"Are you talking about yourself?" Heinrich's tone was as cold as the scales of a poisonous snake rubbing against the ground when swimming, "The clowns of the troupe don't dare to really regard themselves as triumphant kings even if they put on masks. You just With a fleeting flower pinned to his skirt, he is worse than a farce actor."
"That's better than some incompetent and cowardly people," Dalton said. "The snake has hibernated underground for too long. I'm afraid it has lost the power to fight. Otherwise, why would it just spit out messages in vain?"
"You are provoking the dignity of the Heinrich family."
Heinrich's iron-gray eyes showed the luster of metal weapons in the sunlight.
"Your family's dignity is worthless." Dalton suddenly showed a mocking smile, "Your spies are all over Roland, why haven't you heard with your own eyes how bad your family's reputation is? Or are you used to being special? Duel—like when you were in the Reef?"
The word "Reef City" just fell into the air, and Heinrich had already drawn his sword, and the cold light went straight to Dalton.
Dalton instinctively avoided the sword perfectly, but the rose on his neckline would suffer if he did so. Without thinking, he hastily drew his gun and blocked it in front of his shoulder. The metal gun body collided with the rapier and a few sparks splashed out. Dalton took a step back, and a long wound appeared on the back of his hand, and blood gushed out immediately.
"You are truly a gentleman who follows etiquette!"
Dalton yelled, turning his wrist and aiming the gun at Heinrich.
"Sneak attack is also one of your etiquette?"
The maids on the side screamed, and several officials and nobles who had been watching just now also became flustered—the Minister of State Heinrich's sword pointing directly at Dalton's throat, and the Imperial Marshal Dalton's gun pointed at Dalton's throat. Quasi-Heinrich's brow... Gods behold!
What could be more messy than this? !
"I'm very glad to see that the two gentlemen are very skilled, but I hope you don't forget your identities—" When the situation was about to deteriorate in a dangerous direction, Adele rushed over, her eyes sharp from Doyle's. Dun and Heinrich scratched their faces, "How could a dignified minister of the empire make such a reckless mistake?"
The wound on the back of Dalton's hand was still bleeding, and it was burning hot at the moment.
—Because your gift has always been accompanied by thorns, and you must suffer if you want to keep it.
Dalton really wanted to say this directly, but he saw Ambassador Root's face in the crowd and finally swallowed it.
"I'm sorry for my recklessness."
Dalton shrugged, retracted his gun, and bowed to the Queen.
The queen looked at Heinrich who pointed the sword back at Dalton: "What are you doing again? Mr. Heinrich."
Heinrich lowered the sword slowly, let go of his hand, and the rapier with the double-headed snake as the gauntlet fell to the ground with a "bang". He also bowed to the queen, but anyone could hear the bluntness in his voice: "I am sorry for my lack of manners, Your Majesty."
The queen did not look at him.
"Please go to a doctor to treat your wound," the queen ordered to Dalton first, and then turned her head and said to Heinrich in an indistinct tone, "As for you, please follow me."
Dalton got up and let go of the hand that was on his shoulder when he saluted.
He didn't leave directly to find a doctor, but let the blood flow down the back of his hand drop by drop, from his fingertips to the ground. Dalton looked at the back of the queen leading Heinrich away, and raised his hand to touch the rose pinned to the neckline. After a while, he twitched the corner of his mouth helplessly.
A woman with a heart of stone.
…………………
The air is terribly silent, like a lake that has been frozen for tens of thousands of years.
There were only the queen and her former mentor in the room. Mrs. Kelly originally wanted to stay, but the queen politely refused.
No one spoke.
The queen sat in front of the fireplace, the warm yellow firelight reflected her face, but could not soften the outline of the lines. Heinrich sat silently not far from her, and the sword that stabbed Dalton was in the queen's hand. If someone came in, they would be surprised to find that the expressions of the teacher and the student were so similar.
"You want to fight Dalton?"
Finally, the queen spoke first, but she still didn't look back, her eyes were fixed on the flames in the fireplace.
"I haven't seen you duel with anyone yet."
"The Heinrichs never dueled." He paused.
The queen gave a short laugh, stretched out her hand to hold the sword, lifted it up, and looked at it carefully in front of her eyes: "A sword suitable for attacking and stabbing... It is indeed not suitable for duels."
The Heinrichs never took part in duels, and anyone who invokes a duel for judgment should swear to fairness and justice. However, no one would believe that the Heinrich family would own these things... This family is associated with tricks and conspiracies, and everything from flesh to bone is deeply branded with cunning and viciousness.
No one will believe the serpent's oath.
So the Heinrich family never dueled, they solved the problem with poison and assassination.
Yet he had two duels.
Once in his college, the guy who married his cousin got together with a bunch of bastards and made ridiculous and dirty jokes about his cousin. Heinrich walks over, punches the guy, then draws his sword and points the bastard, telling him he must pay for what he did.
What was the result of the duel
He won, but no one admitted it.
When the bastard called "James" fell in a pool of blood, he cursed and swore that he had poisoned the sword, and the others rushed up, shouting shameless and despicable, and hurriedly took the original loser away. He was the only one left standing there, looking at the pool of blood.
— The Heinrichs don't need a duel.
He understood very clearly why there was such a sentence.
Another time in Reef City, almost no one knew about the duel.
It's not really a duel.
After he burned the eleventh father's letter, his father made other choices, and an unexpected visitor arrived in Reef City—his cousin, Sir Avaro's son Lester.
"My dear brother, it's rare that you can't do one thing," said the young cousin, who was about the same height as him, with thinner silver-gray eyes, pale and feminine, and wearing a crimson coat. Although he was still young, he Already a good hand in the field of love, "My uncle sent me to do this instead of you - where is the beautiful little princess? I need to plan a sufficiently romantic reunion... Do you think she will like the mysterious knight from afar , or would you prefer a handsome gentleman?"
"She doesn't like anything," said Heinrich.
The cousin was keenly aware of the displeasure and disgust hidden in his words, so he showed a surprised expression: "No way?" He described it exaggeratedly, "Your expression looks like you don't want to hand over your sweetheart to others. Knight, don't you still think about drawing your sword and fighting me?"
"The Heinrichs never dueled."
"That's good." The cousin suddenly restrained his exaggerated expression, showing the true coldness of the family, and issued an ultimatum from his father, "There must be someone who sleeps with the princess, either you or me. If you don't want to take I'm going to see the princess, then let me figure out a way, I don't guarantee that I will use any method to deal with your little princess."
After speaking, he turned around to carry out his method.
— drugged or something else.
He just turned around and froze suddenly.
From behind Heinrich unexpectedly sent the rapier under his ribs and pierced his lungs—a sword really suited for sneak attacks and murder.
The cousin twisted his face in pain, and drew out his own sword, shouting "Okay, you will be a dueling knight!" while fighting back vigorously... He drew out the sword and cut the cousin's throat.
Tie the body to a stone, throw it into the sea, and write a letter to inform his father and cousin that the ship was shipwrecked...
He did it all calmly.
He did nothing wrong.
The wind in Reef City carried the unique coldness and dampness of the sea. Heinrich watched his cousin's body sink into the blue seabed, and watched the sea water slapping the reef and splashing white foam.
Lester is a no-brainer. What he wants to do to the princess will only destroy the family's long-term plans. It's normal to kill him...they can't waste their efforts.
Just be careful, be careful not to let father or uncle know the truth of his death.
Both father and uncle Sir Alvaro thought that Leicester had really been shipwrecked. Later, every time Sir Avaro met the Queen confronting the Heinrich family, he complained that it should be his son who became the mentor... He would never know how shocked his son's expression was when he died.
This "duel" characteristic of the Heinrich family should have rotted with the corpses that sank into the sea and was forever forgotten together.
Until Dalton suddenly mentioned with a mocking look, "Or are you used to special duels—like when you were in Reef City?"
The slit throat of my cousin, the body sunk in the sea... Before he realized what he was doing, the sword was out of its sheath.
—What did Dalton find
— What would Dalton tell Adele
—Dalton must die.
…
"Tell me, why did you fight Dalton?"
The Queen turned her wrist and put the sword aside.
Heinrich stared at her for a long time, at the loose long hair, at the slender and graceful neck, at the thin butterfly-like shoulder blades... He had watched her like this countless times, standing behind her, Stand at a restrained etiquette distance.
… Do you think this will make her appreciate you? What do you think you'll gain by doing this
His father was admonishing him again.
"You shouldn't be too obvious about Dalton. To nobles, he is always a commoner." Heinrich said in the same way as usual, "You can take back control of the port, or you can be strong, but you shouldn't Too much reliance on people from below."
He is cruel, vicious, profit-oriented, hypocritical and cunning, and he is an out-and-out two-headed snake. Only these things, he didn't want her to know.
Not for gratitude, nor for benefit.
"Prejudicing the common people will cause the nobles to fear and guard, and they will fear losing their existing privileges and status. The counterattack caused by this fear and guard is likely to be disastrous."
"So," the Queen asked softly, "what do you want to ask?"
I didn't expect anything, I just don't want you to know these things.
He replied sadly from the bottom of his heart.
I don't want those disgusting past events to be uncovered, and I don't want to make myself look so unbearable.
Even if he is really miserable.