"As far as I know," said the knight from the royal capital, covering his hollow eyes, "the noble and glorious Norman King of the Highlands is a wise and far-sighted man, and he has let the dwarves take enough money from him to forge a golden castle, and for this fee, the ten lords of Thundercastle have been in a state of abject poverty and debt for the rest of their lives, and this is what the dwarves have done?

"Why not," said Berdwin, "it buried nearly 10,000 orcs, and it was only the inner city that had collapsed, and the triple fort, walls, and moat were all unharmed, and they could be restored to their original state with a few spells from the mage." ”

"But what about your city?" said the knight of the royal capital.

"It can always be rebuilt. Berdwin said.

"I don't think they'll be able to continue living here without any guilt after seeing this. The prince's henchman shook his head and said, "The dwarves are crazy. ”

From the top of the city walls, you can see a fairly neat rectangular depression that resembles a stone sunk into the snow, and the stone is full of cracked and toppled toy huts, and the corpses of the orcs are covered in dust and look like small particles of dirt scattered everywhere.

"At least this war is over. Birdwin said that he had never felt it would be difficult to rebuild the city of Thundercastle, and that like the Elven White Tower, the Wouldkins chose to live here for a long time only to get more gold - and his city would continue to exist as long as Wuthering Plains remained, or more accurately, its gems, gold, pyroxene, and furs remained.

And the merchants would be pleased to learn that the orcs would be more eager to trade with humans, and they would need salt, and they would need copper, and iron, and slaves, and everything they had not plundered.

Or, Berdwin thought, he could do something that his previous lords had never done, he was tired of waiting for war.

But that will be a long time later. He had a lot of things to do—the corpses of the orcs to be burned, their bodies full of poisonous worms that would bring pestilence, his people and his soldiers...... The dead need to be buried, while the living need warm shelter, clean water, and plenty of food...... And the merchants...... The lord of Thundercastle considered that he should write a letter to the king's nephew, Dylan, his unrelated brother, the leader of a large guild, and like every time before, he would send his merchants to meet with Berdwin, who had to admit that they were very greedy, but likewise, they were also very good at handling all kinds of messy matters that Baldwin was not good at handling.

He could ask Dylan at the beginning of the text if he would sell him an entire city, and Berdwin smiled and Dylan would be ecstatic.

"My brother wrote to me and asked if I had an intact city for sale," said Dylan Donclay, holding up a piece of parchment, which was so curled that it was so curled that it was sent by a harrier eagle in a brass pipe.

Duke John frowned irritably, and he strode over, and with a rudeness rarely seen in him, he pulled out the parchment, and threw it directly into the blazing fireplace: "Don't make such a joke!" he sharply accused, "I don't have a nephew who got out of the skirt of a prostitute!"

Dylan shrugged indifferently, today he was wearing a full set of jewels set with mythril and obsidian, his robes and cloak were silver-white, and he was as cold and elusive as a river in the snow: "You are anxious, dear uncle," he asked suspiciously, "Why?"

"What else can I do for this!" said Duke John in a loud voice, "Birdwin, of course, my brother, your other uncle and the Norman king of the Highlands, wants to give him a grand triumph!" he walked up and down the room so quickly that the wind from his robe even affected the flames in the fireplace: "Ridiculous, ridiculous! Is this a victory? There are few knights and soldiers left, and his people are dead and wounded, and he says that he killed tens of thousands of orcs, but who can prove it? In fact, we only got a box of ashes! We couldn't even see an ear!"

"My merchant can prove it," said Dylan, giggling, "after all, it was none other than us who had summoned him to these troubles." ”

"Now is not the time to laugh," said Duke John, grimly, holding up a silk silk to cover his mouth, suppressing the urge to cough, "this trouble will soon befall us...... Embroidered on the tapestry—the blood of Norman will be the eternal shield and spear of Thundercastle—and our Majesty demands from me my knights and soldiers. ”

"It's not a law, it's just a tradition that's so old that it's about to be forgotten," Dylan said, "and you have the right to say no." ”

"But this will affect my prestige," Duke John coughed impatiently twice, then several more, and he could barely stop...... They'll think I'm a coward!"

"But you're not compromising. ”

"Thanks to my son, though he is only a little bastard of impure blood," said Duke John, "but his death has secured me a four-month reprieve, and with the time to prepare, I can delay it until midsummer, but before the early autumn I must hand over five hundred knights and two thousand soldiers—the gods are above, and if Birdwin is dead or convicted, as we have done before, I would rather do so, and what Morton Donclay took from you will be returned to you, but now ......"

"His Majesty is putting armor and a sword on his most powerful arm, and he doesn't seem to care much about the mask of hypocrisy for the sake of his daughter. ”

Dylan stroked the ring on his hand and chewed Berdwin's name between his teeth several times, "He pardoned the thief?"

"He must have taken pity on each other," said Duke John scoffed, "a pair of rats out of the gutter." ”

"What did your knight say?"

"A fool," said Duke John, "I will hang him as soon as he returns." ”

"I thought he was loyal to you. ”

"He is loyal not to the duke, but to the prince. "Duke John said that he was a duke with a vast fiefdom, and that because he was the king's younger brother and the only male heir, he also had the title of prince, but he maintained an attitude of abhorrence towards this so-called prince from the beginning to the end, because it could become a joke at any moment - if his niece Leona inherited the throne, the title would be immediately withdrawn.

"You just said four months......" Dylan asked, thinking, "So, this triumphal ceremony will take place in April?"

"Almost," said Duke John, "Thundercastle is no better than Whistling Plains now, and as a 'benevolent' lord, Baldwin will not watch his subjects freeze and starve to death, he will have to be busy for a while." ”

"I'll send my merchants over, and they'll keep a close eye on all the progress," said Dylan, "and when he returns to the capital, he'll receive a surprise gift." ”

"Oh, I almost forgot," cried the duke, in a false smirk, "did the little rose in the mountains accept a visit from the nightingale?"

"Of course. Dylan took off his headdress boredly, and put it back on, a green leaf pendant covering the faint scar above his brow: "That nightingale is the one of my most brilliant feathers and the most melodious singing—he has never suffered a frustration with a woman except Leona." ”

"I doubt my niece was born with a disease or an acquired quirk," said Duke John, "and she may not be very fond of men, Dylan, or you should let the other nightingales and cats test it, and of course the king can keep prostitutes, but a female crown prince who prefers to lie in the same bed with women will only be an ugly and disgusting monster." ”

Then he saw his nephew smile subtly after a moment of thought: "I once heard a rumor that sounded ridiculous......"

"Oh no, don't tell me Leona really likes women. ”

"No, I think she's still a man," Dylan clapped his hands happily, "It looks like we're going to have to work hard to prove it, and at some critical moment, it's sure to be able to surprise everyone." ”

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