Chapter 122:

Suddenly there were more than 100 new servants, all of them energetic boys and girls, and the castle suddenly became lively.

The six were selected by Wei Wei, plus the four were selected by Dolores and Caroline. There are fourteen girls in total, selected as future female bodyguards, so they will not be sent directly to their respective masters, but will first study with the boys who were selected to be taught by the Knights. The expected study time may take several years. This is entirely because of someone's whims so the courses they need to learn are no longer just swordsmanship and protection, but also a series of related issues such as assassination detection and tracking. course.

These are secret lessons known only to a few henchmen.

Felix even gave them a name - Shadowguard.

"I'm going to cultivate such a secret power, and they are a test."

He has sent people to other regions to buy young slaves back for the training of shadow guards. Compared with serfs, he feels that there is no personal freedom at all. slaves are more suitable for this kind of work, especially the younger they are, the more suitable for education.

Because this idea has only recently arisen, there is no preparation at all before, and a suitable trainer has not yet been found, and the official operation still needs careful consideration.

When Wei Wei heard Felix say this, she reflected on herself, she shouldn't have told him the gossip in the wild history and the remake of the plot in movies and TV as stories, because she knew it was False, but Felix took it seriously.

Wei Wei wanted to persuade him not to do this, but seeing Felix's energetic appearance, she couldn't persuade him.

In the end, he could only mention his life and ask him to pay attention to his proportions, so as not to cause death.

"It's not allowed to add some messy lessons to those girls."

Felix was wronged. He didn't plan to do anything. Although he said he wanted to cultivate shadow guards, he didn't intend to waste his life and cultivate talents in the cruel way of competing and even killing each other in the story - listen During the story, he felt that this method was too wasteful. Only a few of the talents that had been carefully cultivated for many years were left in the end. What a wasteful way to deal with it. Those who were eliminated can completely arrange other jobs. Well, I don't know what the brains of the main characters in the story are.

Felix, who has undergone more than ten years of training to become a knight, is too aware of the effort it takes to cultivate a qualified person, and he will not waste it so much.

As for the messy training, Felix understood that Wei Wei was talking about nasty tactics like seduction. Felix would not let his subordinates do such a thing. What he wanted to train was a shadow guard who could protect his master and let him They learn to assassinate so that they can better understand this aspect to better protect their masters. Do they learn those nasty skills so that they have the opportunity to use them on themselves or those around them?

No, no, as long as he thought that someone might use this trick against Wei Wei, he would be jealous, and it would be impossible to do it!

Felix cursed and swore that he would follow Wei Wei's request, and there would never be those situations she didn't want to see. Wei Wei was a little relieved.

Not long after they arranged the group of small serfs and vacated the collective dormitory, new news finally came back from the capital.

- Just a few days ago, King Prady once again reprimanded his official seal minister, Baron Clift, in front of everyone, finally dismissing him and letting the once-powerful baron go back. Go to your territory.

Not only was he dismissed, but he was also expelled from the capital, which means that Baron Clift was completely rejected by the king, and he would change from the king's confidant to an ordinary baron. Baron Clift brought a great psychological blow, and also gave his former enemy a chance to take revenge. Not long after I heard the news was sent, the once high-spirited baron fell ill and was very ill. , and even makes one wonder if he can stop this winter.

But his enemies can only take advantage of his illness to kill him, and the heir to Baron Clift cannot make waves. Perhaps before his death, his family estate will be swallowed up and divided by others. There's no more scum left.

The Clift family is doomed to loneliness.

Although he had a hunch that there would be such a result, Felix was still a little surprised, which was much earlier than they expected.

"I thought that Baron Clift could at least last until the summer, but I didn't expect him to be dismissed so soon, what happened?"

The person who brought the news replied: "Yes, this time Clift Baron Ter was dismissed. I heard that it was because he tried to interfere in the marriage of Prince Andrew, so the king was very angry and dismissed him on the spot."

Prince Andrew's marriage? This made the couple listening to the report prick up their ears: "Oh? How did he interfere? Tell me carefully."

"Baron Clift proposed to the king that the young lady Prince Andrew would marry is the daughter of Duke Romanov. "

Wei Wei and Felix looked at each other with stunned eyes.

Duke Romanov is only about ten years younger than the king. He naturally has children, and he and his wife are very fertile. Now they have seven children, and his wife is now said to be pregnant again. Getting ready for the arrival of their eighth child.

Among the Duke's children, the one suitable for Prince Andrew should be his third daughter, Miss Romanov, who is eight years old this year.

At this age, it is not incompatible with the twelve-year-old Prince Andrew. He only needs to get engaged first, and then wait for the bride to grow up. Maybe he can cultivate a childhood sweetheart relationship.

Moreover, the mother of the third young lady of the Romanov family and her two married sisters both gave birth shortly after marriage, so many people think that she should do the same in the future and have many children.

Being able to marry such a noble lady who is good at procreating and has a high status is a very good choice for a royal family with a small number and no third-generation descendants so far.

But the premise is that it is not the daughter of Duke Romanov. With the king's resistance to Romanov, he can't agree to this marriage, because everyone knows that if Prince Andrew marries this Miss Romanov, If he takes that position in the future, the actual ruler of the empire will also become the Duke of Romanov, and if he does not take the seat, for the Duke, it will only be the loss of a dispensable daughter. , and it's not a big loss.

Therefore, the king would never agree to this marriage, but he directly reprimanded Baron Clift for this matter in public and deprived him of his position on this ground. There is no difference.

I'm afraid that after that, they can't even maintain their superficial friendship.

But this is very strange.

He understands Baron Clift's behaviour because it has something to do with him. The king found out that Baron Clift is the Duke of Romanov, and his trust in him is naturally not as good as before, and Baron Clift is probably also because of Aware of this, having lost the trust of the king, he had to completely turn his back on the Duke Romanov and do things for him,

but the baron was obviously too arrogant because of the smooth winds of these years, and he couldn't see clearly. In his actual situation, he still thought that he was the Lord Baron who had a high opinion of anyone who saw him and that he was the minister of the seal who could suppress higher-level nobles, but he didn't know that he was in the eyes of the king and the duke. But he's just a tiny little king who can replace his position with a trusted confidant at any time, and the duke values his position, but when the king finds out that there is a problem with his official seal minister, the trust is not there, and for the duke, this person is also Not much his allegiance mission to Baron Clift was to help him push his three daughters to the throne of the second princess.

And Baron Clift didn't know if he realized the meaning, but he did it.

But according to the character of the king, although he would never agree with such a marriage, he would not deal with Baron Clift in public because of this matter but would find another way to deal with Baron Clift.

"So why is His Majesty the King so angry? In terms of his character, he shouldn't be the one who would turn against Duke Romanov at such a time."

After all, now that they have a falling out, it is likely that Romanov Duke Love directly killed the two princes. As long as the two princes were dealt with, the duke, who was the third in line, would naturally become the next king.

And this is not what the king wants to see.

Felix touched his chin with a contemplative look on his face, he really couldn't figure out the reason.

Instead, the subordinate who reported the news gave him the answer.

Turns out it had something to do with them.

To prevent Dolores from marrying Prince Andrew, Felix spread about the dangers of inbreeding in the capital and even cooperated with the church. After the news spread, the church started to make an investigation report with great fanfare.

Naturally, the results of this investigation can be said to be shocking, scaring almost everyone because they put the unhealthy and disabled fetuses caused by the fact that the mother's body is too young and unsuitable for fertilization. , and even stillbirths are all included in this.

The church would not admit that the misfortunes that happened in the delivery room were caused by their push to let girls marry at the age of twelve, an age that is simply not suitable for mothers, and they did not realize it.

Counting all these into the harm caused by "consanguineous marriage", naturally, there is no need to say more about the horrifying data that this investigation report will eventually have.

Originally, because the church's influence in the empire had been suppressed, the nobles were not very interested in them, and everyone was sceptical about the so-called investigation reports produced by the church, so the people at the bottom would believe the church's words, so there was a lot of discussions, but the nobles felt that What they say is utter nonsense and no one cares.

But it just happened to be a coincidence. Not long after the investigation report was released, it happened that a famous noble lady in the capital gave birth to a boy who was born with a leg this noble lady and her husband are a pair of cousins. Even, though they had two children before, they all died shortly after time, it was like putting a stamp on the investigation report, and the content inside became real. The stubborn nobles looked at it again with a dubious attitude, and then compared the people and things around them, and then the more they compared, the more and more nobles like to marry each other, and the relationship wants to be chaotic. If they want to trace the blood, they can connect, so as soon as they see those noble children who are not in good health, they will immediately think of their this has become especially conspicuous in Prince Edward and the Crown Princess, who are cousins who couldn't be the nobles looked at the young couple with more and more subtle eyes. Originally, the crown prince's health was not good. Whether he can leave healthy offspring is a problem. Now, everyone believes that even if the crown prince has a child, the child may not be Not so the king, he began to look at the crown prince and concubine he was very satisfied with a new look and seemed to be thinking about whether to change his son's, although not recognized by the church, they are not believers, so this kind of thing is very common in the Prady Empire knights, and even there have been cases where the wife directly filed for divorce because the husband couldn't, and the latter couldn't, the marriage relationship of the royal family needs to be handled carefully, so for the time being, the king has not acted.

However, the church's investigation report and the news of the king's intention to replace the crown prince and concubine have already spread. It is impossible for the crown prince and the crown prince to not hear about it. The couple, who have no feelings at all, are naturally more indifferent when facing each other. The crown prince and concubine It has become even more reclusive, not appearing in public with the crown prince.

This further confirmed the rumours that they were about to divorce.

But Baron Clift jumped out at this time and wanted Prince Andrew to marry the young lady of the Duke Romanov family. Isn't this just plain disgusting? What if they do get married and have a problematic child in the future?

The king thought it was a deliberate provocation by the duke, so it was no wonder he was so angry that he even drove people away regardless of the occasion.

Of course, Duke Romanov felt wronged, and even Baron Clift felt wronged. When the Duke made this request, the news had not yet come out, so he had no idea what would happen in the future, and Clift The baron was deliberately withholding some information so that he did not know that the king had recently begun to believe the report. He thought that the current king was still the same as when he first saw the investigation report, and he dismissed the content of the opposite. , thinking that it was just a little trick by the church to increase its prestige-they had always been dissatisfied with the way the nobles were married-because the king's parents were also a pair of cousins who were closely related by blood.

So Baron Clift decided to speak to the king, telling him that he could use facts to prove to everyone that the church was false and unreliable, to suppress the power of the church.

As a result, when the king changed his mind, and the person he recommended was the daughter of the duke, the king naturally attacked.

After hearing the news from the capital, Felix asked the reporter to go down to rest first, and then said to Wei Wei with a sigh: "It seems that the atmosphere in the capital will become more and more rigid in the future, we'd better You have to avoid it, so as not to be affected."

Since the king and the duke have torn their faces, the game between the two sides is officially on the bright side. The competition for the throne is about to become intensified. Get rid of the competitors by hand, no matter who has an accident, it will be a bloody storm.

Moreover, the heirs in the front are fighting, can the heirs in the back just let it go? They are not too far from that position, aren't they? These people might be able to fish in troubled waters and do something, so that the king and the duke will lose both, and they will reap the benefits of the fisherman.

So there is still chaos in the capital now.

Wei Wei is concerned about another thing: "The church should pay more attention. They have won a lot of prestige with this incident. We have to prevent them from climbing too high."

Compared with the issue of the heir competition, she Let alone prejudice against the church.

Felix kissed her: "Don't worry, we'll release new news when things settle down, so they won't be too complacent."

For example, it's not bad that the church promotes that girls get married at the age of twelve They can also issue an investigation report to prove that a girl of this age cannot give birth to a healthy child, and even her own life is likely to be lost in childbirth. , let more people understand this, then they, especially women, will become very resistant to this rule of the church.

And to do that, they don't even need to start anywhere else, they just need to start with Sardinson first.

"That's ok. I'm not training those doctors. When the weather warms up, I plan to let them go to the free clinic. By the way, I can share some common knowledge about health. I'll just add some materials to it."

"Free clinic? Then What is it?"

Wei Wei said: "It's a free medical treatment for the territorial people. If you need treatment, we can also provide some medicines for free."

Felix: "It's a good idea, but if you want to take medicine, just I'll pay for it privately, I can't let you suffer." The

couple signed a cooperation agreement at the beginning of their business, and most of their income after their marriage went to public funds, but they still kept a share. There was no confiscation, so they each had their small treasury, they were in charge of each other, and they never questioned each other.

It's not that Felix is unwilling to hand over all the money to Wei Wei for management, but that she refuses to accept it because Felix's private money is mainly used by him to support soldiers - although he has never seen it Wei Wei knew that Felix had created a special force - if she took over, she would have to intervene in the military spending of Sardinson County. There were too many things involved, and she was too lazy to do it.

Felix knows very well that this kind of thing is led by Wei Wei herself. She pays for it by herself, but this kind of thing that benefits the people should be paid for by him, the lord. How can you move the money of the wife? Although Wei Wei's small treasury is richer than his private small treasury, it is not enough.

Wei Wei didn't argue with him about this, and said directly: "Then one and a half."

Felix readily agreed.

February 1st is the first anniversary of their marriage. Felix has already prepared a wedding gift for Wei Wei. Naturally, Wei Wei will not forget to give him a gift, and the celebration cannot be less, but There was still no celebratory banquet, which made the nobles who had been waiting to receive their invitation letters disappointed, knowing that they had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

Now Felix can be said to be the most powerful noble in the eastern part of the Prady Empire. The surrounding nobles are vaguely obsessed with him. If they can get the invitation to the banquet from the Williams family, for them, but It is a great honour, and attending the banquet is a good time to connect feelings, expand contacts and negotiate business, and in the past year, all the nobles who have cooperated with Sardinson Castle can be said to have made a fortune. , so they are especially looking forward to attending the banquet at Fort Sardinson in the new year, to hear what new actions the earl has made this year and whether they can follow suit.

But unfortunately, none of the current masters and women of the Williams family seems to like banquets. They rarely hold banquets. Meeting invitations, let alone sending out invitations, just like last year, except for the banquet to celebrate their wedding, there was no large banquet held in Sardinson Castle, and I even heard that it should be held for the residents at the end of the year. The banquets were omitted - although this is excusable, for nobles who are keen on banquets, their approach is a bit out of place.

However, due to Felix's current status, of course, everyone will not speak ill of them directly, just sigh in private, Earl Williams doesn't like parties.

"I heard that he didn't like to attend banquets before, that's how it was when he was in the capital."

"But isn't that lady already pregnant? Given the count's love for her, she didn't even hold a banquet to announce the good news. I can't understand it."

"I saw this in the reply letter from the Count to my husband. I heard that it was because the lady's hometown did not have such a custom. On the contrary, Siguo seems to think that it is not appropriate to be arrogant before the child is born. To promote this kind of thing."

"That's no way, but I still hope they can hold a few more banquets, even if they invite us to talk to his wife."

"So, their wedding anniversary is not Are you holding a banquet?"

"Yes, the Count said in his reply that it was inconvenient to travel at this time, so they did not invite us to the banquet."

Indeed, although it was no longer snowing in Sardinson in February, When the snow on the ground begins to melt, it becomes even colder. The melted snow will form ice cubes at night, covering the road. If people walk on it, they will slip if they are not careful. Naturally, it is not suitable for a horse-drawn carriage. The nobles try not to go out if they can.

"It seems that we have to wait until the heir of their family is born before we can have a banquet."