Rose Empire

Rose Empire Author: Nan Zi

Summary:

When the emperor set out on a journey, she would suppress disobedience, defeat the enemy, seize everything he had, ride his steed, and take his beautiful wives and concubines.

Volume 1: Chapter Introduction

One day, someone will kill all of you, squeeze out every drop of your blood, cut off every piece of your flesh, crush every bone of yours, and feed them to wild dogs, pigs, and vultures!

This is not a curse, it's a vow, because that person will only be me...

The young girl stood in front of the fresh tombstone, muttering to herself. At this time, only the wind and rain remembered her words.

Volume 2: Chapter Chapter Charlotte Mellefield

Jue~~

A loud cry pierced the sky, and its bronze claws suddenly grabbed the rough wall tiles, stone chips flew everywhere, and its dark golden wings stirred up a whirlwind.

A giant eagle with a wingspan of over twenty meters landed on the castle tower.

A girl of fifteen or sixteen jumped lightly from the back of the giant eagle, dragging a heavy parchment bag in one hand and using the other hand to push her long flaxen hair that was messed up by the wind behind her ears.

A castle guard in leather armor trotted up and took the reins of the giant eagle from the girl.

"What are you doing, young lady?" the girl asked casually.

The guard shook his head: "I don't know, but it seems that he hasn't left the house yet."

The guard really didn't know. He was just a squire knight in charge of taking care of the mount and had no right to enter the main castle. But such a vague answer was enough for people who really knew the young lady to guess the correct answer. The girl took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then walked down the tower.

The thin silver chain around her waist jingled pleasantly, and her deerskin boots stepped on the stone floor as she walked through the corridor with brass and crystal wall lamps hanging on it. The maids she met along the way all stepped aside and bowed to her. The girl hurriedly returned their greetings and hurried past them, soon arriving in front of the redwood door of the castle owner's bedroom.

Pushing open the wooden door that was not tightly closed, the first thing that caught the girl's eyes was the fine velvet tapestry painted with angels and fairies, the exquisite furniture carved with roses, irises, thorns and other flowers, the pink silk curtains with lace, and the dressing table reflecting the golden sunlight.

Judging from the furnishings alone, this should be considered the most common boudoir of an aristocratic lady.

However, when the girl turned her head, she saw three sleeping figures on a large walnut bed with scarlet curtains hanging on it.

The black and golden hair are intertwined, just like three delicate flowers intertwined. The gentle spring wind and rain brush over the fragrant core, leaving behind the pink of the sunset.

A casual glance at this scene would be enough to make her blush and her heart beat fast, but as the personal maid of the master of the bedroom, the girl had seen too much. Her expression remained unchanged as she walked to the bedside, raised the parchment bag in her hand, and slapped it hard on the white and tender calf of the black-haired girl in the middle.

Before the black-haired girl could react, the blond ladies sleeping on both sides of her were awakened by the crisp "pop" sound.

The blonde woman on the left had wheat-colored skin, looked older, and had a mature figure. The girl looked over, gave a humble smile, picked up two tattered dresses beside the bed, and simply put them on.

The girl looked at the younger blonde girl on her right and was stunned. The blonde girl looked away involuntarily when she met the girl's gaze. She picked up a skirt from the ground, covered her chest, and hurried out of the bedroom as if she was running away.

The blonde on the left bowed to the girl and followed her out.

"Well, Renee, you wake up..."

The black-haired girl finally woke up. She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and stretched. Her smooth black hair flowed down from her milky skin like a waterfall, revealing her graceful figure.

The girl called Renee ignored the beautiful scenery in front of her, rolled her eyes and said, "In fact, I have already been to Lake Light Manor and returned. Please look at the time, Miss Charlotte Mellorfield, it is noon now. If you don't get up, you will be late for the audience this afternoon!"

"Hmm..." The owner of the castle, Miss Charlotte Mellorfield yawned again, still looking like she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

The corners of Renee's mouth twitched slightly. She turned around and asked the castle maid to prepare hot water. Then she pulled the naked Miss Charlotte off the bed and pushed her to take a bath.

The maids laid smooth silk in the oak basins to prevent the non-existent wood thorns from scratching the delicate skin of the noble ladies. Flower petals and perfumed dew were sprinkled in the hot water of just the right temperature, and the fragrant scent could relieve fatigue and sleepiness.

After finishing her bath, Charlotte finally woke up, wrapped in a towel and sitting in front of the dressing table.

Renee stood behind Charlotte, combing her hair while complaining, "Miss, you are such a fool. You have such an important thing to do today, but you don't even have a good rest at night. You have spent so many years planning this, aren't you afraid of messing it up..."

"Yes, it's been so many years..." Charlotte looked at the sunshine outside the window and sighed silently in her heart.

I have been in this world for sixteen years.

This is an ancient fantasy world with castles, knights, and miracles. Charlotte is lucky. Sixteen years ago, she was born into the Melefield family with relatively complete memories of her past life. The Melefield family is the Duke of Green Plains of the Orlan Empire, and the Orlan Empire is currently the most powerful country in the entire Eagle Continent. Charlotte can be regarded as a daughter of a famous family in this life.

However, Princess Leila, the biological daughter of the Emperor of the Orlan Empire, married a powerful duke in his fifties at the age of twelve. This is the typical life template of the daughters of noble families in the feudal era. It seems that their only value is to be a tool for marriage alliance.

Whether it was out of an instinctive aversion to her sexual orientation or out of her ambitions that could not be hindered even by her female body, Charlotte could not accept such a fate. So, from the year she was born, Charlotte began to carefully plan a plan that would be enough to realize her ambitions.

Today, the first step of the plan will be implemented...

"One of the people just now looked familiar to me. It seemed like Miss Cecilia?" After Renee stopped complaining, she suddenly asked curiously.

"Yeah." Charlotte nodded, "That's her."

"Ah? Really?" Although she was mentally prepared, Renee was still shocked. "That girl is Mr. Capriati's favorite student? Who in Jurong Academy doesn't know what kind of person she is?"

Mr. Simon Capriati is the most famous philosopher in the Oran Empire, and even in the entire Eagle Continent. The bards in any tavern know that no matter which country the wise Simon Capriati wants to go to, he will be treated as a guest of honor by the local king and emperor.

Ten years ago, Simon Capriati bought a small piece of land in the suburbs of Platinum City, the capital of the Orlan Empire, and founded a small academy. He began to recruit students and impart his lifelong knowledge. This academy is called "Capriati Academy", but there is a huge banyan tree in the academy. Simon Capriati usually takes classes under the banyan tree, so people call it "Giant Banyan Academy".

When the Jurong Academy first opened, it caused a sensation throughout the continent. Children of the royal family, the nobility, and the rich came one after another. Students from home, abroad, near and far flocked to it. However, Simon Capriati did not reject everyone. This great philosopher required everyone to debate with him. Only students who showed enough rhetoric and thinking skills would be allowed to become his disciples, regardless of their identity, status, or family background.

Over the past ten years, the Banyan Tree Academy has accepted more than a hundred students, and Charlotte is one of them. In fact, this number is already a lot, after all, the entire academy has only one teacher, the great philosopher. Most of the time, Simon Capriati just talks about his various theories under the banyan tree like a lecture, and the students below can understand as much as they can. Only a few students favored by Simon Capriati will be brought around by him every day and taught from time to time. Charlotte is not one of them, but Cecilia is one of them.

With such an identity, Cecilia was indeed qualified to be neither humble nor arrogant in front of most nobles, even though her father was just an ordinary copyist in a theater.

She has shown herself this way in the past.

In this era, girls from commoner families were not averse to sleeping with nobles. Some noble lords implemented the "right of first night" in their own territories, and no one thought it was shocking. But Cecilia was special. She was a rare commoner girl in this era who had developed self-esteem and independent beliefs. Although this belief might be just a bud, she would never let a duke's lady hook her finger and untie her skirt.

That's why Renee was so surprised.

"Because they are poor," Charlotte explained casually, "Cecilia's brother was diagnosed with a talent for warlock by a priest of the church, and the initiation ceremony costs a lot of money. Apparently, Cecilia couldn't get away from her family."

The supernatural power system in this world can be roughly divided into three components: rituals, sorcerers, and miracles. Rituals are the basis of all supernatural powers. Rituals create sorcerers and miracles. Some cultivation factions also believe that sorcerers and miracles are essentially the same - they are both carriers of supernatural power, but the former carrier is a creature with wisdom, while the latter carrier is a beast without wisdom, an inanimate object, or even some invisible and intangible natural phenomena.

The awakening ceremony is the most common type of ceremony in this world. Its function is to assist ordinary people without any abilities to become sorcerers and embark on the path of transcendence.

There are many types of initiation rituals. Different warlock factions have their own unique initiation rituals, and warlocks of different races will also modify the initiation rituals according to the characteristics of their own race. Of course, some people often modify the initiation rituals for more realistic reasons - money.

The nobles who controlled 99% of the resources in the secular society of the Orlan Empire were usually willing to use the most precious extraordinary materials in their children's spiritual awakening ceremonies, and recruit the most prestigious senior sorcerers to preside over the ceremonies to increase the success rate. In this way, their children often easily embarked on the extraordinary path, and even once they entered the extraordinary path, they would show extremely strong talents and start out superior to others.

However, the largest number of people in this world are still civilians and serfs. Many people born in the lower classes also want to embark on the path of transcendence, so they try every means to simplify the awakening ceremony and replace various expensive materials. As a result, the awakening ceremony has various defects and the success rate has plummeted, but it has indeed become simpler and cheaper. However, this "cheap" is also relative. The rare attribute determines that it is impossible for this world to have truly "cheap" extraordinary materials. The most commonly used material in ordinary awakening ceremonies is mithril powder. The price of a small spoonful of mithril powder on the market is almost equivalent to the savings of a serf family for five generations. In the simplified awakening ceremony, mithril powder is replaced with silver-winged fish bone powder. The price of a spoonful is equivalent to the savings of a serf family for three generations.

It was cheaper, but it didn't make much difference to the serf families.

Cecilia's family was not serfs but commoners. Her father had a respectable job as a scribe, but it was still difficult for their family to afford the expensive fees required for an awakening ceremony.

"So that's how it is." Renee nodded.

As a native, Renee could understand Cecilia's family's thoughts. Only by becoming a sorcerer could one completely change the future of the whole family. This was the most common thought among the lower classes. Even a low-level one-winged swordsman could be canonized as a knight or a squire knight, and a knight was the lowest level of nobility.

From common people to nobles, is this a leap across a class? No, this is a leap across a species.

Because of the existence of the extraordinary, the average age of nobles in this era is generally over 100 years old. The average age of civilians may be only 40 years old - this is just the result of Charlotte's observation. Due to her status as a duke's daughter, the areas where she has lived for the past 16 years are almost all the most prosperous places in the economy of the Oran Empire. If she goes to poorer rural or mountainous areas, the average life expectancy of civilians may be similar to that of serfs, only in their twenties.

One can live to be a hundred years old, while the other can only live to be in his twenties. Can they be called the same species?

No matter how knowledgeable Cecilia is, she can hardly break through the gap between commoners and nobles. Cecilia's family all want to join the ranks of the nobility, and perhaps Cecilia herself feels that her brother's becoming a warlock is more important than her own chastity.

"So who is the other woman?" Renee asked again.

"Cecilia's sister," Charlotte answered without hesitation.

Renee was speechless. She really didn't want to comment any more on her young lady's miserable private life.

Volume 3: Chapter Chapter The Bishop, the Emperor, and the Viscount

Renee's last name is Fonderen. The Fonderen family has been loyal servants of the Melefield family for generations. Even the surname Fonderen was given to Charlotte by her grandfather. Renee's father, Ralph Fonderen, was Charlotte's father, the Duke of Greenfield, and the personal valet of Jose Melefield when he was young. Now he is the court steward of the Principality of Greenfield.

Renee and Charlotte grew up together. It is no exaggeration to say that they grew up with the same pacifier. In name, Renee is Charlotte's maid, but in reality, the two are more like childhood sweethearts who can talk about anything. Although they are not blood-related, they are closer than real sisters.

For example, sisters would not casually discuss matters between the sexes, but Charlotte never avoided Renee when looking for a cute girl.

For example, Charlotte never told her family about her ambitions, but she never hid them from Renee since she was a child.

Renee brought a gorgeous pink satin low-cut dress for Charlotte to change into. The tight corset hugged the girl's already slender waist and highlighted the exquisite curves of her upper body.

The round and full curves and the pearly white color gave people a wonderful feeling of softness, elasticity, fragrance and tenderness just from the visual point of view. Although she had seen it many times, Renee moved her throat unconsciously.

"Do you want to take a bite?"

Charlotte suddenly puffed out her chest and asked.

Renee came back to her senses and saw Charlotte looking at her with a mischievous smile. She had obviously noticed her swallowing and her pretty face suddenly turned red.

"This dress is not solemn enough and is not suitable for an audience with His Majesty. I will go change it!"

Renee hurried out of the bedroom and took out another dark blue court dress.

Charlotte let Renee play with her. The new dress was much more conservative in style, and her eye-catching breasts were completely covered. But Renee had excellent taste in clothes, and she still made her daughter look beautiful.

Just after washing and dressing, a court attendant came to inform that the emperor summoned Charlotte, the daughter of the Duke of Luyuan.

No time for lunch, or breakfast? Renee prepared some biscuits and milk and took them to the carriage to fill Charlotte's stomach.

Horses and giant eagles are both common means of transportation in the Orlan Empire. Giant eagles are fast and can ignore terrain, but for an elegant noble lady, the riding experience is really bad. The carefully dressed makeup, expensive and exquisite jewelry, and gorgeous and fragile silk dresses cannot withstand the ravages of the wind. Therefore, it is more appropriate for noble ladies to travel in a stable carriage, especially for short trips.

In the carriage, Charlotte was eating the cookies that were still hot from the oven while opening the parchment bag that Renee had brought back.

The items in the parchment bag were very diverse, including seals, brooches, letterheads, books, notebooks...but they all had one thing in common, that is, they were all printed with a white leopard emblem. The emblem of the Melefield family, the Duke of Greenfield, was a purple leopard, and this white leopard emblem was almost identical to the Melefield family emblem except for the color, which was very suspicious of plagiarism.

The reason why the previous owner of this coat of arms dared to blatantly copy the family coat of arms of the Duke of Greenfield was because he was Viscount Lanwan, Basilic Melferfield.

The Viscount Lanwan family is a branch of the Duke of Greenfield family. Basilic Melfield's grandfather and Charlotte's great-grandfather are brothers. Charlotte maliciously speculated that after the first Viscount Lanwan was canonized, he might have been too lazy to redesign the family emblem, so he scraped off the paint from the original Duke of Greenfield's family emblem and used it as his own family emblem.

Although the family had already separated, everyone had the surname Melerfeld after all. No matter how powerful the Duke of Greenfield was, he could not force his relatives to change the family emblem.

Now, Charlotte has taken back all these coats of arms. She did this not to enforce copyright law on behalf of her father, but because she is about to become the next Viscount Lanwan.

Basilic Melefeld had no children, at least not on the surface. His private life was chaotic and he hardly cared about his family. It would be strange if his wife could still give birth. The Viscount of Blue Bay did have an illegitimate child, but the mother of the illegitimate child was a snake woman.

In fact, even if the mother of the illegitimate child was a fairy, elf, veela, or even a minotaur, Basilic Melefeld could find a way to give him the identity of a "legal illegitimate child" and let him inherit the family business. Because these are all intelligent races recognized by the Orlan Empire and can be on an equal footing with humans.

However, it happened to be a snake man.

In the minds of the people of the Oran Empire, snake people are simply larger snakes. The emperor of the empire would never confer the title of viscount on a snake. If he did so, all the Oran nobles would feel humiliated.

In fact, Charlotte occasionally thought of admiring Viscount Basilik. It was not because snake people were good-looking or ugly, but because she heard that snake people would mate for several hours at a time.

Even if there were no children, it would have been difficult for Charlotte to inherit the title of Viscount Lanwan. The Melefield family was a famous family that had been passed down for thousands of years, with many branches. Moreover, Charlotte was a girl, and the inheritance law of the Oran Empire gave women lower inheritance priority than men.

Charlotte bought this inheritance right with her own money.

Basilic Melefield was obsessed with pleasure and indulged in excessive pleasure-seeking. However, the Viscountry of Lanwan was very remote, with small land and poor people. He was considered poor even among the "country nobles". In his later years, he almost lost all his family property and even sold the Viscountry Castle. He lived in poverty and almost starved to death. Charlotte reached an agreement with this uncle that as long as Basilic Melefield wrote a will designating her as the successor to the title of Viscount Lanwan, she would support him in a luxurious life until his death.

Basilic Melfeld agreed without a second thought. To him, family honor and aristocratic pride were not as important as his own enjoyment. He might as well sell the title passed down by his father since he couldn't take it with him when he died anyway.

Last month, Basilic Melfeld, who was over 70 years old, was stabbed to death in his residence, Lake Light Manor, on the outskirts of Platinum City.

None of the nobles in Platinum City cared much about this matter, because Basilic Melfeld was not very popular in Platinum City and liked to abuse slaves, so it was not surprising that he was assassinated. He had no legitimate heirs, and no one would seek justice for him. So the royal family symbolically sent people to investigate the murderer and let the matter go.

After Basilic Melefield died, Charlotte naturally became his heir according to his will.

Today, Charlotte went to see Emperor Charlotte to receive the title.

Charlotte's castle was also outside Platinum City, not far from it. The wealthy nobles in Platinum City all liked to live outside the city, which was easy to understand. As soon as the carriage entered the city gate, a foul smell came over us along with the noisy voices.

This world has no concept of urban planning, and a city with a population of one million has no sewers! Gods and supernatural powers have been completely unable to help people solve the pain point of the flow of feces and urine, so that Platinum City has a gorgeous name but most areas are stinking.

It was not until the carriage reached the royal palace and cathedral in the center of the city that the stench that had always lingered in the nose gradually faded away.

The style of the Oran Palace is very similar to the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain in Charlotte's memory, with tall marble columns, blue spires, pure white walls, and sculptures of religious elements everywhere. It has a strong sense of decoration, and the overall style is calm, solemn, and heavy, emphasizing the majesty of the palace owner to every visitor.

Charlotte got off the car in front of the palace gate and happened to meet an acquaintance coming out of the palace gate - the Archbishop of Ryon Diocese, Maitland Contao.

"Archbishop." Charlotte lifted her skirt to Maitland Contao. Her movements were standard and elegant, just like a most educated daughter of a noble family.

"Miss Melefield." Kong Tao also bowed slightly and returned the greeting to Charlotte.

The church in this world is very powerful. Although they cannot appoint a king at will, if they are determined to depose a king, then no king in this world will dare to sit safely in his kingdom.

Because there really is a God in this world!

The church calls that god Yig.