The Amber Sword

“Brando, you remember when we first got back to Tony Gale, and I told you to keep our whereabouts secret, not to go public?” In the smoky house, Veronica finally opened her mouth. Brando nodded, and it was true that something was going on, so Princess Griffin waited for Freya to arrive in Valentinburg to find out how well they were doing. The injured Knights of the Nimaisies, including the Folding Knights, were also placed in Schafflund, the Coward sisters went to Valhalla, and there were a few fewer people in Metisa Hipamila who were mostly confined to the castle. Although there were also people in the castle who met with Charles' apprentices on weekdays, in fact these people would not leave the castle except for the festivities. Antitina gave strict orders, at least until the Harvest Festival, they should not have missed the news.

On the princess's side, although this was somewhat of a pity for a sister who cared about her brother's safety, Veronica was so solemn when she warned him that he could barely agree to it. He looked at Veronica's anxiety and looked slightly stunned, thinking maybe he had leaked the news?

That problem could only arise on the side of the Shepherd's Hostel, but the owner of the hotel was the old man of the Red Copper Dragon, a veteran who had experienced the November war, of absolute reliability and unlikely to be bought. Or the young people of the Knights of the Folds were seen by the conscious, but the odds were too small. Today Gris is a business port, and a large part of the businessmen from the north to the south are the Krutz. A few young people are really amazing in here, not to mention they are not wearing military uniforms.

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

Antitina stood behind him without a word, her eyelashes drooping low, hiding the light that was not obvious in her dark eyes beneath her, and thinking about what. Cigarette rings are rising inside the house, forming mountains or monsters. Marshal Mangrove is smoking the pipe one after the other, and the pipe flashes in dark red. He holds the pipe with one hand on his elbow branch on his knee, one hand on his thigh, wearing a coat, and he does not look up at the sheepskin map on the short few, as if there was some treasure buried on it.

Veronica smiled and went on to say, "Do you want to know why? ”

Brando shook his head: “I'm not used to prying into other people's secrets, but I know this is necessary for you, and it's just a show of hands for me, so I'm happy to raise my hand. ”

“Thank you, Brando.” Veronica nodded and looked at him with some appreciation.

At this point, Mangrove kowtowed the pipe on the short side and finally raised his head. He weighed Brando down with the remaining left eye, but something strange was that Brando did not see the Krutzian's constant arrogance in that deep but sharp eyeball, but rather gave the impression that the general was measuring soldiers.

“You're all right, Count, I didn't embarrass your grandfather.” Mangrove speaks authentic Bankrutz, born in the wild north of the Four Kingdoms, with the wildness of the Krutz North. But that's how the old soldier evaluated it, as if looking up just to say it without a head or a tail, and then he bit the pipe again, without a bottom.

Brando was almost flattered to learn that after a year in history, the other side would become Commander of the Cruz Wan Army, succeeding his grandfather in the position of Marshal of the Allied Coalition. He could say that under the Empire alone, the Supreme One of the Temple of Fire would sit on an equal footing with him.

“Brando, in fact, we want Leonarette to stay in your territory and don't publish this information to the public.” Veronica hesitated again and again and finally said with some difficulty, "I mean, you better let the outside world think he's dead, you know what I mean? ”

Brando stayed put for a while.

Palace struggle. The word seemed to come naturally into his mind. A series of plot and contention plots had been rehearsed in his mind several times a moment. The first thing he thought about was that after the Big Bang, other subordinate heirs in the Empire might have moved in silly ways. After all, in the eyes of outsiders, it was unlikely that anyone would survive that kind of explosion. But in that case, should the news that the Prince was still alive be released soon? Veronica, what's the plan?

Did the military support someone else who wanted to imprison the Croatian prince forever in Tonigal? The idea was too dangerous, and Brando was frightened by a cold sweat, but it didn't seem to him that Leonard was the same, and if it were true, the Crown Prince would have been under house arrest by now.

He looked at the female Legion Leader with great hesitation.

Veronica and Mangrove exchanged a look, the former's divine colour seemed very difficult, but the latter took off the pipe, threw up a cigarette ring and nodded firmly to her.

“We suspect His Majesty the Queen of trying to kill his eldest son.” The head of the women's regiment finally spoke.

“What!” Brando and Antina called out in unison.

They looked at each other as if they had seen the shock in each other's eyes.

Antitina was incredible and instinctively suspected that it was a conspiracy and she was almost on the spot. But Brando himself had to calm down a lot, and he took a slight breath and forced himself to calm down and ask, “Why? ”

Brando calmed down and asked Veronica to take a look, and she said, "Sit down and I'll tell you what's going on here.” Brando nodded and led Antina to sit across the sofa. Mangrove was still smoking the pipe, and Veronica was brewing for a moment before continuing to talk about the beginning and the course of the whole thing. “This matter begins in the political environment of the Empire, where our situation is different from yours, Eruin, and during this millennium the main problem facing the Empire has always been the dispute between imperial and religious power.” She said that the voice was not slow and seemed very flat; her eyes glistened with a faint green glow behind a layer of smoke, her fingers staggered and flat on her chest, but some of the facts mentioned in her mouth did not actually sound so mysterious to Brando.

The Krutz founded their nation because of Gilt, the king of flames, just like King Ecker and Eruin, and Gilt, one of the four wise men, left a faith in the Krutz, who created the Temple of Flame as a doctrine. After Gilt's death, there was never such an extraordinary king among the Krutz, and then in history, the rule began to separate, and from this moment on, the danger of a dispute between the Church and the King was buried.

In the history of the millennium that followed, the struggle between the Church and the Crown remained unceasing, but unfortunately the rulers of the Temple of Fire were mostly wise generations, and the Empire had never been divided by such a struggle. It's just that the kingdom and the denomination have come together, as if a historical rule had been formed. During this great tide of history, the Empire gradually separated several traditional forces, first of all the representatives of the Church's interests in the secular world, of which the Cecil family was the leader, from which Williams was murdered, and from which, quite frankly, the majority of the Knights of the Holy See, the Cardinal Bishops of the Temple of Fire, came.

The second is the so-called imperial power, although the Empire maintains a high degree of centralization, but two of the only three Grand Duke autonomous domains are the hard-line imperialists who maintain a marital relationship with the Royal Family, represented by the Kirk family of flower leaf collars. The Grand Duke Kirk has been married to the Royal Family for generations. Almost half of the members of the Royal Blood of the Kruse flow. They are related to the Kruse royal family, almost indiscriminately and spoiled. It is this family that Brando met in the ring of letters and winds.

And the third party, it's the military. The Krutz are martial, the military nobility enjoys a very high status, the four commanders of the Empire originate from three distinguished northern nobility families, and the northern nobility is almost synonymous with the military nobility in Krutz, because of the years of fighting with the most important enemy of the Empire - the Hazers - the distinguished servicemen of the area north of Bankel, and the fact that most of the cadre generals in the army come from the large nobility families represented by the Azhirico, Nigel and Nona families in the north. Military nobility is biased towards imperial power, with the exception of the navy, where the majority of the imperial navy comes from the affluent regions of the South. These wealthy sons, who generally attend church schools and are more highly educated, are themselves the most determined clusters of the Temple of Fire.

The three factions quarreled with each other, nothing more than internal and external matters, but about 150 years ago, since the death of the pious Ryan, the teachings began to be weak. A hundred years ago, with the help of Chancellor Nederweyne, the then Supreme Empire refocused its power under the crown, and then it was supposed to be a new cycle; until the Silver Queen came to power, the Queen herself was one of the few in the history of the Empire. The emperor she met - she hated the Kirk family from her mother and lacked trust in the imperial faction, but also abhorred the denominational sect. She played power in the chapel and helped the now illustrious Paloot family to crush the other two sides, but in fact she didn't play very well with this hand, except that Wara, the great priest of the Temple of Fire generation, saw the strength of Her Majesty's character. With Cong, he chose to surrender and compromise - but while Constance was in office, almost all the aristocratic forces were offended, and the last years didn't end well, as if they had been forgotten by the world soon after Leonarette's succession.

Nevertheless, Her Majesty created a miracle that she had been in the throes of almost all hatred for almost forty years, and that during her forty years in power, she had been completely arbitrary, turning the centre of power of the Empire into her own monologue.

The so-called Iron Blood Queen, after all, is not a false name.

“Her Majesty has gone mad," Veronica sighed: "She ordered people to draw a map of the entire continent in her room. More than once, in private, she has stated that her goal is to reunify the whole of Warnde. Cruz has been expanding his army vigorously for almost a decade, and we very much doubt that His Majesty wants to take the opportunity of jihad to wage a full-scale war. ”

“Isn't that possible, because you suspect she'll kill her own son?” Brando shook his head and felt a bit of a nightmare.

“Of course not, there were two or three years left in the reign in His Majesty's health, but how likely do you think it would be to unite Warnde within two or three years? ”

“So you suspect she won't be able to go to the pavilion, but is her condition permissible?” Brando wonders, in his memory, that the Silver Queen did step down two years later.

“Brando, I mean ‘would have’, but His Majesty is getting younger every day, and her health and energy are recovering to the height of her life. Her Majesty had an unexpected encounter at a young age, and since then her face has been set at fifteen years of age, but that only affects her appearance, this time it seems that she has been rejuvenated from within and out. ”

Brando's first reaction was that it was impossible, that after the Warndor world mortals had come into contact with the law, they would extend their life, as if they were wise men, and that it was common to live for hundreds of years, but had never heard of anyone who could return to old age and return children. Even the fountain of youth is merely a return to the way it was when it was young, and the process of reversing life 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, and Leonarette is our military's chosen heir, and we are honored and united on this issue. ”

Brando silenced for a moment and said, "So that's why she doesn't want Leonard to remain in the Empire? ”

Veronica nodded and said a secret word: "In exchange for the Temple of Fire compromise, His Majesty had secretly exchanged an oral agreement with Walla that, fifteen years later, he would pass on the first-in-line successor to the throne. Fifteen years after the year of prayer, it is only a year and a half away. ”

“In that case, would the Temple of Fire be messed up by her nature? ”

The head of the women's regiment heard Brando speak of the temple and couldn't bear some emotion, she said: "It's not that simple, Brando. In fact, the reason Walla chose to back off was because His Majesty stood behind the Dragon Nation. ”

“Dragons?” Brando, for the first time, heard the secret, looked up at the two of them, Veronica looked helpless, Mangrove was just smoking the pipe one after the other, until the dark red light in the pipe gradually dimmed, he put down the pipe, but took out the box of tobacco wire from the coat, as if he was focused on his smoking addiction, and didn't care about the Empire's death. These two guys don't look like they're lying to him.

Veronica nodded: “We don't know much about the situation, but the Dragons do owe His Majesty a debt of gratitude, which seems to have something to do with her immortality back then.” She stopped and went on with some embarrassment: "Although this discussion of His Majesty's personal privacy is somewhat offensive, it cannot be taken into account at this time. Brando, in fact, His Majesty was not like this before she became what she is today. Her former character was gentle and quiet, she was the most beloved princess in the empire, and even the royal star could not be said to be excessive. Even the last generation of the high priesthood had added to her blue eyes; but after that experience, her personality changed dramatically, becoming tough, indifferent and self-serving. Few people knew the truth about what had happened during that time, but one thing was certain: the dragons played a major role in it. ”

“This happened 40 years ago?” Brando asked.

“Yes, and then the Dragons secretly made a pact with the Empire to compensate her. The contents of the covenant were known only to His Majesty the previous generation of emperors, and only to the extent that the covenant existed, was the shadow of the Dragons throughout the succession of His Majesty the Queen. His Majesty was the eldest daughter of the Empire, but in fact, according to the tradition of Cruz, if one of the princes was capable of succeeding to the throne, the eldest daughter would not be eligible to be the Emperor. But the first emperor seemed to acquiesce to His Majesty's presence, which at the time was small and big, but it was said that the previous generation of high priests also went through the whole process, so that our descendants could not make any mistakes. ”

Brando thought about it and asked: "So, is it possible that the Dragons are here again? ”

Veronica revealed an exciting look and even Mangrove stopped loading tobacco. The old one-eyed soldier stopped and took a deep look at him. Brando understood that he was right again, so he could boldly assume that the Dragons must have put pressure on the Temple of Fire. Besides, since Her Majesty was able to remain in power, there was no reason for the Temple to force her to withdraw from office. As for the oral agreement, after all, it was only an oral agreement.

Just like that.

Leonarette did have a reason to die.

Brando's eyebrows gradually locked up, and he was thinking about whether this was something that was already happening in history or a history that had changed as a result of his arrival, and what happened between the Silver Queen in Amber Sword stepping back after two years, when the players hadn't reached the height that could influence the royal decision, so nobody should know what was inside, including him, either.

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

Yeah, it's all just hypothetical.

He looked up and asked Veronica, "What evidence do you have to prove this? ”

“Before I left the empire, Prince Razel disappeared, along with his sister,” Veronica replied quietly, but the facts described were somewhat creepy: "His Majesty was always quite indifferent to the matter, as if indifferent, which aroused Mangrove's alarm, which is why he took him out of White Rose Garden under the guise of taking Leonard's experience. ”

Lazer, the four princes of the Cruz Empire, seemed to have happened in history, but he couldn't remember what the end result was, which meant that it was a small thing at the time. After all, it is not surprising that a conspiracy in the royal family is staggered, but occasionally one or two heirs die. As long as the death is not the first successor, it will not attract much attention, let alone just disappear. But Brando felt a little strange and questioned, “How can your queen agree that she can't see? ”

Mangrove kowtowed the pipe and finally opened his mouth: “The successor to the throne has been practicing outside the house, a tradition which the Empire has always had, even the noble Queen, cannot prevent without just cause. ”

Veronica nodded and said, “At the heart of this plan is that as long as Leonarette is not dead, His Majesty will not be able to acknowledge the verbal covenant, and as long as she does, Leonarette will be the most orthodox heir to the Empire's throne. ”

……

(PS: It's someone's birthday, update it early to celebrate, 5500 words, Happy Birthday Tia, some adorables, I'm watching you in silence. Chapter 2 is posted at 5: 00. Thank you for reminding me that a previous chapter of Greyfin Nagar came out flashing.