The snow melts, and everything recovers.

Before you know it, the Season of Earth has stepped into the city of Blinor. This beautiful city has been rejuvenated by rain and snow, and the fresh air, although still chilly, is refreshing, and the residents have left their warm homes and taken to the streets, reawakening the vitality of the royal capital.

The arrival of the season of the earth marks the end of the annual "holiday", and now is the time for the nobles of the royal capital to start their work, and their first job is to attend various gatherings and find out in social gatherings to determine the direction of this year's development and camp.

Small carriages puffed up and down the streets of the aristocratic quarter, and well-dressed gentlemen met or met each other in the streets, greeting each other and talking about how to get an invitation to a banquet at the Marquis de Leopold's palace. If someone said in a reserved manner that he was going to the Marquis's Palace, he would immediately attract envious and jealous eyes.

The families that were able to settle in the aristocratic district of the royal capital were all leaders of the upper class of the Gambis, but they were also divided into three, six, nine and so on.

Among the nobles of the royal capital, except for the representatives of the major lord families, the rest are court nobles, and the court nobles are actually vassals of the royal family, but they are different from the vassals of the lord.

The vassals of a liege are made up of vassal lords and ordinary vassals, and their lands are called fiefdoms and can be hereditary. The court nobles were all nobles, and they did not have hereditary domains, but they could manage the royal lands, which were called caiyi.

In the case of Gambis, the second son of a certain lord family pledged allegiance to the Augustian family through the selection of the royal legion competition. The royal family would immediately crown him a court baron or viscount, but this title was purely a status symbol and could neither be hereditary nor tertigraphical. The court lord carefully nurtured his offspring to continue to serve the royal family, and after several generations of perseverance, his family might be canonized as a court count, and the court count title could be hereditary. From then on, the family of the court counts moved into the royal capital and was given the right to manage the estates.

Unlike fiefdoms, the ownership of fiefdoms is vested in the royal family. The court earl family only managed the territory for the sovereign, and they had to use the output of the fiefdom to support the soldiers of the kingdom, hand over a certain amount of property, and the rest was the family's income. If they can't complete the task, they must fill the gap with their own money, otherwise they will be reprimanded by their superiors, reduce the area of the estate, and the most serious consequence is to be demoted. It's actually a lease relationship.

The nobles of the court will always strive for rent reduction, or at least not rent increases, through various means of communication. Therefore, the banquets held by the nobles of the royal capital were of great importance to them.

The nobles of the court had to pursue a hereditary fiefdom to become a new lord family, or to completely integrate into the bloodline of the Augustian family. For example, the Marquis of Goron Auguste married the aunt of King Lane, and he also had a hereditary marquisate in the north of the kingdom, although his domain was no different from that of the Augustian family. In fact, in order to maintain the purity of the bloodline, the royal family has always had few heirs, Ryan only has one son and one daughter, and Williams has only one son. If the royal family of Gambis is broken, the heir of the Marquis of Goron will have to take on the responsibility of continuing the royal bloodline.

A marquis was the highest hereditary title for the nobility of the court, and they often held important positions in the court.

As the new Chancellor of the Exchequer of Gambis, the Marquis of Leopold was in charge of the quota of the fiefs and was a hot figure among the nobles of the royal capital. The nobles of the court with heads and faces all hope to be able to get married to the Minister of Finance, and obtaining an invitation to the Marquis of Leopold's palace is itself a manifestation of ability, and those families who are not invited will inevitably be looked down upon, and exclusion and suppression will follow.

The Minister of Finance held a banquet, and the nobles of the royal capital sharpened their heads to get an invitation, but they were surprised to find that there were very few families who were actually invited. This is not a normal phenomenon, even if the Marquis of Leopold is a confidant of the Archduke Williams, he cannot offend too many court nobles at the same time. If they could walk into the Marquis's Palace, they would be surprised to find that this was not a simple banquet.

The sky is getting dark, and the lights are on.

The dinner hosted by the Marquis of Leopold was over, and the dignitaries moved from the living room to the main hall of the Marquis.

The luxurious hall of more than 800 square meters is paved with paulownia wood floors. Flooring made of paulownia wood is very ordinary, but if each paulownia wood has been soaked in water for more than 100 years, its value cannot be measured in money. Two long tables of paulownia wood are placed on the left and right sides of the hall, and they are filled with a variety of fine food and wine. The 30-year-old dume is served in gold vessels, and the silver platter is filled with candied cherry blossoms, creamy salmon pies, honey pine nut pastries, and brightly coloured salsa and creamy lettuce salad. At this time of year, only the royal family's crystal conservatory can provide fresh fruits and vegetables.

Well-dressed attendants stood like statues at the long tables, ready to serve food and wine to the dignitaries, but only occasionally young men and women came to the place, and even if they did, they quickly returned to their seats. Tasting food is also a sign of respect for the owner, and the children of the nobility will not be rude on such occasions.

The VIPs were divided into two groups. Delicate and touching ladies and celebrities dressed up, sitting in the rest area on the left, holding a fan and whispering, from time to time let out a silver bell-like laughter, attracting the young nobles to pay attention to them frequently. Well-dressed gentlemen were in the rest area on the right, and they gathered in twos and threes, chatting cordially. In just a quarter of an hour, I don't know how much consensus and tacit understanding has been reached.

If you look closely, it is not difficult to see that both male and female VIPs have their own cores. The owner of this room, the Marquis Leopold, accompanied a middle-aged nobleman, the Marquis of Bastern, the palace minister. The Marquis de Grewald, the Vice-President of the Senate, was accompanied by the Marquis Ludwig, the Interior Officer, and a handsome young nobleman who was surrounded by several young talents, the only son of the Marquis of Golon, the Grand Knight of the Silver Order, Count Wenger August. Among the female guests, there were also two noble ladies with outstanding appearance and temperament, who were welcomed by everyone.

In contrast, the corner where Victor was located was a little deserted, accompanied only by a heroic young nobleman. However, it can be seen from the ears of the male guests that Victor is the focus of everyone's attention. And those glamorous ladies don't need to be as reserved as the male guests, their hot gazes almost set Victor on fire, and they whisper ambiguous topics related to him.

"Victor, I didn't expect you to be more popular than I expected. In a moment, will you invite Countess Caroline to the first dance, or will the Marquise Carrie?" said the young nobleman lightly.

Victor glanced up at the lady opposite, and his scalp tightened. He didn't know most of the ladies in the hall, but from their demeanor and demeanor, he knew that Countess Caroline and Marquise Carrie were the two in between. And what they talked about was about the court etiquette training of the little baron, and although their voices were as thin as mosquitoes, who did not know that the popular shooter could even hear the sound of a needle landing on the floor? Not to mention that these two glamorous ladies cast "resentful" glances from time to time, like lovers abandoned by Victor. Although they all wore golden masks when they first trained the little baron, their voices and postures were still recognizable to Victor.

"Your Highness Williams, please do it to the end. ”

Victor shook his head, he has been in the royal capital for more than a month, and he has not been harassed, and now he still doesn't know whose credit it is?

Williams glanced at Victor appreciatively, shook his head, and said, "Count Caroline is the half-sister of a certain His Royal Highness Neville, and Lady Carrie is a side branch of the Seuss royal family, and they are both silver-level knights. They heard that I was throwing you a farewell dinner, so they came to see you off. As the protagonist of the banquet, you can't be rude. "The implication is that I've been blocking for you for a month, but these two women are too big, I really can't bear it, you can ask for more blessings.

Williams picked up a plate of creamy honey lettuce salad and handed it to Victor, smiling and changing the subject: "This cream is really good, I heard that the method of making cream is passed down from the centaur hills." Victor, have you heard who invented cream?"

I didn't invent it! I copied it......

Victor picked up a lettuce salad with a fork and said softly, "Cream and honey are just condiments after all, their value is to make the main course more delicious." Bringing the salad to his mouth, he smiled and said, "Lettuce is the main dish here." ”

"Haha! Well said!"

Williams laughed heartily and lovingly patted Victor on the shoulder.

The Marquis of Leopold hosted this banquet on behalf of Williams to entertain Victor. Regardless of the sincerity of Victor's words, as a representative of the York family and Sylvia's lover, his statement is the result that Williams wants to see. In the hall, there are not only the top nobles of Gambis, representatives of the major lords, but also nobles related to other kingdoms. While most of the guests could hear their conversations, Williams laughed out loud as a sign of the royal family's closeness to the House of York.

The atmosphere in the main hall also became more harmonious with Williams's hearty laughter.

Victor was knowledgeable, and the more Williams looked at him, the more pleasing he became, and said with a smile: "Victor, you are about to leave the royal capital." I have prepared 20 Refining Potions and 20 Energy Potions as gifts for you. ”

The function of the refining potion is to purify the blood of knights, help the children of nobles awaken their fighting spirit, and have a certain chance to make them become trainee knights. However, it was never possible for a midshipman who had been promoted using a refining potion to go any further.

The energy potion can restore the fighting spirit, but taking the energy potion will destroy the balance of the four systems, but reduce the knight's combat effectiveness, and the effect of taking the energy potion for the first time is the most obvious, and taking it continuously will not only have no effect, but will also lead to poisoning, and it will take ten days to take it again. The real purpose of the Energy Potion is to help the Trainee Knight attack the Knight Realm. Because the Trainee Knight itself has not achieved the balance of the four systems, if they run out of fighting energy when stimulating the elemental slot, using a bottle of energy potion will greatly increase the likelihood of successfully advancing to the next level. Of course, it is almost impossible for a knight who is promoted in this way to become a silver knight.

Energy potions and refining potions have the same drawbacks, but for those small families, it is better to have knights than no knights, and they do not hesitate to serve the royal family in order to obtain promotion potions. In short, these two potions are strategic resources for the royal family to win people's hearts and strengthen their strength. Minsk County, north of the Gambis, is an important source of medicinal raw materials, and the royal family built the Minsk fortress group and deployed heavy troops to guard it in order to firmly control the medicinal resources.

Both of these potions cost more than 1,000 gold soles, and Williams gave away 40 potions at a time, which is very generous. It's a pity that Victor asked for it to no avail, and the York family had a similar recipe. In fact, such elixirs are rarely used by large families that have been passed down for a long time. The resources occupied by the lord are limited, and if too many knights with no potential are created, it will be a huge burden on the family. They want to acquire a powerful knight's bloodline more than an artificial knight.

"Your Highness, can I exchange these potions for a small request?" said Victor sincerely.

"Say!" Williams said with a wave of his hand.

As long as I don't ask for money or materials, I can promise everything!

Victor smiled slightly: "Your Highness, I have visited Archbishop Lazarus several times, and they have all been in vain. Maybe it's my low status...... I'd like to ask you to introduce me a little bit. ”

Williams secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said hesitantly: "This is fine, but I can't guarantee anything?"

If you want to help the church in the Centaur Hills, you have to talk about it yourself!

"It doesn't matter, I just need to listen to the bishop. ”

Williams bowed slightly, and said, "You can visit Archbishop Lazarus at any time." ”

"Thank you, Your Highness. ”

Victor was overjoyed that he was visiting the archbishop not to seek assistance, but for another purpose. However, the archbishop kept avoidance, so he had to ask Williams for help. Now with the promise of the Grand Duke, the rest will be easy to do.

It doesn't cost money, and it doesn't take much effort to earn a favor. Williams is also in a good mood. For a time, the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves happily.

"Victor, I recently received information. King Dodor executed Duke Erickson, the Duke of Erickson was reduced to a viscounty, and the Erickson family gave the excess territory to the Kingdom of Dord. His Majesty Friedrich canonized that territory to three powerful lords, one of whom was Viscount Negus, a knight of the wind system, whose territory happened to border your northern realm. You have to be careful!" Williams said with a sip of his Doume, pointedly.

Victor frowned. Austin's invasion of Randall's territory was full of oddities, and Sylvia believed that the Dordors were behind it, and although there was no conclusive evidence, it was in the best interest of the Dordors to sow discord between the House of York and the royal family. The information that Williams said just confirmed this, and the Duoduo people saw that they couldn't win over, so they began to be wary of the Yorks going north, and the installation of a great knight of the wind system was also aimed at Victor and Sauron.

Victor wasn't worried about an armed conflict, a few dozen alchemy mastiffs could make the Duoduo anxious, but the relationship between the two sides became strained, and the Free Folk caravan went all the way north, and there were no trade partners along the way, and there were no supply points that was a headache for him.

These are troubles later, though.

Victor said, "Your Highness, Lord Sauron's territory also borders the sphere of influence of the Duoduos. ”

"I'm going to recall Sauron, and the Praetorian Guards of the royal capital are still indispensable to him. As for the Viscounty of Sauron, it was temporarily managed by his younger brother, Baron Burroughs. The defense of the Centaur Hills is still the responsibility of the Governor of the Centaur Hills. Williams shook his head.

At this time, the melodious sound of the piano played the overture of the ball.