Chapter 163 The crown gleamed in the early morning sunlight…
It was the sexy and delicate beauty I had seen that night.
She wore a strapless long dress, revealing her alluring breasts, which were almost spilling out, making her even sexier than that night.
The ruby bracelet on her snow-white wrist was so dazzling it could blind me.
I smiled faintly, walked into the dining room, and ignored them.
Just as he sat down at the table laden with food, Manberia entered, a delicate beauty clinging tightly to his arm, her entire body almost pressed against him.
I was busy eating, forking two pieces of shrimp and slurping the seafood soup, while also picking up a piece of dry bread with my left hand.
Manberia watched me eat with a grin, holding only a glass of wine in his hand.
The delicate beauty's eyes darted around, and she suddenly took a sip of the wine in Manberia's hand, smiling as she said to me, "Sister, my name is Midna."
"Hello," I replied, biting into my bread, "Eat more, don't be shy."
Midna was stunned, while Mamboa burst into laughter.
Midna quickly recovered and picked up a piece of bread with ease and joy. "Okay."
Manberia and Bernard's chief mistresses are different. Manberia's mistresses are usually younger, delicate and petite, like Sue in the past. Bernard's mistresses are older, charming and alluring, like the one who framed me and sent me to prison.
The two of them really do have different tastes.
That night I had a good appetite and ate two pieces of bread, a bowl of seafood soup, three creamy chicken wings, a small bowl of shrimp, half a grilled fish, and three skewers of grilled meat.
After finishing my meal, I nodded to them, who had barely eaten anything, and went straight to the study.
No sooner had he entered than Manberia followed him in.
“I thought you would sleep with her.” I opened the official document.
"With you here, I will never abandon you."
"What? You want all three of you to get out together? That's impossible."
“No,” he suddenly hugged me, “I just want to get out of here with you.”
"That's impossible. You've been with so many people, I don't care." He was getting in my way while I was looking at official documents, and I impatiently pushed him away, but he hugged me again.
"Didn't I show you my test strip?" he said, looking aggrieved. "I'm clean."
"I'm leaving now, I'm very busy."
He let go of me, but didn't leave. Instead, he sat down and watched me look at the official documents.
I watched him for a while, and just as I was about to shoo him away, he spoke up: "When are you planning to attack the Western Capital?"
Since we were discussing serious matters, I naturally wouldn't send them away. "I haven't thought about it yet."
“I have a suggestion, the sooner the better. I’ve only just stabilized things here, and King Midan certainly didn’t expect you to strike so quickly. At the very least, it should have taken a few months, since I’ve just quelled a turmoil myself. So,” he emphasized, “my advice to you is to strike swiftly and unexpectedly.”
"Okay, then next month."
I started getting busy and suddenly realized that when a woman has more important things to do, jealousy and rivalry are all trivial. Even though Midna often hovered around me, occasionally "showing affection" with Mamboa, and deliberately letting me see them embracing intimately, or just coming out of the bathroom, I would just nod as a greeting and leave.
Midna looked smug, while Mamboy's expression was grim. I felt he must be suppressing something. He wasn't one to tolerate his mistress being so arrogant in front of me, especially since he'd been trying to please me ever since he brought me to the North.
His mistress's arrogance will only make all his efforts futile.
He must not want to offend her, which is why he's being so patient.
Before the 20,000 troops that Mamboa had lent me were ready to set out, I received a reply from Artis, who agreed to give me 5,000 private soldiers as a reward for my help in discovering mineral resources for him.
I smiled. Although it was expected, I was still very happy.
My army set out during the hottest season in the North, when only a thin layer of ice covered the ground. I adopted a strategy of simultaneous open and covert attacks. On one hand, I openly declared war on King Midian, while on the other hand, I sent Artis's private army ahead of time to the capital to lie in ambush and prepare for a surprise attack.
Manberia also sent several of his capable lieutenants to follow me and offer advice at any time.
He cannot come with me to the battlefield; he must guard his northern palace to prevent further trouble.
Before setting off, I made various preparations, including several communications with Beatrice, instructing her to defend the royal city that Bernot had given me, in order to prevent the loss of the last stronghold. "Don't fall for the trap of luring the tiger away from the mountain and let King Midian take over this royal city as well."
I've finally reached an agreement with Letea. I will do everything in my power to "squeeze out" King Midian, and he will act as my inside man in this battle, passing on as much information as possible to me.
The battle finally began, fierce and intense. I clashed with King Midan on the battlefield, tens of thousands of soldiers locked in a brutal struggle that lasted for a month without a clear victor. The generals given to me by Mamboyab were exceptionally capable, repeatedly routing King Midan's army. However, King Midan was no pushover; he had many talented subordinates, and he quickly launched a counterattack, forcing us into repeated defeats. After a month, neither side had gained a significant advantage.
I've started another internal offensive. An internal offensive means breaking through their defenses from within. I'll use my informant in Letea to bribe several highly respected nobles in the major cities to gain their support during the final assault on the royal palace.
These nobles hadn't initially been entirely resolute in their stance when King Midan conquered the Great City. They were loyal subordinates of Diya's father and were deeply dissatisfied with Diya's killing of her uncle, her father's brother, believing it violated the royal traditions of the Great City. However, after Diya's death and King Midan's entry into the Great City, they became dissatisfied with him, believing he wasn't the true master of the Great City and questioning his right to occupy the highest position, even though it was Haiya who held that position, everyone knew that King Midan was the de facto ruler.
At this point, Beatrice actually showed an advantage in terms of bloodline—she was of pure royal blood, "pure and upright," and several high-ranking nobles were more willing to accept her.
In the second month, we lost. King Midan intensified his firepower, and his generals used every means and ingenious scheme to win three consecutive battles against us. Our morale plummeted, our spirits waned, and we developed a fear of the battlefield. As a result, we lost again, and lost for a whole month.
In the third month, the tide began to turn. The Elf King's private army arrived, five thousand elven guards in high spirits, adding immeasurable strength to our forces. "This is for my daughter's sake," the Elf King wrote in his letter to me. "She needs a brave and victorious mother. I hope that after your victory this time, you will consider returning to the Secret Realm. Of course, you will have a legitimate claim to the throne."
I tossed the letter aside and joyfully welcomed the arrival of reinforcements.
This month, the addition of the Elven private army reversed the course of the war, with King Midian's army suffering three consecutive defeats and its morale plummeting.
In the fourth month, the war reached its climax, with both sides locked in fierce fighting and neither gaining the upper hand. My connections with the nobles of the Great Capital became even closer, exchanging two letters a day to exchange important information. I also had Beatrice write to several important nobles, expressing her unwavering commitment to the traditional rule of the Great Capital. This "traditional rule" meant continuing to govern according to the old model, with rules, regulations, and cultural traditions remaining unchanged. Such a "determination" was reassuring.
Although the "old law" is not necessarily better than the "new law", in times of power transition and when traditional aristocratic ideas prevail, the "old law" will be more popular than the "new law".
In the fourth month, they fought to a draw with King Midian.
In the fifth month, after careful planning, we split into three groups: one group engaged King Midan in direct combat on the battlefield, another group attacked one of King Midan's small but wealthy capital cities, and the third group secretly attacked our original independent capital city.
The army that engaged in direct combat on the battlefield was there to tie down a portion of King Midan's forces; the attack on another of King Midan's capitals was there to tie down another portion of his forces; and the final attack on the independent capital was the real battle to seize and defend power, in which the vast majority of the elite troops were deployed.
This was an extremely bloody and spectacular battle. The nobles who had been bribed in the capital city opened the city gates, and the elite guards stormed in, carrying out a bloody massacre. The city was littered with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the ground was littered with severed limbs. Most of the civilians had been arranged to hide beforehand, and only a small number were unable to hide and were brutally murdered.
Half of the royal army had been bribed, so when our army stormed in, they could move in unimpeded. The remaining half of the royal army was no match for us.
Flames soared into the sky, thick smoke billowed, and countless plumes of black smoke rose into the clouds, turning the western sky crimson black.
King Midian, shouting and cursing, had no choice but to lead his army back.
The royal palace in the independent capital has been completely occupied by us.
The battle has come to an end.
In the sixth month, Beatrice, dressed in a fiery red robe embroidered with gold thread, ascended the high steps leading to the altar, just as her mother had done years before. With each step, the hem of her robe, studded with pearls, swayed, cascading with light and shimmering brilliance.
Before the altar, she knelt on the red cushion, and the white-robed old priest placed a diamond-encrusted pure gold crown on her head.
The crown shone brightly in the early morning sunlight, gleaming with golden light.
Even after being soaked in blood, its golden luster remained undiminished.
After the ceremony, a celebratory ball was held to celebrate the new queen's accession to the throne. The nobles cheered, screamed, whistled, danced joyfully, clinked glasses excitedly, and laughed and shouted as if the invasion and bloody war had never happened.
The new queen sat quietly on her throne, looking like a little adult, making it hard to believe she was not even fifteen years old.
Just as I was about to go over and chat with her, a general appeared. "Lady Lana, His Highness Hyya has just been captured. He was hiding at the entrance to the tunnel built by the former Queen Diya. We thought the tunnel was filled with poison and no one would hide there, but we didn't expect him to have been hiding there all along."
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