That night, I was chatting with the Messiah in the courtyard

I just stupidly asked her about her life lately, and no matter what she said, all I could say was, "Oh, that's good."

After a few times, she got angry and asked me to say something else, but I couldn't think of anything else, because I didn't know what she liked, and I took out the gift I had bought her when I was in the riverlands, an ordinary stone needle

I don't know what kind of stone it is, but it looks beautiful, like jade, so I bought it with a few silver beans, and I was a little ashamed to think about it, at that time we were planning how to rescue Giovanni, but I couldn't help but bring a gift for Messira, which I always carry, because I don't know when I will meet Messira

I thought that this stone needle was ugly, and that Messira would not like it, but she seemed to be quite interested in this little thing, she grabbed it, looked at it in her hand, and then put her head together, and made a beautiful curl, which I was a little dazzled by, and her head was so flexible in her hand, like algae dancing in the water

Finally, she said to me, "Help me get my head on."

I reached out and pressed her head, but several times it was misplaced, and Messira wrinkled her nose and said, "Stupid," and then took my hand and told me to find the right place, and she tied her head tightly with the stone needle herself

Seeing that I was still holding on to her head, she snapped my hand twice, and then moved her head around herself, feeling the weight of the card, and she complained that it was a bit heavy

"Then don't put it on," I said inadvertently

"I didn't say I didn't like it," Messira glared at me, "why don't you wear it?" ”

"Didn't you say it was heavy?"

"You still say your armor is heavy, will you take it off? I like it, so why don't you wear it? ”

I didn't know how to tell her all of a sudden, she had to think differently from me

"You can do whatever you like," I said, "Whatever you want."

"Eh, you really like to think about it," Messira twisted her head, "as if she had been wronged by something, really"

When Miscella coiled her waterfall-like head, her pink neck was exposed, and it looked as if it was covered with a layer of snow, and a few uncontained strands were scattered, making her face look light and pleasant

At this time, Yuri and the butler who greeted me walked out

Messira's body shook, "Victor, I'll go first"

Then she turned and ran, and I remembered that the adults in the house had not allowed her to come to me, and it must have been something to say to her, and it seemed that they had allowed me to go to the Messirah

When Yuri saw me, he came over and talked to me drunkenly for a while, and then left because he was in a hurry

I went back to the warehouse, where I told Joey the details of the conversation I had with the Earl that night, and Joy carefully inquired about everything the Count said, and if I had any ambiguities, he would ask them again and again, until I had said all the Earl's words, and when I said that I had left the room, the Count had given me a glance, intentionally or unconsciously, and Joey's brow tightened

"Victor," Joey bit her lip, "I'm afraid the old loaches already know about your winter moves"

"Huh?" I was shocked

On one side, the four soldiers had already fallen asleep, and at this time, they moved, and one of them said in his sleep, Joey looked at them, and smiled at me again, "Actually, that's fine," said Joey, "Now we know what he thinks: he must think that you are lying, so eighty percent of the content of the reply will not tell the truth, which is in our favor, and we can accurately judge his thoughts."

Even though he said that, I still felt a little flustered

The next day I waited for the Count's summons, but the Count seemed to have forgotten me, and did not see the Count's figure all day, and I went to see the Messiah once in the afternoon, but was politely persuaded by the servant to leave

Not only the Count, but even Yuri and Alexei I didn't see that there seemed to be only a few servants left in the house, and I was even a little worried about whether the Count had gone elsewhere, but I didn't think much about it when I saw that Ivangorod's guests were still staying in the mansion

All day long, I could hear the trumpets of the city sounding

When I went to inquire about what had happened, no one told me, but the servants only told me that the Count would meet me at any time and tell me not to go out into the streets, in fact, even if I insisted on going to the streets, there was no way, because there were some Ivangeloth guards guarding the door of the Count's residence, and it made me a little angry that no one could go in or out, because I was going to go around the city, and I promised the people in the barracks to bring them some souvenirs

Joey listened to the trumpets and said to me, "This is the marching trumpet, there must be an army in the city, you had better inquire where the Count has gone, I suspect the old loach has made any small moves."

And at this time, outside the city

There were 400 soldiers gathering

These soldiers turned an open field into a lively bazaar

These soldiers came from various squadrons, and they would join the soldiers who had just left the city, and they were ready to advance in the direction of the East Lake, and these people were going to rush to the avenue by the lake in two days, cutting off the land supply channel to the south of the small East Lake City, and to the north, Ivangelod's soldiers also began to move towards the lake, and before the lake thawed, the Little East Lake City would become an isolated city in a few days, and it had lost all contact with the outside world except for the hills and forests to the west

In the past few days, on the north-south avenue, many messengers have been shuttling back and forth between various cities, making final mediations for the coming war

The official ultimatum to war has been issued

In a letter, the council lashed out at the city's perverse behavior in recent years, accusing them of expanding their armies without permission and using them against the Wikibians. You have hoarded food, but your walls will not last the next winter. Your fleet can't save you, and the Burks will never do anything until you defeat us, but how can you defeat us without the help of the Burks? Lay down your arms, sacrifice your city, punish the traitors, and then everything is the same as before; If you reject our kindness, we will refuse to be merciful to you, and you will have a day to consider."

A day later, the city of Little East Lake responded: Ivangorod's messenger was stripped naked and driven out of the city on a donkey

The soldiers of Little East Lake City cheered above the fortress at the end of the stone bridge, taunting the messenger

At the end of the swamp, the officials of Ivangelo were pale and had cold expressions

The donkey barked as he walked, adding to the comical atmosphere

When the messenger was relieved, he was in a trance, no one knew what kind of crime he had suffered, this person cried and pointed to Xiao Donghu City, from his resentful eyes, people knew that Xiao Donghu City had obtained an eternal mortal enemy

The city of Great Eastern Lake had suffered a crushing defeat in the Riverlands, but its geographical position was extremely advantageous, and if it could have sacrificed a few of its strongholds and military camps, then Ivangelodes' army would have been able to easily threaten the city from close range, but the city refused the offer, their soldiers were firmly guarded by these strongholds, and the city seemed reluctant to get involved in the war too much, except for promising to provide information and some food

At this time, the Valan soldiers in the clearing began to move

The procession of more than 1,000 people, including the military personnel, looked like a strange animal: it had a small head and a huge tail

The soldiers in front walked very neatly, the soldiers lined up in columns, and walked towards the forest, the equipment of these soldiers had been greatly improved, and many of the soldiers were wearing white cuirass, these sturdy cuirass looked very heavy, which were all supported by the Ivangorodians, and the earl gave the best one hundred and twenty pairs of armor to the strongest soldiers, these soldiers carried spears, and the long banners flying on the spears made the army's military appearance look more powerful

With the exception of the most elite hundred-odd men, the rest of the soldiers were more or less armoured, some of the lightly armoured soldiers carried large shields on their backs, their hats held high, and their helmets adorned like barbarians with animal heads: either a bloody bear or a leopard eyeing each other, with thick sea otter skins on their shoulders and large capes on their backs

The freedmen were at the rear, most of them were longbowmen, whose villages were barren and themselves the best commodities, and some of the men in their villages had been conscripted by the forest barracks, and some had been recruited by the Varan recruits

The soldier is like an iron chain, winding and powerful, and behind the soldier is a large group of people who follow the army

It is estimated that even God does not know who these people are, and they seem to be almost several times the number of soldiers, because they have no queue at all, and there are a large number of cattle, sheep, pigs and other cattle in the middle, and there are people driving wagons and ox carts, and some merchants riding horses or leading camels, these people follow the army, and they are inseparable

There are also many people in it who are family members of soldiers, and this person is dressed in a variety of clothes, some of them are dressed in brightly colored clothes, which are said to bring good luck to the soldiers, and the boy and the girl sit in the car and laugh, as if they are going on a spring outing, not a battle, for these people, the victory or defeat of the war does not matter, whoever wins the battle has a business, some merchants peddle fried beans and a suspicious type of meat, and some people loudly declare that their shields have magic, Or that you have a good whetstone

Some washerwomen carry the necessary tools on their backs, chatting while foreground, and the shavers stop to boil a pot of boiling water every few dozen miles, and the role of these people is very important: in normal times, they wash and sew bed sheets; During the war, they had to help priests perform surgeries, cut off their skin and heads, wash the blood, and stitch up wounds. After the death of the soldiers, they also sew the shrouds

Anyone who could use a sewing needle and a knife was a useful person, and the soldiers could always use them

At this moment, at the very end of the army, a commotion spread among the people

The washerwomen and shavers looked suspiciously at a strange figure beside them: a man dressed in a priest's robe

But it was hard to believe that this man was a priest, who had put a lot of things in his cloth pockets, and who was sitting bored and napping on the bullock cart, and this pastor had been a little immodest in the morning, and he made some jokes about the washerwomen, asking them if they could wash the things under his clothes

The vulgar women were not very unfamiliar with these flirtatious words, but when they came out of the mouth of a priest, the women were a little frightened, and they knew that some priests believed in terrible gods and became infidels, and often there were shocking remarks that came out of them, and those people were more terrible than the witches, because they were clever and bad

However, the pastor soon gained the trust of the women, who seemed to be willing to help them in prayer and listen to their confessions, much to the displeasure of the shaver, because the priest's femininity made him feel stressed: in normal times, the only person the women could talk to was him

The shaver looked at the cross that the priest was fighting against: a birch more than two meters long, tied horizontally with a lacquered mahogany, and then painted on it, and this became a war cross. Even the priest Sergei last time saw the cavalry charge, sat on the ground in fright and cried, and was trampled to pulp

"What a blasphemy" the shaver spat out a mouthful of saliva, sealed the fire in the stove, splashed off the excess boiling water, and walked towards the front with a curse

This evening

I anxiously inquired about Kalinin, but everyone told me to wait a little longer

The sound of the horn gradually died down, and the whole city was filled with a dead silence, except for the official residence, there were still people celebrating, and Valankov seemed to have become an empty city

I went back to the warehouse in a frustration.