Blue Sword

"Based on the current results, your spirituality and sanity are both fine, Your Majesty."

After a week of careful examination, the court mage Drippus considered his words and replied to His Majesty Theodora:

"The other party probably didn't leave anything malicious on you. To be on the safe side, we will continue to observe you for three days."

Theodora stood on the balcony of the palace, overlooking the rows of gray roofs below, frowning and said:

"That island...what exactly is it?"

"The most likely possibility is that it is the world of the collective subconscious." Drips replied thoughtfully, "You see gray fog in the outer waters of the island, which should be the boundary between the subconscious and the concrete."

"The second possibility is the spiritual world. A space similar to the main plane is opened up in the spiritual world through the magic circle, and the gray mist may originate from the effect of the magic circle."

"The third possibility is that you did stay in the main plane, but were teleported somewhere. In the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, similar islands are as numerous as star sand. It is very possible if someone controls one, but The ability to teleport over long distances is relatively rare.”

"Of course, as for the legendary demiplane, or the three major sub-planes such as the abyss, purgatory, and the underworld, let's leave it aside because it is really nonsense."

"Understood." Theodora nodded slowly, and when she saw Ms. Varomina, the ink-controlling officer standing by her side, she nodded, "Please step aside first."

"Yes." Drips bowed and left.

"Your Majesty." Varomina bowed slightly and saluted, "The West has called back. Your Majesty Zoe is waiting for you in the Golden Consul Palace."

"Lead the way," Theodora replied.

Arriving at the Golden Palace, Theodora quickly learned about the West's response to the demand for borrowing troops.

First, the bad news for Holy Solomon's empire.

His Majesty Emperor Otto seems to have made up his mind to interfere with the high-level changes in the Holy See of Solomon.

The Holy See's countermeasure was to encourage Duke Wolfe of the Kirchberg Territory in the empire to secretly be hostile to Emperor Otto.

Although no large-scale conflict has broken out between the two sides, they have already mobilized their troops in unison. Therefore, the Shinra Empire is really unable to send troops to support the war in Eastern Solomon.

The second was the reply from the Holy See. They had already invested all their wealth in the confrontation with Emperor Otto and could no longer send Templars to support the Solomon Brothers in the East.

Civil strife broke out in Khangli, and the messenger lost contact within the country. Obviously, there was no hope in a short time.

The only good news probably comes from Venis. It is said that although the Holy See is unable to send troops, His Majesty the Holy See Innocent personally signed a jihad order, summoned a group of Frank knights who brought their own dry food and equipment, and negotiated with the Venisians to let them Come to support on a naval ship.

This group of Frankish knights were originally small lords of the Holy Solomon Empire and the West Frankish Kingdom.

Due to the almost semi-open confrontation between Emperor Otto and the Holy See, each of them instructed his subordinate dukes to expand their territory and strengthen their strength. As a result, these barons and viscounts who originally owned a castle, a town or even a village were all transformed almost overnight. He was recruited/defeated by the private soldiers, lost his ancestral territory, and had no choice but to venture to the East to make a living.

For the Franks, as long as there are wars to fight and wealth to plunder, there is no need for the empire to pay additional conditions.

However, what is difficult to accept is the price offered by the Venetians:

To transport these Frankish knights and retinues, a large number of ships needed to be built.

Venetian's freight quotation is 50,000 silver marks, which is about 25,000 pounds in imperial currency, and can be paid in four installments.

The down payment required Constantinople to spend 7,500 pounds, and the Venetians would not sail the ship until they saw the money.

"This is really unreasonable!" If it weren't for the presence of the imperial sister, Theodora would have wanted to tear the diplomatic document into pieces on the spot. It's not that the Eastern Solomon Empire can't afford the money, but the Venetian attitude of taking advantage of others' troubles is really unpleasant. When will the noble Solomon people be forced to accept such shameless diplomatic blackmail?

"That's what negotiation is like. The other party demands a high price, and we pay it back on the spot." Zoe did not get angry like her sister, but said leisurely, "Venice's envoy is also here, and we can discuss specific terms."

"Sister, do you really plan to cooperate with the Venisians?" Theodora was still angry, "It's not like we have to use the Venisian navy. Since these Frank knights are willing to support us, why don't we let them come by land? "

"These knights have gathered in Venis now." Zoe looked embarrassed and sighed, "If you want them to come overland, they might be intercepted by Otto and then intercepted by the Wolf family. The other half was dragged to participate in the civil war in the Shinra Empire."

"Besides, we also need the Venetian navy to besiege the west coast of Anatolia. Otherwise, once the city of Nicaea is lost, the Seljuks can take the sea route and send troops to the Thracian plain."

The Prime Minister and the cabinet team also rushed to the ruling palace, and soon there was a heated discussion between the two queens and their ministers. It was not until 3 o'clock in the morning that a preliminary consensus was reached.

By the time the Venis envoy was called to the palace, it was already 8 o'clock in the morning.

The envoy was wearing a red and white classical robe. He looked like a wealthy and amiable businessman, but his words were plain and had an aggressive tone.

It was not until noon that the two sides completed their bargaining and settled on final terms that were temporarily acceptable to both parties.

"The down payment is worth 5,000 pounds of gold, and the remaining 2,500 pounds will be raised through donations from the Holy See, but the empire must sign a loan agreement with the Venetian Bank..." After Theodora read it in detail, she sighed quietly in her heart.

Facing the Venetian lion's big mouth, this is already the lowest price that can be obtained.

"Sign it." She said this, stamped her purple seal in four copies, and then handed the contract to the imperial sister Zoe.

“I didn’t bring my royal seal.” Zoe frowned, “Maybe I forgot it at Buchnara Palace. I’ll take it back and stamp it.”

She put the contract away in her sleeve and left the Golden Consulate with Varomina, the Ink Controller.

Walking in the corridor in the palace, Zoe suddenly said unintentionally:

"I heard that the emperor's sister had a hallucination last week?"

"Yes." Varominna, the imperial ink officer, did not dare to hide anything and reported truthfully, "Your Majesty Theodora met with the heir of the Achilles family in a tavern in the city last week, and then disappeared inexplicably for half an hour. "

"After returning, His Majesty claimed to have been transported to an island in the middle of the sea. According to the analysis of the court mage consultant Drips, His Majesty was most likely sent to the world of the collective subconscious."

"The Achilles family is the family whose ancestors came from the Kingdom of Dragons, right?" Zoe pondered for a moment, "I remember that this family should have all died during the Skoleru rebellion 40 years ago."

"At that time, a branch of the Achilles family stayed in Constantinople to support His Majesty Emperor Basil." Valomina added, "Because of this, although the Achilles family suffered heavy losses, now almost only the remaining Although they are passed down by a single line, no nobles dare to take advantage of their wealth."

"Even His Majesty the late Emperor Constantine (the younger brother of Emperor Basil) took great care of the Achilles family."

“I see.” Zoe said calmly, “Find the heir of the Achilles family and find out what happened that day.”

"If he really has the psychic ability to open up the world in the collective subconscious...ask him if he is willing to serve the royal family as my personal occult consultant."

"Understood, Your Majesty." Varomina nodded slightly, subconsciously understanding Zoe's subtext.

If you are willing to serve the royal family, then the disappearance of His Majesty Theodora can be put on hold for the time being.

If you don't want to, there will naturally be other ways to deal with it later.

………………

"Drink!" At the top of the peak of Hearth Island, the battle ax and the spear struck each other, and long strings of sparks were drawn from the metal iron body.

Sidrifa stepped forward, stretched out her arms, and swung her axes like a storm.

Whirlwind!

Eleanor raised her shield and turned around. Under Sidrifa's violent attack, her shield trembled as if whining, but she was never knocked out of her hands.

Suddenly her shield swung out, passing through the interval between swings of the two battle axes, and hit Hidrifa's chest.

As she staggered, a cold light flashed from behind the shield, and the gun shot out like a dragon, stabbing Hildrifa straight into the abdomen.

Hidliba's body was knocked backwards, and she slashed with both axes without caring about stabilizing her balance.

There was a sharp clash of gold and iron, and the spear in Eleanor's right hand was knocked crooked, while her left hand still stubbornly held the shield to protect her chest.

Sidley fell to the ground on her back, gasping for air, and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" Aske walked up and looked at her like she was an idiot.

"It feels so good," Hidliba said.

"The whirlwind took too long." Ask scolded her, "Why are you spinning so many times? An electric fan? You need to learn to stop the skill actively!"

"When the enemy is not controlled by you, any skill cannot be cast for more than 3 seconds, otherwise it will be easily seen through and cracked!"

After saying that, he turned around again, pointed at Eleanor and said:

"The timing of the shield grab is quite good, but the follow-up dragon gun is not good. The enemy is not a puppet who can't fight back. You have to think carefully before every attack. What if your attack is dodged? It is blocked. What should I do? What should I do if I am parried by an opponent?"

"If your operation is more delicate, you can interrupt the dragon spear after the shield attack. When her battle ax is empty, she will be unable to parry another dragon spear. This detail is based on your current situation. It is not difficult to achieve the strength, but you must have such awareness.”

"Okay." Eleanor nodded and sat next to meditate.

This was a habit she had developed recently. While sitting and meditating, she reviewed the details of the previous battle in her mind and verified and summarized them one by one.

Sidrifa lay on the ground and rested for a while, then got up energetically again and began to practice starting and stopping the whirlwind.

Ask pondered for a moment and suddenly asked:

"Have you thought about it?"

"What are you thinking about?" Sidley was stunned for a moment, "Do you mean to become a transcendent?"

"I mentioned it to you yesterday," Asker reminded her, "the two main output and burst bloodline routes."

"The first is the barbarian route, which will give you the ability to use two-handed weapons, allowing you to stimulate your spirituality and fall into a controlled state of rage. Your physical strength will be greatly increased in a short period of time."

"At the same time, it will also give you the power of bloodthirsty. Whenever you successfully kill an enemy, your spirituality will be satisfied, the damage received will be healed to a certain extent, and your combat ability will be temporarily enhanced."

"The second is the Titan route." Asik continued, "You will have the blood of a frost giant. After activation, your body will be more than three meters tall. At the same time, your skin will have extremely strong physical resistance and magic resistance."

"You will master the power of ice and thunder. Any enemy who attacks you will be damaged by the frost. At the same time, your thunder will jump among the enemies, paralyzing them and scorching their internal organs."

"You will also have an ancient aura, which will allow you to automatically identify ancient relics and psychic objects, making you less susceptible to hallucinations and psychic influences."