"That's all right," said the Queen mildly, "if what you say is true, people will accept it."
At first, the businessman couldn't understand what the queen said, so he presented these beautiful fabrics to the queen with a gambling mentality... Gods bless him! The businessman was so excited that he couldn't speak at first, and then he jumped up almost all at once.
When he jumped up, Abigail reflexively pulled out the Mashto dagger from his waist.
Fortunately, the businessman was still sane. He knelt down and kissed the corner of the queen's robe excitedly, and a series of words of gratitude spit out from his mouth.
The queen didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and put her hand on Abigail's shoulder, signaling her to put the knife back, so as not to scare the children beside her. After the businessman finally calmed down, the queen asked kindly, "Why are you doing this, sir."
It turned out that the merchant from the port of Cohemia was named Jem, and he was a downright unlucky guy.
Jem was originally doing an ordinary wool business like other merchants, but he was overwhelmed by the merchants in the Free Merchant City. One day, when he was drunk in a tavern, he complained loudly to someone that "the woolen market is almost completely occupied by gringos", and a guy who claimed to be an "adventurous businessman" approached him. The adventurous businessman tried his best to promote the new weaving cloth of "cotton" to him, and led him to see a batch of cotton cloth with bright colors and various printings, and preached to him the business opportunities in it. Jem, in a daze of drunkenness, bought all the cotton and cotton cloth.
When he woke up, the adventurous merchant had already fled.
Merchant Jem had no choice but to bring this batch of cotton cloth to Rose Strait as planned. Another cargo ship of his was hit by a shipwreck and sank on the rocks. This batch of cotton cloth suddenly became his last hope—he had to support his family and compensate those The family of a sailor who was shipwrecked... But people are really interested in cotton cloth. He stayed here for almost a month, but he didn't sell a single piece of cotton cloth, and he couldn't even pay the rent for the shop.
Knowing that the Queen is coming, Jem makes a desperate move, uses the last of his wealth to pay the soaring rent of the shop, and ingeniously puts a rose-patterned carpet at the door, hoping to attract the Queen's attention.
"Do you have other kinds of cotton cloth here?" Adele asked.
Jem nodded repeatedly, and said excitedly: "It's on the second floor, would your majesty want to take a look?"
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Mr. Jem regretted it—well, the second floor was used as a temporary warehouse for goods, and it was a mess. It was not a place for entertaining the most noble people in the empire. But the queen had already nodded his approval, so he couldn't get off the tiger, so he had to light up the lamp and walk in front of the escalator himself, leading the queen to go up.
The escalator was narrow and only allowed one person to pass. Mr. Jem turned his body half sideways, apologized to the Queen, and walked up to the second floor first. He was going to open the door and open the curtains so that the sunlight could come in.
As soon as the unfortunate gentleman opened the door, a pale hand stretched out from the darkness, covered his mouth, and dragged him in silently.
At this time, Abigail, who was still walking behind the queen, changed her face slightly. She pressed against the railing, and suddenly exerted strength like a dexterous cheetah, and jumped out from behind the queen, stepping on the railing like a big cat. Jump into the door. When she was in mid-air, her dagger was already out of its sheath, and the silver cold light drew a lightning-like arc in the dimness, and collided with another rapier the next moment.
The light on the second floor of the store was insufficient, and Abigail couldn't see the faces of the people hiding here, so she only relied on her extraordinary skills to fight against them.
Mr. Jem was taken as a restraint by the opponent and smashed towards Abigail. Abigail, who was wearing boots, made a wrong step, avoiding the danger of being hit head-on, and felt a little relieved when he caught the unlucky ghost with his skill - the time was short, and the other party had no time to attack Mr. Merchant, whom Her Majesty valued.
In the darkness, the rapier turned, and the fangs of a bat pierced Abigail's throat.
clang-
Abigail crossed her wrist, blocking the tricky blade with the metal wrist guard hidden under her sleeve. Sparks flew, and she left Mr. Jem behind.
In just a few breaths, the two swords exchanged several times, and it was difficult to distinguish between them.
"You'd better stop," Adele said calmly after following closely, "His Royal Highness."
She didn't know when she picked up the lantern that Mr. Jem had dropped, holding the lantern in one hand, and the gun in the other hand that was shining coldly under the lamp.
The gun was aimed at the enemy in the darkness opposite Abigail.
Abigail's serpent-like Dotramashto knife was pointed at the enemy's throat, and the opponent's Hidden Blade was also not far from Abigail's vital point. After hearing what the queen said, Abigail didn't move anymore, and neither did the other party. After a while, the Hidden Blade was thrown to the ground with a crisp sound.
"Abigail." The queen called out to the pirate leader gently.
Only then did Abigail remove the knife, but did not put it back into the sheath, and took a step back slowly, walking to the side of the queen. As long as the "His Royal Highness" in the dark moves, she can immediately protect the queen.
A candlestick not far from the door was lit, illuminating another character in the farce.
"See you, Your Majesty."
A soft voice sounded, and a pale young man walked forward slowly. It stands to reason that a pale complexion would generally make one feel gentle and weak, but this does not apply to this person. His paleness is dark and sinful, and it always reminds people of cold and beautiful legendary creatures like vampires. .
He was indeed handsome, with eyes blue of fire, and hair of gold that hung down his shoulders. He was wearing a dark red tight-fitting coat with silver embroidery on it, white and delicate lace turned out at the neckline, and diamond cufflinks on the cuffs.
It was Prince Arthur of the Root Empire who was said to be "seriously ill".
"I'm sorry for my recklessness," said Prince Arthur, bowing to the queen, his eyes sparkling in the candlelight—perhaps because of the sight of her—and speaking with sincerity and sweetness, like all lovers in love. Young boy, "But I really want to see you."
As he said that, he took a step forward, wanting to kiss the queen's hand.
Abigail on the side turned the knife sideways and looked at him unkindly.
Prince Arthur glanced at her, his blue eyes were a bit cold, but soon he showed a bright smile again, looked at the Queen: "You have an excellent guard by your side."
"She's not a guard," the queen didn't move her gun, "and why are you here?"
"Nightingale went to see his rose, and I came to see you, Your Majesty."
Prince Arthur stared intently into the Queen's eyes. She stood in the dark at the door of the room, her face was half illuminated by the light, half hidden in the dimness, and her dark blue dress touched the ground. He flipped his wrist, and a dazzling rose appeared in his hand—it was a rose that never faded.
Rubies with a color as pure as wine are exquisitely inlaid together, surrounded by petals that flicker under the candlelight and slowly bloom. With its branches and leaves made of gold so lifelike, this single rose is worth a fortune.
"I said I would send you a rose."
Prince Arthur smiled, took a step forward - and then stopped, Abigail's knife lay motionless in front of him, and the Queen's muzzle remained on.
Abigail turned to look at the Queen.
Abigail sincerely felt that it would be more realistic for the queen to shoot him down. She felt that the little white-faced Mr. Prince in front of her was similar to a psychopath who called herself a "bard" in her pirate group, and her crazy words were not human.
—Intuition told her that the soft-spoken Mr. Prince in front of her was not a good person.
"A small gift," Prince Arthur keenly noticed that the Queen was seriously considering whether to shoot, and he quickly said briskly, "I think you might be interested in some little secrets of your governor?"
As he spoke, he took out several letters from his pocket.
The queen narrowed her eyes slightly, read the letters for a while, then Prince Arthur for a while, and finally moved the gun slowly.
…………………
The above is the reason why Archbishop Rodri was so angry.
If possible, Archbishop Rodri would definitely let his Hidden Blade cut Prince Arthur's throat without hesitation. But in fact, he had to give Prince Arthur a monk's black smock, so that Prince Arthur could disguise himself as a member of the Templar Knights—otherwise, the scandal between the Queen and Prince Arthur would spread throughout Rose Strait before today .
Immediately after the queen returned from the market, he had an audience with her.
Prince Arthur, the culprit who caused this episode, was also in the room. Archbishop Rodri's eyes fell on Prince Arthur like a knife—this Prince of the Root Empire appeared alone in the Roland court, and he was surprisingly able to Presumptuously.
Sitting in the room right now, Prince Arthur kept his eyes fixed on the Queen. It was a weird look, halfway between fanaticism and dissection—yes, dissection, as if he wanted to cut through flesh and bones to find Hidden but truly precious.
Undoubtedly, this kind of gaze made Archbishop Rodri loathe him even more.
"I think," Archbishop Rodri looked at the Queen, "Emperor Root Orsis must be very, very worried about his brother's safety."
Adele was reading the two letters brought by Prince Arthur, and glanced at Archbishop Rodriguez.
She was sure that her Monsieur really hated Prince Arthur.
Look, he used two "very" in a row.
Of course Archbishop Rodri hated Prince Arthur—you must know that he was also present at the martial arts tournament. Naturally, he also remembered the scene where Prince Arthur proposed to the Queen. All smart people knew that Prince Arthur was probably more willing to propose to the Queen in his own name.
Prince Arthur sat poised by the fireplace, his pale fingers dancing softly and gracefully like spiders, and delicate lace trims hanging from his wrists: "Ah, if you mean those who wear hoods and ask my brother Those who served... Well, I have sent them back. Brother Wang will understand that I am all right."
"Don't pull out the Hidden Blade casually, Rodri." Putting down the letter, the Queen did not ignore Prince Arthur's gaze, "Go out first, His Highness Arthur seems to have some questions to ask me."