Human dimension reduction

Edward was sitting by the window of the glass conservatory, with a chess board on the table, steaming black tea, and brightly colored and delicately shaped desserts on the silver dessert stand. Aiden whispered a few words in his ear Without saying a word, the light-blond and long-haired king raised his eyes, his expression unchanged because of the news brought by Aiden.

There are no secrets in the Palace of Westminster. Although the specific content of the conversation cannot be known, the meeting between Mary and Stuart has long been spread throughout the palace.

Is it intentional for others to see?

Edward rubbed the white queen chess piece in his hand, rubbing his fingers lightly on the crown. Stuart would not do such things that are not good for him, so...

Is it Mary?

Trying to use Stuart's name to protect himself in this way?Indeed, even if they don't know what they said, but because of Stuart, most people who want to bully Mary will hesitate.

Especially when the king refused Mary's audience and said such unkind words, I'm afraid everyone realized that the king would not protect Mary. Palace of Westminster is much better.

If it's just that, it's fine...

Edward thought casually, put the white queen in his hand on the chessboard, and moved the bishop: "Where did the Archbishop of Canterbury go?"

Aiden thought about it: "The knights of the Stuart family came to report that they stopped the Archbishop of Canterbury who was disguised as a cloth merchant in the outskirts of the city this morning. ..."

"Stopped?" The little king raised his brows, thought for a while, and suddenly laughed, "Apart from that? Is there anything else?"

Aiden also couldn't help laughing: "Ahem, well, they sent all the carts of 'cloth' into the palace and presented them to you."

The little king burst out laughing: "No wonder His Excellency the Archbishop didn't come to the palace for an audience at the first time..."

Losing all the wealth accumulated in half his life, I am afraid that His Excellency the archbishop is still immersed in extreme grief and depression, and cannot get up the energy to think about other things.

"Tell Lorenzo later, if you can, pay attention to the situation of the Duke of Gloucester." The little king restrained his smile, pondered for a while, and decided to allocate a little energy to pay attention to this defeated opponent. For some reason, he still felt that Can not give up on the Duke of Gloucester concern.

The Earl of Essex, who received the new order, tilted his head and thought for a while, spat out the grass stalk in his mouth, and nodded: "Okay, I will let the brothers pay attention."

But before he sent his men to search for the fleeing Duke of Gloucester, something happened in the palace.

What happened this time was not His Majesty the King, but Richard, Duke of York, who was ignored by most people.

After experiencing the belladonna incident, whether it was Aiden or Stuart, they were paranoid about the king's personal safety. Before a dish was presented to the king's table, it had to go through four inspections. The chef who made this dish would be dragged out and hanged on the gallows, and no matter where the king was, he would always have no less than a small team of guards around him—they were all hidden in places that were not easy to detect. It is the head of the Sardinian assassins who are best at assassination.

Everyone took the little king very seriously, and therefore ignored his brother, the Duke of York. No, it couldn't be said to be neglected. The Duke of York himself seemed to be quite happy not to enjoy such terrible treatment from his brother.

The person who found out what happened to the Duke of York was an unlikely-sounding figure – the Duchess Mary.

After entering the Palace of Westminster, due to the cold reception of the king, Miss Mary wisely stayed away from the king's territory, but had a good relationship with the Duke of York who received her.

Edward heard about this matter from Richard. In the past reincarnation, although the Duke of Gloucester harbored ill intentions towards the king's brother, Mary fulfilled her responsibilities as a cousin. Among them, Mary may want to be the queen. Factors are included, but it is undeniable that Mary treated the king's brothers very kindly, and sent them necessary living supplies through the guards of the Tower of London many times, until they were smothered to death in a silent night.

Richard didn't ask the little king to treat Mary better, but only took care of the princess who had escaped from the protection of her parents within his ability, and the little king didn't have any objection to this.

On such an ordinary evening, the king stayed in the study to deal with affairs, and Aiden came in to ask about today's dinner arrangements, and the maid beside Mary rushed into the king's study with her skirt.

"Your Majesty! Your Royal Highness—" The maid's hair was disheveled, her skirt was stained with mud, as if she had fallen on the ground.

The little king stood up when he heard the second word.

"You are Mary's maid? What happened to Richard?"

The monarch of the empire came out from behind the large and gorgeous oak table, with no smile on his face, and pale green eyes as cold as mirrors.

The maid tremblingly tried to tell what she saw, but the impatient king didn't bother to wait any longer. He strode towards the Duke of York's bedroom, his scarlet cloak billowing like blood on the ground.

The bedroom of the Duke of York is at the other end of the corridor, and the servants have obviously heard something. Their faces are pale and white with abnormal fear, and they communicate with each other with eyes. Seeing the king's scarlet cloak from a distance, they quickly He knelt down and lowered his head.

The little king became more and more distracted, and finally he almost rushed through the oak gate carved with white roses.

In the middle of the bedroom was a large canopy bed. The pigeon feathers wrapped in black-edged gold silk were torn apart, and snow-white feathers filled most of the bedroom. The white mink fur spread on the bed was soaked with dark red blood. The air flow driven by the king's footsteps caused the light and fluttering feathers in the room to flutter disorderly again, and a blood-stained feather slowly fell from the king's eyes and stuck to the king's sleeve.

Strong smell of blood, rust, mixed with the breath of death.

There was no one else in the bedroom, and several maids surrounded the unconscious Miss Mary in an outdoor ventilated place. Seeing the king's face, they all tightened their shoulders.

The champagne-colored blackout satin was half drawn and half hung on the edge of the bed. The king walked over and grabbed the silky silk with his right hand. Because of too much force, his five fingers scratched deep twisted folds on the silk.

He lowered his eyes. From his angle, he could see the dark red liquid dripping down the hem of the champagne-colored satin, which was absorbed drop by drop by the thick cashmere blanket.

"My lord... please let me come." Aiden followed the king closely, and when he stepped into the room and smelled the bloody smell, he already yelled in his heart, but he didn't dare to say anything, He watched the Duke of York grow up, so why didn't he feel sad?But when he saw the king's pale face, he realized that His Majesty couldn't watch it any longer.

The loyal steward pressed the little king's hand and begged, "My lord... please let me come!"

This time Edward pushed Aiden's hand coldly and firmly.

The curtain embroidered with thousands of flowers of various colors was pulled back by the king. When he saw the scene in front of him, Aiden let out an instinctive scream: "God!"

Facing this scene, the little king shook his body twice, and was half dragged and half hugged by Aiden, trying to take him out of the room: "Your Majesty! My God, Your Majesty! Please leave here... Guards! Take Your Majesty away!"

An opposite repulsive force in his arms pushed him away, and the little king pushed Aiden away like an enraged beast, roaring: "Shut up! Get out!"

His last sentence was addressed to the guards rushing through the door.

The guards looked at each other for a while, and retreated silently, not daring to offend the furious king.

The little king stumbled towards the big bed, and half of his legs softened and sat on the ground. He struggled twice but couldn't stand up, so he simply half-crawled and half-walked to the side of the bed.

The scene on the gorgeous big bed was horrific. The young Duke of York was neatly dressed, a knife wound pierced his chest, and even cut the pigeon feather mattress. A large amount of blood poured out and soaked most of his body. , may have been cut off the artery, the blood splashed on the surrounding sheets and curtains like a fountain, the sheets under him were wrinkled and messy, there were muddy bloodstains between his fingers, a pair of light green eyes were wide open, and he lost his spirit It looked a little scary.

Judging from the traces on the bed, after suffering such a fatal knife, he did not die immediately, but struggled crazily. The unknown murderer was frightened by the victim's struggle, and he casually grabbed the goose feather The pillow pressed firmly on the Duke of York's face until the Duke of York lost all signs of life.

Footsteps came from the door again, Lorenzo stepped into the bedroom, seeing the scene on the bed, his pupils shrank.

To a Sardinian assassin who is used to death, this sight is not much of a surprise, but...

Thinking of the news he just received, Lorenzo's heart sank.

The dead prince stared straight up. Before the murderer left, he seemed to be terrified by the gaze of the dead. He pulled up the prince's cloak to cover half of the Duke of York's face. Edward stained the cloak with blood. And the dark red cloak was pulled down, staring at the face of the king's younger brother, Lorenzo noticed that the little king's hands were trembling unconsciously.

"Your Majesty..." He walked up and wanted to say something, but the sweet words of the past seemed to lose all their effectiveness in an instant.

"This is what I gave to Richard..." The little king's voice was inaudible.

The hand holding the corner of the cloak had blue veins from the force.

Lorenzo quickly looked at the Duke of York's body, and said softly, "It was done by a novice with no experience. He used a lot of strength. The dagger is very thin. He hesitated for a moment when he stabbed into the body... or his hands trembled. The mattress was cut when the knife was drawn, and the technique was rough."

Edward finished listening with a blank face, opened his mouth, and tried twice before making a sound: "Newbie?"

Lorenzo: "If I were to use a knife, I would choose to cut my neck. The victim would definitely reach out and cover his neck instead of struggling so hard. Moreover, well-trained assassins tend to use bloodless methods. Clamping the neck is the first choice, such a large amount of bleeding will leave many unnecessary marks."

He used words very calmly, but the little king was not angry. He stared at his brother's face with empty eyes, and asked after a long time, "Richard...how did he die?"

Lorenzo lightly touched the Duke of York's face with his hand, looked at the scar on his chest, frowned and paused for a while, until the king turned his cold gaze to him, he sighed silently: "It should be suffocation. , After a heart injury, people can still live for nearly 10 minutes, judging from the color of the Duke's lips and the wound...he should have suffocated to death after losing the ability to call for help."

After getting the answer, the little king closed his eyes, grabbed Lorenzo's arm twice and finally stood up, took a few deep breaths, bent down to untie the blood-stained cloak on the Duke of York, and put the scarlet cloak on his body. The king's cloak fluttered away, covering the tragic corpse of the Duke of York and the blood everywhere.

"Aiden, call all the servants. I want to know who has entered the Duke of York's room in the past few days. Also, I want to know what Mary has been doing these days... Is there any contact between her and Stuart..."

The king's voice became lower and lower, and his body slowly slid down. Lorenzo sensed something was wrong. When he looked down, he found that the little king's face was pale, his eyes were closed, and he had passed out.

"Your Majesty!" Aiden rushed forward in shock, the room was in chaos again, and when Edward woke up again, the sky was as dark as splashed ink, the room was lit with bright gas lamps, and a man with curly black hair was sitting on a high-backed chair. , with an open hard-cover book on his lap, and a thin mirror chain hanging on his shoulders, refracting cold light.

"You're awake." Keenly aware of the king's movement, Duke Stuart closed the book and looked up, his dark blue eyes were not smiling.

"I heard that you suspected that I was related to the death of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, so I entered the palace without authorization."

The king lying on the bed stared at him, his face was pale and weak like someone recovering from a serious illness, but his pale green eyes were sharper than a blade: "I heard? Who said it? Mary?"

Duke Stuart frowned and was silent for a while: "I understand what you are thinking. You suspect that Mary and I have joined forces to murder the Duke of York? Just because Miss Mary talked to me in the corridor that day? What good is it?"

His rhetorical question did not shake the king at all, and the young monarch asked calmly, "So this matter has something to do with you?"

There were waves in Stuart's dark blue eyes: "No, it has nothing to do with me."

The little king stared at him, and suddenly asked: "So the disappearance of the Duke of Gloucester has something to do with you?"

Lorenzo came to him today to report on this matter, and the man he sent reported that the Duke of Gloucester had disappeared after leaving the suburbs of London, together with his attendant knights, as if disappeared from the world.

The king was half asleep and half awake after listening to him finish the matter, and passed out again drowsily. When he woke up and saw Stuart, he realized some key points.

Hearing this question, Stuart's expression became even uglier, and he looked at the king without hesitation: "If you think it has something to do with me, then no matter how I try to argue, it will be useless, please rest well, I will help Mr Eden finds out who murdered the Duke of York."

He put down his book, stood up and bowed to the king, turned his head and left the king's bedroom, leaving the king watching his back disappear at the door.

"lie."

The little king moved his lips soundlessly.

He slowly sat up, his eyes glanced around, and fell on a dark red cloak on the sofa in the distance.

The little king got out of bed, his bare feet sank into the plush carpet, his footsteps were still weak, he walked for half a minute in just a few steps, bent down to pick up the cloak, the blood on it was completely integrated into the scarlet cloak Lining, if you don't look carefully, you can't see the mottled traces.

Shroud of the Duke of York...

He folded the cloak and put it back in place.