Chapter 119 – 11. Kingdom of Ventorino – Seed of Discord (2)

Rumors spread quickly.

A new dynasty entered the Kingdom of Ventorino, and was the first mixed-race demon to enter and exit the newly created royal castle. The capital city was full of stories about that boy. It was only the second day, so it was clear that after a few days it would spread not only to the capital but also to the aristocratic families.

It was all the more so because it was the queen who said that she would guarantee his status.

But that didn’t happen.

The very next day, rumors about the mixed race of demons quickly subsided.

It is impossible for the queen to calm down the rumors circulating in the royal castle in an instant. Only one person was able to do that, King Marc de Ventorino.

“I made it tight.”

“…Okay.”

At her husband’s words Her, Katarina nodded her head.

Now, he is a mark who is gaining public awareness by giving good choices, but at one time he was a warrior who wielded a greatsword of death savagely targeting numerous demons, mixed demons, and traitors. It was the same even after he had just been inaugural as king.

At the same time as making a common enemy of the kingdom, he pursued a bloody policy to show other nobles who were aiming for the throne. In terms of dignity, the queen was not even up to his toes.

“So what’s the reason?”

“What?”

“That half demon race. Why the hell did you bring it?”

It was a question I couldn’t help but ask. It was all the more so because the servants, implicitly, were thinking of the mixed blood as the queen’s new adultery partner. Zira Mark, with her criminal record of her, was suspicious of her.

“…”

When Katarina didn’t answer right away, he frowned.

“Did you forget? It was the queen who told me that we should take a hostile policy against demons and mixed races.”

Although Marc did not know about the demon race, he had no hostility towards the mixed race of the demon race.

The fall of his family had nothing to do with the demon tribe, but rather, the demon tribe was the object of his stress relief and money making his, and was the second-class contributor who eventually raised him to the king’s position . For reference, he thought that the first-class contributor was the queen, and the third-class contributor was the warrior Pedro.

In any case, it was all because of Catherine that Mark carried out and maintained a hostile policy from the beginning.

“Or maybe…”

“Me.”

“…”

“You don’t believe me?”

The king was silent.

‘Can’t you believe it? Huh.’

A woman, asking if her wife does n’t trust her. It was a question that a normal man would either be embarrassed or deny. But he wasn’t. He just couldn’t speak for the stability of the country.

He believed, if not necessarily the affair, that she had some ultimate motive, and that he was now anxious.

As evidence of that, Katarina stayed still despite his tone of her, which she should have pointed out earlier. Even if she acted normally, she showed this appearance when she was doubtful, so I couldn’t believe it at all. All the more so in the fact that her intelligence did not notice the strangeness of her behavior.

“Haa, that boy. He’s of mixed demon race, but he’s a great talent.”

“Human Resources?”

Snorting again in his heart His, Marc reacted indifferently.

To such a king, Katarina also hid her annoyance inside herself and told Mark the information she had heard from Mercedes and that she had found out over the past few days.

The runner-up of the warrior prayer contest. Even though he has enough skills to become a knight, he has the humility and courtesy to start from the seed to change the perception of the mixed race. His swordsmanship has grown even more in the past few months and is comparable to that of Mercedes. An apprentice of Count Serenia Bernstein. And even the words that the princesses secretly care for her.

Mark was also a little interested. But he didn’t have to show it.

“… So? What are you going to do?”

“If possible, I’d like to embrace it.”

“What?”

“Even if that’s not the case, I might get Ulstro’s favor and ask for a Knight Instructor.”

“Um…”

It was a pretty plausible cause. Right now, there was nothing to complain about.

Unlike Ulstro Kingdom, which was famous as a knight powerhouse after the war, Ventorino Kingdom suffered from a chronic shortage of knights. Whether it was recruiting a future sword master or asking for an instructor to nurture a knight, both were attractive.

“A knight, a knight…”

In the process of rebuilding the country after being destroyed by war, many established knights lost their lives. And among those who wanted to become new knights, there were few decent people.

People who wanted to become knights were usually of three types.

Whether it’s being into martial arts, aiming for fame, or being the most easygoing knight.

The latter case was not even worth thinking about. Those who were the second or younger of the aristocratic family, or those who couldn’t become heirs, didn’t want to study, magic was difficult and they didn’t have the talent, so they were aiming for knights who could do it . As long as you handle a few weapons in moderation, you can easily get a knighthood with the power of your family.

There were a lot of commoners. However, the majority of commoners who wanted to become knights were mercenaries and had little loyalty to the country. So pretending to work, I crossed the border and became a knight in Ulstro or Dezac. He wanted to become a knight in order to eat well and live well, but there was no reason to become a knight in a country that was barren and had frequent conflicts with demons.

There are many talented people in the former, but the overall number is small. Articles with even more loyalty here are even more so.

In exchange for fewer knights, Ventorino had a high quality of soldiers. Unfortunately, however, the war was not only fought by soldiers. A knight with strong combat power capable of leading soldiers in the field and capable of exceeding a hundred per day was indispensable.

“Ha, that’s good. I believe in that.”

“… I guess you didn’t believe that until just now.”

“Yeah… Um. No, nothing.”

“…”

“…”

A cold silence settled in the office.

The atmosphere was chilly enough to think that if someone else was here, the wizard might have used ice magic.

‘How could you say that….’

Katarina clenched her fists so tightly that her hands her turned white. Her nails her, which she had grown long for her beauty her, dug into her skin her. Awakened by her pain her, she turned and left her office, leaving behind her cold greeting.

Again and again.

Her servants her avoided her on their own due to her enraged face of her queen her, as if her frost her had fallen.

Without thinking, Katarina walked down the aisle where her footsteps she took her. Feeling the pain in her grip, she opened her palm to check her wounds her. Fortunately, she did n’t have any major cuts, but her middle fingernail her, which was the sharpest, was bleeding a little.

“…… I have to go to the court physician.”

Katarina muttered a little and raised her head.

“…Uh?”

“Ah, Queen. Good morning. How are you?”

“Ah, ah, that, yes…”

Still standing there was Valdez with a handsome face. Katarina stuttered in embarrassment and accepted his greeting shyly.

Katarina intentionally avoided him all day yesterday. Because she was the first to meet her in the royal castle. Even though I had only seen her in two days, for some reason I was glad to see her as if I hadn’t seen her in a very long time. Even if this is only the second meeting.

Her feelings of annoyance at her husband seemed to melt as soon as she saw him.

“Thank you so much to the queen. Thanks to you, I, a lowly mixed demon race, was able to set foot in this royal castle with great honor.”

“Huh, huhu. No. I also want… Ah.”

Almost speaking her true feelings of her, she panicked and covered her mouth with her wounded hand. She then groaned at the pain in her grasp and furrowed her brow with a moan.

“Are you hurt? The smell of blood…”

“Um, yes. You were hurt a little. But…”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but you should be careful even if it’s not a big deal. If it doesn’t hurt, can I bandage it?”

“Uh…?”

Katarina’s eyes widened at the sight of Valdez pulling bandages and wound medicine out of her arms.

It was strange to carry such things around, but the fact that she was not taking them to the court physician, but doing it herself, subtly tickled her heart. It was her first time since becoming queen.

When she was a mercenary warrior and aristocratic mage on the battlefield, not the king and queen in the royal castle, she often healed wounds and often made contact with them. Her face flushed red at the sudden memory of her past her.

“…Yes. I will specifically allow you to touch my hand.”

“Thank you, my queen.”

Katarina, who had reached out to her Valdes her, stopped her hand her abruptly.

“Ah…”

“Queen?”

“There’s a lot of eyes here. Maybe I’ll get the wrong suspicion… Let’s go to my room.”

She had just revealed her ferocious planting her without hiding it. Thanks to her, no one was around now, but she didn’t know. Maybe someone sees the two of them together and rekindles the rumors that the king had best silenced.

Never, never… It wasn’t because I wanted to be alone with him quietly.

“…All right.”

With that reasonable anxiety, Valdes nodded her head and headed with her to the palace where her queen was staying. She left behind the medical room where the court physician, who was closer than him, was staying.

Fortunately for Katarina, she encountered few people on her way to the palace. And most of her encounters were her servants who were not afraid to spread rumors about her, whether they caught her weak points her or who were loyal to her.

The queen felt an unknown feeling about this strange situation.

She felt as if she was forcing herself to do something of her own. She knew very well what that something was, but she turned away. It seemed that if she crossed this dangerous line, she would easily ignore the lines that would follow it.

“…”

So slightly, very slightly, I regretted calling him here.

‘… No I don’t have any other strange thoughts. It’s just to recruit future sword masters.’

For her, her cause of recruiting talent was a very good excuse. She was able to fool her own mind just as much as she did her husband her. He could feel that much emotion when he saw a woman or a handsome man.

Her daughter her Clara, a chicken couple full of love, also said that she looked at him and said that she was handsome and that her heart her was pounding.

Though she never uttered the latter word, Katarina hypnotized herself like that.

“Then I will treat you.”

“…Okay.”

Sitting in her chair, the queen held out her hand to the handsome squire knight, who knelt down on her and smeared her hand with ointment. He tingled slightly but it didn’t hurt as much as he thought. He was a poor quality wound medicine, so it was embarrassing to worry about what he would do if he was very sick.

Unable to bear her brief silence, she spoke first.

“It’s a pretty good drug.”

“Yes, it was given to me by Princess Mercedes.”

“Huh, right? It seems that he cares for you a lot.”

“I think you’re on the same side.”

Meticulously applying her ointment to her palm her, Valdez pulled out a bandage and wrapped it around her hand her. The bandage was as advanced as the wound medicine. The texture of the fabric was soft and not harsh.

“Is this also from Mercedes?”

“No, this is something I’ve been using for a long time.”

“Since before? It must have been expensive for a mercenary to use…”

“That’s true, but life still comes first. I’ve seen several comrades die from the wrong wounds.”

“…Yes. That’s right. You have to be especially careful with wounds.”

Katarina’s face darkened.

The war 18 years ago came to mind. Among the demons, there were many enemies who used abilities such as poison or curses. Thanks to this, there were numerous soldiers and knights who died after roughly treating their wounds on the battlefield. She too lost one of her friends her that way.

“Are you… Trying to become a knight to change the perception of mixed race demons?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“It must be a tough road?”

“I know. But… I want to extend the grace I received from the teacher who raised me to other half-bloods.”

“Okay…”

Upon hearing Valdes’ words, the queen’s face was troubled.

In the meantime, he finished putting on the bandages. The skillfully wrapped bandage made it difficult to move the hand of her.

“It’s done. Then I’m done…”

“You said your name was Valdes, right?”

“Yes, but…”

“If Ventorino would reduce discrimination against mixed-race demons and make you a knight, would you come to me?”

Her concern her, which she was doing just before her, was how she could attract him. After explaining to Mark and his heart her that the reason for letting him into the royal castle was for appeasement or goodwill. At least I had to try. That would alleviate her husband’s suspicions of her.

Since she had been 18 years old, her policy on mixed-race demons could be modified to some extent. Rather, she thought that she would not be able to turn the boy’s heart with an offer of this magnitude.

“Going to the queen… What does it mean? Do you mean to become the queen’s knight? Or…”

“Huh? No, that’s…”

While Katarina was surprised by his unexpectedly unexpected reaction her, Valdes, who raised her body her, moved her feet her and approached her.

“As a man, what do you mean?”

Katarina froze at the sight of his face right in front of her, and it wasn’t long before.

Side-

“?!”

He could feel the soft touch of her lips.