RLQ - Chapter 5
Chapter 5: She is Unreasonable
"You are attempting to snatch a sword from fire, crossing a cliff on a rope; schemers come to a bad end," the Archbishop said as he brushed past Adele in the corridor. "You will go to hell."
Adele tucked the secret letter into her sleeve and replied to the Archbishop, "Am I not already in hell?"
Her voice was gentle, yet contained something chilling.
The Archbishop turned his head sharply. The setting sun slanted across the stone corridor. The Queen had already walked far away, her shadow stretched long. The light outlined her on one side with a dazzling contour, leaving a deep shadow on the other.
God could not save her, demons could not tempt her; she walked simultaneously in the kingdom of God and hell.
It wasn't until the Archbishop received news delivered by the Temple Knights using a special method into the Day Palace that he vaguely understood the meaning hidden in the Queen's words.
Dalton had played a trick.
While in a standoff with the rebels, he made no secret of the Yage King's offer of 200,000 for the Queen's head, openly putting on a show of potentially allying with the Yage Kingdom. The rebel nobles were forced to heavily guard the ports where the Yage fleet might land. While they were distracted, Dalton dispatched a small elite mercenary force with ten cannons, rushing them towards the capital at full speed.
These cannons were uniformly cast in bronze. When deployed, they could tear open thick city walls like iron leopards. The cannons were hidden within a lumber convoy, their presence almost undetected along the way.
It wasn't hard for the Archbishop to imagine the terrifying direction the situation would take if this batch of cannons fell into the hands of a "weapon of war" like Dalton at this moment.
Fortunately, they were intercepted by Heinrich in time. At that point, they were less than a thousand meters from the capital, a distance that sent shivers down everyone's spine.
Adele Roland was indeed a heretic who played with schemes and tricks, but even someone as pious as the Archbishop had to admit the significant contribution she made in preventing the situation from escalating further.
For a moment, the Archbishop felt a flicker of worry.
Dalton's reputation for cruelty was long-standing. If he discovered that the Queen had secretly orchestrated all of this, no one knew what he might do.
Soon, the Archbishop realized he shouldn't be worrying about a heretic while praying to God.
However, there was one thing the Archbishop didn't understand.
—How did the Queen know about Dalton's plan?
The Queen and her maid were resting in the rose garden of the Day Palace.
Out of respect for the ladies, the musketeers "protecting" the Queen stood only in the corridor and did not approach.
"They say they were intercepted in Elin Town."
Madam Kelly softly informed her mistress of the news she had gathered.
"Heinrich is always quick to act," Adele said. "Losing ten cannons at once, even the wealthy Mo'er Mercenaries must feel the pinch... Unless Dalton can come up with another large sum of money, he can forget about the mercenaries advancing another step."
"You and..." Madam Kelly hesitated, unsure if she should voice her confusion.
Adele saw her thoughts and smiled. "The Heinrich family has always wanted to monopolize the wool export industry from the Rose Strait to the Bay of Heaven. The root cause of their participation in the mutiny lies there—the royal family previously passed a protection law for the wool guild. But the Yage Kingdom and the Heinrich family have always been fierce competitors in this area. When I promised to pardon them and grant them armed merchant ship licenses, they knew what choice they should make."
A gust of wind blew through, the trees and flower bushes rustling with blossoms. The Queen half-reclined, leisurely propping herself up on her elbow, casually flipping through a book.
It was still hot in Roland in late July. On occasions where political authority didn't need to be displayed, Adele didn't wear the elaborate gowns adorned with pearls, but only a relatively loose white silk dress. Light filtered through the leaves, dappling her like stars, decorating her graceful curves.
Despite this, the topic they discussed was full of bloodshed and ruthlessness.
"As for Dalton..." Adele smiled. "People always have to pay the price for their arrogance and prejudice."
Dalton had made a fatal mistake.
Out of political consideration, he had granted the Queen "freedom" to move around the castle.
These past few days, the Queen often went up to the castle tower to clear her head. For a lady under house arrest, this behavior wasn't unusual. But she used this opportunity to carefully observe the changes in the guards at each battlement, deducing his plan.
If the one imprisoned had been a king instead of a queen, Dalton might not have made this mistake... Admittedly, he already paid enough attention to Adele, but the prejudice of the era still limited his thinking: people believed women were mentally fragile, and their lack of wisdom and will made them merely appendages to men.
No one had ever imagined that a woman could be skilled in military matters.
She wore no armor, but carried swords in her heart.
"He is a smart man. If he negotiates now, he can still use his merit for quelling the rebellion to suppress the nobles. He knows what he should do," the Queen said with a smile, flipping the pages, speaking cold and cruel words. "If he isn't smart enough, then let him continue, force him to be smart."
Dalton's rage swept through the castle like a storm.
The mercenaries refused to advance. After hearing about the incident, the King of Yage instantly changed his original attitude, becoming aggressive as if the Roland throne was already within his grasp. If Dalton wanted to secure greater benefits, he could only reconcile with the nobles—the rebels had sent out a signal for negotiation.
From the adjutant to the staff officers, everyone involved in the plan was subjected to a strict investigation. Dalton searched high and low for a traitor.
He found nothing.
As Dalton's long boots stepped on the stone surface, almost no one in the entire castle dared to meet the gaze of the enraged man. He fingered the flintlock pistol at his waist, running through many names in his mind... One name quickly flashed through his mind.
He caught it.
Adele Roland.
This suspicion was almost absurd compared to others... Dalton never underestimated the Queen's appeal to men, which was why even those protecting her were not allowed to get too close, let alone personnel involved in military matters.
But Dalton always valued his intuition.
He walked along the corridor, gripping the gun handle, and went straight to the garden. The icy expression on his face was enough to make one mistake oneself for having entered hell.
However, after passing through the marble archway, the rose garden of the kingdom of God suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Under the laurel tree were small shrubs and flower beds carefully pruned by the gardener, with flowers of varying shades and intensities blooming among the lush foliage. The Queen, wearing a loose white silk dress, half-reclined in the shadow of the rose bushes. Above her head were brightly colored red roses, their petals falling on her moonlight-like curly hair, on her waist and shoulders undulating like willow branches. She languidly propped up her beautiful face, flipping through an open illustrated book, softly talking about something with the maid beside her.
For a moment, Dalton believed the stories depicted in holy paintings were real, that the Virgin Mary truly would tell beautiful stories to souls that had gained salvation in the rose garden of the kingdom of God.
The air was filled with sweet floral scent, so thick it felt like a dream.
Before Dalton could react, he had stood there for a moment, until the Queen looked over towards him.
She had just been saying something to the Head Maid, and there was still a slight smile on her lips.
Dalton released his hand pressing on the gun handle.
He stepped onto the grass as soft as a thick carpet and walked towards the Queen. The Head Maid stood up and moved away.
The afternoon air was languid. Seeing Dalton approach, Adele languidly raised a hand so white it almost glowed, allowing Dalton to kneel down and kiss her arm, without getting up herself.
"Why are you here?" Adele asked. "Our General is actually appearing in a place where women stay?"
Dalton knew she was teasing him.
He came from a commoner background and was unwelcome in garden settings where nobles liked to relax. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he simply rarely entered such places. This became another piece of evidence that he was unromantic and uncultured.
"Our mercenaries were intercepted," Dalton said, not missing any slight change in the Queen's expression. "Someone leaked the news to your dear mentor, Mr. Heinrich."
"Are you suspecting me?"
Adele sat up, her sharp gaze falling directly into Dalton's eyes.
"You have deep affection for Mr. Heinrich..."
A crisp sound.
The Queen's slap was fierce and fast, and she used all her strength, even the "weapon of war" was slapped so hard his head turned sharply. Dalton didn't understand what had happened at first, his face already burning hot. The moment he realized, he almost immediately reached for his gun.
Madam Kelly, who had retreated to a distance, screamed and was about to rush forward.
"Stay there, Kelly," the Queen ordered sternly.
The rage from being slapped hard did not diminish, but Dalton barely regained a shred of reason. Adele's command instead reminded him that the person before him was the Queen of Roland, his most important chess piece. To lose her like this would be too wasteful.
"Come on, shoot," Adele said. "Shoot now."
When he met Adele's eyes, his rage had a momentary blank.
"Fine!"
Adele gritted her teeth, the lines of her face becoming cold, hard, and sharp. Yet, at some point, tears welled up in her eyes. Those beautiful eyes were like roses washed by a heavy rain.
"Someone should see what Roland's most outstanding military genius is truly like! I trusted your talent and ability, I trusted your reputation and courage, I trusted that you were invincible, and therefore stayed here without questioning or interfering. Not only did you fail to bring me the crown of victory, yet you want the caged bird to bear the blame for defeat?"
The languor brought by the afternoon rest was swept away from the Queen. She was furious yet with teary eyes.
"Tell me! Tell me!"
Her voice was indignant with disappointment.
"Mr. Most Outstanding Military Genius! Is this how you earned your reputation?"
Comments
Post a Comment