Bad luck always comes one after another, like deliberately testing people's tolerance limits in life.

Just as Stiano was working in the direction of the "Angel Family", dreaming of one day rivaling the likes of Abraham and Zarathu, the Land Conservation Act was born, like a thunderous iron gate, negotiably separating the hand of Stiano who was trying to capture divinity.

André Stiano was sixteen years old, the age of marriage, and his fiancée was the youngest daughter of a branch of the Tudot family, and the elders had already agreed on the bride price and dowry, finalized the date and venue of the wedding, and began to ponder the dishes and guest lists for the wedding feast...... In his spare time, André would accompany his fiancée to the tailor's shop again and again, and she supervised the progress of the wedding dress as if the king was overseeing his own castle.

The atmosphere of joy permeated for more than two months, on the one hand, because of the blessing of the young man to start a family, and on the other hand, because the marriage could bring great political benefits, the Tudor family was a veritable angel family, and Arista Tudor was highly regarded by the emperor, if he could catch this line, then the road of the Stiano family would be much easier.

On the day of the upheaval, at the annual general meeting, His Majesty the Emperor would gather the courtiers of the empire to summarize the pros and cons of the past year and make some important judgments—to be able to attend this meeting shows that you have reached a certain weight, but don't rejoice too soon.

Because on that day, some people will be rewarded with fiefs, some will be stripped of their titles and imprisoned, some will be cut off as a warning, and even more will be sacrificed alive in the hall - life and death are all in the thoughts of the gods, and the operation of the empire has always been like this, except that the meeting will make people once again engrave the authority of the Black Emperor in their hearts, and put an end to the idea of sneaking and making small moves.

The Patriarch was also present at that meeting, and he returned on all fours, but his face was very bad.

Several elders talked with him all night in the conference room, and although Andre was not qualified to attend, he also felt the change in the atmosphere.

Three days later, the Tudot family came, and they apologized for the divorce, and prepared a generous gift in addition to the bride price, and the old people seemed to know that they would do it, and accepted it in silence, but the young people felt humiliated and blushed and wanted to ask for an explanation—Andre, who was the person concerned, was naturally one of them.

"Oh, Andrei, you are a smart and capable young man, with a bright future and a bright future, and I am happy to cultivate you well." His future father-in-law, Viscount Tudor, had a playful glint in his eyes, "But His Majesty the Emperor said at the meeting, 'Every inch of land is the sacrosanct property of the Empire, and it is forbidden to destroy it for one's own selfishness.'" ”

"After Lord Antigonus and Lord Medici chose to extend their bloodline, the land became less and less divided, and it was too late to reclaim, so how could it be destroyed?"

André soon realized what he was talking about, he was already an astronomer in Sequence 5, and his elders had also mentioned to him the ritual of promotion to "alchemist".

Extracting all the vitality of a given area, the soil will be desertified and the lakes will dry up.

But land is a precious reward, often associated with a knighthood, a suitable climate of land can grow vegetables and fruits, graze cattle and sheep, for rental, to build hunting grounds, to create attractions...... There are many possibilities and huge economic benefits, the most fertile ones must be picked by the dukes first, the next ones belong to the marquises, and then the counts, viscounts, and barons, but no one wants to get a barren land.

"Our pathways have been leaked."

This realization made Andreton feel creepy. Is there a traitor in the family? To what extent has the top been infiltrated? The most important thing is, how many people and how many families know about this news?

The Age of the Gods can be described as "angels walk on the earth, and there are as many demigods as dogs", and Stiano is not a famous family in the Glorious Era, so if he wants to be among the first-class, he has to cultivate demigods...... However, when the land resources were not enough to distribute, their promotion ceremony was bound to cause dissatisfaction among many nobles.

Before the Land Protection Act was enacted, they had room to maneuver and could co-opt one group of people against another, but the Black Emperor had already made his attitude clear...... To transgress His laws is to transgress His authority, lest the divinity that has been caught in his hands will be burned on the cross before it is hot.

"Looks like you've figured it out." Viscount Tudor sighed, "You can understand my decision, right?" ”

Andrei clenched his fist tightly, and the veins bulged from the back of his hand.

Why?

Who are we? By what is Stiano?

————————————————

After Eliza Stiano burned the unsent letter to ashes, there was a knock on her door.

As a woman, the knock on the door in the middle of the night should have made her wary, but she turned calm and opened the door straightforwardly, without even looking through the cat's eye to see who it was.

"Praise the sage."

"Praise the sage."

The late-night visitor was a black-haired, purple-robed woman with a peeping eye pendant hanging from her waist, and rimless glasses, who reverently drew an inverted triangle on her chest, to whom Eliza greeted her with the same courtesy.

"Ms. Olivia, is it all over?"

She tried to make her tone as calm as possible, "Did anything happen...... Irreparable? ”

The woman named Olivia smiled at the corner of her mouth and said quite gently: "Thanks to your information, the riot was quelled in a timely manner, no casualties were caused, and the perpetrators of the riots did not deserve death." ”

"That's good, thank you for your tolerance."

Seeing that Irina breathed a sigh of relief, Olivia added in her heart, of course, even if you didn't say anything to us, how the matter should be resolved tonight, but your sincere attitude deserves praise, dear Miss Craftsman.

"Okay, then I won't disturb your rest." Olivia said, "Have a good dream." ”

"Can I go see them?" Irina eyelashes drooped, "I'm just ......"

"There is no need to explain, dear, that it is a matter of course for loved ones to visit their loved ones."

Olivia took the conversation understandingly, "And when you swore to join the school, you only promised three things - not to divulge the secrets of the school, not to harm the members of the school, and not to blaspheme the hidden sage. As for how to solve the 'family problem', it is your private matter. ”

"Thank you, Ms. Olivia."

They walked through the night, through the sleepy neighborhood, and there was a rather empty area between the military and residential areas, and the only building was a cylindrical fortress - this was the place where the seals were kept, called the "Minoan Labyrinth".

By the flickering light of the fire, Irina saw several familiar faces, one of which belonged to her cousin, and a little closer, Irina saw that they were sturdy in chains, and that they were also tied to heavy iron balls around their feet.

They were surrounded by several purple-hued hidden believers, one wearing a short cape, another wearing a floor-length robe, and one with lace trimmed on the cuffs and neckline—the school's permission to modify uniforms to the extent that they were not offensive to the ground, and it was said to be a manifestation of the teachings.

There was another group of acquaintances, who were also craftsmen of the Stiano family, who were not treated like prisoners, but who were still cramped and uneasy.

"It's you ——?!"

When she saw them, her cousin saw him too, and his face immediately flushed as if it were about to explode, and if it weren't for the fact that his hands and feet were tied, he would have rushed over and tore Irina apart.

"You traitor to the family! Short-sighted slut! Shameless bitch! ”

Spit spewed violently from his mouth, and Irina frowned and took a step back.

My cousin was still scolding, "You didn't help us fulfill the glorious mission of the family, and even revealed our plan to outsiders?!" You're just ......."

"You're as stupid as a pig."

Irina interrupted him coldly, "Where do you think this is?" This is the border! And winter is coming soon, and those hungry half-giants will come at any moment! As a result, you still led people to cause a riot?! Do you have ......?"

"Nope." Irina reacted quickly, her gaze searched her cousin's face sternly, "You won't do such a pointless thing, you're here for ......"

"To cover Andrea Stiano." Olivia said slowly, "After claiming to have converted to the Sage, he acted respectfully and reverently, as he had for five years, but the Sage always felt that he was deep in thought, and he began a test. ”

"We 'inadvertently' revealed to Him in our casual conversation that there were some knick-knacks in the Minoan Labyrinth that could confuse right and wrong, and confuse black and white."

Olivia watched the man's paleness with interest, "If he's been thinking about how to bypass the oath and pass on the hermit's potion recipe and promotion ritual to the family, then he'll be interested in both. ”

When taking the vow, each believer would sign a "notarial deed" in duplicate, one for the archives and one for himself, and the two seals, one for the "Fallen Earl" and the other for the "Deceived Teacher", may really be able to deceive the occult oath.

"So when we learned that you were trying to stir up a commotion, we subconsciously thought it was to make it easier for him to access those two things, so we set up an ambush inside the labyrinth."

Olivia shrugged, looking helpless.

"But who knew he ran away? I don't know whether to say that he doesn't play cards according to the routine, or whether to praise him for judging and breaking it...... But now that the Sage has taken over, it won't take long. ”

————————————————

"Ahem—"

Blood flowed from André Stiano's mouth and nose, and he nimbly fished it before splashing it with snow, while his internal organs began to ache, as if something was about to burst out.

"That's not right!"

Andrei rolled up his sleeves, and some black brambles appeared on his skin, moving and stretching their branches as if they were alive, and his strong forearms actually dried up, and at the same time red rashes appeared on his skin......

No, it's a rapidly expanding bud! The petals shook off layer by layer, but the innermost one was not a stamen, but an eyeball, which was spinning in a straight way.

"Wait...... It's not ......"

This is the "knowledge" given to him by the Hidden Sage, a gift from the "occultist" potion, the Hidden Sage put three different colored lights of knowledge before him, he chose the red one, and then he knew that there was a nightingale that sang the praises of love, there was a rose dyed red with blood, and there was a love that was abandoned like a shoe...... This powerful magic was also obtained.

This magic had once worked for him, black thorns that could strangle a giant bear for him, but now it was squeezing his life force!

"It's a shame you didn't understand the true meaning of 'The Nightingale and the Rose'."

A gentle voice let out a regretful sigh, and Andre trembled like an electric shock, almost fainting.

"The feelings that have been let down do not die there, but will brew into poison, such as the love of that teenager...... Like the trust I place in you, Andrea Stiano. ”