“Son, I am happy to know you want to do look into it, but it’s clear that you don’t need to get involved. This is my Royal Palace and my nest. If I can’t capture him, how can I guarantee that I can protect others or you?”
Mom picked up a long sword and stabbed it into the swamp of blood on the ground. She then looked at the only remaining Valkyrie and frigidly commanded, “Go and tell the other Valkyries that, if you can’t capture the culprit before the sun goes down, all you Valkyries can kill yourselves. Your purpose is to protect me and the Royal Palace, yet somebody was assassinated in my flower garden. Can you protect me or not?!”
“Yes, Your Majesty… I understand… I… I…”
She must’ve been a Valkyrie who joined the ranks not too long ago. It would explain why she was fearful and had traces of unnecessary emotions. She quivered as she glanced at me. She seemed to hope that I could protect her, as I saved her once before. I stroked her head and whispered next to her ear, “Go to the outer court” then gave her a push on her back.
I believed that Nier could take care of her. I didn’t want to see an innocent Valkyrie commit suicide because of Mom being on edge. I knew I couldn’t change the Valkyries’ attitude in life but still wanted to protect one, nonetheless.
I went up to Mom’s side. I took a light hold of her hand: “Mom, let me investigate it. I have some clues already; I’m sure I can find out who was responsible. I’m sure the culprit wasn’t trying to start with the royal family… I’m absolutely certain of that.”
I had never seen Mom with such an insane gaze. She might’ve been equally crazy in the last war for me. Normally speaking, her crazy state of hers was the alarm that lots of people were about to die. Last time, three armies died, the elves excluded. How many would die this time? I had to stop Mom. Mom considered her Royal Palace to be her safest place; or rather, she was someone who lacked a sense of security. After her family was attacked last time, she grew mindful of her Royal Palace similarly to a mother wolf guarding her own home. Her territory was been infiltrated, which meant she had to rip out the throat of the trespasser.
“There’s no room for discussion, Son. This isn’t just about safety but more about Mommy’s dignity. My finance official died in my Royal Palace in the vassal states’ presence! They are challenging me! They are challenging me!!”
Mom was so enraged that she didn’t even plan to look at me. Instead, she gazed into the distance with her teeth tightly clenched. She really wanted to rip out the culprit’s neck. She roared. She swung her sword with random strokes and brayed, “I’ll make him pay! I’ll make his entire family pay! I want to destroy him! I want to erase every trace of his existence! Nobody will be able to find any trace of him! I’ll destroy even the bricks in his home! I swear on my title as the Empress that I’ll kill everyone related to him! I’ll kill a street, then a village and town and then I’ll continue killing until nobody dares to mention his name. Not a single living person is allowed to remember him!!”
Before I could stop Mom, a white, long robe flew over. A group of Valkyries grabbed a man and rushed over. They hurled him over to Mom when they saw her. Mom stomped his head into the dirt without any hesitation. I ripped his head out of the ground as if I was ripping a radish out.
The leader of the Valkyries respectfully saluted Mom: “Your Majesty, the culprit was captured during his escape. We are sorry for not being able to bring him back in one piece. We have amputated his left arm. However, he remains alive. We found belongings of the dead on him as well as blood stains that were not wiped dry.”
The Valkyries handed over a tiny golden leaf. Curious, I had a glance. It wasn’t just bloodstains that had yet to dry, as there was some condensed blood in the centre of it. I sincerely admired the Valkyries. I probably would’ve missed it, for they didn’t know that it was missing from the dead man.
“You did it?”
I somewhat grumpily retreated behind Mom. I wanted to prove myself, only for the Valkyries to prove themselves first.
The culprit was a ordinary man. I couldn’t recall seeing him at the banquet. But nonetheless, he looked as though he was going to die already. The Valkyries just bandaged his left arm’s wound in a simple fashion, but I knew that they didn’t treat him kindly.
He weakly nodded: “Yes…”
He admitted to it so quickly that I felt as though he was beaten into admitting it. A Valkyrie then handed a water droplet shaped emblem over to Mom. I, too, understood what it was about. The emblem was the new church’s symbol. The droplet represented their holy water. Now there was a motive. I didn’t think he was sent on the job on orders of the new church, in saying that. I felt he took action on his own accord.
“Why?” Mom’s inquiry was very simple; however, she also drew her long sword.
He took in a deep breath. In a quavering voice, he explained, “I myself… I… I am from the new church… He insulted us.”
“So you decided to run amok in my territory?!”
Mom looked ready to swing down. I couldn’t let her do it. Once she took his life, it would impact the new church. While they had nothing to do with me, their headquarters were at Troy City. That was my city. That was a city named after me. Mom wasn’t after a few or dozens of lives; she wanted to massacre an entire city.
I could understand how Mom felt. In saying that, it wasn’t a legitimate reason for her to massacre Troy City. Furthermore, the new church’s pope was evidently present yesterday. He wasn’t among their group of envoys. I felt that the new church might not be the types to be so radical. Assassinating Mommy Elizabeth’s people in her Royal Palace was plain insanity; it was a death wish.
If the new church was that rash, they should’ve attacked Daisy. They weren’t trying to bring the old church down with them but to replace the old church. Subsequently, they couldn’t possibly do something that’d infuriate Mommy Elizabeth.
In my opinion, it sounded more as though it was self-directed and self-acted. Before we found out the truth, I couldn’t watch Mommy Elizabeth slaughter my people!
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