After some haggling, Tallinn finally agreed to the chiefess's harsh terms.

As the town began to deliver supplies to the open space outside the city, Tallinn fled with his family and cronies to a fortress a few dozen miles away, in case the sheikh suddenly changed his mind and murdered him. Of course, the female chief will not be a little polite to this escaped Tallinn, she has publicly auctioned all the property of Tallinn, everything starts at one copper coin, and three copper coins are capped, and whoever shouts first is not allowed to bid higher than three copper coins. She hoped to humiliate Tallinn. At first, the Kugit merchants were afraid to buy it, fearing that it would be a vicious scam, but when a beggar bought the most beautiful maid in Tallinn for a broken copper coin, everyone was in an uproar. All of a sudden, people gave money to the traveling merchants who passed through here, and asked them to spend a pitiful amount of copper coins to buy the huge property of Tallinn, and they privately paid these merchants one-third or less of the value of the goods, only to ask these merchants to buy the goods in Tallinn quickly, and then leave here, sell them in Vikia, and send them back the agreed difference.

All the riches of Tallinn in the town were plundered: at first all the grain, tapestries, majolica, the most beautiful maids, horses, weapons, armor, and stained glass; Then there are the fine wood furniture, the rough wood furniture, the walnut door, the hanging lamp, and the painted tiles; Then there were the large quantities of timber that had been torn out of the mansions of Tallinn, the nails and iron tenons that had been cut out of the houses, the horseshoes, the old clothes and the broken saddles, and all sorts of tatters; Then there are the floors and beams of the Tallinn house, the stone bricks dug out of the ground and basement, and the ugliest maid. The maid was originally unwanted, but was finally bought by a blind Salander who was a loan shark, and the Salander trembled and was startled when he felt the maid's face with both hands, and since then he has stopped doing usury business and has become a devout Salander, but has been malicious towards the Kujit for the rest of his life.

There is a rumor that this Tallinn buried many jars of silver under the ground, all of which he had obtained from the inhabitants. The Kugit soldiers were already very wealthy, saying they were too lazy to explore the old nest in Tallinn. The anticipating citizens excavated the main house in Tallinn, his father's house, his father-in-law's house, his lover's house, and his man's house, which were later dug too deep to be inhabitable, and gradually became the city's rainwater pond. There are often elderly people fishing by the pond to spend their time.

The sheikh blackmailed the inhabitants harshly, but because she blackmailed Tallinn even harder, the inhabitants were all very happy. The sheikh freed the prison from criminals such as bankrupts and poachers, who almost did not hesitate to join her, increasing her subordinates to more than a hundred, all armed with Tallinn weapons and armor.

It was a day of revelry for the Kugit soldiers, and after the chiefess had finished tossing the poor city, she finally sent a cavalry force of twenty men from among her men, equipped with more than twenty steppe horses and enough food, to escort me to East Wikia.

On the edge of a hillside. We bid farewell to the sheikh.

The chief coldly drank the liquor from a horn jug with me, and then cut the jug in two with her knife, one for me and one for herself.

Amid the sound of horns, the Kugit soldiers began to form a formation in a row at the urging of the officers. Like a long black snake, it left in the direction of Vekia with a large amount of baggage, and the brilliant flag flew all over the sky. The Kugit troops made a large circle so that everyone could pass by our squad, and every Kugit soldier would take off his felt hat as they passed me. Nod your head at me. The sound of horses' hooves, the clamor of soldiers, the creaking of big wheels and the cries of cattle make this place lively. On the edge of the town of Kujit, the bewildered defenders and residents stared blankly at us, and when we left, they had a whole city to recover.

The chiefess changed into the clothes she had worn when I met her in the temple, and she took one last look at me on her warhorse. Then he turned and departed. Her flag bearer was a gray-haired old Kugit man, and her personal attendants were a group of silent and swift Kugit warriors, who ran with her with great momentum, and the clods of earth trotted by the horses' hooves flew in droves. Victoria had finally left with her soldiers, and after half a day, we couldn't see their ranks clearly.

We then left to prevent the townspeople from being angry with us, and at nightfall we arrived at an abandoned village, where we camped.

Five or six days later, a pioneer caught up with us with three horses, and he still brought the news that "the siege of Valankov continues." This was no longer noteworthy news, and I even suspected that Giovanni would be able to negotiate decent terms with Kalinin after a few more months, when the morale of the parliamentary soldiers had completely collapsed, but the idea was rejected by me after a moment in my head. I know what Kalinin is like, and when Kalinin feels that a person is a real threat to him, once he has the upper hand, he will never back down.

What worries us is that the pioneer was accompanied by one of his companions. The companion had been dead for a long time, and the stench reeked, and he was wrapped in cowhide by the pioneer and tied to the horse.

"The plague is back." "But this outbreak is in a place where the plague has been less severe." Where many people have died, there is nothing to do. ”

"This is the first time the plague has returned." Copernicus sighed.

"It's different from place to place," the pioneer said, "and some cities have been hit for the third time, others for the second time." Some scholars feel that the plague will not stop until it infects everyone individually. The good news is that the plague is getting lighter each time, and each time fewer people die than the last. ”

"That's because there weren't many people anymore." Copernicus said with a little emotion.

"Yes." The pioneer replied.

"Why are you taking this man with you?" I asked the pioneer, "I've heard that the pioneers didn't care about cremating corpses, so why didn't they follow the example of the Kujits and carry his ashes?" ”

"He doesn't care, but his family does." This pioneer answered me.

The pioneer gave us an extra horse, and gave us a good amount of gold and a map, and said goodbye to us, and went in the direction from which he came.

Looking at this map, I saw why the Vicchians and the Kugit were so hostile to each other.

Kingdom of Vekia in the western part of the mountain range. Because it was a land carved out by soldiers, the frontier did not extend into a thick hinterland at all, but was a narrow stretch of land connected by countless fortresses and fortresses. The area bordering the Vycians in Kugit was located in the belly of the Kingdom of Vekia, from which the cavalry of the steppe people set out north. It takes seven days to traverse the narrowest part of Vekia and reach the Nord-controlled coast. Rather than defending weak borders, it is better to colonize the borders to the enemy's grasslands, this is the strategy of the Wikibians, and after the fall of Frost Castle, the desire of the Wikiians to attack the grasslands has become even stronger. In contrast, the situation is much better in Vecchia in the eastern part of the Mountains, and after the Knights have been cleared, Eastern Vekia occupies almost all of the land between the mountains and East Lake, even on the opposite shore of East Lake. They also had a number of fortresses that kept the Berks in their throats, and as long as the Wikibians and the Berks did not share the shores of East Lake, they didn't have to worry about the Berks going straight in. From here, Kalinin almost became the fateful man of Eastern Wikchia.

When the mountains appeared, I couldn't help but smile bitterly. I actually had to cross this mountain range twice in the same direction. At that time, I followed the Romanov family on a lame horse, and at that time Mycella complained that I had become a member of the Romanovs, and now I have removed this identity. The honor of an illegitimate child has nothing to do with the family, and the bad family of the illegitimate child is not responsible. I don't have to be an illegitimate child anymore. It's a good feeling, I have my own family. Having my own family seems to make sense to do anything, and when I buy a horse, my family owns a horse, and when someone serves me allegiance. My family will have more members, and when I get the position of nobility, my family will also be glorified. I'm the only one in my family at the moment, but it's like drinking water, but only with my hands. After taking a sip, the rest is spilled, and with a wooden cup, then every drop of rain falls, the water accumulates.

How is Mycella doing now?

The pioneers did have a lot of information about the Romanovs, but only the men of the family were informed, and there was little description of the women in the family. I don't know how Mycella has been, and I've been so confused for so long that I don't know exactly how long I've been gone. There are many mountainous areas in Vekia that are covered with snow all year round, and the southernmost deserts where the seasons are like the height of summer, where time is of little significance.

My current status doesn't give me much, but it gives me a lot of unrealistic aspirations, and sometimes it makes me feel a little more miserable than before. In the past, when I really thought I was an illegitimate child, I thought that many things were nothing, but after I had the memories of my family, those things became intolerable. I remember the daughter of a nobleman named Katyusha, who was haunted by the affairs of her family's fiefdom, and could not be happy even if she had no worries about food and clothing. Copernicus was right, Victor was part of me, and the life of a soldier suited me well, but from now on I had to learn to be a nobleman.

"Timmy," said Copernicus, who was sweating from his forehead at the bottom of the mountains, looking at the road in the distance, "can you tell me now why you have to go to Eastern Vecchia?" ”

"As I already said, I'm going to ask Kalinin for something."

"I heard Bella say that you like a lady of the Kalinins," Copernicus said to me in a serious voice, not in a joking, "is there such a thing?" ”

"Yes."

"Are you going to propose?" Copernicus wiped the sweat from his forehead, and beside him, the pioneers and several Kugits were roasting a leg of lamb. "You're ready to marry a wife!"

"Why do you think that?" I was stunned.

"It's nothing. In a world like this, it's not a bad thing to keep your own children sooner, Timmy. Copernicus looked at me meaningfully and said, "I didn't think much of it when Bella told me you were smitten by a girl. When you said you were going to Vicchia, I suddenly remembered that you were going to propose, right? It's not bad to go and propose. Although your family can't give Kalinin much help, you do have noble blood. I'll officially help you draft a ''"

"I'm not here to propose." I said to Copernicus.

He licked his chapped lips, "You should get married as soon as possible and leave the children"

"I don't know why he's so keen on my marriage" "No, he doesn't seem to be interested in who I find to marry, he just wants me to have offspring," I'm still very young. My "protector" in the Romanov family said to me that a man should not marry a woman until he was able to provide for himself. ”

"If it is difficult to marry a Romanov, it is okay to marry the daughter of a small nobleman, and if it is not possible, to marry an orphan girl." He babbled on and on, and when he noticed that I was impatient, he finally stopped, and then asked me, "Timmy, why did you come to Eastern Wikia?" You don't even tell me now whether you want to see Kalinin more than that Prince Valan. ”

"I'll see you all."

"Why?"

"I'm going to be a boyar."

Copernicus was a little speechless, he didn't expect that I had gone to great lengths to come here for this one. "Timmy, the nobility of the boyar is not even as good as that of the average knight."

"It was in the west, in Vicchia, and the boyars were very decent aristocrats."

"You're already a nobleman." Copernicus said.

"Who knows?" I asked him, "Do those who know dare to admit it?" Even if they dare to admit it, do I dare to take the initiative to make it public? ”

"In the future, your feudal monarch must be the Emperor of Svadia, no matter who this majesty is, you will eventually have to be recognized by a Svadia emperor in order to wash away the stigma of the family."

Copernicus's words made me laugh and cry, and I couldn't help but ask him in his words, "Teacher Copernicus, you told me not to care about nobility, but you yourself care about the stigma of vain and ethereal." In my opinion, stigma can't hurt me, but nobility can give me better revenge. ”

"How can a young boyar take revenge?" Copernicus said, "Besides, if I remember correctly, boyars had to be sixteen years old to be canonized." ”

"You can help me forge my birth certificate."

"This'''," Copernicus said, "you are barely fourteen years old." ”

"I thought it was twelve or thirteen, and fourteen would be better, and it would be less easy to be discovered. I'm shorter than many people, but I haven't been hungry much, so I'm still relatively fit. ”

"You seem to have inherited your mother's stature, but you're just shorter."

"The peasant girl has been starving since she was a child, and what is strange about her short stature." I said to her, "Who is my grandfather?" Do I have any uncles? ”

"Perhaps." Copernicus looked at the mountains, and he didn't answer my first question, only vaguely said the second. "Even if I understand your intention to become a boyar, what are you going to do?"

"If only Giovanni could keep the door," I assured Copernicus, "you would prove that my mother gave birth to me sixteen years ago." I will let Kalinin canonize me as a boyar. ”

"You said that when you were an illegitimate child, you did not contribute to the family. He doesn't owe you. ”

"He will." I said to Copernicus, "He will owe me." ”

"This lord's path is not easy to follow."

"You once said to me, don't sit on the foundation of your father's generation and live on shelter. Then no matter how difficult the road is, "I hope that Copernicus will stop holding me back," "I must go on too." ”