It seems that the villain is targeting me.

Catherine snorted softly and said indifferently: "I'm just taking back what originally belonged to Charlie."

"Lawrence, you are getting more and more confused as you get older. Just because of a few words of instigation from outsiders, you want to deprive your son of his inheritance rights." Catherine said indignantly.

She was genuinely angry: "That Tudor, and that Butcher, they both targeted your son like this, but you completely ignored Charlie.

"Are you going to force your own son to death just for two outsiders?"

Lawrence listened in silence, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

The Queen really knew very little about politics, and all her understanding of the current situation came from explanations from people around her.

Among these people were her distant relatives and elders in her family. Basically, they were all representatives of the aristocratic faction, and they all instilled ideas that were beneficial to their side into Catherine.

As for Catherine herself, she didn't really care which son would inherit the throne. It was just that Charles had been established as the heir to the throne since he was a child, and the Queen subconsciously felt that this thing should belong to the eldest son.

Queen Catherine was puzzled by Lawrence's sudden neglect of his eldest son. At this time, those people with ulterior motives instilled in the Queen the idea that "this is all because Your Majesty was instigated by the Shrike and the Duke of Tudor."

Catherine loved her son so much that she suddenly became extremely angry.

She took the initiative to offer to use her status to drug Lawrence and imprison him in the bedroom - in this way, the nobles' goal would be achieved.

The Queen was unhappy when she thought of Lawrence's indifference towards her eldest son.

She was so angry that she directly expressed her intentions and true thoughts, but then she realized it belatedly and closed her mouth, listening alertly to Lawrence's reaction.

Catherine thought he would yell angrily or even attack her without hesitation.

She was ready to push away from the bed quickly, but Lawrence just stared at the quilt with his eyes wide open, not even looking at her.

The emperor was silent for a long time, and then he sighed deeply and sorrowfully:

"You—you are going to kill both of our sons."

This time, it was Queen Catherine who was shocked.

Catherine looked at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about?"

"You lunatic! Not only will you kill our child, you'll also ruin the future of the empire," Lawrence said, breathlessly. "If Charles dies one day, it will be your fault!"

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Catherine denied subconsciously, squeezing out a trembling sound from her throat, "How could I possibly harm them! How could I possibly harm my own child!"

Lawrence's eyes nearly popped out of his chest. He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving abnormally violently.

"Do you think I treated Charlie coldly and pushed him off the position of heir just to force him to death?!"

"If a person's virtue is unworthy of his position, he will only bring disaster upon himself!" The emperor roared in anger. "I seized his power to save his life!"

"Rickon is kind and young, and can learn how to be a wise emperor. Charles has stepped down from the position of heir and has no power. He can live a prosperous and peaceful life under his brother's rule."

The emperor seemed to age in an instant. He raised his arm and pointed at Catherine with a trembling voice:

"Look at what you've done! You're forcing our two children to turn against each other and forcing them to kill each other!"

Laurence growled angrily, "Now that things have come to this, either Charles will kill his younger brother first, or Rickon will kill his eldest brother when he grows up!"

"How many years did it take me to build this stability? You're just going to ruin it all!!!"

Catherine was so frightened by his words that she broke out in a cold sweat, but she still stubbornly argued, "That's impossible. Rickon is still so young. What threat can he pose to Charlie?"

"They are brothers, and they have a good relationship. Charlie would never do that!"

Lawrence gave Queen Catherine an icy look that stabbed her like a knife.

"Is this up to him? Or you?" The emperor let out a sarcastic smile. "Don't I have any brothers? Think about where they are now."

Hearing this, Catherine's expression immediately changed.

She knew that Lawrence had several younger brothers, but most of them had been dealt with for attempting to usurp power and abuse their power for personal gain. Only one or two honest and sensible ones were left behind and lived in the capital like pigs.

Catherine's heart began to waver. She recalled the flattering tones in which the nobles spoke to her, and she began to feel that something was wrong.

"No, no...it's impossible...How could they lie to me? How could Charlie and Rickon kill each other..."

Catherine tried her best to deny it, shaking her head, not knowing who she was trying to convince.

Her behavior completely angered the emperor.

Lawrence waved his weak arms angrily and shouted hoarsely at Catherine: "Get out... Get out! Get out!"

The grief and anger made Lawrence's blood boil. He struggled to get off the bed, but accidentally lost his balance and fell heavily headfirst.

——Under normal circumstances, falling off the bed would not cause any harm, at most you would get some bruises.

But Lawrence had a knee injury and usually sat in the same position on the chair for a long time, sometimes not moving at all for the whole day - and he was also addicted to drinking and had a long-term bad habit of alcoholism. The wine he drank at noon was also drugged.

In modern times, any

Any doctor will tell you: mixing alcohol and drugs can do terrible harm to your body.

But at that time, neither Catherine, who put drugs in the wine glass, nor Lawrence, who drank the wine, realized the potential danger.

This seems to coincide with the old saying: All the choices you make will eventually come back to you.

Lawrence was a heavy drinker, and he eventually died from alcohol.

Catherine wanted to protect her children, but ended up pushing them into the abyss unknowingly.

Lawrence I fell heavily to the ground.

The moment his head hit the floor, a blood vessel in his skull ruptured.

He lost consciousness at that moment and closed his eyes.

When death actually came, Lawrence I felt almost no pain.

Queen Catherine stared blankly at the emperor who was lying on the ground and motionless, as if he had been cast into stone.

After a long time, she hurriedly walked forward and tried to help her husband up.

In her panic, she accidentally stepped on the teacup that had initially rolled onto the carpet, crushing the expensive and exquisite porcelain to pieces.

Catherine reached out her hand and tremblingly felt Lawrence's pulse, but no matter how hard she pressed, she could not feel any fluctuations related to life.

he died.

Chapter 83: The Devil Who Seduces People

When the setting sun disappeared from the horizon and the dim stars filled the sky, Charles suddenly felt a strong sense of panic for no reason.

The eldest prince clutched the collar of his clothes, trying to make his breathing a little easier.

Charles looked in the direction of the imperial city. He knew that the ball in the banquet hall had probably started by now, but he would not attend the ball tonight.

The Lord Chamberlain did not deliberately neglect him, and the news was accurately informed to every member of the royal family, but Charles was not in the mood to participate in any activities related to the celebration.

Throughout the entire day, the eldest prince of the empire only made a brief appearance among the crowd at the beginning of the celebration ceremony.

Rickon Hamilton took Charles's place at the daytime ceremony and was personally brought by his father to participate in the ceremony of rewarding and commending meritorious officials.

Charles saw his brother leaning against his father's legs, flattered, and under Lawrence's gentle and patient guidance, he awarded silver medals to several ministers, reciting the words taught to him by the etiquette officer in a very formal manner.

Before leaving, Charles took one last look at his brother's rosy face, then turned around and walked out of the meeting hall with a depressed look on his face.

Only a few people noticed that the eldest prince had left the table. Lawrence was furious when he found out about it. Before the luncheon banquet began, he took Charles to a side hall and gave him a harsh reprimand.

Prince Charles listened very casually at the time, but forced himself to lower his head and obey his father until Lawrence angrily walked away because of his passive resistance.

——Charles didn't realize at the time that these were the last words his father said to him.

He was now trembling with fear over his plan to launch a palace coup.

It's funny to say that in the whole conspiracy of "the eldest prince plotting to usurp the throne", the eldest prince himself was the last to know the details of the plan - when he knew that he had to resort to direct force and kill people, Charles was more shocked and confused than anyone else.

At this moment, Charles was in a dilapidated house somewhere in the capital, anxiously waiting for Umudah's arrival.

The nobles mobilized the army an hour before launching the coup. In addition to these people, another part of the army hid in a deserted place outside the city, and the eldest prince nominally led these troops.

They are going to storm Tudor House tonight and remove the biggest obstacle to Charles' ascension to the throne.

The Duke of Tudor has been appointed by the Emperor as the Governor of the Legion and has the power to mobilize the army, but the Crown Prince has no chance of gaining the support of the Duke of Tudor.

With this legion governor known for his integrity and loyalty, if Charles forcibly ascended the throne against the emperor's will, he would be strongly opposed and even end up in war - this was completely predictable.

Fortunately for Charles, the Duke of Tudor's territory was far away from the capital. In order to travel light, most of the people he brought with him were elite heavy-armored knights - these people were also the Tudor family's private army to support the royal family.

Perhaps you still have some impression of this: most of the Imperial Army's heavy cavalry were lost in the previous war against King Galan, and many of them were Duke Tudor's men. He now has few direct subordinates.

This became the last straw for Prince Charles.

All he had to do was kill the Duke of Tudor. After killing him, no one would be able to stop him from ascending the throne.

Charles tried hard to comfort himself: the soldiers of those legions would not resist too strongly. They belonged to the Hamilton family, not the Tudor family. How could they risk their lives to kill their future lord?

He is the heir to the empire, and his father has not abolished his status yet!

Moreover, there are so many uncles and aunts who support him and stand on his side. Once he ascends the throne, everything will be a foregone conclusion, and those voices against him will surely disappear on their own.

check

He thought: Wasn't my father like this back then? Before he ascended the throne, there were voices of opposition to him everywhere, and everyone cursed the Hamilton family as traitors with wolfish ambitions.

As a result, when the army arrived at the city wall, what people were saying was that "the great Lawrence I has arrived in his loyal capital."

The eldest prince repeated the famous saying over and over in his mind: History is written by the victors, history is written by the victors - as long as I ascend the throne, no one will be able to hold on to my past mistakes.

Charles was surrounded and protected by guards, but these fully armed soldiers could not give him any sense of security. Instead, they made Charles feel even more anxious and uneasy.

He prayed that Umuda would come quickly. No matter what the outcome was, he didn't want to continue waiting like this.

Wumu Da had not met him today, and just asked the eldest prince to wait here for "the opportunity to come."

Yesterday, he asked the eldest prince for a gold cufflink that he always wore, but he refused to say what he was going to do with it.

Only the eldest prince in the palace has this thing, and people who are familiar with it can basically recognize it. Sometimes when Charles asks his personal guards to do things for him, he will hand this thing over as a token of trust.

Prince Charles waited anxiously for nearly half an hour before Umudah finally arrived with a few subordinates.

"Where on earth have you been?! At such a critical moment——"

Charles wanted to question him, but Umudah interrupted him.

"Well, Your Highness, it's my fault. I'm a little late," Umuda said calmly. "Thanks to the convenience provided by your mother, the palace is basically under our control."

Charles didn't feel much relief. Instead, he felt that time was running out. "Then let's go now! Don't delay any longer!"

"Don't worry, my dear highness," Umuda gave him a playful look, "Tudor's Palace has been surrounded, and no one inside can escape."

Charles looked at him in disbelief: "Then, then why did you let me--"

Of course, it's because they have full confidence in your military command ability, Umuda thought. Even though we are short of manpower, we still assigned a team of guards to protect you. Be content, kid.

Wu Muda casually said, "In order to keep it secret, the order will not be issued until the last minute."

This was not entirely a lie. In order to deal with the surveillance network established by the Prime Minister of the Empire, Umuda had indeed racked his brains to come up with many ways to maintain confidentiality.

Charles was stunned for a moment, then asked stupidly: "Then, what should I do now?"

Umuda smiled at him and said, "Just stay with me."

Umudah led Charles out of the hiding place and waved his hand to stop the guards who wanted to follow.

Prince Charles originally didn't want to leave his hiding place: even though the streets outside were full of their people, going out on his own initiative still made Charles feel like a gutter rat exposed to the sun.

But Umuda was very persistent in taking Charles out and patiently explained the current situation to him.

"The General's Guards are resisting fiercely, but the situation is basically under our control," Umuda said to the Crown Prince. "Look, Your Highness, our troops are already marching openly on the streets."

Charles looked in the direction Umudashi indicated.

Where he looked, the army was gathering in formation and separating to support different battlefields under the command of the commander. From time to time, a group of cavalry would roar away from the main road in front of them.

Wumuda continued, "Don't worry too much about the Legion. Your mother has obtained His Majesty's personal seal and token, and signed a military order prohibiting action. They won't be able to react for a while."

The eldest prince felt a little relieved, and his anxiety finally eased.

But before he could relax for a few seconds, Umudah's voice, like a devil's whisper, rang out again.

"Don't relax just yet, Your Highness," he said. "You still have something important to do."

Charles looked at Umudah strangely.

Wumuda gestured to his subordinates behind him with a relaxed expression and ordered, "Bring the people here."

A boy with a terrified expression was pushed out by Umuda's subordinates.

"Speaking of which, I should thank you, Your Highness," Umuda smiled and showed Charles the cufflinks on his palm. "I went to the palace to look for him after the attack began. As soon as the child heard that it was someone sent by his brother, he immediately followed me obediently."

Umudada actually omitted a part here: in order to deal with the guards outside the bedroom, he paid a lot of price and finally managed to kill his way in.