Pirate Kingship-Chapter 802 - 499: Evernight Queen, Sudden Upheaval
Silver Era 1472, November.
Woo woo woo...
The North is gradually entering polar night, with increasingly biting winds and bone-chilling cold mixed with large snowflakes relentlessly assaulting the south from the already thoroughly frozen polar regions.
The Kalmar Union of Three Nations on the Eternal Night Peninsula bears the brunt.
"Freezing in the blink of an eye" doesn’t even describe one percent of this severe cold; you truly need a stick when using the outdoor toilet here, it’s no joke.
Winter also punishes anyone daring enough to touch iron objects barehanded under the open sky.
The raging blizzard sweeps over expansive coniferous forests, deep river valleys, and conceals villages, towns, castles, as well as sporadic large cities.
Even from high above, traces of human civilization are hard to discern.
Only the dense law network of the three kingdoms can be seen covering every large city and every human settlement shrouded in snowstorm.
The Royal Iron Law: The Northern Codex may not have the power to govern nature or the world of the dead, but it still strives to fend off the mythical creatures, bizarre beings, and evil spirits accompanying the northern snowstorm.
Ice Elemental Spirits, extraordinary species like winter wolves, bizarre beings composed of corpses and dead souls frozen in the forest, known as White Specters, and Knocking Specters knocking door-to-door throughout the long winter nights, are abundant, along with the elusive Mad Hunt Legion...
The Northern Codex is the most absolute monarchy in the Old Continent’s absolute monarchies.
The power of the law network is stronger than elsewhere, allowing the North Bayfolk to persist in such harsh cold conditions.
Kalmar Union’s Royal Capital Amarlingburg, Cedar Palace.
The embers in the fireplace glow red. The walls lack other royal favorites like oil paintings and artworks, replaced instead by the furs and heads of snow bears, moose, and even sub-dragon species demon monsters.
Bayfolk Battle Axes, spears, scimitars, and firearms are hung everywhere, making one mistakenly think they are in an arsenal rather than a royal palace.
An elderly woman in a purple court gown with a gemstone crown stands by the floor-to-ceiling window, meticulously enchanted by artisans.
Watching the snowy night outside, and the room across the small garden illuminated by whale oil lamp light with faint coughing sounds, worry is hidden in her eyes.
The old woman appears over sixty. Despite careful maintenance, wrinkles spread around her eyes, and her haggard expression makes her look even older.
Her complexion is as stern as winter, her eyebrows sharp, giving an impression of being very difficult to get along with.
"Your Majesty, you should rest early. With the Crow Doctor, the best in medicine among the three countries, Prince Eric will surely be fine.
This winter has just begun, and the heavy burden of the three Northern countries rests on your shoulders. Your health is the most important."
Behind her, the archbishop from The King’s Right Hand, also her Prime Minister Drotz, bowed in persuasion.
Without a doubt, this elderly woman is the Evernight Queen Margaret I, who has ruled the three Northern countries of the Kalmar Union for thirty years.
She now inevitably steps into her twilight years.
But as a devout follower among the Bayfolk, she always adheres to the teachings of the Book of Creation.
Though given countless chances to study the Forbidden Book or even the complete Bloodline Codex to tread into the Divine Domain, she remains unmoved.
When daughter Vanessa brought the Calamity Curse with her husband’s consent, she didn’t even look at it.
She became furious over this matter, driving the profane object and her daughter away, even temporarily severing their mother-daughter relationship.
Despite her age, she stands straight, with silver hair meticulously combed, a knight’s sidearm sword hanging from her waist, exuding authority in her every move.
One instinctively overlooks her age.
Margaret I looked back at her equally aged Prime Minister, coldly shattering his comforting words:
"Drotz, will Eric truly be alright?
Ten out of ten suffering from White Plague—it’s pulmonary disease, nine will die. Given his condition, even if he survives this long winter, what about the next one?
Lies may deceive oneself but not the omnipotent Creator; everyone is equal before death!
He is, you are, and I am.
But those heretics who profane the teachings of the Creator aren’t. Hmph!"
At this point, a person suddenly crossed her mind, prompting her to snort coldly, startling the old Prime Minister.
He realizes that his Queen, even though she has entered her twilight years, will remain the Evernight Queen, who can intimidate the various power groups of the three countries into silence as long as she lives.
Even if she enacted a "thought crime" Anti-Creator Consciousness Act, they have to grudgingly follow it on the surface.
The old Prime Minister, having followed Margaret I closely for forty years, witnessed the rise akin to a female protagonist of a knight novel.
In his years of reflection, past memories surface.
The Kalmar Union consists of the Bayfolk Nations Aalborg, Gothenburg, and Oslo.
Evernight Queen Margaret is the daughter of Aalborg Kingdom’s King Waldemar IV and married to former Gothenburg Kingdom’s King Haakon VI Magnus, producing a son and daughter.
