When he returned to the palace, the queen signaled the others to retreat, including Adrick.

Adrick was still hesitant: "Your Highness, Your Highness, Your Highness, She is just..."

"I know, there is no need to say more." The queen returned to her previous gentleness. The majesty she had just appeared only to the outside world. "Let me talk to her."

Adrick bowed and stepped out.

Catherine looked very depressed. Although she experienced the later conflict, she was still worried about what she had seen before.

"Mother, Queen...Father and the others..." When only they and daughter were left in the room, she finally raised her head with tears in her eyes.

The queen sighed softly: "Lin, they are all like this. The nobles have never looked down on civilians. As for slaves, they will not be considered humans at all."

"Why..." Catherine couldn't understand, "We are the same people as them! Isn't His Majesty the King the most concerned about human rights? These people are trampling on them..."

"The so-called human rights are for those they think are humans." The queen's eyes were full of sorrow. "It has always been like this, and we can't change anything. Don't argue with your father about this matter. It will not only be useless but also make him angry."

The queen is also a kind person, but she can only feel powerless. The queen has no rights and cannot change anything, especially because some things are deeply rooted...

"Then can't we do anything? Can't we change anything?" Catherine asked crying.

The queen could only nod her head in dismay.

"My daughter, it is a good thing for you to have kindness and compassion. The queen of mother hopes that you can always maintain this kindness, but never try to convince your father and others, as this will only make them disgusted." She sighed in a low voice.

Catherine seemed to understand something. Thinking of her father's cold attitude towards her mother, she said in surprise: "Is it my mother, you..."

"I was also from a civilian, but later I met and fell in love with him by chance and became the queen by chance. I also naively wanted to change all this, but I still failed." The queen's face was faintly sad. "Their concepts are deeply rooted and cannot be shaken at all, and I was looked down upon because of this, so my father gradually became disgusted..."

"So Lin, just keep your original intention. We can't change anything, and we can only guarantee that we are not the same as them."

After talking to my mother that day, Catherine didn't go out in the room for the whole afternoon.

Only then did she deeply realize her innocence. In such a huge palace, there were so many pickled flowers hidden under its bright and beautiful appearance, no one could count them.

The mother could not change the status quo, and she was even more powerless.

So later, Catherine slipped out of the palace for more time. She didn't want to stay in that depressing place. She felt disgusted when she saw the hypocritical nobles.

On the contrary, the simple civilians outside the palace made her feel like a real person, and she felt comfortable only when she was with Lina.

Catherine in the palace became a steady and elegant lady, but Catherine outside was still the naughty wild girl.

She also learned to disguise her truth, and only some people can see her.

Her father almost ignored Catherine, and he was getting busier and busier.

Catherine only knew that the authority of her father seemed to be at its peak, and more than half of the nobles supported her father strongly, and his power had gradually suppressed the king.

She didn't know how her father did it, but it seemed that she had risen rapidly in just a few years.

And in the year when Catherine was sixteen, that is, the year when the night of Brokenness came, the peace was finally broken.

It was a desolate spring. Catherine went out to play with Lina as usual, but saw Lina sitting alone by the river crying.

She hurried over and asked what happened to her good sisters.

Lina sobbed and told her that her father and many young and middle-aged men in the village were transferred to the mine by the nobles to work and had not come back for half a year.

Her mother is ill because she is worried about her husband and has overworked, so she is now bedridden.

In addition, it is the spring season again, and the lack of labor in the village means that the harvest this year is lower. I don’t know how many people will freeze to death and starve to death in winter.

"Which aristocrat is so excessive that he doesn't think about your life at all!" Catherine said angrily.

Lina said unhappily: "It's the Prince Howard. He has been recruiting a large number of coolies recently, and many villages are like this... I heard that his power is higher than His Majesty the King, probably preparing for the final competition. We are probably all victims."

"Prince Howard..." Catherine only felt her brain roaring. Is it the father?

If I had known that he was making money, but I didn't know that he was so crazy, not only slaves, but even civilians would not let him go, just for his own selfish desires?

She followed Lina to her village and saw the yellow-faced and thin villagers, only the elderly, weak, sick and disabled people working hard in the fields, the dilapidated houses were not repaired, and the dead bodies were no one cared for...

Catherine felt sincerely uncomfortable, and she could no longer bear it.

So just after she returned to the palace that day, she had her first quarrel with her father.

"I know my father is doing big things, but you can't ignore human life so much! All young and middle-aged people are transferred to work as coolies, so how can their families survive?! Now many people are frozen to death and starved to death, and many people are sick. Are they all the people of our country?!"

"Oh? Who told you so much?" Catherine's father, Prince Osville, had not changed at all, and just asked coldly.

"I'm grown up, I'll see it myself and feel it myself!" Catherine said with a heartache: "Have you never considered other people's lives? You can't win the hearts of the people when you do this, how can you accomplish great things?"

"You mean, I still need their support to do a big thing? Childish!" Prince Osville passed by her coldly, "Don't meddle in other people's business, just be your princess."

Catherine stood there blankly, feeling only the stinging pain in her heart.

Yes, my father didn't take me seriously, let alone the civilians?

The next day, Catherine slipped out of the palace again to find Lina.

She had inquired about the general location of the coolies in advance. Although she could not convince her father, she could at least let Lina meet her father, which would be even better if her mother could go with her.

Who knew that Lina did not wait by the river today as usual, and Katherine searched for a long time but couldn't find it.

She saw from a distance that there was a circle of fully armed guards standing outside the village where Lina lived. An ominous premonition flashed in her heart and hurriedly ran towards the village.
Chapter completed!