Volume 1 The Dark Gold Puppet of the Empire Chapter 24 God and the Devil
6,000-word chapters, ask for collection~)
Hera Bolseforler looked sideways at the little Mary's guillotine in the middle of the square, and it seemed that a light shone from the gloomy sky, reflecting the bright red guillotine in warmth, and she had already bet herself on a man like a red-eyed gambler, and she found that instead of betraying the heaviness of the old faith, the new faith brought her a strange serenity at the first time.
In the knightly world that seems to be stiff and pedantic, but there is a hidden mystery, only the main faith link can reflect a lot of information about the knight himself, [main source] has eight systems, the great knight Hera once majored in [Honor] in [Justice], honor is one of the eight systems, she chose to follow Augustine after the collapse of the two major beliefs of justice and sacrifice, majoring in the [Family] in the main system [Loyalty], and giving up any minor, which means that the higher her future rank, the higher her loyalty to Rotonchild.
Honor, loyalty, and the [love] chosen by the Grand Knight Descartes are the most popular sources of faith in the main system, while the [Piety], which should have an absolute advantage in numbers under the light of the Holy See, is extremely bleak, even if the great knights in the Holy See Knights are often symbolic minors [Piety], and the knights who major in piety are the rarest "fools" on the list of Imperial Coffin Knights, which has always made the leaders of the Holy See linger.
"You might as well try a minor in [Love]. Augustine walked across the square into Henry Street, and finally stopped, waiting for the female knight to stand parallel to him.
Under normal circumstances, a wise nobleman would not take the initiative to ask his subordinate to minor in [Love] on the premise of majoring in [Family Loyalty], after all, the two are too prone to violent conflicts, and once Hu deviates from the beloved faith role from the family, it may directly destroy the knight's main faith.
"Can you bring me love?" Hera said disdainfully, she chose family loyalty over personal loyalty, she didn't want to have an ambiguous intersection with the sinister and cunning Augustine, but it was the vileness and shamelessness of the archon that gave her the desire to choose to believe in Rotonchild, who may not be a mature female knight, but she was also the only heir to the "savior" who had witnessed too many fights in the Saxon forest.
"Whether I can bring you love or not, it's hard to say now, but at least I can give my beautiful knight a bouquet of roses. Augustine laughed, and waved at a simple girl who sold roses, and the girl in a shabby-faced face trotted over, and Augustine gave her a silver bourbon coin that could buy at least two baskets of bright roses, not to mention that the roses in her basket were really not delicate.
In the Saxons, where the soil is as barren as love, Andrei's daughter rejects all male intimacy.
So this is the first time Hera has met a man who sends her flowers, and it is a big handful, but the only imperfect may be the female knight who hesitates to take the flowers, and she has long been accustomed to being squeezed out of the poor Saxons by the careful calculation, and her biggest thought, in addition to being surprised and shy, is that Augustine should not waste Bourbon silver coins.
It seems that Herawan's reluctance to choose family loyalty is the right path that will save her from many detours.
Hera's body instinctively lunged towards Augustine, blocking between Augustine and the flower girl.
A sharp Trojan dagger that is essential for the assassin industry stabbed Hera who was holding flowers, and this sharp dagger should have pierced the heart of the man behind her, Hera smiled bitterly in her heart, is this family loyalty? Unfortunately, I am no longer a great knight.
Hera's flower-holding hand hung down slightly, welcoming death that was a little sooner than she expected.
However, the dagger was not able to pierce her plump chest, which still bore the marks of the whip, and she saw the sinister face with the strange smile distort instantly, and then the female assassin flew out like a kite, and before she fell to the ground, she was blasted into a piece of charcoal by a large string of high-density magic balls gushing out from behind Hera.
Hera turned her head and saw a familiar and unfamiliar face with a gentle mask.
Is this the man who threw the whip at her naked in the carriage?
She retracted her mind and frowned, "Why just cut off this clue, maybe you can get valuable information from her mouth." β
"Do you know how many people in the empire want me to die in this kind of childish assassination within half a year? In A Clockwork Orange, at least half of the Marceau nobles bet that I would be killed within a month, and it is said that the underground casino in the imperial capital has accumulated nearly 9 million Caesar gold coins to bet on the news of my death within half a year, and the assassin of this level can only be the handiwork of a middle-class nobleman who doubted my identity in A Clockwork Orange just now. β
Augustine smiled, squatted down, picked up a rose that had fallen from Hera's hand, handed it to her, and lowered his voice, "Anyway, I have a detailed list, these nobles, I will clean them up one by one according to the principle of proximity, so you have to hurry up, otherwise you will miss a lot of exciting shows." β
Miss Hera was dumbfounded.
"Do you know how many assassinations and sneak attacks I went through when I walked out of the city of Augs and the monastery of Maideola? 97. Augustine said lightly, gently lifting the collar of Hera's robe up, he had an almost deformed possessiveness of the woman he wanted to conquer, so once he became his woman, he didn't expect to wear God's most enduring bandeau evening dress in his life.
Hera's face was slightly red, but she still looked directly at Augustine and did not flinch.
"I like the pride of a beautiful knight, like a little Persian cat who likes to walk with her head held high. β
Augustine narrowed his eyes and smiled, the hand that was about to be withdrawn suddenly reached into her neckline, and as soon as he grasped Hera's suckling pigeon, which was not as big as Professor Shirley's but felt amazingly good, Augustine looked at the flushed face of shame, pinched it lightly, no longer had to inch in, retracted his hand, and blinked, "But the Persian cat does not make men willingly degenerate into lust-crazy breasts. β
At the critical moment when Hera was thinking about how to teach this honest erotic maniac a lesson, Augustine had successfully changed the subject, "Alright, we should go to Lolita and buy some slaves, and it will be up to Hera to pick them, about 60 to 80 young slaves in good physical condition, plus a dozen children with magical potential, they will all be under your jurisdiction in the future, if possible, they will be the first descendant youth army of our 'order' organization." β
"I have to determine what you're going to do with them and how long to cultivate. "Hera was a good military commander with an instinct to shine on the battlefield, and she has now begun to adapt to the transition from a slave to Augustine and a knight, after all, she can change from fighting with the Rothonchild family to having the opportunity to "purify" any nobleman within the empire, which is the dream of a Saxon forest warrior.
"At first, it was to help me construct a rough forbidden magic array, which is very large, definitely beyond the scope of your imagination, and when you recover the strength of the Grand Arcanist in 23 hours, I will discuss the details with you, I guarantee that it will interest you more than me. Augustine laughed, apparently knowing the secret that Hera had deliberately hidden.
The slave market on Henry Street is superior to Poopy Street in terms of size and quality, in fact, Lolita's big slave owners are all concentrated in the north of Lolita, but Augustine is ready to wait until his pockets are bulging next time to visit Lolita's "poppy market", even Elizabeth knows that there are all kinds of stunner slave girls there, so as to prove that poppies are famous. Augustine said, intentionally or unintentionally, "That is, Miss Hera was able to save nearly a hundred slaves at once at my expense. β
"Are you sure it's to save, not deprive them of their last right to live?Since there are so many big people in the Empire who want you to die, and Lolita has explained to me exactly how boring and brutal the nobles of the Empire are, can you guarantee that they won't be strangled the next day after becoming your subordinates?" Hera sneered, her mind still succumbing to the rudimentary of the most basic suddenness, although she was instinctively driven to choose a path that she didn't know if it was right or wrong.
"Poor vase knight who has started to climb up from the middle rank knight again, you are just a servant knight, and you want to call the little bastard Master Augustine!"
Hera, frightened by Elizabeth's actions, shook her hand, but fortunately no roses were left behind this time.
"Don't worry, I, and this wise, wise, beautiful and lovely butler beside me, will not let every copper plate be squandered by the boring games of the nobles of the empire. Once I reach Black Swan Lake, that's my main battlefield, and it's not easy to die. Augustine laughed. Although he killed an unidentified assassin on the spot, Lolita had no intention of interrogating him, presumably with the Count of Marseille, a snob who Augustine believed to have absolute control over Alpha City.
In the end, Herat selected 90 down-and-out knights for Augustine, all of whom hovered around level 2, and the price was of course countless times more expensive than ordinary slaves, which cost Augustine nearly 10,000 Caesar gold coins, because the slave market that specialized in selling knights was notoriously arrogant and paranoid in Lolita, and never lowered the price, in fact, the knights themselves cost a part, about only about 30% , Next is the big head, like a large number of equipment for private knights, armor, swords, war horses and other cumbersome items, of course, they must also be responsible for their diet, housing and transportation, so a moderately wealthy nobleman in a county can grit his teeth and buy hundreds of middle-level knights of about level 5, but he definitely can't afford to keep a large number of knights without a separate source of income, so after taking 9,800 gold coins out of his pocket, it means that the debt-ridden archon still needs to take out at least more than 20,000 gold coins.
Miss Elizabeth protested, of course, but Augustine looked at the knight who was biting her lip and did not say a word, and finally recognized her "wasteful" behavior.
Dog - mother-bred chivalry.
Augustine's smile remained unchanged and he cursed in his heart.
However, to Augustine's relief, Hera used the secret skills of the Grand Arcanist and her keen intuition to help "Order" pick out fifteen potential mages and warlocks, all of whom were around thirteen or fourteen years old, and all of them were women, which made the archon feel that the boring life in Black Swan Lake was finally brighter and brighter.
Arriving at Alpha early in the morning, and by the time Augustine had solved the equipment problems of the slave knights, it was already close to dusk, less than an hour before the closure of the Lolita and Raven Bazaar, and after returning from the procession to retrieve the original dilapidated carriage outside the Raven Bazaar with a vast but uneven army, Augustine made a suggestion to make Lori's steward excited, go to the Dunk Dun underground market to buy knick-knacks.
In the end, Miss Elizabeth is bouncing around the all-encompassing underground market, screaming incessantly, while Augustine is smiling and digging into her pockets, and even offers her constructive buying advice from time to time, without being irritated at all, symbolizing the highest dark consul of the Imperial Curia, like a miser, accompanying another shrewd Lori to bargain with the vendors.
Hera's brilliant brain was in a state of shock all the time.
When she walked out of Dunkshield, little Lori got her wish and bought the scarce mainland bestseller "Flowers and Blood 2", as well as a lot of foundation and lipstick that she couldn't use at this stage, as well as two large bags of small toys that Hera found interesting but found inexplicable.
And the city man, who did everything to drag a dual-class master into "Order" and Rotonchild, helped carry things with a bright smile. This kind of man is by no means a mere proud nobleman or a pious clergyman.
Hera Bolseforle was finally unexpectedly called into the dilapidated carriage by this fellow, and the carriage of the Alpha City Lord was thrown to the dozen or so young children who had just come to heaven from hell, if it weren't for the strange master who had just come to heaven, they would never have been able to sit in that class of carriage for the rest of their lives, and the rose-red luxury carriage was spacious enough, and it still made them feel extremely comfortable to cram so many children in one go, after all, the cage of the slave market was more crowded than the carriage, and the girls who did not dare to move at will went through the initial strangeness and confusion, and then chirped and discussed the handsome and godlike man in the carriage in front of them in their feminine natureγ
For a group of slaves, most likely the descendants of slaves, any nobleman, even a small landowner who has been knighted with honor, is an unattainable and terrible existence for them, and in Lolita, every day slaves are guillotined or dragged into the Fanny Affairs Hall, and those brightly dressed magnates always kick Lolita slaves into hell with a smile and grace.
A dozen girls who don't know what the fate of tomorrow will be around a beautiful character with a natural affinity, discussing the young and handsome new owner in various accents. The two girls at the back of the carriage were silent, one of them was indifferent and daringly stroked an enamel vase beloved by the Comte de Marseille, while the other curled up tremblingly, like a weak snail that would not come out of its shell.
Nearly a hundred low-ranking knights rode their horses and left the Lolita and Raven Market in a pleasant and glorious manner that they could not have imagined.
At the head of the pack was Augustine's carriage, undriven, and the horses were still galloping forward with aura and wisdom.
Little Lori rolled happily in the carriage holding the sequel to "Flowers and Blood".
"You're not the same as the nobles who fought in the Holy War. Hera pulled up the curtains from time to time to make sure that there was nothing wrong with this team of knights, who were almost zero in her eyes, and that she was a knight with a strong sense of responsibility after all, and did not want to cause trouble for the man next to her in this matter.
"In fact, when you take off your knight's armor, walk out of the Saxons, and carefully observe each nobleman, you will find that everyone has a different first impression from you. Augustine was not excited by Hera's evaluation, and studied the dark gold dagger that had managed to make Miss Elizabeth "spit out", and said slowly, "Including the fat knight Reinhardt, who has been sentenced to death by you in high moral terms. β
Hera was silent, indeed, she was far less vocal than the men around her in this regard.
"Even the most arrogant and brutal nobles must have their untold stories behind them, as long as you have enough time and energy to uncover them. β
Augustine raised his head and said, his fingers touching the coldness of the "Lu Si Scythe", "That fat man with a freckled face likes to study the military structure of the Titan Empire all night long, and the research papers he wrote in the years around me may be thicker and more rigorous than many old professors in the Military Academy. Moreover, he may stare at a beautiful woman's ass or boobs for a long time, but even if the woman is stripped naked and standing in front of him, he can still do it without sleeping with them, which even I admire him, of course, it does not affect the strength of my kicking his ass. β
"It's none of my business. Hera said softly.
"An uneducated vase, if it weren't for your chivalry, would not have been rationed with horses in Augustine's style, because he wanted to let the raged knights run with the chariot! Do you know the real reason?" Elizabeth lay in the carriage, flipping through "Flowers and Blood", glancing at Hera, she really couldn't stand the female heretic's ignorance, only the perfect combination of the great queen and the lovely Lori could sneer at little Augustine.
"Do you want to judge the strength of each knight in detail?" Hera frowned.
"Bingo, you gave the right answer. It seems that you are not as stupid as you think. Elizabeth laughed, "Bingo" is a very old-fashioned gambling method in her Muse Continent, which means "you guessed it".
"It doesn't matter, I just want a bunch of guys who can do manual work. Augustine smiled and looked at little Lori, "Miss Elizabeth, there may be a lot of reckless guys who hit the head of the gun on the road, I hope you can lend a helping hand to your allies like an imperial socialite." β
Elizabeth held out her hand to Augustine.
The intention couldn't be clearer, give money.
Elizabeth, who likes to read a book and flip back from the last page, is sure that there will definitely be a third book of "Flowers and Blood", so she decides to start saving money now.
"The old rule, a fly is a bourbon coin. Augustine said helplessly.
"Augustine, you are rich now! Walk out of the Raven Bazaar and you have 68,044 Caesar coins in your pocket! We are going to change the rules from today onwards, one fly and one Caesar coin!" Elizabeth screamed.
"Can you give a little discount and give a reasonable friendship price?" said Augustine with a wry smile.
Elizabeth still pouted and stretched out her hands, not saying a word.
"44 gold coins in advance, that's already all my change. Augustine gritted his teeth and threw Elizabeth a bag of gold coins.
Little Lori weighed the weight of the money bag, which made Hera scream in pain with her eardrums, and pounced on Augustine is indiscriminate bite, wiped his saliva and refused to stop, shouting: "There are only 43 Caesar gold coins here, you treacherous bastard!"
Hera stiffened again.
The tough image of the Dark Archon was gone in her mind.
But she soon understands why Young Master Augustine, who is tough in front of everyone, would "succumb" to a little Lori who seems to be obsessed with books and lipstick foundation.
Because before arriving at the Black Swan Lake estate, Augustine owed Miss Elizabeth another 34 gold coins in addition to the advance.
Taken together, it means that while she forgot to read "Flowers and Blood 2" in two days, she reluctantly "took time" to solve 78 flies that dared to interrupt her reading progress.
Hera, who had already regained the strength of the Great Arcanist, warned herself very seriously not to have any friction with this terrifying personal butler in the future.
During this time, there was a detail that surprised Hera, Augustine had quietly made a comprehensive evaluation of all the low-level knights and 15 magical potential girls, physical fitness, faith, explosiveness, nearly ten specific indicators, nearly fifty white papers that had just been purchased from the Dunk Shield were densely filled with data and comments, at that moment, the female god of war who could absolutely dominate a medium-scale holy war in the Saxon forest understood the truth, even without her, he could perfectly form a youth army knights.
"Is this a fine tradition of Rotonchild?" Hera couldn't help but ask, in the interval between the previous nights when a personal butler had gone out to clean the flies.
"Half of it is Rotonchild's tradition, half of it is my own habit. β
Augustine stretched, "Strategy is God, details are the devil." The former was taught to me by Obsidian, and the latter was figured out by myself, but Rothonchilde has been a tradition since I started. Miss Hera, don't despise any of the great noble families of the Empire, there is no glory in this world for no reason, and there is no power for no reason. Just because we don't have to fear anyone doesn't mean we can be ignorant and naΓ―ve not to fear anyone. β
Hera chewed carefully, and her face glowed with a faint freshness in silence.
This brilliance was stronger and more determined than the moment she regained her strength as a Grand Arcanist.
Entering the Black Swan Lake Manor, Augustine suddenly asked everyone to get out of the carriage and dismount, he looked at the castle of Stonergo on the high slope in the distance, pointed to Hera, and said: "That is my only dependence, and the land under your feet is also my last estate." From this day forward, all nobles, knights, mages, and bigwigs in the empire will begin to abandon all pretensions and walk to the castle of Stango. β