The King's Follower [Rebirth]

Edward also stood up, while the queen was still sitting in her seat. The king had too many illegitimate children. She no longer needed to show her generosity as the mother of the country by expressing concern for these children. In fact, as long as she did not Treating them harshly is already invulnerable.

The king walked over, and the nobles stood up one after another to make way for the king. Edward hurriedly followed, but the queen grabbed his wrist.

"What do you want to do?" The queen lowered her voice, looking a little annoyed, "Don't lower yourself to join in the fun!"

Edward kept his expression motionless, he forcefully broke away from the queen's hand, quickly walked around the table, and stood opposite the king.

The king looked around slowly with a straight face. He looked at Matthew who was sobbing in the arms of Duke Shiring. His eyes lingered on the hideous wound on his neck for a while. When William met his gaze, he froze for a moment, and finally turned back into a human form, twisting his neck with a stern face, looking unconvinced, and he seemed to be intact except for the scratches on his cheeks.

"For Orgonella's sake," said the king slowly and intonation, which usually means that he is very angry when he speaks in that distinctly aria-like aristocratic tone, "who will tell me what happened?" What's going on?"

The Duke of Xialing couldn't help complaining resentfully: "The matter is already clear, Your Majesty, this child hurts people inexplicably, and his attacks are so vicious, I have never seen it before..."

"My lord." Edward interrupted him, "I don't think you saw how it happened, did you?"

Duke Shilling paused, and finally turned his head reluctantly, and stopped talking.

The king quickly glanced at Edward, then looked at all the nobles around, and said, "Who is sitting near William and Matthew?"

No one spoke.One is the son of the duke, and the other is the son of the king. No matter who they speak for, they will offend the other. Everyone agrees that Zhebao is the best choice at this time, and they all lower their heads and say nothing.

The king sneered and said: "It's just a fight between two children. It's just such a trivial matter. You have to think about it. No wonder our class is declining. I can't see how long Cuthbert can learn from his neighbors to the north. No more nobles and commoners, no more kings and queens, just become a republic."

The nobles lowered their heads even lower, not daring to make a sound. Even Matthew, who was still crying just now, was so frightened by the serious atmosphere that he forgot to cry, and hugged his father's neck tightly in fear.

At this moment, a slender, underage female orc came out from the crowd. She curtseyed to the king, and spread her arms on both sides of her body forward like a pair of slender wings. With a graceful posture, "Your Majesty," she said, "I am only one seat away from Lord William and Lord Matthew, and I saw the whole process."

The king nodded: "Go ahead."

The female sub-orc spoke eloquently.The beginning of this conflict was very simple. Matthew laughed at William's stiff and clumsy posture, bad accent, and crude, even erroneous grammar when speaking. William ignored him at first, but his backing down made Matthew push forward. He began to ridicule more wantonly, and finally even began to comment on William's mother, Miss Margaret.Matthew expressed great disdain for Miss Margaret's upbringing, and joked that she must be a rough country woman.Of course, he didn't dare to express any opinions on the other party's mistress. There were a bunch of illegitimate children of the king sitting around him.Therefore, William, who couldn't bear it any longer, suddenly broke out, pressed Matthew on the ground with lightning speed and beat him severely.

After hearing this, the king sneered, and instead of commenting, he asked, "What's your name?"

The female orc saluted again: "My name is Elizabeth Seymour, and I am the Countess of Gross, the daughter of Marina Seymour."

Countess Grosse immediately came out of the crowd with her husband and saluted the king.Countess Gross is a thin female orc. Her husband is as weak as she looks, thin and tall, like a dried bamboo pole, but Edward did not underestimate the couple. The husband of Countess Gross He is a seventh-level mid-level orc. His beast shape is a cheetah. Don't look at him in human form, he looks thin and shriveled, weak and haggard. He made great achievements in the army back then, and was dubbed "Blood Leopard" because of his brutal attacks. "Such a nickname full of murderous intent.Countess Gross's strength has also reached the seventh-level intermediate level. What is different is that she is a sub-orc who can grow herbs. She worked in the church when she was young and was well-known throughout the empire.

"Very good." The king nodded approvingly, "You are very brave, Miss Elizabeth, that is very good."

Countess Gross's heart skipped a beat, and she hurriedly looked up to observe the king's expression, only to find that the king only saw the appreciation of the elders for the juniors, but not the orcs' desire for the sub-orcs, so she was relieved.No way, the king has a lot of criminal records. Although he hasn't taken a new lover for more than ten years, the illegitimate children in the room are reminding everyone how crazy he was indulging in the pursuit of suborcs more than ten years ago. .

At this time, the Duke of Xialing suddenly took a step forward and said, "Your Majesty, my son has indeed done something wrong, but this is nothing more than a dispute of words. Could it be that he will be treated so cruelly with these few words? I never I have never seen such a serious wound caused by a child fighting! This is not a small fight between children, it is a deliberate injury at this time! It should be severely punished!"

"I don't think so, Your Excellency the Duke." Edward said, "In my opinion, Matthew's humiliation of William is an obvious act of provocation, which means that he challenged William, and William decided to respond to his provocation. , fighting for your own honor, the solution is what you orcs love best, fighting. It makes perfect sense, I don't see anything wrong with it. And, in my opinion, the reason why Matthew got hurt like this- It might sound a little cold-blooded to say that—that's entirely because he is inferior to others. Also, don't forget, he is one year older than William." Edward held up a finger to stop the Duke of Shiring's rebuttal, "You are also an orc. Do you ask William to remain silent in the face of such humiliation? Can you do it yourself?"

Duke Shilling's face turned blue and then turned pale. His sub-orc husband held his arm worriedly and called out in a low voice, "Honey?"

"The matter is already evident," concluded the king. "Is there anything else to add to the situation?"

No one speaks.

"Very good." The king returned to his usual blunt and quick way of speaking, "William," he looked at his son who had just returned to the palace, "you need to apologize to Matthew, you hurt him too much, you guys Not an enemy, you can't hurt your compatriots like this."

William's eyes widened: "No!" He refused bluntly, "I don't apologize to cowards!" He shouted loudly, staring at Duke Shiring and the little orc in his arms, "Nonsense is going to kill you!" Get beaten! You dare to complain to your parents if you want to be beaten yourself, you are such a coward!"

As he said that, William made an obscene gesture in the direction of the Duke of Shiring: He raised his right fist, stretched his big arm forward, parallel to the ground, his forearm stood in front of his eyes, perpendicular to his big arm, and held his left hand. The big arm, as if showing his muscles, but the actual meaning of this gesture is——

I'm going to fuck your ass!

Duke Shilling took a deep breath, his face livid.The king's mouth hooked up quickly, as if he was about to laugh.Edward hurriedly stepped forward, slapped William's obscene gesture, and whispered: "You are not allowed to do this kind of gesture again!"

William put down his hand angrily, and yelled again to Matthew who was in the arms of Duke Shiring: "Coward! If you can't beat him, you will find your father!"

Matthew hiccupped, resisted the urge to cry again, turned his head and stared at William with red eyes: "You are the coward!"

William snorted disdainfully, and Matthew immediately turned into a little black wolf again, the soft fluff on his body exploded: "I'm going to bite you to death!" He struggled to get out of his father's embrace, and rushed over to meet again. William fought, "I'm going to bite you to death! You don't know the so-called country bumpkin!"

"Quiet!" Edward raised his voice, stopping the disputes happening right under his nose, "Take care of your tongues, gentlemen, I don't think His Majesty has finished his sentence, please be patient."

"Thank you, my son." The king nodded, "William wants to apologize to Matthew for biting Matthew, but Matthew must first apologize to William because you have humiliated William and William's relatives. A gentleman should not judge or slander others casually, Matthew, you have to apologize for your rude behavior."

So the fight came to an end perfectly.The Duke of Shilling left early with a dark face and hugged the child, while William was taken down to change clothes.The broken plates and soiled tablecloths were replaced with new ones, and delicious food was placed on the table again. Everyone sat down on both sides of the long table and talked softly, as if the commotion just now had never happened.

After the dinner, everyone returned to the living room again, playing cards, chatting, drinking, playing the piano and singing.

The king sat at the card table, looking at the cards in his hand as solemnly as if he were reading a document, and Edward sat on his left, waiting for him to play his cards.

"If I remember correctly, there are three orc servants beside you who will come of age this month." The king played a card.

"Yes." Edward followed up with another one.

The king waited for the other two players on the card table to play their cards, and continued to ask, "Do you have any thoughts on the candidates for the additional servants?"

Edward hurriedly said respectfully: "I have nothing..." Suddenly, a thought broke into his brain, Edward froze for a moment, and the king gave him a strange look.

Edward hesitated, but once this idea popped up, it was like some kind of extreme desire, which could not be suppressed.He quickly calculated the risks and gains and losses in his mind, weighing the left and right, but the balance in his heart still quickly tipped to one side.In the final analysis, he is just a pawn with nothing, a marionette with no resistance. If he does not want to be smashed to pieces, he must hand over the string to the right person.

So in the end, Edward leaned close to the king's ear and said softly, "Father, can I have a private discussion with you later?"

The king didn't object, nor accepted, but suddenly threw the cards, laughed and said to the people on the table: "The prince peeked at my cards, this round doesn't count, start over."

The party didn't end until midnight. The king and queen left first, followed by the crown prince. After watching the most noble family in the empire leave, they dispersed one after another and went home to rest.

Edward went back to his room, changed his gorgeous dress, washed up a bit, and changed into loose casual clothes. Then he took two attendants to meet the king.The families of these two close servants are the king's confidantes. Edward doesn't know if they already know that William is the real crown prince, but at the critical moment, they must stand by the king's side.

The king had already changed into his pajamas, and he was wearing a thin nightgown. He was sitting by the fireplace with his legs stretched forward and folded together. Glittering in the light.It was summer now, and there was an ice-blue flame in the fireplace maintained by a magic circle, which could cool down the room.

"Your Majesty." Edward saluted him.

"What would you like to say to me, my dear son?" said the King lazily. "Would you like a drink?"

"No, thank you." Edward refused, "Your Majesty, I want to have a few words with you alone, just me and you."

The king took a sip of his wine and stared at Edward for a long time, until Edward began to panic, he waved his hand and told everyone else in the room to go out.

"What do you want to say, can you say it now?" The king put down his glass.

Edward sat down on the chair opposite the king, and slowly said: "As for the three vacancies around me, I want to give one of them to William. I want to take him to Somerset."

The king raised his eyebrows high: "It seems that you really like William, can you tell me the reason?"

Edward raised his head, glanced at the king who had restrained all his aura, and was even a little absent-minded, and quickly lowered his eyes.When things came to an end, Edward still felt a little breathless in the face of this ruthless king.At last he slid from his chair, fell to his knees, and slowly knelt up to the King's feet, kissing the toe of his shoe.

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty." He fell at the king's feet with the utmost humility, "Please forgive your humblest servant. I am willing to dedicate the rest of my life to you and His Royal Highness, as long as you have mercy on me , sympathize with my involuntary difficulties, forgive my unavoidable offense, and give me the opportunity to be loyal.”