The queen's voice sounded like an echo from a deep pool in a valley, bone-chillingly cold yet hauntingly elegant.
Her words, whether a rhetorical retort or a genuine question, caused the temperature in the hall to drop several degrees.
The audience chamber instantly became silent as a grave, but the prime minister seemed entirely unaffected. He continued to kowtow, insisting stubbornly,
"Yes, please execute Her Highness the princess. Only by doing so can we prevent the outcome where you are assassinated."
The queen pressed her lips together beneath her veil and slowly shook her head.
"Selena... that child wouldn't do such a thing."
"Your Majesty!"
The green-haired young prime minister cried out urgently,
"This is not a matter of whether she wants to or not! The dragon's curse does not move according to the subjective will of mortals. Was it out of your own free will that you killed the former king back then?!"
He said it!
Damn it, are you crazy?! If you want to die, don't get our blood on us!
"!!!"
Seeing the prime minister speak the absolute forbidden taboo, the ministers were scared out of their wits, and several even tumbled from their seats.
Boom—
Sure enough, the moment Arcturus finished speaking, a physical, pitch-black pressure crashed down, blanketing the young prime minister.
Instantly, Arcturus's body was slammed into the floor, and spiderweb-like cracks began to spread across the tiles.
Even a high-level 【sage】 was far inferior to a warrior of the same rank in terms of physical strength. Under such brutal treatment, blood began to seep from beneath Arcturus's skin, and pale white bone even pierced through his elbow, exposed to the air.
But Arcturus did not explode and die. After applying the pressure for a moment, the queen withdrew her hand just before the prime minister's body reached its breaking point.
"Your... Your Majesty... Puh-agh—"
The green-haired youth crawled tremblingly out of the crater, coughing up blood and filth.
Even so, he stubbornly kowtowed to the queen once more.
"Please forgive me... I did not... cough, cough, cough... intend to offend you. But only by doing this can I make you face the facts..."
"Your Majesty... you have invested too much emotion in the princess. You should never have done so from the beginning. As long as the dragon's curse exists, the succession of the Midwinter throne will repeat this cruel cycle. The queen of the next generation will inevitably kill the former king and purge the entire kingdom."
Whether it was because the pressure just now had damaged his nerves or because it was a genuine outpouring of emotion, Arcturus began to weep, slamming his fist against the ground.
"We are by no means cowards afraid of death! It is just that Midwinter... Midwinter cannot lose you. The winters are getting longer and longer. Our kingdom can no longer afford these repeated internal conflicts. If this continues, our descendants won't even know what spring is!"
"Therefore, I beg Your Majesty, for the sake of the Midwinter Kingdom, execute the princess!"
After Arcturus remained bowed in a long prostration, the other officials in the hall looked at each other, and then... one by one, they all knelt on the ground, expressing their support for the prime minister through silent action.
"........."
A deathly silence lasted for a long time, until a mournful voice, almost bordering on a sob, drifted from behind the curtain.
"To ask me to kill that child... how is that any different from killing me?"
Arcturus said calmly,
"For you, there is indeed no difference. But for us, for the entire Midwinter Kingdom, the queen is the queen, and the princess is the princess. They must not be confused."
The queen's silver eyes behind the veil looked past the prime minister to the officials kneeling behind him, and then toward the royal capital of Midwinter.
After a long while, she spoke faintly,
"Even so, will I not have new children in the future? And then what? Will you kill the new princess again?"
Arcturus looked directly at the blood-stained floor tiles. "If necessary, then we will keep killing!"
The queen's voice finally carried a distinct edge of anger.
"Are you... trying to subject me to a slow execution?"
Arcturus did not answer directly. He simply lowered his head and said with a trembling voice,
"For the survival of the kingdom and for the sake of the ancient will, I must say this. Your Majesty, even if you grind my bones to dust, please consider this suggestion. And please... have pity on the subjects of this kingdom."
"Have pity on all of you... then who will have pity on me..."
The queen seemed enraged by the ministers' coordinated pressure. The black curtains billowed, and the pressure of a high warlock enveloped the hall.
Just as the tension reached its breaking point, a voice as clear as a silver bell broke the confrontation.
"Oh my, it's so lively here. I seem to have heard something interesting. Something about... whether or not to execute me?"
A slender figure walked into the audience chamber from outside. She had her hands behind her back, walking with measured steps into the center of the hall.
Beneath a fashionable and exquisite white dress was a pleated short skirt, and her rounded, slender legs were encased in black over-the-knee socks, revealing a glimpse of absolute territory.
Her smooth, straight black hair and delicate, snow-white skin made an impression as instant as a meme, causing the ministers to cry out in surprise.
"Her Highness the princess?!"
Snow White waved her hand and said,
"What's wrong? Why such a fuss? Didn't we agree that as long as I don't leave the castle, I can go anywhere I want?"
Behind the curtain, the queen simultaneously withdrew her high warlock pressure, looking at the princess with a complex gaze.
"Selena..."
Princess Selena's face was exactly like the queen's when she was young—which was only natural, as the princess had been split from the queen herself. In terms of ethics, they were mother and daughter, but in terms of blood, they were undeniably identical twins.
"I heard a prince from a foreign land has proposed to me. Is this true?"
Selena stepped into the hall, smiling at the wretched-looking prime minister.
Arcturus silently took out the letter and handed it to Selena.
He deliberately avoided looking at the princess's face. The royal family of Midwinter possessed a beauty that was absolutely demonic; one could be captivated by that curse-like charm if they weren't careful.
During regular meetings, the queen would cover her face with a veil, but the princess had no such habit.
Selena took the proposal letter and scanned the contents carefully. Then she smiled sweetly and flicked the paper with her finger.
"Hmm... it's written quite well. This prince named Faust has quite the eye! I'd say all the praise written here is the honest truth."
Snow White tilted her exquisite and beautiful face up, pressing a hand to her chest with pride.
"Hmph, my beauty is indeed matchless. It has even captivated a foreign prince I've never met before, turning him into a devoted admirer."
Arcturus said coldly, "Princess Selena, this isn't funny at all."
"It is precisely because of your beauty that we are placed in such a difficult position."
Selena knit her brows.
"Then what do you want me to do? I was born this beautiful. Are you asking me to discard my beauty?"
Arcturus shook his head with a bitter smile.
"If only there were a way! But this beauty is a cursed thing that cannot be discarded at all. Yet, your beauty should never have surpassed that of Her Majesty."
"Lord Arcturus!"
Upon hearing the prime minister's voice, which was nearly breaking into a sob, the queen reprimanded him sharply.
"How dare you suggest that Selena's beauty surpasses my own?!"
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