RLAQ - Chapter 7 < Why Stare? >

Refusing Love as a Queen

RLAQ - Chapter 7 < Why Stare? >



"Will you? The Son of Heaven"

Adele looked sideways at him, he was fine following the melody. Her eyes have the gorgeous color of red roses. Some people may call this color the witch and the devil's announcement, but they cannot deny that she has a thrilling beauty. The light of thousands of candles in the ballroom casts stars on it. As golden as it is, like the devil and angels living together.

Heinrich's breathing stagnated slightly for an instant. He became Adele's mentor at the age of twenty-three. The first time he met, the Princess was sitting behind a rosebush and the first question she asked was,

"Do you like red?" 

Two questions, 

"They are avoiding me. Will you?

Heinrich knew why everyone was hiding from the young Princess not long ago, the Queen was executed for "seducing the king with witchcraft and disrupting government affairs", and one of the proofs was the ominous red eyes.

The Princess's hand was hanging in the air, and she might withdraw it at any time.

'No, Your Highness.'

No, no...

Heinrich subconsciously wanted to answer like this.

"It's a foregone conclusion, so you should get the best benefit. This is your principle." 

Adele said,

 "Just like what you did when you realized that the riot was a foregone conclusion, and you can get the best benefit by joining the rebel party. You could have informed me, wouldn't you? My dear mentor."

They spun to the dance music, and the candlelight in her eyes was consumed by shadows. Her eyes became completely unfamiliar to Heinrich. It's like...a delicate and lively rose tempered into metal, although it still retains the same appearance as before, it has become cold and hard.

"It's a foregone conclusion. You should think about how to get the most benefit." 

She said Indifferently

Life is always full of absurdity, and Adele learned to be cruel and vicious to him after all, but unfortunately in a way, he didn't expect. Even he himself didn't know what the emotion in his heart was at the moment.

"Congratulations, my dear student," Heinrich said dryly, "you have finally learned to let go of those unnecessary things."

 There was still a long section of dance music, but it stopped without warning. Everyone in the hall looked towards the direction of the orchestra. The head of the Royal Musician bowed and apologized with a bitter face, claiming that a poor pianist suddenly forgot the next score. It's a pity that his pale face and the cold sweat dripping from his forehead made these words unconvincing.

"If that's the case, why don't you change to a new one?" 

Dalton walked through the crowd and walked straight towards the Queen and Heinrich. He was smiling as if what happened right now had nothing to do with him.

At this moment, the atmosphere suddenly became weird. Everyone secretly glanced here, their eyes swept back and forth between Heinrich and Dalton. Everyone knows that the Queen's most trusted and favored person was her mentor, but now...

Heinrich held the Queen's hand and looked at him coldly: 

"It's not time to change the partner yet Mr. Dalton."

"Although it happened unexpectedly, the song is over after all." 

Dalton smiled nonchalantly, leaned over, and extended his hand to the Queen, 

"Will I have the honor of dancing with you, Your Majesty the Queen?"

Adele smiled, withdrew her hand from Heinrich's shoulder, and put it on Dalton's slender and strong hand.

 "Of course."

The moment she pulled her hand, a cloud of anger in Heinrich's heart arose, burning and rolling. Although he knew that Adele was actually using Dalton, this could not change anything...

When Dalton wrapped his arms around the Queen's waist, a strange thing happened: 

"Just now he can remember the score." 

The musicians have regained good memories. They even played a Lavoltapas de deux that was more complex and intense than before. Heinrich rejected the hints from several noble ladies and young Iadies, and retreated expressionlessly, standing in the dimly lit resting place.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer knew that he was a poor dancer, so he withdrew from the stage. He deliberately stood next to Heinrich.

 After the melody sounded, men and women entered the dance floor in pairs, and the atmosphere was more enthusiastic and ambiguous than before. Dance is one of the few things that can dilute the oppressive atmosphere of the court. Men and women embrace each other in the fierce melody, and pearls and fancy clothes can always create a lively and grand illusion. In particular, one of the dancers was young enough and handsome enough. The Queen in the red dress and the general in the red satin coat looked like a perfect match.

Dalton's dance steps are strong and powerful, with the aggressive vigor in his bones, like a war knife unsheathed, stepping on blood and gunpowder smoke with every step. It would be difficult for ordinary noble ladies to dance with him. The only one who can control this knife must be a woman who is fierce enough to set the world on fire.

The hem of the skirt twirled layer upon layer like a midsummer rose, and the distance between the Queen and the officer fluctuated. She briefly allowed him to approach and then separated at the next note. At the last moment, the Queen in the red dress was almost touching his cheeks, like a fanatical lover. The next moment, she distanced herself without hesitation, like an enemy who suddenly turned against her.

Capricious, mysterious, dangerous, and charming...

Tonight she is the only Goddess Aphrodite. Unknowingly, the rest of the people were forced back by the turbulent atmosphere, making room for them. Both men and women are attracted by the beauty that can burn everything.

"Your mentor must be mad."

Dalton looked at her tightly and intently. He is the closest person to face this overwhelming beauty, which is menacing and invincible like a battlefield.

"After all, I gave you what belongs to him."

Adele bit a strand of silver hair and looked at him in the gap between rotations, the corners of her eyes were illuminated by the candle and the gemstones on her neck, giving off a coquettish bright color.

For a moment, a short but real moment, Dalton felt that he was almost willing to be the Queen's knife, pointing at all the people she hated for her. No matter the consequences, no matter what.

"Then I have to be ready to deal with the fangs of the poisonous snake."

He laughed, his sword sharp.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer at the end heard a slight sneer from Heinrich beside him. The viciousness contained in that sneer can make all the priests turn pale with fright. He peeped at Heinrich from the corner of his eye, only to feel that this great nobleman known for his tricks and schemes was slowly moving and bending up like a poisonous snake hiding in the dark, feeling the provocation.

"I'm afraid it will be exciting in the future."

 While shivering, this thought flashed through the mind of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

***

The dance party is over, and the peace talks have officially come to an end. The pardoned nobles boarded their carriages and left, full of thoughts. Dalton, who took advantage of the opportunity, arranged for the new defense personnel of the summer palace from now on. He did not hesitate to remove all the gentry from the guard and replace them with his own gunners. Accompanied by Kelly, the Queen returned to the familiar room.

When passing through a corridor, Adele suddenly stopped. She looked at the nearby garden thoughtfully, then turned her head and told Kelly to go back first, and she wanted to take a walk here. Kelly did not doubt her and was left on her knees.

The moonlight poured down and spread on the promenade like still water, making the megalithic building a bit sad in its magnificence.

"Aren't you going to come out?"

Adele asked calmly, facing a shadow.

It was silent.

She waited patiently, and after a long time, footsteps that could easily be ignored, and the Archbishop wearing a black monk's robe came out from behind the stone door.

Adele is not surprised that she can see him here, after all, as the Archbishop of the capital of the Empire, Rodri also has a room that belongs to him in the Day Palace.

The Archbishop stood still some distance away from the Queen as if he had made up his mind not to take half a step closer. 

"Following is not the behavior of a clergyman, Sir." 

Adele approached slowly, looking at the Archbishop with interest. Out of aversion to "heresy" in the past, he almost never appears here.

"Dancing Lavolta is not what a Queen should do." 

The Archbishop immediately replied. The kind of Lavolta pas de deux that Adele dances with Dalton has always been abhorred by Old Gods. Because it requires the male partner to lift the female partner with exquisite skills, spin, and passionately sexy, the Old Gods believe that this dance is the main cause of debauchery, corruption, and murder.

However, in fact, it became popular in Roland's upper class. The aristocrats didn't hate it, as dogma against luxury, and they studded their clothes with pearls and precious stones by the dozen.

"I didn't see you at the ball," 

Adele ignored the Archbishop's accusation. She walked up to the archbishop and looked into those steel-blue eyes. 

"You didn't attend the ball? How did you know I did? Lavolta dance?"

The Archbishop realized that he had fallen into the Queen's trap again, he pursed his lips tightly and said nothing. Under the eagle-winged brow bones, those steel-blue eyes were all the more formidable because of their displeasure. The Queen ignored it, though, laughing slowly, and approached him suddenly.

The snare of the fragrance enveloped him again, and it was this snare that made him come to the summer palace by accident, watching her dance with Heinrich and Dalton. It was also this snare that made him wait in the dark, just to give her a reminder... Damn it, what does it matter to him even if she dies?

God! What the hell is he doing?

"Are you watching me?" 

If it was a war, then the Archbishop had thrown away his armor at this moment.

Archbishop Rodri took a step back in embarrassment, but the Queen followed closely and took another step forward. Her face was inconceivably clear under the moonlight, with a full forehead, thick eyelashes, and petal lips... so perfect that it could only be a gift from God.

"So....."

The queen chuckled, and her voice became softer.

"Tell me, my dear Monsieur Bishop, why are you looking at me? Why are you looking at a... heretic."



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