As Priest Dagobert came to a steep and steep hill, Angus looked back at the valley ten miles away, the sky and the ravines blurring in the cold breeze.

A cloud-shrouded island appeared above, and in fact, he was almost unsure where it was up and where it was down, and in the hazy cold fog, far and near were meaningless.

It wasn't until a sculpture of an angel came into view, and the long hanging road winded its way to the castle ahead, that Angus cheered up. In front of him, beside the ancient broken pillar stood a bronze lampstand, the white light that he had regarded as starlight not long ago.

The reinforced walls were clearly not furnishings, and the statue-like guards stood guard without squinting, two guards in iron caps following closely, but no one asked him to remove his weapons.

What is this place? Angus mused, the wind whining among the clouds outside the wall, and he began to feel like he had walked into an ancient tomb.

Angus peeked into the dark holes in the rough tuff building, perhaps the only way to see the outside world, and the solid stone walls and battlements were seamlessly connected, and there was even a stable underneath, and Angus peeked at the priest of Dagobert to guess who the lord he was about to meet was living in isolation here, blocking the whole world with boulders, steel, and bronze.

"Dear." A familiar voice, Angus immediately recognized, was the Lord of Reina, who had almost become his employer.

"The most illustrious lord of the clouds......" Dagobert called him reminded Angus that the nickname he had heard of had come from the castle.

"There are no rulers on the clouds." Reina interrupted the priest, "You can't rule a forgotten territory. ”

"Just a name, my friend, don't you have wealth?"

"I knew you wouldn't let me go, even if I hid in this corner. Say, what exactly do you want? I have already told you that Bologna will not give you a single soldier. ”

"But you have an army, don't you?"

"Aha!"

"I need two hundred, fair trade."

"By your credit? I can give you a hundred spearmen. ”

"Deal!"

Angus handed over a purse, but seeing that the Italian frowned, he did not take it, and he glanced back at Priest Dagobert, who was signaling to him with his eyes. After finally figuring out the meaning of this look, Angus paced slowly and placed the money bag on top of the fireplace. He then saw that the Italian lord had given Dagobert a ring.

"Do you know who he is?" After leaving the castle, the gray-robed priest suddenly asked.

Angus shook his head.

"An illegitimate child—a noble bastard." The priest's answer made Angus's heart skip a beat.

"You're also an illegitimate child, why would you come out to fight when you were a castle attendant?" The priest's eyes were like dragon scales that shimmered with mercury, as if he could see through everything, "Lord Rainer comes from an ancient family of bastards - descendants of Carolingian bastard Bosso, who were once kings of Italy - the inheritance of those days was a little more barbaric than ours - and Rainer is the illegitimate son of this family, the bastard of the bastard, you understand, little bastard?" ”

Angus bit his lip, he wanted to say that he was not an illegitimate child, but he knew that a noble father and a lowly mother could only mean an illegitimate child.

"Bastards can build great deeds." The priest's tone did not contain mockery, "My friend Reina is just so caught up in his own fantasies that he has forgotten everything he has. And you, little bastard, you have a sword, and sometimes that's enough. ”

"Not enough." Angus muttered to himself, "When the enemy wears the crown." ”

The priest did not answer immediately, but examined the highlander in front of him further, and after making sure that there was no deep meaning in his words, he said, "We have to go and see those people." ”

The appearance of Bologna had changed, the cavalry in iron armor had left countless horse manure in the streets, and the militiamen armed with bows and crossbows dragged a corpse past from time to time, and Angus looked nervously at Dagobert, he didn't know if Gilic and Maeve were still safe, but first, he had to escort the priest to the other side of the city.

The tall cavalrymen were carrying torches, the light shining on the dirty faces of passers-by, the doors and walls of the houses and towers were closed, and the priests were undisturbed and calmly walked to the other side of the deep street.

In an unnamed tower, the war meeting was just halfway through.

"How long will we have to wait?" A diminutive lord asked.

"Lord Robert, be patient, Bologna will soon mobilize all the elites, and in the meantime, the enemy will not go anywhere."

Robert of Normandy took a sip, he had seen the "elites" of Bologna, most of them were stumbling in the taverns, and they were good at nothing more than jealousy, and his Normans could deal with thousands of such "elites".

"Time is running out, my men have just heard that the Duke of Welf has been defeated by Henry, and in Modena I heard that the Tuscans have attacked Madame Matilda seven times!" Bishop Odo reminded him and asked the Earl of Lincoln, "Have you received any news from Your Majesty?" ”

Baldwin, Earl of Lincoln, shook his head: "Not yet. ”

"That said, we have no way of knowing if Henry will re-enter Italy." Bishop Odo looked disappointed.

"In any case, defeat Count Alberto and Duke Lyutpott first, while Henry hasn't arrived." The words of Robert, the eldest son of the Duke of Normandy, "Shortstocking" Robert, were echoed by most of the people.

Godfrey was surprisingly quiet, his status was a little awkward at the moment, as the Emperor's faction, who had just been ransomed from the Normans by his brother, but participated in the war council to rescue Madame Matilda, Godfrey understood that this meant that his possessions in Lorraine and Bouillon would be forcibly stripped by the Emperor.

Bishop Odo didn't seem to have any grudge against the Flemish knight: "Lord Godfrey, how about you command the Capuans for me?" ”

"Willing to serve!" In this way, Godfrey became a "pope".

That night, as soon as the exhausted Angus returned to his room, he found Gillick leaning against the candlestick, holding a large and heavy book in his hand.

"Your Excellency, you're back!"

"How does it feel to be a bodyguard, bastard?" This voice belongs to Maeve.

Angus smiled slightly: "The person standing in front of you is no longer a bodyguard. ”

In the midst of the puzzled looks of the two, he announced, "This time I'm really going to war!" ”

Looking at the smile on the boy's face, Maeve suddenly felt a great fear.