The Proudest Queen Consort Repels Bullets with Her Dress (I)

Today was the parade to commemorate the marriage between the newly throned King Frederick and Queen Victoria, who renounced her fiancée status and instead proposed in front of everyone the other day.

“I’m glad this day has come. Thank you!”
“My beloved citizens, you may sing your praises to your heart’s content. Your queen allows you!”

Compared to the king, the queen consort was prideful, throwing the citizens into a bit of a disarray, making them wonder, “Huh? Was this parade to announce the throning of an empress?”

King Frederick appeared at the balcony with a luxurious, pure-white, and immaculate mantle that acted as proof of his kingship, while Queen Victoria had a gorgeous, pure-white dress adorned with plenty of pearls.
She exuded a tranquility that you wouldn’t have thought could come off someone who pulled off that high-handed stunt against the future king just the other day. Well, that tranquility was limited only to her appearance.

When the king waved his hand, the crowd cried and shrieked.
The queen consort smiled gracefully beside him.

After that, the two royals made their appearance through the crowd on horses.
Confetti and petals danced high beautifully in the blue sky above the capital.

Now then, the citizens’ eyes were as wide as plates, and they waited in anticipation at the side of the road, hoping to see the king and queen consort go by. It was well-known since long ago that rumors began to spread when the people gathered, so there were naturally whispers circulating around the huge row of people standing on either side of the street.

“Hey, hey, have you heard the rumors recently? Apparently, the king had one-sidedly annulled his engagement with the queen consort in an announcement he made at the royal court!”
“You serious? But, they are married now, so why?”
“I heard that the queen consort proposed to him instead and carried him in her arms to their bedroom. When the servant came in the morning, she said, ‘The future king sleeps beside me,’ and grinned!”
“The queen is so cool~!”

The rumors were embellished to hell and back, and the misinformation surrounding the king was especially something to behold.
While all of this was going on, the procession drew closer and the citizens cheered. They scrambled to the front of the line to look.
The women scattered even more flowers, unsatisfied with the current amount. The royal marching band performed their music with the king and queen consort following behind them.

King Frederick smiled and waved while the queen consort had a faint smile on her face, gallantly puffed her chest, and watched over the parade. How pompous and extremely haughty.
She was so pompous that several people wondered if this was a procession to commemorate the marriage between a queen and her partner. She was that arrogant.

“Isn’t the queen consort super pompous?”
“Yeah, but that’s what makes her amazing!”
“His Majesty is so cool~! He really is handsome…”
“But, people say that he’s pretty dumb, but if the dumb ones are as handsome as him, then I would gladly take them! You end up feeling that it’s what makes him amazing! Don’t you feel that way too?”
“Do you have a thing for idiots?”
“Well, I’m a fan of the queen consort! She’s so majestic and fantastic!”

Among the people praising the king and queen consort, there was a single outsider.

The man crouched down by himself.
He was a slight distance away from the citizens surrounding the parade and dressed in dirty, tattered clothes.
His hair was a long, dirty mess, and he looked very out of place in this city at the center of the royal capital.

His eyes seeped with intense hatred.

“Dammit… While we’re out here suffering, they’re laughing and having a damn parade! Damn them all! I bet they use expensive fabric softener on the king’s clothes every day with our tax money! And, that queen consort too! I bet she sucked up all the taxes to splurge on some ridiculous perfume…! And to eat a single parfait worth 5000 gold! Because they’re here… because they’ve been abusing our taxes, we…!”

His hatred ran deep. He was born into a poor family and grew up unable to eat anything decent. He had never even seen ridiculous perfumes or expensive fabric softeners.
His father was a former soldier but couldn’t anymore after one of his legs had been ruined, and his younger sister was prone to falling sick. The man was a farmer, but as the rest of his family were unable to help, all the tough manual labor was left to him. His current concern was his thinning hair.

His father drank every day, smoked his pipe out of irritation at his inability to move his leg, and occasionally hit the man.
His younger sister grew weaker from sickness every day. While his life was in shambles, the two royals were getting married.

In a gorgeous, luxurious display that used the citizen’s blood money. What he and his fellow citizens have desperately saved up was splurged right here!
I hate them. I hate them so much! These feelings filled his entire heart.

He readied the old gun his father had once used and pointed the muzzle at the king and queen consort who were making their way through the crowd. His first target would be—yes, the queen consort. She had been reckless with her spending on dresses, jewels, and other such accessories.

He will kill her.

He pulled the trigger. A gunshot echoed.

 

The bullet directly hit the queen consort’s chest, yet—
The bullet was reflected off the woman’s dress. It made a loud cracking sound before falling onto the cobblestones.
Additionally, the bullet was cracked and broken.

“Whaaaat???!!!”

What the hell was with her dress?! The man’s mind was in chaos.
The queen consort dismounted from the horse and picked up the fallen bullet fragment.

“Mhm. I thought something like this would happen, so it was the right choice to have orichalcum sewn into the fabric of my dress.”

Upon hearing this, the surrounding escorting guards, the king, and probably even the marching band were confused.

“You did that?”

King Frederick said in a shocked voice in the middle of this. In the very next moment, panic washed over the crowd.
A gun was fired and hit the queen consort. People were terrified that the person with the gun was still around. That fear spread like an infection and the parade was about to fall into complete disarray, but at that moment…

“Control yourselves!”

The queen consort loudly announced. Her voice shook the area, tearing through the crowd. The panic settled, and the space quieted.

The queen consort looked around…before spotting the man among the crowd, smiling, saying.

“You, the man there. Come out. Well, even if you don’t come out, I’ll have you brought out.”

She was super arrogant. Queen Victoria said, looking like the proudest in the world.