Succubus' Manor

"Curdy! It's time to go! Instructor Burris is waiting outside. Be careful that you will be scolded if you go out late." The dwarf soldier was putting on his shoes. He was wearing cotton socks, which were prepared for him by his tribe before he set off.

There are not many male dwarves who serve as soldiers, and male dwarves prefer to do iron work, which is safe and secure. Most of the soldiers are female dwarves, which has something to do with racial tradition.

So in the team led by Burris, he was the only male dwarf.

Curdy crawled out of the bed, rubbed his eyes, and put on his clothes and shoes half-closed. He originally fled to Stettin, but because of his laziness, he couldn't find a long-term job.

After being helpless, he decided to serve as a soldier—he heard that the soldier had two dry meals a day, and occasionally white bread and meat, so he became a soldier, entered the barracks, and then experienced hell.

Now he is not only not lazy, but also too diligent. After all, if he has made military achievements and has a position, he does not need to conduct basic training every day, but only trains other soldiers.

"Where are you going?" Curdy put on his shoes, stood up and tapped his toes on the ground.

Male dwarf: "Go to the holy city."

Ke Di's eyes widened: "Going to the holy city, what's going on? Did the lord tell us to go? What are we going to do? Are we going to fight the soldiers of the holy city?"

The male dwarf didn't have as many questions as Curdy: "Why do you have so many questions? You can ask Instructor Burris."

Curdy scratched his head, he didn't dare to ask, why do soldiers have so many questions?

At that time, he will definitely be cleaned up by the captain.

On the flat ground outside the city, Boris was riding a horse, wearing the iron armor "given" to him by the lord of the city. So far, Boris has been very at a loss. Among all the instructors, he has always been the most useless one ——He has never been beaten by Kleist, and he is not considered a "classmate" or a brother who has shared weal and woe with other instructors.

Being able to be an instructor was purely because he took advantage of the few talents available to the lord at the time.

When the lord told them to disperse, the other instructors immediately knew what they were going to do, and quickly went to their destination, waiting for the call of the lord. He was the only one who stayed with his own people and didn't know where he was going.

So he "wandered" with people, looking for a place to stay.

By the way, I fought a few waves of robbers, and then I was invited by the lord of a small town.

This lord is young and timid, his father is only his son, he grew up smoothly, passed away smoothly, and inherited the title, and the officials are also a group of "fools" who only know how to eat, drink and play. There are no guards, and if you are harassed by robbers, you can only give money to others, so that you can rest easy.

But robbers often come, and money and food can't be delivered every day. Even if the little lord wants to, the common people can't afford it.

So when the little lord found out that a group of guards had killed several waves of robbers, he personally led people to stop them.

Then Boris took his people directly into the city and became guests. The little lord only needed to provide them with shelter and food, and they were responsible for protecting the city and driving out the robbers.

It is mutually beneficial.

Boris sometimes didn't know whether he was lucky or the little lord was lucky.

But if one of them has bad intentions, the other will be unlucky.

This time when Burris left, the little lord saw him off with snot and tears.

He also said that he knew that Burris had important matters, and he didn't ask anything, just hoping that Burris could keep some people to continue protecting the city.

The little lord cried miserably: "Before you came, those robbers asked me for things every day. If you left, what should I do? What about the civilians in the city?"

The little lord also dragged the civilians to sell miserably together.

Anyway, the city is small, there is no money, and the lord doesn't want to lose face.

Burris weighed the pros and cons with his not-so-useful brain, leaving more than 100 people behind.

He had a good plan - this little lord has no brains and no skills, so don't worry about him playing tricks behind his back, the little lord doesn't have the guts yet, otherwise he wouldn't be bullied by robbers all the time.

Keep 100 people, and then dedicate this city to the lord. Although it is a small city, it is better than nothing.

Most of the 100 people left by Boris are not human races, and the largest number of them are female dwarves.

He still has a heart. Compared with the human race, other races are the least likely to be bribed, because they all know that if they are not under Chi Yan's governance, they are slaves in the eyes of others.

Except for Burris, all the troops stationed outside the holy city went to the holy city.

Chi Yan also arranged a place for them.

Every passage out of the city was guarded by Chi Yan's people. The merchants in Stettin no longer delivered grain, and people who transported grain in other cities were also stopped. Only merchants like Josh, who Chi Yan trusted, could sell grain, and they sold in a rationed amount. , anyone who buys grain in bulk will be recorded.

Chi Yan's people have undergone long-term training, and their execution speed is very strong, and their speed is also very fast. They quickly camped on the main road, guarding the road, and blocking the businessmen. Except for Josh, who has Chi Yan's certification, no one else can enter or leave.

When the queen found out, she was so shocked that she didn't even have an expression on her face. She hadn't been crowned yet, but she had already sat on the king's seat.

The officials and nobles under the steps bowed their heads in silence.

"Kill him!" The queen threw down the cup at her side, her face was full of shock and anger, and her roar echoed alone in the hall.

None of the officials looked up, not a single one spoke.

The queen lost her mind and cursed angrily: "What use do I need you for! You trash! My soldiers! Where are my soldiers?!"

An official said cautiously: "Your Highness, our soldiers... are not enough."

The queen stood up, and her chest kept rising and falling: "I have 20 soldiers! You can't tell me enough?! Does he have [-]?!"

"Your Highness..." the official swallowed, "We don't have enough soldiers..."

The queen blushed with anger: "Where are the soldiers?"

Official: "... Archduke Anderson went to Stettin and took fifty thousand soldiers with him."

The queen was stunned on the spot: "Who gave him the power?! How dare he!"

Official: "He...he is the Grand Duke..."

Grand Duke is a title between the king and the duke. He has the power to be infinitely close to the royal power, and it is also his power to dispatch troops. Although he cannot take away all the soldiers, he can take away [-] soldiers without saying hello.

But generally speaking, no eunuch would do this, and once they did, it would be tantamount to telling the royal family "I'm going to rebel."

The queen was sitting on the throne, her face was expressionless: "Why didn't anyone come to tell me?"

Officials said nothing.

She looked at her officials, at those so-called nobles who were loyal to her, and the expression on her face gradually calmed down.

That's right, they didn't accept her, because she used to be a queen, and because she was a woman, so they were obedient and obedient, and their surrender was just a harmless sentence.

Between the Queen and the Grand Duke, they chose Anderson.

Queen: "Go out."

The officials breathed a sigh of relief, no one even mentioned that they wanted to stay, and all of them walked out of the hall.

"What should we do now? We should have asked the queen to send someone to call Grand Duke Anderson back."

"Do you think Anderson will come back after the Queen sent someone to call? I don't think he will come back even if the Holy City changes its owner."

"It's also... When he left, he called away all the Anderson family members. I think he planned to take Stettin down after he took down Stettin."

"But what do we do now?"

"If you can't be an enemy, you can only be a friend."

"The queen is a woman, and if she's smart, she knows what to do."

……

The queen sat silently on the throne, watching the sunlight coming in from the window, she was the only one in the hall, and all the servants were driven out by her.

Is she doing something wrong?

What is wrong with her?

Why did she still feel uneasy after sitting in the current seat? Why did the Lord of Stettin appear suddenly after the Holy Court disappeared?

The queen looked at her hand. Her hand was empty and empty. She thought she had power before, but now she realized that it was just a self-deceiving imagination.

She looked around blankly, and finally just leaned on the throne.

The jewel on the top of the throne, which symbolizes supreme power, is dimmed at this moment.

Chi Yan could also guess how confused the queen is now.

He felt that if he was a queen, this would be an unsolvable problem. It had nothing to do with the queen's personal ability. It was a weak royal family and a long-standing disease that just broke out in the queen's generation.

Since the rise of the Holy Court and the decline of royal power, the royal family no longer holds the real supremacy, and the officials and nobles below will of course look after the dishes.

But the current social structure makes it impossible for the queen to make drastic changes. She does not have an army that is entirely her own, nor does she have her own officials.

Even those aristocrats who seem to be loyal to her have doubts about their loyalty. She doesn't have her own "team" or her own "gun barrel".

All her sources of power depend on the status of "Queen" and "Sister of the Former King".

There is no one in the country with a more legitimate name than her, and it doesn't matter to the nobles if the king changes - anyway, they are all "emperors" who take one-third of an acre of land for themselves.

And the queen can't break the boat and reduce the power of the nobles. Once she really does this, the nobles will turn their blades on her, and she doesn't have strong force to suppress it. The result will never be good.

Chi Yan looked at the lists sent by the instructors. These were people who wanted to buy and transport large quantities of food out of the city recently.

One of them, named "Evan," appeared several times on various lists.

"This person." Chi Yan sat on the bed, nestled in Kleist's arms, still holding the list in his hand, and he pointed to Aiwen's name, "I want to transport food out for three consecutive days, and the daily weight it's the same."

This is unreasonable. Generally speaking, after merchants find that they cannot go out of the city, they will not replenish food. After all, the risk of losing money is there, so most merchants will first find ways to consume it in the city. Selling, while trying his luck every day to see if it can be shipped out, so the same merchant tries to go out of the city every day, and the food will decrease.

Even if you don't sell it, your own people will consume it. After all, escorting food requires a caravan and thugs.

Shipping out the same amount every day proves that it is being replenished every day.

Kleist glanced at the list: "There is no address, it should be a pseudonym."

Chi Yan nodded: "I'll tell the soldiers to pay attention. If this man's caravan goes tomorrow, he will be detained directly, and the movement should be small."

After all, the businessmen are just panicking now, not chaotic.

Merchants are powerful, and their power can even be called huge. Merchants have traveled far and wide, accumulated a large number of contacts, and know all kinds of news. Merchants have the most information in their minds.

They know which city has the richest people and why they are rich. They also know which city is the most chaotic and the easiest to obtain benefits. They also know who is in power in which city, and they also know the secrets of the nobles.

Chi Yan never underestimated the power of a businessman, and he was not going to push the businessman to his opposite during this period.

Wealth can pass through the gods, these four words can work in any place and in any era.

When he sat in that seat, he would restrict them, instead of pushing them to the opposite side now.

Just like the queen will never push the nobles to the opposite side now.

It's not that it can't, but that it will take more energy to pay in the future.

"Let my people buy the grain from those merchants." Chi Yan looked up at Kleist.

Kleist: "How much money do you have now?"

Chi Yan: "Not a lot, and the most hoarded gold."

Gold, a precious metal, is difficult to depreciate because the amount is small, unlike silver, which depreciates and appreciates quickly, jumping repeatedly, and not stable enough.

Kleist: "Yes, when are you going to meet the queen?"

Chi Yan shook his head: "It's not the time yet. I don't know her well, but judging from Juster's description, she is a person with a strong desire for power. Unless there is a cliff behind her, she will not admit defeat."

"Not necessarily." Kleist refuted Chi Yan's point of view, "Not only does she have a strong desire for power, but she is also very proud."

"Anyone who opposes her will be her enemy." Kleist, "I asked someone to inquire about her life before she became queen."

Kleist told Chi Yan the story about the queen.

In each version of the story, the queen is a person with a particularly distinctive personality. She doesn't like to enjoy herself very much, but it doesn't mean she is not extravagant. The place she lives in can be considered simple, and there are less than twenty maids around her. The rest are low-level servants and slaves, but when merchants and nobles give gifts, she only wants the best, even though she never displays these things, she must have them.

Once upon a time, there was a little nobleman who gave her a feather fan with diamonds on it. As a result, the diamond dropped on the road, and when only a feather fan with nothing left was left in her hand, she killed her directly. that nobleman.

Of course, this is a folk tale. The official version is that the little noble fell off a cliff and died on the way back. It was an accident.

She is a person who needs respect from others very much, and what she asks for is not only respect, but awe, even more awe than respect.

Use fear to control people's hearts.

There is also the story of her childhood, which is even more exaggerated. In the folk tales, she is a child prodigy, smart and cute, but a real devil.

She hated her father's lover, so she had someone steal him out of the palace and throw him into the lowest-grade brothel. This kind of brothel is very cheap and only accepts low-class people, drunkards or dock porters, and two copper coins can play well. for a while.

Her father's lover is crazy.

And her father didn't blame her - at a young age, she was able to do things seamlessly. Everyone knew that she did it, but there was no evidence.

Her father did not alienate her because of this, but praised her as the person most like him.

"I understand this." After listening to the story of the queen's childhood, Chi Yan interrupted: "People are like this. When they hear a story about a vicious bad guy, they will hate him."

"But if the bad guy is smart and no evidence will be found, they will think that the guy is bad, but smart, and smart is worthy of praise."

"If the bad guy has a good face and a tragic past, they might even like the guy."

"Because this person's badness is understandable, and this person's intelligence is admirable, and he has a pretty face."

After all, in this world, smart people are always a minority, and it seems that it is not so unforgivable for people who are good-looking, smart, and of high status to be bad.

The queen is such a "smart person".

But her educational environment is different from Chi Yan's. Her teacher is her father. She thinks her ability is higher than her father's, but she was born out of her father's words and deeds. Her intelligence is limited to the royal family. Fighting for power.

So her thinking direction is completely different from Chi Yan's.

Chi Yan felt a little regretful: "She was born in the wrong era."

If she was born in modern times and received modern education, she would definitely become a strong woman. Unfortunately, in this era, she cannot save the declining royal family.

Kleist: "?"

Chi Yan scratched his head: "Going off topic, continue."

Kleist said: "According to her character, she can't accept someone's resistance and betrayal. She should ask you to cooperate."

Chi Yan raised his eyebrows: "What are you doing with me?"

Chi Yan came to his senses, pointed to his nose and said, "She won't want to cooperate with me to deal with Anderson?"

Chi Yan looked at Kleist in disbelief - because he found that this is indeed possible, and it is even a good way for the queen.

After all, Anderson was fighting Stettin, which was his territory.

And Anderson betrayed the queen again.

The queen is likely to ask him to cooperate. When he fights Stettin, she will reap the benefits of the fisherman.

After all, according to the normal logic, Chi Yan brought so many soldiers to the holy city, and there would never be too many soldiers left in Stettin, unable to resist the 5 army.

Then he had to lead his troops back, so that the predicament of the Holy City would be solved.

And she can also use the reason of helping Chi Yan to let people lead troops there.

Chi Yan: "I think...the possibility is very high."

Kleist patted Chi Yan on the head: "If she has such a plan, what are you going to do?"

Chi Yan turned around and threw himself on Kleist, resting his chin on Kleist's shoulder: "I won't go."

When they left, there were thousands of demons and 5 soldiers left in Stettin and Sakd Aliyeh. They had better weapons, and even if Anderson brought 5 people there, the [-] people Not to mention the moisture, the weapons are also tattered, not to mention excellent, they are powerful if they can be used. Holding a sword that is easy to break or bend and fighting with Stettin's steel knife, no matter how stupid Stettin's people are. Not to lose, not to mention that Stettin's soldiers have undergone long-term training.

Juster has been sending letters about the queen's affairs, but the most urgent task now is to find the hiding place of the Flanders.

After the caravan of "Aiwen" had been hitting a wall for the first three days, it never appeared again.

The merchant accepted it well, and did not resent Chi Yan for not being able to transport grain out of the city - after all, soldiers would not stop him from bringing other goods without grain.

What's more, Chi Yan would buy their grain directly, and the price was higher than the market price. The merchants' grain would be sold out without leaving the holy city, and the merchants from Stettin would sell their goods to them at a low price.

Whether it is sesame candy, rice wine, or even wine, the prices sold to them are very low.

The businessmen instantly felt that Chi Yan was a good person.

Businessmen don't talk about friendship, whoever makes them profitable is a good person.

They will have a good relationship with whoever is easy to take advantage of.

So Chi Yan spent a lot of time meeting the merchants every day. The merchants gave him a lot of gifts and revealed a lot of news.

Even "Aiwen", which Chi Yan hadn't been able to find, was finally found from the mouths of the merchants.

It was a middle-aged businessman named Bernie who revealed the news about "Aiwen". He didn't seem to be a shrewd businessman, but he had a lot of wealth. Honesty was his protective color. He bought it from Chi Yan at a low price. After a few carts of salt and sugar, he reciprocated and told Chi Yan about Ai Wen.

"My lord, Ivan is not alone." Bernie smiled and sat next to Chi Yan. He has big eyes, a flat nose, and a big round face. When he smiles, he looks like a good person. "I talked to them many years ago." We do, but sometimes they're called Alvin, sometimes Bill, and sometimes Blair."

Chi Yan said to Ryan: "Prepare three more cars of wine for dear Bernie."

Bernie was still smiling, but his eyes were much brighter than before. He had never been wooed by someone so generous.

"Ivan and the others rarely appear in front of people, but I know where they are." Bernie touched the ring on his hand, "They have dealt with me for a long time, it is easy to hide others, but it is not easy to hide them from me .”

Chi Yan looked at him with a smile: "I have a batch of quilts that haven't been sold yet."

Bernie's eyes lit up: "My lord, I can't guarantee that you will find them. People like them are best at hiding."

Chi Yan waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, as long as the news you give me is true, then the goods I give you will also be true."

Bernie coughed lightly: "They are all saints, but not ordinary saints."

Chi Yan looked at him.

Bernie laughed and said, "The nobles who are still staying in the holy city, even the Archduke Anderson who left, are all Ivan."