Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 258

After a day of training, Xia Houyan and Master Laurie checked the equipment of the hunting team.

According to past experience, the target of the St. Augustus Festival's hunting contest was either a stag or a wild boar, in short, a large wild animal. Therefore, the soldiers of the Pioneer Army, who used to use sabers, also urgently changed their equipment during training.

Since it is hunting, long-range projectile weapons must be the main output.

After arriving in the imperial capital, Knight Commander Cousins ​​purchased a large number of bows and arrows, hand crossbows, and throwing nets in the Griffon District by virtue of his extraordinary connections. Equipped with one for the special case of running out of projectiles or damage to the primary weapon.

In view of the fact that the hunting competition is about to start, there are not a few territorial delegations that need to purchase weapons, so the profiteers in the imperial capital also took advantage of the situation to increase the price and hit the Igor family hard;
The capital is not an extrajudicial place like the land of cracking souls, and the lord can't transplant the means of dealing with the towns on the left bank to the empire.
The only consolation is that most of the equipment sold in the Griffin District of the Imperial Capital are authentic products produced by the human military industrial base "Molten Valley". In the future, it can be brought back to Shuangfengling for further use.

During a few days of training, Chris Mann, the deputy commander of the pioneering army, had already made a basic assessment of the shooting level of the territorial delegation—his original words were:

"Let these bastards stand on the seashore of salt and shoot arrows into the sea, the probability of the arrows entering the water is as high as 90.00%..."

It is precisely because the archery skills of the Shuangfengling soldiers are really unsightly, so except for a few ADC elites with strange bones and extraordinary talents, Chris arranged for them to use hand crossbows instead of bows and arrows:

Draw the bow and shoot the arrow inaccurately, pick up the hand crossbow and pull the trigger, right?
No matter how bad it is, don't even pull the trigger, just wind it up for others...

Seeing that the lord was depressed, Chris quickly comforted him and said, don’t worry, the Dongfang County soldiers sent by Rosario have practiced some crossbows. Besides, the main output of our territory is actually not archers, but magicians ...

Xia Houyan looked back at Master Laurie who was squatting in the corner and staring at Shale, his expression became even more gloomy.

"Ai... Your lord." Alice Comstock walked forward slowly from the side, and when she found Chris was there, she quickly changed her name, "This is your armor."

Xia Houyan glanced at the short leather armor in Alice's hand, and sighed.

According to the regulations of the hunting competition, the lords of the major territories also have to participate with their own hunting teams. In a sense, this traditional custom of forcing the lords to join the battle on horseback comes from the martial virtues of the barren era. years of entrepreneurship;

However, with the change of the times, the imperial aristocratic circle has long been full of the stench of bourgeoisism, and there are more and more imperial lords whose bodies have been hollowed out by wine and sex, and who are potbellied and cannot even mount a horse. Team hunting is simply the ultimate torture;
Of course, there are countermeasures under the above policies, and the imperial lords have long thought of a fishing secret that does not violate the clan system:

In name, although they competed with their own hunting team, they would not follow the team into hunting venues such as forests, grasslands, swamps, etc., but stayed at the edge of the arena in safety, leaning on the recliner and waiting for the good news of their subordinates——

——Why, marginal OBs are not included in the competition?

In fact, Xia Houyan really wanted to take a paid shit like other lords and compete for fish. However, the strength of the Shuangfengling delegation was a bit too weak, and he wanted to squeeze out every bit of extra combat power:

Under such circumstances, a lord who can use necromancer magic without restriction and is more or less an intermediate mage of the light system is really embarrassed to stay out of it—after careful consideration, he decided to enter the hunting arena with his team members;
Of course, his reluctance to stay in the rest area and deal more with those idiot nobles was also one of his considerations.

In fact, although it is not uncommon for the members of the hunting competitions to be undercover, the personal safety of the nobles and lords participating in the hunting is quite guaranteed-the knight archers under him can break their hands and bones Accept it, if any lord is injured by someone's black hand during the hunting process, then things will be a big mess...

The politics of the imperial aristocratic circle is a study of unspoken rules, and "it is not allowed to shoot other lords in hunting competitions" is obviously one of the rules that everyone has agreed upon.

Because of this, the high-level leaders of Shuangfengling didn't have much opinion on the lord's preparation for the competition. Even Katerina only ordered "be careful".

——Actually, Xia Houyan didn't know whether she made herself pay attention to safety, or asked herself not to hurt the safety of others.

Of course, the necessary protective measures should still be taken. What Alice sent him was just a piece of exquisite leather armor with golden goshawk patterns that had just been made;
Coupled with some necessary magic shields, it is designated that no one can hurt the lord of Frost Maple Ridge anyway.

"I will be with you when the time comes." Alice smiled sweetly at the lord, "If anyone wants to hurt you, please ask my 'Light of the Sky' first!"

Isa Sandria curled her lips in disdain.

……

Early the next morning, the St. Augustus Festival officially opened. The lord, wearing a gorgeous gown with a black background and a gold goshawk pattern, took his sister Katerina and Captain Cousins, and plunged into the sea of ​​fancy ceremonies. .

The first part of the opening ceremony of the St. Augustus Festival was held at the Flower Square in the center of the imperial capital and the center of the Crown District.

Although this central square covered with bright white marble tiles is famous for burning countless heretic magicians, cultists, and traitors in history, Lord Frost Maple Ridge, a heretic magician, cultist, and son of traitors, was not affected by anyone. To make things difficult, in the southwest corner of the square, I found a red velvet cushion chair with the Igor family's goshawk flag hanging.

In the square at this moment, rows of gorgeous armchairs were already filled with imperial lords who came from all directions. With a simple glance, Xia Houyan could see countless familiar faces who must have appeared in a certain portrait.

The lords of the empire gathered together, a truly elite gathering.

The seat arranged by the imperial court for the Igor family can also explain the current situation of this ancient family, which was deeply troubled by the conspiracy, in the political circle of the empire: this position is too far back and cornered, and it is almost in the position of all empires. At the end of the real power lords, the people who sat on the square even further back than the Xiahou officials were basically only some nameless and down-and-out nobles——

—like Isa Sandria.

Not long after Xia Houyan sat down, he felt a pair of jade arms wrap around his neck from behind.

He lowered his head and wanted to kiss Isa Sandria's wrist, but the Countess of Stigmata dodged it with a giggle.

"Everyone is watching!" Isa patted the Lord Lord's shoulder reproachfully.

Xia Houyan rolled his eyes wildly, thinking that when you publicly announced that Lao Tzu was your fiance, why didn't you pay so much attention to your image?

"His Majesty the Emperor should wait a while to arrive." Isa gently leaned behind the lord, stretched out her hand, and gestured to the minaret at the front of the square, "After the ceremony of offering sacrifices to Lord St. Augustus is over, His Majesty the Emperor will announce the location and prey of the hunting contest—you see, the imperial lords are busy..."

Xia Houyan followed Yisha's instructions and found that there were only a few nobles sitting in their seats as leisurely as him, and more imperial nobles gathered in small groups in twos and threes, and the center of each group often He is a high-ranking noble with extraordinarily gorgeous clothes.

It is the nature of human beings to hug their thighs. It is also a natural choice for those little nobles to seize the time before the hunting contest starts, trying to win over powerful territories and gain some benefits.

But officials like Xiahou are different——

Even if he wanted to find an ally, it would be too late for them to hide from him!
In addition to deeply comprehending the truth that "the demeanor of independent celebrities in the world is forced out", Xia Houyan focused on examining the lineup of imperial nobles attending the opening ceremony, looking for any old acquaintances.

The result is very regrettable.

Grand Duke Rosario, who had been helping Frost Maple Ridge before, not only did not attend the opening ceremony of the festival, but even Rose City did not send any delegation to the imperial capital—considering that the Eastern Army just entered The Orc Federation's subordinates suffered a defeat, and the military leader of the Eastern Territory is probably still struggling on the front line.

This also means that the lord's plan to find an opportunity to chat with Grand Duke Rosario face to face has come to naught.

What is even more regrettable is that the Archduke Houston of Rock Creek City also did not attend the festival celebration: If the news received on the way north was correct, Rock Creek City at this moment is probably still in the aftermath of the civil strife in the territory, and it is even more impossible to draw out manpower Send people to the imperial capital to participate in the ceremony of Lao Shizi;

This also means that the lord's crowbar's plan to find a chance to chat with the Duke of Houston face to face has come to naught.

However, the Grand Duchy of Houston sent a team of vendors selling special products to the imperial capital for exhibitions and sales, but Xia Houyan insisted that those who came to sell things were innocent small traders and clerks of Rock Creek City, and they took their anger towards the Grand Duke of Houston on them. In the servant's body, there is a suspicion of bullying the weak and fearing the hard...

——So let Knight Commander Cousins ​​find local ruffians to smash their booth, and it's over.

However, these two regrets for Shuangfengling could not be better for other imperial lords:
As we all know, the most powerful aristocratic territory in the empire is the Rose City of Grand Duke Grim Rosario. Other first-class territories finally have the hope of touching the diamond laurel crown!

For a moment, the crowd was excited, and the flames of greed were burning in the eyes of every lord.

Xia Houyan twisted his neck and inspected the nobles on the field, feeling bored, and was about to turn around and tell some funny jokes with Yisha, when suddenly he felt his eyes go dark, as if a slightly burly figure was approaching.

He squinted his eyes, curled his lips very Diogenes and said:
"Please get out of the way, you are blocking my sunlight."

"Conspirator is not worthy of sunshine." The figure said coldly.

Xia Houyan raised his eyebrows, leaned back against the chair, and looked up at the face of the visitor.

This person is about five or sixty years old, with a burly figure. He must have been a strong man when he was young-but years and aging have accumulated too much fat on his body, and his face is also full of potholes. folds, leaving only a pair of cold eyes shining;

According to the decoration specifications of the light blue satin dress that the visitor wore, Xia Houyan used his little common sense of imperial etiquette to judge that this should be a certain noble earl of the empire.

Xia Houyan originally wanted to get up and salute the other party, but after thinking about it, he sat on the chair without moving.

"Who are you sending it to?" he asked.

The fat on the big earl's face was visibly twitching, and his small eyes became even smaller due to anger.

But in the end, Xia Houyan observed with some regret that this guy managed to suppress the anger in his heart.

The big earl took a deep breath and said coldly:
"I am Philip Netwan, patriarch of the Netwan family, Earl of Witherwood Forest."

"Natewan...Natewan..." Xia Houyan chanted this somewhat familiar name, and suddenly realized when he clapped his hands, "Oh! You are the idiot I fucked up at the dinner that night..."

"Everson Netwan is my son." Earl Netwan took a deep breath, and hissed through clenched teeth, "That day when he came home with a bruised nose and face, I found out that he was assassinated by a bastard during the duel... ..."

Ho!The fantasy novels for the mentally handicapped are not deceiving, as expected, those who hit the young ones will grow old again!

Xia Houyan snorted coldly, and was about to retaliate when Isa Sandria, who was on the side, had already said with a smile:
"Uncle Netwand, this is not right - I was a witness to the duel at that time. Iverson was kicked down and defeated by this Lord Elliott Igor. There is nothing at all' Plotting 'Ah!"

Earl Netwan's expression froze, then he stared at Isa for a long time, licked his lips and hissed:
"This is the Countess Isa Sandria, right? It seems that your words and your beauty are as impressive as the rumors..."

"And your son's recklessness and stupidity are eye-opening for us." Xia Houyan tilted his body, blocked Yisha, and said with a sneer, "I don't know how your son's injury is recovering? Natwan Lord Earl, your son is too bad-tempered, he has to correct it and educate him well, otherwise he will suffer a lot in the future..."

Earl Netwan glared at Xia Houyan viciously, his whole body was trembling, and he gritted his teeth and said:

"Eliot Igor... You wait for me... This place in the imperial capital is not something you, a rebel bastard, can do whatever you want..."

Xia Houyan was too lazy to talk nonsense, stretched out his knife, and compared it around his neck in response.

Earl Netwan stared angrily at the Lord of Frost Maple Ridge for a moment, then glanced at Isa Sandria with greedy eyes, and left with a flick of his sleeve.

Watching off Earl Natwan, who came here to speak harshly, and walked away angrily, Xia Houyan snorted and said to himself:
"Sooner or later, I will gouge out the eyeballs of this old bastard..."

Isa was stunned for a moment, then raised her hand to cover her lips, laughing so hard that her branches trembled.

(End of this chapter)