Chapter 428 Power
Yialos opened his mouth, but found that he could not make any sound.
What could he say now? Defence, confession, mourning—nothing mattered. He was a tin soldier melted down and cast anew, standing before his former queen, betraying the oath he had sworn when he knelt before the sword.
He couldn't even kneel down, even though those all-seeing smoky gray eyes were not watching him from behind.
"Are you... okay?" The Knight Commander heard his own voice was extremely dry.
"Not bad," the queen replied calmly. "The day Analene died, I was so happy that I ate an extra bowl of dinner and slept more soundly than ever before."
She casually placed her sword on the ground, without a trace of murderous intent. "I was very surprised when I received your message back then. I never thought the Ghost would trust you so much, telling you everything about the God of Love."
——So much so that her loyal but overly clumsy Knight Commander, even though he worked under the Ghost over the years, still took huge risks and racked his brains to pass on various information about the Divine Seal to her.
The ghost may not be unaware of this, but he still chose to condone it.
"No, I..." Jophiel Yialos murmured helplessly and painfully.
He didn't know what he was denying.
Did he not want to expose to the Queen how well he was doing under his new master? But it was an indisputable fact: for a traitor to have achieved his current position in the People's Party, the Ghost had truly treated him well. Or did he not want to admit that the Ghost actually trusted him deeply? But in a way, he had betrayed that trust again, having betrayed his previous master.
—Indecision, Yialos, this indecision will kill you.
"No, this is a good thing, Yialos." The queen seemed to have already seen through his thoughts. Perhaps with a premonition, she spoke more frequently than ever before, even with an unusually sincere and frank tone: "In fact, I'm relieved that you can leave the royal city. You are not suited to this festering, stinking place. Those sinister greed and conspiracy will slowly kill you sooner or later, and even I can't do anything about it."
"Ghost is sometimes a little too naive." Though she said so, Esmerel's tone lacked any hint of blame; instead, it revealed genuine approval. "But you're suited to working under someone so resolute and selfless, whose convictions are pure and whose methods are ruthless. He's like a furnace, refining all impurities around him. You'll achieve great things because of this, far better than wasting your life in the royal city, scheming against those old bastards."
Yet, amidst this immensely compassionate and tolerant affirmation and consolation, Yialos seemed to hear the sound of his bones breaking inch by inch. He could no longer hold on, and his spine, which had stood straight for years, finally trembled and bent.
The spear clanged to the ground, along with his knees. All the unmeasured and indecisive, heart-wrenching pain, the pain that had always burned his soul, turned into a cold yet scalding liquid, melting along his tense cheeks to form shiny, winding traces, and smashing small pits into the ground.
The Knight Commander's shoulders began to tremble violently.
"Your Majesty, I..."
"Good afternoon, everyone."
There was a clear creaking sound as the door was pushed open. Everyone subconsciously turned to look. The professor, who had pushed open the half-closed palace door, was stunned for a moment. After looking around the interior of the council chamber, he hesitated for a moment and asked very seriously, "Do you need me to give you some more time?"
"No need." Esmerel was the first to come to her senses and chuckled. She watched the black-haired young man calmly step into the main hall of Yuanxin Palace, as leisurely as if he were strolling in his own living room.
"Ghost, spirit." The queen said softly.
Extremely complex emotions flashed across her eyes, but in the end she just gripped the hilt of the sword, her golden pupils narrowed slightly, like a beast that sensed its territory was invaded.
But her voice remained calm, as if she was chatting with an old friend she hadn't seen for a long time: "Please tell me, did Analenie die miserably?"
"It was pretty tragic," the professor answered honestly. "She was eaten alive by her madly devoted followers."
A happy smile suddenly appeared on Esmery's face. She smiled and watched the black-haired young man in front of her walk towards her step by step, passing Ialos who was kneeling on the ground and looked like he had completely broken down emotionally. The corner of her clothes brushed against the other's slightly trembling shoulders, but she didn't even look at him.
Instead, the Knight Commander suddenly raised his head, staring blankly at the ghost's lean, upright back. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but ultimately swallowed it back. His hands, bracing themselves against the ground, tightened, veins bulging on the backs of his hands, and the pale skin on his knuckles threatened to crack.
"Stand up, Yialos." Esmery's smile suddenly faded, and she said coldly. Since the ghost knew everything, she didn't need to pretend to be a master and servant in the past. "Then step back. You have no business here."
"Your Silver Helm Knight isn't here," the professor stated calmly, "but he doesn't look like he's prepared to surrender."
"And you look like you're here to die." Esmerel casually made a graceful sword flower. "I don't remember you having any accomplishments in swordsmanship—don't touch it. The pistol in your pocket is useless to me. I'm a warlock of the Lord's Prayer class."
The professor paused, silently withdrawing his hand. The gleaming silver pistol rested docilely in his palm. He stared at the queen for a moment, then suddenly spoke, "You are the 'God's Chosen One.'"
Cassius II was once the only officially certified divinely favored person in the entire Silver Iris Empire - but based on Azuka's limited experience dealing with this king and her observations, he was nothing more than an ordinary man whose body had been largely hollowed out by alcohol and sex. On the contrary, Queen Esmerel was not an ordinary person.
Cassius II, who was sitting on the throne, was already pale, and his body trembled when he heard the words. He shrank back into the throne in fear.
"That's right," the queen admitted frankly. She sneered with arrogance and disdain, "I find it hard to believe in the usefulness of 'prayer,' let alone believing in some bullshit god like Analene—please don't disgust me."
"The title 'God's Chosen One' was passed down shortly after Cassius II ascended the throne." The professor thoughtfully considered the couple's strange and complicated relationship. "At first, I thought it was just a deliberate attempt by the new king to secure his throne... So, is this a deal, a threat, or both?"
"...You are really smart." Esmerel looked at him deeply and couldn't help but express the same sigh he had expressed countless times.
At that time, she had just broken with the God of Love. Without the protection of the God of Love's divine power, the busy new queen was caught by the king and the Vatican performing a spell without a medium. Although she managed to deceive him at the time, it completely exposed her identity as a non-believer in front of the king.
At that time, Esmeralda was just a little bit away from regicide and silencing the witnesses. After all, given the political situation at the time, if Cassius II had exposed this matter, the "bitch queen" who had an unstable foundation and had drastically affected many people would most likely be dragged to the gallows by the Church.
In fact, to this day, Esmerel couldn't figure it out. At that time, her "husband" hated her so much that he almost wanted to tear her into pieces. Now that he had seized such a fatal flaw, why didn't he take the opportunity to kill her? If it were her, she would never let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
But Cassius II did not do so.
Not only did he not do so, but he took the blame for the incident himself. The Vatican lacked the courage and audacity to declare the king an unbeliever. After much negotiation and wrangling, the two sides were forced to declare the Silver Iris Empire's king a "favored one" of the God of Light and Glory, even having to cover up for him in public.
...But maybe this is one of the reasons why she tolerated his stupidity several times in the future.
"It's just some boring old stories." The queen concluded lightly.
"Okay, no more nonsense." She moved her wrist impatiently. "I'm not dead yet, so don't look so calm and composed, as if the situation is settled. Who will challenge me now? It shouldn't be you, Nova."
Esmerel sized up the black-haired young man's slender frame, then twitched his lips playfully, his murderous intent surging uncontrollably. "Excuse me, but you won't last a single round under my sword. I'll easily chop off your beautiful head."
The temperature in the hall suddenly dropped.
A hand appeared behind the professor, supporting his shoulder in a protective gesture. Esmerel couldn't help but hiss softly. Although she longed for a hearty battle before the final outcome, having a god serve as her judge was a little too...exciting.
The goddess's golden hair seemed to be burning in the dusk, and her blue eyes clearly reflected her face which was slightly distorted with excitement.
The God of Struggle and Change calmly gazed at the woman before him, his voice echoing through the empty hall: "So, what is the philosophy that resonates with you?"
"Power," Esmerel answered without hesitation.
She craved power, from the beginning to the end, and nothing else. Whether it was the power to control her own destiny, the power to shape the fate of others, the power to influence the fate of this country, or even the power to make the gods bow down - even when power collapsed, she would still use her greedy gilded beast eyes to bear witness to the price of all destruction and reconstruction.
This should have been her path, her ending, the only answer she had been searching for her entire life.
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