Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 361 Letter
"What?" Chapolili looked at Aleto, who was guarding the door of the Temple of the Lord, in astonishment. "You said Her Majesty the Queen is not here?"

Unlike those foreign officials who knew little about the secrets of the palace, as the head of internal affairs, Xia Bolili was quite familiar with the plain-looking woman in front of him.

He understood that he was only the Queen's close minister in name only, and that this head maid was Her Majesty's true - or even only - confidant.

The two people's responsibilities sometimes overlap. In the past, Aleto would at least explain the situation to Chapolili. However, this time she just nodded expressionlessly and said, "Anyway, His Majesty cannot see you now. Please leave."

Xia Bolili was a little anxious, "But I do have important information to report to Your Majesty! The plague in the lower city."

"Enough!" Aleto suddenly shouted.

"Don't mention the damn plague anymore! Her Majesty has done enough for mortals, enough! Do you understand? She can't do more!"

The sudden roar stunned Xia Bolili. He thought for a few seconds and whispered, "Did His Majesty get hurt by the light that shot from the Palace of Eternity towards Gallid during the battle in the East Territory?"

Aleto suddenly suppressed his raging anger, and his ordinary face instantly returned to his usual calm state. He said calmly, "The state of a god is not something that mortals like you and I can discuss. Please leave."

Chapolili looked deeply at the tightly closed palace door behind her, his worried eyes seemed to penetrate the door. After a long time, he exhaled heavily, nodded silently to Aleto, and then retreated out of the palace.

When he reached the edge of the stairs, he suddenly heard Aleto whisper behind him: "My Lord Viscount, His Majesty does not owe anything to the Rodel people, you know."

Xia Bolili paused, without looking back, and said, "Yes, I know."

The footsteps faded away along the long marble steps. Aleto's eyes, which were always as calm as a deep pool, showed a rare hint of hesitation. She sighed softly and whispered in a voice that only she could hear: "Actually, you don't know."

"No one knows what happened nineteen years ago - this is the price that the people of Rodel should pay for their usurpation."

Chapolili returned to his residence in the palace. This once-powerful viscount of the court sat alone in his study, lost in long thought.

Nineteen years ago, Aleto spoke of the birth of the Prince of Evil Omen.

In the 30th year of the Golden Calendar, the birth rate of children of bad omens in the royal capital reached an unprecedented high. Among the babies born in Rodel in the first half of that year, % were children of bad omens, and another % showed more or less signs of bad omens.

At the end of the Giant War, the Queen and the War King returned to the capital with the two newly born princes, Mongert and Monger, in their arms. The panic and anger of the citizens reached a climax after they witnessed the two "tainted sons".

The mob even attacked the Golden Temple at one point, but it was the War King who stopped them for three days and three nights. The riot was not quelled until the Queen announced the exile of all evil omens, including the prince.

Coincidentally, it was after that exile that the birth rate of evil omens in Rodel and the entire Golden Dynasty began to drop sharply. Until three years ago, when Her Highness Lucia moved all the evil omens away, no more cases of evil omens were heard.

Chapoli was well aware of the sacrifices the queen had made for the stability of the dynasty, and he also agreed that the Rodelians should pay the price for their usurpation, but he did not yet understand the core connection between the turmoil of that year and the plague today.

Aleto's subtext is to say that the birth of the evil omen and the plague of insanity are essentially the same thing? The last incident was settled because Your Majesty exiled the son of the evil omen. Was it really settled because of the exile?

Your Majesty spent three days and three nights in silence in the Eternal Palace. Was he really just struggling and having a psychological battle over this extremely difficult decision?

Thinking of this, he turned his head to look at the gentle and warm golden light of the golden tree outside the window, and suddenly felt an inexplicable chill.

"Sir, a messenger has just arrived and brought--" the butler's voice came from outside the door. "Don't bother me!" Chapolili scolded, "Whether it's the rent collection report from the manor or those useless people in the family asking me for help, tell them to get out! I don't have time to deal with these trivial matters now!"

"Sir, this is a handwritten letter from Her Highness Lucia Shanks." The old butler gritted his teeth and chose to withstand the pressure and finish speaking.

There was silence inside the door for three seconds, and then there was a sound of stumbling footsteps, followed by the sound of tables, chairs and benches being knocked over by robes.

Xia Bolili pulled the door open and took the envelope. As expected, there was Lucia's exclusive seal and divine seal on the surface.

The moment the divine seal touched his palm, it dissipated silently. This was obviously a trick Lucia had prepared long ago to ensure that only Xia Bolili could read the contents of the letter.

"Stand back, and tell all the servants not to come near!"

"Yes."

A full quarter of an hour later, Chapolili finally put down the thin piece of letter.

There was not much in the letter, but it took him a long time to calm down. The prince's vision and courage were still as impressive as ever.

Lucia only told him three things. First, with this letter, Xia Bolili could get the support and help of the entire Ancient Dragon Temple system, including Fulshanks.

Secondly, he wanted Xia Bolili to immediately complete a summary of intelligence from the royal capital and, if necessary, send the information to the East after reporting to Queen Marika.

Third, if any unrest occurs in the royal capital during this period, Xia Bolili can cooperate with the Ancient Dragon Temple to deal with it.

These three things were simply unimaginable for the traditional golden nobles. They almost showed unconditional trust in Chapolili, and he mobilized all the power of the Ancient Dragon Dynasty in Rodel to cooperate with his actions.

Just because he noticed something unusual in the capital from a distance, that prince dared to act so unconventionally and entrusted such precious trust and such heavy responsibility to a court eunuch whom he had only met a few times. Xia Bolili couldn't help but think of the princes and nobles who were still arguing over the enfeoffment of demigods until yesterday. He was stunned for a long time and finally let out a helpless sigh.

He immediately took out a piece of letter paper and began to write a reply to Lucia. At this moment when Her Majesty the Queen was suspected to be seriously injured and silent, he really had too many things he was unable to deal with and needed to find a more powerful person to take over.

If he had not received this letter, he would have planned to pay a visit to His Highness Godwin, but His Highness Godwin had been busy arguing with the New Party over the issue of enfeoffment, and in recent days he had also been focusing on finding out the military situation in the north, so he was probably unable to take care of this sudden outbreak of the epidemic.

As for Radagon - although Chapolili is nominally the head of internal affairs of the entire Eternal Palace and is responsible to both Majesties, everyone knows that he is the Queen's man.

Deep down, he never recognized the qualifications of that "king's husband" as the true king. In recent years, the New Party has been aggressively exercising its power in all matters of state and government. Wasn't it the instruction of this "king" behind this?
If he really had as much compassion for the world as he appeared to be, why did he have to wait until after the battle festival three years ago to decide to release the foreign slaves? And why would he still be so obsessed with the vortex of party strife when disaster struck?

Fortunately, now with the support of Her Highness Lucia, Xia Bolili can finally take on many responsibilities that he could not bear before. Some initiatives that were still in the planning stage a quarter of an hour ago finally have the opportunity to be implemented.

Contact the Ancient Dragon Temple and ask them to send out priests to suppress the epidemic and compile intelligence for Your Highness. Well, I should go to the Eternal Temple again. Your Highness did not contact Aleto directly, so he should ask me to act as a middleman. It would be even better if Your Highness could help Her Majesty the Queen.

With so many thoughts in mind, Xia Bolili wrote very quickly. He finally finished the first intelligence summary, dried the ink, put it in his arms and prepared to go to the Ancient Dragon Temple. He ran into the butler who had hurried back.

"Sir, there is another person waiting outside the palace. This time it is His Majesty Radagan's guard. Please go to the side hall to report the results of the inspection of the epidemic."

(End of this chapter)