A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

It was just after noon, when the sun was burning like fire, but the courtyard of the palace was shaded by the huge canopy of trees.

The statue of the Goddess Isdar in the middle of the courtyard was bathed in sunlight, holding the stars, and the drops of water from her feet splashed into the fountain basin.

Thin water droplets formed a layer of water curtain, dissipating the heat in the courtyard.

Huimus stood beside the fountain pool, reaching for a few drops of water.

The cold drops of water fell on his hands and wet his palms.

He was absorbed in a moment, somehow, and suddenly remembered what happened here a long time ago.

At that time, he was only a teenager and had just entered the palace soon.

In the evening of the day, when the sunset was like fire, he stood just like this now, standing in front of the little child sitting on the edge of the fountain basin.

At that time, he had realized that the child occupied a very important position in his heart.

Therefore, he told the child that he would stay with him and protect him throughout his life, and never let anyone hurt him.

That was the first time he held his feelings in front of others.

That was the first time he wanted to protect a person so much and wanted to be with that person all the time.

Looking back now, that might be his first confession to Gallan.

Then... he was rejected by Galland, who was still a child.

‘I don’t need you to protect me. ’

'I hate you. ’

The children are very straightforward, like to like, hate to hate-although I don't know why, it seems that Galland, who was a child at the time, looked at him from the first sight.

This straightforward refusal can be described as cruel to the self, who was a teenager at the time and was extremely sensitive and vulnerable.

He even had a sense of humiliation when he slapped a slap in the face.

Feeling ashamed and uncomfortable, he secretly vowed in his heart at that time that he would never get closer to the child again!

Well, swear nothing can count.

Not counted.

Heimos, who was standing by the fountain, thought so, and then raised his lips unconsciously.

At that time, what made the young man extremely uncomfortable, and now, in retrospect, it turned out to be a special memory that made him smile from the heart.

All memories with Garland, from small to large, are almost innumerable.

Those good or bad, no matter what kind, until now, as long as I think about it, it can make his heart feel warm and soft.

Just when Huimus was thinking about the past, he waited for a long time and finally came out of the room.

Heimus, who turned around after he noticed the footsteps, looked up and saw Gallan walking quickly.

The dark long hair was tied into a bundle by a white hair band behind him, and the teenager had a sleeveless tunic, which was similar to the soaring strength of the Ranger.

Although Gallan's height is not outstanding, the figure is very good, and his legs are extremely slender.

This made the thin short cloak behind him only cover the thighs.

When the handsome young man walked towards himself quickly, Huimos couldn't help but beating.

He thought that no matter what time, no matter what his appearance, his heart would only beat and runaway for the person in front of him.

It was like Aphrodite praying for the beautiful boy's pity, so he was so eager for the love of the man in front of him.

"Hyimos, sorry, let you wait a long time."

Walking to Huimus, Gallan said, "It took a little more time for Tapti to dye my hair."

He fixed his gaze on Upper Huimos and asked suspiciously.

"What's wrong? Am I dressed wrong?"

Huimus smiled.

"Do not."

He said, "I'm just thinking, since you want to pretend to be dressed, why don't you just dress like a girl like last time..."

Heimus hadn't finished speaking yet. With a snap, Gallan slapped him on the mouth and covered his mouth.

"Hush!"

Garlan covered his mouth with one hand and raised his index finger with one hand to make a muffled motion by his mouth.

"You promised that I would not mention that matter again!"

The teenager was relieved when he lowered his voice and looked around, confirming that the people around him, including Tapti, were far away from hearing their conversation.

He stared at Huimus dissatisfiedly.

Huimos, Kehuos, and Shulos all knew that they had been dressed as women. Did they already have a lot of them?

He didn't want any more to know his black history.

Grabbing Garran's hand and removing it from his mouth, Huimus raised an eyebrow.

"It's fine not to mention, but you have to answer me a question."

"what?"

"Why did you hate me as a kid?"

"what?"

"Here." Heimus pointed to the fountain next to it. "You said that time, you hate me and don't need me, why?"

Garland was startled, and then remembered.

When he was a child, he did say that in order to sever Heymus's favor with him and alienate him.

"That is……"

He hesitated for a moment and did not answer immediately.

It can't be said that he was killed four times, so he was afraid and disliked Huimus at that time.

"Why do you hate me?"

Huimus asked persistently.

"...I don't remember what happened as a child."

The golden red eyes narrowed and looked at Gallan.

But after watching it for a while, Heimus didn't pursue it, which made Galan relieved.

Then he heard what Heymus said next.

"It doesn't matter."

Heimus, who squinted at him, raised his lips slightly, and said, "Even if you said you didn't need me, then you didn't say that you need me to be with you."

If the corners of Huimos's raised lips leaked a little bit of joyful color, obviously the mood at the moment was very good, and still a little proud.

Gallan looked at the man in front of him who was smiling happily, and suddenly smiled.

"I'm not wrong in speaking, but I also remember that someone had said, "Don't like men", and still swear to Samash."

He said, "Otherwise, do you speak first? Don't like me anymore?"

Heimus's raised lips suddenly twitched.

Garland didn't shy away and looked at him with a smile.

——Come on, hurt each other.

In the end, it was the Black Knight who retreated as always.

As the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite said, in love, the person who first falls in love is always a complete loser.

Heimos sighed and said, "Speaking of that, I was rejected by you three times when I was a kid. Don't you think I'm pitifully rejected so many times?"

In pursuit of the beloved, the invincible black knight on the battlefield, like the bloodthirsty Shura, shamelessly labeled himself as the poor and weak.

"Not at all."

The teenager answered decisively.

Really want to calculate the ledger, you have killed me four times, I only rejected you three times.

Garland sneered in the bottom of his heart.

Not to mention refusing three times, all the fourth.

So, Heimus, who wanted to gain a little bit of Gallan's pity and sympathy through his rejection many times, pitted himself so hard.

And he didn't realize it at the moment.

Just when the two were talking, the little fat man Tal had come.

auzw.com "Are you ready to go?"

He ran to Gallan in a smoky way, pulling his head, and rarely showed a look of embarrassment in front of Gallan.

In more than a year of Galland's enthronement, Taal rounded again at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. At this moment, the whole portrait is a round ball of meat.

But fat is fat, he will always be the fastest when he rushes to Garlan.

Taal’s talents in numerical calculations are almost well known, but to everyone’s surprise, Gallan did not put Taar, who was his heart, into the Finance Department after he became king. Go to work, so as to control the finances through Tal.

The financial controller must be the confidant of the reigning king.

After all, in general, the new king will never rest assured that the financially important right will continue to be controlled by the confidant of the previous king.

However, this young king seems to be different. He let the Finance Department continue to operate according to the original staff and gave them full trust.

This made the old courtiers who had already made the new king the throne and would be discharged. They were very grateful to King Garland.

Garland had no plans to tuck Tall into the Finance Department from the beginning, he had his own plan.

In addition to the existing department, he also set up a new department, directly appointed Taal as the person in charge of this empty department, and then sent Taal directly to do things.

He did this for another purpose.

…………

Skillfully exiting the palace from the side entrance as a guard of the palace, Gallan set foot on the broad stone avenue in the palace.

All three rode on horses, and Tal's round figure lay on the horse, walking in front, and diligently led Gallan to the side of the royal city.

Even after riding a horse for a long time, it was almost in a remote corner on the edge of the king city before reaching its destination.

This is a huge open space, surrounded by stone walls.

An arch-shaped tower rises directly in front of the stone wall. There are six floors in total. The bottom layer is embedded in the stone wall, just like the gate of the stone wall.

This was built by Taal in half a year, and was also the office of the department under his command.

Garland dismounted in front of the outer door, tied it to the stone pillar outside, and walked straight in through the door.

Once inside, it is an extremely large hall, wide enough to accommodate thousands of people at the same time.

The end of the hall is arc-shaped, divided into dozens of separate rooms, each room has a document responsible for the work and records there.

And the spaces leading to the back of those rooms are also separated by solid stone walls, that is, when you walk in from different rooms, you will reach different places.

In the middle of the hall is a huge cypress made of cypress, similar to the erected bulletin board.

It's just that the bulletin board is a rectangular box, and dozens of parchments are stuck on the four sides of the board.

As long as the merchants who come here are willing to pay a certain fee, they can write the goods and prices they own on these long strips of parchment paper, so that everyone who enters the hall can see it.

However, at the moment these strips of parchment are blank.

Heimus looked around the hall and asked Galland: "Is this the Trade and Trade Department you said?"

This so-called Trade and Trade Department, in his appearance, is almost similar to the existence of a bazaar, that is, the concentration of trade.

It's just that the market is usually gathered by people going to the square, and this is a large-scale market officially established by Galland in the name of the royal court.

Although the building looks extremely large and magnificent, the hall is very empty and deserted. Apart from the clerks and other people working here, almost no outsiders are seen.

You know, Aaron Landis’s royal city is in an excellent location, almost right in the center of the entire continent, caravans are very frequent, trade is very prosperous, and even a day’s transaction volume is huge.

However, this commerce and trade department was so deserted, it made Huimos strange.

Hearing Heimus's words, Tal looked at Gallan with an uneasy look, without the liveliness of the past, a lingering look.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, it's all my incompetence..."

The Trade and Trade Department started operation half a month ago, and he has tried his best to promote its existence throughout the Wangcheng.

However, those large businessmen or large caravans, as long as they heard that trading here requires a certain percentage of fees, of course they shook their heads unwillingly.

You know, they come to Wangcheng for business and trade, they only need to pay an entry tax when they enter the city, and they can freely trade in Wangcheng.

Aaron Landis said that there is no commercial tax. It should be said that there is no commercial tax in the entire continent. Most businessmen and merchants are required to pay local tax, entry tax, etc. This kind of tax is charged according to the transaction volume. The matter for them is unheard of.

If it was King Garland who forcibly required merchants to trade in this Trade and Trade Department, then in the eyes of the merchants, it was that King Garland was forcibly scraping oil from the merchants in another way.

Although they dare not resist, they will naturally not be happy, and businessmen will bypass the Wangcheng in the future.

In this way, Wangcheng's business will gradually become depressed, this behavior is equivalent to killing chickens and eggs.

But what reassured the merchants was that King Garland did not force the merchants to trade in the department, but said that they came entirely on their own initiative.

In this way, the business people who are used to spending money on money are naturally not willing to pay such a fee to pay any business tax, and of course they will not come to the so-called Trade and Trade Department.

Therefore, after running for a month, it is still this cold and cold look, which has caused many people to secretly read jokes.

They dare not say anything about Gallan, and can only ridicule Taal in secret. Tal is of course angry, but the reality is indeed the case, he was already anxious to get angry, and now he is being ridiculed in the back, so he feels more aggrieved.

He thought of many ways, but because of the need to collect commercial taxes, the merchants were reluctant to come here to trade. Now, Tal has no choice but to tell Garran helplessly.

At this moment, he stared at Gallan in amusement, fearing that Gallan would feel incompetent because of this incident.

Gallan, who was also looking at the hall that was too spacious and increasingly empty, turned his head and looked at Tal's lingering look. He smiled and patted the fat man's shoulder.

"Not your problem."

He appeased Tal.

People are always quite afraid of new things they are not used to.

"Don't worry, I will find a way."

…………

After leaving the sluggish Trade and Trade Department, Garland let Tal stay here to sort out all the information of the large-scale commodity transactions in the Wangcheng in the recent period. When he was accompanied by Heimus, in the Wangcheng Several well-known fairs traded in a circle.

These places are all located in the square, which is a natural market that has been formed for a long time. There are large and small, where you can buy goods from all over the country, so it is very lively from morning to night. Those merchants with few goods are directly come here.

Some big merchants with backgrounds are scattered scattered around the Wangcheng, and they directly opened business offices. Many caravans of large-scale transactions went directly to their merchants to sell or buy the goods they shipped.

After spending an afternoon strolling around, Garland walked back, wondering how to open up the situation of the Trade and Trade Department.

They walked out of a market mouth and turned hungry all afternoon. When a scent came from the stall selling snacks at the market mouth, Gallan's eyes could not help but glance past.

Heimus, who saw him, smiled slightly and walked towards the crowded food stall.

So Garland stood obediently, waiting for Huimus to help him buy the delicious things back.

Just after waiting for a while, I heard a familiar voice.

Turning his head to look, he was indeed an acquaintance.

I saw that Sonja, the priest of Nanna, under the command of Huimos, was wearing an ordinary man's costume at the moment, and quarreled fiercely with a woman in a hard suit at the market.

The woman's face was heroic, her sword eyebrows raised, her long dark hair tied into a ponytail behind her head, giving a feeling of heroic savory.

Garlan looked at it, and felt that the woman seemed familiar.

The two did not know what they were arguing about, so that Soga, who had always shown a calm and ruthless posture, appeared a little embarrassed.

The night priest, who was able to calmly talk about what he had said before a group of powerful ministers, was forced to retreat step by step in front of the heroic woman, feeling quite overwhelmed.

Anyway, that look made Garlan hiding aside with interest.

And while Gallan was happily doing melon eating, the woman snorted.

"Soka, I am not obliged to you, as long as I like it, I can find another lover now!"

The woman turned and walked, just walking in the direction of Gallan, striding past Gallan in a big step.

Garlan subconsciously moved aside, he moved, and the hood covering most of his face fell back a little.

Others may not be able to see clearly, but as soon as the woman walking past Gallan turned her head, she clearly saw Gallan's face.

Her eyes lit up suddenly.

There is no other meaning. Her shiny eyes are pure appreciation and marvel at seeing beautiful things.

She stopped all of a sudden, looking curiously at the rare black-haired beauty in front of her eyes.

"Fataya!"

The lover who was left behind shouted her name and chased her eagerly.

A trace of anger appeared on the woman's face that had recovered.

She glanced at Gallan, and suddenly her eyes were bright again, as if she had thought of a good idea.

She turned back and looked at Soga who was catching up with bad eyesight.

Then she stretched out her arms and held one of Garran's arms.

"Listen, Soga, I have decided."

she says,

"He is my new lover!"

Galan: "???