Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter and providing feed backs.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
The green armor clad knight is wildly laughing while he is being bounced on top of the steed he is trying to tame. The creature in question, a filorial monarch with flame-like red feathers. She tries with all her might to buck the rider off her back. The pride of a natural born monarch doesn't let her allow anyone to sit on her back. The knight's hands held tight around the reign, a literal lifeline that let him stay on the large bird for the past ten minutes. For a brief moment, the filorial queen slows down and it looks like he will be the one to finally conquer this stubborn filorial monarch. With one spinning buck, she snaps the reign made of monster leather, sending the green armored knight flying off her back and crashing onto the ground with a pained yelp. His white head wrap fell off by his shoulder.
"Alec!" Lord Sigurd quickly runs over and kneels down by the side of his fallen friend. Giving Sir Alec a hand, the young heir to House Chalphy helps the green armored knight back to his feet. "You should have gotten off that bird when she started throwing you into the air. Don't push yourself so hard next time. Such a daring act might be the death of you one day."
"Well, I almost had her." The green armored knight tries to pass off his injuries with a smirk, but it turns into a grimace half way through. Despite trying to put on a tough look, the flamboyant young knight can't quite shake off the pain he is currently feeling. "She wouldn't have bucked me off, if the reign didn't break."
"It seems like even our best rider, Sir Alec, is not enough to conquer this particularly feisty filorial monarch. Such a pity to waste a gift from Siltvelt. But it looks like passing her to the stable, and having her give birth to stronger children is what we'll have to do." Mother gently shakes her head at the filorial monarch. The bird's head held tall after defeating the best riders glorious Melromarc had to offer. She even seems to let out a few smug puffs from her nose.
"It would be a waste to make her into a breeding hen, Mother. While monarchs would always give birth to stronger children, very few, if any, would grow into a monarch like their parents. Such a resource would be a waste to not be used on the battlefield. Let me try next, I will be able to tame her." She takes a step forward, confident that she would be the one to conquer this arrogant bird who made fools out of Mother's best knights. "I only require three items from you. An iron whip, an iron hammer, and the sharpest dagger you have."
Mother stares at her for three long breaths, almost like she's trying to puzzle out her intention before giving up, and asks her instead. "What could you possibly need to ride a filorial, my daughter?"
"Our knights have tried to tame this bird with the traditional method: Staying on her back till she gives up and tires herself out, and then submit her own subservice to them. Clearly, this method would not work on a monarch variance who is as strong as some prestige range warriors, and has near endless stamina." She gives a sideway glance at Sir Alec from the corner of her eyes and fights back a scoff. The fool was only kidding himself in thinking he could have succeeded at taming the filorial monarch. The fact she was able to snap a reign made of monster leather is proof without even breathing heavily shows the monster didn't even get serious with him. "Therefore we need to be more proactive if we want to force her to heel. With the three items I required, if she tries to buck me off, I will whip her with an iron whip. And if she continues to struggle, I will strike her with the iron hammer."
"Please tell me you won't stab her with a dagger if she continues to struggle. Yes, that filorial monarch hurt some of our knights who tried to tame her. But she only did so because from her point of view, they were trying to hurt her. And she didn't kill, or hurt anyone too badly. A child of Alaya doesn't deserve to be abused like we are a bunch of uncivilized barbarians." Mother's hands move up as if she's about to cover her own mouth. Once again, she fights back the instinct to scowl. Mother had always been weak, unable to make the hard decisions.
"No. If she wouldn't behave even when I strike her with a hammer, it means she will not submit no matter what. In that case, we don't want to keep her around, risking her to corrupt the rest of the flock of our war resources." She takes a few steps closer to the filorial monarch. Despite its avian face, she can clearly see fear in the creature's eyes. Good, the bird is smart and knows she's not joking around. "In which case, it's better to cut her out before she can infect the rest of the brood. Cutting her neck with a dagger is what I'll have to do."
The monarch filorial, who fought against Sir Alec and the other riders before him, quickly bows its head in front of her feet. Animals. They all have a bit of natural cunningness. They will bare their fangs or claws. Try to scare you away, maybe even pounce on you if all you ever do is run away from them, or try to feed them treats to appease them. But if you assert your dominance and show you aren't afraid to slaughter them, they would bowl down to you instead.
Feeling satisfied to have the filorial monarch bow to her in submission without even having to ride the thing, she turns around and feels taken aback when she sees her mother's face. Mother's face was frozen in the kind of fear mixed disgust one has, when seeing a particularly hideous monster for the first time in their life.
Fire cracks, black smoke rises towards heaven as huts made of mud, sticks and hay burns. Young cubs of the animals shakily huddled together. Some of them watched the broken bodies of their parents lying in blood drenched earth, others at the invaders who burned down their homes and killed their parents.
Said invaders, who have now fractured into two different groups. The knights from the northern Melromarc stand behind their leader, Lord Uther. All of them have their hands on the hilt of their weapons, glaring daggers at her while Lord Uther speaks. "Pardon me for losing my hearing in my advanced age, Your Highness. But will you repeat what you just said for one more time?"
"Don't pretend you didn't hear your princess the first time, Lord Uther." One of Mirellia's top retainers, Karen Bowman glares right back at the men larger than her, in full armor no less. Most people know the blonde woman as Mirellia's personal fixer. Particularly, in dirty business a princess shouldn't be involved with. She's often regarded as a manipulative, scheming, underhanded witch as a result. They tend to forget she had served in Melromarc's royal air cavalry before that, and have never lacked courage. "We must put these whole litter of animals to the sword just like their adults."
"Killing children?! How can you even contemplate such an action, Your Highness?" Lord Uther's face slowly turns to look at her. The features on his usual stoic face and every single strand of his beard both twitching. "Is your hatred towards Siltvelt so strong, it's pushing you to commit atrocities not befitting a man, let alone one of the nation's royalty? We are MEN! Not ANIMALS!"
"And what do you suggest we do with them, Lord Uther? Letting them run to other tribes, or towns? Giving the rest of Siltvelt a warning of our army? It's both an act of colossal idiocy, and it would be irresponsible to the lives of our own men who would suffer greater losses. And the children would likely be taken as slaves by the other animals. Nobody would benefit in that scenario." She fights back the urge to scoff at the old lord. Chivalry! A supposed code of honor that's obsolete, and detrimental to those who follow it. She might not be able to fully abolish the conduct with it being one of the core tenets of her nation, but she would certainly be limiting its influence once she becomes the queen. The glory of her nation would not have room for such self defeating fools. "And what do you think would happen to these children if we left them alone, after we killed every adult, Lord Uther? They would either starve to death, or get eaten by monsters if we leave them alone. Giving them all a quick death is an act of mercy."
"It's not an excuse to give you, or anyone the right to determine the fate of a young life! How their lives would end should only be determined by what they themselves would do, not to be dictated by someone else's sword!" Lord Uther points his armored finger at her. The old knight lord's words didn't spell out anything out of her expectation. The same old drivel of 'only gods have the right to determine the fate of mortals', or some variation of such rhetoric. "What makes us different from animals isn't our features. The lack of furs, feathers, or scales. But our actions! If you allow your hatred to cloud your eyes, you become someone no different than an animal."
"And what do you think would happen to these cubs if they survive, and grow of age. Lord Uther? Do you think they would be grateful that we let them live after we killed their family? No, they would only remember hatred, and would repay our act of kindness with barbarism and cruelty. Killing, pillaging and raping our countrymen." Karen crosses her arms and turns her nose up at the knight lord.
"If you didn't want to get your hands dirty, you should not have followed our princess and future queen on this campaign." Grace Walker scoffs at Lord Uther. She opens her traveling cloak, and takes a smoke stick from inside her cloth. The former street urchin lights it up with an ember from the top of her finger, brings it up to her mouth and takes a puff. As someone who grew up in the slums of the capital, Grace had no patience to put up with someone from high society. Be it a scholar, a knight, or even nobles. "Glory would always come with bloodshred, and you can't have one without the other."
"You think I'm some newly trained cadet who doesn't know what war is really like? I have been fighting off the Siltvelt Marauders on Griffin's spine alongside my father and grandfather while you were still learning how to swing a sword!" Lord Uther gives Karen one more withering glare before looking back at her once again. "As for you, Your Highness. I followed you, not because I want to seek glory or even because I agree with your method. But because I promised your mother that I would look after you, and provide you with guidance so you don't go astray in your life. Her majesty was concerned that you are becoming someone unbefitting of your station, and I see her fear was well earned by the company you keep! Chivalry is the root of the nation you want to rule over, and what you are doing this day is destroying our nation's very root!"
"Typical of a privileged knight from old money. You don't know the true suffering of those living at the bottom of the nation. So you only ever care about your antiquated sense of honor, or glory to make yourself feel better." Grace blows out a ring of smoke at Uther's face as she looks at him with disdain in her eyes. "Do you think how you feel at night would mean anything for the poor, common people when their homes burned down, their families slaughtered, and their lives ruined by these animals you left alive to satisfy your fragile sense of honor? You are a coward, Lord Uther. Someone who only cares about his own reputation rather than doing what's right for the nation, or the people. Your precious 'chivalry' is nothing more than out of touch traditions."
"You think I only care about my own reputation, you filthy slum WITCH?! My family has been fighting, and dying against those who threaten the land and the people every generation! Be they monsters, demons, or foreign invaders! YOU! You and the rest of these short sighted fools who only see greed and what you'll gain in front of your eyes are the problem of the nation!" Lord Uther suddenly pulls his sword out of his sheath, and swings it through the air. The face of Grace Walker freezes in a mix of shock and fear rather than her usual contempt as it rolls off her body. Clearly, the former slum urchin is so used to the protection of a royal retainer granted her to let her openly badmouth the nobility, even to their faces, she never expected the consequence would come from someone like Lord Uther. He isn't someone who is known for pulling a weapon out during an argument after all. "I'll be DAMNED if I allow filth like you to continue poisoning our nation's princess!"
She looks down at the head of one of her most favored retainers and lets out a slight sign even as the troops loyal to her collectively raise their weapons. What a shameful waste of her resources. She had envisioned a new organization to gather information independant from the queen's Shadows once she succeeded her mother. As skilled as the Shadows are, they are too mired in traditions. Not innovative enough to adapt to new ideas.
She had a solution for the problem. Establish a rival organization, also directly reporting to the crown like the Shadow. Competition should be able to inject new life into her information gathering agency. And she meant to have both Karen Bowman and Grace Walker work on the project once she successfully gained enough prestige at culling the animals to win the throne from her sister. A shame that Grace met her end here, at the hand of a fellow countryman no less. But the way she meets her death is still useful in the current situation.
She hears the sound of swords being pulled out of their sheath and looks around. Her guards, and her host all have their weapons pointing at Lord Uther and his own men. But his host isn't the only one standing besides him. Duke Byron Chalphy, Duke Ring Yngvi and their respective hosts both stand beside the old knight despite them technically being rivals. House Seatto may not be part of the Crusader Block Chalphy and Yngvi both belong to. It might be a north western great house while the laterals come from the north east. But all of them have their family history based on traditional chivalry culture. Something she is clearly trying to challenge.
If she's not careful, the entire Melromarc host would immediately devolve into a full civil war before they are challenged by Siltvelt military. Thankfully, Lord Uther is the one who made a mistake first. Giving her a perfect excuse to bring him to heels, or chase him away at the worst. "You should not have raised a weapon at one of my loyal retainers, much less killing her, Lord Uther. In the name of your future queen. I command you: stand down and follow my order as per your duty, and I will forgive your transgression. If not, get out of my sight before I name you a traitor."
"The only traitor to the nation is you, stupid girl! Your ambition, and your pride will be the end of our great nation!" Lord Uther, and the knights loyal to him collectively jump onto their steed. His newly found crusader allies follow his example. Their answer is clear through their actions: desertion it is. "You are not my queen yet, stupid girl! Nor would I EVER obey you if you were!"
Lord Uther and his men left, after one last death glare aimed at her. A further shame that she's going to lose some of her most elite troops. But it'll not make a difference in the end. She still has more than enough reserves, the element of her surprise attack, and Cousin Bert's army from the opposite side splitting the attention of these animals to cull these animals. And she'll have enough time, and prestige to deal with old fashioned, stubborn fools like Uther once she returns home in triumph.
"A shame with what happened to Grace. But you did the right thing, my future queen." Karen smirks as she kicks the head away like it's a discarded toy. She turns around to look at the Siltvelt children with a smirk on her face. "Now we know that everyone who stayed with us is loyal, we can do what we have to do to keep our glorious nation safe."
"Of course." She returns a smirk to her other favorite retainer. This is not like the time when she brought a filorial monarch to heel in a private meeting. Mother could use her queenly influence to hide her private achievement, but she can't do anything to hide her victory in bringing the Siltvelt animals to their knees. With such prestige, there will be nothing stopping her from winning the throne from her sister.
Mother and Sister are too weak. They let the animals get too much from them, and their continued weakness will only lead them losing more and more ground to these beasts. Melromarc needs someone strong at its helm. A true leader.
It had to be me. Someone else will get it wrong.
Interlude 21: Birth of the Red Queen
There is barely a single cloud in the heavens above the Melromarc armada that's making their way back to their home at highest speed. Stopping the ensuing coup that's the most recent result of the Three Heroes' Church's treachery is paramount to both the glory of Melromarc, and the stability of the entire world even if the other powerful nations don't share the same conclusion. As expected, there are many objections coming from their rival nations. But the king of Faubley managed to clamp down on all oppositions and allowed Queen Mirellia's safe return on the promise of her returning the possession of heroes to the other nations and a hefty reparation fee.
The queen of glorious Melromarc stood at the head of the ship. Wind carries the salty scent of the sea into her face. After a month of house arrest, this should have been a refreshing change of both scenery and sensation. Yet, it barely brings her any sense of peace in her mind. Not far behind her, the voice of her personal aid Duke Luigi Claes is filled with concern. "Will you be alright, my queen?"
"My own wellbeing should not be your first concern, Luigi. I am not the one who is suffering from an ongoing coup." Queen Mirellia opens her eyes and casts her eyes towards the horizon. In the distance where heaven and sea seems to connect, she could almost see land slowly coming into her sight. The admiral of her royal fleet had chosen Defiant Bay as their landing zone. For it's still in relative peace under the reign of House Arc, and they are loyal enough to the crown to be a dependable area to stage their counter offense to take back the nation from rebelling elements of the Three Heroes' Church. "Once again, the people of glorious Melromarc have their lives threatened due to my decisions. They are the ones who should have all your sympathies."
"That might be true, but you shouldn't be too hard on yourself, Mirellia. We aren't omnipotent like gods, and we can only make decisions to our best based on what we know." She hears the sound of wooden boards creaking against metal boots as Luigi steps closer to her. Her aid, and friend is walking close to her, a privilege she allowed very few people. "The important thing is unlike most of our esteemed colleagues. You remember your mistakes, feel shame for them, and do your best to amend all of them. That is much more than someone like Joseph would do."
"Such excuses don't fly in my stead. Because I am the queen of our nation. Every mistake, every bad decision I make would be paid by our people. Who have committed no sin other than living under a bad leader." The queen places one of her hands on the fence of her ship. The wooden fence of the ship began to crack and snap under her hands. "Tell me, Luigi. What sin had Sir Tabitha committed. Other than serving me with uttermost loyalty for over ten years? Yet instead of being justly rewarded, I traded her away to the king of Faubley. Simply for a chance to fix my own fuck up. Do you think what happened to her is fair?"
"No. It is not fair to poor Sir Tabitha. It's unfortunate, but the truth is we always hurt those closest to us, and those we hold most dear to us when we make mistakes." The charming duke of House Claes bows his head low, his eyes down cast. After a short moment of silence, he looks up again and continues with a bitter chuckle. "I'd like to think I'm not a complete fool. I'm nowhere near the brilliance of Duke Amelia, Marquis Noches, or Count Ascart. But I'm aware that people gossip behind my back. And what kind of talk they are. I know people say I'm nothing more than a pretty face to woo inexperienced, foolish young women. And my ability to understand them, and have them 'seeing my way' is my only real gift. Alas, if only such rumors were true... because for all the negotiations I managed to broker, I almost ruined my own family if it wasn't for my own daughter's initiation, and a lot of luck."
She turns her head to stare at her old friend, honestly surprised at his confession. She knew Luigi's marriage wasn't as peaceful as her own, (which is saying something, considering she's pretty sure Altcray sees her more as some mix between a daughter or a younger niece he took care of rather than an equal like his first marriage. Their difference in age and life experience certainly didn't help) but his marriage life supposedly improved drastically after he took in an adopted son. To the point that House Claes marriage is now often seen as the ideal marriage between noble houses, over taking the crown from House Amelia. "What happened? I always thought you and Millidiana found your stride after you two had your daughter, and an adopted son."
"You are right in a way. Although our greatest fortune almost became the greatest bane between us, if it wasn't for Katarina." Luigi crosses his arms in front of his chest, and leans his upper body forward onto the fence. "You knew the rumor that's been going on for a long time, right? The one where the two of us were childhood lovers. But you were forced to marry the wand hero to secure your throne, and I took the hand of Milli because her father gave his life to save me back during The Great War?"
"It's something I've been trying to wipe out of my memory for a long time." Despite the heavy topic, she almost lets a chuckle escape her lips for the rumor Luigi brought up alone. The idea of the gossip pairing her with one of her oldest friends, who might as well have been her sibling would have been rather revolting if it wasn't so comical instead. "No offense to you, Luigi. But the two of us simply know each other too well before any romantic feeling would even manifest in our heads."
"None taken, Mirellia. My thoughts exactly." Luigi turns his head towards her. A mirthful smile on his lips to show he felt the exact sense of humor as she did about the rumor between them. Yet, there is a distinct shadow of melancholy over his face. "Unfortunately. What's a funny joke between old friends can be seen as truth by someone who didn't share them. Especially someone like Millie. For a long time, she thought of herself as the ugly daughter of her father nobody wants. How she came to this conclusion, I will never know. Because to me, she is the fairest in the world. But the point was, she believed the rumor of the supposed secret romance between us, and she thought herself being the primary obstacle between the two of us being together."
"That... is absolutely absurd." The queen nearly slips over the fence and falls headfirst into ocean water if not for Luigi's quick action of grabbing her shoulder. "Even if we entertain the nonsense that we had romantic feelings towards each other, why would Millidiana think she's responsible for splitting us apart? It should be a no-brainer that I was the one who chose Altcray as my husband in the first place. There are much easier ways for you to pay back the sacrifice of Duke Adeth. But there are only a few viable candidates for me to marry to secure my reign. And obviously, marrying the brilliant and experienced Hero of Wand who has no power base in Melromarc would give me the most autonomy to act as the queen than having me beholden to one of the major political factions of our nation."
"I'm sure that line of thinking is easy for someone like you, Mirellia. You have always been someone ambitious. Wanting to become a leader to have others follow your vision. But for someone like Milli, love and family is the most important thing in her life. That was the reason why she would have believed that outrageous rumor in the first place." Luigi's reply makes her fall into silence again. Of course, she should know how different she was from Millidiana. "Throughout our marriage, Milli thought she was nothing more than an unwanted burden I carried to pay back her father. While I thought she hated me because I took her away from her family so shortly after her father's death. The two of us never bothered to tell each other how we felt, until I adopted Keith into our family. She thought... he was a son between the two of us."
Once again, the absurdity of the famed 'Golem Prince', one of the uncrowned prince charming of Melromarc being a son between Luigi and herself born out of wedlock is overwhelming. She might have intentionally casted herself into the water to avoid such embarrassing, possibly malicious rumors if not for the stronger sense of duty that she needs to make everything in her nation right to stop the suffering of her people. "How did Millidiana come with that conclusion? She does realize it's hard, if not impossible to hide a pregnancy, especially for a public figure like me?"
"Remember all your foreign diplomatic trips? She thought you had Keith during one of them."
"Ah..." A single syllable with no meaning behind it being her only response. What more could she even say about the misunderstanding she caused to her childhood friend that almost ruined his family? Another good thing she nearly destroyed simply by existing.
"In the end, the one who saved our family wasn't me. It was my daughter Katarina. She dragged Keith to the two of us, and had us talk it over. Of our misunderstanding. Our feelings towards each other." Luigi's eyes cast towards the distance. A genuinely happy smile now adores his mature, but still handsome face. "We mortals are not omnipotent like the gods, Mirellia. We can't stop making mistakes, and hurting others besides us. Sadly, sometimes the very people we hurt with our best intention are those who we wanted to protect in the first place. The most important thing is you genuinely cared for the people you rule over. Which is a lot more to say than a lot of other rulers, and nobles. That's why I will always stand beside you, even when I disagree with your methods. I will voice my objection when I feel you have truly gone astray, but I won't give up on you just like my daughter never gave up on me, and Millie."
"Thank you, Luigi. With how many lies I told in my life, I know it means nothing when it comes out of my mouth. But your trust means a lot to me." She turns around, pretending to be walking away from the edge of the ship to hide her face from Luigi. She is willing to let her childhood friend get closer to her than many others. But she's not going to expose her full vulnerability even to Luigi. Not that it would make any difference in the end. She gets the sense that he knows what's going on in her mind. As she walks backwards on the board of her ship, where the head of her personal elite forces, the Torchbearers stand. She casts her eyes through all of them now.
Meggie was the commander of her elite knights and the lady of Castle Cello, her martial excellence, her strength and skill as a knight needs no further questioning. But most people who never knew her would have their eyes drawn away from her and onto her steed instead. A dragon, but not the usual breed with a broad, and heavy body of a giant thunder lizard with wings. Rather, a long and elegant one that looks like a graceful sea serpent. But unlike the mere sea dwelling cousins of dragons, this one also has three pairs of clawed hands over its body. Its head is decorated with lion like mane, and stag like antlers rather than the usual fin.
A Siltvelt celestial dragon. A prized mount even amongst the nobles of Siltvelt. Often worshiped like a demi-god by some of its lower caste. Much like the famed dragon knight, Tansy of Faubley, she managed to tame her current steed during The Great War, when she wrestled its loyalty from its Siltvelt master. A great shame for their arrogant azure dragon clan to have one of their prized celestial dragons bow to their most hated enemy. Yet, as the Melromarc queen casts her sight from Meggie's steed back onto the knight herself, she noticed something that had eluded her for a long time.
"Meggie, there's a strand of gray in your hair." Such observation is to put things lightly. The knight's once immaculate face now have aged line cutting across her perfect features.
"I'm old now, my queen. I have lived through fifty summers and winters, and served you for twenty years." Melromarc's only celestial dragon knight simply gives Mirellia a faint smile and a nod. Aside from the change of their personal stations, Meggie would still treat her the same like twenty five years ago at the start of The Great War. A kind, compassionate older sister, patiently helping out an inexperienced little sister, and silently tolerates all her faults.
The queen of Melromarc casts her eyes over to the other captains of her torch bearers. Lynn and Dynn, the thunder lizard and great wyvern knights. The cloud and wind of Cello. Their brown hair is tied into the same ponytail like the day they joined the resistance, but their face is no longer the immature faces of young teens. When they first followed Meggie and herself during the Great War, the twin sisters were both sixteen years old. Now, both of them have their own daughters.
Mirellia's eyes settled on Ginsen last. The ritualist, and magical advisor of Meggie. Her once verdant hair had gone completely gray. The only thing that hasn't changed from twenty five years ago was her back is still straight as an arrow.
All of them. Still following her despite all her mistakes, all her missteps. That is why for them, and for the people of Melromarc her mother and sister left her, she will be their red queen. And she will lead them through the current crisis. She clears her voice, and begins speaking. "Everyone. From what we know, my former ally, the Three Heroes' Church had attempted a coup to take over the nation after the Third Wave. I don't know if such treachery was commanded by Pope Balmus, or carried out by other rebellious elements of their faith. It makes no difference in the end. A number of nobles, particularly those from Crownland, Gallia and Defiant Bay had already thrown their support behind the church's rebellion."
"But all is not lost yet. They are already being challenged from both south, and north. From the South, House Amelia of Golden Coast had always supported the Romalia branch of Four Heroes Church. The last remnant of Brimirian faith. They had always been the historical rivals to the worshippers of the Chief God, even after they were forced to renounce the first Wand Hero's divinity."
"And from the North, they are being challenged by the majority of the Crusader's Block. Especially after their failed siege on House Velthomar during the capitol riot. Duke Arvis had always been ambitious. He would not allow himself to bow down to a cult's illegitimate take over."
"This gives us both the time and the chaos among our enemy to regroup ourselves. The Three Heroes' Church has no claim to the throne themselves. Any attempt would lose them any possible support from Gallia, and Defiant Bay with both Prince Joseph and Archduke Wales both have much stronger claim to rulership than they do. Which means their only hope to command the rest of the nation is to take custody of one of my daughters. Likely keep them in the capital and use them to command the rest of the nobility." Ginsen brings out a rolled up parchment, and spreads it open under everyone's feet. The queen takes Luigi's spear from his hand, and uses the tip to point at the location of the capital on the map, before moving it north west towards Defiant Bay.
"We will make our landfall at New Albion's. Their port will be large enough to let us disembark in the shortest amount of time. I know Archduke Wales had been a major supporter of the Three Heroes' Church due to Balmus saving his life in The Great War. But he is a trustworthy, and loyal subject to the crown. If there is a conflict between myself and Pope Balmus, he, and his family will know who to support. From here, we will make our way to Cello to gather the rest of my loyalist host, and then split up into two groups." The queen looks up at her long time friend, and personal aid. "Luigi, your task is to make your way to Fort Wolf's Mouth with Cello's detachment of pegasus knights. Bring General Anderson, and his Jackals. Link up with us on the plain outside Castle Melromarc. They will serve as my hammer if we have to take the capital by force."
"I'm no great strategic mind, my queen." The head of House Claes looks up at her. With how serious the discussion has turned, he didn't address her in his usual casual way. "But are you sure you wish me to go find help from General Anderson, my queen? From what I heard, he is currently busy fighting back a Siltvelt invasion. It'd be rather counterproductive if we lose our border to Siltvelt raiders to fight a civil war."
"General Anderson is a frontline general. In both good, and bad senses. He is someone who is indomitable in continued offense, but not much use in defensive warfare. Fort Wolf's Mouth will hold, as long as you don't take away his second in command." The queen brushes away her aid's concern. "We have no time to fight a war of attrition. The Wave of Catastrophe still rages. And the other nations would have no problem starting a crusade to destroy our nation if we can't stop the coup in a timely fashion. This is why we need to stop the Three Heroes' Church in one fell swoop."
End Note:
Sorry about this interlude being shorter than usual. Hopefully this being one of the more important side character made up for it.
I don't think I managed to make Grace Walker as much an absolute cunt as she is in Wolfenstein. Then again, it's hard for me to write an absolute cunt since I (hopefully) am not one. And here it back fires on her when she provoked Eclair's father so much she loses her head.
The idea of there being a secret romance between Luigi and the queen is a plot point that I kind of chuckled through as I wrote it. But I think it fits so perfectly with Luigi in his own story is canonically known as the prince charming of his generation, and Trash being so much older than Queen Safespace. Plus, it gives Millidiana more reason to think Luigi never loved him than canon. This is the reason why I developed my pop culture reference fetish. Elements from two separate series ends up fitting like a glove together.
The beginning scene with Queen Safespace and a monarch filorial isn't inspired by Malty hating filorial in canon by the way (since I know enough people think I switched the queen and Malty's personality for my own story). It's actually inspired by a real event with Wu Zetian, the only female emperor of China with a horse where she tried to impress her first husband Taizong Emperor... and it backfired just like here.
XD
Now... the main course of this chapter's note. A lots of people think I hate the queen. Which is entirely true by the way as she is arguably my most hated character in the entire RotSH extended world (including the Spear Hero story), but not in the way most people think. I hate the queen more from a metanarrative sense, rather than what she actually is/does in the story. All she is, is a deus ex machina plot device to pamper and cuddle the main character so he didn't have to make any politically tough decisions, and have all his questionable actions pardoned by an authority figure. Which granted, wouldn't have made her worse than most other characters in RotSH. What made her my most hated character is first pointed out by my consultant Commissar Gaunt and later I have come to agree with once I put more thought into my story and canon: her existence makes very little sense (I'll explain more in depth later).
Personally, I believe the queen's existence is like the reveal/plot twist of Trash used to being a wise king and a strategist much later in the game: A badly thought out snap finger retcon to force the story's plot in a direction Alenko wanted in the original webnovel. And Alenko didn't put anymore thought into how to make more sense for the retcon in the official published lightnovel which made the plot even worse than the original webnovel. Once again, I'll explain it more in depth in a moment.
One reviewer from a long time ago had asked me. If I thought the queen's action doesn't fit what the narration build her up to be, why didn't I simply make her act as smart as her original narration. Which cut into the problem I been dancing around till now: I simply could not, unless I want to change the plot of this story so much it doesn't even resemble the original story written by Alenko.
This brings me back to why I think the queen's existence was a badly thought out retcon. If she truly was as smart and had as much political clout as Alenko pretended she was & had, the whole rebellion by the Three Heroes Church wouldn't have happened. Trash summoning all four heroes wouldn't have happened. Because she would have been smart enough to realize both her husband, and 3HC (it's literally called THREE Hero's Church and preaches the Shield Hero is a demon in disguise) have a massive hate boner and done something to stop it. Possibly much earlier than canon started so it wouldn't have been a problem by the time the main story happened. Failing that and at the very least, she would have been smart enough to not leave her country at such a precarious and critical time.
Granted, Alenko tried to 'fix' this problem in lightnovel by adding a bit of side context but none of them works. I already explained in my own story why the queen put Eclair's father in charge was stupid and would just have resulted in him gets murdered/assassinated. The part where Pope Balmus is so scared of her that he's been on his best behaviour makes zero sense either. Because by Alenko's own narration, the queen is VERY smart while the Pope is VERY stupid. And since the queen should be smart enough to know 3HC is a risky element, she should have took every chance, every slip up made by 3HC to progressively curb their influence and power (which she clearly didn't when they would have successfully launched their coup if not for this little minor plot device called Wrath Shield II).
So by Alenko's own canonical setting, we have a supposedly super smart ruler that's one step from being a literal living god. Yet she's made a fool by an idiotic religious leader who thought commit flat out heresy was a good idea (once again, I already explained in my own story on how Alenko's explanation of how the Pope was 'forced' into commit heresy makes zero sense, as he could have covered up all the three weapon heroes mess up with religious propaganda and make Naofumi look like the villain in all the incidents). Yeah, I can definitely smell some shit. Which means the only way to explain this is the queen's very existence is a badly thought out is a badly thought out retcon which Alenko didn't bother to put any thought into and they simply doubled down and went headfirst further and further into their own plothole in the lightnovel.
Alternatively. My own tinfoil hat theory that would fit all the facts written by Alenko is the Pope is secret a good guy or an anti-villain. He realized 3HC is now hopelessly corrupt and wanted to wipe the slate clean. So he played his role as a big bad to push 3HC into being burnt to the ground. Which would have explained why he didn't use political propaganda against Naofumi, why he didn't monitor Naofumi or throw any challenge at him till he become strong enough to resist them, or why he flat out committed heresy. On the other hand, the queen is simply someone who were lucky enough to be at the right time to pick up all the pieces, and made herself look like a good guy/good ruler in everyone elses' eyes.
:)