Blue Sword

Two hours after ascending the throne, His Majesty Zoe and His Majesty Theodora, who had just become the co-emperors of Eastern Solomon, encountered endless troubles.

The first is domestic industrial issues.

Since the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western churches, scientific and technological exchanges between the two sides have been completely interrupted.

So far, the civilian industry of the Eastern Solomon Empire has recovered to 40% of the ancient Solomon Empire. Some complex household appliances, such as refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, etc., have resumed production lines.

In the military industry, it is still only able to manufacture firearms and mortars. This means that of the rockets, powered armor and aircraft stored in warehouses today, almost every one is used up and one is missing.

Looking at the various densely packed statements, most of which were marked with deficits in bright red, Her Majesty Zoe rubbed her brows in distress. She finally understood why her father went on an expedition to the Seljuk Empire. The reason was simple: no money.

The treasury income of the Eastern Solomon Empire mainly comes from the surplus of import and export trade, as well as the output of the mainland, especially the Anatolian Peninsula.

The rise of the Seljuk Empire in the East not only sucked blood from the empire's east-west trade routes, but also threatened the production order of the Anatolian Peninsula. It was in the interest of the empire to launch a war.

The only problem is probably that unfortunately they lost.

So how to protect Anatolia has become a headache and almost unsolvable problem.

The Seljuk Empire controls the densely populated Caucasus and Syria. In the Battle of Manzikert, it invested as many as 100,000 combat troops, including 20,000 extraordinary ones. It is no longer an Eastern empire with less than 20,000 remaining troops. The Solomon Empire could rival it.

"Is it possible to borrow troops from the West?" Theodora said seriously, "Our Solomon Empire is known as the 'Shield of Civilization', guarding the gateway to the East for the Western world."

"If Constantinople falls, the first ones to bear the brunt will be the city-state of Venetia, the Holy Solomon Empire and the Principality of Khangri. It is better to borrow troops from the three countries in the name of 'defending Christendom'. Especially the Holy Ra, whose queen Theophano was born In the empire, the Siolelu family is just the right place for their family to act as a bridge between the two countries."

"Okay." Zoe nodded and said, "Mr. Burrill, please go and find out what the Siolelu family says."

Prime Minister Burrill quickly bowed in agreement.

"In addition, the position of the Western Holy See must also be considered." Theodora added, "Since the split between the Eastern and Western Churches, the technology sharing agreement has been terminated, causing the empire's power armor production line to almost come to a standstill."

"It is better to try to reconcile with the Holy See, and in the name of the threat of pagans, ask the Holy See of Innocent to launch an army of Templars to help the empire repel the Seljuk pagan invaders."

"Your Majesty Theodora." Zoe said gently, "You should know that the cause of the split between the Eastern and Western churches is the struggle for the leadership of the continent's ideological and religious beliefs. If the Holy See of Innocent demands that our Orthodox Church surrender, and follow their What should we do if the bishops want to completely revise the scriptures and even allow Catholic priests to preach in the country?”

"When the country is facing a crisis, how can heresies be considered?" Theodora felt that something seemed wrong, but she still subconsciously expressed her thoughts. "The right to preach must not be given, but it seems that it is not impossible to modify the classics. Since the Holy See's scientific and technological level can lead Our country has proved that its classics may not be entirely without merit. If necessary, can you persuade Patriarch Alexei to make certain concessions?"

Zoe was silent for a moment and said quietly:

"In that case, I will go and find out what His Excellency Patriarch Alexei has to say."

The two majesties continued to discuss and approve the motions reported by Prime Minister Burrill one by one, while the royal ink officer Ms. Varomina quickly recorded the decree. By the time all government affairs were processed, it was already late at night.

………………

The time is pushed forward to the evening.

The thief girl Mia was walking on the road in despair, and before she knew it, she came to Aske's ancestral house again.

She still finds it difficult to accept the fact that Mastro and others left her behind and took the rest of the guild to Kiev alone.

Now it seems that everything was pre-arranged, including finding a reason to deliberately drive her out of the guild. Before that, he mentioned that Asker's team made a lot of money, which was actually a hint to lure her to find Asker. .

All to keep her here.

Mia stood in front of Aske's ancestral home, folding her arms in fear.

She didn't know how to face Aske. She had joked about joining his team before, but she just wanted to find a place to stay temporarily and wait for Mastro to calm down before going back to plead for mercy.

But now that the Thieves Guild has all evacuated Constantinople, if Ask doesn't accept her, then she really has nowhere to go.

"What are you doing standing outside?" Ask's voice sounded. Mia hurriedly raised her head and saw Asik standing by the window with his hands on the window sill looking at her.

"Dinner has just arrived, you're here just in time." He tilted his head to signal Mia, "Come in."

Mia hummed softly, walked up the steps, and quietly rubbed the mud off her boots. Opening the door, a long table has been set up in the living room with a variety of sumptuous foods on it.

Although it's all takeout.

"Everyone, listen to me. We have welcomed two new members." Asker clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention. "The one on the right is Sidrifa from Helsingør, who has taken over as the melee combatant of our team. output."

The girls clapped. Only Peggy slapped her hands on the table, stood up and said unhappily:

"She is an output, so what am I? Am I not an output?"

"No one said that there can only be one output in the team, Peggy." Asker explained, "Furthermore, strength output and agility output are also different. You should know that the enemy has heavy armor and light armor. "

"Facing lightly armored and unarmored enemies, the agility system's killing efficiency is higher, because in the time it takes the power system to take one shot, the agility system can take 2-3 shots. But when facing heavily armored enemies, a single attack will cause If the damage is seriously weakened, then the power output is needed to violently break the armor."

"No problem, I'm good at violence." Hilda nodded after hearing this. She stared at Paige with her transparent sky-blue eyes for a while, then suddenly smiled, "You smell like blood, I like it very much."

Paige pursed her lips in embarrassment, stopped talking and sat back. Hilda didn't ask any questions, she just ran between Medea and Paige, moved a chair and sat down.

"Hello." Medea smiled at her.

"Oh, beauty. Hello, hello!" Hidrifa's eyes lit up and she said quickly.

"And this is the shadow thief from the Thieves Guild, Mia Sinquemani." Asik continued to introduce, pushing out Mia who was still a little timid and timid, "She will serve as the scout of our team. One position, responsible for investigation, coordination, unlocking and trap handling."

"Bah bang bang!" The girls clapped again and looked at the new companions in front of them in a friendly manner.

This 14-year-old girl has healthy, light wheat-colored skin, big and lively eyes, a small nose, and lips as thin and tender as petals. Although her figure has not grown yet, she is a perfect little beauty just by her appearance, especially the shy and timid look on her face that makes people pity her.

"Come on, come on! Mia, sit on my right side!" Nora barely concealed her affection, pulled out the chair next to her and called her over, as if she was treating her as a younger sister.

"Go." Hearing Asik say from behind, Mia bit her lower lip and walked over to Nora.

In the Golden Palace, while the two majesties were working on government affairs all night long, everyone in the ancestral house had already had dinner. At Aske's suggestion, everyone started playing board games and card games. If you lose a game, you will be punished on the spot. The kind that drinks a can of beer.

In this lively atmosphere, Hilda Lifa and Mia also successfully integrated into the group - Mia drank until she vomited and ran to the toilet four or five times. Hildelife was also drunk. She drunkenly picked up the spoon on the dining table and said with a big tongue that she wanted to show everyone a set of knife skills. Eleanor and Aske worked together and spent a lot of effort to perform the knife skills for everyone. She held it down.

The next morning, Aske woke up from a hangover with a slight headache.

In fact, e-sports players should not drink alcohol. It will anesthetize their nerves and reduce their reaction ability. But...in this world, it doesn't matter.

He finished washing and walked to the second floor. This was originally a guest room and servants' room, but now it has been allocated to the girls. Walking quickly through the corridors, he knocked on every door.

"Get up! Starting today, the team will train every day during non-mission periods!"

He stood in the middle of the corridor and announced loudly. Now that most of the necessary roles for the team have been assembled (except for the gunner and arcane mage), it is time to start using e-sports player training programs to strengthen and polish the team.

"Ahhhhh." The girls who walked out of the room cried out in unison, making Aske's eyelids jump. In the game world of "Iron and Fire", the best players are basically male players. After spending several months in a professional club, all of his esports teammates were men.

Training with a group of girls... It would have been unimaginable for him before.

However, it is awkward and the training plan must continue as usual.

Twenty minutes later, everyone was fully armed and entered Hearth Island with Ask.

The top of the central peak of Fire Island is already piled with building materials that were brought in yesterday. Everyone found a place to sit down and began to listen to Aske's plan:

"In the training of professional players, different special training will be carried out for different roles. Of course, because everyone is still a newcomer, there is no need to subdivide the training plan to everyone."

"My current plan is that in the first month, I require everyone to master basic attack, defense and dodge. In the second month, I will teach everyone advanced combat skills."

What he means is that we still need to learn from the basics? Eleanor and Hidliefa were a little depressed. These two people had grown up receiving combat training since childhood, and they were quite dissatisfied with Asker's so-called "laying a good foundation". When they were about to speak, they were interrupted by Asker:

"I know that some people may have learned some miscellaneous martial arts skills in the past, so they think that their starting point is higher than others. They don't need to accept my basic training and start directly from the advanced skills. For those who think like this, All I can say is: Yes, as long as you can beat me, you don’t have to learn basic courses.”

Eleanor and Hidliba immediately shut up. Have you ever beaten Asker? Just kidding, if you can survive five moves in front of him, that's pretty good.

"Do non-melee professions also need training?" Medea raised her hand and said, "For example, I am a psychic and Nora is a healer. Neither of us will fight directly on the front line on the battlefield. Do we also need to train with you? Foundation Course?"

Ask turned around and pressed his sword with one hand. There was a sudden clang, and the sword came out of its sheath like lightning, slashing Medea's neck straight. The latter didn't even have time to scream, but subconsciously shrank his body and protected his chest with his hands in fear.

The sword stopped in front of her, and Asik said coldly: "If it is on the battlefield, and the enemy's long sword slashes at you, can you tell him: No, I am a spell caster and I will not directly participate in the battle. You Can’t you kill me with a weapon?”

"I can use extraordinary powers." Medea looked pale and defended herself, "Be the first to use psychic powers to control him."

"Oh, is it too late?" Ask asked.

Medea was speechless. In fact, when Asker's sword struck her head, her first reaction was to curl up. Such a poor performance was irrefutable.