Winter Fire (3)
This was Inger's first time entering the palace.
Although he had already enjoyed the utmost luxury in the Neka Mansion, he was still stunned by the scenes that resembled those in a Western palace movie.
The invited nobles arrived one after another at dusk.
Inger and his family went to pick up Archbishop Bishop, and when he took Archbishop Bishop's hand and stepped into the royal banquet hall - the Queen's Hall.
The entire magnificent banquet scene instantly blinded his eyes.
When the waiter at the door called out his name, he could feel that all the gazes in the hall turned into solid straight lines, piercing him to pieces.
He instantly remembered how he, a socially anxious person, became a teacher and stood on the podium.
"One watermelon, two watermelons..."
He smiled softly in his heart and felt much better. Almost all the heads in front of him turned into big watermelons in the melon field.
"What are you mumbling about?"
Bi Xi was beside him and could vaguely hear him mumbling something, so she leaned down and spoke into his ear.
Inger smiled at her: "Nothing, it's just my habit."
Bi Xi looked at the young man's calm smile that attracted the attention of the crowd, and withdrew his gaze thoughtfully.
Walking down the long stairs, Inger spotted the male protagonist among the many people with watermelon-head hair.
The banquet hall was ablaze with gold, but that splendor was different from Alex's gold.
Where he stood was a beam of light, symbolizing the dawn of hope.
When reading comics, the golden color is so dazzling that it is hard to look away.
Alex was acutely aware of his gaze.
The two met again a few months later.
Alex didn't dodge this time. He smiled helplessly and shrugged.
It seems to be saying, "This is an irresistible situation, and you saw it yourself, it has nothing to do with me."
Inger narrowed his eyes, the smile on his lips disappeared unconsciously, he turned his head away and glanced around casually.
After a while, he looked over again, but Alex was no longer in that corner.
"Welcome to Her Majesty the Queen!"
The nobles quickly stood in two lines, bent their waists and knees to welcome the arriving queen.
Inger also lowered his head like everyone else.
Following the principle that curiosity kills the cat, he would not move his eyes upwards even a centimeter.
After all, he had seen the queen's true appearance in comics.
The comics depict the queen like this: long, slightly curly ebony hair, skin as white as a pink rose with a rosy glow, cherry-red lips, watery and lively gray eyes, cheeks with a bit of baby fat, she often wears a queen's dress, has the plumpness that is unique to aristocratic women, and has an innocent look on her face. She doesn't look like a mother of two children, but more like the silly and sweet heroine in a girls' comic.
Inger's eyes were fixed on the train of the Queen's dress, which swung across the red carpet as she passed, the gold embroidery perfect down to the last stitch.
Suddenly, it stopped in front of Inger.
"Child, lift your head and let me see."
Inger blinked, slowly raised his head and smiled.
"My honor, Your Majesty."
He knelt on one knee, took the hand handed to him by the queen, and gently kissed the back of the hand covered with a silk glove.
They separated as soon as they touched and he let go politely.
The Queen's hand brushed gently across the side of his cheek.
"Yeah, good boy."
The queen's eyes were filled with compassion and kindness as she smiled.
Soon, she moved on to the next noble.
When Inger stood up, his legs were trembling slightly, and he could feel the inner shirt getting wet all the way down his back.
Watching Queen Lucia's back as she walked by, his mind replayed her great deeds that had resulted in countless corpses.
Queen Lucia is a remarkable woman from the perspective of a villain.
She once helped the emperor ascend the throne, but she was also the one who carefully fed the emperor a chronic poison, causing him to become paralyzed in bed and linger on.
She plotted to kill another queen, kidnapped the eldest princess to be her own child, and fed her until she became infertile.
She has a gang under her command that kills people without leaving any trace, and Alex has not yet obtained any evidence that she ordered the poisoning.
These are the events that have been experienced so far.
In the comics, Queen Lucia designed a fight between the eldest princess, the second prince, and the third prince. In the end, she killed her two sons with her own hands. When she was about to kill the eldest princess, she was stopped by Alex.
Then she killed everyone in her own palace one by one as a blood sacrifice, left the palace, and returned to her country, Zalambra.
Later, as the Grand Wizard of the Saranqin Republic, she launched a large-scale war against Chune together with the military dictator of the time, Andrenon.
Brantaza of blood sacrifice. This is what people called her at that time.
Brantosa means "cruel queen" in her native language.
This comic book does not describe the characters' psychology, background or memories at all. It only faithfully presents the plot through behavioral language and screen storyboards according to the timeline.
In the main storyline, Queen Lucia's background is unknown.
Therefore, in the later period, many people were speculating what the queen's motives were.
Of course, this was not revealed until the Queen's death.
The amount of murder she committed on the Northeastern battlefield was appalling.
The blood-sacrificial Brantasa slaughtered every city she passed. With each city she passed, her power would surge.
If Alex and others had not tried their best to stop her, she, the only ninth-level combat wizard in history, would have massacred the entire northeast region.
The harmless and gentle queen in front of me is such a person.
As the Queen took her seat, the eldest princess Aura, and the second and third princes also entered.
The fourth prince does not seem to have returned to the capital.
As for the other princes and princesses, they did not even have the qualifications to enter. They were either kept in the cold palace or exiled to remote territories.
The eldest princess Aura, dressed in the attire of a prince's knight, walked past the nobles indifferently with a swift and majestic pace.
The nobles came one after another to greet him.
Inger stole a glance this time.
She has short bright blond hair and ice-blue eyes inherited from her biological mother. She is 1.80 meters tall, with strong muscles in her arms and legs. Because she is tall and thin, her whole body exudes an androgynous beauty.
It's even prettier than in the comics.
"Tick, tick, tick." The footsteps stopped.
“…………”
This familiar scene gave Inger a bad feeling.
The cold princess stood in front of him and said, "You are Lanmore's brother. This is the first time I see you. Why are you still so thin?"
Inger bowed and said, "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Your Highness."
Ola patted his shoulder and said, "I will send all the prey from the spring hunt to your house next year. Eat more!"
Inger could only thank him.
Ola turned to Lanmore and said, "You have worked hard these days. Go home and have a good rest with your family."
Lanmore smiled and said, "Your Highness, the holidays are for recuperation."
Ola tugged at his collar. "I want to, too, but do you think I can catch my breath? Let's go. Don't forget the first dance later."
To outsiders, the conversation between the two was unusually intimate.
In Inger's eyes, his brother was like a rabbit, and Princess Aura was like a lion.
The Neka family is one of the six great dukes, with a territory closest to the royal jurisdiction, the highest status and the longest history. It was not surprising that the first dance was with Lanmore.
Princess Aura couldn't have been dancing with the dancers, so Lanmore must have been.
Men dance with the dancers and women lead the dance, which is rare in any occasion.
But in Aura's case, men and women no longer mattered to her, and she herself didn't seem to care at all.
Lanmore turned around and saw his brother looking at him with pity, with a few question marks on his head, "Ying? What's wrong?"
After the royal family members entered, music started.
Lanmore could only quickly run to the front and invite the eldest princess to dance the first dance.
The first dance is over.
People slid onto the dance floor in pairs, carrying their partners.
Alex was still missing in the crowd.
Although Alex is also a prince, he has been keeping a low profile in the academy since the poisoning case. The poisoning case was also handled by Lanmore, so not many people cared where he went.
"ah..."
Bixi blinked at him innocently, "You are wrong this time too. You lost your mind seven or eight times while dancing with me. Who were you thinking about?"
Inger perked up, but was soon stepped on again.
He looked at Archbishop Bisi's face, which was trying not to smile, expressionlessly.
[We really shouldn't have learned ballroom dancing. We're both equally bad at it. Why bother?]
After the customary three dances, Inger's leather shoes had been trampled to pieces.
Before the last move, Inger leaned over to Bixi's ear and said, "I'm going to go somewhere later. If anyone asks me where I'm going, just say I'm going to wash my hands."
Bixi smiled and said, "Don't leave the palace, and don't run around."
Inger made a gesture, stopped dancing, and slipped away from the crowd.
Under the guidance of his servant, he pretended to go to the bathroom and began to search for a room based on his memory.
There was an endless stream of attendants on the road serving food, wine and water, but they were all in a hurry and only bowed hastily when they saw him.
As he walked deeper into the palace corridor, there were fewer people there, so he quickened his pace.
"Bang" "Ah"
As he turned a corner, he bumped into a man's chest.
"Sorry, thank you." Inger's shoulders were firmly supported by a pair of hands, and he did not fall down.
Looking up, Alex smiled and said, "You're welcome."
Inger's pupils shrank, and he blurted out: "Why are you here?"
Alex rolled his eyes, grabbed his wrist, and flashed behind the wall.
He said softly: "Probably... the same as your purpose."
Inger slapped his forehead.
He rubbed his hands and whispered, "Now that you're gone, I don't have to, let go!"
Alex didn't let go. "Only me? I was looking for your help. How can I solve it? I don't know any healing magic."
"Then go find the Archbishop! She's the best at healing magic."
Alex: "If she could be cured, she wouldn't be the same now. How many times do you think Ola begged her?"
"You think I can do something that even the archbishop can't do?" Inger stepped on his foot in disbelief.
Alex was completely oblivious, carrying the man inside, and turned around to ask him, "Then why are you here?"
Inger was speechless.
Alex was more familiar with the place than him and quickly found the target room.
Strangely, there was no guard at the door.
"Trap," Inger whispered.
Alex said, "I didn't detect any sign of knights nearby." He paused and said, "And, maybe..."
"What?"
"It's okay, let's go in!"
"Hello!"
Alex dragged Inger to the door and gently pushed it open - it was not locked.
[This is simply a must-see scene in a horror movie...]
The two men opened the door, and a silver figure inside the door turned his back to them and slowly turned around, pushing a wheelchair.
It was a girl with long silver hair and blue eyes. She placed the book on her lap on the table and said quietly, "I've been waiting for you for a while."
Alex gave a predictable smile.
Inger also understood.
The girl in front of him is one of his targets on this trip.
The tenth princess, Christine.
She only appears in a few short chapters in the comics, but her abilities play a crucial role.
Her mother is a descendant of the elves, and she has the blood of the elves. After regressing to her ancestry, she awakened some abilities - prophecy.
Compared to the reborn Alex and Inger, her prophecies are based on the present.
Through her predictive dreams, she can predict what will happen within three days. She can only passively accept the predictive dreams, and the contents of the predictive dreams are likely to come true.
Christine is the only family member that Ola cherishes.
She was raised by Ola herself, she is both a sister and a daughter.
In the comics, after Aura failed in the battle for the throne, he took her to live in seclusion in a small town. After the demon invasion war began, Aura volunteered to go to the front line to fight and died on the battlefield.
As for Christine, although Aura knew that her ability could help her, she was still reluctant to take her to the battlefield.
Christine was left in the cabin, and on the day of Orla's death, she had a vision of being raped and murdered, and after waking up, she calmly committed suicide by taking poison.
"Did he know we were coming through prediction?" Inger couldn't help but whisper to himself.
Christine is no more than 12 years old now, with pale skin, weak limbs, and is as ethereal as a wisp of smoke, but her face carries a maturity and calmness that is not typical for someone of her age.
She extended her hand to the uninvited guest and said, "Please take a seat."
Alex touched Inger's arm and glanced at him.
Inger didn't want to pay attention and began to regret it.
Of course he knew that using this opportunity to keep Princess Aura in his entanglement was the best choice for the future.
But he had no confidence at all.
If they fail, Ola will find out and kill them immediately.
Christine didn't waste any time and went straight to the point, "I have never met you, but I know you, the ninth prince who has just arrived in the capital, Alex."
Alex smiled brightly, "I'm your brother too."
Christine chuckled, almost mockingly, and looked at Inger.
"I don't know you, but I guess you are the second son of the Neka family."
[Although she is a princess hiding in a bookcase and never leaves her house, she has a good grasp of the nobles. ]
Inger observed her carefully.
She is so beautiful in the comics that she doesn't look like a real person, but in reality she has a bit more vitality and her weakness is particularly real.
Inger stared at her for a long moment, sighed, and took out his wand. "Time is short. I'll just give it a try. I can't guarantee success."
Christine pushed the wheelchair forward.
"My prophetic dream told me that you would heal my leg."
At this time, Inger had already applied the magic formula for healing wounds that he learned from Bixi to her.
He knew that failure was inevitable, as the spell could only heal external injuries, such as broken bones and torn tissue.
Christine's legs were broken when the fourth prince pushed him down the stairs when he was a child. Although the bones were repaired, the nerves were not.
This spell does not have the function of repairing nerves.
Christine looked down and shook her head.
"Then can you tell me how I cured you?" Inger said after thinking for a moment.
As far as he knew, Christine's prophetic dreams were not complete, but fragmented, sometimes fuzzy, sometimes clear.
Christine shook her head again. Her blue eyes were almost light blue, serious and calm. "I couldn't see anything. My vision was black. When I saw you, I had already stood up."
Inger wanted to do an experiment, so he said, "Do you have two blindfolds?"
Christine pulled out two dark handkerchiefs from the cupboard.
"Both of you, cover your eyes. I'm going to try a spell. Don't ask why."
Inger first set up a soundproofing formation.
Alex and Christine looked at each other and did not hesitate.
[“Repair”]
Inger wrote in his native language.
The spell written in the air fell on Christine's legs, and the green magic light outlined the girl's thin legs like a halo.
Inger held out his wand and continued to output magic power, with cold sweat dripping down his face.
This continued for about a moment, then he took out a magic stone, and used his left hand to absorb the magic power of the magic stone while his right hand was still exerting magic power.
The magic power required to repair both legs was much greater than he had imagined.
At this time, the sound of a group of footsteps was heard outside, one of which was particularly heavy and rapid.
Inger didn't stop, and said quickly: "Alex, you can take it off now, help me buy time!"
Alex responded by pulling off his handkerchief, drawing his sword from his waist, stepping out of the sound barrier, and standing in front of the two men facing the gate.
His smiling voice came: "Finally, you don't call me the Ninth Prince anymore?"
Inger frowned.
【This kid is so annoying. 】
The door was kicked open and Ola rushed in. The indifference and calmness at the banquet just now disappeared, and what remained was hostility, anxiety and rage.
Christine was her only anti-scale.
"Alex! How dare you wear a sword in the palace!"
Ola glanced at the young wizard and the blindfolded Christine behind him, and his anger soared.
Alex greeted her with a smile and the tip of his sword, "Sister, I don't want to be your enemy. Can you wait a moment?"
Behind Aura are her knights.
Aura didn't understand the situation yet, so she didn't dare to act rashly. She gritted her teeth and said, "I can send you back, or I can make you disappear from the same place."
Alex did not relax his stance at all, because he knew that if he showed the slightest flaw, Ola would cut his neck with the sword.
"Don't say such terrible things, sister. Even if you don't believe it, we really didn't mean any harm. It was Christine who took the initiative to let us in."
As the two talked, the magic light weakened.
Inger put away the exhausted magic stone and let out a breath.
He removed Christine's blindfold and took her hand.
Seeing this, Aura's eyes were red with anger. He drew out the sword of a knight and roared, "How dare you! Don't touch her with your dirty hands!"
Alex's eyes darkened for a moment, he lowered the hilt of his sword, and his voice changed: "Ola, you should keep your mouth shut."
Christine opened her mouth, and Inger quickly waved his hand to remove the silence barrier.
Inger bent down and whispered, "Can I?"
Christine shouted towards her sister, "Sister! I'm fine, don't worry!"
Then she took Inger's hand and opened her eyes.
She took a deep breath and stood up slowly, but she soon shook.
Inger put his other hand on her shoulders.
"Can you do it?"
Christine stared at her legs with wide eyes. She could clearly feel the sensation and pain in her legs.
She took a deep breath, held onto Inger's arm, and nodded firmly.
"Let me try."
Those seconds seemed like years to both Kristen and Ola.
The surgery restored the nerves and atrophied muscles in Christine's feet and legs, but what she needed to overcome was the psychological pain.
She hasn't walked for a long time.
She learned to run around on her short legs at the age of three, but was pushed downstairs and became paralyzed at the age of four, and had to use a wheelchair for eight years.
She was like a newborn deer, trembling as she learned how to lift her legs and walk.
Step out of the wheelchair, one step.
Stand firmly on flat ground, one step at a time.
Use your calves to take a step forward.
Inger released his left hand and took a step forward.
Left foot, right foot, one step, one step, and another step.
The tears in Christine's eyes rolled out one by one. She lowered her head, bit her lips, and took one difficult step after another.
Everyone present held their breath.
Alex didn't look back, but he saw that Ola had dropped the sword and was watching the scene in dismay.
Inger whispered over Christine's head: Can I let go of my right hand?
Christine is a quick learner and her leg muscles and balance are intact.
Inger gave her a final push and her fingertips came away.
Christine staggered and fell forward.
Ola took a step forward, "Chris!"
Christine yelled, "Sister! Don't come over here!"
Inger looked at the girl, with no intention of helping her up, and took a step back.
The tears on Christine's face had not yet dried, but they had already climbed onto her face. She used her hands to support her body and slowly got up from the ground. She raised her head and looked at Ola, "Wait there, Ola, wait for me to come over."
Some people in the knight group couldn't help but cover their mouths because of this miracle.
Christine slowly stood up on her knees.
One step, two steps... She walked very slowly, but without relying on anyone's support or a wheelchair.
She stretched out her arms, crossed a distance of more than ten meters, and hugged Aura.
“Ah…Ahhhhh…Chris…Chris…”
Alex put down his sword. He had never seen his sister cry so hard.
Princess Aura is not a kind person.
But now thinking about it, she didn't do too many unforgivable things, she just disagreed with my political views.
It was she who went to the battlefield and sacrificed for humanity.
Inger took out a handkerchief and wiped away the blood from his nose. Looking at the bright red in the handkerchief, he suddenly understood why Bixi always said that he did not have enough magic power and told him to practice magic power consumption and replenishment.
Without the training he received over the years, he would have been unconscious by now.
It feels a bit like anemia, but it's okay.
The amount of magic power required to repair a human's legs was truly enormous. He could feel his own magic furnace running empty.
[What about cutting off a limb... It's scary, don't even think about it, don't cut off a limb, don't cut off a limb...]
He held his forehead.
Everything went dark.
Inger fell backwards.
[Fuck...whatever you think will come true...]
“Yes!”
Before I lost consciousness, I heard Alex's anxious voice.
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