SWDnovel #712 - The Blue Bees are all gamblers.
#712 - The Blue Bees are all gamblers.
"Lord Raoul, His Highness is in the middle of his midday prayers!"
"You can't go in, sir!"
"Get out of my way!"
Kicking open the study door, Raoul strode inside.
The servants and maids around him reached out to stop him, but they were like mere decorations on the great knight, dragged along the floor.
"Your Highness, Your Highness—"
Pushing open the door to the prayer room, Raoul stopped in his tracks, looking at Ginigis, who was sitting at his desk, holding a copy of the 'Gospel' and reciting silently.
A slightly thin young man was bathed in the soft light filtering through the window panes, looking pious and calm.
Of the old king's three sons, Ginigis was the most like the old king in his youth.
Not only in appearance, but also in temperament and character, they were exactly alike.
The only difference was probably that the old king would occasionally roar, but no one had ever seen this new king angry.
"What do you want with me?" Ginigis gently put down the book in his hand and looked steadily at Raoul.
"I already know where your Immortal Legion came from."
"Where did they come from?"
"Don't play dumb. Have you forgotten how the Goldfinch family's crown fell to the ground?" Raoul strode up to Ginigis, his footsteps making a dull sound on the wool carpet.
"When did I become involved with the Flesh Court?" Ginigis chuckled and stood up, walking towards the liquor cabinet beside him.
Raoul followed closely behind him, three feet away, suppressing his anger and saying, "You were lucky this time, bribing the investigators of the Imperial Council.
If they had really discovered anything, not only the kingdom's lords, but even Fran and Norn would have gotten involved."
"Even without these Immortal Legionnaires, wouldn't they still attack us?"
Faced with the old knight's question, Ginigis was not flustered at all. Instead, he picked up the crystal goblet on the table and poured a glass of fine wine for himself and the old knight.
"Try it." Ginigis smiled and took a sip himself.
Raoul picked up the glass, smelled it, and then took a light sip, his eyes narrowing involuntarily. "This is... Blue Blood Wine?"
"Yes, the last few bottles." Ginigis sat down on the soft cushion. "I was supposed to save it, but now I don't have to."
"You still want to restart the Blue Blood Monastery?" Raoul's expression gradually became serious.
"To be precise, I plan not to disband the army after the war, but to directly attack Thousand River Valley," Ginigis said, shaking the red wine in his glass.
"That's too hasty! The people of Thousand River Valley are not to be trifled with. Even the prince fell there." The pale purple wine swirled in the glass, and Raoul became even more anxious. "Those red-clothed Immortal Legionnaires are not invincible!"
"Windmill Land is the land of the Leia people. I'm already heavily in debt for this war. Do you know what the people of Thousand River Valley did?" The hazy light shone on Ginigis's face, making his cold face look like a marble statue.
"What did they do?"
"The Thousand River Valley joined forces with the Fran people to transport 48,000 dan of white sugar to Windmill Land."
Raoul's heart tightened, because Ginigis, who was always smiling, was now as cold as ice.
"The price of white sugar plummeted. The Ayr people set up a trap and drove away more than half of our people in Windmill Land." Ginigis took another sip of Blue Blood Wine. "Next year's fiscal revenue will definitely drop sharply. If we don't stop the war within a year and a half, the royal family will go bankrupt."
Raoul's hand tightened around the wine glass. "How much was lost?"
"At least 500,000 gold pounds! The last straw on the camel's back."
"These damned traitorous subjects, we haven't even gone to find trouble with them, and they're already causing us trouble." But Raoul changed the subject and advised, "Then why rush the war? That's actually detrimental to the finances."
Ginigis looked down at the pale purple reflection in his glass. "Have you ever been to the Kingdom of Fran?"
Raoul looked at Ginigis's face and suddenly remembered the old king. The old king had asked him the same question at the same age: "Have you ever been to the Kingdom of Fran?"
Raoul hadn't been there at the time. He didn't understand why the old king asked that, so he remained silent.
But when Ginigis asked this question, he was silent again, because he had been there, and more than once.
"We won the Battle of Windmill Land, but we also lost." Ginigis said frankly to Raoul, "Jonny VIII is unwilling to risk bankruptcy, so the 42 commandery companies will either be disbanded or divided.
The Kingdom of Leia was destroyed forty years ago, but it's just lying in a coffin and hasn't been buried yet."
"Isn't that a bit biased? The Fran people are naturally lazy, shrewd, and weak. They're not like us Leia people, who are honest, straightforward, and brave. They can't train good knights."
"Have you seen the Royal Constable Cavalry of the Kingdom of Fran? One commandery company of knights can fight three Royal Constable Cavalry." Ginigis smiled. "But nine commandery companies are definitely no match for 2,700 Royal Constable Cavalry. I've seen their drills with my own eyes. Do you know what they're like?"
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ said ⊥ at ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!
Before Raoul could speak, Ginigis lowered his head and answered himself: "They are mounted Dunjar phalanxes. 2,500 cavalrymen form a large horizontal formation, covering the battlefield and charging like a wave.
The Dunjar infantry phalanx has advantages against knights, but they are difficult to maneuver, so they are defeated.
But the Royal Constable Cavalry can launch a charge with a horizontal formation of 2,500 cavalrymen. Do you think the commandery companies can resist?
They can raise ten such cavalry legions, because these cavalrymen are all citizens and small landowners, while our knights can only be of noble origin.
If it weren't for the Battle of Windmill Land, the 42 commandery companies could have swept across the great lords of the country, and it wouldn't have been impossible to catch up with Fran... but what about now?"
Raoul's original stubbornness and arrogance gradually dissipated in the story, turning into an undisguised bitterness in the corners of his eyes and brows.
"The church is divided north and south, Windmill Land is restless, and the Osla family is eyeing us covetously.
To the south, the Fran people are staring at our Windmill Land outlet, and to the north, the Norn people are staring at our Eagle Horn Bay outlet.
Even a small Thousand River Valley has erupted in a large-scale rebellion, even killing the prince and destroying 9 commandery companies... Do you think these things are isolated?"
Ginigis snorted contemptuously from his nose. "And that idiot Inberra is still thinking of resisting Fran by marrying into the Norn family, not knowing that he has long been a menu on the table... Now do you know why I did this?"
After a moment of silence, Raoul raised his head and drank the Blue Blood Wine in his glass. "What a bitter wine."
"Don't say it's bitter wine, even if it's poison, we have to drink it." Ginigis also drank the glass of Blue Blood Wine, looking at the glass with the blood-like residue.
"After this battle, we will advance into Thousand River Valley before the financial collapse, accumulate enough Immortal Legionnaires, and then advance into Windmill Land," Ginigis said these words as if he were chatting. "We have to fight a great victory in Windmill Land, beat the Fran people until they are in pain, until they vomit blood, until they dare not go north for thirty years, then we will have a chance to clear out the great nobles in Leia."
"Even champion knights cannot always win."
"I'm a person with one foot in the grave. I've bet all my wealth on myself. Betting may lead to death, but not betting will definitely lead to death, so let's bet."
"You Blue Bees are all gamblers."
"My grandfather won the bet, so he became the King of Leia. My father lost the bet, so he lost the opportunity to defeat Fran." Ginigis raised his glass, shaking it like a dice cup. "Now it's my turn."
"But when you use these Immortal Legionnaires to achieve your goals, can you really resist not continuing to drink this poisoned wine?" After drinking this glass of wine, Raoul seemed to have become older.
"Who knows?" Ginigis poured himself another glass of wine, sat in the chair and took a sip. "The Blue Blood Monastery has a history of hundreds of years, and it was only recently revealed, wasn't it?"