John's horse screamed, and the arrow fell, knocking him to the ground. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The dirt in the atrium garden was kicked up by the horses' hooves, spraying his throat all over his mouth, and John struggled to his feet, and several guards hurriedly lifted him up.

He looked at his mother with a look in his eyes that he wanted to hate but couldn't.

And Queen Dowager Irene also sat in the direction of John's gaze, trembling with anger and pleasure. More than twenty years later, her pain had long since settled, but she could never forgive everyone before his death, as Alexios did, and she remembered that her husband had always said to her, "Anna's child must be called Hristopher, and this title is the only inheritance I give her." Anna abandoned me, Dedo never really loved me, John and Tetisius hurt me. Irene, although I was hit by a poisoned crossbow arrow, I have not completely collapsed my sanity, and I already vaguely know the reason for this—this is the retribution of my sins, because when I saw the body of Constantine who died in a trance, although I knew it, I did not hold Marlena accountable. Erin, just hope you can forgive me, forgive me. My throne will be given to Anna and her children, no matter how disgusted her husband may be. Who said that of all the children, I love her the most......"

At this time, Evraimius pulled an arrow from the bag behind his back, put on the bowstring, and aimed at John, who was still refusing to leave in the melee in the atrium, "Hurry up and take trial, the beast monster who killed his father and usurped the country, and raped his adoptive mother." ”

But before he could send his arrow, one of the arrows whizzed and struck Evraimius's shoulder socket, and the young Dukas, who screamed, fell backwards and half-knelt, and looked up in pain with the feathers of the arrows that had sunk into his body and armor, and looked up in pain at the other side of the court atrium, from the back of a running horse, Axepocos, a slave of John's Turkic henchman.

Then Axepocus and the rest of the court guards picked up the emperor, gave him a horse again, and marched out of the palace of Brachna.

"You can't escape!" Erin shouted angrily at John's back.

In the second half of the night, John and the only dozens of guards and cavalry who were still with him first ran to the Varangian camp, but the family members of the inner and outer palace guards guarded the wooden fence and stone wall, and threw curses and stones to prevent John from entering the refuge, and shouted that everyone's husband and children who were far away on the front line in Eastern Thrace would no longer serve him.

John, who was like a lost dog, took hold of the reins, and looked back at the night, the grand golden gate of the capital, the tall and solemn pale crimson city walls, the horse rejection wall, and the mother who had never liked him, and could not help but dismount, and lay on the ground crying and mourning to the fullest. Most of the palace guards also worshipped around the emperor who had lost power, crying silently.

Is this Empress of Ten Thousand Cities, who has never fallen into the hands of an external enemy, still going to fall under the attack of an internal enemy?

After another half an hour, John fled to the palace of Jukuntina in the suburbs, far and near, everywhere was the shouts of mobs and rebels, the servants in the palace had long since fled, and their eyes were full of panic, and all kinds of birds and beasts in the royal garden, such as vultures, leopards, deer, apes, etc., also came and went in their respective stables and cages, making all kinds of terrible cries.

Marlena, the chief lady of the court, sat in a small shoulder, and under the protection of a group of servants and cavalry, she actually escaped from the chaos of the palace and found John.

"I will never abandon you! From now on, I will be your mother and your woman. In the small hall that was supposed to be used to receive foreign guests, Marlena ran in almost barefoot, with her hair disheveled, and put her arms around John and wept bitterly.

Surrounded by his adoptive mother's warm and plump breasts and arms, John also closed his tearful eyes, touched Malena's lush and thick hair with his hand, and said in a hoarse voice, "Gawain's army of traitors may soon attack the capital, my great barn will be burned down by the rebels, and most of the soldiers, nobles, and bureaucrats in the city will abandon me, and even his wife will remain in the palace of Brachna." Now it's really just you......" With that, John sat down greedily with a hot breath in his mouth, rubbing against the undulating chest of his adoptive mother, "Even the big ships of the port of Gallipoli have all crossed the strait to the northern Yukxing Sea because of my mistake. If I want to escape, I can't do it by sea—I'm done, I'm done. ”

"I hurt you, the original name of this throne should be yours, it was my selfish desires that hurt you." "But don't give up, my child. We turned north, and if we could meet Tetisius, we might be saved. ”

The swaying window lattices of Jukuntina's Palace, the curtains and tapestries that kept rolling back and forth, mixed with the snow that was blown in by the cold wind outside, and Marlena, who suddenly held John, saw a faint black shadow standing behind the pillar, as if she was looking at herself with a pair of miserable eyes.

Marlena's screams, this dark shadow has been haunting and frightening herself all this year, this is the hidden sin in her heart - John hurriedly picked up his adoptive mother who had fainted, and asked her how she was doing.

"Please take me away." Marlena slowly opened her eyes and begged her adopted son, and at this moment, the noise and shouting outside were approaching a wave. As she spoke, Marlena clasped her hand around John's arm in front of her.

Then John's other hand reached over and took her hand, which was very warm.

Marlena laughed.

But soon her smile froze.

Because John's hand, slowly but forcefully, pushed her hand away from his own arm.

Marlena tried to continue to hold the other, but the force threw herself into the air, and she fell to her knees, the jewels hanging from her iconostasis' gold-embroidered robe.

With a pained but resolute expression, John took two steps back and stood opposite his adoptive mother, "I'm sorry, I still want to restore my power, so it's impossible to take you away, you are now the target of hatred and hostility from the subjects of the entire empire, and it is impossible to take you with me no matter what." But I beg you, O adoptive mother, to help me one last time, one last time. ”

A lead seal and a scroll of paperwork were placed by John in front of the stunned Marlena, who casually glanced at it, and it was about full of confessions of her crimes.

Including using beauty to bewitch the three emperors, manipulating and disrupting the imperial court, and sowing discord between the Komnenos royal family. and poisoned his own son Constantine, of course, what broke Marlena the most was that the document still wrote that the plot to assassinate Emperor Alexios was planned by her, and she and her sister Marianne and brother-in-law Theodoro were the three main murderers, and John was just deceived by her because of "youth and ignorance".