Chapter 302 (1/2)
Chapter 302 The Bugle Horn of the Decisive Battle
At the palace in the Kingdom of Eternal Winter, flames were raging within the fireplace.
Compared to Graycastle with its four seasons, here the summers were especially short, and the autumn was only like an advance notice for the impending arrival of a severe winter. There wasn’t even enough time to change into shorter garments before the cold wind came back once again.
Garcia Wimbledon, sat on the throne with a fox fur coat draped over her shoulders, listening to the complaints and demands of the nobility.
She didn’t like the palace. The pillars, walls, and floors were all built out of snow white stones, each piece polished until it was smooth and shining, just like ice in general. Despite the fact that she already had two additional layers of cushion on her seat, she could still feel the bitter chill of the cold iron chair.
This damned castle is like an iceberg, absolutely frustrating! I’ll wait for the situation to stabilize, and the first thing I’m going to do after that is to smash all of the walls and floors to bits then re-lay it with dark brown granite slabs afterward.
“Your Majesty, I hope you can bring justice for me,” a noble said, looking at her with a scowling expression.
Prior to this, he had used a lot of words, where in fact, a few would have been sufficient. At the time when the Church was occupying the Kingdom of Endless Winter, some nobles who had done many evils deeds had been put on a public trial which had been presided over by Archbishop Heather. Most of the nobles had been sent to the gallows. However, this guy was among the lucky ones and had only been punished with the confiscation of his assets, which had then been equally divided among the victims.
“I can understand your request; private property shouldn’t be plundered,” Garcia pondered for a moment and then slowly said, “But the specific amount is hard to define. Well, if you can provide me with the testaments of the last five years of financial income and expenditure, I can evaluate an average value and give you a part of the of the seizures as compensation.”
“But the mob has looted my house, and I’m afraid the records are…”
“Then I can only follow the published announcement and compensate you according to your title.” Garcia interrupted, “Take a look around you, they are all nobles who have suffered from looting, if I give you more, some of them would end up getting less.”
“That’s right! Only God would know if the number you reported is the truth or not!”
“Why are you so troublesome, Knight Halon, these gold royals aren’t yours.”
“You have it already quite good, just take a look at your associates, they can only go to heaven and find God to demand compensation.”
Seeing all of the surrounding nobles glare at him, he was forced to shrink back, bow deep in salute and say, “In that case, please compensate me according to the standard. Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty.”
“Excellent,” Garcia smiled and then ordered, “Next.”
“My regards to you, Your Majesty,” a white-haired old man stepped out of the crowd and caressed the glittering silver heron family emblem on his chest reverently.
“Marquis Bodø, I remember that the Church’s thugs didn’t attack your territory.”
“Yes, that’s right,” he nodded, “Not that they didn’t want to, rather that they couldn’t… the Inundated Snow Ridge is difficult to attack. So, my Knights were able to block all of the invading bandits. However, my child wasn’t as fortunate. On the day of the riots, he was on duty within the imperial palace, and for the purpose of protecting the Queen, not only was he killed by the believers, but his body was also hung above the city gate. It was not until you arrived in the Kingdom of Eternal Winter, that he could be freed from his humiliation.”
“That’s truly a tragic story,” Garcia assumed a grieving expression and sighed, before asking, “So, what is your request?”
“The name of the man who killed him is ‘The Butcher’, nowadays he is the leader of the remaining rebels. That group of people are hiding within the Impassable Mountain Range north of us. I want revenge for my child.” The Marquis calmly declared.
“From the beginning, I didn’t have that many troops under my control. The are already keeping the peace during the day, patrol, guard the city wall as well as the granary; it would be quite difficult to split my men and dispatch the troop to the barren mountains and wild hills just to go find a group of one hundred exiled thugs.” She shook her head and said in regret, “Furthermore, when the winter comes, the heavy snowfall will also close off the mountains, thus, making it impossible for them to get any supplies. So, they will freeze to death sooner or later; there is no need for you to be so impatient.”