168: 43 Plans and Accidents

43 Plans and Accidents

Nuri’s POV

In the hall of the palace, a group of ministers bowed their heads and dared not speak. The Queen sat in her chair on the highest step and acted like an outsider.

My cold eyes swept over all the people in the room, gritted my teeth and said, “My soldiers have been fighting on the border. They are all young men. They gave up the chance to be with their families and chose to bleed for the honor of their country. Without them, you would now be slaves to the nobles of other countries. But what did you do to them? You have swapped their winter grain for moldy rice for money!”

As I finished, my knight Roth walked into the hall with a bag of rice that my men had been given, and dropped it in the middle of the hall.

Every October, the government sends food to the army, which the knights need for the winter and is vital to keeping the army stable. But this year, when we got the grain, we found it was moldy.

These grains have a lot of white or green mold, emitting a damp musty smell. There is no way to eat this grain. My men either starve or get sick after eating them.

They were soldiers who followed me into battle, and I couldn't watch them being treated like that.

The ministers and the Queen looked at the evidence and nobody spoke.

“Who is the officer in charge of distributing the grain?” I asked coldly.

A man flopped to his knees, his body shaking so much that he stuttered, “It's me... Sir Rodriguez.”

I took out my sword and pointed at him. “How dare you! When you did this, did you think about the consequences? Or did someone stand behind you and tell you what to do?”

His body trembled even more. He looked up at the queen, then lowered his head and cried with fear in his voice, “I'm sorry, it's my fault...”

I sneer. He is only a low-ranking official, he has no reason to do so. The distribution of grain is very important. If a man could change the grain of my army, he must have great power and embezzle a lot of money from it.

More importantly, it was a provocation to me.

My sword was at his neck. “I'm giving you one last chance. You tell me who told you to do this.”

“Help!” He looked at the queen, but she didn't seem to hear him. She had a bell in her hand that looked like a child's toy.

He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. “No one told me to do this. I made a small mistake at my job. Please forgive me.”

A small mistake?

This little mistake will kill my soldiers!

I simply do not believe that this is a small mistake, this is clearly a conspiracy.

The queen must have something on this man. He was afraid to tell the truth and could only claim it as an accident.

Since he didn't want to tell the truth, he had no chance to speak again.

I approached him step by step. My sword left a bloody mark on his neck.

“I'll tell you what happens when you mess with the Rodriguez family!”

Before anyone knew it, I had cut off his head.

His expression was still on the last moment of his life.

His face was contorted and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked terrible.

His head rolled into the crowd and some timid officials began to scream. “Oh, God! You killed him! You killed him!”

The smell of blood filled the hall.

The Queen gripped the bell in her hand, and there was pent-up anger and fear in her eyes.

My sword is stained with blood. I turned and looked at the queen, the nobles and the ministers.

“My men can protect you, or they can kill you. We protect our country, but you treat them as a joke for money. I have decided that, from now on, the Rodriguez family army will be completely independent. We no longer need your food or protect you. If you hurt us again, we wouldn't mind pointing our swords at you.”

My anger grew higher and higher. Wayde gave me a look and told me to stop.

I know what he means. He is a thoughtful man. He was motioning me not to clash with the Queen's family.

I took a deep breath. My goal had been achieved.

Since my father's death, some of the Rodriguez family's military power has been taken over by the government. We sometimes had to obey the government's orders, but the moldy grain gave me an excuse to make my army independent again.

I don't need food from the government. I've got plenty of food and winter clothes to help my men get through the winter. I don't have to take on the ridiculous responsibility from the royal family anymore.

My Army belongs to me alone. They answer only to me, not to anyone else.

I thought no one would oppose me, but a minister I had never met spoke up. “Your soldiers are citizens of this country, and they must do what the government tells them to do, not just for your family.”

I stared at the young minister. He took a frightened step back when he saw my eyes, but he quickly returned to his arrogant manner and continued to question me.

“Every one of us was born to serve the royal family. What do you mean you want an independent army now?”

I sneered and walked into him.

He saw the blood on my sword and ducked into the crowd.

There was a riot in the hall.

Wayde took my arm and whispered to me, “This is the Queen's nephew. If you hurt him, things will get messy.”

The queen was no longer shocked. “I have a slight headache,” she said hastily. “If there are no other important issues, the meeting is over.”

I turned to look at her. “My army remains independent. This is not a request. This is my decision.”

I snorted and turned to leave the hall.

Roth and Wayde were right behind me.

“We should have killed that young man,” Roth said angrily. “He was giving us a hard time.”

Wayde said, “He's just a fool who was used by the Queen. Don't you see? The Queen wants us to kill him today, so she has an excuse to surround us in the palace and let her soldiers kill us.”

Roth's eyes widened. “I'll kill her before her scheme succeeds!”

“Then you become a sinner of the state,” Wayde said. “It's not hard to kill, but it's hard to kill in the palace. If we don't have a good reason, we're called traitors.”

My anger subsided a little. Wayde's right. If I went straight into the palace and killed the king and Queen, I would be accused of treason. Then our enemies will find an excuse to go to war, and the country will fall into chaos again.

I can't be impulsive. I have to wait for a good time.

Something occurred to me. I stopped and said to Roth and Wayde, “You guys go back to the barracks. I'll be a little late.”

They nodded and left.

I walked to the house where Sibyl lived before she was married.

When we talked last night, Sibyl said that she had planted a lot of roses in the courtyard of the palace. She washes her face every day with water made from rose petals and makes perfume out of them. These flowers accompanied her for many years, and they are very beautiful parts of her memory.

I'm going to transplant these flowers to our castle. By the way, I'd like to see what the house Sibyl lived in was like.

I was a little surprised to come to the Princess's palace. The Bungalow is more a small house than a palace. It was in a corner of the palace, more humble than the Doyle House, with only a sitting room and a bedroom, and a small garden. 1

I approached the bedroom. It had been uninhabited for a long time, but everything in the room was neat, simple and warm.

Sibyl has lived here for 18 years.

I went to the garden, which had been overgrown with weeds. The rose was dead, and only a black flower stood out in the middle.

Sibyl didn't tell me about this black flower.

I watched it carefully. It is very lush, and its black petals are very fresh and charming, full of life.

This must be a very precious flower. I reached out to uproot it, ready to take it back to my castle and give it to Sibyl.

Ah, it hurts.

Just as I touched it, I felt a sharp pain in my finger.

I looked down and a drop of blood appeared on my finger.

Only then did I see clearly that there were many tiny thorns on the flower.

I smiled. Beautiful flowers are often dangerous.

As I stepped forward, my vision suddenly blurred.

My limbs began to weaken and I had to hold on to a tree before I could stand.

“You did come.” A woman's voice sounded behind me.

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