Chapter 241: 128. Queen Rox -2 (Part One)
**
Not a speck of clouds could be seen dotting the sky.
Quite a crowd was out and about in the city’s streets.
We were currently strolling in the avenues of the local marketplace.
Queen Rox raised her head while holding the edge of her wide-brimmed hat. “...It’s been so long since I last walked outside the royal palace like this!”
It kinda felt like I was watching a lady from the sticks going on her very first sightseeing tour of the big city.
“But ma’am, don’t you go on inspection tours of the capital?”
“I do that as the queen of the nation while riding on carriages, your highness. The subjects kowtow to me as well, so...”
Queen Rox smiled bitterly and walked ahead of me. She stopped before a shop and began chatting to the shopkeeper.
I didn’t say anything and silently followed after her.
She asked me earlier if I had some time to spare, and what she had in mind turned out to be a stroll through the city’s streets. But that couldn’t be everything. She probably had something else planned.
A couple of kids were running around the gaps of the canvas-roofed stalls. One of them tripped and fell head-first. Queen Rox bent down and helped the child up, gently comforting the boy.
Plenty of people were present in the streets and she was basically defenceless right now.
No, hang on a minute. I guess that’s not really true?
I glanced at the crowd all around us.
“Oh! There are a lot of shoppers around today for some reason!”
historical
“It’s probably because of the nice weather, fella.”
I chuckled hollowly at the conversation between the shopkeepers.
Adventurers, magicians, and even mercenaries could be seen ‘window shopping’ at the moment. A familiar face was among them.
It was Adolf, the upper Iron-ranked adventurer. And then, there were knights of the royal court, magicians under the employ of the royal family, etc...
Quite a large contingent of combatants, disguised as simple window shoppers, were providing protection to Queen Rox.
Before I had a chance to notice it, Rox was carrying a basket of fruits.
She muttered softly, “The head maid and maidservants will enjoy this,” before pointing at the distant end of the street we were on.
The location she pointed at wasn’t the usual road paved for horse-drawn carriages, but the well-maintained canal and docks where the boats were moored.
She grinned and spoke to me, “I’ve never ridden on a boat that small before. How about we take a trip in one?”
“If that’s what you wish, your majesty.”
I smiled back in reply.
We were getting ready to depart from this country. It wouldn’t harm anyone If I went on a brief sightseeing tour of the capital of the Aihrance queendom, which was rather famous for being one of the best tourist destinations in the continent.
I paid some money to the oarsman and climbed aboard the canal boat first. Then I helped Queen Rox come aboard the boat herself.
The oarsman began rowing his oar and the boat slowly set off.
I glanced at the dude. His previously friendly face meant to welcome his customers was nowhere to be seen now, instead replaced by a pair of incredibly sharp eyes diligently surveying our surroundings.
Huh. Even the oarsman was a guard in disguise.
I shifted my attention away from him and addressed Queen Rox, “Your majesty, it seems that your retainers care a great deal about you.”
She closed her eyes as if to fully enjoy the gentle breeze stroking her skin. “It can’t be helped as I’m the sole carrier of the royal bloodline. If something happens to me, those nobles will no doubt break into fighting over who inherits the throne. And when that happens...”
Well, I’m sure it’d turn into a civil war.
Queen Rox, who was sitting across me, opened her eyes and smiled back. “And that’s why I’m searching for a successor even as we speak.”
“When you say a successor, have you already chosen someone, by any chance?”
She looked up at the sky above. “No, not really. I must choose someone soon. After all, I’m not that young anymore. However, I do have a few people in mind.”
A bitter grin formed on her face next.
“The house of Marquis Demique, the house of Duke Brine, the house of Duke Selerry... They are descendants of the royal bloodline, even if the actual purity of the royal blood coursing through them is negligible. Unfortunately, selecting one of them... If something goes very wrong, then it will invite yet another major turmoil to Aihrance.”
All those folks were distrusting and jealous of each other. Every single one of them wanted to climb up the ladder and become the next ruler.
In a nutshell, that was what the nobles who inherited a bit of royal blood were like.
Queen Rox knew that very well, and from where I was sitting, it seemed as if she couldn’t readily select the next successor to the throne precisely because of their faults.
She continued on, “The one with the least backlash should be me adopting a child, but...”
“...But the bloodline will cause an issue.”
“It won’t cause a civil war, but the resistance from the nobles will be severe. And there’s also a good possibility that the new ruler might end up as someone’s puppet.”
“Your majesty, don’t you have any other family members? Maybe even a relative?”
“Other family members, is it...?”
Queen Rox elegantly waved her index finger around in the air. She moved gracefully like an orchestra conductor, and caused the surrounding air to expand and stretch tautly.
All the noises from our surroundings, like the sound of the canal, the callings of the shopkeepers in the streets, the footsteps of the passersby, got blocked off.
I looked over to her in a slight puzzlement.
She returned my gaze and smiled quite gently. “There is indeed someone who has inherited my bloodline.”
My brows rose up high.
Before coming here, I did some investigation on the royal court of Aihrance. However, there hadn’t been a single mention of a blood relation to Queen Rox.
I asked, “Does that mean you have a family member somewhere?”
“Yes. Although it’s supposed to be a secret,” she replied with a bright grin. “I did have a lover many moons ago.”
A lover? But, uh, calling a lover your family?
I pondered this only to freeze up in my spot.
...H-hey, hang on a sec. Isn’t this going to tread on risky ground here?
Why does it feel like I just heard a scandal involving a queen of a nation, who everyone assumed to be single all this time?
“Is it alright for me to complain a little about something?”
I had to nod at her ‘request’ since the atmosphere didn’t feel like it’d permit my refusal.
“Thank you. This is a tale from long ago.”
A story from when Queen Rox was much younger, huh.
She told me that, while studying magic inside the royal palace, she’d often idolise the tales involving brave warriors or magicians going on adventures. Tales where they rescued others in grave dangers and went on fantastic adventures.
She deeply romanticised them.
“Even though I was no longer a child, I still acted immaturely and sneaked out of the royal palace.”
She wandered around in the forest of demonic beasts near Elusha. Her excuse was to procure materials for her magic experiments, and satisfy her thirst for adventure, as well.
“During one of my misadventures back then, I lost my way and ended up wandering blindly for a few days. And just as I began reaching my limit fending off constant attacks from monsters, I met a man.”
He was a really powerful Paladin with a heroic personality.
That was the very first time Rox felt her heart truly flutter.
It seemed like she was fully immersed in the reminiscent of the past, as a look of deep longing clouded her eyes. “Oh, how simple I was back then. A handsome warrior rescuing a princess in distress. Maybe it was my romanticised ideals to blame, because I fell head over heels at first sight.”
She immediately got permission from the royal court and set off on a journey with this Paladin. They travelled all over the continent and started a brief relationship, which eventually led to them falling in love for good.
Her story continued on. “The whole royal court was thrown into disarray when I returned home. In a way, such a reaction was inevitable. The princess of a nation came home pregnant, after all. I still remember how flustered I became after seeing my father’s stupefied expression. We couldn’t afford to reveal the father’s identity, so we employed every means at our disposal to hide my pregnancy.”
Queen Rox giggled and lightly waved her hand around. But all I could do at the moment was make a cramped, awkward grin.
Uhm, dear queen of Aihrance? I’m not sure if that’s something you can smile about like that...
Maybe all of the royalties living in this world had some disposition of a mangnani? I mean, whoever they were, they seemed to be pretty similar when it came to making their retainers deeply worried.
Queen Rox raised both of her hands and assumed a position of holding a baby in the empty air as a content smile floated up on her face. “But holding my baby for the first time was the happiest moment in my whole life. The joy of being a mother... I felt genuinely happy that the child of my loved one was now with us. However...”
She locked her gazed on me.
“...That child is now with his father. Due to the difference in our status, that child still has no clue about the truth of his origins. And that’s why I’d like to ask you for a favour, your highness.”
Queen Rox pushed forward a letter in my direction.
“May I entrust the safekeeping of this letter to you?”
Naturally, my brows shot up high as I hesitantly received the letter.
Why was she giving this to me?
I quickly noticed that this letter, packaged with care inside the luxurious envelope, featured not only the royal seal of the Aihrance queendom, but even some kind of protection-type magic spell.
“That letter contains details regarding that child’s identity. Please give it to him.”
“But your majesty, you don’t want the Aihrance royal court to do it, but me?”
“In case something happens to me, it’ll become impossible to trust anyone else, but you’re the sole exception, your highness.”
It’d be a cinch to locate her successor by utilising the power of the Imperial Family. Since the father was a Paladin, he must’ve been affiliated with the Theocratic Empire.
I didn’t think there would be a lot of obstacles in finding both the father and her child.
But still, why did she trust me to this extent? Where was her confidence coming from?
Queen Rox interlocked her fingers and continued on. “I’m entrusting this task to you because I believe in my old travel companion, his majesty Kelt Olfolse.”
“...”
“Will you deliver it to my child?”
I studied her for a bit. Her gentle face was subtly filled with satisfaction.
She must’ve not met her own child for decades, so how could she even make a face like that, I wonder?
“How about meeting your son directly, ma’am?”
“It’s alright. Because I’ve already...” A warm grin floated up on her face as she replied, “...met his son, after all.”