Chapter 1075: Eclipse Crown Plan

"Eclipse Crown Plan..."

Isabel murmured softly.

Hearing this, Isabel felt extremely complicated at the moment.

The shadow of her childhood was that relatives she knew or didn't know very well died one after another because of the curse... Now she has become the queen of Avalon, and the curse has become a thing of the past.

But now she realized that the one who initially triggered the whole thing... was actually her own parents?

"A missing nail means a lost horseshoe; a lost horseshoe means a lame warhorse; a lame warhorse means a lost battle; a lost battle means the loss of a country..."

Isabel sang the nursery rhyme of Avalon softly.

That was a song she had heard when she was very young.

When I first heard it, I didn’t understand the meaning of the song, but when I listened to it again, I became one with the person in the song.

But Aiwass narrowed his eyes slightly.

He thought of more than Isabel.

This was an old story that was largely unknown to anyone except the parties involved. It's possible that even Prince Albert didn't know he was engaged. But at least Queen Sofia, as the initiator, certainly knew about it.

When he discovered the Ten Days' War, the old duke personally led his troops to fight, so he should have known that this matter was related to Prince Albert - especially since a member of the royal family had been poisoned before that, which was obviously the work of Hawkeye.

Sherlock also realized something: "So, that incident back then..."

His father, Arthur Hermes, was once the Lord Chamberlain of Avalon. His primary responsibilities included planning and managing all royal activities, presiding over weddings and funerals. His most crucial function was hiring, training, and managing the palace servants. Therefore, when a member of the royal family was poisoned by a curse, Arthur was undoubtedly responsible.

At that time, someone anonymously accused Arthur of poisoning her—and by then, the Inspectorate had found the poison that could have caused the death in Hermes's mansion. The entire chain of evidence was complete, and although some motive was lacking, it was not unreasonable for the Inspectorate to search his memory at this time.

But at that time, the Queen directly saved Arthur.

There was no trial, no questioning. With the chain of evidence complete, Arthur was acquitted directly... Remember, the person who was assassinated was the prince she loved the most and who had the greatest chance of becoming the next king.

Sherlock regarded it as trust and therefore returned the respect.

But now he has a little more understanding...

……I see.

The Queen actually already knew how the assassination happened...that's why she forgave Arthur without hesitation!

But then the problem arises...

Why did she suddenly take the initiative to contact the Vendôme family, with whom she had no previous contact, to find a princess for Albert? And why did she acquiesce to and even promote their marriage after Albert got his music teacher, Inélisse des Fleurs, pregnant?

Though Inerlis inherited the legacy of Agnese's teacher, Betinatia Blossom, she was still a young girl when she left the Theocracy. According to half-elf age, she had barely reached adulthood when she arrived in Avalon, making her considerably younger than Agnese. While they knew each other, their relationship wasn't particularly close—at least not close enough for Agnese to request a wedding from Queen Sofia on her behalf.

Would the Queen offend the Grand Duke of Iris Vendôme for the sake of their love - not to mention whether it was love?

One of the costs of being a royal is the lack of freedom of marriage. As a half-elf, Inerys was a relatively good choice in the elf-worshipping world of Avalon... but in other circumstances, if a royal chose a lover of lower status as their marriage partner, they would face considerable political pressure.

It's not just a matter of lowering the order of succession...it could even be used as a weapon by traitors with ulterior motives to undermine the royal authority.

Needless to say, this incident indirectly triggered the Ten Days' War. Before Meg intervened, the Avalonian navy collapsed, completely unable to prevent the Iris soldiers from landing. How could Queen Sofia be sure that Avalon was safe if Meg hadn't intervened yet?

Afterward, the royal family was cursed, and the entire Avalon believed it was the Star Antimony who were behind the attack. Regardless of whether or not a war could be won, it could at least win the hearts and minds of the people. If a desperate attitude could be demonstrated, it might be possible to stop the mastermind.

But even then, the queen remained motionless. She knew it wasn't Xingtian's doing. Declaring war on Xingtian would mean being attacked from both sides—there was no such thing as a "maybe"; and if a war were declared on Iris, Xingtian would surely interfere and reap the benefits.

From a certain perspective, all these troubles can be said to be caused by Albert.

But from another perspective, Albert also said with real emotion: "I didn't feel any love from my mother, only pressure and criticism. It was as if I couldn't do anything right...as if I was stupid."

Even after Prince Albert left Glass Island, no one went to look for him.

These two attitudes are completely opposite!

She offended the Duke of Iris for Prince Albert's freedom of marriage, and showed no concern for him when he ran away from home.

This attitude of both neglect and respect...

Aiwass suddenly thought of something and looked at Isabel.

...Is it possible that the person Sofia cares about was Isabel from the very beginning?

This strange feeling reminded Aiwas of a novel he had read in his previous life.

In that novel, the heroine, the daughter of the patriarch of an ancient powerful family and the most talented seedling in the family, left the family with only a "guard" who was almost the weakest in the family and entered a small family in a small mountain town. The protagonist was allowed to touch the guards everywhere, and the guards seemed to be blind, and their favorability was inexplicably locked.

But even if it's love at first sight, there's no sweet plot, and they don't see each other much. Yet, he's incredibly possessive, even jealous... It feels like he's been reborn, clinging to her because he knows what's going to happen.

Queen Sofia gave Aiwass this feeling.

She seemed to know that Isabelle was a transcendent of the Path of Beauty and even that she loved Lulu's Magic Flute. That's why she wanted to seek out the Vendôme family, the most authentic inheritor of the Path of Beauty and one of the original performers of Lulu's Magic Flute, and to arrange a marriage with Albert.

Later, when the underage Albert had a relationship with Inélis, she not only did not ask for the child to be aborted quietly for the honor of the royal family, but also did not take action against Inélis. She even risked offending the Grand Duke of Vendôme, the symbol of military power of the Iris flower, and paid the price of a child to save Isabelle.

After Isabel was born, Sofia had Isabel study art with Janice, avoiding any knowledge that could lead to assassination. The reason she had given to Aiwass before was to keep Isabel under a low profile—but the premise of this statement was that she was not teaching her those things in order to avoid Isabel being assassinated.

So why Isabel? Was it simply because she had shown artistic talent since childhood? But compared to real artists, Isabel's artistic talent didn't seem that high.

Before now, neither Aiwass, Sherlock, or even Isabel herself had realized anything was amiss. The only one who might have had a vague sense of it was Sherlock's brother, Mycroft. That was why he was the first to pledge his loyalty to Isabel, even establishing a close relationship with her while Prince Andrew and other members of the royal family were still around. And like Queen Sofia, he also ignored Isabel's two-year-old brother, John.

It was as if... she knew from the very beginning that Isabel would become a great person in the future.

Even in the dungeon, in another possibility shown, she also chose to let Isabel marry after knowing Xing Ti's conspiracy. She was trying to protect Isabel in this way, but she didn't expect Xing Ti to prepare a "fake Isabel".

——If you look at it from this perspective, then everything makes sense!

(End of this chapter)