Eagle Flag of Epirus

[The Lord said, I will drive the Judah out of my presence, just as I drive out the Israelites. I will forsake the city of Jerusalem that I have chosen before and the temple that I said to make my name. ——The Book of Kings]

　　 Under the night of Constantinople, the church bell rang, echoing melodiously in the night sky.

　　 Except for the soldiers patrolling, the street is now empty. Outside a hotel, at the corner of the alley, a few dark shadows flashed past, and they rushed in as if they didn't want people to find themselves. At the corner, I saw that many people had been waiting here for a long time in front of me.

　　 "You are here." The man with a hooded face and a hooded face said.

　　 "Here we are, sir." Several shadows nodded.

　　 But the man seemed a little worried and confirmed again, "Are you all here?"

　　 "Except for Corani, who is in charge of monitoring, everyone else has expired, sir."

"Well, the next thing, I think you should have almost known before I come to you. So I won't say any more nonsense, and you should not ask more about irrelevant things. Now everyone is doing the last thing. Prepare, enter the hotel in ten minutes. During this period, the guards will be dismissed. We have enough time. And the order that the adult gave us is to clean out all the [owl], only success, no failure, understand it! "The leading man issued a majestic low drink, without any doubt.

　　 After a while, the dark shadows who heard this command couldn't help being horrified, and immediately tightened their bodies, responding: "Yes, sir."

　　 After receiving this order, the shadows had no choice but to obey. "Cleaning", the word has already been said to illustrate the importance of this task. As far as the person who gave the order is the adult, both they and the [owl] are tools that can be discarded at will. This is their early realization. However, this time the goal is the most fierce owl, which means that they are bound to usher in a fierce battle.

　　 Under the hazy moonlight, the dark shadows were ready to kill, and gathered outside the hotel in front of them like a flock of crows, waiting for the final order.

　　 Seeing his birds are ready to go, the man in the hood nodded and finally gave instructions to act.

　　 "Do it!"

　　The dark shadows came out, brushed the sides of the man's shoulders, and swiftly moved towards the unsuspecting hotel surroundings. Watching all this silently, the **** who gave this order was bleeding in his heart. [Owl] is undoubtedly the most proud bird of prey to clean up the dirty work in his hands, but now he has to choose to erase it, because of this. It was the emperor's order, and he had no choice but to execute it.

I saw the dark shadows who jumped on the roof jumped down, and they cooperated with the companions downstairs to shoot at the same time. They all knew that the people in the room were just like themselves, the dead men raised by the eunuch, and they must not be careless. , Must start to be foolproof.

　　 The door was slammed open at the same time, the short bow in the killer's hand shot a deadly arrow into the darkness in front of him. But when the killers who jumped into it for the first time settled down, they were immediately dumbfounded, because they found nothing in the room except for an inconspicuous candlelight. Watching everything around him vigilantly, the shadows didn't dare to be careless at all, and the strange vision of the eyes had already made them feel vaguely bad.

Be careful!

　　The killers reminded each other with their eyes, and continued to explore in front of the dark eyes, looking at the only candlelight.

　　 When they finally approached and saw them clearly, they found that it turned out to be a dark room, but it was strange that the secret door that was supposed to be avoided was half open at this time, and the candlelight came out from here.

　　The dark shadows have some hesitations. Such an abnormal scene has undoubtedly explained that there is something obviously wrong here, but they have no choice but to break into it at this time.

With a "bang", the most burly one of the killer rushed forward and knocked open the door of the dark room. It was strange to say that it was half hidden, but at the moment of the impact, the burly killer felt something Something is against the back. Without thinking about it, the assassins from behind followed closely, everyone holding weapons to protect their chests in a sneak attack. But when they rushed into the dark room, the scene in front of them shocked them.

　　 A person is hanging high on the beams in front of them at this time. No, it is a corpse to be precise. Obviously, it has been strangled for a long time. But what shocked them even more was the introduction of the face of the strangled person!

　　 "Corani!"

The shadows couldn’t help exclaiming that the corpse was not someone else. It was the companion who was supposed to monitor the situation inside and outside the hotel. They thought he should continue to observe in a dark place, but they didn’t expect it to die like this. before.

"Damn it, what's going on!" There was a little more panic in the voices of the frightened and angry shadows. It was the first time they were so upset, because they felt this kind of chilling sense of crisis for the first time. Yes, all the killers are more alert to the surroundings. And just when the burly killer was about to lift his companion's body from the beam, an exclamation suddenly sounded.

"Do not move!"

The sharp-eyed killer leader noticed something wrong with the surrounding environment. There was nothing in the empty room, and the floor on the soles of the feet was so sticky for some reason, and a silk thread was now connected to the dead Corani. The other end is connected to an oil lamp hanging in the sky. Suddenly, the bad assassin leader stopped shouting, but it was too late.

With the sound of "Bang Dang", the moment the falling oil lamp touched the floor, the flame swallowed the whole room in an instant-and the killers finally realized what the sticky thing on the ground was-fish oil on the floor. , And two full barrels of fish oil! They were all placed here a long time ago, just waiting for the killers to knock over when they broke in. It was a seamless trap. When the shadows realized that they were already inferior to the trap of [Owl], everything around them was completely swallowed by the fierce fire.

　　……

Not far away, in the peaceful Golden Horn of Constantinople, on a long-lost battleship Drome, looking at Igor, Li Xinyi couldn't help feeling a sense of speechless powerlessness. , He never expected that he would be played for so long by a hairy boy in front of him.

　　 "That means you don't have the book in your hands."

　　 "You can say so." Facing Li Xini's question and the countless gazes around him that almost shredded himself, Igor nodded without changing his face.

　　 "It seems that I really underestimated you." Li Xini's voice gradually became colder, no longer the gentleness before.

Obviously he has angered the other party, but the look on Igor's face still remained calm, teasing: "Mother, each other, I didn't expect that I would be involved in such troubles. Obviously I have already said the deal. It's terminated."

"Then I don't think there is anything to talk about." Li Xini stood up from his chair indifferently and prepared to leave. No doubt at this moment this man has been murderous, and his subordinates outside the door are already eager to try. Prepare to sink the boy in front of him to the bottom of the Golden Horn.

　　 But at this moment, Igor said calmly: "Did you really decide to do this, Your Excellency Li Xini?"

"Of course, I said, that nautical chart is not necessary for me." The Sicilian man said coldly, as if he had no patience to continue talking, but Igor, with a playful smile on his face, followed The words made Li Xini's original hand movement suddenly stopped.

"I don't think it is necessary, Sir Lisini. After killing the Chancellor of Finance, you should realize that your situation is. If you continue to stay in Constantinople for a moment, it will be more dangerous. Those fine people I have never spared my dirty work tools."

　　 "What did you say..." The man who paused was surprised by Igor's words, and the faces of others around him couldn't help but change. After a while, the atmosphere in the room suddenly dropped to freezing point.

But this kind of reaction hit Igor's arms. He said indifferently: "The whole city is under martial law and there are searches everywhere. As Varangi, of course, I heard some wind. Although it was just a guess before, it is almost certain now. ——All of you here should not be smuggling merchants, but people who are currently wanted in Brahna Palace, and you could have depended on the people who sheltered you. It seems that you have changed your mind now, so you will come to me. , Want to leave Constantinople as soon as possible, don't you?"

Although he looked calm and relaxed, in fact Igor's back was soaked in cold sweat at this time, and the thoughts in his brain were constantly processing the intricate information to determine what to do next. The decision-all this is a risk, because Igor is betting on a fact that he can't believe, that these people and the abnormal behavior of the royal family are rooted in the assassination of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Vatazes a few months ago One thing. And the man in front of him was as anxious as himself at this time. The indifferent behavior he showed before was just that he wanted to cheat himself to gain the dominance of the negotiation.

　　 After saying this in an understatement, Igor couldn't help praying in his own heart. He was waiting for the other's response.

　　 On the other hand, Li Xini's heart was also shocked. He never expected that the young man in front of him had such a leap of thought, but he unbiasedly guessed the truth of the matter. As early as a month ago, the [Owl] assassination team he led was ordered to suspend operations. Since then, Li Xini has felt a sense of crisis, and this feeling has become more intense in recent days. After all, he finally made up his mind to leave Constantinople, and therefore contacted the young Varyag who had nothing to do with it.

　　 He thought it would be easy, get the nautical chart, leave Constantinople and go to the Black Sea to escape the danger. However, the variable of Igor completely disrupted the plan. Since the formal contact between the two parties, Li Xinyi has been on a tiger. If he is going to lead his men to flee Constantinople and be found, then everyone will die. The place of burial. But after killing the cunning boy in front of him, the nautical chart was not in his hands. The previous frauds had proved that Igor did not have the book in his hands. That is to say, there is only one choice in front of Li Xini, and that is to follow the previous proposal of Varanga.

　　 But, can you really believe him?

　　 Li Xini's heart couldn't help but hesitate. It is indeed more and more dangerous to continue to stay in Constantinople, but it is also a huge risk to hand over the life to this young man.

　　 Just when the man was hesitant, the voice of the girl who was as cold as frost and snow rang in everyone's ears.

　　 "Dad, I think we can try to trust him."

　　 Everyone could not believe that including Igor, it was Li Xini's daughter Alisha who first expressed his opinion. I saw that the beauty in uniform and sword was looking at Igor with those dark green eyes, and Igor was also looking at her—at this moment, the girl stood quietly, there was still some childishness on her face, but she looked like As quiet as an adult. There is no doubt that she is a beauty, but her body is not the same as the maid before, as if the painting in full bloom in the winter, not everyone can bear it.

　　 Following Li Xini's daughter's statement, the other [owls] couldn't help but become anxious. They obviously didn't trust a Varangi even more.

　　 "But Miss..."

　　 Just as a group of people were preparing to oppose, Suddenly, Li Xini waved his hand and interrupted them.

　　 I only saw the pale-faced Sicilian man without a word, and this scene made Igor, who was nervous, couldn't help but stun in his heart.

"grown ups……"

"Gentlemen, it seems that we have no choice. Because you see--" Li Xini said gravely, pointing out the window, and everyone was looking for prestige. Only in the night, outside the Golden Horn, Constantine The fire in the city of Dinburgh was blazing into the sky at this moment, and looking at the direction there, everyone could not help but change their expressions.

　　Because it was the direction where their stronghold was originally located, and there is only one explanation for the burning of fire at the moment-the mechanism arranged there was triggered by someone, and they had indeed been abandoned.

　　 "Fuck!" Looking at this scene, disappointment and anger enveloped everyone's hearts. They were completely dead and couldn't help but burst out swearing. Now not only are they abandoned, but it also means that, as Li Xini said, they have only one choice, and that is to choose to believe in the young Varanga in front of them.

　　 Everyone's eyes converged on Igor's body again at this moment, and the [owls] who had originally wanted to swallow him alive could only smash their teeth and swallow.

　　 And Igor, who was finally relieved in his heart, also showed a truly relaxed look on his face at this time, "Now I think we should talk about it, everyone."

　　……

　　……

　　……

Outside the hotel that had been completely engulfed by flames, the patrolmen hurried over quickly led people to stop the fire fighting. There are many residential areas around here. Because they are all places where poor people gather, they are littered with debris everywhere. The fire dissipated and the consequences were disastrous.

　　 A few minutes later, not only the patrol troops, but also the garrison troops at the gates of Plessy and Dunkari not far away came to support. But just as the soldiers were nervously eliminating the danger, there was a huge movement behind them, which sounded like the hoofs of a cavalry! The soldiers looked at each other. Although the fire was serious, the cavalry units in the imperial city wouldn't come over.

　　 And the Royal Cavalry is a weapon of foreign war. It is reasonable to say that the cavalry troops are stationed outside the capital. How can they openly break into the city?

　　 When everyone was in doubt, an elite cavalry was wearing a uniform red uniform, and the metal shoulder armor was painted with a bright red cross.

　　 That scene is simply spectacular!

　　 These cavalrymen in front of them didn't seem to come to fight the fire at all, they were garrison soldiers who were not looking straight at the fire fighting.

The cavalry captain led by 　　 coldly shouted: "Everyone will leave here immediately after putting out the fire. From now on, we will manage everything here. Have you heard that!"

　　 Such a rude attitude caused the original atmosphere to suddenly drop to a freezing point. Although the garrison in these cities was not high in status, they could not tolerate such humiliation.

　　 "We are in charge of patrol and defense in the city. When is it your turn to point fingers?" a city gate veteran asked coldly.

　　The other soldiers showed anger on their faces. This behavior is undoubtedly illegal, not to mention that the arrogant attitude of these noble-backed cavalry made them, civilian veterans, very upset. Historically, soldiers' mutiny due to this problem has not been completely absent... It's just that in Constantinople, everyone should try to restrain themselves.

　　 "We came to take over here by the order of the court meeting, I think you should have no problem now!"

　　 Just as the two sides were at war, a cold voice came from the crowd~www.readwn.com~ It was as cold as the sea breeze blowing from the back of the Golden Horn in winter.

Everyone turned their gazes at the man who spoke. He rode on a horse and walked slowly behind the cavalry, and saw the man wearing a heavy armor. His chest was inlaid with steel and sterling silver. The double-headed eagle emblem has proved that this person is not small. And more importantly, the aura on him is different from other young master cavalry. Although this man is young, his body exudes the aura of a real killer. This is true for people who have indeed fought bad battles on the battlefield. tolerance.

"It turned out to be the decision of the court meeting," the leading garrison officer nodded. Although he was dissatisfied with the other party's handling methods, he had to nod his head slightly in front of this young man with a breath of ice and snow, "but this is after all. There are violations, so how do you explain what happened?"

　　 "I can't explain, because this is an order, but no matter who it is, as long as someone dares to block this action, it doesn't matter. This is the power granted to me by the court meeting." The man said lightly.

　　 At the same time as his voice fell, the cavalry behind him drew the knight's dagger from the shield of his left arm, and the horses under their hips rubbed the horseshoes and were ready to go. At this moment, the garrison soldiers also took a breath. Obviously there is only one choice before them...