However, kissing a person's boots was perhaps commonplace for any subject in the empire, and even many dignitaries tried to kiss the emperor's purple boots. But in Gawain's worldview, he is not allowed to do this, which he has formed over the past thirty years and cannot change.

So Gawain was determined to divert the subject, and he stood up leisurely and said to the Emperor, "However, I will also escort the hermit monks behind you, Your Majesty, back to their homeland. ”

"A barbarian is a barbarian." The emperor said contemptuously with a tone of "you don't know how to lift".

"Cigna is Cigna." Gawain also returned.

Everyone felt that the atmosphere had turned to a very delicate moment, this Varyag barbarian dared to be so disobedient, you must know that the veterans of the emperor's guard, the greatest glory is to carry the silk cloak and clothing distributed by the emperor over the years, and return to his cold hometown in the north, where only a piece of material can be exchanged for a manor.

However, the Emperor had apparently lost any interest in dwelling on the subject, and besides, it would be no good for him to be honest with an ignorant barbarian, so he turned his face to Mikhail, "Get ready, and wait until George's army arrives in the imperial capital, and I will take a look at them in the camp and the colonel outside the palace of Jukuntina, and then send them to Asia to repel the attack of Zahas." ”

In the harbor outside the Brachna Palace, under the towers and the walls of the sea, is a large semi-circular dock connected to the waves, where countless ant-like slaves, prisoners of war and criminals sing in unison the angry songs that can compete with the sound of the waves, pulling a rope as fine as a spider's web, slowly pulling a huge ship into the dock. Around the great dockyard were all wood, rivet, and cable workshops, and the sound of hammers and anvils erupting in it came and went.

"The Emperor gave me the right to ride this ship and gave me a way." Standing in front of the gate at the top of the Great Dockyard, overlooking the end of the Golden Horn at sunset, Peter turned and pointed to the scene at his feet, and said to Gawain, who was standing beside him.

"We don't need such a magnificent ship."

"This is a trick of the Roman emperors, they always bluff, they will also hold a pile of gold dust in the envoy's apartment in the palace of Juquintina, pretend to pay the salary to the small officials in person, deliberately let the foreign envoys see it, to give people the illusion that the empire is extremely rich." Peter smiled, and then in the sound of the waves, he took out the guide, "But Brother Gawain, it's a pity, the emperor gave me only one guide." ”

Gawain was stunned, he didn't know what this meant.

"You stay here, under the feather of the Empress of Ten Thousand Cities, and I go back, there is no need to keep my promise, everything is arranged by the Lord." After Peter finished speaking, he slowly led the way into the box, "Maybe in three years, we can meet again, and then you can fully respect your wishes, and then continue to choose, either stay in Constantinople, or go with me to the tomb of the Lord." ”

"The pilgrimage will not succeed, or rather, your ideal action will not succeed. On the contrary, only an unscrupulous iron-blooded leader like Bohemond can reap the benefits of the pilgrimage you instigate. Gawain couldn't help it, "For your hopes, it will not be possible to realize them in the future." ”

When Peter heard this, he smiled slightly, and raised the simple cross on his chest and placed it across his jaw, "God is the future, isn't he?" If we give up pursuing it because of this, then I don't deserve it. ”

"But!"

Peter raised his hand and put it on Gawain's forehead, signaling that he needed no further persuasion, and then he took out the piece of bread that was completely hard from the baggage roll, and said to Gawain, "It is the Lord's Eucharist, and although there is no red wine here, you can eat it as a farewell between us." ”

Gawain slowly lifted the piece, and when he and Peter met in Nicaea, he had collected the bread from the corpse and bit it into his mouth.

Then Peter, suddenly, drew a cross on his forehead, and the sound of the waves burst again in front of the breakwater at his feet, "Actually, Brother Gawain, you have deceived me, you are not a baptized believer at all, are you?" ”

Gawain's eyebrows, which were biting the bread, moved, he didn't know how, or when, Peter saw through it.

"Because it is impossible for believers who have been baptized by the Danish Catholic Church to eat this leavened bread at the sacrament, the communion bread of the Catholic Church is unfermented." After Peter finished speaking, he put away his fingers, "But it doesn't matter, I've already said it, I'm just a person who cares about the future." ”

Then he clenched the jujube cane in his hand, "Take care, I wish you well." Also, don't use that sword of yours lightly, or it will make you fall into the abyss. ”

Gawain leaned over to see that Peter's amber rosary hung from the hilt of his sword of phosphorus fire, which was about his parting gift.

"There's still a passenger on this ship." With this voice, the two looked behind them, only to see Idorus, who was covered in a thick cloak, standing at the corner of the city gate, looking at them with a bitter smile.

Idorus, who had been wearing a beautiful crown and a white silk shoulder strap of the Holy Cross, suddenly turned into a dress like an old country coachman, so that Gawain and Peter did not turn around for a while. But then Idorus's expression became open-minded, "You were not able to watch the results of the doctrinal debate, and finally the emperor himself decreed that I should be excommunicated from the sect. ”

Why did Alexios do this? Even the Patriarch Maastas was puzzled, and he himself thought it was a very ordinary imperial debate, and as long as Idorus could give up "the pursuit of the wisdom of the ancient pagans", he would be at ease.

But the emperor did not do it, and Alexios only said one sentence, "The mayor's postman has told me that Idorus has said that he would rather pursue the wisdom of the ancient pagan Plato than the empty and stupid doctrines, and that he dared to secretly perform the dissection of the human body in the Basilica of St. John, and that he had to give a break down order, and that Idorus had been deceived by the devil and exiled him to the island of Tirasium." ”

This is the emperor's decision, Idorus sighed at this time, "Maybe I really slipped into the abyss of depravity, indeed I said such words, I still think that God should care for people, and the apostles of God are like this, just like the ancient pagan texts, human wisdom is the size of everything, human happiness is everything in this world, and with these to pursue the future kingdom of heaven." ”

Then the three of them were silent, and for a long time Peter said to Idorus, "You are the doctrine of the devil." ”

"Then take the devil to a desolate island." Idorus didn't refute, closed his eyes, and spoke quietly.

At this time, a gorgeous shoulder, led by a team of guards, also came to a place close to them and stopped.