Chapter 281: The Storm in Brest (Part II)

The previous chapter has a free 1000-word update, thank you readers!

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The king stood in front of the Duke of Orleans and clasped his shoulders tightly with both hands: "Bring the candle closer!" He shouted, the stench with the heat rushed to the Dauphin's face, and the child, who had not yet learned to pretend, subconsciously retreated, but the fingers like iron tongs immediately grasped tighter, almost embedded in his bones, he felt pain, and cried out, Louis XII was unmoved, he only cared about looking for his own sign on the boy's face, but no, not at all, it stands to reason that the twelve-year-old boy should be the shadow of his father, but on his body, Louis XII could only see his wife's golden brown hair, with beautiful eyebrows.

The bridge of his nose was thin and narrow, a far cry from the fat nose that was common to Valois men, his lips were full and delicate, and his facial contours were smooth and beautiful, bearing no resemblance to Louis XII's thin lips and broad jaw, which had been bewildered when he was young, after Louis XII's first failed expedition to Italy, but both the queen and her maids said that children would be more like their mothers.

But in fact, even Anne, her jaw was much more square than Francis's, and she had a beautiful but cold face, which was well recognized, but Francis, whose beauty was peaceful and unhurried—did not compare him with Giulio. When the Medici were put together, Louis XII only felt that there was something unspeakably strange, but once the two men were put together...... Louis XII trembled, and with this he bent his body and took two steps back, as if to move away from ...... Stay away from this shame.

Of course, the crown prince Francis didn't know what he was thinking, although Louis XII was far away from the father figure in his mind, but this was his father after all, all children were born with admiration for their fathers, not to mention, Louis XII was still his king, so he didn't want to think about it, so he reached out and wanted to support his father.

Louis XII was rewarded with a slap in the face.

Louis XII was a king and a knight, and though he was sick and unarmoured, he had great strength to knock Francis to the ground, and then he threw himself at the dazed child, beating him like a raging beast with a storm of blows—he tortured the child's body and his soul at the same time—he cried, insulted and cursed the wild seed, and his shameless mother...... Although, to the king, he was just telling the truth.

Luckily, just before he could do irreparable damage to Francis, the ouzo he had drunk had taken effect, and he fell headlong on Francis's body and fell into a deep sleep.

Francis wept, he was only a child after all—and it was a long time before he could barely break free from the heavy body of Louis XII, and staggered out of the king's bedchamber to find his mother, the queen of France and the duchess of Brittany.

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That's what happened about three hours ago.

The main castle of Brest is located in the deepest part of the fortress, and interestingly it is not the most comfortable of the castle buildings, the king and queen chose it purely because of tradition and security, and because of this, the main building, which is a combination of two cylindrical towers and a wide wall in the middle, is very cramped and has few rooms, and the French servants and guards are arranged in a U-shaped mansion hundreds of feet away, and only the knights and attendants of the royal edict who are most trusted by the king can live in the rooms next to the king.

The entrance to the tower, like the other main castle buildings, was a man's height above the ground, and after the duchess's order, several strong Breton guards draped their bodies in cowhides, braved the torrential rain, and carried axes to smash the makeshift wooden staircase that made it easy to get in.

By this time, the Duchess of Brittany and her maids-in-waiting, the guards had reached the tower where the king was located, and the French shouted: "Who? ”

"Your queen." Madame Kindness said this, and then they heard a loud, undisguised laughter, which was full of ridicule and contempt, and it was thought that Louis XII had not lowered her voice before, and Madame Kindness could guess what was going on in the hearts of the guards—they must have thought that the queen had come to beg the king for mercy, and that there were not a few queens who had been executed for adultery, not to mention that she had deliberately let her illegitimate son confuse the noble blood of Valois, and that her best outcome would be to be placed under house arrest and look at her illegitimate son, Perhaps there were also adulterers who were tortured, put to death, and then ...... As long as she gave birth to a real prince, then her life would also come to an end.

One of the guards ran into the shadows, presumably to pay homage to the king, and after a while he came back and said, "The king will let you in." ”

"And my maid."

"A maid." Said the guard.

Madame Kindness nodded, and returned behind Anne, who stepped back and the queen entered the king's tower with only one maid.

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Louis XII's thoughts were the same as those of the guard, who had already woken up from his slumber, sat in a chair, and stared at the fireplace. He was flanked by two knights of the Imperial Order, who were completely loyal to him and who had not been involved in the previous Battle of Ravenna, unswayed by the previous defeat.

He saw Anne walk in, raised the corners of his mouth, and gave her a tight smirk: "Welcome!" He cried out in a pretended manner, "My Queen, this lowly land has finally been trampled under the feet of your nobles—I thought you had a better place to go?!" ”

Anne looked at him intently, watching his every wrinkle and slight muscle twitch, and she sighed deeply, knowing that he would not listen to a word from her again, that deception, persuasion, and justification would not work—the first anger and impulsiveness had passed, and now Louis XII was a true politician again, and he had grasped the handle of death, and was about to give her a heavy blow with this, and knock her to the ground completely.

She took a step forward and fell to her knees under the wary gaze of the knight of the edict, bowing her head, exposing her slender neck to the king.

"Forgive me...... she pleaded in a mournful voice, "forgive me, Your Majesty." ”

Louis XII laughed, like a hyena, his fingers landing on the back of Anne's neck, his nails leaving a deep red mark on Anne's skin.

"Would you like to bear me a son, then?" Louis XII asked, not even using the word "again".

"I do." Anne said without hesitation.

"Now?"

"Anytime."

Louis XII hissed a laugh, "You are always so well informed, my queen," he said, "then take off your clothes." ”

Anne raised her head and put her hands on the collar of her cloak, which fell to the ground, but Louis XII reached out and stopped her, "I am not talking about you," he glanced maliciously at Madame Kindness to the side, "I am talking about this woman." ”

He saw Anne's face change as he wished, and he knew that this woman meant to Anne differently than anyone else, "I want you to serve me, ma'am, with your master, and I will see your attitude and skill to determine what kind of husband you will find." ”

Compared to Anne, Mrs. Kindness's expression was much calmer, "It is my pleasure, Your Majesty. She said this, and quickly got rid of her cloak, and all other burdens, she was the same age as Anne, and was already thirty-five years old, but because she had not given birth and had a well-maintained relationship, her skin was still as delicate and smooth as white porcelain—and the knight of the royal decree beside the king, though he had turned away, could not help but look greedily at the noble lady out of the corner of his eye.

"Allow me to help you." The Good Lady said again, and the king coughed softly, and the two knights of the edict finally withdrew, and they could indulge the king's lover with impunity, but for the queen, given that the king had already been betrayed once, this was about to become his only rebellion.

Anne, with the help of Madame Kindness, also unloaded all her clothes, and they snuggled up to each other, almost a breathtaking sight, and the king was sure that they were not armed with any weapons.

When they came to the bed together, the king prayed, "I want you first," and he said to Anne, "I must have a son with you." ”

Anne agreed, and she meekly complied with the king's command, lying on her back on a soft cashmere blanket, her body glistening in the light of the fireplace – Louis XII seemed to be bewitched, his fingers reaching out as if self-consciously to the rich hills, and his heart churning with jealousy—anger at the adulterer, and anger at them, and against their illegitimate children, and malice that even purgatory could not have contained.

None of what Louis XII said was true, and he had already thought that as soon as the storm and the night had passed, he would gather the French around him, and return to Blois at once, and he would gather his army, even if he would have to bear the debt again—he would go to war with Brittany, and at lightning speed, when he had captured his former wife, and her wild seeds, and he would have them taste all the tortures in the world, and their bodies would be cut up, and burned in different places, and thrown into the river.

And their accomplices in Rome will one day suffer the same, nay, perhaps more, because he can be castrated—slowly, openly, and shamefully.

The king could scarcely control his fantasies—he grinned, grinned in the dim light, bared his sharp teeth, and something fluffy and soft fell on his back, the hair of Madame Kindness, and Queen Anne, who, like the aristocratic women of this time, had long enough hair to reach above the knees, which was almost a status symbol in an age when the commoners were generally undernourished, and whose hair was dry, burnt, and bifurcated.

First the long hair, then the arms of the Kind Lady, which were the arms of a real woman, slender, weak, and non-aggressive.

Anne put her hands behind her head as if in a gesture of surrender, and then she smiled movingly.

Her hands gradually withdrew from her hair, and when Louis XII realized that it was not the hair ornament but the Hidden Blade that shone from the golden brown hair, Madame Kindness's fingers rose lightly and swiftly, and the sharp nails swept through the king's unsuspecting eyes!

Louis XII's eyes were first sharpened with pain, then burning, and the blood-red mist took over all his vision in an instant, and he screamed, and rose sharply from the bed, and then slammed backwards with all his might, and Madame Kindness had no time to avoid it, and he fell directly on the brass bedpost, and her back immediately bled out.

Anne's Hidden Blade remained in the king's flabby and swollen neck, and a dagger about the length of a man's hand failed to penetrate it—it was stuck in a bone or something—Anne pounced forward, and grabbed the king's feet, shouting the names of her friends, and before she could wake up from her dizziness, she clung to the silk rope that held the drapery in place—a tough rope, which was thrown precisely through the king's neck, and then wrapped around her own arm, and the rope immediately tightened, and the king roared indistinctly, They sank first into Madame's skin, then into the muscles, and finally she even heard the bones creaking, and she wanted to scream in pain, but by this time the king had fallen from the high bed, her mouth was bloody, her eyes were black, and Louis XII's stinking head struck her most tender place fiercely, and she wanted to cry, but she swallowed back the tears, and instead rolled up her body violently, and bit her lips, her hands showing no tendency to relax.

The king waved his arms, his eyes ached so hard that he couldn't see clearly, but the men's arms were always longer than the women's, and he clawed and scratched and beat with his fists fiercely, and he didn't know where Anne had gone—he hoped that the witch had fled out of fear, but he knew she wouldn't, so he had to kill the one behind him before she could do anything.

Anne heard the two knights banging on the door, which had not been latched before, but this was Brest, with its innumerable mechanisms, a secret that only the heirs of Brittany could grasp, so that a black iron latch had firmly isolated the two faithful knights—she pushed open the large cross at the head of the bed and took out a glittering Damascus knife from the exposed groove.

"It's over." The king heard her say this, and then suddenly his right hand lost its strength—no, not strength, but his right hand.

He gurgled in pain and panic, he wanted to plead, he wanted to pray, he wanted to ...... His left hand reached helplessly into the air, and Anne looked at it for a few seconds, cutting it off as if it were a small tree.

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