A certain day of a certain year and a certain month.
The woman looked at the crystal rose on the table and fell into deep thought.
Her husband, the King of Great Britain, was currently in Cairo, Egypt, attending to official business. But she remained bored in the palace, feeling a little lost.
She had been married to him for seven years. Although her marriage could not be said to be unhappy, there were always two hazes in her heart that could not be removed.
One of them is that they can't have a child. This may be her husband's fault. After all, his body is no longer a normal human body. The biggest problem is that even if they want to have sex, his husband is too expensive.
For the king of Great Britain, adopting a child at random would cause big problems for the king's succession, so they haven't decided yet how to deal with this matter.
Another reason is that her husband has almost no intersection with her life. He is busy outside all day long. As a king, he is busy working on various political affairs. He usually does not return to the palace until late at night, and sometimes he does not return to the palace for several days in a row.
Returning to the palace. Apart from doing nothing in the palace, she went out to participate in various entertainment and charity activities to fulfill her duties as a queen. Gradually, the two of them almost became strangers, no matter how good their relationship was originally.
Not being able to see each other all the time will inevitably lead to weak feelings.
It's not that she doesn't love her husband, it can even be said that she loves him very much. It's not that she's dissatisfied with her private life with him, he's great when he does what he does. As a king, he's impeccable, and as a husband, he's
It's impeccable, but as the "partner" who has always been with her, he is always absent. On their wedding anniversary, he risked his own life to bring her this rare treasure that is rare in thousands of years---
---"Desert Rose". This gift is great. However, what she really wants is more of his company. No matter how beautiful the rose, no matter how precious the treasure, it is not as good as him staying by her side for a few more hours.
.
The woman let out a long sigh and reached out to touch the rose, as if it still had the warmth of his palm. However, there was nothing on it, only crystal-like spikes, and she accidentally cut her fingertips.
The woman withdrew her hand like an electric shock and was in a daze as she watched a drop of blood the size of a mung bean gushing out from her fingertips.
"Ah, Arthur." She sighed again, having the urge to destroy the rose in a fit of anger. However, she did not do so because she knew how precious this gift was.
At this moment, a distant echo suddenly echoed in the empty bedroom.
"Do you think he really loves you?"
When the woman heard this voice, she couldn't help but look around vigilantly, but she couldn't find anyone. She had the blood of elves flowing in her body. As long as she concentrated, she would have superhuman hearing, so she would never miss anything.
There was a sound of footsteps approaching the room. However, no one was approaching. The voice of the person closest to the queen was the voice of a guard at least thirty yards outside the room. The person who spoke just now was obviously not that guard.
Is it a hallucination? Auditory hallucination?
She has had this kind of experience occasionally since she was a child. Because her hearing is too sharp, under extremely rare circumstances, her ability will go out of control and she will "receive" information that should not exist. She will hear that people in this world do not
Sounds that should be heard. As for whether those sounds are true or false, no one can tell clearly.
Probably, it was the voice of the devil who wanted to deceive her.
Is it the same this time? She blinked and looked around again. There was still no one in the room.
However, the voice sounded again: "Do you think he really loves you? For your wedding anniversary, he got such an expensive and unique gift in the world, but no one else was there. In order to get this gift back, he worked with others
, and having a happy adventure outside with that wolf. Maybe he did it just to enjoy the adventure, just like all the men in the world. His saying that he wanted to give you a gift was just an excuse to let him loose.
An excuse for one’s own desires.”
"Shut up." The woman said impatiently: "I don't need to hear this. I know how deep his love for me is."
"But you are sighing. You have doubts, haven't you? Are you doubting him, yourself, or the love between you?" The voice kept pushing further: "When the doubts grow more and more, one day, you will build up the love between you over the years."
When you wake up, your faith will instantly collapse.
You doubt whether the love between you is real.
You doubt whether he is sincere in marrying you, or whether it is a political marriage to please the Archduke Leon Dickens, the Knight of Heaven.
You doubt whether he really loves you, how much he loves you, and how far he can go for you.
You wonder if he would abandon you in a crisis, like all the bad men in the world.
You also doubt whether the love between you can withstand the test of time, just like all couples in the world."
"That's enough, stop talking nonsense!" the woman said angrily, facing the empty room: "How rude! You are chattering in front of this queen, as if you understand my life and his life very well? Who are you and what do you have?
Purpose? Show up quickly!"
"Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh------" An insidious voice echoed in the darkness, still so insubstantial that it was impossible to grasp the distance and source. Then maybe it was not a voice at all, but a voice.
A kind of telepathy, a dialogue that sounded directly in her mind.
"Your suspicions are all well-founded, so you don't have to hide it, just admit it." The insidious guy continued to smile evilly: "Let's make a bet. I will take your soul to a very far place right now.
Far away, you will suffer disaster and be in trouble.
And him? If he really loves you, he will definitely overcome the barriers of time and space and come to that far away place to find you. He will definitely overcome all difficulties, go through thousands of hardships, and even be the enemy of the world.
Save you.
Just abandon [self] and watch all this from a distance. See if he will really pay for you, and see if there is so-called true love in this world.
You have doubted it, so I am also very doubtful. I have always believed that human nature is bad, and the so-called true love is just empty words. If you humans want to deny my words, then prove it all with actions.
------Let the game begin."
"Huh...?" The woman didn't even promise anything. The scene in front of her gradually blurred, and she completely sank into darkness.
(game......?)
(Why do we have to participate in this ridiculous [game]?)
(...save me...Arthur!)
...
"Huh?!" The girl suddenly opened her eyes and woke up from her dream.
She looked around alertly, trying to figure out the current situation and recall the seemingly important dream just now, but she was stunned for a few seconds and could not remember anything that happened in the dream.
"Ya..." She subconsciously wanted to call out that name, but she couldn't remember his full name. She couldn't even remember why she called that name.
It seemed like a nightmare that happened a long, long time ago, dozens or hundreds of years ago, long before her life began. She didn't even know why she had such ridiculous thoughts.
"Good morning, Lady Joan of Arc." In front of her bed, a middle-aged woman wearing a black nun's uniform said without emotion.
The girl was startled by the other party's sudden words. Because she should have scanned this person with her peripheral vision just now, but she did not feel his presence. The nun had probably been standing there motionless and waiting since just now, as if
It blended in with the solemn environment around her, so the girl couldn't immediately notice the other person's presence.
"Morning...? This is...?" Joan of Arc was a little confused. She tried to recall what happened, but she only remembered that she was captured by the British army in the end.
Yes, the nobles of the French city of Compiègne colluded with the British army and deceived her into taking a small team out of the city to repel the British invaders. However, the other party had dozens of small teams ambushing outside the forest, and they were falsely informed.
Being deceived and outnumbered, her team could only retreat back to the city, but she didn't expect that the despicable nobles had already locked the city gates tightly.
She and her team could only resist desperately, hoping to use their own strength to break through the troops dozens of times theirs. However, that was still a fantasy. She watched the soldiers in her team fall one after another, but she couldn't do anything.
Can't do it.
She remembered that her last conscious moment was when her helmet was hit by something heavy. Then she fainted completely. She was the last person in her team to fall. But she was obviously not dead. Logically speaking, she should be.
Captured by British troops.
So this should be the British army's castle? Base? But it doesn't look like it? And why is there a nun standing in a place like this?
She touched her head. It still hurt a little, but the bruises on her head were almost gone, and even the wounds on her arms and shoulders from the previous battle had healed. Wait. How long did it take after that?
Could it be that she has been in a coma for a year and a half? And whose hands is she now? Could this be ------
"This is...the church?" she asked the nun in a low voice.
"No. This is the Holy Land, the Vatican." The nun in black replied without emotion: "The Holy Lady was captured by the British army and then transferred to the Holy Land and protected by the church. However, the outside world no longer knows about your existence, the Holy Lady.
, the church, Britain and France jointly staged a show to make people think that the Holy Lady had been executed."
"What have you done!" Joan of Arc exclaimed: "In other words, who became a scapegoat for me? Innocent people died because of me?"
"Yes. The scapegoat is my daughter." The nun's face never showed any emotion: "She sacrificed her life to protect the saint, so we can meet again. Our family feels deeply for this."
What an honor."
Jeanne frowned and was speechless.
"The Saint may not know this, but you have been in a coma for a whole year. Ordinary people who have been in a coma for a year will have swollen skin and thin muscles, and they will not even have the strength to get out of bed. But you are worthy of being Joan of Arc, and you have just woken up."
Have the strength to get out of bed and talk to me like this." The nun said: "But you haven't eaten for a whole year, so you must be hungry. Please eat first. If you have any questions, wait until you see the Pope."
The nun pointed to the table next to her, which was specially prepared for Joan of Arc, with exquisite and high-end food. Whether it was bread or fruit, they all looked delicious...
"I'm not hungry." The girl sighed: "So many things have happened, I'm very confused now..."
"The Pope will explain everything to you later, Holy Lady." The nun bowed and retreated to the door of the room: "Then, please use it slowly."
The girl reluctantly walked to the dining table and sat down. Although she was not hungry, she knew that she needed more strength to cope with the huge storm that happened next, so she picked up a small piece of bread on the table and forced herself to bite it.