Dragons. His shadow, Her Majesty is the eldest daughter of the empire, but in fact, according to Cruz's tradition, if one of the princes is capable of inheriting the throne, the eldest daughter is not eligible to become the emperor. But the emperor seemed to acquiesce to the existence of his majesty. At that time, things were said to be no small and no big, but it is said that the grand priest of the previous generation also experienced the whole process, so our descendants can't pick anything wrong. "

Brando thought for a moment, and then asked, "So, isn't it that the Dragons have appeared again?"

Veronica's gaze came, and even Mangrove's action of loading tobacco stopped, and the one-eyed old soldier stopped and gave him a deep look. Brando knew that he was right again, so he could boldly assume that the Dragon would definitely put pressure on the temple of Yan, not to mention that since Her Majesty was able to continue in power, there was no reason for the temple to force her Abdication, as for that verbal agreement, after all, it was just an verbal agreement.

Just like this.

Linaret did have a reason to die.

Brando's brow gradually tightened. He was thinking whether this was an event that happened in history or changed because of his arrival. The silver queen in "Sword of Amber" abdicated two years later. What happened in the meantime, the player at that time had not reached the height that could affect the royal decision, so no one should know the inside story, including him, the same.

But there are too many possibilities in it. It is possible that Her Majesty was so crazy at the time, but was eventually stopped by the Temple of Fire and Veronica and others, and then history was re-tracked, but what if not?

Yes, all of this is just an assumption.

He looked up and looked at Veronica and asked, "What evidence do you have to prove it all?"

"Prince Lazaire disappeared before I left the empire, along with his sister," Veronica replied quietly, but the facts described were somewhat creepy: "His Majesty is always right This matter was rather indifferent, as if he was indifferent, which aroused Mangrove's vigilance, so he took me out of the White Rose Garden by taking the name of Leonardo. ”

Razelle was the four princes of the Cruz Empire. It seems that this happened in history, but he has no idea what the final result was, which shows that it was a trivial matter at the time. After all, the conspiracy in the royal family is staggered, and it is not strange to occasionally die one or two heirs. As long as the dead is not the first heir, it is generally not too noticeable, let alone just missing. But Brando felt a little weird, and asked in confusion: "Will your Majesty agree, and she won't see it?"

Mangrove stunned his pipe and finally spoke: "It is a tradition of the empire for the heirs of the throne to go out and experience, even if they are noble like Her Majesty, they cannot be prevented without proper reasons."

Veronica also nodded and echoed: "The core of this plan is that as long as Rainerette is not dead, Her Majesty will not be able to uprightly deny the verbal agreement. Even the most orthodox heir to the throne. "

...

(Ps: Today someone ’s birthday, update it early to celebrate, 5500 words, Happy Little Tia ’s birthday, some cute goods, I am watching you silently. Chapter 2 is issued at five o'clock. Chapter Gray Fin Naga was written to flash scales, thanks for reminding.) (To be continued, please search for floating astronomy, the novel is better updated and faster!