The old man bent down in a mood, picked up the two broken pieces of the wooden spoon, and muttered to himself while playing with it: "It's still made of chestnut trees, but it's a pity that it's a good material." ”

He avoided the important and trivialized sentences, and it was very embarrassing to put me on a high place, so I could only stare at the food on the plate in a daze, and my face was red with shame: "I am against any political marriage without the blessing of love, which will only destroy two people who should be happy." ”

"Happiness?"

Leonardo asked rhetorically, with the disdain and domineering of Chiluoluo in his tone.

"In the face of the life and death of the nation, personal happiness is but an object destined to be sacrificed, and you are the prophet whom we have waited for for two thousand years to find. You are too selfish, you need to know that you are not alone, you are burdened with too many difficult missions that are destined to be born, and we need an heir to ensure the inheritance of the mission, to free yourself from the shackles that your ancestors have put around your neck from birth, do you understand this feeling? ”

"But ......"

I was speechless, in fact, the words full of rebuttals had already been prepared, but they were tangled in my throat as if I was blocked by something, I don't like the fate imposed on me, but I sympathize with the many unknown Enides who have been unconditionally bound for two thousand years, and personal happiness may really be nothing in comparison.

"What about Miss Crescenty? I promised the old duke. The tone was soft, and the resistance in his heart was not so strong, which could be regarded as acquiescence to his arrangement.

"I'm looking for a chance to have a showdown with her, so that she understands that she is also an Enides, and that she also needs trustworthy people in the organization, and when she recovers, she can help me get in touch, it's been too long, the major families haven't met for many years, it's time to let the sword that is about to rust regain its awe-inspiring cold light." Leonardo said, his eyes full of scorching light different from old decay, and his insistence on faith was moving.

He shouted for the attendants guarding the door to come in and clean up the mess all over the ground, not in the least regard himself as a new outsider, and the whole castle was recently very disgusted by this old man who suddenly appeared and regarded himself as the master everywhere, but when he saw that he dared to count the noble earl to his face, and counted him to nothing, they all wisely chose to be silent, even if they were as reckless as a bull and as arrogant as Hans, they also honestly shut up.

Leonardo seized the time after dinner, chased after my ass and continued to explain: "The Low Countries have been furious by your brutal killing, and each of them is determined to get rid of it as soon as possible, so we can only find a way to dig the foot of the wall and mix it with sand, but it is estimated that the results will not be great. ”

"This group of shameless villains, even if they want to negotiate with me, there is absolutely no possibility of negotiation!"

I pretended to be angry and got up, in fact, I was so scared in my heart, although there are people who have money now, but I still know very well who has the big fist, and I will never pretend to be a wolf with a big tail when I should be low-key.

"If you want to confront them, you have to pull in an ally who is influential enough, and I think about it, there is a good marriage."

The old man knocked on the door of his shiny head, as if he were winding up an overused mind, making an aggressive sound.

"The Count of Flanders, the bearded prince Baudouin IV, has a little daughter, who is just sixteen years old this year, which is the age of marriage, and there is an endless stream of suitors, almost breaking the threshold of the castle, and the Earl has always been secretive about the in-laws who choose his daughter, and the suspicion of waiting for a price is more afraid of the helplessness of the relationship between the parties."

"Sixteen?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes when I heard this age, and my condemnation of myself escalated from ingratitude to a perverted uncle, asking me to marry a stinky little hairy child? Isn't that a joke!

"Among the many suitors, most of whom are heirs of the right age in neighbouring nations, or rulers who wish to continue their marriage, they are seeking union for the purpose of bringing the Flemish family closer together, and by the way obtaining a piece of dowry, which is noble enough to be the wonderful material that the bard is looking forward to."

"Are you making fun of me? That girl was just sixteen years old, and you asked me to go to a strong adult man who was so much older than him...... Isn't this a hooligan? I twisted my words carefully, and expressed myself tactfully.

"Hooliganism? It is normal for a woman to be married when she reaches the age of marriage, and besides, the Duke of Kalmar of Sweden once married a fourteen-year-old girl when he was sixty years old, and according to your words, there are few decent men and gentlemen in the whole of Europe! ”

Leonardo stared at me defiantly with dodgy eyes: "This is politics, not emotion, my lord!" ”

"But the territory of the Count of Flender can't compete with our eight poles, and there are still many noble territories in Lower Lorraine and large and small in between, and Nijmegen is weak, and I come from a not very prominent family, why would people choose me?"

Since it doesn't make sense in reason, I can only break it from the reasoning, and I list several of my own shortcomings as if I was reasonable, and I am ready to use these old guys to prevaricate.

Leonardo's face was rotten and uncarved, and he shook his head like a rattle, so that I was afraid that the gray-haired head would fall off, and he stomped on his crutches and patiently explained to me:

"The Counts of Flanders are nominally vassals of the French king, but they have always resisted the constraints of Paris, and of course they don't like Germany very much, but if you have to make a choice, a German nobleman will obviously get a higher vote than many French nobles."

"The reason why Count Baudouin is hesitant is that the power standing behind each suitor is too large, and it is not easy to offend if he wants to refuse, so he is undecided, your background is clean, and your social relations are not so complicated, so you will naturally become the earl's choice object, as for the illustrious background, this kind of thing, spend a few more gold coins to find some old gentlemen in the school city to rummage through the old parchment book, maybe the ancestors can be traced back to the era of the flood and the extinction of the world."

I raised my eyebrows, I couldn't stand the old guy's straightforwardness, I wanted to interject but couldn't insert it, so I could only stuff those obscure terms into my head, and finally waited until he was finished, and was just about to open my mouth and be choked back by him.

I saw him picking his ears very unsightly, and said lightly: "I have some old relations with the Flender family, and I will find a way to help you operate this matter, but your expression was so tangled just now, what are you going to talk about?" ”

Me: "......"

After two days of hard work, the top of the towering conical tower of Berlin Cathedral finally appeared at the edge of the shadowed woods, and as I rode around a thriving pine forest, the whole of Berlin suddenly spread out under my feet, and the smoke of preparing meals rose from the houses near the edge.

It had just rained last night, and the road into the city was deeply rutted and covered with dirty muddy water, and a few barefoot children were laughing and running up and down in the mud pool, and their mothers staggered after me and shouted and swept past my horse's head.

"Bastards, these things don't have eyes!"

The attendants who accompanied him tightened the reins of the horse, controlled the horse that was so frightened that he stood up under his crotch, and raised his whip angrily to beat the mother who was protecting the child, and hid on the side of the road tremblingly.

"Forget it, mothers who love their children are not at fault."

I looked at the poor little child, tears swirling in my eyes, and my heart softened and I stopped the squire's whip.

"Hurry up and enter the city, there may be heavy rain in this weather, I don't want to be embarrassed to pour it into soup again, which will be undignified and undignified."

The attendants obediently put away their whips, cleared the road and walked up and down the road busy with their own residents and livestock, an old lady opened the window of the attic, and poured into the street as if no one was around, the feces in the pot last night, a few fat pigs covered in mud, snorted happily and ran over to scramble, the splashed dirty water wet the woman's skirt, the street immediately resounded with sharp scolding, the whole city that had just woken up from its slumber, with such a refreshing look, presented in front of us who had been tired from the journey, Dirty, messy, but vibrant.

Berlin's iconic cathedral, towering majestically in the most conspicuous position in the center of the city, next to the emperor's magnificent palace, but under the majesty of God, no matter how exquisitely carved the palace, is just a place for ordinary people to dream of death, and only the glory of the Lord is immortal.

In my opinion, the Archbishop of Berlin is basically equivalent to the national teacher of the German Empire, the charter of the red robe, the member of the Cardinal Order, the plenipotentiary representative of the Holy See in Germany itself, especially under Pope Gregory V, who was already born into the Saxon aristocracy, the position of the archbishop has become more important, and has a great influence on the secular aristocracy of Saxony, Franconia and Swabia.

At the same time, the archbishop was one of the largest feudal lords in North Germany, owning estates and farmsteads in various principalities, and the monopoly of the income from the Berlin trade routes made the gold flow into the pockets of the red robes, paving the way for the archbishop to the Vatican.

According to rumors, due to the fatigue of living in a fixed place for a long time, coupled with the painful experience of being driven out of the Vatican by several rebellions, even pious prayers could not save the Pope's deteriorating body.

His Majesty's teacher and best friend, Archbishop Gerbe, was finally given the power of the important diocese of Ravenna against public opinion, becoming the largest ecclesiastical power in the vicinity of Rome.

(End of chapter)