Three days after the tavern meeting, Midsummer arrived as scheduled. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Midsummer is a festival that follows the feast day to celebrate the sunshine that God has bestowed on all things to make plants flourish, farmers pray for a good harvest this year, and lords and magnates give thanks for the sun's bounty.

In order to show the strong side of the empire, the queen mother built a huge wooden castle in the center of the monarch's square in the imperial capital without wishing to the holy area in advance.

Within three days, 200 craftsmen worked tirelessly to construct a "Palace of Bliss" – a golden dome that made the entire wooden building look like it was covered with a layer of sunlight. Inside, there is an exquisite yellow peach wood carving, completely in accordance with the four-sided peach heart style of the Stanley Dynasty, and on the beams, the reliefs of the Stanley monarchs are carved.

The building cost a total of 300,000 silver coins, equivalent to one-tenth of the empire's fiscal revenue for that year. However, the Queen Mother, who had just become regent, wanted to make the festival even more luxurious in order to show the stability of her royal power.

The freedmen, isolated by the guards, gathered a hundred meters outside the Place des Sovereigns, and were amazed at the marvelous structure, which in a matter of days had risen from nothing to the sky.

The nobles, on the other hand, came from all over the empire. They opened the curtain of the carriage and saw the prosperity of the imperial capital, and were deeply suspicious of the rumors of the turbulent undercurrent of the imperial capital before.

So, they put away the calculations in their hearts, comparing whose tribute gifts were more precious, and wandering around hoping to meet a dignitary who would stop at the court, so that they could find someone to cling to in the emerging core of power.

In the evening, a huge viewing platform was erected in the Place des Sovereigns, and the local nobles had already filled the perimeter of the viewing seats.

As the sun sets on the dome of the wooden palace, a guard of honor in golden and red uniforms with a length of half a mile marches out of the palace.

Immediately afterwards, the king's carriage drove slowly into the square along the Avenue of Glory, followed by the ailing Prince Arthur, the horses of five important ministers of the Imperial Council, twelve court ministers, and finally the Imperial Knights, dressed in light armor and armed with spears or swords.

The guard of honor stopped playing, and surrounded by the palace guards, the Queen Regent, Lelia, took the hand of the seven-year-old little king and ascended to the top of the audience, and the other important ministers took their seats.

Surprisingly, Orange, the Imperial Priest, did not personally celebrate Midsummer this year, not even half of the Templars - the astute magnates had to speculate on their own merits, and all sorts of rumors spread like the wind.

Of course, these voices could not reach the ears of the king and the queen mother. The woman who held the supreme power of the empire rose from her gilded oak chair, along with Repon Stanley, who was snorting and his eyes narrowed to a slit.

"Sons of the Sunset Empire!" it was hard to imagine such a loud voice coming out of the throat of a woman who was dressed in a red brocade of embroidered gold thread, encrusted with fine diamonds, and wearing an emerald crown that radiated a strange brilliance in the twilight of the sunset. Green eyes, red hair, and a thin, serious face add to her sense of solemnity.

"I am the mother of the king, Lelia of Silver Eagle City, and I will assist the government of the kingdom from the imperial code from the imperial code to the king before he comes of age. In the name of the king, I would like to express the voice of all the people, and thank the holy Osiris for giving sunshine and nurturing all things!

Compared with this unprecedented grand midsummer festival, the Queen Mother's congratulatory speech was even more shocking, breaking the history of the dynasty - in the 900-year history of the Stanley family, no ruler placed royal power on an equal footing with the Holy Land. It can be said that no king dared to publicly declare that "the oracle of God" and "the will of the kings" were juxtaposed.

For the nobles present, this meant that the Iron Fist Empress Dowager was determined to break away from the absolute control of the Sanctuary, but could she really not touch the lofty Divine Mansion? Even at the height of the Empire, no monarch dared to cross it. Could it be that this woman from Silver Eagle City, who has just ascended the throne with a child in her arms, really has iron power?

Several important ministers at the core of power scoffed at this move, this arrogant queen mother, who repeatedly violated their bottom line of interests, and even tried to challenge the authority of the Holy Domain, an undercurrent has been surging between various city-states.

Lelia Stanley took the King's hand, bent down and whispered in her son's ear, while the little King reluctantly twisted his body, his face flushed, and after a long moment he shouted, "Midsummer ceremony!"

At the king's command, the cannon salute rushed into the sky, and the sky was as bright as day as the sun rose and night fell.

The cavalry of Cisse City and Ice Soul City entered the arena from the other side of the Avenue of Glory, wearing black and silver soft armor respectively, straddled their war horses, and held wooden swords, and arrived in front of the "Palace of Bliss".

The black and silver cavalry represent the Sieri family and the Esther family respectively, and what is surprising is that the captain of the silver cavalry team is actually a woman as beautiful as a porcelain doll!

Her golden hair was not pulled into her helmet, but flowed like a waterfall on the metal armor, and the cold soft armor did not hide her uneven curves!

She was confronted by Lorraine Sieri, the son of the Lord of Cisse, who, like his father, had blue and green eyes, a burly figure, and a flirtatious expression. He looked at his opponent with playful and intoxicated eyes, and whistled a few times: "Is there no man in Ice Soul City?

When Brandant East heard this, he was not annoyed, but smiled brightly, like a red rose blooming in cold iron. She tightened the reins and tapped the horse's ass, and the white foal leaped high into the air to Lorraine's brown horse, the wooden sword piercing his silver eagle helmet.

"Man, you can't win against me - anytime. Bai Lan passed past Lorraine in Cius, and her smile was even more charming.

Little Sieri couldn't dodge, and the brown horse was frightened, causing him to shake on the horse's back a few times, and the wooden blade was so powerful that it swept through his forehead with precision, and the heavy helmet almost fell from his head.

The heroic posture of the female knight brought a cheer. Countless children of the nobles with excess hormones threw silver coins and flying kisses at the woman, anxiously inquiring about her name.

And Prince Arthur, who was far away in the audience, was immersed in this scene, only to feel that all in front of him were the woman's shining blonde hair, cherry-like bright red lips, cold iron and the woman's softness, intertwined into a trance dream, which made him fall into a daze. For a moment or two, he wished that it was not the young and sturdy Lorraine who was pointed at by the wooden sword, but himself!

After the horses entered, Rigoletto followed. Odin Diggs, the king's new favorite under the pseudonym Diess and known as the "Fire Warlock", will perform tonight.

Still dressed in gold-embroidered white robes, Odin was surrounded by several retinues and slowly entered as he stood on a richly decorated cart pulled by four horses. He plays the role of the Lightbringer, who shines the sun on behalf of Divine Osiris.

The pyromancer wore a white mask, and his eyes were hidden under the mask, but he was silently watching the people in the audience. He noticed that the Queen Mother's right hand was clenched and trembling slightly, and in her hand it seemed to be a crumpled roll of straw paper.

It seems that this woman from Silver Eagle City, who does not want to grasp power all the time, is hesitating an extremely risky plan. Odin looked at her cold face again, and smiled slightly—but no one saw his smile.

He leaned slightly and used the "Concealment Technique" to convey a message to the attendants beside him: "Let the Queen Mother drink several times the strength of absinthe, and let Lord Hall facilitate her actions tonight no matter what." ”

The squire was silent, but Odin knew that tonight was an unexpectedly lucky opportunity for him.

A short time later, one of the courtiers knelt down on one knee and presented the silver-plated tray. On the velvet cushions of the tray were two ruby gold-painted glass glasses, in which a cloudy green vermouth gently rippled, just like the red hair and green eyes of the nobles of the Silver Eagle.