The scenery of the Royal City of Lordaeron is very beautiful. From the higher palace garden, you can directly overlook the entire city.
The solemn Holy Light Cathedral, the beautiful Central Opera House, the bustling trade district, and the city's vitality and antique heritage are all at your fingertips.
Princess Calia Menethil of Lordaeron has long been accustomed to coming to the garden every afternoon to enjoy afternoon tea while enjoying the magnificent city scenery.
Ten years are like one day.
Ever since Calia was a child, her king father Terenas has been instilling an idea in her.
"You were born for the Kingdom of Lordaeron and the Menethil family. While enjoying the privileges,
You must also shoulder your responsibilities as a royal child."
The responsibility of "children" sounds really good.
Terenas said that the responsibilities of sons and daughters are completely different.
Calia is the eldest princess of the Kingdom of Lordaeron. According to the rules of the feudal dynasty, she should have the right to inherit the throne, and she is very high in the line of succession.
However, Terenas never planned to train Calia as his heir, but placed all his hopes on Arthas, who was born two years after Calia.
The queen of Terenas died of illness not long after giving birth to Arthas.
The only direct bloodline of the Menethil royal family is Calia and Arthas.
Calia, who had never left the royal city... or even the palace, could not contact the outside world in person. However, through the legends and stories that the palace maids heard from the palace bards, Calia had a doubt in her heart when she was young.
.
Since there is a queen in these stories, why does her father never teach her any way to govern the country, but just let her show her charm as a woman at banquets?
Growing up, Caliya had attended countless banquets, and she felt like an artificial landscape placed in the center of the banquet hall for people to watch.
There is no need to think, no ego, just maintain a fixed elegant posture and a fixed smile.
Calia, who was born 5 years before the Dark Portal, is just 17 years old this year, the age when flowers begin to bloom.
After countless generations of bloodline optimization, the descendants of the Menethil royal family have become handsome men and women.
Since three years ago, within the Kingdom of Lordaeron alone, dozens of young nobles, large and small, have proposed marriage to Terenas, hoping to marry the increasingly beautiful Princess Calia.
Terenas understood the principle of waiting for a price and did not agree to any nobles in the country.
From the bottom of his heart, he hopes to rely on Calia's marriage to gain a strong claim to a human kingdom, which will help him unify the seven human kingdoms and recreate the great cause of Thoradin.
But no one is a fool, especially the kings of the great kingdoms.
Terenas's ambition is clear,
No prince from another king is willing to marry a princess of Lordaeron who may explode at any time to support her.
At the level of royal families in various countries, appearance and figure are no longer the primary criteria for choosing a wife.
The most important thing is whether you can help the princes after they succeed to the throne.
The Princess of Lordaeron has a strong backstage, but she wants to gain support from Lordaeron.
The price that needs to be paid is so high that no human kingdom is willing or able to bear it.
Just after the Second Orc War, which was five years ago in the 7th year of the Black Gate, Terenas once had the idea of marrying Calia, who was only 12 years old at the time, to the heir of the Kingdom of Alterac.
There were two families closest to this position at that time, one was Lord Davar Presto who jumped out of the cracks in the stone, and the other was the Barov family who had received Terenas' promise.
According to legend, the Prestor family is a distant relative of the Perenolde family, but this identity was actually fabricated from beginning to end. It was a false identity created by the rebellious black dragon headed by Deathwing using illusions.
After Deathwing was seriously injured and escaped, the black dragon prince Nefarian inherited this identity.
Due to all the troubles, Nefarian gave up Deathwing's original plan, hid in Blackrock Tower to concentrate on his research on colorful dragons, and handed over the name of the Presto family to his sister Onyxia to run it.
As we all know, Onyxia was abducted by Sharlayan several years ago.
In desperation, Nefarian sent a female black dragon to replace her, but she was eventually killed by Sharlayan and others in Stormwind City, and the identity of the Prestor family's black dragon was completely exposed.
After Davar Presto (Nefarian) voluntarily withdrew from the succession competition, the succession to the throne of Alterac seemed to be certain, destined to fall into the hands of the Barov family, the in-laws of the Perenold family.
Many people still don’t understand why Terenas gave up on his plan for a more secure marriage.
Eager for quick success, Alterac was forcibly annexed.
Alex Barov has a happy family, and he and his wife Ilucia have two sons and a daughter.
Moreover, according to the investigation by Lordaeron's intelligence department, the two sons of the Barov family, Alex and Wilton, are out-and-out playboys and very easy to control.
Regardless of who Calia marries, Lordaeron's ministers are sure to use this opportunity to intervene in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Alterac and gradually take Alterac into their hands.
However, Terenas adopted the most radical method, which attracted strong condemnation from Stromgard and Gilneas.
Five years have passed in a hurry, and Princess Caliya still has not been able to get married.
However, through the recent changes within the Barov family, some ministers have found a way to justify Terenas' radical move.
The Barov family has publicly announced the abolition of Alex's inheritance rights and has chosen their youngest daughter Jandis, who has always been secretive, to inherit the family business.
However, as a party who almost reached a marriage, Calia herself knew very well that Terenas did not think that far at all at that time.
He just didn't want Stromgard and Gilneas to get involved in dismembering Alterac, so he took advantage of his status as leader of the Alliance, which was in full swing after the victory of the war, to take action, thus leaving endless troubles.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Terenas became more and more stubborn as he got older. No matter how the nobles and ministers in the country tried to persuade him, he still controlled Calia's marriage and tried to find marriages with princes from other kingdoms.
Unwilling to give up his already unrealistic dream of unification.
Terenas, who was becoming more and more stupid due to his persistence and personal ambition, did not notice that his daughter had gradually grown up and began to have her own ideas, no longer willing to be a tool for marriage and childbirth.
In the garden of the Palace of Lordaeron, Princess Calia, who was in the blooming season, had a gentle smile on her face and half-closed her eyes as she listened to the new story the maid had heard from the palace bard.
Most of the stories of bards have been beautified through artistic processing, and the stories of court bards contain many political purposes.
The latest story is adapted (randomly made up) based on the Battle of Alterac. The story highlights Alexandros Mograine and Lightbringer Uther's godlike military skills, as well as their strong personal strength.
She has heard all kinds of stories since she was a child, and Calia has long been accustomed to extracting the really important information from a lot of nonsense legends.
"Count Thalayan Shadow Shadow."
After the maid with a nice voice stopped telling the story, Caliya opened her slightly closed blue eyes, smiled and nodded to her encouragingly.
After seeing off the palace maid who was responsible for telling the story, Caliya picked up the red tea cup and strolled gracefully to the edge of the garden. She stood in front of the carved railing and thoughtfully overlooked the familiar scenery of the royal city.
In the stories of the court bards, the name of Earl Deep Shadow does not appear many times, and only a few sentences mention his identity.
Representatives of the evil high elven kingdom Quel'Thalas went to Alterac to win over the Alterac rebels on behalf of the Sun King Kael'thas Sunstrider, creating chaos in the rear of the Kingdom of Lordaeron.
After Crown Prince Alsace was placed under house arrest in his palace, Princess Calia gained the trust of Terenas, who was still in recovery. Finally, she began to have the opportunity to get in touch with state affairs, and thus got to know a group of ministers and nobles with similar stances.
Nothing is unachievable.
Princess Caliya is that caring person. While she has worked hard to play the role of a vase over the years, she has never given up on exploring national affairs.
Most of the maids in the Lordaeron Palace come from various noble families.
Not only Lordaeron, but all major kingdoms including Quel'Thalas have adopted this set of selection rules.
Through her personal maid, she contacted some nobles who were willing to help, and Calia secretly obtained a lot of information from domestic and foreign sources over the years.
Naturally, this information will inevitably mention the neighbor next door whose presence is getting stronger and stronger - the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas.
Sarlayan Deep Shadow's name rarely appears in official documents, but he is mentioned from time to time in some information that cannot be published. He attracted Calia's initial attention more than two years ago.
As a member of the peace faction, Princess Caliya secretly gained a lot of support in this internal political struggle, and therefore connected with the Barov family. Unexpectedly, she heard the news again in the behind-the-scenes peace negotiations.
Sarlayan's name.
"Will you personally rush to Lordaeron soon to interview your pen pal Princess White Rose...?"
"Ha~"
Princess Calia shook her head with a smile, took a sip of black tea, and said to herself nonchalantly: "As a high elf, it is not easy to sneak into the Royal City of Lordaeron silently."
"Oh? Your Highness the Princess, do you think so?"
A melodious low laughter suddenly sounded beside Caliya: "Actually, I don't think it's that difficult."