"It is such a great honor for you to be received by His Majesty," said Roy.
He happily led Lin Yuan all the way into the gate of the White Pagoda.
"Xiao Yuan, are you nervous? Are you excited?"
Lin Yuan: “…”
"Her Majesty has rarely appeared in public in recent years, and has rarely received outsiders. I didn't expect that she would summon you." Roy mentioned the queen with a sincere look of admiration and love. He even envied Lin Yuan.
"Oh my god, I really hope I can have such an opportunity to see His Majesty's holy ceremony up close. If such a day comes, I will be so nervous that I will faint."
"Haven't you met Her Majesty the Queen either?" Lin Yuan was a little surprised.
Roy is the head of the Special Research Department. Although the Special Research Department is a pension department, a department with the word "special" at the beginning is at least directly under the Queen. Roy has never met the Queen in person.
"Of course, Your Majesty is not someone you can see easily." Roy looked at Lin Yuan with some resentment.
"Even members of the royal family with royal blood rarely get the opportunity to meet His Majesty. Officials of my rank have only seen His Majesty's holy ceremony from a distance."
The White Pagoda is a building that covers a very large area, and the area at the bottom is almost as large as a small village.
Lin Yuan grew up inside the White Tower and had only been active on the lower few floors of the tower.
This time she followed Roy, swiping her ID card as the head of the Queen's department, and took the exclusive elevator all the way up.
Looking out through the transparent elevator car, the view on each floor of the White Tower is quite different.
Lin Yuan saw the Guide Academy where he had lived since childhood, the busy research institute where people in white coats came in and out, the arsenal filled with large military equipment, the training base for the sentries of the Royal Guard, and even the farms with greenhouses where various crops were grown.
There is no sunlight inside the White Tower, but the artificial ceilings on each floor are lit with fluorescent lamps that imitate sunlight, making the towers as bright as day. It also has an internal circulation ventilation and water purification system.
As we take the elevator up one floor at a time, the entire White Tower looks like a miniature human society, condensing all the functions needed for human continuation.
The higher you go, the more exquisite and magnificent the scenery becomes.
On the upper floors of the White Tower, you will find the center of imperial power, where ministers work and royal family members live.
The environment became more luxurious and sophisticated, with exquisite gardens and clear pools everywhere, supplemented by gorgeous decorations, sculptures of the queen's head and majestic imperial symbols.
The elevator finally stopped after a long ascent. Luther, the chief of the Royal Guard, was waiting here, and replaced Roy to lead Lin Yuan up on foot.
There is no elevator from here. To show respect to the supreme ruler of the empire, visitors must walk.
A pure white staircase winds its way up the interior of the White Tower.
The steps are white, neat, solemn, and so long that one can hardly see the end.
Lin Yuan held up her skirt and followed Luther, walking up the stairs.
"How is it? Are you still able to walk?" The leading sentry turned around and asked.
Lin Yuan nodded slightly.
She used to live in the White Tower, where obedience and pampering were highly valued. Like most guides, she had a weak constitution and slender limbs.
After going in and out of the battlefields over the past year and exercising regularly, her physical fitness has improved a lot.
Climbing this short staircase was nothing for her now. In the contaminated area, she would have run all the way up such a long staircase.
Luther watched the young guide following behind him walking up the stairs for a long time. He was still neatly dressed and calm. He performed much better than he had imagined, even better than the nobles he usually brought up.
Then he smiled at Lin Yuan and said, "You will see His Majesty soon. His Majesty is a gentle and generous person. You don't need to be too nervous. Just be respectful."
Lin Yuan had met the highest commander of the Royal Guard before, on the night of the murder at the Earl's Mansion.
Lin Yuan still remembered that the sentinel commander was full of disgust and impatience towards the nobles present. At that time, she could clearly feel the fierceness and majesty of this top sentinel of the empire.
But at this moment, at the top of the White Tower, close to where Her Majesty the Queen was, the officer's aura became very gentle.
Gentle, peaceful, and full of admiration and love for Your Majesty.
The feeling he gave Lin Yuan was completely different from that night outside the White Tower in the Earl's Mansion.
Lin Yuan couldn't help but start to wonder what kind of person that mysterious majesty, the queen who had ruled the empire for so many years, was.
"What kind of person is your Majesty?" Ji Xuan smiled and looked at Ni Ji beside him, "Why do you think of asking me this?"
Ji Xuan, the adjutant of the Royal Guard, was walking with Ni Ji in a long corridor on the upper floors of the White Tower.
"To be honest, I have never actually met Her Majesty the Queen." Ji Xuan said, "Her Majesty has rarely received outsiders in recent years."
Ni Ji hummed softly, "I think that Commander Luther is so loyal to Your Majesty. Her Majesty must be an elder with great charisma."
Ji Xuan pushed his glasses on his nose, and after a moment, he said in an ambiguous tone, "Lao Lu didn't have this kind of personality before. Since he was promoted to the highest commander of the Royal Guard and received an audience with the Queen, he seems to have changed a lot."
Ni Ji glanced at his boss. He felt that Ji Xuan had something else in his words, as if he wanted to say something to him.
But their friendship was not that deep yet, so Ji Xuan kept the rest.
He had been with Ji Xuan for a while and could feel Ji Xuan's attempts to test and win him over.
At the same time, he also noticed that this adjutant of the Royal Guard was subtly different from others, as if there were some unknown secrets beneath his ordinary appearance.
"The person you're going to meet later is the Minister of Finance." Ji Xuan explained to Ni Ji, "He has royal blood, noble status, and high power. You must be careful not to provoke him."
He glanced at Ni Ji and added in a low voice, "That guy has a very bad character. If anything happens, you must be patient and follow my instructions."
The two walked through a gorgeous corridor, covered in gold foil and inlaid with gemstones. At the end of the corridor was the finance minister's office.
When I pushed open the door, I found that the interior of the room was extremely gaudy, with palaces and jewels, magnificent gold and jade, luxurious and soft, and it didn't look like an office at all.
Velvet curtains hung from the roof, and the air was filled with a sweet fragrance.
When Ni Ji smelled the smell, he recalled a very bad memory and held his breath. With the sentinel's physical fitness, he could hold his breath for a long time. He found that Ji Xuan seemed to have done the same thing as him.
There was no one behind the huge desk inlaid with gold and jade.
The portly Minister of Finance was reclining on a jade-carved chaise longue, sniffing the sweet fragrance wafting from the golden incense burner in front of him with a look of enjoyment.
Seeing Ji Xuan coming in with some documents, he glanced at him with disgust, his fat body motionless.
Ji Xuan squatted beside the couch and asked him to sign his name on the document.
The Minister of Finance glanced at it casually and said, "You are so generous with so much money. You don't know how to save money for the empire."
"You always say that. This needs money, that needs money, who can think for me?" The fat nobleman leaning on the warm couch snorted, "Did you get what I asked you to get? Without that thing, my incense will be gone."
Ji Xuan was in a dilemma. "There are not many Nether Stones left in the world. We can only find them by going deep into the contaminated area 338. Every time we go into that place, many soldiers lose their lives."
"It's just a few sentinels. I'll pay for their compensation," the minister said dissatisfiedly. "They are a bunch of useless guys. I heard that even the guide can easily open the contaminated area. If it doesn't work, send the guide again."
Isn't it just the lives of a few sentries? The official lying on the upper floor of the White Tower said lightly with his fat lips.
Ni Ji saw that Ji Xuan still had a smile on his face, but that smile was only on the surface. His eyes were cold and his fists hanging at his sides were clenched quietly.
He could easily understand Ji Xuan's feelings at the moment. Every captain who had led a team to a contaminated area could understand.
He remembered the look of every soldier as they died in the contaminated area, how their blood turned cold, and the tears that rolled down their eyes before they died.
Those intense sorrows, in the mouth of this powerful man living in the White Tower, turned into a few light pensions.
Ni Ji put his fingers behind his back and clenched them quietly, and there seemed to be still the heat of the blood there.
He recalled the time in the Golden Tree Contaminated Area when he was holding the frail guide in his arms, and the blood flowing from her body could not be stopped. The hot blood seemed to still stain his fingers and engrave into his bones.
She lay in her arms and told herself that this polluted area was too dark and she wanted to destroy it.
The thing she risked her life to save turned into a joke in the mouth of this man.
The Minister of Finance noticed Ni Ji, opened his narrowed eyes, and looked at Ni Ji.
That gaze was like a snake's tongue, cold and sticky, and it looked at Ni Ji from head to toe without any scruples.
He was not looking at a person, but just a lowly sentinel, an object that could be consumed at their will.
Ni Ji lowered his eyelashes calmly, with no expression on his face.
"The new sentinel in the Royal Guard? He has a pretty face, but he's a little too tall. He's not my type."
Finally, the man said with a hint of regret, and reluctantly stretched out his fat hand to sign Ji Xuan's grant application, and told Ji Xuan to get him the ingredients for the spices.
Leaving the extravagant house, Ji Xuan and Ni Ji walked quietly in the gold-leafed corridor for a long time without saying a word.
"Do you hate these people?" Ji Xuan, who was walking in front, suddenly said softly.
Ni Ji, who was following behind, seemed not to have heard anything and remained silent.
Ji Xuan didn't look back, and lowered his voice, "I've checked your resume, and I know you hate this person."
After a long moment, the sentry behind him replied, "In the past, I hated one or two people. But now I feel that such hatred is meaningless—it is not the individual who is corrupt."
He didn't say the rest of his sentence.
Ji Xuan stopped walking and turned to look at him. Under the thin lenses, his eyes were bright and lively, with a hidden spark.
He understood what Ni Ji didn't say.
It's not just one or two people that are corrupt, it's the entire empire.
There is no point in killing one or two imperial officials. This entire pure white tower is black from the top of the tower.
Lin Yuan stood at the top of the White Tower and saw the highest authority in the empire, the legendary queen.
His Majesty has been in control of the empire for many years, and Lin Yuan thought he would see a white-haired old man.
But the emperor sitting on the throne, wearing a crown and with a veil covering half of his face, did not look as old as imagined.
For the first time, Lin Yuan felt that his tentacles were not functioning properly.
Before her eyes, in the spacious and clean hall, the throne of the empire stood majestically. It seemed as if holy light was falling from the top of the tower, covering the throne that looked like porcelain and jade, pure white and flawless.
There was someone sitting on the throne, but she felt nothing.
I don't know whether the other party is strong or weak, I don't know her age or mental state, I can't detect her emotions, and I can't even tell whether she is a sentinel or a guide, or just an ordinary person.
She can't be an ordinary person. Ordinary people at least wouldn't be so emotionless.
It could only be that it was too powerful, so powerful that Lin Yuan was unable to test it.
Luther knelt devoutly before the throne, held up the queen's hand and kissed it.
"Let the child come to me." The queen's gentle voice sounded from the throne.
Lin Yuan subconsciously wanted to take a step back. A strange feeling surged in his heart.
She had never experienced this feeling before.
Maybe it should be called fear, but it also feels like yearning.
I feel like escaping, but I also feel like getting closer.
The throne bathed in holy light, pure white and full of mystery, seemed to have a strange attraction to her.
It made her feel scared, but at the same time she wanted to go up and take a look and touch it.
"Don't be nervous, come to me." The queen on the throne stretched out her hand to Wang Linyuan.
The voice was gentle, and the tentacles detected a sentiment of tenderness and fondness.
At least the sentiment is genuine and contains no malice.
Lin Yuan followed his instructions and walked forward to the throne that was as pure white as bone china.
On the throne, the queen's red lips beneath her veil showed a slight smile. She reached out and held Lin Yuan's hand.
"You're a lovely child. Seeing you reminds me of your mother."
(End of this chapter)