My father always felt a little strange.

After he was led by Zaitsev into a huge garden, he knew that the people who received him today were definitely not ordinary people. Coming out of the temple, people pointed at him, and it seemed that overnight they knew about the young man's astonishing behavior in the previous day's duel.

Zaitsev's smile when he saw his father was informative, "I'm glad you are alive." This was Zaitsev's greatest congratulations to his father, who was also exhausted by that time and suffered a considerable injury to his leg.

After returning to the temple, a special doctor gave my father a simple bandage. The doctor instructed his father what he needed to pay attention to during this time, and then told Zaitsev that there was no big problem, and that he would recuperate in peace. Zaitsev took out a heavy-looking money bag and threw it to the doctor, who left enough ointment for two weeks and withdrew.

Zaitsev did not stay long, he told his father to recuperate.

At noon the next day, Zaitsev went to my father and said that there would be a banquet in the evening. My father felt very uncomfortable with the wound and asked if he could postpone it for a few days. Zaitsev said: "You can't bear this pain? It's easy to choose not to go, but it's not easy to choose to go. ”

My father had no choice but to agree. In the afternoon, he followed Zaitsev into a carriage and went all the way to the south of the city. The carriage stopped and went, and through the curtains, my father saw the carriage passing through the layers of sentry posts, and many well-armed soldiers watched the carriage vigilantly. Later, the number and seriousness of the soldiers became, which made my father feel that the people who received him were definitely not ordinary people.

Finally, the father was led into the dining room by several servants, and Zaitsev followed.

When my father walked into the dining room, he was immediately struck by the lavish decorations: crystal plates filled with fruits, 10,000-lit candles, and silk like a fantasy. The loft on one side overlooks the garden, which has a bright pond surrounded by palm trees and some exotic plants that my father did not recognize. From here, it's full of wild fun.

When Zaitsev arranged for his father to sit down, he noticed that there were three other people at the table, and in addition to Zaitsev, there was a strange man and a woman who was tightly wrapped in a white scarf.

Saland's father has always been a little unaccustomed to women's clothing, but since it is a habit of Salander, his father has no intention of putting a beak. In some black peoples in the south, some women have high necks for beauty, and for this reason the women of those nationalities have put rings around their necks since they were young, and after years of bondage, the necks of these women can often be surprisingly high, and compared with those people, the customs of the Salander people are really not shocking.

But the father thought it was strange, and he sensed that this woman in white was unusual. From the moment he entered, the woman exuded a very familiar aura. While his father was confused, the strange man finally spoke after paying attention to his father for a long time,

"Mr. Arcadio?"

The father was stunned, "Yes, sir." My name is Huo. Arcadio second. Now a captive of the Salander Sultanate. ”

"Yes, I know that. Your performance yesterday was impressive. ”

"Hmm'''I have no choice but to do it, my wound is still aching, but Mr. Zaitsev said that you want to see me, and I still came to see you."

"Young man, it doesn't matter if you get a little hurt. Can you imagine what it felt like to have my hands tethered through the desert with ropes on my hands? ”

"Uh, sir, I've been there. It was on the plains of Suno, and my maid and a companion met the robbers and were led around. ”

"Oh? I can't think of that. What does it feel like to have your hands tied? ”

"It's nothing to be tied, it's just that after being untied, your hands are like wood."

"Haha, yes, it's like wood". The strange man nodded, "Okay, you should also know that I didn't ask you to come here today just to discuss with you about the experience of being captured. ”

"I know, sir. I'm also skeptical about why I'm here, and I hope you can tell me that."

"Yes. Speaking of which, you have to thank yourself for coming here to meet me? ”

"I don't understand this."

"Yesterday's duel was arranged by me. Actually, I took that as a ticket for you to come to my dinner, and if you can win, you will naturally get my reception. If you lose, you'll be like my guard Hassan, still under the care of several surgeons. ”

"Hassan is your bodyguard?"

"Yes."

"Hassan is the royal guard, you are'''''

The father smiled slightly when he saw the man opposite, and moistened his hands with the towel that a maid had brought over, "I am the Sultan of Salander, the Lord of the Desert, and the Emperor of the Eastern Frontier, Sankaraf. Vahid VII. ”

Hearing the identity of the strange man, his father's eyes widened, and the woman in white on the side seemed to be surprised, turning her head to look at this man. Zaitsev was the only one present, unmoved, as if this majestic self-introduction seemed to him powerless. Indeed, people who are too close to the emperor will always find that the emperor is just an ordinary person in the end, and the admiration will slowly fade, and this psychological gap will make people reverie, and countless coups and conspiracies mostly originate from the people closest to the emperor, not without reason.

"Salander Sultan", the father muttered to himself, "why are you seeing me?" ”

"Hehe, yesterday my host should have told you why you got involved in this duel."

"Yes, he said it was a feud that my father had on the battlefield when he was young."

"Yes, it's because of your father. Your father captured poor Hassan and cut off his ear, which is why Hassan must fight you in a duel. ”

"What about you?"

"Well, it's because I was still in your father's captives at the time."

"Huh?! This'''? ”

"Well, as I told you, your hands are tied, and when you loosen them, they feel like wood, which is all about your father's masterpiece. Hassan wants to avenge the cutting of his ear, so he will duel with you; And your father has brought me to the humiliation of being captured, so I must put you through the test. That's fair, isn't it? ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, very fair."

"You're doing a good job, I'm not wrong. Of course, although your father Feng has captured me, he has been gracious to me. I said to him, 'Before he meets his enemies, his fame will spread everywhere,' and if my news is accurate, your family's current fiefdom is in the Valley of the White Dove." Do you know that in many towns of Salander the prestige of the White Dove Lord of Svadia is now known, and because of your father's honor, I can tell you that you will always be a guest of honor in my land, and so will the people of your family? ”

“```”。

Zaitsev seemed to be bored with this imperial technique, and shrugged his shoulders at this time, "Boy, hurry up and show your loyal gratitude."

"Your Majesty'''''

"By the way, I also heard that your father did not drive out the original lord's family after gaining the territory, but took them in. It's a very respectable practice, and now I'm going to give you the same opportunity. To the south of the Oasis of Doukuba, there is a land with abundant water and grass and fertile land. The crops were in good condition, the people were tame and industrious, and it took three threshing floors and sixty oxen to dispose of the rice before it rotted. Now, the land is yours, but you have to marry this lady, whose father died on the front. She is as white as milk, as delicious as a strawberry, and as fragrant as a rose, and as long as you nod your head, you will become my lord and hold a beautiful woman. Would you like to? ”

Father felt that he was listening to a story from a fantasy night, and he frowned, "Your Majesty, are you kidding?" ”

"Are you kidding?" , the Sultan gave a serious expression, and then shook the handbell on the table, "Someone." ”

A white-clothed servant walked out with his head bowed, holding a document.

In fact, the Sultan did not lie about this. The lord of the realm, who had supported the eldest prince, had died in the coup, his eldest son had fled to the frontier, and all four of the remaining children had been executed, and the man whose father had seen his head smashed in the arena that day was the lord's youngest son. Now the people of that territory are all in danger, and it is hoped that the Sultan will not punish them and send them a new lord as soon as possible.

The Sultan handed the document to his father, a deed written in three languages, and he saw that the middle part was written in Karad: it was a letter of appointment for a territory.

When his father was a child, he had seen his grandfather's letter of appointment. After the passage of time, the letter of appointment of the White Pigeon Valley has begun to turn yellow. The father remembered the inscription: "I hereby grant Huo. The valley of the White Dove in the plains of Arcadio Suno was a fief, and its territory was named after the valley "Order signatory", and behind the signatory, a ring was stamped with the initials of the Emperor Svadia.

And this Sultan's document is exactly the same as the one in my father's impression. With only the father's name signed, and the sultan stamped his own seal, then this fief would belong to the name of a family together with the White Pigeon Valley, thousands of miles away.

"I'm not a casual promiser, but this time the proviso is that you have to marry this lady. I think it's a great thing for a man, to take a beautiful wife, and then get a rich estate, and also get a noble status in the Sultanate, what could be better than that? What's your opinion? ”

Zaitsev became interested at this time, and he was very fond of watching people behave in various transactions. Especially when such a transaction involves the trade-off between loyalty and justice, Zaitsev is especially fond of watching.

My father must have had his own fiancée at this age, and he was still loyal to the lord of Swadia. Therefore, once the father accepts the invitation to marry a beauty and accept the fiefdom, his fiancée and family will be disgraced. Although, for some, this false stigma is nothing.

In fact, on the mainland, it is not uncommon for people of one family to have two lords at the same time. This is particularly the case in Svadia and Rhodok. A lord would often reorganize his family after accepting another country's territory, and this new branch would have little effect on the original family even if it settled in an enemy country, which was more tolerant in the era of multiple states. So to be honest, even if my father accepted Salander's territory, in addition to the fact that the family would suffer a little loss in honor, it would actually be of great benefit to the entire family.

The key now is whether the father is willing to give up his fiancée for the beauty in front of him.

After thinking for a while, my father said, "No, Your Majesty, I can't accept your kindness."

When my father said this, he could clearly feel the slightly disappointed discouragement of the woman in white, and her shoulders shrank significantly.

"Oh?"

"I am a nobleman of Suno, I am an officer of Aaron, and more importantly, I have a beautiful and virtuous fiancée in Viruga. As soon as the war is over, I will go back and marry her. Your Majesty, I can't take her down. ”

"You''", the woman in white couldn't help but wail.

All the doubts at the beginning were solved, and the voice was '''

"Aoi-chan?!" Father shouted.