The splendid furnishings of the Brachna Palace made Angus, accustomed to the corduroy carpet, feel weaker and weaker, his leg wound had healed, but his body gave off a sweet aroma like a woman, and the bureaucrats, eunuchs, and maids who were everywhere in the court were almost round and jade, like priests serving the dead.

"What the hell am I doing?" He kept asking himself that there was no need for a mercenary like him in this place, unless it was to serve as a guard of honor like the ostentatious Janissaries.

The Greek nobles also regarded him as yet another barbarian who wanted to be lucky, and from time to time they looked at the same look of disdain as they looked at the many Gentiles around the emperor. These Orientals pride themselves on their extremely pious lives, and in their eyes the priests of Western Europe who are not afraid of meat, who marry and have children, are all blasphemous degenerans, not to mention the ignorant barbarians like Angus.

"Tell me, Your Excellency." One day he finally couldn't take it anymore, "How long is the mission you are talking about?" ”

Dagobert had just finished an audience, and it was obviously not easy to talk to the emperor who was a little slurred, and Emperor Alexios always had that god-like meaningless attitude, slowly and methodically, and from time to time asked a word that was to the point, and the smile on his face was broken by two arched dark eyebrows, and a terrifying light shot out of the hidden eagle-like pupils, which could be seductive.

"The part about you has been discussed." The bishop replied, and before the other party could show his joy, he conveyed another message, "Ready, the Emperor wants to see you." ”

Angus looked at Dagobert suspiciously, this guy won't sell himself again.

Emperor Alexios was resting in the prayer room when he suddenly asked the Englishmen beside him, "Do you know the young man, Odric?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." The Emperor's Praetorian Guard, Odric, bowed his head.

"Where did he come from?" Alexios does not make judgments before he knows the information.

"It's nothing." The Englishman shook his head, "A mercenary, not yet sixteen years old, who has fought in several Lombard wars—without any title, who does not belong to any of the famous families of Italy, perhaps the son of some northern nobleman, or more likely an exile." ”

This makes it even more interesting why such a person could be the commander of the Pope's designated reinforcements?

Alexios looked at Aldric with a hint of disappointment, his fingers signaling slightly, and the latter was stunned for a moment, and then stepped forward to fill the wooden glass with the flask.

The only conclusion at the moment is that this newcomer does not see any value for the time being, and there is no need to treat Robert Giska's son like that, but although it cannot be used, it cannot be put aside, and must be placed in front of him at all times.

"Tell him that he doesn't need to meet for the time being, just let him go and see the chief of the Western Janissaries."

Harald of Norway joined the Praetorian Guard with 500 guards, and at first he was only a staff guard, such a newcomer, with sixty Lombard warriors, was not worthy of being awarded the title of knight of the empire until he had established a meritorious service.

In this way, Angus, who had once played the banner of the king of the highlands, received a new edict.

"That's fine." Dagobert replied, "At least it's easier to deal with than the emperor." ”

"But you still haven't explained it." Angus replied coldly.

"It's simple, the Holy See asked me to find a way to win the friendship of the Emperor, who told me that he needed reinforcements to deal with the changes in the East."

"So my people are reinforcements?"

"It's our people." The bishop emphasized.

"You can try to command them."

"Isn't all you want is a chance to get ahead?" Bishop Dagobert persuaded in a seductive tone, "What could be easier than in the Emperor's Praetorian Guard, bastard?" ”

"Don't forget, according to the above, my people didn't join the Praetorian Guard."

"As long as you prove your usefulness, the emperor will not be invisible, and he will not let his minions fall into the hands of others."

It has to be said that no matter what the real intentions are, there seems to be no hole in Dagobert's reasoning, and Angus finds himself moved by these words.

"Will you stay?"

"I will heed the call of duty." The bishop replied, "Goodbye, bastard. ”

"Goodbye......" Angus suddenly felt a trace of sadness, just like this, one by one, no one will stay forever.

"Remember, bastard, you are not in your hometown, you are not in Canossa, there is no one here who can protect you, and it is up to you to live - don't ask too much."

Yes, he knew this, he had eaten raw meat in the barren mountains of Wales, roasted wild dogs in the Lombard Valley, the exile was forever alone, and the world could show its fangs at him at any moment.

"By the way, do you have faith?" The bishop asked a strange question.

"I don't know." Angus replied casually, and he found that he seemed to trust the man too much, even though the other party had betrayed him twice.

Have you forgotten the appearance of the black-robed man singing to his naked-garde self at Elgin Abbey?

"Ignorance is good enough." Dagobet nodded, "Originally, I wanted to remind you not to discuss the ...... of faith with the people here."

The next day, Angus came to the new commander of the Western Janissary, who looked young and somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor himself.

Another Comunen, Angus mused.

Andreano Komnenos was not the same as his two simple brothers, and his lifestyle was closer to that of the previous Ducasses, and like the emperor himself, his wife was also a Ducasse, and his illustrious family background gave him the title of chief nobleman and the power to command large armies, and at the age of twenty-seven, Andreano was already a lord of Cassandra and rose to prominence in the war against the Normans.

The attitude of this imperial brother was not arrogant, but there was no meaning of enveloping, today was the first time to give his duties, and Chief Andreano Komnenos asked one of his subordinates to explain, and Angus, who did not know Greek, finally figured out his duties with the help of the senior translator.

The interpreter from the Varangian Janissary and known to everyone as Nabites, like Odrick, was an Englishman, and Angus sometimes felt as if he was the real nucleus of the crowd, while his boss seemed somewhat indifferent.

The Latin mercenaries he commanded were the sixty old men left to him by Dagobert, and since the camp in the city was already occupied by the Praetorian Guard, he would take them to camp in the suburbs opposite the Golden Horn.

After Angus left, Andreano asked Nabitus, the commander of the Praetorian Guard, "Does Your Majesty think that there will be no war on the Western Front?" ”

Nabitus bowed slightly, letting such a stinky boy join the army of the commander of the west, and the emperor's judgment of the situation was already clear at a glance.