"Those who consider themselves martyrs must remember their identity."
The smile on Dalton's face faltered briefly, but soon he returned to his usual casualness. His eyes were long and narrow, and when he glanced at others, it was like a cold light gliding across the blade of a hunting knife when it was deflected in the dark.
"On the side of the royal power, why is the divine power clamoring?"
Archbishop Rodrik walked into the audience room, and Dalton walked into the dark corridor. The two passed each other, and the air was chilling like two knives crossing briefly.
"Sit down, Monsieur Bishop."
The queen raised her head under the lamp, her silver hair was scattered on her shoulders, and there was a stack of heavy documents in front of her. Her expression was calm, as if she was completely unaware of the hatred her two followers had towards each other.
But how could she not know
Archbishop Rodri stared at the queen for a moment with deep eyes, walked up to the queen and sat down without saying anything. He took out a secret letter and handed it to the Queen.
"The Pope's election is over." Archbishop Rodri reported succinctly.
The queen opened the letter.
The letter was written by the new pope, Cardinal Luvis - who should now be called "St. Telefus II". He seemed determined to contrast with the notorious predecessor Pope of the Capel family. Immediately after taking the throne, he wrote a letter to his former ally, the Roland Empire, expressing his goodwill and sincerity in fulfilling his promise. In the letter, St. Treves II expressed concern for the previous assassination of the Queen, and said that he would severely punish the murderer.
"The Capel family was punished with 'Great Excommunication' and exiled from the Holy City."
The queen did not mind that St. Trefus II used "the Capel family's despicable assassination of the divinely appointed monarch" as an excuse to avenge his enemies. What she really cares about is St. Trefus II's attitude towards the free commercial city.
After the night of mutiny, the negotiating team in the governing hall of the Alliance of Free Commercial Cities was wiped out, the peace talks were suspended, and hostilities were inevitable.
"Free commercial city, Kingdom of Yager."
Holding the secret letter from St. Treves, the queen stood up and walked to the map hanging on the wall, frowning slightly. The new pope promised to form an alliance with Roland, put pressure on the free cities, demanded that they pay back the tithes owed by the previous pope during his tenure, and determined that their business dealings with East and West Ule on the east side of the Papal State violated the teachings.
But apart from these, the help the new pope can give to the Roland Empire is very limited.
The Queen draws a triangle between the Free Merchant City, the Kingdom of Jager and the Tuva Dynasty.
After St. Trefus II took office as the new pope, he did not forget the Tuva dynasty's support for him in the previous years. Not long ago, the church publicly acknowledged that the Tuva dynasty had a new king—a new king elected by the Tuva royal family. The Yager Kingdom and the Root Empire have been fighting for so long, and no one thought that the Tuva Dynasty would unite with the Church, and came up with a trick to get rid of the fire.
When Cardinal Luvis appeared on the Pope's election list, the Root Empire realized that things were changing, and withdrew part of its power from Tuva in advance, and set its sights on the spiritual empire of mortals.
"My Mr. 'fiancé' is astute."
The Queen drew a line of retreat between the Tuva Dynasty and the Root Empire.
Orsis's army withdrew in a timely manner, because shortly after he moved his forces from the west to the east, an army of Xiule bypassed the Mercury Sea without anyone noticing, facing Lu The Eastern Steppe region of the Te Empire launched a sweep.
East and West Ule was originally a huge and tyrannical nomadic empire located on the grasslands on the east side of the mainland.
The iron hooves of the Ule Empire in its most prosperous period almost swept across the entire Bay of Heaven from the Red Sea, and even the Roland Empire at that time was almost destroyed. The Papal Army of the Papal State was established at that time, with the purpose of resisting the invasion of pagans from the grassland. Fortunately, the huge Ule Empire was only a flash in the pan in history, and soon split into different big account kingdoms, the two largest kingdoms still use the name "Ule".
In order to distinguish these two nomadic countries, geographers standardize them as "East Ule" and "West Ule" according to their locations.
The Sea of Mercury - St. Peter's Mountains - the Pope's State - the Red Sea constitutes the dividing line between the nomadic countries on the map and other blessed countries. On this boundary line, the Papal State is like a shield between the Eastern and Western countries. It bears the impact of the pagans from the eastern steppe. The main reason why the Papal State can collect a huge amount of tribute from other religious countries every year is this .
Now Siul's army can bypass the Mercury Sea and pass directly through the St. Peter's Mountains. No one believes that there is no Pope St. Trevus II's handwriting behind it.
"How are our docks and docks getting done?"
The Queen asked Archbishop Rodri while thinking about the possible deal between the new Pope and the Ule Country.
Restoration work on the dockyard at the port has been going on without interruption since the Congress ended last year.
According to the wishes of the Queen and the Navy, the restoration work was carried out first around the coastline on the west side of the empire. Today, the restoration of key ports on the west side of the empire has been largely completed.
The restoration of the port can proceed so smoothly, we must thank the foundation left by Edmund III and Queen Sithonia. The "Era of Two Kings" was the most recent glorious era of the Roland Empire. In those years, the empire's navy was strong, and the king and queen personally inspected all the important military and commercial ports of the empire. Although the empire has declined since then, the foundations of the original docks and docks still exist, and repairing them is always easier than rebuilding them.
But the most important reason for finding enough labor sources for the project is the Queen's "generosity" and "stinginess". The population of the Roland Empire experienced the baptism of the Black Death in the 14th century, reducing it by about a quarter, and it did not begin to gradually recover until the 15th and 16th centuries. To recruit enough labor, it is necessary to compete with the manor workshops of dignitaries. When the queen generously offered a relatively generous salary, and sent royal representatives to closely supervise to ensure that the appropriation was distributed to the workers in full, many people felt that she treated the lowly workers so favorably. Foolish to think that what she did would only fuel the greed of the common people and make their appetites bigger and bigger.
However, now, those who ridiculed the Queen's "stupidity" have seen this "stupidity" in return.
In the past, the reason why laborers chose to work in the manors of the nobles was because working on the construction site was not as oppressive as the manor, but the salary was more unstable. The salary is often not fully paid until after the project is completed. During this process, the family's wife and children have long been starved to death. Moreover, in the past ten years or so, the political turmoil in Roland, the wharf project was often not completed, the upper management changed the plan, the responsible personnel left the construction site to go to other places, and the wages of the workers could not be obtained. It's better to work in the manor. Although you have to pay a lot of food to the nobles, the annual harvest is stable after all.
The Queen has unswervingly determined the construction, restoration and maintenance of the port through the passage of parliamentary legislation through the "Port Regulations" and "Navigation Regulations". After the first batch of laborers received their own salaries every week, they spread the generosity of the Queen through word of mouth. More and more people knew that the port project in charge of the royal family had good economic security, and the laborers came from the countryside spontaneously. gathered together. Today, on the construction site, supervisors with royal red shoulder straps are regarded by workers as a symbol of "justice".
The whole process was like a snowball. By the time the manor owners and traditional trade unions found it difficult to hire new servants and laborers, they were powerless to save the situation.
The queen's "stupidity" in turn became a mockery of them.
"They call you 'the Saint Mary of the world.'"
Archbishop Rodrik said, while hiding the accusations made by others.
The queen seemed to know what he was hiding, and smiled indifferently: "There are still some people who think that I am walking on the road of destruction and falling down the nobility of the monarch, right?"
"Yes." Since the queen said it bluntly, Archbishop Rodrik did not hide it.
"What do you think, Rodriguez?" the queen asked.
Archbishop Rodri's black monk's uniform looked taller and thinner in the candlelight.
Since organizing the Queen's intelligence network, Archbishop Rodri received dozens of times more information than the Knights of the Temple affairs he was in charge of before. The wider you see, the deeper you know, and the complicated teachings and beliefs of classics are impacted and tested in front of countless intricate human behaviors. After becoming the spy chief, Archbishop Rodri became more silent day by day, but he felt more dangerous than before.
The Queen once asserted with Mrs. Kelly that if Archbishop Rodriguez remained sober and calm, he would either become a madman or a martyr in the end.
After a while, Archbishop Rodri spoke: "You have provided such generous treatment to the common people today. If one day, you and the royal family are unable to afford it, they will never be willing to return yesterday's treatment. And when that time comes, they will not Remembering that today you praise your virtue, you will only protest with violence."
This is the deformed relationship between the ruler and the ruled in this era.
The national consciousness of the Roland Empire is just in its infancy. It would be a joke to say that all Roland people can have the concept of "Roland Glory". In fact, there has always been a delicate relationship between the ruler and the common people. The common people are both obedient to the ruler and hostile to the ruler. More frequent than aristocratic coups were armed riots from the lower classes.
For a long time, the various strata of the Roland Empire society were fixed and had clear boundaries. For the ruling class, the inferior people are barbaric and sinful, so they need to be ruled by monarchs and nobles. In the eyes of the aristocrats, getting close to the inferior people will make oneself polluted and degraded. This concept has always been supported by theological concepts. When the priests taught the lower classes to submit to their lords and monarchs, they attributed the reason to their own original sin.
More frequent than noble coups were violent riots from the lower classes. And this kind of riot deepened the recognition of the "ignorance" and "greed" of the common people at the bottom. It was generally recognized that the monarchs and nobles used force to deter the barbaric commoners. On the contrary, it was the behavior of the queen that in the eyes of many people lost the majesty that a king should have. They blamed it on the weakness of women.
But it cannot be denied that in today's era, civilians do have many fickle and despicable habits.
Hearing Archbishop Rodriguez's answer, the queen sighed and turned to look at him: "I don't deny that there are many risks in my actions. The royal family's finances and wars that may break out at any time will become weapons for those who want to incite civilians. Everything they do for their well-being and safety may become the rope they will use to hang me in future riots. But, Rodri, do you think they are the root cause of the fault?"
Archbishop Rodri frowned and did not answer.
"They are ignorant, so they are easily converted and incited. They are ignorant because no one has ever taught them knowledge. They cannot judge whether the voice of instigation is right or wrong, and they cannot see where their real enemy is. They The riots that started were a desperate struggle. Although they are rough and even some people are indeed despicable, but in a place full of filth, surviving itself is not easy."
"In fact, ignorance, poverty, brutishness, despicableness... These sins are not theirs, but mine."
The queen's voice was soft and slow.
"I am the monarch of this country. They put power in my hands, and I should take responsibility for them. Ignorance or poverty, I should do my best to change, how can I change because of the risks behind the change?" And stand still?"
"Do you think that your power comes from the people of the empire, not blood or gods?" Archbishop Rodrik said in a low voice, staring closely at the queen, waiting for her answer.
"Since the gods may not even exist, where is the nobility of the royal family?" The Queen asked back. The conversation in the small audience room was extremely deviant, and it was enough to make the world's face change when it was heard, "The Monarch The relationship with the people is more like a contract. The people hand over the power to rule the country to the monarch, and the monarch should fulfill the responsibility of making the country stable and prosperous.”
"What if one day the people demand to take back the power given to the monarch? Then all your actions today will lead the royal family to the road of extinction. And when the glory of the monarch is gone, you, as one of the monarchs, will also Infamy. Don't you regret it?"
Archbishop Rodri followed up and asked, the conversation between the two vaguely resembled a war of swords and swords.
Candlelight is printed in the queen's pupils.
The assumptions mentioned by Archbishop Rodriguez in the century-old history obtained at the time of rebirth have shown signs. In the seventeenth century, some people were already seeking a fairer system, and the power of the monarchy and the church was under unprecedented impact. She failed to see the end of the dynasty, but she could see the shadow of the new era from those omens.
"Maybe this era, maybe the next era, or the next one. The country will belong to all its members, and the king will be regarded as a maggot attached to the country and forgotten in the corner of the history book. Maybe as you said, As one of the maggots, I should also bear the infamy. But there is nothing wrong with that, just like a wooden idol should be toppled, the mortal monarch will always retire from the stage one day."
"Roderi, for you, what saves the world is not the glory of the monarch, but the happiness of all the people of the empire." The Queen's voice seemed to sigh, "And for me, the empire I guard is not guarded by a family name. The glory of the kingdom, but the glory of all the people of the empire."
"I don't know what the future holds. All I can do is to do my best to fulfill my duties in this era."
There was a long silence.
Archbishop Rodrik bowed deeply to the Queen. The monarch for whom he was willing to dye his blood was indeed walking on the path he expected, but unexpectedly, he was not delighted to get the answer he wanted.
Thinking of someday in the future, everyone can casually and disrespectfully refer to "Queen Adele", and feel free to point fingers at her faults—faults destined by the times. The crown fell to the ground, the rose disappeared, and unspeakable sadness and unwillingness swept over.
"Then please allow me to overcome obstacles for you in this era."
He said softly, devotional as a prayer.
The whole world should envy the Rolands, because they have the best queen in the world.
So good that even the martyrs mourned it.