Rose Empire

"Grandpa is here too?" Charlotte said in surprise. She thought that given Ethel Hollowen's bad relationship with Emperor Leopold, even if he was willing to attend Henry's wedding, he would wait until the last day. "Grandpa won't kill all the city guards sent to him, will he?"

Charlotte just said it casually, but Jose Melefield nodded: "Yes, kill them all. This matter was brought directly to His Majesty, and I heard about the actions of the city guards in the palace."

Charlotte let out a soft sigh.

That night, there was a cold wind and heavy snow outside the window.

Jose Melfield was sitting by the fireplace, covered with a thin blanket, reading a book. Charlotte happened to pass by and was suddenly stopped by her father.

Jose Melfield pointed to the seat across from him.

Charlotte understood and sat down on the chair.

"You did nothing wrong today, but you were a little reckless."

Jose Melefield was obviously talking about Charlotte whipping the city guards.

"First, you are a girl after all. How can you hit someone yourself? Second, you shouldn't insult Marco Lehman's noble title. There are so many earls in the empire, and your uncle Philip is also an earl. If he hears what you said, will he be happy? Will the other earls be happy?"

"I remember that." Charlotte responded seriously.

Jose Melefield nodded. He was actually very satisfied with Charlotte's actions today. If he left those city guards until he came back to deal with them, Jose Melefield would also feel a little troublesome. This is not to say that Jose Melefield wanted to be held hostage by these city guards, but the scale of dealing with these city guards would expose his position.

The attitudes of Fernandez Pastor, Duke of Bonan, Alphonse Murat, King of Kosin, and Asser Hollowen of the Kingdom of Cato towards the city guards just illustrate their respective positions.

The fact that Duke Fernandez of Bonan could tolerate the offensive behavior of the city guards shows that he had great expectations for the marriage between Anne Pastor and Henry and hoped that the royal power could be transferred smoothly. He himself was undoubtedly an absolute pro-royal person.

King Alphonse of Cochin beat up the city guards and drove them all away. Apparently, Alphonse was disgusted by the actions of the city guards, and even though his daughter was the queen, Alphonse did not want to consider the face of the emperor and the imperial council.

This shows that there may still be some kind of estrangement between Alphonse and Emperor Leopold, which makes people think of the ridiculous kidnapping case a few months ago. Perhaps there are other unknown secrets in that case.

King Asser of Cato was the most straightforward. He killed everyone directly without hiding his dissatisfaction with the royal family at all.

Jose Melfeld did not want to be held hostage by the city guards, but also did not want to reveal his position too soon, or he had not yet figured out his position, so having his children drive away the city guards without his knowledge was undoubtedly the best outcome.

"Are you planning to visit His Majesty Axel tomorrow?" Jose Melefield asked again.

"Yes." Charlotte admitted it frankly. She had always had a good relationship with her biological mother's family, and there was nothing to hide.

Jose Melfield was silent for a moment, then said, "How do you think the Principality of Green Plains should deal with its relationship with the Kingdom of Cato?"

Charlotte was a little surprised. She didn't expect Jose Melefield to ask her such a question, because her father never consulted her opinion on such important diplomatic matters. However, after thinking about it seriously, Charlotte gave an answer: "It depends on whether my father wants to go to war or not."

"Of course I don't want to go to war," Jose Melfield answered without hesitation.

Jose Melfeld was a moderate who valued preservation and stability. Even when Helen was forced to commit suicide, he chose not to carry out a large-scale purge of the opposition in the territory. Even when Mary Holloway plotted against him, he was able to endure it and calmly chose to follow Queen Mary's wishes and form an alliance with the Kingdom of Kohin.

These choices may seem right to Jose Melefeld, but they are also the reasons why Count Perode despises Jose Melefeld the most.

Charlotte was completely surprised by her father's answer. She nodded slightly and said, "Then it would be best for the Green Plains Principality to remain neutral."

"I thought you were going to say that the Principality of Greenfield should ally with the Kingdom of Cato." Jose Melfield said with a little surprise.

Charlotte shook her head and said, "Whether the Green Plains Principality joins the Kingdom of Cato or the Royal Family, Grandpa will immediately start a rebellion."

José Melefield motioned for Charlotte to continue.

"If the Duchy of Greenfield joins the royal side, then the royal side will have the support of the Duchy of Bonan, the Kingdom of Koxin, the Marquis of Blackstone Castle, and the Duchy of Greenfield. At that time, the Kingdom of Cato will be isolated and helpless, and grandpa will have no choice but to fight to the death. But if the Duchy of Greenfield forms an alliance with the Kingdom of Cato, then with the strength of both the Duchy of Greenfield and the Kingdom of Cato, they can take advantage of the death of the Emperor to rebel. There is no reason for grandpa to miss this opportunity. Therefore, if father wants to avoid war as much as possible, the Duchy of Greenfield has only one way to go, which is to remain neutral." Charlotte explained.

José Melefield fell into deep thought.

After an unknown amount of time, Jose Melefield came back to his senses. Seeing Charlotte still sitting beside him, he said, "Go back to bed first. You'll visit your grandfather tomorrow, so it's better to go early to avoid being rude."

"Well," Charlotte nodded. Just as she was about to stand up, she suddenly thought of something and asked, "Father, do you know who instructed Marco Lehmann to mobilize the city guards?"

Jose Melefield did not answer directly, but said: "Marco Lehmann and Lucheni Holowin are good friends, and Lucheni Holowin is Henry's father."

PS: Thank you all for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets, thank you World Khan and Tiramisu for your rewards.

PS2: Thank you for your reminder, the previous error has been corrected.

Volume 83: Chapter Hollowen (Royal House of Oran) Family Tree

Image: "Family tree of the royal family of the Oran Empire", location: "Images/1649715982-100298545-108622853.jpg"

Yesterday, a classmate said he needed a family tree, so I got up at 5:00 and rushed to make one - I really, I cried to death...

Due to the limitation that the hedgehog cat image cannot be zoomed, this family tree only includes the family members of the Hollowin royal family. If there are too many, it will be difficult to see clearly. The family trees of other families will be updated in the next two days.

Volume 84: Chapter The Mellefield Family Tree (Second Edition)

We found that the first version was not very clear, so this time we changed to a vertical version - the inability to zoom in and out of the hedgehog cat picture is a big problem, and I wonder when this feature can be upgraded.

It also adds the three insignificant brothers of cousin Monica and the branch of Count Perod, and explains the blood relationship between Count Perod and the protagonist's father - Count Perod is the brother of the protagonist's grandfather.

Note: The grey boxes are people who are currently dead.

Image: "Mellerfield Family Tree", Location: "Images/1649719758-100298545-108622904.jpg"

Volume 85: Chapter 75 Chapter : The Martyr's Old Age

Platinum City, Imperial Palace.

In the luxurious and spacious room, the emperor of the empire, Leopold Hollowen, closed his eyes and lay in the bathtub. The bath fluid in the bathtub was like a mist of fireflies. The people who served Leopold were not charming maids, but two sorcerers with solemn faces. This was a special ceremony designed by the royal sorcerers and scholars for Emperor Leopold. The purpose of the ceremony was to improve Leopold's physical condition and relieve his pain.

If someone looked closely, they would see that the skin below Leopold's neck was pale and wrinkled, like the skin of a dead person that had been soaked and dried. This was the church's precious miracle of prolonging life - the June Metamorphosis.

However, even with the blessing of rituals and miracles, Emperor Leopold could still feel that his life was slipping away rapidly.

Thirty years ago, Leopold was injured by a warlock from the Edissa Empire's Death Bird faction during the war. The Death Bird faction is a secret supernatural faction of the Edissa Empire's elite death squad. This faction has a unique ability to exchange lives for lives. Warlocks can lock onto a target through a blood marking method, and then when they die, the target will die with them.

The warlocks of the Deathbird faction that marked Leopold had probably died long ago. Leopold survived with the many miracles in the royal collection and various life-extending rituals. However, the Edissa Empire was worthy of being the enemy of the Orlan Empire for thousands of years. Their elite troops had their own foundation after all. Even though he survived, Leopold was still tortured by illness every day, his health deteriorated, and eventually even his penis gradually rotted and fell off. He tried almost all the methods suggested by scholars and doctors, but still could not pull out the root of the disease.

To be honest, Leopold didn't want to live anymore.

However, Leopold knew that if he died, the empire would be in chaos. Therefore, he had been forcing himself to hold on.

Gilmore Butler, the tall and thin Earl of Wolfheart, with a sinister face and wearing a black dress embroidered with gold thread, walked quickly into the room and came to the side of Emperor Leopold.

Emperor Leopold heard footsteps and opened his eyes.

"Your Majesty, the Duke of Greenfield has reported back with news," said Gilmore Butler.

"What is the Duke of Greenfield's reaction?" asked Emperor Leopold.

"The Duke of Greenfield did not respond." Guillermo Butler replied.

"No response?" Emperor Leopold, who usually kept his emotions to himself, couldn't help but look surprised.

"Before the Duke of Greenfield returned to the manor, his children had a conflict with the soldiers of the city guard. His daughter and son whipped the officers and soldiers of the city guard and drove them away..."

Gilmore Butler recounted what happened at Count Philips's estate, even including Charlotte's words, "Let Marco Lehmann do it himself. With his title of earl, he should be able to be the gatekeeper for the Melefield family."

As a child of aristocracy, Emperor Leopold did not find it strange that he had a strange temper.

Leopold didn't have much impression of Andre and Charlotte, after all, the Green Plains Principality was a bit far from Platinum City. The matter of conferring Charlotte was mainly handled by the Queen and the Imperial Council, and Leopold was only responsible for showing up. In fact, if the person being conferred was not the daughter of the Duke of Green Plains, Emperor Leopold might not even bother to show up. For a mere viscount, he would have just issued an imperial decree and that was it.

After listening to Count Wolfheart's report, Emperor Leopold simply sighed: "My old friend, his character has not changed in thirty years..."

More plans but less decisions, this was the impression that Leopold had when he fought side by side with Jose Melefield thirty years ago. Now, after so many years, Leopold found that this problem of Jose Melefield not only had not changed, but even had some deep-rooted tendencies.

"No matter what the matter is, Duke Mellorfield likes to take all aspects into consideration and then make the best choice."

Just like this time, Leopold could understand Jose Melefield's hesitation. The Duchy of Greenfield was adjacent to the Kingdom of Cato. Whether the Duke of Greenfield was determined to join the royal family or the Kingdom of Cato, the Duchy of Greenfield was likely to become the first battlefield and pay a heavy price.

Therefore, Jose Melfeld wanted to find a path that was as perfect as possible so that the Principality of Greenfield would suffer the least loss, gain more benefits, and safely pass through the turbulent period of the empire.

"But...there are not so many perfect things in this world. Sometimes, the more you think about it, the more you lose..."

Emperor Leopold spoke softly, as if he was commenting on the Duke of Greenfield to Guillermo Butler, but also as if he was talking to himself.

Gilmore Butler stood by with his hands down, and did not respond to Emperor Leopold's words. He knew that Leopold did not need him to respond. Recently, His Majesty the Emperor often had this state of trance, as if he was talking to himself.

After about a cup of tea, Emperor Leopold seemed to come back to his senses and asked Guillermo Butler: "Is Lucheni here?"

"Earl Sugis and Earl Red Pine Hill have arrived and are waiting for your summons in the reception room," replied Gilmore Butler.

Count Sugis was the title of Lucheni Holloway, the father of Henry Holloway and the younger brother of Emperor Leopold.

The Count of Red Pine Hill is naturally the Privy Councilor, Marco Lehmann.

"Well, I'll go meet them."

Emperor Leopold stood up and walked out of the bath. His dead-like skin and faint smell of decay were disgusting both visually and olfactorily. But Gilmore Butler didn't mind at all. An earl actually served Leopold like a butler, respectfully helping him dress and spraying perfume to cover up his body odor.

Lucheni and Marco Lehmann were summoned to the study where Leopold usually worked. As soon as they entered the study, they knelt on one knee and apologized to Emperor Leopold.

Emperor Leopold did not respond to the two immediately. Instead, he put his hands behind his back and paced around the study for several circles before finally saying, "I know what you are thinking..."

Lucheni Holoven and Marco Lehmann were confused by Emperor Leopold's opening remarks, but Leopold's next words made them understand that His Majesty the Emperor was speaking to Lucheni Holoven alone.

"You are thinking, if Henry becomes emperor, doesn't that mean you become emperor yourself? So you can't wait to show off your power as emperor, and you can't even wait until I die."

Emperor Leopold's deep voice reached Lucheni's ears, and Lucheni Holloway was so frightened that he knelt on both knees instead of on one knee.

"No, Your Majesty, I don't think so..." Lucheni said quickly.

Emperor Leopold waved his hand, indicating that he did not want to listen to Lucheni's explanation: "I don't care what you think. I just want you to remember that it is Henry, not you, who will inherit the throne! Remember this!"

Originally, if Emperor Leopold died, the best heir should be his younger brother, Lucheni Holoferne. Lucheni was about the same age as Leopold, and since his elder brother had no children, there was no legal problem for his younger brother to inherit the throne.

However, thirty years ago, when the army of the Edessa Empire marched south, Lucheni, who was at the front line, surrendered to the Edessa because he was afraid of fighting. After Leopold ascended the throne, he spent money to redeem his brother Lucheni.

During that war, even Ethel, who always hated the royal family, sent reinforcements to Platinum City, but Lucheni, the son of the then Emperor Joseph Hollowen, surrendered to the enemy. This had a very bad impact.

Moreover, many nobles still believe that Lucheni's surrender directly led to the collapse of the border defense line of the Oran Empire, resulting in the disastrous consequence of the Edisa people approaching the Platinum City.

Therefore, Lucheni had no chance of inheriting the throne, unless Leopold wanted to anger all the nobles who had fought bloody battles and even had relatives killed by the Edessa. At that point, let alone a smooth transfer of the throne, it might even be a question whether the emperor of the empire could continue to be named Hollowin.

So Leopold could only pass the throne to Lucheni's son, Henry Holloway.

But Leopold understood his brother. He knew that Lucheni was not a person who could keep quiet. As long as he lived, Lucheni could still be a little restrained. If he died, his brother would most likely become a wild horse that could not stop.

If his nephew Henry was young, it wouldn't be a big problem, but Henry had already grown up and was about to get married. How could a young emperor who had already grown up tolerate others arbitrarily telling him what to do?

In order to avoid the possible situation of father and son killing each other in the future to the greatest extent possible, Leopold had to take some precautions in advance.

Yes, just as Charlotte guessed, Emperor Leopold tacitly approved Lucheni's collusion with Privy Councilor Marco Leman to mobilize the city guards.

Testing the attitudes of those powerful officials was only one aspect. On the other hand, Emperor Leopold also wanted to use those unruly "princes" to give Lucheni a memorable blow.

Now it seems that knocking is indeed useful.

Ethel Holloway killed without hesitation all the city guards who dared to surround his mansion, and the brutality of his methods really frightened Lucheni.

"I really don't think so. I'm doing this for Henry's own good," Lucheni tried to explain. "Brother, you are here, and those great nobles are still so unscrupulous. What if... in the future, how can they take Henry, who is so old, seriously? If the defense of their homes is taken care of by the city guards in the future, they will at least be more restrained in Platinum City. But who knows..."

"Who would have thought that, except for Duke Bonan, no one would give you face?" Leopold sneered, "You know that those people don't even take me seriously, so why do you think they will take the city guards seriously? With you like this, can Henry still count on your assistance in the future..."

Leopold gave Lucheni a severe reprimand, but instead of punishing him for his behavior, he simply drove him away.

Leopold and Marco Lehmann were the only ones left in the study.

The anger on Emperor Leopold's face disappeared, and he became very calm, as if his anger just now was just a show. He asked in a deep voice: "Does the Queen have a role in this matter?"

"Yes." Marco Lehmann reported truthfully, "I initially rejected Count Lucheni's request to mobilize troops, but later Her Majesty the Queen suggested that I cooperate with Count Lucheni."

"They really don't give me peace of mind. Never mind, never mind. This is fine... I'm going to die anyway..."

Leopold sighed deeply, his voice full of exhaustion and relief.

Outside the city, Earl Philips's estate.

Charlotte tasted Adela again after a long time and felt a little disappointed.

This is not because Adela is not good-looking. In terms of figure, Adela is actually better than her sister Cecilia and has the charm of a mature woman.

The problem was that Adela was too obedient in bed.

Unlike Cecilia, who was quite self-conscious, Adela did not think there was anything wrong with being a bed partner for a noble. So, in bed, Adela would do whatever Charlotte said. Unlike Cecilia, if she felt uncomfortable, she would definitely refuse to cooperate with Charlotte, and if Charlotte forced her, she would get angry.

Charlotte is not the type of hentai that "the more you resist, the more excited I am". Relatively speaking, she prefers the experience that can make both parties feel comfortable. It's just that Adela is too obedient, which makes Charlotte feel that "the taste has changed". She remembers that although Adela was also very obedient last time, she had more or less some subjective feedback of her own.

After much thought, Charlotte came to a conclusion - it must be because Cecilia was not there.

Sure enough, I have to call Cecilia next time!

Although the boudoir games were not very enjoyable, the warm bed with the girl's body temperature in winter was more comfortable than the freezing cold outside, so Charlotte still got up late the next day.