Book 7: Chapter 29
“Castell, are you going to help us or not?”
Castell stood at the door feeling a little awkward. He had put on his overcoat and planned to head out, but Alice blocked him off at the doorway. He hasn’t wanted to see Alice the last few days. Alice had already made her stance clear. She wanted to harm his majesty. She wanted to at least punish his majesty. Castell himself didn’t want to, but he knew he couldn’t turn against the Valkyries so he didn’t want to see Alice.
“Am I not already helping you? I did not tell his majesty and her majesty about you buying metal. I have helped you keep it under wraps already. I have helped you with something so serious already, how else do you want me to help you?”
Alice frowned, folded her arms, looked up at Castell and in an annoyed tone said: “That’s not the help I’m talking about! Your indecisive stance is really getting on my nerves! We’re comrades, aren’t we? We have worked so hard by her majesty’s side for so many years. Are you going to continue maintaining your indecisive stance at this most crucial point in time? Do you still respect and love her majesty? Where’s your loyalty?! Are you telling me that time has erased her loyalty and courage?”
“That’s not what this is about! I’ve given up everything for her majesty, you know that very well, Alice!”
Castell scrubbed his head with irritation and then looked at her enraged. Castell was insistent on never letting his loyalty to the empress be questioned. Questioning his loyalty to the empress was the equivalent of questioning his entire life to him.
“If you’re still loyal to her majesty, why are you not participating in this?! You know full-well how ambitious his majesty is! He raised his own army, produced his own weapons and now has his own city. He’s just one step away from having his own private military! I don’t know what sort of sorcery he used to bewitch the empress into the way she is now, but you should be able to tell that the greatest threat to the empire at present is this prince!”
Alice got angrier and angrier as she spoke, almost smashing Castell’s expensive door to bits with one punch. Castell’s heart ached when he saw the crack on his precious door. He let out a heavy sigh and replied: “Alice, are you absolutely certain that his majesty has an evil ambition? If his majesty wanted the throne, he’d just have to mention it and her majesty will pass it to him for sure given how much she loves him. Why would he need to go through all that trouble?”
“Doesn’t that make it scarier?!” Alice looked at Castell aggressively. The empress’s throne was the most sensitive topic to Alice and a topic you don’t want to cross her about. It wasn’t just the Valkyries’ responsibility, but more because she witnessed in the flesh how hard Elizabeth worked. She witnessed Elizabeth first raise a nation in ruins and the tears she shed. She witnessed Elizabeth wear her military attire and smash her own throne without reserve. She witnessed Elizabeth fighting right at the forefront when she was wounded all over……