Chapter 159

Chapter 131 – The Situation

The middle-aged swordsman fell silent for two seconds.

Immediately afterward, he suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes glaring angrily at Victoria. His expression lost control instantly as he gritted his teeth and said, “Your Majesty, what did you say? I didn’t hear clearly! Are you talking to me—”

Before he could finish, Reckt drew his waist sword with a clang from where he stood.

“Prince Bart! Lower your head!”

Upon hearing the sound, middle-aged swordsman Bart was startled. His hand instinctively reached for the longsword by his waist.

“Do you dare—!”

Swish!

Reckt moved like lightning. In the next instant, the tightly gripped sword was already pressed against Bart’s neck.

At this moment, Bart was in a half-kneeling posture on the ground. His right hand had already touched the hilt of his sword but dared not move any further.

Reckt curled his lips into a sneer and slowly began to apply pressure.

“Lower… your… head… Don’t make me say it again.”

The sharp blade pressed tightly against the skin of his neck, as if it would cut it open at any second. Bart’s breathing became heavy, and then his head slowly lowered.

It was unclear whether it was saliva or cold sweat that slid down his cheek and soaked into the carpet beneath him.

I felt quite agitated after seeing this.

But before understanding the situation, it was better not to speak rashly.

I disliked these matters, so I didn’t want to get involved.

“If there’s a next time, don’t blame my sword for being merciless,” Reckt said. Given his serious expression at this moment, it was clear he wasn’t joking.

“… Your Majesty, is this your attitude?” After a while, Bart said.

His voice was unusually low and hoarse. I could hear the suppressed anger within it.

At this moment, Victoria, who had been silently watching the situation, as if everything happening before her had nothing to do with her, finally put down her wine glass.

She waved at Reckt, and he stepped back, sheathing his sword.

“My attitude depends on yours,” Victoria said softly. “If you’re here to solve problems, I’ve already told you how. General Bart, do you have anything else?”

“How is this a method? Your Majesty! You’re disbanding them! You can’t do this! Those brave ironclad guardsmen have families! They have wives and children, and elderly parents! They need to support their families! How will they survive if you do this… You’re sentencing them to death!”

Bart’s cries were filled with sorrow and despair, as if he was bearing an unjust burden. It seemed he truly cared about his subordinates.

I frowned and turned my gaze towards her profile.

Victoria’s face remained calm, unaffected by Bart’s words.

“People with hands and feet shouldn’t die,” she said calmly. “If General Bart feels guilty, he can choose to pay his own wages. The Clive family has ample wealth. Two thousand men in the ironclad guard should be able to sustain themselves for a few years, I believe.”

This seemingly jestful remark further infuriated Bart.

“Your Majesty, are you still mocking me at a time like this!? Two thousand men, how can the Clive family afford it!?”

“Oh?” Victoria looked at him with a half-smile, “Can’t you afford it?”

Upon hearing this, Bart’s lowered head moved slightly… but he ultimately did not dare to raise it again.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked sternly.

“As you understand, General Bart,” Victoria said. “In the past ten years, how much has the treasury allocated to the ironclad guard, and how much of that has actually reached their hands… calculating these accounts is tedious and disheartening. If the numbers were smaller, I might have let it slide, but now, the Clive family continues to expand the ironclad guard. Do you need me to be more explicit?”

“You…” The middle-aged swordsman flushed red, “That’s not true! Your Majesty, you’re slandering us!”

“Whether it’s slander or not, you know in your heart,” Victoria said indifferently, as if discussing something trivial. “Instead of wasting my time here, why don’t you go back and discuss with your brother, the finance minister, which units need to be disbanded. Decisions should be made early. Otherwise, half of next month’s wages will be borne by the Clive family… The city doesn’t feed parasites.”

“Parasites?!” Bart’s breathing grew even heavier, “The ironclad guard are the brave defenders of the city! They—”

“General Bart, put away your act, it’s unbecoming,” Victoria sighed. “The guards stationed outside are the city’s defense force, internal governance is handled by the Arbitration Bureau, and the Church Knights deal with bandits and outlaws. General Bart, the ironclad guard wears the finest equipment, but aside from ham and beer, what exactly have you protected?”

Her calm, emotionless words left Bart speechless.

The atmosphere was very quiet, so quiet that it seemed the air had solidified.

Gulp, gulp.

All I could hear was the sound of Victoria pouring wine into her glass. Then she lifted her delicate hand, holding the stem of the glass, and raised it to her lips, gently swirling the wine in the glass.

My gaze wandered over her attractive profile for a moment, then shifted to Treck nearby, who shrugged his shoulders at me.

His dark eyes…

I finally managed to piece together the situation from their words and actions.

When I returned, the guards in shining armor that I saw at the second mansion were Iron Plate Guards. The middle-aged swordsman before me was their commander.

These Iron Plate Guards, on the surface, seemed like a group of people who did nothing but consume royal provisions. To the capital city and even the entire Ethenburg, they were an entirely superfluous army. However, this army… it was clear from Victoria’s attitude that it did not belong to the palace; at least, they would not listen to the Queen’s orders.

They only listened to this middle-aged swordsman. Or rather, they listened to the Clive family, yet were sustained by the capital’s treasury.

This army consisted of twenty thousand men.

I estimated that this number was more than the combined total of the Sword of Canri and the City Guard. Moreover, the Clive family also held the financial power of Ethenburg.

These people embezzled under the pretense of public service, with the cost borne by the entire nation… and they continued to expand their “private army.” Their intentions were clear. Victoria’s current actions were to restrict some of their power and prevent the situation from worsening.

I was unclear about how things had come to this, nor did I know how many such nobles existed in the capital.

All I knew was that if this continued, these people would eventually bring down this prosperous country.

After understanding this, my gaze toward the middle-aged swordsman carried a hint of disgust.

It was precisely because of these people that the atmosphere in the capital had become so corrupt, leading to the emergence of someone like Alex…

After a brief pause, he spoke.

“Your Majesty, why must you speak so harshly? If this continues, we will have no way out. Is this what you desire?”

His words were already quite direct, but Victoria merely glanced at him without responding.

She began to slowly savor the wine in her cup.

Bart waited for a while, not hearing a response from the Queen, and let out another cold laugh.

“Since that’s the case, then allow me to remind you.” His voice had lost its previous false emotion, and he was no longer pretending to be drunk, though he still dared not look up, “All military pay and equipment for the Iron Plate Guards are borne by the capital’s treasury. This rule was established by your mother, the Regent Dowager at the time. Shouldn’t the Queen consult her opinion before making any changes?”

After saying this, I felt Victoria’s gaze grow even colder.

Holding her wine glass, she stared at Bart, who was kneeling halfway before her, her face as cold as frost.

“I am the Queen and do not need to seek her opinion,” she said.

“Oh…” Bart paused, then changed his tone, “I wonder if Your Majesty’s confidence comes from that black-haired young lady beside you?”

I was immediately startled, my mind racing.

Bart’s words enlightened me.

Reflecting carefully, what was Victoria’s purpose in flying to my courtyard? If she did it intentionally…

She knew Bart would come today and guessed that I would return here on my day off, so she waited for me here. After entering the house, she found an excuse to have Reckert deliver dinner, then deliberately let herself be discovered, luring them here.

She had previously said something like, “To sit with me is to show disrespect to royal authority.” She knew that if she said that, I would definitely act contrary to her expectations and sit on the sofa. This way, it would establish our equal status.

In just our second meeting, she had completely understood my temperament. This woman… was frighteningly intelligent.

She grasped human nature too accurately, guiding events step by step toward her desired direction through seemingly casual calculations. Plus, Reckert had been emphasizing “the Queen has important matters” to the other party. I guessed that when the middle-aged swordsman saw me, he would certainly think that their Queen had already aligned with the Valen Empire, and I was the royal princess sent by the empire to discuss matters.

As for what exactly was being discussed? Let him guess. The deeper the suspicion, the greater the concern.

Was she using me as a weapon or a shield… How could I let you get away with it!

So I immediately spoke, “It has nothing to do with me.”

“It has nothing to do with her.”

A soft, a cold.

Both sentences came out simultaneously from my mouth and Victoria’s.

I looked sideways in surprise, meeting her golden eyes that were calm as the sea.

Puzzled, I furrowed my brows.

“I came to talk to this young lady about other matters,” Victoria turned her head back and said, “Prince Bart, let’s settle this matter. Take your people back.”

As soon as she finished speaking, I heard another round of commotion outside the courtyard, mixed with hurried footsteps, heading towards the mansion.

“Is Vicky here… why did she move to No. 3?”

“She is the Queen, whatever she says goes. Why can’t she change wherever she wants…”

“This child… is too willful! Changing decades of rules on a whim, what kind of order is this!”

I saw Victoria’s hand freeze slightly as she swirled the wine in her glass.

“Haha.” Bart laughed lightly, “Your Majesty, isn’t your conclusion a bit hasty?”