"Brando, do you remember when we first returned to Tonigel, and I told you to keep our whereabouts secret and not to reveal anything about it?" In the smoky room, Veronica finally opened her mouth first. Brando nodded, there was indeed something going on, so Princess Griffiin would not know the news that they were okay until Freya arrived in Valendenburg, and the wounded Nimesis and his party, including the wounded of the Knights of the Broken Sword, were also placed in Shufflund, and the Kohua sisters went to Valhalla, and the few people in Metissa Hipamela were mostly limited to the castle, although they also met with the subordinates in the castle and the apprentices of the Charr on weekdays, But in fact, these people usually don't leave the castle except for festivals, and Antitina has given a strict order, at least until the harvest festival, there should be no leaks.

On the princess's side, although it was a bit unkind to an older sister who cared about her brother's well-being, Veronica looked very solemn when she told him, so he reluctantly agreed. He looked at the anxious look on Veronica's face, and was slightly stunned, thinking to himself that he had leaked the news?

The problem could only be with the Shepherd's Inn, but the owner of the inn was an old subordinate of the Red Bronze Dragon, a veteran of the November War, who had an absolutely reliable background and was unlikely to be bought. Either the young people of the Knights of the Folding Sword Order are seen by those who have a heart, but this chance is too small, now Gris is a commercial port, and a large part of the merchants who come and go from the north to the south are Cruz people, and a few young people are too inconspicuous in this, not to mention that they are not wearing military uniforms.

Brando thought about it for a moment, and finally decided to wait for Veronica to speak.

Antitina stood behind him, not interjecting, her eyelashes drooping. There was a subtle light flashing in the dark eyes hidden underneath, and he was thinking about something. Smoke rings were rising in the room, in the shape of mountains or monsters, and Marshal Mangrove was smoking pipe after pipe, the dark red flashing in the pipe, and he held the pipe in one hand and rested his elbow on his knee. With one hand on his thigh, he wore an overcoat and stared at the sheepskin map on the low table without raising his head, as if there was some treasure buried there.

Veronica smiled wryly, and sure enough, continued, "Do you want to know why? ”

Brando shook his head: "I'm not used to digging into other people's secrets, but I know it's necessary for you, and it's just a gesture for me, so I'm happy to do it." ”

"Thank you, Brando." Veronica nodded. Some looked at him with appreciation.

At this time, Mangrove knocked his pipe on the low side, and finally looked up. He looked Brando up and down with his remaining left eye, but strangely enough, instead of seeing the Cruz's usual arrogance in the deep-set but sharp eye, Brando gave the impression that the general was looking at a soldier.

"You are very good, Monsieur Earl, and you have not disgraced your grandfather." Mangrove speaks the native Bankel Cruz, and he was born in the northern region of the Four Realms. It has the wildness of the Cruz northerners. However, the burly old soldier also commented like this, as if he was looking up just for such a sentence without a beginning or an end. Then he bit his pipe again and did not follow.

Brando was almost flattered, knowing that in a year in history, the other party would become the commander of the Cruz army, succeeding his grandfather who had held the position of marshal of the coalition forces, and his authority in the empire could be said to be under the empress alone, and the supreme person of the Temple of Fire was only equal to him.

"Brando. In fact, we want Lenarat to remain in your territory and not to make this public. Veronica hesitated, and finally said with some difficulty, "I mean, you'd better let the outside world think he's dead, you know what I mean?" ”

Brando froze.

Court struggles. The word seemed to come to his mind naturally. A series of plots of intrigue and strife had been rehearsed in his mind several times in an instant, and his first thought was that other heirs in the empire might be ready to move after the big explosion, after all, in the eyes of outsiders, it is unlikely that anyone would survive such an explosion, but in this case, shouldn't it be time to quickly announce the news that the emperor's eldest son is still alive, and what is Veronica's plan?

Could it be that the military supported someone else, and therefore wanted to imprison the eldest son of the Cruz emperor in Tonigel forever? This idea was so dangerous that Brando broke out in a cold sweat, but it didn't seem to be the case with Lenerret's expression in his opinion, if that was the case, the eldest son of the emperor would probably have been placed under house arrest at this moment.

He looked at the female captain suspiciously.

Veronica and Mangrove exchanged glances, the former looking embarrassed, but the latter removed his pipe, spat out a smoke ring, and nodded firmly at her.

"We suspect that Her Majesty the Empress wanted to kill his eldest son." The female corps leader finally spoke.

"What!" Brando and Antitina cried out in unison.

The two looked at each other, as if they both saw the shock in each other's eyes.

Antitina looked incredulous, instinctively suspecting that it was a conspiracy, and she almost froze on the spot. But Brando himself was much calmer, he took a slight breath, forced himself to calm down and asked, "Why?" ”

Brando's calmness gave Veronica another look, and she replied, "You sit down first, and I'll tell you the ins and outs of this." Brando nodded, leading Antitina to sit down across the couch. Mangrove was still smoking his pipe, and Veronica pondered for a moment before continuing to talk about the whole thing. "This matter starts with the political environment of the Empire, our situation is different from that of your Eruin, and the main problem facing the Empire during this millennium has always been the dispute between the imperial power and the clerical power." She said, her voice unhurried, very flat; Her eyes shimmered a faint emerald glow behind a layer of smoke, and her fingers were interlaced and laid flat on her chest, but some of the facts in her mouth didn't seem so mysterious to Brando.

The Cruz people founded their kingdom because of Geert, the king of fire, just as the ancestor Eke was to Eruin, and Geert, one of the four sages, also left a belief for the Cruz people. He founded the Temple of Fire on this doctrine, and after Geert's death, there was no such king among the Cruz, and in the history that followed, church and state began to gradually separate, and that moment on. The hidden danger of the dispute between the clergy and the royal power was buried.

In the following millennia, the conflict between ecclesiastical and royal power has never ceased, but unfortunately the Flame Sanctuary is mostly led by wise people, so the empire has never been divided by this strife. It's just that the royal power and the clerical power rise and fall one after another, as if forming a historical law. In the midst of this historical tide, the empire gradually separated several traditional forces, one is the representative of the interests of the church in the secular world, the Cecil family is one of the best, and Williams, who killed him, was born in this family. It can be said bluntly that most of the Templars, the Cardinals of the Flame Temple, are from these forces.

The second is the so-called imperial power, although the empire maintains a high degree of centralization, but two of the only three archduces are die-hard imperial power factions that maintain a marriage relationship with the imperial family, which is represented by the Kirk family of the flower and leaf collar, the Archduke of Kirk has been married to the royal family for generations, and almost all members have half of the Cruz royal blood. They are so closely related to the Cruz royal family that they are almost inseparable from each other, and they are all one. Faina, whom Brando met in the Ring of the Trade Winds, was born into this family.

The third faction is the military forces. The four captains of the Empire were from three prominent northern aristocratic families, and the northern nobility in Cruz was almost synonymous with military aristocracy, because they were at war with the Empire's main enemies, the Hazels, for many years. Therefore, the area north of Packer has produced many outstanding soldiers, and most of the backbone generals in the army are actually mostly from the major aristocratic families represented by the Ashrico, Nigel, and Nona families in the north. The military aristocracy tended to be imperial, but with the exception of the navy, most of the imperial navy came from the wealthy regions of the south, and the children of these wealthy families generally went to church schools. He is highly educated, and is himself the staunchest supporter of the Flame Temple.

The three factions were at odds with each other, both internal and external, but about a hundred and fifty years ago, since the death of Rayne the Pious, the clerical power began to decline, and a hundred years ago, the then supreme of the empire, with the help of the vizier Nedwin, re-centralized power under the crown, and then it should have been a new cycle; Until the Silver Empress ascended the throne, this empress herself was a relatively rare emperor in the history of the empire - she hated the Kirk family from which her mother was born, and she lacked trust in the imperial power, but she also hated the clergy, she played with power in the court, and supported the now prominent Parut family to suppress the other two, but in fact she did not play beautifully, but the high priest of the Fire Temple, Vala, saw the toughness and rigidity in the character of Her Majesty the Empress, and took the initiative to choose to back down and compromise- However, Constance offended almost all the aristocratic forces during his reign, and in the end his old age did not end well, and was quickly forgotten by the world after Leonarat succeeded to the throne, and it seems that he did not end well.

However, this empress has created a miracle, that is, she has reigned for nearly forty years in the hatred of almost everyone, and during her forty-year reign, she has been so autocratic that she has almost turned the center of power of the empire into a hall of her own words.

The so-called Iron Empress, after all, is not in vain.

"Her majesty has gone mad," Veronica sighed, "she has ordered a map of the whole continent to be drawn in her room, and on more than one occasion she has stated in private that her goal is to unify all of Vainde, and Cruz has been intensively expanding his army for nearly ten years, and we suspect that His majesty wants to use the opportunity of holy war to start a full-scale war." ”

"This can't be, you suspect that she will kill her own son because of this?" Brando shook his head, feeling a little fanciful.

"Of course not, originally with His Majesty's physical condition, there will be two or three years at most in power, but to unify Vaughnd within two or three years, how likely do you think it is that Blandor?"

"So you doubt she'll be in love, but does her physical condition allow it?" Brando asked suspiciously, as he could remember, the Silver Empress had indeed abdicated after two years.

"Brando, I mean 'originally,' but now she is getting younger and younger, and her health and energy are recovering to the best of her life. Her Majesty had had an adventure when she was young, and since then her face has been fixed after the age of fifteen, but that only affected her appearance. This time, His Majesty seems to be rejuvenated from the inside out. ”

Brando's first reaction was that this was impossible, that mortals in the Vagond world would prolong their lifespan after coming into contact with the law, and it was common for them to live for hundreds of years like a sage, but they had never heard of anyone being able to rejuvenate themselves. Even if it's the fountain of youth. It is just to change the appearance back to the way it was when it was young, and to reverse the process of life, which has violated the most basic law.

Veronica smiled bitterly: "I knew you wouldn't believe it, but it's true, Mangrove won't lie to me, Leonarat is also the heir chosen by our military, and we share honor and disgrace on this issue." ”

Brando was silent for a moment, then spoke, "So that's the reason why she doesn't want Lenaret to continue to exist in the Empire?" ”

Veronica nodded, and uttered a secret: "In exchange for a compromise with the Sanctuary of Fire." His Majesty had secretly exchanged verbal agreements with Vala to pass on the first line of succession to the throne after fifteen years. Fifteen years after the year of the fire, there is only a year and a half left before now. ”

"In that case, how could the Temple of Fire be messed up by her temperament?"

When the female legion leader heard Brando talk about the temple, she couldn't help but feel a little emotional, she said: "It's not that simple, Brando, in fact, the reason why Valla chose to back down back then. It's because there are dragons standing behind His Majesty. ”

"Dragons?" Brando was stunned, for this was the first time he had heard of the secret. Looking up at the two of them, Veronica looked helpless, and Mangrove just smoked his pipe one after another, until the dark red light in the pipe faded, and then he put down his pipe, but took out the box of tobacco from his coat. It seems that he is preoccupied with his addiction to smoking, and he doesn't care at all about the life or death of the empire. These two people don't look like they're lying to him.

Veronica nodded: "We don't know the specific situation, but the dragon clan does owe His Majesty a favor, which seems to be related to her ageless appearance back then." She paused. Somewhat embarrassed, he continued to reply: "Although it is a bit offensive to talk about His Majesty's personal privacy in this way, I can't care so much about it now. Brando, in fact, before her majesty became what she is now, her temperament was not like this, her previous personality was gentle and demure, she was the most beloved princess in the empire, and it is not an exaggeration to say that she can even be said to be the star of the royal family, even the previous generation of high priests used to be kind to her; But since that incident, her temperament has changed dramatically, she has become tough, cold, and self-serving, and few people know the truth about what happened in the meantime, but one thing is certain: the dragons played a major role in it. ”

"This is what happened forty years ago?" Brando asked.

"Yes, after that, the dragons secretly signed an agreement with the empire in order to compensate her. The content of the agreement is only known to the previous emperor His Majesty, and what can prove this agreement is that only the later Empress Xià has the shadow of the dragon family throughout the succession process, and His Majesty Xià is the eldest daughter of the empire, but in fact, according to the tradition of Cruz, if one of the princes has the ability to inherit the throne, the eldest daughter is not qualified to become the emperor. But the former emperor seems to have acquiesced to the existence of His Majesty, this matter was said to be small at the time, not big, but it is said that the previous generation of the great priest also experienced this whole process, so we juniors can't find anything wrong. ”

Brando thought for a moment and then asked, "So, could it be that the dragons have appeared again?" ”

Veronica gave a glaring gaze, and even the Mangrove paused to load tobacco, and the one-eyed old soldier stopped and looked at him deeply. Brando understood that he had guessed correctly again, so he could boldly assume that the dragon clan must have put pressure on the Flame Temple, not to mention that since Her Majesty the Empress has the ability to continue to govern, then indeed the Temple has no reason to force her to abdicate, as for the verbal agreement, after all, it is only a verbal agreement.

That's it.

Lenaret did have a reason to die.

Brando's brow gradually tightened, he wondered if this was an event that had already happened in history, or if history had changed because of his arrival, what had happened in the silver queen in "Amber Sword" after two years, and what had happened in between, and the player at that time had not yet reached the height that could influence the decisions of the royal family, so no one should know the inside story of this, including him, too.

But there are too many possibilities in this, it is possible that Her Majesty the Empress at that time was also so crazy, but in the end it was stopped by the Temple of Fire and Veronica and others, and then history was restored, but what if it wasn't?

Yes, this qiē is only hypothetical.

He looked up, looked at Veronica and asked, "What evidence do you have to prove this qiē?" ”

"Before I left the Empire, Prince Lazer disappeared, and with him his sister," Veronica replied quietly, but the facts described were somewhat chilling: "His Majesty has always been rather indifferent to this matter, as if he were indifferent, and this alarmed Mangrove, so he brought him out of the White Rose Garden under the pretext of taking Lenaret through the pretense of training." ”

Lazer was the fourth prince of the Cruz Empire, and it seems that this incident did happen in history, but he can't remember the final result, which shows that it was a trivial matter at the time. After all, there are intrigues in the royal family, and it is not strange that one or two heirs die occasionally, as long as the one who dies is not the first heir, it is generally not too noticeable, not to mention that it is just missing. But Brando felt a little strange, and asked suspiciously, "How can your Empress Xià agree, she won't fail to see it?" ”

Mangrove knocked his pipe and finally spoke: "It is a consistent tradition of the empire that the heir to the throne goes out to practice, even if he is as noble as the empress, he cannot stop it without a valid reason. ”

Veronica also nodded in agreement: "The core of this plan is that as long as Lenarat is not dead, it is not good for His Majesty to openly disagree with that verbal agreement, as long as she still recognizes that agreement, then Lenarat can be regarded as the most orthodox heir to the throne of the empire." ”

……

(PS: Today's someone's birthday, update it early to celebrate, 5500 words, happy birthday to little Tia, some cute goods, I'm silently watching you.) The second chapter was posted at five o'clock. One of the previous chapters of Grayfin Naga was written and flashed scales, thanks for the reminder. (To be continued......)