Chapter 38

Ye Zhiqing walked to the entrance of the dungeon. Along the way, soldiers stood with weapons in hand, seemingly surrounding the Theban palace inside and out, every corner radiating a heavy, murderous tension.

These past few days, she had fallen asleep alongside Edith, yet every morning when she woke, Edith was nowhere to be found. Whenever she asked the female officials, the answer was always that Edith was either in the council chamber or the dungeon.

The various factions embedded within the Theban palace had been more or less implicated by the assassination attempt on Ye Zhiqing, and anyone with even a remote connection to the pharmacy had been arrested.

Seeing it was Ye Zhiqing, the guards at the dungeon entrance allowed her through without obstruction.

Before she even reached the end of the passage, the sound of shrill screams drifted over. The air was thick with the mixed scent of scorched flesh and blood, causing Ye Zhiqing to frown uncomfortably.

As she rounded a corner, a hysterical wail pierced her eardrums. Before she could see the scene, she ran head-on into Edith, who was just walking out.

Partially blocking Ye Zhiqing’s view, Edith quickly led her out of the dungeon.

“Why have you come to the dungeon so recklessly? Where is the Royal Guard?” Edith stood tall and straight. She ​stolen content​pulled Ye Zhiqing to a sun-drenched stone pavilion in the distance, released her hand, and looked down at her.

The light in Edith’s eyes seemed to pierce through the bright sunshine, diffusing strands of warmth. Her falling curls hid Ye Zhiqing’s reddening ear tips.

Giving a light cough, Ye Zhiqing looked away somewhat stiffly. “The palace is heavily guarded everywhere, and it’s only a few steps to get here, so I didn’t have them follow me.”

To outsiders, Ye Zhiqing was still a prisoner of war and Edith’s concubine; it would be unseemly to have the Royal Guard follow her in a grand display just to find her in the dungeon.

Hearing this, the aura of displeasure around Edith dissipated. She allowed Ye Zhiqing to pull her hand and sit on the stone chair in the pavilion. “The incident at the pharmacy was a lesson, Zhiqing. By my side, you can never be careless for a single moment.”

Suddenly, Edith had taken on the posture of an elder scolding a junior. This sat quite poorly with her majestic and cold beauty; no matter how one looked at it, it felt awkward.

Pfft— Ye Zhiqing couldn’t help but laugh. She leaned in proactively and smoothed out the furrow in Edith’s brow, stroke by stroke. “Majesty, I’ve remembered.”

Her tone was soft and coquettish, and she leaned in with a warm, fragrant scent. Edith raised an eyebrow imperceptibly, hiding the smile in her eyes, her voice steady: “Did you come to see me for something?”

In the past few days of leisure, Ye Zhiqing had taken the pharmacist found by Situ and scoured the palace pharmacy. Aside from the ​unauthorized copy​poppy shells piled in the corner, they found nothing unusual. This left Ye Zhiqing very anxious.

What exactly was the unknown substance that had accumulated in Edith’s body for over ten years? It was like a heavy axe hanging over Ye Zhiqing’s head at all times, and she didn’t know when it would fall.

Under Ye Zhiqing’s repeated threats and inducements, the pharmacist had refused to speak. It wasn’t until Ye Zhiqing brought out the Royal Guard and threatened his life that he finally relented.

Edith’s unusual constitution was maintained through the long-term consumption of drugs. While it didn’t seem to have affected her yet, once the medication was stopped or continued, the consequences were beyond prediction. According to historical medical records, those who had been in the same situation as Edith had all either died or gone mad.

Ye Zhiqing didn’t dare imagine such an ending for Edith. She retracted her light smile and asked in a low voice, “Your Majesty Edith, do you know what was added to the medicine?”

The quiet air suddenly trembled. Edith looked away with a natural expression, shook her head with a faint smile, and replied helplessly, “I know.”

As expected. Ye Zhiqing looked at their clasped hands and fell silent. Edith had noticed the abnormality in the pharmacy two years ago. Ye Zhiqing had originally thought Edith feigned ignorance and allowed it because she didn’t know exactly what they were doing.

But thinking carefully now that she had calmed down, Edith hadn’t stopped taking the medicine over these two years. If she hadn’t accidentally alerted the enemy this time, she didn’t know how long it would have continued.

The only explanation was that Edith had [unauthorized copy]long known what was being done to the medicine but had no solution—or rather, Edith couldn’t leave the medicine.

The drug provided her with her superhuman constitution, which was exactly what she needed right now.

Thinking of how Edith hadn’t shown symptoms of being intoxicated by morphine, Ye Zhiqing let out a long sigh of relief.

She turned and asked, “Your Majesty Edith, you should tell me exactly what was added, and you should not continue taking the medicine anymore.”

Back to her familiar, calm self, Edith could sense the anxiety beneath Ye Zhiqing’s steady facade. Her pupils constricted slightly as she pulled the woman into her arms, stroking Ye Zhiqing’s back. “Zhiqing, I will do my best to keep myself safe.”

“Your Majesty… Edith,” Ye Zhiqing was momentarily speechless. The gold on Edith’s crown was as dazzling as ever. She leaned submissively in Edith’s embrace. The responsibility represented by the throne beneath Edith, and the price she had to pay for it, were never things for others to question.

Not even her.

After Edith accompanied Ye Zhiqing back to the inner hall of the Palace of Ra, she said nothing more and turned toward the council chamber. Ye Zhiqing stood before the hall, watching until Edith’s silhouette disappeared from sight before turning to enter.

For the past few days, out of concern for Edith’s injuries and the read the original at bailiantales.comsudden surge in political affairs, Ye Zhiqing had simply moved into the Palace of Ra.

Ye Zhiqing could browse the documents on the table at will. The reports were mostly about the Nile’s still-rising water levels and the large-scale hydraulic engineering projects Edith had already begun preparing outside Thebes. It was foreseeable that Edith’s upcoming days would only be busier.

Egypt and the Hittites had signed the Treaty of Kadesh two days ago. The Hittite mission would depart for home in half a month. Fortunately, the war at the Mediterranean border had officially come to an end.

She didn’t know what terms Edith had used to get the Hittites to yield on several other important ports.

Her fingertips traced the rough window frame through the bright sunlight as Ye Zhiqing looked out at the scenery absently.

As if remembering something, she turned to the female officials waiting to the side. “Is everything I asked you to prepare ready?”

Upon receiving a positive answer, Ye Zhiqing rare came to high spirits, sweeping away her previous gloom. She turned toward the side hall hidden in the woods, not forgetting to instruct them to keep it secret and not let Edith know.

She left behind the female officials, who looked at each other in confusion. The things Miss Ye wanted were too strange. She had never given a second look to the luxurious robes and jewelry prepared by the Pharaoh, so why this…

They watched Ye Zhiqing leave with strange looks in their eyes.

Inside the solemn and majestic council chamber.

“King, once construction begins on the Tiber riverway outside Thebes, it will inevitably affect the entire canal system of the city, which will then implicate the entire Nile waterway. Currently, the national treasury’s reserves simply cannot support the reconstruction of the Nile waterways.”

The speaker standing in the center of the hall was Moma, a close minister of Edith who oversaw the treasury.

Before his voice had even faded, the Chief Architect, whose hair and beard were white, also stepped forward. “King, although the reconstruction of the Tiber riverway has long been planned, in terms of actual construction—if the finances cannot be guaranteed—no one can predict the potential consequences.”

Her long fingers wandered over the documents on the table. Edith never looked up. Her falling hair, seen through the thin light and shadow, gave off a steady and determined aura. “When will those ports in the northeast of Nusya resume commercial shipping?”

In the Treaty of Kadesh signed between Egypt and the Hittites, the Hittites had ceded several commercial ports to Egypt. Now Egypt only needed to go and take possession; once normal order was restored, regular trade could begin.

Those ports were adjacent to the Bajie Straits connecting the far east. Once trade opened, gold, ivory, gemstones, and olives would flow through continuously…

For Egypt, this would be a significant income.

“King, at the earliest, it will be in three months.”

Edith tapped her knuckles rhythmically on the table. The situation with the Nile was urgent, and various soothing measures were being implemented, which also consumed a massive amount of wealth, yet they couldn’t fundamentally solve the problem.

Three months. Three months…

Edith stared silently at the distinct alabaster veins on the table. For a time, the vast council chamber was enveloped in silence.