"It's ...... What the? ”

The attendant lifted the huge gray cloth, and a bird cage the size of half a room, carefully crafted by countless craftsmen, appeared in front of the two.

In the pure golden cage, two kind-looking little flat-feathered birds were dozing off one after another. Sophia was surprised why such a small bird needed such a large cage, and the attendant next to her spoke: "Your Royal Highness, this is the cub of the fiercest falcon from the mountains of Pontus. A woodcutter in Trabzon stumbled and fell off a cliff a month ago when he went up the mountain to cut wood, but accidentally landed on a ledge on the edge of the cliff and saved his life. And this ledge is where the Pontic falcons nest. At that time, these two little guys were just smooth balls of meat that were about to break out of their shells. ”

"The two birds were brought by the woodcutter to the current king of Trabzon, Nikephoros Komnenos. Later, after several tosses, it was transferred to the Duke of Latius. It seems that the local craftsmen of Athens spontaneously built this heavenly poultry cage for the two little ones in order to repay the Duke of Latius for his excellent performance in resisting the plague. However, the Duke thinks that you and His Highness Sophia are the heroes of great merit, so he asked me to give these two little ones to them. The attendant bowed and saluted, "Your Highness Princess, please be careful, although they are only cubs now, there is no doubt that they will be the fiercest falcons in the future." One male and one female, very compatible with the two adults. ”

"Thank you, Mistress Latius, for me...... Oh yes, you've worked hard all the way. Sophia pulled out a silk money pouch with gold threads and counted a few gold coins and threw them to Latius' attendants, "It must be hard to transport such a large cage. ”

"As you wish, I will bring a sincere greeting."

"By the way, do these two little ones have names?" Sophia tentatively stretched out her finger and tapped the forehead of one of the little ones, and the flat-feathered bird immediately woke up from its sleep and bit Sophia with its sharp beak. However, after all, the little one is only a young bird, and he has not yet gained strength, and he does not seem to be in pain, "he is indeed a keen hunter......

"No, the two adults are their future masters, and they should be named for them."

Sophia immediately became interested, and after thinking for a long time, he pulled John's cuffs and said softly: "Brother, you see that the pattern of the feathers on the back of this female bird is so beautiful, let's call it cloves...... And there's this male ...... He has a red dot on his head! It's better to call it ...... Gooseberry! ”

"Lilac...... Gooseberry ......" John always felt that these two words were somewhat familiar, and for a while he couldn't remember where they came from.

"Brother!"

"Okay, well, I didn't say I disagreed. I'll raise the male one, and you have to take care of your little lilac. ”

"Yes!"

The two little ones in the cage were resting their heads against each other, looking quite intimate.

Speaking of which, the birds of the nest are also brother and sister, from Nikephorus Komnenos to Latius, the two of them took the trouble to send the two flat-feathered birds to their side, and they always felt that they had something else......

"No, I'll have to ask Latius a chance. Could he dare to insinuate His Majesty, the co-ruling emperor of the empire? John muttered to himself angrily.

……

Here, John and Sofia are posting notices everywhere in Combrigne to recruit trained falconers, and Francesco, the governor of Venice, who is being sent back to the tavern, is losing patience day by day.

He had thought that the two ignorant children would be counted down by a reply from Constantinople, and then respectfully invite themselves back to Fort Combrinell to sign the agreement, and apologize seriously.

Unexpectedly, the development of things did not follow the script in his mind at all.

Constantinople's reply was so simple that John tossed it into the stove in just a second, and then went on to feed the gooseberries minced meat.

The letter does not need to be encrypted and bound at all, and even a small piece of paper will solve the problem. On the huge letter paper, turning over and over, there is only one word - random.

"Gooseberry...... Gooseberry! ”

After a few days, the little falcon with the red spot on its forehead was already free to cruise the Château de Combrigne under the care of the falconer. The windowsill, the chandelier, the chimney top, the little guy can be found everywhere except the poultry cage.

And the gooseberry and John also seem to be very close to each other, and with little training, the little gooseberry can stop firmly on John's arm. No matter how far he flies, a loud whistle will always bring him back into John's arms.

In contrast, cloves and Sophia are almost carved out of the same mold. Usually not very active, he likes to stop on Sophia's shoulder and doze off, but whenever a stranger approaches, Lilac will always pounce on him in an instant and give him two pecks first.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty...... The Doge of Venice, Master Francesco with his retinue came again......"

John is lamenting that he has finally found some seasoning in the boring medieval life and has fun with gooseberries. It's always a little irritable to be disturbed.

However, Francesco's return was not at all unexpected. If he really dared to turn against the Empire, the big merchants in Venice would immediately skin and tear him apart. It was he who had proposed to turn his back on the Ottomans and approach the Empire, but now he was at odds with the Empire, and he was afraid that he would not end well by playing with the merchants in the city who were ready to speculate.

"Mistress Francesco, do you see if my new pet is very temperamental?"

The gooseberry hissed twice in a very cooperative manner on John's shoulder. It's a pity that Francesco was in a mood to watch the birds, he casually pulled out a chair and asked straight to the point: "Your Majesty, is it that after so many days, His Majesty Constantine has not replied to you?" ”

"Reply? Oh...... If you don't say that I forgot, Your Majesty did give me advice on what to do. John pretended to sit down across from Francesco and let the falconer carry the gooseberries first.

Francesco breathed a sigh of relief, in his eyes, John's calmness was definitely pretending, the child was just a good face, he must have been severely reprimanded by Constantine. This kind of spiritual victory method made his mood temporarily relaxed.

"I suppose Your Majesty, Dear Basilius, must be very optimistic about your attitude, right? After all, it's so maverick. ”

"Ah...... That's not ......."

Francesco's frustration made Francesco even more happy, and he pretended to be curious and asked, "Then what did Your Majesty say?" ”

"Said a word."

"Huh?"

"He said, whatever it is."

Francesco almost didn't fall out of his chair.