When the head rolled off, Miss Elizabeth was so frightened that she fainted on the spot. The people around her hurriedly helped her up, and it was a mess.

The Marquis of Summers became interested in the weaker and beautiful girl, and sent one of his men to ask if he needed help. A bottle of sniff salt, with a little brandy, woke up the fainting girl quickly. She was not the kind of person who was ungrateful, and she had to thank the Marquis in person for everything.

And so the meeting took place.

Despite the age gap between the two men of more than fifty years, the young pretty girl still showed strong admiration and affection for the old marquis. She told a lot of the glorious deeds of the marquis in his youth, which made the old marquis laugh out loud. The conversation between the two was very lively, and the friendly relationship soon developed in a more intimate direction.

A little over a month later, they got married.

Commoner, and another layer of Elizabeth, who was the daughter of the owner of the sausage shop, became the Marquise of Summers. It's no different from a crow turning into a golden phoenix.

From then on, women must "faint" when watching the execution, only in this way can they show their gentleness and virtuousness, which stimulates men's strong willingness to protect, promote mutual understanding, from friends to lovers, and then talk about marriage and a series of actions.

The Duke of Calis had heard the story and had even met the young marquise.

The Marquis of Summers was an old acquaintance, and he was well acquainted with the late grandfather of the Duke of Calis. But after all, he is old and unable to do many things. When he had been in the city of Gabriel a few years earlier, the Duke of Calis had several meetings with the young lady at the Marquis' Palace. Because of their handsomeness and status, the two develop an intimate relationship that goes beyond friendship.

Of course, the Marquis himself did not know about this. The old man felt that it was normal for the young daughter-in-law's belly to bulge, and it was the best manifestation of his physical ability to still be strong.

Walking through the square, you soon entered the exclusive forbidden area of the Holy See.

The soldier in charge of the guard checked the identification of Duke Calis and his guards, nodded, and turned sideways to let them in.

The church of Gabriel is still majestic, with colorful glass inlaid with legends about the Holy Lord. The dome and the surrounding walls are beautifully painted in oil, a huge project that took hundreds of painters three years to complete. The corridors and cubicles are specially designed to have a special effect on both light and echo, making people feel as if they are in a holy realm, and then produce instinctive worship.

A black-clad deacon, who had received the news early and was waiting at the door of the church, led the unarmed Duke through the corridor to the Pope's resting room.

It was an old man in good spirits. He wears a white church robe, a skullcap, and a delicate rice-shaped rack encrusted with expensive gems on his chest.

"Your Majesty!" The Duke of Calis knelt at the Pope's feet and kissed the toes of the old man's shoes. His tone was full of repentance: "I have failed your expectations. ”

The Pope smiled and waited patiently for the Duke to straighten up from the ground and stand in front of him in a humble posture.

He waved his hand, his face covered with old age spots full of kindness: "My child, you have done a good job. Victory or defeat, all this is the will of the Holy Lord. ”

Duke Calis clenched his fists hard, and his eyes showed a deep remorse: "I failed to capture the Lock Dragon Pass, and the kingdom alliance army suffered heavy losses. Now, the king and the nobles were no longer interested in my lobbying plans. In a short period of time, it is difficult to say that they will be moved to send troops again. ”

The Pope, who had been sitting in the high-backed chair without moving, looked at the Duke with pity: "This is normal. The Lock Dragon Pass is the biggest reliance of the giants in the north, not to mention that they also have a guardian spirit. This has been going on for a long time, and we are no match for it. ”

Calis's eyes were slightly red: "What should we do?" Is it going to just wait? 10 years, 20 years, 30 years...... When will the north be conquered? ”

The elderly pope did not speak, he was thinking quietly.

"Conquest" is a topic of interest to all men, and the Pope himself is no exception.

The continent at your feet is in an irregular trapezoidal shape. The north is the narrow upper end, and the south is the wide flat lower end. In fact, the defense line of Suolong Pass does not divide the mainland from the middle in the true sense, and the southern territory is larger than the northern part of the territory in terms of area and continental shelf extending towards the sea. However, from the sky, the mountain range that formed the defense line of Suolong Pass crossed the continent and was close to the position of the two sides being equally divided.

In the southern part of the continent, there is an extremely large part of the tropics, where the plants grow so vigorously that they can even grow three times a year. Coupled with the potato and maize, two high-yielding crops, food shortages have never led to social problems in the history of the Five Kingdoms and the Holy See. On the contrary, an abundance of food makes the common people well-being, which also brings all kinds of troubles.

The biggest problem is the lack of land. It was impossible for the nobles to give up the wealth they already had, and the commoners wanted more benefits. In the early history of the Southern Continent, wars broke out between the five kingdoms, and each fought for land. If it were not for the mediation of the Holy See, the war would most likely continue to this day, and it would not be possible to form a coalition for a common purpose and attack the north of the continent as it is now.

Giants are monsters.

Such a view has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. All kingdoms have horror stories like "giants eating people". They are savage and ignorant, their pronunciation is strange, and their unique language system is even more difficult to understand. In contrast, letters like ABCD are slippery and smooth, catchy to read, and easy to understand.

There are two best ways to solve the land problem.

The first, send a fleet of ships to search for a new continent from the sea.

The kings were highly unanimous in their thinking on this matter, and the great age of sailing arrived. However, the harsh reality has taught all those who have illusions a lesson———— because the level of technology is too low, it is difficult for sea ships at this stage to sail long distances. There are many reasons for this: the use of the sails, the structure of the hull itself, the measurement of speed and current, food and water, etc......

One of the most troublesome problems, and one that has not been solved so far, is scurvy.

The word "scurvy" is derived from genetic memory. Doctors don't know why the word "scurvy" comes to mind when they first see a patient. They are helpless about it, and every year the royal family allocates large sums of money to openly seek effective solutions, but time and time again, they fail and no one receives a high reward.

The thirst for land was so strong that, despite all the difficulties, the kingdoms did not give up. With the staggering cost of losses, they gradually explored the waters around the mainland and discovered and occupied a number of islands.

This was not enough to satisfy the appetites of the kings, much less to solve the country's growing population.

New ships are being launched every week, and more sailors are setting sail with dreams and fortunes. They are real warriors, only reality is grossly out of step with fantasy. Storms, reefs, confused currents, disease...... There is simply no disproportion between the exploratory expenditure and the harvest. Over time, the disheartened kings had to shrink the amount of funds earmarked for ocean exploration and turn their attention to the north of the continent.

Yes, the second solution is to break through the Dragon Lock Pass, kill all the giants, and occupy the northern lands.

In any respect, this is much more reliable than the first method, and there is no need to pin your hopes on ethereal luck.

When gunpowder was successfully developed and hot weapons were fully popularized in the armies of various countries, the incumbent pope was keenly aware that the opportunity to solve the problem had come.

He quickly smashed his head in the face of the harsh reality———— and the northern giant summoned a metal monster that was formidable in terms of combat power and performance. There is no better option than to turn around and run away.

White infiltration into the northern part of the continent is also underway. The giants are not monolithic, and there are traitors among them. The name "Patron Saint" soon became known to kings and nobles, and the rough situation between the tribes of the northern continent was gradually discovered.

From the very beginning, the study of Perias was valued by the current pope. The appearance of Migael's Forty-Fourth Elixir was refreshing to him. Although the agent has strong side effects, it is easy to produce and inexpensive, and in general the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Because of this, the Pope decided to take the lead in the Rhine kingdom where Calis was located, unite with other kingdoms, and attack the northern part of the continent again.

Calis's family had a close relationship with the Holy See, and successive heads of the family were fanatics. In particular, Calis's great-grandfather even conspired with the Pope at the time to stage a coup d'état, kill the king, and merge the Rhine Kingdom with the Holy See, and he himself only wanted to obtain the identity of a cardinal leader.

The hopeful war was lost again.

Although this happened several years ago, the Pope still remembers the word "failure" vividly.

Sighing to himself, the Pope beckoned to Calis: "Come here, my child. ”

The Duke stepped forward and stood less than a meter away from the Pope.

"The reason why it took so long to summon you is not because of the defeat last time, but because I have other ideas for the next plan." The Pope's cloudy eyes flashed with a different kind of gaze: "We are bound to the northern continent, whether it is the land or the giant slaves, we can fundamentally solve the problems we face." I still say the same thing: Don't be discouraged, have faith that the Lord will bless us with victory. ”

Calis had listened to the words of encouragement on this scene too much and had developed immunity. But in any case, the majesty of the Pope cannot be violated. He could only bow his head and say respectfully, "Praise the Holy Lord." ”

"Praise be to the Holy Lord." The Pope observed his mood changes and smiled faintly: "Child, you must think that I am perfunctory to you?" ”

Calis hurriedly shook his head: "No, you are the most intelligent existence in the world. ”

The Pope continued with a smile: "Your loyalty to the Lord is evident to all. Kid, you're not an outsider, it's time to show you something else. ”

Calis was confused when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, "Your Majesty, what are you referring to?" ”

The Pope grabbed the red drawstring on the side of the chair and tugged hard, and with the crisp sound of the bell, a middle-aged deacon in a black robe walked in.

"His name is Joseph." The Pope raised his arm and pointed at the visitor: "You follow him, go." ”

Immediately, the Pope turned his gaze to Joseph and casually ordered: "You take Calis with you, let him see the four and six." ”

The middle-aged clergyman nodded, did not speak, saluted, and left the papal rest room with the duke.

……

Head south along the winding promenade and out into the backyard of Gabriel's Church and into a completely unfamiliar area of Calis.

It's heavily guarded.

The Duke swore that it was the strongest white soldier he had ever seen.

They are one head taller than the average person, about two meters. The body is covered with solid alloy armor, and he is armed with an arquebus, and a sharp knife that can be drawn with a backhand hangs from his back. These people's skin was white, but it had a rather strange dark red. The tight steel armor covered the whole body, but through their burly and tall figures, one could imagine the muscles as hard as steel beneath the armor.

Calis found that their armor had rice frames carved on the surface, indicating that these people were direct guards of the Holy See. But he had never seen these faces before, and he was very unfamiliar.

Joseph whispered a few words to the leading soldiers, who glanced at the Duke and ordered the soldiers to remove the barricades, open the iron gate to the two-story building in front of them, and let them in.

Rock steps lead to the ground, and heavily armed guards can still be seen inside the building. Joseph took the torch from one of the guards, held it up like that, and walked down the spiral staircase. The dim light of the fire flickered, casting black shadows on the crooked walls and steps of the lower field. It is as if this is a world inhabited by devils, connected to the legendary Yellow Spring.

After walking for nearly five minutes, I finally came to the bottom of the building.

In front of me, there are two passages that cross each other and form a "ten" shape.

There are more torches stuck in the walls here.

Joseph turned, his face especially pale in the light of the shaking fire. He didn't say anything along the way, and only now did he start asking, "Which one do you want to see first?" Four, or six? ”

Calis didn't like the place and didn't like Joseph the person. But he believed that the Pope would not make his own unfavorable move, so he casually said: "Number four! ”

After all, this number is at the top.

Joseph took the Duke to the left and entered the promenade for about four hundred meters, stopping in front of an iron gate painted with the number "4" painted in white. He transferred the torch in his right hand to his left hand, took out a bunch of keys from his pocket, found the exact correspondence, inserted it directly into the lock hole, and rotated it vigorously to open the iron door.

When he walked in, Joseph casually said, "This is number four." There are also 401, 402, 403...... Lined up until 499. But each one is the same, there is no difference. Once you've seen this, I don't think you'll be interested in the other rooms. ”