The silver light jumped.
The black-haired guard pulled out the sword at his waist in the nick of time, and blocked the archbishop's fatal blow with the vine-shaped metal gauntlet. Archbishop Rodri's reaction was equally quick. With a flick of his wrist, the Hidden Blade slid away like a poisonous snake, and stabbed at the pretender from another tricky angle.
Even though Archbishop Rodrik always wears a monk's smock on weekdays, don't forget that, as the former deputy head and current head of the Knights Templar, he is definitely not as easy to deal with as he seems on the surface.
"It's surprising," the infiltrator disguised as a guard didn't panic about revealing his identity. He responded to Archbishop Rodri's attack while teasing, "When did the Knights of the Temple use the weapons of the assassins?"
The archbishop's answer was a dangerous gleam.
"Wait!" The sound of fighting attracted the nearby guards. Seeing that several muskets were aimed at himself and the archbishop, the man hurriedly retreated and shouted loudly, "I have no malicious intentions!"
"Stop it all."
Adele interrupted the farce, watching from the sidelines until now, she can almost guess the identity of the pretender.
Archbishop Rodrik frowned disapprovingly, still looking vigilantly at the pretender who sneaked in. The latter dropped the sword as soon as the Queen spoke, stuck it to the wall without any psychological pressure, and actively raised his hands.
The Archbishop retreated to the Queen's side, but still did not put away the Hidden Blade.
"I think you should come to see me." Adele said, she looked at the special visitor in front of her, "Mr. Saran Dray."
The notorious pirate leader immediately showed a smile. He was full of unscrupulous arrogance, even if he was pointed at by a dozen muskets, he could whistle frivolously. He ignored Archbishop Rodri's Hidden Blade pointing at him, and brazenly said:
"Thanks to my good brother, you have heard my name, this is the greatest honor in my life."
Dalton, who came in a hurry, just heard this sentence, and almost pulled out his gun directly to fulfill his duties as a former navy.
— Fuck "good bro".
"Thanks to this gentleman for discovering the omission of the patrol team for me." Dalton said with a half-smile, then turned and bowed to the queen, "As the commander of the knights, for making such a serious omission in your safety, It was my fault. Please allow me to keep this person for questioning."
The word "interrogation" sounds rather gnashing of teeth.
"Hey Hey hey!"
Captain Raven, who threw away his sword, showed an expression of disbelief.
Adele pondered, her eyes moved between Dalton and Saran, and then said softly: "I hope you will remember this lesson, Mr. Drey."
After finishing speaking, she nodded towards Archbishop Rodri, and walked away without delay.
Captain Saran looked at Dalton, and asked innocently and aggrievedly: "Is my appearance not interesting enough? Not impressive enough? How could she treat me like this? She deserves to be—"
Dalton gave a weird smile.
The next moment, he gave the villain a solid old punch.
……………
"With all due respect, Your Majesty." Archbishop Rodri pursed his lips, with a bit of unhappiness that he didn't realize, "Cooperating with pirates is not a good choice, especially the notorious pirate group 'Raven'. They have always been famous for their rebelliousness, and it is hard to believe that such people can accomplish any tasks faithfully."
"You are right, Monsieur Bishop." Adele replied, "An extraordinary person always has something to be proud of."
The brief episode just now had obviously made the Queen have her own judgment.
No wonder Dalton was particularly reluctant when he wrote the letter. While the captain of the Raven Pirates was extremely skilled, he was also extremely conceited and proud. It didn't take much effort for the Queen to guess the purpose of his ostentatious entry into the Summer Palace—he wanted to assess his future service targets with his own eyes.
Perhaps there is also some intention to show off one's own abilities.
Unfortunately, what this Mr. Pirate didn't know was that even if he had fooled Archbishop Rodriguez, what greeted him would not be the queen's admiration, but the bullet of "Little Rose".
— Archbishop Rodri once personally experienced the Queen's sensitivity.
In fact, Adele didn't mind how Saran Dray, the Mr. Pirate, appeared in front of her. She doesn't care much about the cumbersome etiquette of the court, and she doesn't care whether he will be loyal to her - Heinrich's years of teaching still left some things for the queen. Compared with those hypocritical things, she pays more attention to reality.
As long as this Mr. Pirate can successfully open the trade door of the New World for her, then she doesn't care what reason he has to work for her.
However, she did not stop Dalton from taking him for "interrogation".
The reason is simple, no matter what, she is the ruler of this empire, the queen of this empire. She doesn't mind that talented people retain their arrogance and arrogance, but she must not give people the impression that offending the majesty of the king can go unpunished in public.
For the monarch, that would be very fatal.
"The 'Raven' pirate group is active near the port of Cohemia, which is the meeting point of the trade between the Tuva Dynasty and the Root Empire." Adele thought deeply, "They hope to become an alliance more than we do. Cooperation, otherwise, after the Root Empire withdraws from the dispute with Yager, they will face the encirclement and suppression of the Root Navy."
"As a matter of fact, the Root Empire has been besieging the 'Raven' pirates five years ago."
Archbishop Rodrik knew more, because the Raven Pirates had a little feud with the Temple Knights.
It is very realistic that, out of livelihood or greed, there will be pirates in almost every sea area where merchant ships come and go, especially after the age of sailing. In 1553, a group of new pirates looted a batch of supplies from the Knights of the Temple not far from Rose Strait.
This incident angered the Knights of the Temple, so all the pirates were put on wanted warrants.
Later, in order to avoid the revenge of the Knights of the Temple, the group of pirates left the Strait of Roses and went north to the port of Cohemia - the name of the Raven came from this incident.
The archbishop recognized the pirate captain immediately because of this old feud.
The Queen cares about something else.
—The Raven Pirates can survive the siege of the Root Empire, which is much better than the current Roland Navy.
Since 1543, when the Roland fleet was defeated by the Yager Kingdom, neither her father nor her short-lived brother were able to revive the navy. By the time the Queen took over, many of the wooden ships in the Royal Navy had not been repaired and were now more than half decayed. The tonnage of the navy has been reduced to no more than 7,000 tons, and the number of ships has been reduced to just over 20 ships. Not to mention the mess, the docks and docks are in disrepair, the navy is disintegrated, and the number of sailors is not enough...
After her death in the previous life, the empire fell into 30 years of chaos, and it was not entirely accidental that it finally went to extinction.
An empire that does not have a powerful navy but is extremely dependent on the sea will hardly survive for long.
"You inherited an empire in tatters."
Archbishop Rodri said softly in his heart.
He understands why the queen takes such notorious pirates so seriously—
She wants to rebuild the Imperial Navy.
Forcing the big family to give up control of the port is only the queen's first step. She still has a lot to do, a lot. There are so many that people feel overwhelmed and tired when they look at it.
"Glory comes first".
The royal motto of the Roland family is vividly reflected in the Queen.
"Auction the real estate of the St. Lorraine monastery," Adele didn't notice what Archbishop Rodri was thinking, she thought about what to do next, "When the port regulations are revised, the first batch of docks and The shipyard will be repaired, and at the same time, the warships that are still usable will be repaired. This batch of land auctioned can provide the first funds needed... But be careful not to let the buyers be too concentrated... "
"I will take care, Your Majesty."
The archbishop subconsciously touched the jewel on the cuff, and then quickly let go.
He was thankful that the queen didn't find out that he had set the gems into cufflinks, but he was a little disappointed.
At this moment, Adele sincerely thanked the old priest Baldr and those radicals of the old gods...
If they hadn't planned the previous assassinations and parade incidents, she would have had a reason to confiscate the property of the monastery. Then, with the current finances of the royal family, it is really not an easy task to spend such a large amount of money.
After the Mr. Pirate has suffered a bit, the queen will naturally meet him.
For the new market, but also for the Imperial Navy.
……………
Mr. Pirate, who is suffering, is squatting in Whitehall prison.
Saran was 100% sure this time that Dalton, a weapon of war who was repeatedly suspected of being impotent, really had some special feelings for the decisive Her Majesty the Queen.
He had reason to suspect that throwing him into Whitehall Prison was Dalton's personal revenge.
Although they are partners in secret cooperation, with Saran's bad character, it is really very difficult not to offend others - Saran is quite self-aware of this.
There is no doubt that when Dalton no longer needs to take gold coins from the Raven Pirates, he will be thrown to the gallows immediately.
Today, Dalton looks eager to do just that.
But Saran felt wronged from the bottom of his heart when he got punched.
Gods, is it his fault for admiring the kind of woman who is ruthless from the bottom of her heart? As a pirate who traverses the ocean, isn't it very normal to like blood and excitement
Footsteps came gradually.
"Brother, your sweetheart is really nice."
The black-haired Mr. Pirate with a large area of blue on his cheekbones was lying lazily on the pile of straw, his long legs crossed over the wall, and his chained hands rested behind his head.
"You're... here... also... really... nice..."
Strange voices sounded in the cold prison, making one's scalp numb.
"Hold."
Captain Saran jumped up and looked at the people standing outside the railing in astonishment.
"Why are you this guy?"
The magician with the smiling clown puppet sitting on his shoulder looked at him blankly: "You're bothering me."
paused.
"The queen wants to see us."