The recoil from the gun shook Delia.
The pungent smoke from the burnt gunpowder pricked her nose.
Just like that time.
The movement of the gun.
The smell of gunpowder.
And the memories that the gun brings back.
With each shot, the clarity of his sensations became clearer. She bit her lip harder to shake it off.
She took a deep breath to shake off the feeling of her hand forcibly opening her lips each time she bit them.
To shake him off, Delia tried her best until someone gently embraced her from behind.
“Mother.”
“Del, aren’t you overdoing it?”
Upon the sudden arrival of the queen, everyone in the palace garden paid their respects.
The queen lightly nodded her head in response to their greetings.
“You haven’t been recovered for long…”
The queen, who was looking at her daughter with a worried face, draped a shawl over Delia’s shoulders.
It wasn’t long ago when she had been sick from eating poisonous herbs, and seeing her daughter busy preparing for war before full recovery unsettled her.
“I’m okay.”
“The demonstration is sufficient. Let’s leave the rest to them and go back.”
“But…”
“Your father is looking for you.”
While Delia hesitated, the technicians and the military deputy also tried to persuade the queen.
“Your Highness, the princess. You look very pale.”
They said she had been bedridden for a month due to illness.
Even to those who did not know the full situation, Delia looked as if she would faint at any moment.
“We will discuss the rest among ourselves and report to you.”
In response to everyone’s dissuasion, Delia reluctantly laid down her gun and ordered the weapon technicians.
“Then, write a performance analysis report of the gun as soon as possible. Also to my brother on the Cabat border. We need to know the enemy’s weapons to prepare.”
Whether we could be prepared or not, was uncertain.
To hide her uneasy heart, Delia gripped her shawl tightly.
“Mother. Let’s go back now.”
In the middle of the Iorente Castle conference room, there was a huge round table.
The table, which symbolizes the culture of Iorente where power is not leaned and everyone can discuss freely and equally, was there.
There sat King Franz II of Iorente and the 11 elders, seated at regular intervals.
When the queen and Delia entered the conference room, the 11 elders, excluding the king, all stood up.
“We greet Her Majesty the Queen and Her Highness the Princess.”
The queen lightly bowed to their greetings and led Delia.
“Come in.”
“I’m sorry we are late. I brought the princess with me.”
The queen briefly greeted the king and sat in a chair prepared for the royal family at the back.
The queen, sitting straight with her waist and neck, looking straight ahead, exuded deep dignity.
Delia also sat next to the queen, straightened her body, and looked ahead.
She saw the empty seat next to her father.
The seat for her older brother, who had been appointed as the commanderinchief of Iorente.
Prince Alfredo was out in the Cabat Plains as the CommanderinChief of Iorente.
Huh?
Delia, who was looking at the empty seat of the crown prince, was surprised.
Because an unexpected figure quietly greeted and winked at Delia.
May Carlo.
He was standing next to the empty chair as the representative of the crown prince.
While Delia was tilting her head at a strange feeling, serious discussions were already underway in the meeting room.
“At this moment, an army of 100,000 from the Steel Ritz Empire is rapidly gathering on the Cabat Plains.”
“That’s twice as many as originally estimated.”
100,000?
Delia was shocked and sat up straight.
It was 50,000 until she left for the Tarance Mountains?
The elders, who seemed to have the same thoughts, all had frozen faces.
“Then, isn’t it difficult for our 50,000 Iorente army?”
“There has never been a time when the fate of the nation was as precarious as it is now.”
“I don’t know if we will end up like Royeni and Kilens.”
The anxiety of the elders shook the conference room.
Then, May Carlo, who had been standing quietly in the back, took a step forward.
“May I make a suggestion as the representative of His Highness the Crown Prince?”
The king allowed his request with a light bow.
“How about trying to negotiate with the empire? Going to war with a force twice as large is too much. Furthermore…”
May glanced at Delia as she spoke.
“Princess, based on your analysis, I heard the difference in technology of the new weapon is tremendous. Rather than wasting our strength by fighting recklessly now, wouldn’t it be better to plan for later?”
At his words, the elders became excited and raised their voices.
“The empire, which had rejected the humiliating negotiation request of Roiyeon completely, will it accept the negotiation request from Iorenti?”
“Bow to the empire? To that barbaric nation that believes in heresy?”
“In Roiyeon and Kirens, only the nobles who changed their religion and donated their wealth and land survived.”
“We swear in the name of God, we cannot do that.”
“Besides, our longtime allied nations will consider it betrayal and turn their backs.”
“We rather strengthen the unity of our allied nations and ask for their support.”
With the mention of negotiation, the elders rose in uproar like a wildfire.
Negotiation.
Contrary to the elders who were heated by the word ‘negotiation’, Delia’s mind went cold.
Negotiation.
In Iorenti, where free discussion was allowed, anyone could suggest negotiation.
But May Carlo should not have said that.
Because he was the one who scared the hesitant crown prince and pushed him into the battlefield.
When the southward march of the imperial army began, and the opinion was divided depending on who was leading.
May Carlo persuaded Alfredo that as a crown prince, he should be at the forefront of the fight more than anyone else.
Now May Carlo brought out the card of negotiation.
Why suddenly?
Delia sharply stared at May Carlo.
Why did she see Aaron, who mistook the technology of threat for the technology of negotiation, overlapping with him?
While Delia was deeply lost in thought, the fiery debate was sidetracked.
“Let’s ask for reinforcements from the Boswell Duchy.”
“When the Boswell Duke and the diplomatic mission came last year, I know they asked for a national marriage.”
“What about accepting the national marriage this time and asking for reinforcements?”
At the end of his words, everyone in the conference room looked at Delia.
They found hope in the midst of uncertainty and poured their gaze at Delia.
“Yes?”
“What does the princess think?”
At the soft words handed over by the king, Delia became thoughtful.
Why? Suddenly talking about a national marriage?
And the other party is the Duke of Boswell?
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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