(Continuing from Extras 12 and 13, Zha Ai was imprisoned by Queen Teresa for her rebellion, and then came back to set things right in the world...)
As time came to March 1838, the Palace of Fontainebleau finally ushered in the spring of recovery. The snow everywhere melted, the graceful palaces stretched themselves out under the sky, and the trees and grass took out the tender green.
The green buds on the river flowing through the Palace of Fontainebleau were also dyed with a layer of green, reflecting this beautiful scenery.
This was supposed to be a joyful season. In the past, every time at this time, the palace would hold grand celebrations and activities, and the emperor and queen would attend in their best attires to show the prosperity and majesty of the empire.
Logically speaking, this year should be the same. However, a series of changes in the palace on the occasion of the New Year brought all the joyful atmosphere in the palace to an abrupt end.
First, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly fell seriously ill and was unable to attend events for some reason, so Her Majesty the Queen stepped in to act as regent; but more than a month later, His Majesty the Emperor recovered from his illness, but Her Majesty the Queen suddenly fell ill again and never attended any events again - this is the Empire
Official information notified to the outside world.
Along with the serious illness of His Majesty the Emperor and His Majesty the Queen, a series of changes occurred within the palace. On both occasions, a large number of courtiers and attendants disappeared from people's sight, which further aggravated the suspicion of the outside world.
Even the most ignorant of politics can see some anomalies in the above news, and those with a little sense of smell can see the sword and shadow of a palace coup.
For a time, the rumor that "Her Majesty the Queen has attempted rebellion and has been imprisoned or executed" quickly spread throughout the streets of Paris and other provinces. Although the imperial government took an extremely severe attitude to crack down on such rumors,
People are still whispering about this in private, and many people firmly believe it - after all, everything that happened in the palace during this period is really weird. It is really difficult for the two majesties to be so young but seriously ill and unable to see people.
believe.
Because of this series of changes, the atmosphere in the Palace of Fontainebleau has become extremely depressing, as if it has been stuck in winter. Those palace officials who could barely survive after two rounds of purges have changed from the domineering and domineering behavior of the past.
They all behaved with their tails between their legs, and did not dare to say a word about the changes that had happened before. The once lively and prosperous palace has now become as gloomy and depressing as a church.
No one knows when this terrifying storm will pass and how it will end, let alone how many more victims it will add. Fear has made the palace lose its smile. What is the difference between spring and cold winter?
When the clear morning came quietly, in the center of the palace, in the heavily guarded palace, the young emperor slowly opened his eyes.
In the previous incident, he was drugged and imprisoned by his wife, and almost lost everything. Fortunately, with his forbearance and Queen Teresa's mercy, he finally seized the opportunity to make a comeback and imprisoned himself
's wife.
Regaining power made him happy, but being betrayed by his wife and his beloved mistress also made him heartbroken. In order to vent his joy and pain at the same time, he had his wife Theresa and his lover Agnes tied up together, and then...
Also hazing as punishment.
However, he had forgotten that his previous experience of being drugged and imprisoned had damaged his body. After a complete carnival and indulgence, he suddenly fell into a coma... Fortunately, after being rescued by his men, he finally regained consciousness, but
As a result, the body was once again devastated and needed more rest.
As a result, His Majesty the Emperor, who was mentally and physically battered, began to retreat into seclusion and rarely appeared in the sight of ministers and the public, which further aggravated the panic and doubts of the outside world.
This new empire needs confidence and stability so much, but His Majesty the Emperor turns a deaf ear to this. He would rather live in seclusion in the palace and use time to heal his psychological trauma.
After opening his eyes, His Majesty the Emperor's gaze slowly moved and finally fell on the young woman hugging him in his arms.
As if she sensed his gaze, the young woman slowly opened her eyes. Then she showed a charming smile and said, "Good morning, my dear."
This woman has the same face as Sophie, but her personality is very different from Sophie. As a princess, she completely despises everything and only enjoys satisfying her own selfish desires. She also speaks more arrogantly and harshly than her twin sister.
Therefore, among all the women who had a relationship with Aiglon, she was the one who had the most serious conflict with Teresa.
During the previous palace coup, Teresa specially sent people to her secret residence nearby. Fortunately, although Maria was arrogant, she was also a bit clever. When she saw the situation was not good, she took the escape route prepared in advance.
He ran away, then hid, and did not show up again until Aiglon regained control of the situation.
After escaping from death, Maria met Aigron again. Both of them were extremely lucky, so it was natural that they got tired of everything again.
Since there was no obstruction from Theresa, Aigron simply let her stay with him during this period to comfort himself.
Of course, for the sake of physical recovery, Aigron was very restrained. Most of the time, the two of them just hugged each other and slept, and there was a bit more mutual affection between them.
"Good morning, Maria." Aigron also smiled and kissed his lover gently.
Then, Aigron asked the maid to come in and change clothes for the two of them, getting ready to start a new day.
While changing clothes, Aigron's eyes fell on Maria. The beauty's disheveled appearance was eye-catching, but the silk embroidered underwear she put on suddenly made Aigron feel familiar.
"Maria, why are you wearing Theresa's clothes?" Aigron asked in surprise.
"Hmph..." Maria snorted coldly, "Of course it's to get back at her, hasn't she always been very proud? Now I'm sleeping on her bed, wearing her clothes, and holding her husband... She's not
Is there nothing you can do?"
Aigron felt very speechless in comparison, "Well...there's no need to go to this point, right?"
"What? You feel pity now?" Maria sneered, "Have you forgotten how she treated you and me?
The interrogators have already found out, and the order she gave to my captors is to kill without mercy! She didn't even give me a chance to surrender and beg for mercy!" Thinking of the previous events, Maria, who had narrowly escaped death, was still frightened and angry.
It's hard to say, "Since she is so cruel, how can I not be more cruel? It's a pity that she is not here now, otherwise I can still see her expression at the moment!"
Seeing Maria's eyebrows raised and her anger lingering, Aigron was filled with emotion and helplessness, "She is so cruel to you, doesn't she have any responsibility on your part?"
"Maybe I am responsible, but who is the most responsible?" Maria asked with a sneer.
Aigron was speechless for a moment, because everything seemed so obvious.
As time went by, Aigron, who crushed the rebellion, gradually found out the main context of the rebellion and what Theresa did during the regency. Then he had to admit that although Theresa's conspiracy had been carefully planned for a period of time
, but her motive does not seem to be for personal desire for power, but purely to regain her husband who only belongs to her.
For this point, Aigron really has no excuse, because in the relationship between husband and wife, he has indeed failed his wife time and time again. He himself is the biggest responsible person for Teresa to reach this point.
However, now is not the time to hold the responsible person accountable. The key now is, how should he deal with Teresa?
A public trial shows that canonical punishment is impossible.
Is he going to tell all the people that Her Majesty the Queen went crazy with love and launched a coup to imprison her husband and seize the supreme power? Can he really ignore the ten-year relationship between husband and wife and execute the Queen whom he relies on so much?
But it seems impossible to pretend that nothing happened. In this coup, not only Aiglon suffered heavy losses, but many other people were also victims, and the aggrieved Maria was just one of them. If he really
If nothing happens, how can this convince them? Moreover, this dangerous precedent will make future careerists even more ready to take action.
Aigron was in a dilemma, and for the first time he hesitated when it came to Teresa. This was also the reason why he had been living in seclusion recently.
"Maria..." After thinking for a long time, Aigron sighed softly, "You should have calmed down after such a long time, right? What do you think I should do with Teresa?"
"Do you even need to ask? If you launch a rebellion against the king and fail, there should be only one end!" Maria answered without thinking.
Then, she used her hand to lightly scratch her neck, making a beheading gesture, "Her head should fall to the ground as a warning. If you can't bear it, then let me carry out the death penalty."
Okay... I promise to give her a good time!"
"Maria!" Aigron was a little impatient, "Stop joking."
"I'm not kidding, that's how it should be." Maria smiled slyly, obviously she was joking. "But since you refuse to adopt it, there's nothing I can do about it. Just do whatever you like, anyway.
I can't stop you."
Aigron was stunned for a moment, and then looked at Maria in disbelief. He didn't expect that Maria, who had always been unyielding, actually said soft words about Teresa who wanted to kill her. What on earth was going on?
?
"Why are you looking at me like this? Is there anything wrong with what I said? You are the emperor, I can't stop you from doing anything, right?" Maria rolled her eyes at him angrily.
Then, she lowered her tone again, as if she was very reluctant, "Besides, Sophie also wrote me a letter, urging me not to dwell on this matter for the time being. I really want Theresa to die or...
If you are deposed, sooner or later you bastard will marry a younger and more beautiful princess as the queen. Compared with that, it would be better for Teresa to sit in this seat..."
"His Royal Highness Sophie also sent you a letter?" Aigron was surprised at first, and then couldn't help laughing. "How could it be possible? I never thought about asking someone else to be the queen."
"Come on! Is there anything convincing you say about a profligate prince like you?" Maria squinted at Aiglon with a mocking look on her face, "Of course, I also know that Sophie's words were just a joke. She really
It means that after she was in trouble before, she owed Theresa a big favor. Now that Theresa is in trouble, she can just return it to Theresa. By the way, she would like to thank Theresa for her kindness to Kelly in the past few years.
Take care of her—she doesn’t like to be in debt to others all the time.”
Aigron was filled with emotion and didn't know what to say for a moment. He really didn't expect that Sophie would intercede with Teresa when she was in the current situation.
Maybe this is her true pride.
And Sophie's intercession was more effective than anyone else's. The anger and resentment in Aigron's heart suddenly seemed to disappear a lot.
He looked around, and everything around him seemed much better than yesterday. The familiar feeling returned to him, and he seemed to have regained his energetic self.
It's not that Sophie's words have such great magic power, but that Sophie gave him an important emotional step that allowed him to move on.
He grabbed Maria's waist and kissed them with the same force as kissing two people. This pleasant kiss made Maria's breathing difficult and her feet softened.
"Maria, who is operating in this? I think with your character, you will never give in first and intercede with Sophie."
"It's Alice." Maria didn't hide anything and answered him directly, "She begged me for help and stated her interests. I saw that she was so sincere and I softened my heart..."
"She is really thoughtful..." Aigron also sighed.
"Of course she has to be careful. After all, her sister is also involved. If it is really treated as a treason case, can her sister escape the blame?" Maria sneered again, habitually sarcastic.
When it came to Agnes, Agron also got a headache again.
This pure-hearted girl was deceived by Teresa and actually drew a sword against him, which was really beyond his expectation. However, considering what he had done, this did not seem to be particularly surprising...
After the incident subsided, Agron also conducted a special investigation to find out whether Alice was involved. Judging from the investigation results, Alice did not betray him, and Agnes had also deliberately avoided her in this matter.
Maybe it’s because I don’t want to involve my sister.
After Agnes was imprisoned, Alice tried every means to run around and seek help for her sister. This was of course natural, but Agron didn't expect that she would actually take the path of Maria and even Sophie... What a blessing to her.
"It seems that I need to seek Alice's opinion." Aigron nodded, "I think she also helped me think about how to deal with the aftermath..."
"You are already old lovers, why are you still pretending to talk about consultation?" Maria mocked again.
"She is not my lover. We are friends. We just have fun occasionally out of friendship." Aigron corrected sternly. "It's really just occasionally."
"Bah! You are the only ones who know how to play!" Maria interrupted him disdainfully, and then tugged Aigron's ears hard, "I don't care what you do, in short, as a victim who escaped death, I have natural
The right to retaliate, I must let her know that when she was imprisoned, I slept on her bed and wore her clothes!"