"God saves us!" Seeing the king's condition, Edwin, the chief of the guard, almost cried out.

"We must return home immediately!" Woolfstein, Bishop of Winchester, looked at Rodrigo with suspicion in his eyes, and the king had gone out of town with the Spaniard, only to return like this.

"But Your Majesty can't get on the ship like that." It was the Earl of Lincoln who spoke.

"This is Normandy! Do you want Your Majesty to lie down in the land of evil wolves? "The old bishop felt that the sky was about to fall, and these arrogant and rude warriors were like hounds around the king, and the slightest bit of blood would make them lose control.

Rodrigo suddenly discovered that Bishop Woolfstein had not informed the presence of a Norman, including Roger, Count of Hereford, who had escorted him to Rouen.

In the days that followed, Count Rodrigo and Bishop Woolfstein took control of the expeditionary force, while Count Baldwin of House Boulogne returned to Calais with Martin to monitor the French army of Montreuil and the Count of Pontillo of Abbeville.

Bishop Woolfstein's original invite, Robert of Lorraine, became the last hope of the two at this time, the naturalist diagnosed the symptoms of the king's poisoning, and immediately used a Roman emetic to revive the king, but even he did not have the confidence to revive the king, in order to stabilize the king's heart rate, he used a few drops of valerian juice, this drug aggravated the degree of coma, if a few more drops, the king could be directly killed.

"You mean, Mercia is dead?" Rodrigo, who patrolled the winter camp, was destined to be hit by all sorts of unfortunate news.

"Not only that, Edwin of Mercia has just left the camp, and my knight has told me that he is heading north." The Normans made another astonishing news, as if in retaliation for the Spaniards' failure to inform themselves of the king's poisoning in the first place.

Rodrigo stared at the notorious fellow, trying to suppress any disgust: "My lord, what do you want me to do?" ”

"Bring the troops home!" Robert Mallett replied without hesitation, "Westminster is in jeopardy, and while we stay here, our adversaries will control the queen or prince, and we will be exposed to the eyes of the Franks, and in the end we will have to sustain the army on the food and grass of that Norman dwarf." ”

"This is treason!" Rodrigo finally lost his patience and yelled at Robert Mallett.

"Unless the adults fail." The Norman smiled, "As long as we return to London first, we can become the legitimate regent by virtue of the relationship between the Lord and the Prince—you will be the de facto king of England." ”

This sentence struck the Count like thunder, and many long-hidden thoughts erupted in his heart, and his fiery ambition turned into a single sentence: become king!

Rodrigo stared at Robert Mallett, who was not to be outdone and gave a strong gaze in return, his anger disappearing, as if it was about to be replaced by ambition.

"I can't betray Your Majesty." Beads of sweat poured from the Spaniard's forehead, "We must stay in Normandy until Your Majesty wakes up." ”

Robert Mallett did not show the disappointed he imagined, but laughed: "In that case, let's be His Majesty's bodyguard." Maybe we can't wait for Walcioff, Gerspatrick, or Edwin to get hold of Westminster, and we'll be betrayed by that sock. ”

"So, aren't you going back?"

"Me? What can I do when I go back? My cousins and nephews are either still in Calais's fleet, and they are bastards, and no one can stop Edwin from taking Mercia. As for Volsiov, who despise me more than adults, what can I do but stay with the king? ”

Rodrigo didn't comment on anything, he knew that he couldn't lose any power at the moment, and this Malit was still his ally, at least for the time being.

The arrival of winter did not stop the news of land and sea, and Philip, the king of the Franks, was especially unaffected by the time of day, and he learned a few days ago in St. Andrew, that Emperor Henry had killed Magnus, Duke of Saxony, and was now returning to the southern winter camp.

"Hasn't Bishop Bayeux convinced Robert yet?" Philip asked nonchalantly about the Norman.

"No, Robert still did not agree to attack the English."

"Did you tell him that we would only give him one chance? By January, he must submit to us, his rightful lord! Otherwise he would have found the throne on the side of Lufus. ”

Philip's anger was completely disguised, his heart was filled with the excitement of crime, Edgar had fallen, and Normandy had no choice.

Three days later, Count Rodrigo, who was writing to London, suddenly saw the Bishop of Winchester angrily open his tent.

"This is nonsense!" The bishop's anger was disproportionate to his age, and Rodrigo felt that it would not be easy to appease the old saint's anger this time.

Unexpectedly, halfway through listening to the other party's narration, Rodrigo had already taken the case: "He has really left?" ”

After getting the answer from the bishop's expression, the Earl finally sat back in despair, and Roger of Hereford, possessed by chivalry at such a time, led the men east to Omale for that damned "island duel".

How many Norman nobles did Roger kill in the first place? Rodrigo didn't know the exact number, he only knew that if such a blood debt was to be settled, even a hundred lives of Roger would not be enough.

He might as well go straight to the arsenic!

Rodrigo understood that his power was weakening, and instead of sending reinforcements, the Earl of Northumbria was holding on to the coast of Sussex, and even London could not mobilize the powerful northern vassal; Edwin's Mercian attendants were gone, and now Roger's Normans were leaving without saying goodbye, and if something like this happened a few more times, the enemy would surely realize his weakness.

Winter could not stop the Franks and Normans, and at the moment the only one stood in the way of the king's sick body: it was the Flemish conqueror who frightened the hungry wolves, and whoever had to weigh the name of the Count of Pembroke who had annihilated an army of 8,000 Flemish with more than 3,000 men before marching on Rouen.

He had to stay strong, and to make sure of that, Westminster must not be in turmoil.