"Then you'd better die."
Before the queen could speak, someone answered for her first. A fire burst out from the dark place of the door, followed by the sound of muskets shaking the eardrums, and the shimmering blue smoke. Prince Arthur flipped backwards nimbly, the bullet hit the hard rocky ground, and sparks flew everywhere.
In a flash of light, a thin Hidden Blade was thrown by Prince Arthur. When the visitor had to turn sideways to avoid it, Prince Arthur had retreated to the other corner of the room like a ghost.
"Since you are going to die, why hide?"
Dalton stood straight at the door, the moonlight shone on him, making his handsome face extraordinarily cold and cold, a thin shadow was cast from the brow bone, and fell on the dark pupils of the eyes.
He held a gun in his hand and aimed it at Prince Arthur's forehead, but did not fire.
The black-clothed masked man who had stood silently like a puppet before stood up straight at some point, and pointed the short crossbow in his hand at the queen.
tick.
A drop of blood fell to the floor, and there was a slight sound after the stalemate.
"it's a pity."
Prince Arthur said regretfully, he stood at the entrance of the dark passage, eyelashes drooping, looking at his wrist. Blood gushed out from there, dripping down the fingertips.
"You should go up a little further."
"Next time, I will remember next time." The queen stood in front of the window and said gently.
Her slender figure is integrated with the stained glass behind her, elegant as a mural. But she held the dagger that Prince Arthur gave him in her hand. When Prince Arthur pushed it away just now, she originally wanted to take her with her, but the queen who had been calmly listening to his madness gave him a knife very quickly. .
"Then..." A smile suddenly appeared on Prince Arthur's pale face, "Let's meet again next time to complete the agreement, my dear majesty."
He raised his bleeding hand, and casually pressed his bloody finger on his lips, and his thin lips turned abnormally red. Afterwards, Prince Arthur took a step back and bowed gracefully. At that moment, white smoke gushed out from the dark passage, engulfing the room in an instant.
"His Majesty!"
Dalton immediately shouted and rushed in.
"I'm fine."
Adele's voice sounded, and Dalton rushed forward, touched the Queen's hand in the thick fog, and immediately held it tightly. He wanted to pursue the reckless Prince Arthur, but he was more worried about the queen's safety, so he stood in front of the queen and fired a shot in the direction of the secret passage with his instinct.
The gunshots were crisp and only hit the rocks.
After the white fog faded, Prince Arthur and his black-clothed subordinate had disappeared from the room.
Dalton cursed in a low voice, and was about to step forward to explore the secret passage. The queen held him back and said flatly, "There's no need to go there."
As soon as the queen finished speaking, only a dull voice could be heard, and vibrations could be heard through the rocky ground. The secret passage was blown up from the inside, blocking the way of tracking.
Dalton stopped, and after discovering that one of the musketeers on duty had been knocked out, Dalton immediately sent someone to check on the existence of Prince Arthur—King Arthur was a man who acted recklessly and had no scruples about the country and his own honor. The lunatic who doesn't care at all is still a member of the Root Empire, so it is naturally impossible to let him stay in Roland's court without supervision.
Before waiting for his subordinates to report back, he immediately searched for the queen.
He lowered the gun slowly.
The queen put the dagger on the table, ready to turn around and let Mrs. Kelly put it away. When her eyes fell on the table, she found a letter under the candlestick.
The brows raised slightly, and Adele pulled out the letter.
The letter was sealed with dark red wax, and after being opened, there was only a piece of exquisite letterhead inside.
—Have you heard the song in the dark
On the letter paper with dark vine patterns, such a short sentence was written in beautiful cursive script in dark blue ink.
Signed Arthur.
A slender, bony hand stretched out from the side, pulled the letter away, and threw it on the candle. The candle ignited instantly, and the flame burned the letter with another person's anger.
"Unhappy?"
Adele propped one hand on the table and looked up at the black-haired officer standing in front of her.
Dalton did look particularly unhappy, his stern thin lips were tightly pressed, and the line of his jaw was tense in the candlelight. In the shadow cast by the brow bone, the dark eyes carried the oppression of a soldier. It feels like a wolf slowly standing up after being violated, and the restrained and suppressed anger is particularly dangerous.
Her hair was pushed back, and the lobes of her diamond stud earrings were a little blush, but it was clearly not from her own emotions, anger or shame - it was hard to see such a reaction in her, if there was that. It's just that she did it on purpose. Not to mention the traces that were deliberately left on her swan-like slender neck and delicate collarbone.
Those marks were extremely eye-catching, Dalton took out a handkerchief, pursed his lips and was about to wipe those marks.
"What is your reason for being unhappy?"
Adele held Dalton's hand, leaned slightly, looked into his eyes and said.
In fact, she didn't use any force at all. The hand used to stop Dalton's movements was hypothermic, as light as a piece of snow falling on her hand. But Dalton's hand just stopped in mid-air.
Dalton was taken aback by her question. I didn't even know how to answer for a while.
What kind of relationship does he have with the Queen? As a monarch and minister, the attention and trust she gave him was enough to require him to be loyal to his duties. It was he who was overstepping and yearning for something beyond etiquette. But sometimes, she is indeed conniving and ambiguous, although he knows it well, the tacitly allowed approach is just another way of weighing.
The distance between them was very close, and her voice was very soft when she asked. The cold fragrance on her body was like a misty and invisible net, and he was the prey in that net, and he stumbled in the net with her fingers hanging down and flicking at will, not knowing the way out.
At this time, Dalton suddenly became a little envious of Prince Arthur.
Envy him for being able to act recklessly, envy him for being able to ignore the consequences.
"No answer?"
Adele said indifferently, pushed his hand away, stood up straight, and the vague ambiguity just dissipated in an instant.
Under the candlelight, the queen raised the dagger left by Prince Arthur to her eyes, and slowly looked at the dagger by the candlelight. After a while, she said slowly and with some thought: "Prince Arthur did what Xiul attacked the Root Empire."
There is a peculiar wavy pattern on the dagger, the curved arc of the blade is very small, and the edge is smooth and smooth. This is a knife that can only be owned by the nobles of Xiul. As the prince of the Root Empire, Arthur carried a Xiul noble blade, and just now he also mentioned that "the army is ready".
He has actually been exiled by Orsis, where did his army come from
And a few months ago, a Xiule army bypassed the Mercury Sea without anyone noticing and launched an attack on the grasslands in the east of the Root Empire. At this time, the eastern defense line of the Root Empire has been torn apart. In addition to the handwriting of the new Pope St. Trefus II, the Siul army could appear in the territory of the Root Empire "without anyone noticing". Perhaps there should be another person.
A person who is very familiar with the eastern military defense line of the Root Empire.
Following this clue, pushing up, is the Pope election seven years ago. At that time, the Capel family competed with Luvis, and Cardinal Luvis lost the election war. When he fled to the Root Empire, he was almost imprisoned by the Root Empire and handed over to the old pope. So who warned Cardinal Lewis
A man of high rank and authority at court.
Who could do it but the Prince of Sin who owns the palace in the dark
"That's it."
The Queen smiled inexplicably.
No wonder St. Trefus II was able to take office smoothly. Apart from the Duke of Tuva, there was also an uncrowned king of a sinful country who supported him. Thinking about it, the territory of the Root Empire at this time is not monolithic. Although Prince Arthur is a lunatic, it is undeniable that he is also an immortal genius. There are also many people following him. It is not surprising that Orsis failed to successfully intercept and kill Prince Arthur in the territory of Root.
Prince Arthur left the Root Empire before the royal family's southern tour, but he appeared in front of the Queen on Rose Island.
He first went to Qiandao Bay, which was considered to be a gray area on the sea, and did other things there, and then waited for her arrival in Rose Strait. Prince Arthur's desire to take her away should be more like a moment of madness than the original plan, otherwise Dalton would not have arrived so soon.
Now that Prince Arthur is leaving the Strait of Roses, he may have joined Siul's cavalry.
Bless Orsis not to be burned by his brother.
The queen thought casually, pushed away Dalton who was standing silently in front of her, and was about to walk towards the door.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her wrist.
Dalton stood in the dark, holding her slender and white hand. He is not the kind of overly muscular person, with a slender build, and the military uniform is tied with a palm-wide belt, which makes him look thin and cold. His facial features are deep and three-dimensional, and when he lowers his eyelashes, there is a bit of gloom, but there is also a vague grievance that a wolf was rejected when he tried to get close to his master.
"Why are you unhappy? Because I don't know the heights of the sky and the depths of the earth, because I don't know how to be content with fate, because I always have great ambitions."
The black-haired officer said in a low voice, his eyes were always sharp, chilling, and cold, but at this moment, there was nothing that was usual in his eyes. There are only large patches of leaden gray clouds left, very quiet and sober.
He knows who he is.
When I was a child, I lived in the slums of Loput, where everyone lived numbly and tiredly, and the bright and glorious ones had nothing to do with them. However, his ambitions are endless. His parents are devout Old Gods, and he did not hesitate to abandon his childhood beliefs in order to climb up the ranks. If you become a cavalryman, you will become a general, and if you become a general, you will become a marshal... His desire is endless.
Just like after becoming the marshal of the empire, he has a longing for the supreme master of the empire.
So she seems ambiguous, distant, manipulating the invisible thread.
Because she also knew that what she was raising was a greedy wolf.
Like a game of knowing each other well.
But what else
What else
"Because I like you."
Dalton put his gun into the Queen's hand, like a wild jackal puts his deadliest throat into a man's hand.
Dalton remembered the day when the queen was resting on the terrace, he secretly pinned hair pins on her hair, and the wet palms when he knocked her hair down. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly once, and he was more nervous than when the enemy gradually approached when he was injured and hiding.
He raised his eyes, smiled, and spoke slowly with all his inferiority and conceit:
"It's not the Imperial Marshal who likes you, it's not General Dalton who likes you, it's Robert Dalton who likes you."