Chapter 70: The Heart of Ethel, Known to All
Pope Roman, the originator of the holy oil, a divine artifact used by the Church to test qualifications, was canonized as a saint by the Church after his death. Consequently, later generations habitually referred to him as "Saint Roman."
Every saint of the Church possesses an emblem representing their identity. Saint Roman's saintly emblem was a radiating star combined with a curved rhombus.
Why would the Silver Star Hermitage use Saint Roman's emblem to represent their identity? Could it be that the people of this hermitage are all followers of Saint Roman?
But the problem is, Saint Roman was an ancient figure from the Wimbledon Empire era. Now, the Oran Empire has replaced the Wimbledon Empire for a thousand years, and Saint Roman has been dead for at least that long.
After such a long time, are there still followers of Saint Roman among the Church and monks?
The saints of the Church are not like the Confucian saints from Charlotte's previous life. The Church in this world has recognized at least eight hundred to a thousand saints, so the "gold content" is relatively low.
Many church saints, during their lifetime, might have gained many "fans" due to their virtues and deeds. However, after their death, as time passed, these people gradually became figures in church storybooks, and it was difficult for them to retain any followers.
Why should Saint Roman be an exception?
While Charlotte was still deep in thought, José Mellerfield had already taken action.
The Duke of Green Plains, in stark contrast to his previous friendly attitude of equal negotiation with Allen Ferenbach, successively arrested several priests and priest apprentices suspected of indiscriminately killing innocents, looting property, and rape and plunder. Among them, several with conclusive evidence were directly sentenced to hanging without even informing the Church.
Upon receiving the news, Allen Ferenbach hurriedly came to Riverside Castle to visit José Mellerfield, but now José Mellerfield was the one ignoring him.
Charlotte could roughly guess the reason for such a significant change in José Mellerfield's attitude.
The Duke of Green Plains possessed a miracle passed down through generations, known as the "Golden Ear" or "Ear of Secrets." Very few people within the Mellerfield family knew about this miracle, but Charlotte, relying on the advantage of her young age, had some superficial understanding of it.
The ancestors of the Mellerfield family said that the "Golden Ear" could peer into all the secrets that had occurred in the human world. Of course, there was inevitably some exaggeration involved.
As far as Charlotte knew, the "Golden Ear" would not actively tell others any secrets. It was merely a question-and-answer device. The person using the miracle would hold the "Golden Ear" and ask a question silently. The "Golden Ear" would provide an answer in the questioner's mind, and its answers were only "yes" and "no." Moreover, the "Golden Ear" could also be unreliable. For example, if someone asked the "Golden Ear," "Is Charlotte a lecher?", if there was anyone else in the world named Charlotte, it would most likely answer "no."
Therefore, the claim of peering into all the secrets of the world was greatly exaggerated.
In addition, the person who asked the "Golden Ear" a question also had to pay an extremely heavy price.
The day after showing the Silver Star Hermitage's secret code to José Mellerfield, Charlotte noticed that one of her father's loyal guards, who had served him for many years, was missing.
Charlotte estimated that José Mellerfield had most likely asked his guard to pose a question to the "Golden Ear" similar to "Is the assassin who attempted to assassinate Duke José Mellerfield of Green Plains related to the Church?" and received an affirmative answer.
However, given the lack of sufficient evidence and the "Golden Ear's" tendency to be unreliable, José Mellerfield did not directly confront the Church. He only arrested some peripheral figures to put pressure on the Church.
Several days later, José Mellerfield had essentially settled the affairs within his duchy and then decided to set off for Platinum City.
Charlotte, Rosie, Sean, and Andre, who had been confined at home all these days, all went with José Mellerfield. Accompanying them were hundreds of attendants, including knights, squires, cooks, and servants.
With so many people traveling together, the mode of transportation naturally had to be carriages. Some servants didn't even have the privilege of riding in a carriage and had to walk, which greatly limited the speed of travel.
When Charlotte returned from Platinum City, she rode a giant eagle, flying day and night, and arrived in five or six days. However, this trip to Platinum City, even after five days, they hadn't even covered a third of the distance.
Charlotte, bored to death from riding in the carriage, called her little knight Anna Duran into the carriage to play some intimate games. The taste of a young girl was certainly fresh and delicious, but Anna Duran was new to such matters and probably lacked experience in self-pleasure, always feeling at a loss at crucial moments, which always left Charlotte feeling unsatisfied. So, Charlotte called Beatrice Duran into the carriage as well, asking her to teach her daughter some boudoir knowledge and demonstrate it.
After several days of these games, Charlotte's experience indeed improved significantly.
One evening, the caravan reached a relatively large village and camped outside. The knights and manor lords of standing in the village came out to pay their respects to the Duke of Green Plains. José Mellerfield was quite approachable in this regard. Whenever he encountered such situations along the way, he would meet with them all if he had time, and today was no exception.
Charlotte had nothing to do, so she took Renee out for a walk.
During the walk, Charlotte suddenly noticed her elder brother sitting by the ditch, a piece of withered grass in his mouth, looking at the afterglow of the sunset in the sky, his silhouette lonely and desolate.
"Brother, what are you thinking about?" Charlotte sat down beside Andre and asked.
Charlotte originally thought her elder brother had been driven crazy by the confinement during this period even while traveling, José Mellerfield had guards watching Andre, not allowing him to move freely and planned to say a few words of comfort. However, as soon as Andre opened his mouth, he said, "I'm thinking about Mary."
"Ah? Who is Mary?" Charlotte was full of questions.
"Oh, she's the niece of Viscount Chester. You might not have met her," Andre said, his spirits immediately lifting at the mention of this topic. "If you had met her, you would definitely be impressed. She's a girl as lively and beautiful as a butterfly. That day, I met her in the evening, and the sky had such a brilliant sunset and afterglow..."
"Stop, stop, stop," Charlotte interrupted her elder brother's vivid description, making a stopping gesture, and asked incredulously, "Andre, how long has it been? How did you get involved with Viscount Chester's niece again?"
"What do you mean by 'got involved'?" Andre retorted, "I'm just admiring Mary's charm."
"Then does she also admire your beauty?" Charlotte asked again.
"Why 'beauty'? Don't put it so harshly," Andre said, even more dissatisfied.
Charlotte rolled her eyes: "How else can I put it? Talent? Dear brother, I don't remember you having that kind of thing?"
"Why don't I have it? I've even written poems..." Andre mumbled, lacking confidence.
"I wield the longsword of ice and snow, cleaving the pale wilderness. I laugh in the sky, a thunderous roar passing by..." Charlotte recited.
"Ahhh... don't recite anymore!"
Andre yelled and lunged over to cover Charlotte's mouth.
Charlotte reached out and pushed her elder brother away but didn't continue reciting.
"That was a poem I wrote so many years ago, how do you still remember it?" Andre complained.
Charlotte shook her head and answered, "Your masterpiece from when you were thirteen or fourteen. I made a special effort to memorize it."
"Why would you memorize something like that!" Andre's face turned red. He couldn't understand how there could be someone as boring as Charlotte in the world.
"You don't need to worry about why I memorized it," Charlotte waved her hand dismissively. "The question we're discussing now is, how did you hook up with Viscount Chester's niece again?"
Although Charlotte always complained about her elder brother's stupidity, it must be said that Andre was indeed very skilled in social interactions. One noble lady after another fell for him, giving him the air of a romantic rogue, which was something a truly brainless person couldn't achieve.
"Mary and I really don't have anything going on. We just had tea together, danced a little, watched a play..."
Looking at Andre trying hard to defend himself, Charlotte really didn't want to admit that her elder brother actually had a brain.
"Why don't you go tell Uncle Philip that? See if Earl Philip believes you, see if he'll come over with a lumberjack's axe and chop off your legs."
Andre was speechless.
Charlotte shook her head, at a loss for words.
Andre's marriage to Monica was originally intended to gather more support for Andre within the Mellerfield family. However, if Andre continued to act so willfully, this marriage would not only fail to achieve its purpose but might even backfire.
"Sister, sister." At this moment, Sean ran over, tugging at Charlotte's sleeve and asking, "Sister, I want to play with Little White. Can Little White play with me?"
Little White was the three-tailed magical beast that Earl Philip had given to Charlotte.
"Sure." Charlotte nodded, then gestured for Renee to accompany Sean to the carriage to get it.
Andre showed a look of disgust when he saw Sean appear. After Sean and Renee walked away, Andre spoke mysteriously, "Do you know? His Majesty King Ethel is about to rebel!"
Charlotte turned her head to look at Andre, blinked, and said, "I know."
"I knew you didn't know. Let me tell you, I heard..." Andre said excitedly, then suddenly stopped, "How do you know?"
Charlotte's eyes seemed to regard him as an idiot: "If you randomly grab any noble in the Oran Empire and ask them if His Majesty King Ethel wants to rebel, they will all tell you 'yes'."
"Ah? Is that so?" Andre said blankly.
Ethel Holovin, King of the Kingdom of Cato, was also Charlotte and Andre's maternal grandfather.
The matter of His Majesty Ethel Holovin wanting to rebel had almost become a running joke within the Oran Empire. Only Andre still treated it as a secret to share with Charlotte.
To trace the origins of this matter, one has to go back to Louis Holovin, the grandfather of the current Emperor Leopold Holovin of the Oran Empire.
Louis and his queen had two sons. The elder son was Emperor Leopold's father, the late Emperor Joseph Holovin, and the younger son was the current King of the Kingdom of Cato, Ethel Holovin.
Ethel Holovin was intelligent and studious from a young age and was more favored by Emperor Louis than his elder brother Joseph. In his later years, Louis deposed Joseph, who had plotted to usurp the throne, and made Ethel the crown prince. However, Joseph, through his marriage to a cousin, gained the support of most of the royal family. When Louis passed away, someone in the palace immediately informed Joseph, allowing him to seize the throne first.
Ethel arrived late and couldn't even enter Platinum City, let alone compete for the throne.
Joseph was also wary of his powerful younger brother, who held significant military power, so he promised, "Brother, you are almost thirty years younger than me. After I die, I will definitely pass the throne to you. That way, both of us can be emperors. It's a win-win!"
Ethel wasn't confident in winning against his elder brother, who had the support of most of the royal family, so he had no choice but to reluctantly agree.
This story was known to everyone in the Oran Empire.
However, was it a win-win? Obviously not.
After Joseph died, he passed the throne to his own son, Leopold Holovin.
At that time, rumors were spreading everywhere in the Oran Empire that Ethel Holovin was going to rebel. Perhaps the Edissa Empire's army was pressing the border, and Ethel Holovin considered the overall situation, or perhaps there were other reasons it was said that Leopold had promised, at the height of the war, that as long as the Kingdom of Cato sent reinforcements, he would be willing to pass the throne to his uncle Ethel anyway, Ethel did not rebel at that time.
What about now?
Although Leopold Holovin had never established a crown prince, everyone knew that Emperor Leopold wanted to pass the throne to his nephew Henry Holovin, whom he had raised himself.
For His Majesty King Ethel Holovin of the Kingdom of Cato, Joseph and Leopold, this father and son, had essentially gone back on their word once and were preparing to do it again!
How could he tolerate this?
Therefore, nobles who knew a little about current affairs all felt that Ethel would definitely rebel this time!
"So what? What does Grandpa rebelling have to do with us?" Charlotte retorted.
"Why doesn't it matter? If Grandpa rebels and becomes emperor, will Rosie and her son still be able to act so smug in front of us in the future?" Andre said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Charlotte turned her head and stared at Andre for a while.
Andre was confused by Charlotte's gaze and asked doubtfully, "What are you looking at? What's wrong with me?"
Charlotte stood up and walked towards the caravan.
"Hey? Charlotte, why did you suddenly leave?" Andre hurriedly stood up, patted his butt, and followed.
Charlotte waved her hand and said, "Please don't talk to me. Continue to think about your Mary. I'm worried that if I talk to you too much, I'll be infected by your stupidity virus."
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