Parud and Alan walked out of the guard's compartment and wandered the streets of Sea Castle for a while, as if aimlessly.

Even in winter, the ground of the Sea Castle is always wet, and it is a city built on the edge of a swamp, and the stoves of every house here make the ground not freeze all year round.

The population of Sea Castle was not too large, and a few scrawny swamp dogs walked down the road, trying in vain to find out what they could eat from the garbage heaps of the houses, except for the noisy people who looked like they were near a large wooden house in the middle of the city, and only a few people craned their necks on one side of the street to the other end, and a few children hid in their houses, looking through the cracks in the doors of these strangely dressed foreigners.

After a brief turn, Parud came to a conclusion.

"This place simply can't hold the Emperor's troops, it's not a question of whether that bastard wants it or not. We had passed every street, but not a single street had a large number of inns like Abbasquia or other towns in the south, and only a few shops selling groceries were barely in business. It's not a school."

Alan didn't reply immediately, apparently, he was still a little immersed in the words that Haru had whispered to him just now, Zheng Na is a very old Northland proverb, which roughly means that a very well-read young man who has achieved a career with his own wisdom, and finally got rid of his ordinary origins, and then became a powerful tribal leader, he is the best at gambling and winning with shrewdness, but one day, he meets the Grim Reaper.

He began to make a bet with Death to borrow a few more years of life from him, and Death readily agreed, but asked him to take something from the world as a bet. The young man, who had become the leader of the party, did not hesitate to do anything, he took out all his wealth, and won almost ten years of life from the hands of death.

The Grim Reaper praised his gambling skills and advised him to play the bigger ones and gamble more than ten years of life. The young man did not hesitate and continued to bless his chips, but unfortunately, when the young man was almost about to win, there was a little accident, which caused the Grim Reaper to win a round.

The Grim Reaper had intended to leave the place, but the young man insisted on another plate, and the Grim Reaper granted his request. But somehow, the young man quickly lost everything he had, and never won again.

"You can't gamble anymore, in fact, you've lost a hand" Death scoffed.

The young man was stubborn, and he, "No, you're wrong, I still have one thing that I haven't used yet." ”

"What? You must have lost your last fortune just now, right? If I'm not mistaken, it may be your family's food for the winter, why don't you hurry up and find a way to solve the problem of eating, and still have the heart to discuss with me here?"

"My life, and my wife's life, and my son's life. ”

Death could not refuse this great temptation, and in his eyes, it was undoubtedly meaningful to be able to harvest a few fresh lives.

Naturally, the ending goes without saying, no one can overcome his fate, not even the young man who is known for his good fortune. By the time his friends arrived at his tribe, everything was gone, except for a cloud of charred ashes and a few inexplicably frozen corpses, the man's family, his father-in-law, his wife, and his children, but the young man was nowhere to be seen.

"Mortals will eventually die, and no one can hide from eternal life......"

This made Alan think of himself, and it was already a twist and turn to have the previous winds and waves in his life, but he was still talking around in front of the knight, and finally took the risk again, like the young man who was playing with death, and he didn't know whether to live or die.

He had never been more timid than he had ever been, it was a shiver from the soul, and even when he had been pointed at by Parud with his sword before, Alan had never felt like Rutz was flustered.

"Mortal...... There will be death, and no one will be able to hide from ......"

"What the hell are you talking about? Alan. The guards standing by the side interrupted his reverie rather impatiently, and before Alan could figure out why the old general wanted to say such a thing to himself, he still had to serve the current master of the empire.

"Mistress Parud has already called you twice, could it be that you Northlander froze your ears before we did?"

Alan hurriedly patted his forehead with his hand, cheered up, and stumbled forward.

This flustered look was naturally taken into Parud's eyes, he actually liked this young man a little, but if Alan couldn't find a way to enter the North Sea Royal Court, he still had to kill him, and then carry Alan's head to curry favor with the tyrant of the Northlands.

"Have you figured out what to do? You know the most about this courier team besides me, you don't know the urgency of this mission, do you?"

"I've heard of it, my lord. ”

"Then talk about your plan, how soon I can see him (Orlov). ”

"Just tonight, I mean, it's not hard to get into, especially now that we have the status of a messenger, and although I have been away from the royal court for many years, I still have some influence over there...... I mean, a couple of past friends. ”

When talking about these professional court matters, Alan showed a good professionalism, he flexibly used some vague names, references and some black words, and when talking about these things that he wanted to be familiar with, even the deep fear in his heart eased a little.

"We may not be able to wait for an official meeting with the King, but we still have a chance to get in directly. ”

"I've been in correspondence with my 'friends', but more often than not, I've written about them unilaterally, because I'm still living a life of flux, but judging by the last letter he received, they're still loyal to me. ”

"When was that. ”

"Let's do it this spring. ”

"But now it's winter ......"

Despite Parud's efforts to make a picture of him he wanted to trust, Alan could still read the deep doubt in his eyes. Alan felt that he had been slightly insulted, and that he would not be able to escape death if he failed anyway, and that his current situation was no worse than death, so he refused to give any further explanation to the knight.

"Well, tell me about your patron in the court? In the end, Parud chose to compromise, as he had done countless times before.

He is not a tyrannical person, as long as he can achieve his goal, it is not so important to him in the process.

"Then what do you want next? Knight, the girl is always fickle, she may have liked you yesterday, but she married someone else?"

"How long have you known each other, I just can't imagine a woman betraying her family for the sake of her lover. ”

Alan's face showed a look of truthfulness.

"She's not a woman, she's just a girl. But do you believe that, just as I will not betray her, she will never betray me?"

Parud reached out and touched his forehead, he just realized that he had fallen for Alan's calculations.

"You've gone to great lengths to see her again. ”

"But at this point, you still have to trust me, for I can see His Majesty tonight. Alan's tone was firm, although there was a slight tremor in his tone, but it did not give people a sense of cowardice, if it was tough, it seemed to be similar to the supervisor he had seen in the army before.

Parud nodded undeniably, in his cognition, smart people are selfish, especially good people like Alan.

"Let's make your plan first. ”

Ailan paused slightly, he also didn't expect that after his hidden plan was exposed, this knight did not shout in a hurry and angrily, or was convinced by his firm tone, but chose to compromise while maintaining the calm and light of the superior.

"The banquets of the Beihai Royal Court all start in the evening and continue until the second dawn. There will be a gap between the guards and the nightfall, and I will get in touch with my 'lark' in the palace before this shift, and when the time comes, the gates will be guarded by all my own people. What's more, we have the identity of messengers ourselves, and even if we bump into some other guards in the royal court, we will not always be regarded as some inexplicable intruders. ”

At this point, Alan looked at the box as if he was pointing a little: "What's more, the 'sincerity' of the empire this time is full of weight, even if we are not summoned by the edict, His Majesty Orlov will forgive us for our recklessness." ”

Parud continued to look at the street beside the road with his eyes, and the look of contempt in his eyes became a little heavier. When he was talking to the general Haru on the city wall just now, although he met a reckless soldier like Kawi, he did not have any doubts about the national strength of the Beihai Kingdom, although those soldiers had problems, but there was no doubt that they were loyal and not afraid of death, such an army still deserves to be valued.

But as he walked through the streets of Sea Castle, the knight saw more of the problems behind the kingdom.

"A thousand imperial gold coins can make a king's heart bloom?"

"His Majesty Orlov's ledger, I have seen some of it, in addition to the increasing commercial taxes over the years, this may be his personal tax for several months. ”

When talking about this, Alan seemed a little helpless.

"When we're done, I'll be talking to you for a long time to get the reason out, so you'd better let me meet my birds, what do you think?"

"Good. Parud replied crisply, and lifted a corner of the carriage, which was a glittering golden light.

"Why don't you go that little bit and go again, whether it's eight hundred, or a thousand, I think, for that tyrant, it makes no difference. ”

Looking at those gold coins, Ailan knew in his heart that according to the rules of this knight's Rao, everything is for the purpose of planning and serving, for this kind of person, taking a little, but not a lot of money, is the most reassuring thing for him.

A slight smile appeared on Alan's face, but it was only a fleeting expression, replaced by a gentle obedience.

"I have always been at your command, my lord. ”

After that, he groped through the carriage to find a bag of gold coins that had been opened, and weighed one or two.

"The people of the Northland are not rich, fifty gold coins are enough, if you give too much, maybe it will have the opposite effect. ”

Alan left the convoy, but instead of going in the direction of the palace, he went in the opposite direction, it was a dirty place, although it was also in the city, but there were no houses or streets, just a shack area, and in the initial exploration, almost subconsciously, Parud ignored that area.

Looking at Alan's increasingly brisk and agile steps, one of the guards couldn't help but ask out loud

"My lord, you just let him go with the money?"

Instead of answering the soldier's question immediately, Parud walked two or three steps to the side of a horse and asked the guard rhetorically.

"What would you do if you were him?"

In the face of the knight's questioning, the guard bowed his head with a hint of shame. The rest of the guards and drivers in the convoy couldn't help but cast a somewhat questioning look at the soldier.

The answer to this question is clear, since the soldier raised such a question, no matter how much he defended, it could not hide the fact that he might run away with the money.

But Parud obviously didn't mean to investigate, but comforted the soldier a few words.

"If all goes well on our journey, His Majesty Perris and Lord Sward will surely have another reward for us, and when the time comes, you may be able to earn more than fifty gold coins. ”

There is nothing to be spared, in this expedition, I am afraid that only a very small number of people are for the so-called "following the emperor", and the purpose of most people joining the army is very clear in itself, that is, to make a lot of money. In the army, the current imperial military is still a little vague about the remuneration of the soldiers, but it is clear that the soldiers can rob the barbaric property at will, but they do not give them any specific remuneration.

As a knight, Parud used to be a sergeant major of a team, and he was very familiar with all kinds of things in the army. And now, he is also a backbone of the army, and when there is an accident in the army, what he thinks of is to stabilize these people first.

Everyone