For different positions and perspectives, later generations have mixed evaluations of King Duris I, but King Duris has one thing that is recognized by later generations as a great thing that other monarchs at the time were ashamed of and incomparable - in his harem, Queen Catherine had only one companion. As a powerful king for a while, what kind of woman did he want?, but King Duris never took the initiative to ask for it, and he also politely refused the marriage requests of countless princes and nobles, except for Queen Catherine, who did not have any other concubines.

The extent to which he and the queen had a deep relationship is impossible for outsiders to know, and later generations generally believe that it is precisely because of the loyalty and determination of King Duris that Queen Catherine and Queen Dieucalyptus, who succeeded him successively, unswervingly implemented the reforms and policies of King Duris, and the Pole Kingdom, which is known as the "door to the new world", will not be forced to close after being pushed open a crack in the door.

......

The heavy iron door of the cell was pushed open with a "babbling".

Locked in the cell was a petite girl.

She was dressed in a thin garment, which Queen Catherine had ordered to be put on her. Because the prisoner was naked when she was caught, Queen Catherine did not let her be put naked in her cell out of respect for the dignity of her fellow woman, but she was no less tortured.

His long messy hair was stained with blood, his hands and feet were tightly chained, and the whole person was fixed to the torture instrument in the shape of a "ten". A pair of sharp iron hooks pierced the lute bones of her shoulders, causing her to lift her head up in a half-hanging position. But even so, the prison side was still not at ease, so that even the joints on her limbs were firmly nailed up by iron nails.

When Queen Catherine came to her, the prisoner was recuperating with her eyes closed—even this posture was extremely uncomfortable.

"Hmph, are you finally coming to kill me? The female prisoner sneered. She didn't open her eyes, but she knew who was coming by the sound and smell alone.

"Kill you, it's easy to let you die, it's too cheap for you, you killed my husband, I want to break you to pieces, Jana. Queen Catherine made no secret of her anger.

On that tragic Christmas Eve, Queen Catherine's husband lost her life, and the werewolves who invaded the inner court of the palace were defeated by Sophia, and were also defeated by the royal army. In the first few days of her detention, all the torture in the prison was inflicted on her, but after so many busy days, the name "Jana" was the only information that could be obtained from her mouth.

"And what are you waiting for?" said Jaanna, in a nonchalant tone. She is not afraid of death, but as a person who has already died once, she has also endured so much torture, and it is useless to use death as a means of threat.

"Nope. I'm not going to kill you. Catherine said, "On the contrary, I was about to let you go." ”

Hearing this, Janna finally opened her eyes, and she looked at Catherine with a look of disbelief in her eyes.

"You don't have to doubt it. I really planned to let you go. You're useless if you continue to be locked up. Catherine reached out and grabbed Jana's neck and said in a cold tone, "Although you are young, you are also a wise woman, so I will not beat around the bush with you." When hunters catch a little fox, they will deliberately let it go in order to find the fox's nest. ”

Jane was almost choked by Her Majesty the Queen, but when she heard Catherine's words, she knew that she still had a chance to be free, and her eyes, which had already given up, burned with hope again.

However, Jaanna was overjoyed too soon. Catherine let go of the hand that was holding Jana's neck, but quickly pulled out a dagger and plunged it into Jana's stomach.

"You ......" didn't expect Catherine to suddenly stab her with a knife, and Jaina was angry and angry.

"I almost forgot to tell you that the hunter will pull a thin thread on the little fox before letting it go. ”

With that, Catherine pushed the entire dagger into it.

"Ahhh......hh

The girl's screams resounded throughout the gloomy palace prison......

At this time, in another prison, another prisoner was being held at about the same time, but he was not as lucky as Jane to have a chance of regaining his freedom.

Carl Morethim, one of the twelve paladins and captain of the Templar Order of Light and Dignity. More than half a year ago, during the battle of the vampire invasion of the Holy City, he stepped forward to fight the Black Fox, one of the Eight Sages of the Blood Clan, and after the "Holy City Rebellion" ended, he led his subordinates to take decisive and resolute measures to quickly stabilize the situation in the Central Church that had lost the Pope, until the transfer of power to the Cardinal. It can be said that the central court is now able to continue to function, and the cardinal council is able to take sole power, and Karl is indelible.

However, this hard-working paladin has become a prisoner at this moment.

The "Purifiers" secret service units were attacked everywhere in the Papal Dominion, but the murderers were never found, and under the tremendous pressure of the Cardinals, the "Purifiers" could only arrest people indiscriminately. Unfortunately, several knightly officers in the "Bright Dignity" Legion became "substitutes" because of an inexplicable report letter. Of course, Karl Morethm would not believe the accusations of the "Purifier", and this upright paladin vouched for the innocence of his subordinates and was voluntarily imprisoned in the prison of the "Purifier".

However, after more than half a month of continuous interrogation, they were never able to pry any useful confession from Karl's mouth; on the contrary, the "purifier" agents who participated in Karl's interrogation were also refuted by the righteous Karl speechless. When normal means fail, the despicable "purifiers" resort to rumor-mongering and smearing. They forged Carl Moreth's so-called "confession of guilt", fabricated an unjust case and falsely claimed that Carl was the mastermind of a series of attacks, and even smeared the exploits of the vampires that Carl was the enemy of the "Holy City Rebellion" as his "conspiracy" to deliberately let the vampires go.

When all the charges have been settled, the next step is the execution. However, because of Carl's high prestige, the "Purifiers" did not dare to execute Carl publicly, so they had to secretly execute Carl in prison and quickly bury the body without any news leaking out. However, the day after Karl was executed, the news of the death of the heroic paladin had already spread throughout the Papal Dominion.

The long-standing resentment of the people was ignited by the death of Carl Morethim, and from the Holy City onwards, revolts broke out in many cities of the Papal Dominion against the reign of "Holy Terror". Attacks on the Purifiers went from clandestine to overt, with the revolting populace, aided by large numbers of weapons provided by unidentified supporters, attacking the Purifiers' strongholds, storming prisons, freeing prisoners, and then adding more prisoners and populace to the revolt. The revolt against the "Purifiers" spread like a prairie fire throughout the Papal Dominion.

This result was unexpected by the Cardinals and the "Purifiers", who had to resort to more brutal means of suppression in order to close the loopholes that had been broken everywhere. The situation in the Central Church as a whole has deteriorated further.