Asking for Tickets (Star Eyes)

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When Theognes sat on his shoulder, passed through the Palazzo Juquintina, passed through the dignified New Golden Gate, and came to the street in front of St. John's Cathedral, his heart was almost broken, and it was this brute with brown hair and blue eyes who pretended to be a Cassino monk who bought a cut "stock circumcision skin" from the Jewish quarter, and so brazenly deceived the most dedicated officer of the Empire.

One of them, the military judge, took the filthy roll of gauze with great gratitude, knelt before Gawain, and accepted his caress on the top of his head, and sang the grace of the Lord with his mouth.

"Am I wrong, or are they wrong, or is the whole empire caught up in a mad fallacy!"

Diognis, with his characteristic Greek contemplative mode, clung to his head a little painfully.

It wasn't until the shoulder party came to the gate of the wall of Constantine that Diognis was even more surprised that in the first thirty years of his career, just seeing the guards in front of the city gate, holding shiny halberds, extinguished the idea of daring to take a step beyond the thunder pool, but Gawain stood in front of the shoulder and only "shouted" a few words of Oy, and then the Amalfi merchant roared a few words in Greek with a group of hired helpers. Gao Wen kept pulling out the foreskin from the box and pulling it in, and the thunder was so thunderous that several guards with Turkic-style feathers in their uniforms actually stepped back and put the halberd in their hands to welcome the entry of Gao Wen and the others.

In the long corridors of the city gates, Italian merchants wearing silk caps and shaved beards kept coming, embracing Greek noblewomen, coming and going.

With the sound of pigeons flying, Diognis saw the bull square of the extremely prosperous Avenue de Metz, and then under the hem of a cloister with columns and pergolas for resting in between, he hurried out and stood in an inconspicuous position, hiding from the strange gazes of many nobles, wealthy merchants, and citizens of the parliamentary class, and then he heard Gawain's arrogant voice sound, "Where are the most expensive garment stores and jewelry stores in this square?" ”

The two accompanying Amalfi merchants glanced at each other with a subtle expression, and then Gawain saw that they were a little reluctant, so he raised his slip, "Don't forget, to meet my request, it was your Chamber of Commerce that promised in advance - I will take seven hundred soldiers to reinforce your city-state, but now the realization of this goal requires the operation of money." ”

So the two merchants thought for a while, and then sent a box to Gawain's hand, with a flattering smile, "That's right, according to the promise in advance, all the money here is at your disposal." ”

In front of the steps of a ready-to-wear store, Gao Wen stood in front of the counter with a pride in his majesty, pushing the entire twenty gold coins of Solid to the stunned man, "I need clothes made of fine silk." ”

When the men saw the pile of shiny gold, they hurriedly put down their rulers and scissors, and they all shrank timidly to the wall on the other side of the counter.

"Then call your boss out." Seeing the dejected appearance of this group of guys, Gao Wen knew that they would not be able to accept such an order.

After a while, the curtain swayed, and a half-bald merchant with a bulging belly grunted out, constantly wiping the sweat from his bald head with a hand towel, and then his cloudy and yellow eyes saw the money on the counter, and Gawain, who was wearing the Frankish monk's robe, and the strange servant behind him, so he stepped forward first, took control of the counter, and stretched out his hand, "You guys are crazy, huh?" Now the emperor and the guilds of the capital have decreed that large quantities of silk goods should not be sold to strangers, right, especially a Varyag of your appearance - still a monk, eh? Otherwise, I will be executed by the half-official and half-merchant lords of the Royal Silk Guild! Do you know what a punishment is, you country brute who doesn't know Greek, eh? ”

"Of course I know what a punishment is." Gawain's fluency in Greek made the boss's eyes fall off.

Then, Gao Wen's fingers stretched out and affectionately touched the head of the boss Tong Shanmiao, "However, I don't think that now, the punishment should not do much harm to Your Excellency." With that, he took out ten more pure gold coins of Solid from the box and placed them on the counter one by one, "Take it, I can make you a hat to protect you from the wind and rain, and it can also protect your precarious hair, just like those Italians." ”

"Listen, I'm embarrassed, huh? The guilds and imperial postmen knew they would quickly come to the door for trouble—our kind of store could only sell bits and pieces, like this one. The boss's smile suddenly appeared, and he raised the silk handkerchief in his hand in front of Gao Wen.

"Thanks, if I need two silk boot pads, I might consider other shops in this square, you don't even have a shade shed here, see?" My servants are going to pass out in the sun, and I think the shop across the street is good, and maybe it will meet the needs of a precious customer like me. Gawain pulled down the silk handkerchief, his eyes fixed on the boss, and said in a threatening tone.

"Alright, alright!" The boss was full of pride, you must know that he spent ten years of hard work, and it only cost ten gold coins to join the Silk Guild, so he made a posture of swimming hard with his hands (unfortunately it was the other way around), and instantly swept the gold coins on the counter into his own cash box below.

Then he introduced Gao Wen and the guard into the warehouse at the back of the store, and slammed the curtain open, and in the huge closet, silk and clothing of various colors were displayed, "Look, huh? I spent a lot of time and money cobbling together so much from the silk merchants and dyers. What am I afraid of, huh? I bought the title of a nobleman with a sword from the palace, and when something happens, I can use the title to block a sword, huh? Oh my God, I need money too, and in order to keep this title, I have to pay a fixed amount of money every year to the insatiable officials in the palace. After saying that, the boss immediately diligently handed you a walking stick and told them to stand up, and then beckoned the man to measure your measurements, and then Gawain gave a money bag to a man in front of everyone, "Take it, go to the jewelry store over there, and exchange it for jewelry with the same amount of gold and silver." ”

In the afternoon, the noblewoman Eudasia was lazily leaning on the couch and watching the busy gardener tidy up her favorite backyard garden, where all kinds of birds chirped the most beautifully on the branches and eaves, and the noise outside the courtyard was isolated, and it was a secret place for her to communicate with the gods.

Until a dark-skinned manservant brought a folded half-worn scarlet cloak, "There's your old friend out there asking to see you, my lady." ”