"The secret of your background?" Catherine couldn't help but be stunned, "Aren't you the fourth prince of the Fayele Empire?" she looked at her husband in a daze, what secret was hidden behind this man?

But Duris did not answer her directly, but asked about some things that were not in harmony: "My dear, I ask you." When I first became the king of the kingdom of Pole, I reduced my taxes for three years to appease my heart, and compensated the lords for the money I had lost, the funds for the construction of dams in these years, the military expenses for the large-scale expansion of armaments and the purchase of war materials, which greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the king, the expenses for the activities of the spy organizations that were planted within the Papal Dominions and the Kingdom of Fayele, the expenses for the arrest of dangerous elements in order to maintain the minimum stability of the situation in the kingdom, the expenses for the diplomatic alliance with the Republic of Monis, and so on. These are the main contents of the financial expenditures of the Pole Kingdom after I ascended the throne, have you calculated how much all the funds add up, and where do these funds come from?"

"This ......"

Even if it wasn't carefully calculated, Catherine knew that this was a huge amount of money, and I am afraid that it would not even be comparable to all the financial revenues of the entire Pole Kingdom in 50 years combined. As for the source of this huge amount of money, Catherine has thought more than once, not only her, but many people in the three continents of Olopa are very puzzled why Duris can spend such a large amount of money, and the taxes and chambers of commerce of the Pole Kingdom itself cannot support it at all, even if he Duris draws blood from the Fayele Empire, it is impossible to do everything.

Seeing his wife's confused look, she probably couldn't guess it for the rest of her life, Duris smiled and solved the mystery: "Actually, before I came to the Pole Kingdom, I had a quarter of the wealth of an empire. ”

"What? No wonder the Fayale Empire is in decline, you scumbag. Catherine couldn't help but be frightened, if she was really a good ruler if she had fattened another country at the expense of her own country, as Duris had said?

Duris saw Catherine's thoughts, he patted her on the shoulder, soothing her slightly fluctuating feelings, "It's not that I shirk responsibility, in my heart, the decline of the Fayale Empire is a bane that my father planted during his reign, and it has nothing to do with me. When I left the Fayele Empire, I took only my army with me, not a single ear of wheat or a single gold coin from the treasury. ”

"But you didn't mean ......?"

"By 'empire', I don't mean the Fayale Empire, but the ancient empire that was ten times more powerful than Fayale, the Thumiro Empire. ”

Hearing this, Catherine became more and more nervous. Anyone who has studied history knows that the ancient Thumiro Empire was a vast empire that almost unified Olopa, and its power was unprecedented—however, those are already buried in the dust of history. How could her husband have anything to do with an ancient empire that fell more than a thousand years ago?

After selling so many passes, Duris finally got to the point: "The last monarch of the Thumiro Empire, Mondrien the Great, on the eve of the collapse of the empire, sensed that the edifice was about to fall, so he took precautions to divide all the wealth in the imperial treasury into four parts, and buried them in four secret locations to prepare for the future restoration of the country. And the only people who know the location of the buried treasure are the descendants of Mondrien the Great. ”

"Since only the descendants of Mondrien the Great know the secret location of the treasure, do you ...... then" Catherine finally understood what Duris was referring to, but it sounded too panicked.

Duris nodded slightly, confirming the truth of the matter.

It took Catherine a lot of time to come to terms with this fact. Because there were too many questions, she pondered in her mind for a few seconds before asking the most critical one of all the questions: "So, the royal family of the Fayele Empire, the Heather family, is the royal descendant of the ancient Shumiro Empire?"

"No, the Heath family has nothing to do with the descendants of Shumiro. ”

"Could it be that you are not the fourth prince of the Fayale Empire at all?"

"Not really. I am a true royal child of the Fayale Empire, and I am also a descendant of the royal family of the Thumiro Empire. I am the only person in the world who has both royal bloodlines at the same time. ”

"What do you mean by that?" said Catherine, confused again.

"Actually, my royal lineage of Shumiro comes from my mother's line. "More than a thousand years ago, after the fall of the Thumiro Empire, although ostensibly divided into three states, that is, the precursors of the current Pole Kingdom, the Holy Olufe Kingdom, and the Fayele Empire. But all three secessionist states were soaked in the central church, and the royal families that had ruled the country were overthrown and slaughtered. The Central Church wiped out the bloodline of the Thumiro royal family, but the Thumiro royal family had one line that escaped from the butcher's knife of the Central Church, that is, the eldest son of Mondrien the Great, the only one who knew the secret of the treasure. In order to avoid the eyes and ears of the Central Church, they buried their names, endured humiliation, and secretly survived. In order to ensure the safety of secrets, there is only one person in each generation who knows secrets, and they are passed down orally from generation to generation, with very few side branches, and most of them are only children. So until my mother's generation, it was already the twelfth generation. ”

"I see. For the sake of the thousand-year-old dream of recovering the country, they, the remnants of Xiumiro, needed the treasures, but they did not have the ability to take out the treasures without alarming the Central Church or other forces, otherwise the treasures would have been taken out in the past 1,700 years. So, they have to do it with the help of other forces. In your mother's generation, there was nothing more powerful than the Franco-Yale Empire, which was in full swing at the time. Therefore, as long as she can marry into the Fayale royal family, she and her children will become members of the Fayale royal family, and with this important status, it will facilitate future actions. Catherine relied on her years of experience in espionage and a meticulous mind to gradually deduce the truth of the matter.

"Huh. Duris smiled slightly, kissed his wife on the cheek, and responded, "You are a very smart woman, but your assumptions could be a little bolder." ”

"What do you mean?"

"My mother, she originally wanted me to seize the throne of the Fayeru Empire, and after becoming the Fayeru Emperor, restore my original surname, and then revive the Shumiro Empire. Therefore, since I was a child, she has been strictly training me, combat training, command art, history, economics, statecraft, and espionage knowledge...... These were pretty much my childhoods. ”

"However, instead of becoming the emperor of the Fayale Empire, you became the king of King Pole instead. ”

"Alas, my mother, she failed to judge the situation and overestimated my abilities. "My mother's status in the Fayele Empire is that of a declining nobleman, with few connections in the court and the opposition, and when I was born, my elder brothers had almost established their own power, and my young son, no matter how good his personal ability was, could not match their power. It's a miracle that I'm alive, and to say that fighting for power with the three of them is a suicidal act. ”

"How is that possible? none of your three imperial brothers are better than you. Catherine was not very pleased with her husband's self-indulgence.

"That's not necessarily, the predecessor of the Fayye Empire, the Duchy of Heath, is in the land of four wars, and the territory and population are not dominant, but it can finally stand out in the battle for many principalities, unify the central area of the glorious continent, and establish the current Fayale Empire, the people of the Heath royal family are not to be underestimated, from the Duchie of Heath to the Fayer Empire, the successor of such a generation of monarchs, even if there have been tyrants, but there has never been a faint monarch. You think that none of my three royal brothers can compare to me, but in fact, if I didn't have that treasure, I wouldn't be as good as any of them. Even the Third Emperor Brother Xia Kepil, who has always been considered the most wasteful, hasn't he already gained power now?"

"But Shakopil, he's not ......"

"I know, but even with the help of the Central Church, Shakpier succeeded in the end. History only remembers the result, not the process. Therefore, my mother asked me to seize the throne, which was impossible from the beginning. However, I still used the qiē she gave me to compete for the position of garrison on the northeastern border, and from then on, I managed to survive and establish my own power in the army. And quite fortunately, the first treasure buried by the Shumiro Empire is located on the border between the current Fayale Empire and the Vimumen Kingdom, that is, in the area where I was originally stationed. ”

"So, that's where you call 'a quarter of an empire' comes from!"

"That's right. The generation of our ancestors, up to my mother's generation, dreamed of reviving the empire, and they carried too much and gave too much, and before they knew it, they entered a dead end and ruined their freedom. Who knows that history is irreversible, and recovering a dynasty that has disappeared for thousands of years is simply wishful thinking. Unlike my mother, I didn't think about reviving the Shumiro Empire at all, all I wanted to do was to use this wealth to create my ideal kingdom. ”

"That's why you invaded the Kingdom of Pole back then? I see, the reason why you chose to establish your dynasty in the Kingdom of Pole instead of the Kingdom of Vimumen, which you are familiar with, is because the location of the second treasure is located in the Kingdom of Pole, and it must be under the Lord's Mansion in Ensogui. Catherine speculated as to why Duris had sent her to take the form of "Lady Lily" and infiltrate a small city of Enso's return.

"The secret of the treasure that my family has kept for generations is actually only known about the location of the first treasure, and the clues about the second treasure are hidden in the first treasure, and thirty years ago, I also deduced from the clues left by the first treasure that the second treasure is in the city of Ensogui of King Pole, where there may be clues to the location of the third treasure, so I must keep Ensogui in my hands. In my estimation, the wealth of the second treasure is enough to increase the economic and military strength of the Pole Kingdom by 1 to 2 times on the existing basis. That's why I had to go to the city of Enso in person. ”

"As long as it is for the future of the kingdom, I will support you in all your actions. Even if it's not for the country, you are my husband, and no matter what decisions you make, I will be on your side unconditionally. ”

"Thank you. Duris hugged his beloved wife tighter, "It's just that things are not as simple as you think. Because there are others who covet these treasures. ”

"You mean, the Central Church?"

"Who else but them?" the Central Curia was all in the place, and they knew from the beginning that Emperor Mondrien had put over the wealth of the Thumiro Empire. In order to get the treasure, they lost their conscience, and in the more than 1,000 years since the fall of the Shumiro Empire, they captured the descendants of the Shumiro royal family all over the world. ”

"You should be fine, didn't you just say that no one else knows the location of the treasure except your mother's line. ”

"That's right. But this sentence can only be placed in the past, and now I am afraid that they already know it. ”

"Why?"

"Going back to the question I asked you earlier, have you ever thought about where the huge sum of money I paid for governing the Kingdom of Pole over the years came from? I know you must have thought about it, not only you, but many people, including the Central Church. ”

"You mean, the Central Church deduced from the unusual financial expenditures of the Bole Kingdom that you are a descendant of the royal family of the Shumiro Empire?"

"Ten of the best. I think this is the fundamental reason why the Central Curia wants the Kingdom of St. Olufe to secretly unite with the Orc Kingdom and plot to attack the Kingdom of Pouler. ”

"It's horrible. Catherine shuddered, "Listening to you like this, I only learned the true horror of the Central Church today. Although we successfully dismantled the plot of the Holy Olufei Kingdom and the Orc Kingdom last year, the Central Church will definitely not give up and will definitely do everything possible to sabotage it. ”

"I expected this to happen, so I prepared in advance. When I was stationed on the northeastern frontier of the Yale Empire, I had already begun to create an espionage organization within the Papal Dominion, called 'The Woods', which was directly accountable to me, and even the officials of Fox knew about it. Over the years, the 'Forest' has been providing me with the movements of the Central Church and has made great contributions, but ......" Speaking of this, Duris's body stiffened, and his emotions fluctuated a little, "A few months ago, the 'Forest' was destroyed by the Central Church, and almost all the front-line backbones were lost. ”

"Oh my God. ”

"Fortunately, though," his body gradually relaxed, and his emotions returned to normal, "although the 'woods' were destroyed, the 'fish' were still there. ”

"Fish?"

"This is another spy organization that I have infiltrated into the Central Church. Although the 'Fish' was established later than the 'Woods', all of the 'Fish' members have been dormant since they joined the group, and they are more stealthy than the 'Woods'. ”

Hearing this, Catherine probably understood Duris's intentions: "Why do you want to sue me about this? Since it is an intelligence agency that is personally responsible for you, even your relatives have no right to know." But you said it because you wanted me to join the 'fish'. ”

"So a smart woman is the most worthy of pain. Duris kissed his beloved wife again, "It's not that you join the 'fish', but I want you to take over the affairs of the 'fish' for the time being, because in the next period of time, I may not be able to deal with the 'fish' matter personally." ”

"I—shall I?" Catherine was startled, for she did not expect her king's husband to give her such a heavy burden.

"Yes. Duris gave the queen a reassurance, "Because the information transmission of the 'fish school' only recognizes the code name and does not recognize the person." ”

"Codename!

"Your code name is the same as mine: Jaws. ”。

(l~1`x*>+``+