Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

But soon, the glass became a burden, so he simply threw it away and poured the wine directly into his throat by the neck. The cold glass trembled against his teeth, but it was this feeling that made drinking so refreshing - what could be more refreshing than drinking from the bottle?

His face flushed and he tried to stand up, but because he was drunk, his steps were a little unsteady and he didn't notice Rosalyn at the door at all.

"Come, let's drink this together!" He should have been greeting Gu Luo, but Gu Luo didn't dare to talk now, so he looked around and finally caught a glimpse of Rosaline's figure. His first reaction was that she looked familiar, but who in the whole house didn't look familiar to him? So he immediately felt relieved, "Hahaha! This wine is really good, quite flavorful."

"..." Rosalyn frowned as she watched the drunk's performance. "Is this the person the old man wanted me to meet? A...bearded drunk?"

"Huh?" The bearded drunk's call sobered Actor a little, and he cursed, "Where did you come from, little girl? What nonsense are you talking about!"

He puffed out his chest, but burped.

"How could I, the head of the Perlochi family, Actor, get drunk over such a small amount of wine?!"

"Ha. That's what drunks usually say." Rosalyn's initial nervousness vanished in an instant. She'd thought she was here to see her father, but... Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could her father be a bearded drunk? Her father should be a handsome man, right?

"You're my father's guest, hiccup. I won't bother with you." Actoros still had some common sense. The only person who could be brought in by Guluo like this could be his father's guest. "But... little girl, come closer so I can take a closer look."

"What are you doing?" Although Rosalyn wasn't afraid, she still had to be a little cautious in front of a drunkard like this. "Let me tell you, even if you're the old man's son, I won't show any mercy!"

"I... I should recognize your face." With his drunken eyes, Axtos couldn't see Rosaline's face clearly, but he felt familiar, just like... the person he loved and lost a long, long time ago... "You are..."

-

The old monk entered the room he hadn't returned to in ages. He rarely returned home in his old age, and by his order, no one had lived there for a long time. A stale, musty smell pierced his nostrils. Mold and dust had completely enveloped the room. After all, he had ordered no one to enter, so no one cleaned it... The door hinges creaked in a dying rhythm, and cracks in the oak floorboards snaked under his feet. This room seemed to be aging right along with him.

Where did I put it?

I put it in...

Following his memory, the old monk opened the wooden cabinet in the corner and took out an object.

It was a plain stone, its edges carefully smoothed and polished to a perfect roundness. Carved into it was a symbol of Yelagund's blessing. The old man held the stone, which he had personally requested, in his palm.

After finding this thing, the old monk finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was still there.

The old man kept it, but he never thought it would lead to this day.

He still remembers...that winter.

The frost on the glass melted and condensed with each breath. An old man pressed his bony knuckles against the window frame, watching the flaming red scarf sweep across the courtyard. A foreign woman buried her child's face in her fur collar, her leather boots crushing frozen leaves, each crunch shaking the window frame.

She didn't turn around, only snowflakes clung to her eyelashes, melted by the warmth, and streaked across her cheeks. The child in her arms suddenly turned, its glassy eyes piercing the swirling snow to meet the old woman's cloudy pupils. For a moment, the whimpering of the wind and snow swallowed all sound, and the child reached out a mittened hand, grasping at the mist-covered window.

The woman quickened her pace. The scarlet scarf shone brightly against the snow, like a small flame. As frost crept back onto the glass, the old man, belatedly, loosened his fingers. Four whitish half-moons were imprinted on the window, like a pair of eyes staring silently at each other through twenty years of unwiped glass.

"So many years have passed," he muttered to himself. "I wanted to give it to Rosaline, but unexpectedly..."

"Back then, Actor didn't want to see you suffer, so I forced him into the woodshed, forcing him not to speak for you."

"Then, it was me, it was me who exiled you for the Perlochi family."

"Tatiana, if you have any complaints, blame me."

The old man attributed everything to himself. When he heard Rosaline say that she came with her mother's last wish, he felt that his old heart seemed to stop beating for a moment, and the guilt he felt at first climbed up his old back again.

"Now, the Perlochi family has been handed over to Actor. Kjerag is no longer the same as before. I have sworn a vow to become an ordinary monk. As long as I live, I will clear the roads of Yelagund. If only I could do this then..."

The old monk clenched his fists, but quickly unclenched them. He said to himself, "I'm really getting old to have such a dream."

"By Yelagund... all the blame lies with me..."

Yelagund above...

He walked out of the room with a heavy heart. He felt that the time was almost up. As long as his son was not blind, he would most likely recognize his daughter. The scene of the father and daughter recognizing each other was not something an old man like him should watch. Since Tatiana was dead, Rosalin was most likely here to seek refuge with her father. Tatiana allowed her to come back...not necessarily to forgive them, but perhaps just to prevent her daughter from being alone.

Hey...good boy, you came a thousand miles to find your father...

But these people are just bastards.

The old monk staggered and hesitated before approaching the door. To avoid embarrassment, he coughed twice before pushing the door open.

"Let me tell you, what we usually drink in Ursus is much stronger than this!" Rosalyn held the bottle and gulped it down her throat. After blowing the whole bottle into her mouth, she continued. "Next time you come to visit, I'll treat you to a drink!"

"Hahaha! Okay, it's a deal!" Actor laughed heartily. He also blew a bottle into his mouth before patting Rosaline on the shoulder and saying, "Drink! Come on, drink more! It's great wine!"

"No, no, it's not wine, it's a honey drink!" Rosalyn corrected immediately. "It's Kjerag's specialty highland honey... hiccups, it tastes really good. I brought a few bottles from the train, you can save on it!!"

"Honey is good! Good, it helps... relieve a hangover!" Actor didn't care whether it was wine or honey; the intoxicated man just wanted to pour the liquid into his mouth. "It tastes good too, not bad! I, Actor, am grateful for your kindness! Come on, let's drink it!"

"...What are you doing?" The old monk's voice was trembling. This was not what he expected. What about the father and daughter recognizing each other?

Why are there only two drunkards here?

"Ah? Little girl, why have you become wrinkled?" Actos didn't react and pointed at his father's nose and laughed.

"Hahaha, uncle, you've got the wrong person! I'm right here!" Rosaline hadn't actually been drinking, but she was a bit drunk and a bit confused at the moment. In fact, it wasn't just him, the whole family was hereditary intoxication. But at this time, the old monk had been embraced by Actos, thinking he was Rosaline.

"Let go...you unfilial son, let go!"

"Girl, why are you so strong? Are you unwilling to drink my wine?"

"..." Maybe because he was too angry, Axtos immediately stood up and said, "No, wait, I have some really good wine! Just wait!"

"Hey, uncle—" Rosaline was less drunk than Actor, still had some rationality, and was still arguing, "Everyone said you recognized the wrong person, hey!"

The old monk still wanted to break free, but when Actoros took out the family secrets from the wine cellar and stuffed them into his hands, he gave up.

“…Oh… that’s all.”

Children and grandchildren have their own blessings...

You can always tell when he sobers up.

A father-daughter meeting... Although this is a bit outrageous, at least it's lively...

"I have left one last bottle of honey drink, waiting for you, let's drink it together!" At this time, Rosaline also stuffed a bottle of honey drink into his hand.

The old monk looked at the honey drink in his hand, then looked at Rosalyn's bright smile, and his heart softened.

...or whatever.

Chapter 12: Yes! Speaker!

At this time, what was Miss Vina doing in Victoria?

As Speaker, Vina's most important task was to lead by example. Before the investigation was complete, she could face a frenzied counterattack from the nobles, let alone questioning Duke Caister. Even just conducting an investigation would risk a frenzied counterattack. Duke Caister might be an enemy of the other dukes, but it was clear that Vina's presence posed a greater threat to them than Duke Caister. After all, while the struggles between the nobles were brutal, the ancestral laws were ultimately immutable.

But if it was the Speaker who did it... then the Duke of Caister fell just like that, and the other dukes would probably feel grief for him too.

Therefore, Vina did not act on her own, but waited patiently for the information provided by Noah. This opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Duke of Caster would not be able to settle the matter without bleeding some blood for the crime of privately mobilizing the Grey Hats and MI6.

There is still some time before the conference, and everything will be clear after the conference begins.

Before that, she could only ask Dai Finn, the only person she could trust, to help with the investigation. Fortunately, Dai Finn's mother was a heroine, and even if the intelligence department under her was not as good as the Gray Hat, it was not much different. This was also a very important card in Vina's hand.

Isabel Montagu, the loyal Victorian Knight of the Tower, once said:

“History is like a barn.”

It sits silently and inconspicuously in the busy courtyard, even carrying an unpleasant, stale, musty smell. People only think of it when they need to stuff something into it. Tolerance, silent tolerance, is its sole job.

People may be like the wheat stalks growing in the wheat fields. Only after experiencing the wind and rain of a lifetime can they produce a few precious ears of wheat.

Everything you experience will eventually turn into golden wheat seeds and be stored in this barn called history.

It should be said that history is a showcase of countless people's lives.

Vina didn't know whether everything she did could leave any traces in history. Her behavior, her actions, and her ideas made her hope to change Victoria. Even if such hope was extremely vague, she didn't want to deny this wish casually.

Fate brought her here, fate made her the Speaker. She was not destined to be the king, but she needed to be an excellent Speaker.

Perhaps this is the way history works. People in it are unwilling to accept the status quo and try their best to fight against fate.

But reality is always like a surging tide, knocking you to the ground again and again.

You have to stand up again and find a way to keep your feet. You know the fight is not over yet and you have to prepare for the next round of punches.

Until you go around in circles, only to find yourself back to the starting point in another way -

The reforged Breath of Kings, this sword had passed through the hands of every warrior who fought for Victoria, and finally pierced the chest of the Scavenger King. It wasn't her, not any noble, not the Duke, who had done it, but an insignificant person, perhaps a soldier, a worker, or a doctor. In the eyes of many, they might not be great, and they might even have died in a corner of the battlefield.

Vina remembered that sunset, that blood-red sunset, the day the Scavenger King fell, the sunset over Londinium reflected a blood-red hue—

It was the most heartbreaking scene Vina had ever seen, but also the most beautiful scene she had ever seen. She was saddened by the deaths of the citizens of Londinium, and she was fascinated by the nobility and purity she saw in the battle.

She could have ascended the throne and led the exemplary army to counterattack Londinium. Everyone recognized and believed that she could become a great king.

But she eventually gave up.

She knew what people expected, but she couldn't make the same mistake again.

Vina stood up, temporarily abandoning the seemingly endless paperwork she was reviewing. She turned to the window. Another sunset—it seemed as if every time she looked up, it was either sunrise or sunset. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, or perhaps she was so used to staying up all night that she had lost her sense of time. She kept thinking back to her time in Rhodes Island, in the Glasgow Gang, when she didn't have to think so much, didn't need to hold herself up as a role model, and didn't need to carry such a heavy historical burden.

But responsibility - the sense of responsibility almost turned her into a different person.

A busy Speaker...

The Speaker of the Londinium Parliament is now Vina's position. Victoria no longer has a king, but it must have someone to be responsible for coordinating the overall situation.

So, she became Speaker.

She disbanded the Paragon Army.

she……

She did a lot of things that she would not do originally. She had to consider politics and she had to look ahead and behind.

However, she seemed to have discovered that many people didn't really care about the Speaker of the Londinium Council. They still just considered themselves "King," a small transition before ascending the throne. People didn't think Vina was serious. After all, Victoria was accustomed to the king's presence and to moving forward under his leadership. They didn't see the significance of the Speaker of the Council.

Not only the common people, but even the nobles thought so.

This incident actually made Vina very sad, but it was inevitable and was the pain during the transition period - no new policy would change a country in a short period of time, let alone a country that had been immersed in the monarchy for many years.

Victoria needs time—

What Vina has to do now is to weaken the power of those grand dukes as much as possible during the window period when she can still control the situation.

The first person to undergo surgery was naturally his dearest aunt.

The Duke of Caister.

"Daifen."

"I'm here, Mr. Speaker."

"In private, you can just call me Vina, Daphne. I'm no different than before. You only need to call me that in front of others."

"Okay, Vina, how can I help you?"

Daphne was a serious person. She took every word Vina said to heart and would do her best to meet her requests. She had inherited her mother's title of Grand Duke and was now Vina's most trusted person. After a moment's deliberation, Vina spoke.

"How's the MI6 investigation going?"

"I submitted a written report to you about this matter before, but it's probably buried in those piles of documents. Vina, I think we need some more efficient document processing methods, such as forming..."

"Cabinet?" Vina said this first. "I understand what you mean, but when forming a cabinet, how are we going to screen those aristocrats and royalists?"

"I understand your concerns, but in the long run, a cabinet is necessary," Daphne sighed. "And according to your plan, Vina, you still intend to allow the existence of political parties and hold a referendum to vote on the next Speaker. In this case, instead of waiting for them to insert someone, it's better to form your own team first. I have a few people I can recommend."

"...I understand. Let's put this cabinet matter on hold for now. I will bring it up at the next meeting. Let's first talk about the specific situation of MI6. It's unlikely that I will be able to dig out your written report now." Vina looked at the pile of reports on the table, shook her head, and motioned for Daphne to orally describe the details.

"Yes, I noticed that MI6 hasn't made any major moves recently. However, one of the Grey Hats has applied for administrative leave."

“Administrative leave?”

"Yes, although he's on vacation, I'm certain he's the man in the gray hat who went to Kjerag," Daphne replied firmly. "But we can't find any evidence against him. After all, Kjerag is a tourist destination, and going there on vacation is perfectly normal. Furthermore, MI6's intelligence blockade this time is very effective, making it difficult for us to make a move."

"Gray Hat going to Kjerag... administrative leave... My aunt is truly impeccable." Vina frowned. "Can't MI6 investigate? We should have the right to force an investigation."

"We can indeed conduct a forced search, but we need a legitimate reason—otherwise, this matter could very well become impeachment material for the Duke of Caster," Daphne said bluntly. "After all, Victoria isn't a monolithic entity these days, especially with the institutions controlled by the Duke..."

"It's really tricky..." Vina shook her head helplessly, "Then can we use... uh, a more tactful way?"

"That's the problem. MI6 has been very discreet lately – it's to prevent us from getting caught. Believe me, they weren't that discreet before."

"…What does before mean?"

"I mean when they sold our intelligence to Ursus."

"..."

"..."

The two were silent for a while. Fortunately, although the Ursus intelligence organization had almost infiltrated Victoria a long time ago, Victoria was not their war target. In other words, Victoria was not targeted by Ursus. They hoped to fight with the neighboring Dayan. Now Ursus has become a huge powder keg. A little spark could lead to a war.

As for Victoria's intelligence department... To be honest, after learning the specific situation of MI6, Vina wanted to disband the entire department, but that was impossible.