Elfwin waited quietly outside his study, staring at the portrait of the king on the wall, hardly believing that ten days ago he had been talking to his friend Edward about the big man in the distance at the cheapest hotel in Harbor, and now the big man was only a stone's throw away. He imagined that His Majesty was now discussing how to affect the world—just across the door from him.

The King of England is playing cards, the two Bishops and Robert of Lorraine are in a circle with the King, and the Bishop of Winchester is watching nervously at the game and his old friend Robert, who is a court scholar and one of Europe's leading mathematicians, one of his most important duties is to play cards with the King.

At the same time, Robert argued with the Archbishop of Canterbury: "Natural philosophy is obviously far more noble than political philosophy, because politics is only a matter of man, and nature is the solidified grace." ”

"By the way, Bishop, have you found the official information of the Romans?" The king casually asked the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"As for the setting of the commander of the sea, the collection on both sides of the strait has been completed, Your Majesty."

The king suddenly exclaimed, "How do you know, cunning devil?"

A red queen turned over in front of the king.

"I figured it out." The Lorraine replied casually.

Husto was a clash of calculations, and the King had always been confident in such matters, after all, it was the main pastime of his previous life at the "Old Rags" club on Belmeer Street, where the Duke of Wellington had served as patron.

"Look at the cards." King Edgar seemed to have a drop of sweat on his sideburns.

If it can't be recalculated, there will be no more flop chances......

Half an hour later.

The king was outnumbered by the ace for the second time, and the remaining cards of his hand were thrown on the table.

Playing cards with mathematicians may be a mistake.

"Your Majesty, it seems that this is the end of today." The cardinal decided to throw in the towel.

"That's ...... It's good. Edgar's voice trembled a little, and he wanted to light a cigarette, but remembered that this was not a club for the Army and Navy.

"What would you like to talk to us about?" I mean, apart from the sacredness of natural philosophy......"

"I want Your Majesty to see someone." Robert was clearly prepared, "Not long ago, when I was listening to a fool in Oxford explain to me the problem of tuning fork alignment, I was told that there was an interesting guy in the house. ”

"If we're not mistaken, that guy is here?" The king was a little careless, and he was still thinking about the game he had just played.

"He's just outside."

With a gesture from the King, Father Elfwin was brought in, his thin figure almost pitiful in the midst of a group of top nobles, and the King could not help but think of the incident that the Bishop of Winchester had "inadvertently" mentioned to him not long ago, about some special "fetish" of his friend of Lorraine, when Edgar had wanted him to be the prince's mentor.

"Dear Brother Elfwin, we heard that you brought us a gift?"

"Yes...... Yes, Your Majesty...... Your Majesty! Brother Elfwin did not boast of his "royal blood" to his friends, but he had the same innocent expression as he had then.

The king noticed the thick stack of parchment he was holding in his hand, and there was something on it that he could recognize at a glance.

After taking the stack of parchment from the guard's hand, the king studied it carefully, and then looked up sharply.

"You wrote this?"

"Yes...... But...... The calculation table inside was done with the help of Lord Robert. ”

The king turned to Robert with an unusually serious expression: "How did you do it?" I'm sure you haven't seen the Royal Armoury trials. ”

The king hesitated for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Have you heard of the law of gravity?" ”

"Unheard of."

"And how did you know these results?"

"I'm blinded." Lorraine replied without changing his face.

The king almost fainted, of course he had learned these things in the military academy course, and the intuitive relationship between the caliber and the amount of gunpowder on the paper should have come from the young priest, but this table was a different matter.

"The science of shooting is not just a practical art, as I told Brother Elfwin a few days ago, that some of the principles of the Bagdetimos of the East are also applicable here...... "The Lorraine man gushes about his source of inspiration.

The king only wanted to ask him how he had "come to fruition" of these results, especially when he heard that he had begun to quote Ptolemy's Dacheng.

The Bishop of Winchester stared with some apprehension at Wolfstein, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose old friend had long been obsessed with the most dangerous secrets of astrology and alchemy, and it was not the first time that this quest for "dark arts" had been thought to be harmful to faith.

The Archbishop of Canterbury apparently did not know who Aristarch of Samos was, and he did not realize that the Orientalist was in fact an imam who had been dead for hundreds of years, and who, like the king, was still annoyed by the loss of the game......

That night, the king kept Robert of Lorraine and Father Elfwin of East Anglia, and the Bishop of Winchester was immediately redundant - Elfwin was quick to pick up and proved to be a better player.

As a poet, Elfwin was not lacking in eloquence, and after overcoming the nervousness of meeting the king for the first time, his speech became so pleasant that even the elderly Bishops of Winchester and Canterbury were drawn to his stories.

"Your Majesty, your knowledge of natural philosophy is truly astonishing, why don't you make these observations known to those old diehards at Oxford? I believe that many of your theories are definitely a huge boost to human knowledge. ”

"Perhaps." Edgar took advantage of Lorraine's population to secretly play a card, "However, if the crown intervenes in the realm of truth, we don't think it's a good thing." If we are unfortunate enough to be proven 'consistently correct', we will be like throwing a giant whale into a pond where a small group of small fish are playing. ”

"Haha, you're saying that all the fish will be immobile until they all suffocate?"

"Our cause is not only today," King Edgar said, "and tomorrow." ”

The Lorraine glanced at the cards, and suddenly stopped speaking.

"Let's smoke the king." Edgar was in good spirits and his eyes were blazing.

The king never forgets.