Blue Sword

Ask held Eleanor's hand and walked to the front of the church.

Eleanor smiled softly, and the fog of will quickly spread and enveloped the entire Aachen Cathedral.

If someone is approaching the cathedral, you can react immediately.

The Archbishop of Germania is a kind old man wearing a robe, brown glasses, and a gray beard. It is said that he served as a cardinal in the Holy See when he was young.

He held a classic in his left hand and a cross in his right hand. After preaching to the guests, he gently motioned the two newcomers to come over and stand face to face with each other, gazing at their beloved ones.

"Her Royal Highness Sophie Caroline von Saxony." The archbishop read out the Saxon family name that Eleanor received when she was born. "Are you willing to marry Mr. Aske Lepios Achilles? Live with him according to the teachings of the Bible, become one with him in the presence of God, love him, comfort him, respect him, protect him as you love yourself. Whether he is sick or healthy, rich or poor, always be loyal to him , until you leave this world?”

"I do." Eleanor said without hesitation.

"Asker..." The Archbishop turned around. Before he could pronounce Asker's full name, Eleanor's pupils suddenly shrank and she stopped in front of Asker.

A figure rushed in from outside the church and smashed the closed church door into pieces. The two imperial knights guarding the scene were also violently knocked out by the burly figure.

This guy rushed in front of Eleanor and suddenly fell to the ground in embarrassment. Bruno, who was sitting on the bench next to him, snapped his fingers, destroying his idea of ​​continuing to run.

Imperial knights with black crosses on a white background swarmed up and pressed their swords against his neck. The uninvited guest struggled to raise his head, revealing the face of a bearded Norman warrior. He took out a roll of paper sealed with fire paint from his sleeve and shouted loudly:

"The Supreme King of the Helsingor Empire! His Majesty Emperor Sidrifa sends an urgent and serious state interrogation to Her Royal Highness Princess Sophie, the Imperial Regent of the Holy Solomon Empire and the first sword bearer under the Iron Throne!"

"Shut up!" Several elders of the Saxon family stood up quickly and ordered him not to destroy the wedding scene again, and asked the imperial knights to drag him down quickly.

The Imperial Knight quickly hit him on the cheek with the hilt of his sword to silence him. The Norman warrior ignored the sword and just stubbornly covered his face with his arms to block the blow. He endured the pain and shouted:

"The Asik who wants to marry you is the future husband of Her Majesty Hildeliefa who has already been engaged! If you insist on going ahead with the wedding, it will be regarded as a malicious provocation to the Hauteville family..."

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the remaining imperial nobles present all changed.

Since the establishment of the Helsingh Empire in the north, there has been almost no peace on the border with the Holy Solomon Empire. On the one hand, there is the struggle for trade rights in the Baltic Sea, and on the other hand, there is the confrontation over the claims of the two border areas of Schleswig and Holstein.

The former mainly involved encounters at sea between caravans, mercenaries, and lord guards, while the latter had already seen several large-scale land battles, initiated by the military noble lords of the border territories between the two countries.

After several battles, both sides had their own victories and defeats, but the intensity was controlled. Nobles captured during the war could also be released in exchange for ransom, so it was a relatively common territorial dispute between nobles.

And this Norman envoy came up as a "malicious provocation against the Hauteville family". This was undoubtedly making the most top-notch war claim:

That is, the Imperial War.

A comprehensive confrontation between countries ends with the defeat or peace of one force, which is often followed by the cession of a large amount of territory and the loss of property. It is a major event that any imperial noble will change his face upon hearing of it.

However, this reason for declaring war is really strange: the Mr. Asker whom Your Highness is currently getting married to...

He is actually the betrothed partner of the regicide in the north?

For a moment, the guests present could not accept it... Of course, if you accept this fact, you can clearly see the crisis. It is like the sword of Damocles hanging above your head, which has begun to push the two empires away. To the brink of war and destruction.

This Mr. Asker is a man, not two, so he can either marry His Highness, or go north to be the husband of the regicide.

The latter is absolutely impossible, because Her Royal Highness the Eldest Princess has been chaste for him for six years, and one can imagine the depth of her feelings. If he is surrendered to the North, the empire's reputation will be in shambles: the whole world will know that the Helsingor Empire in the North blatantly sent people to interrupt the wedding of His Royal Highness the Princess of the Holy Solomon Empire and forcibly removed her. Her husband snatched her away.

Not to mention the loss of her husband by Her Royal Highness the Princess, which resulted in a series of subsequent problems such as lack of heirs, power succession, political balance, etc. Almost every one of them may shake the rule of the Iron Throne, thus laying the groundwork for the next civil strife in the empire. .

On the other hand, if you choose the former and continue with the wedding, then you will start a war based on the threat from the north.

The war is unfavorable to both sides, but the situation between the two countries is different: the HRE Empire is composed of several principalities. If there is a war with the Northern Territory, the hardest hit will definitely be the Principality of Lorraine (northwest) and the Principality of Lorraine (northwest) controlled by the Saxon family. Duchy of Saxony (due north).

As for the Weisbach family, the adoptive father of Her Royal Highness the Princess, the Principality of Bavaria is located in the southeast and will hardly be threatened by military fronts from the north.

Therefore, the Weisbach family must fully support the continuation of the wedding, while the Saxony family has mixed profits and losses. They must choose between the threat of external war and the shaking of internal rule.

This is not an easy political decision to make, and requires detailed study and judgment of the future international situation to finally determine how to respond. Therefore, the most suitable response for His Highness at this time is not to make friends, but to suspend the wedding to buy enough time...

"Get out!" Eleanor shouted angrily.

Guests present:………………

Well, considering that Her Royal Highness the Princess is a woman after all, anyone who is interrupted during their wedding is unlikely to be in a good mood or look good.

So we have no choice but to choose war.

The imperial knight continued to press down on the sword, drawing sharp blood marks on the opponent's neck. The Norman warrior silently placed his credentials on the ground, and was escorted out by the imperial knights obediently.

Everyone's eyes stayed on the roll of credential declaring war. Eleanor on the stage gathered her flowing will and rolled up the credential on the ground. She unfolded it in her hand and scanned it roughly. She sneered and threw it away. Otto II below.

Otto II took it over and looked at it, and his expression suddenly became serious. Because what is written on it is indeed an unreserved threat of the highest level of war:

From Copenhagen to Tromso, from Oslo to Vyborg, Her Majesty Hildrifa, the Supreme King of the North, will use all the available troops in Greater Scandinavia. One hundred thousand Norman warriors will go south to conquer the Holy Roman Empire. The blood of the Franks will dye the carpet red upon the return of your Majesty's husband.

To be fair, the overall national power of the Shinra Empire is stronger than that of the Helsingør Empire in the north. However, HRE is only a loose alliance of feudal principalities after all. Even with the prestige of Her Royal Highness and the connections of the Saxon family, they can only mobilize 60% of the empire's military strength at most.

As for the regicide Supreme King, who was known for his power and violence, he could easily mobilize more than 90% of the northern troops to go south, without blinking an eye at the number of casualties in the process.

Then Otto II's face immediately fell.