Chapter 410

If Mary completely disgraced the whole family and complained in front of the emperor, how should this matter be handled?

It would be okay if Mary had no power, but she is the sister of the Duke of Orleans. Although her status in the family is not high and she was only married as a political marriage tool, there is no doubt that the Duke of Orleans will definitely stand by Mary if necessary. side.

(PS: This chapter costs 1.7W, which is considered a two-in-one super chapter. I hope to receive your friendly monthly votes next month)

(PS: There will be three consecutive days off on February 29th, February 30th, and February 31st. Normal updates will start from March 1st. Please live a regular life and rest on time. We are hereby notified.)

Chapter 24: Why are you looking at me?

The time finally came when the celebration banquet was held.

This morning, the emperor's chariot has arrived at the city of Antica. This is the first time Odysseus has come to the city of Antica since he came to the throne, except for the war eighteen years ago.

"Your Majesty, please see, this is the new city of Antica." In front of Odysseus, Lit, who was the temporary head of the Antica Duchy, was describing to him the changes in Antica.

The two of them are now standing on the tower of the church in the old city of Antica. Standing here, they can have a panoramic view of the entire city of Antica, especially the new city that accounts for almost half of the current Antica city.

Different from the clutter and obsolescence of the old city, after the latest planning, the new city has clearly arranged functional areas and strong and beautiful buildings. It can be said that in many places, it is better than the city of Saint Laurent.

"Very good." Odysseus looked at the new city of Antica and nodded with satisfaction.

Eighteen years ago, although Antica was a large city in the eastern part of the empire, it was still quite large. However, at that time, Antica already suffered from urban diseases, and it looked far worse than it does now.

Although the planning of the new city has made Antica City lose a lot of its urban atmosphere, as a city, the current appearance of Antica City can already rank among the forefront of the empire.

"I heard that Orson was responsible for arranging all the initial planning, right?"

Odysseus said this and turned to look at Lit.

"Yes, most of the planning for the new city was handled by my brother, and Miss Chelinina, the current president of the Lissen Chamber of Commerce. She participated in the entire construction of the new city, using the highest quality and Completed the planning of the new city as quickly as possible." Li Te stood beside Odysseus, not panicking, but reporting the work of the duchy to Odysseus in a calm tone.

"Well, Li Te, let me ask you, in your opinion, cities will eventually continue to expand?" Odysseus suddenly wanted to test the child in front of him, so he thought of a more difficult question.

"Hmm..." Li Te thought for a moment, then nodded, and she said: "Yes, in my opinion, at least the current trend is this. The city will serve as an economic center and provide services to the surrounding villages and towns. Provide a function of goods distribution and market supply.”

"The highest level city is Saint Laurent City in the empire. As the center of the entire empire, for Saint Laurent City, the future development should be to turn other local cities into the so-called 'villages' of Saint Laurent City. Inject economic vitality into the city.”

"However, due to traffic reasons, many goods take too long to be transported, causing the original value to change and not adapt to the market. Therefore, the radiation of the city has a certain range. This is why the empire's The reason is that the capital cannot radiate to the whole country, and even the royal territories cannot cover it. "

"Well, so if you want to expand the size of Saint Laurent City, you have to change the traffic problem, right?"

"Yeah." Lite nodded and vomited. "Just like the distance from Antica City to Saint Laurent City, if you use magic, it can be shortened to two days or even less, but if it is transported by cargo carriage, it will take at least a week to deliver it."

"If it's bulk goods, it may even take a month if the road is slow."

"Yes." Odysseus nodded, and he agreed with this. "In this way, even if the price of agricultural products in the countryside of the Duchy of Antica is much lower than that around the city of Saint Laurent, the cost of transporting it on the road will be too high, which will lead to the price being very low when it is transported to the city of Saint Laurent. Come down. But at the same time, Saint Laurent City can also supply this kind of goods. There is no profit to be made from such goods, so naturally no businessmen are willing to do this kind of trade. "

"However, the excess production of goods required a distribution center, so primary towns appeared. Later, in order to communicate economic connections and commercial exchanges between towns, cities also emerged." Leeteuk also added at this time.

"What you said is very good." Odysseus said, looking at Li Te with a look of relief. "At least, in my opinion, Lee Teuk, my finance minister would never be able to say what you said."

"Your Majesty is very pleased." Lite said and smiled.

"By the way, I heard you say before that Lucius was ill. What's the situation? Is it okay?"

"Ah...about this issue..." Liteuk became a little nervous.

Sure enough, what should be inescapable is still inescapable.

With this in mind, Liteuk explained: "That's right, Your Majesty, my father was injured in a previous assassination. Although his life is not serious, he has left some sequelae. He is currently recuperating. When the sequelae disappear, my father will be able to return to normal." Take care of business."

"Is that so..." Odysseus heard Li Te say this and expressed his understanding.

"Oh, I really didn't expect that someone would dare to assassinate the Duke of the Empire. Will I be the next person to be assassinated?" He said angrily.

"However, Li Te, you don't have to worry too much. You are handling the duchy well now. Lucius must be very pleased that his two children are capable of both civil and military affairs. One is in charge of the internal affairs and the other is in charge of the external affairs. Very well maintained.”

"Thank you for your approval, Your Majesty." Lite quickly saluted.

At the same time, inside the Duke's mansion.

Vivian was guarding the door of Lucius's room.

Li Te went out to meet Odysseus today, and Vivian was the only one left at home to take care of Lucius. With the experience last time, Vivian could not let Mary get close to Lucius anymore.

But having said that, looking at Mary appearing in front of her at this moment, Vivian felt a headache.

"Maid Vivian." Mary's tone sounded very serious. "I'd like to reiterate here again that the person inside is my husband. No matter what problems my husband has, I am his wife and I have the right to be by his side."

"I'm sorry, madam, but both Master Orson and Master Leeteuk have ordered me. My problem is more serious, so I should try to have as little contact with people as possible."

"In that case, I'll go in and take a look at him to see if he's still here, okay?" Mary's tone was anxious, as if she was really worried about Lucius.

"Madam...please don't make things difficult for me. Besides, haven't you met the master before..."

"It's just because we've seen each other before that I feel strange. Didn't we still have dinner with Master Mingming a while ago? Why has it become like this these days?!" Mary grabbed Vivian's collar and looked a little bit irrational. look.

"You kidnapped Randall and now you don't let me see the master. What do you want!?"

But Vivian's expression didn't change. She watched Mary perform on her own, unmoved.

"Noise, noisy, noisy!" At this moment, the door was opened from the inside, and Lucius appeared at the door.

Looking at the surprised two people, Lucius frowned.

"Why are you looking at me? Isn't there a banquet today? Let's prepare for the banquet."

Chapter 25: Testing

"Master? Your body..." After a brief surprise, Vivian was the first to react. "Master Li Te took care of me and asked you to stay in the room and rest well today..."

"Master, are you okay?" Mary also asked at the right time.

"What? You all want me to lie on the bed so much?" As he said this, Lucius frowned. "I'm not sick, I'm in good health."

Saying this, Lucius patted his chest to express that he was fine.

"This family, whether it's Orson or Lite, it's not their turn to make the decision yet. Since the emperor wants to come to my place, as the master of the family, how can I make sense if I don't show up?"

"Anyway, hurry up and get ready to go." Lucius said. "By the way, no matter whether Orson comes back today or not, give him a place at the banquet. Don't lose etiquette."

"Okay." Vivian nodded after hearing this, and then gave Lucius's order.

At this moment, only Lucius and Mary were left.

"What? Madam, why are you still here?"

"Master, does your health really not matter? Orson and Lite didn't let me see you before..."

"How many times do you have to tell me that there is nothing wrong with my body?" Lucius was obviously a little unhappy. "As for why they didn't let you come to see me, that's what I meant. Don't get me wrong. I was in a bad situation at the time, and I didn't want you to see my joke, so I let them do this to make you worry. lady."

"That's good." Mary nodded after hearing this. "However, if you still feel a little uncomfortable today, please don't force yourself. Your health is more important than anything else."

"Ha, of course I know that." Lucius said, smiling. "Of course I understand your thoughts, madam, and I also understand the thoughts of many other people. If I don't show up today, I'm afraid there will be problems at the banquet."

Mary was shocked when she heard this.

She didn't know why, but she always felt that Lucius meant something when he said this, as if he was trying to harm the family.

He then reached out and gently touched Mary's face.

"Madam, where is the attendant beside you? The man who usually follows you, why didn't you see him today?"

"Master, are you talking about Randall?" Mary suddenly remembered the purpose of meeting Lucius, and then quickly said: "Randall sent me a letter last time, and he didn't come back after that. I I suspected that he had been kidnapped, so I asked Leeteuk to help me mobilize the duchy's guards to find him, but Leeteuk told me that he still hasn't been found yet..."

"Oh?" Lucius frowned upon hearing this. "Then this is indeed something Lite did wrong. After all, it's

How could she not find someone so important to Madam? "

"I'm afraid that Madam will be very bored these days when Mr. Randall is away."

Hearing Lucius speak like this, Mary's heart inevitably beat wildly.

"After all, Madam is the servant you named before you got married from the Duke of Orleans. With him serving Madam, I feel relieved. Madam must be very lonely these days when he is away. After all, there is no one to talk to. Servant."

"This is not possible. We must find him quickly." Lucius said this and clapped his hands. "After all, I am your very important servant, madam."

Mary stared at Lucius in disbelief with her eyes wide open.

Lucius almost pointed it out directly, but how did he know?

"Okay, madam, I will help you find Randall later. Don't worry. Now you just wait for the dinner." Lucius said this, patted Mary's shoulder, and then gently He hugged her gently.

"At tonight's banquet, we must set a good example to the nobles of the empire, madam." Lucius whispered in Mary's ear. Then, he let go of Mary, smiled, and walked downstairs.

Downstairs, a group of nobles had gathered at this moment. Unlike Odysseus, after they arrived at the Dukedom of Antica, they went straight to the Duke's mansion, wanting to reminisce with Lucius.

Of course, when they learned that Lucius was unable to chat with them due to illness, the nobles only expressed regret, and then gathered together in twos and threes to chat.

In addition to the original purpose of this kind of gathering of nobles, it is more to provide a social occasion for the nobles, so that the nobles can achieve their own goals in this social occasion.

Either completing an alliance, improving a relationship, or planning a conspiracy.

In short, the most favorite and most frequent social interaction among nobles is banquets.

And who knew who called Duke Lucius? The nobles on the first floor all looked up and saw Lucius coming down from the second floor, dressed in formal clothes.

"Duke Lucius." The first person to greet him was the Duke of Prussia, Lucius's in-law William.

He and Lucius had a pretty good relationship, and he was very worried after hearing the news that Lucius was ill.

"I heard that you are not sick? Is it really okay for you to come down now?"

"It doesn't matter." Lucius smiled and shook his head. "It's just a minor illness that I occasionally contracted. It's not a serious illness. I'm almost healed now."

"Besides, if I don't come down and everyone attends this party, the atmosphere will be less after all, right?"

"Haha, that's true." William saw that Lucius looked fine and looked good, so he smiled and nodded.

At this time, Giovanni, Duke of Naples, also walked up.

"Oh, Duke Lucius, congratulations. Your child has become a great person and can take care of himself, while my untalented child is still spending my money. From the perspective of being a parent, I really envy you. ah!"

"That's great, Duke Giovanni. Your son, Mr. Donny, is also very good."

"Hey, I'm still not as good as you." Giovanni said this. Although he was praising Lucius, it didn't feel like he was praising him, but rather he was being irritated. "But, Duke Lucius, does your health really not matter?"

"Of course." Lucius nodded.

"Well, Duke Lucius, do you still remember your and my rankings when we entered the Imperial College in the same class thirty years ago?" Giovanni said with a smile.

"After all, it's very nostalgic. Among the dukes in the empire, you and I are the only old classmates now, and this time has only passed by thirty years..."

"Imperial Academy ranking..." Lucius said, with a trace of doubt in his eyes.

He wanted to answer Giovanni, but for some reason, he couldn't remember it in his mind.

Speaking of which, when did you enter Imperial College?

Why can't I remember...

"Duke Lucius?" Seeing that Lucius did not reply to him, Giovanni was stunned for a moment, and then pretended to be surprised: "You must have forgotten, right?"

Chapter 26: The banquet begins

"Ah... uh, this..." Lucius froze on the spot, a little at a loss.

At this moment, William walked up in time.

"Duke Giovanni, please don't test Duke Lucius's memory here. He has been in the army for half his life and his health is much better than that of old men like us. How could he not remember it?"

Woolen cloth? "

He smiled like this, and then continued: "Moreover, Duke Lucius was number one when he first entered school. There are many geniuses in the Stranik family, and everyone is number one. It's really enviable. "

"Indeed." Giovanni nodded, and the smile on his face faded. "If Duke William could change your nosy character, you wouldn't have two children ranked second in school."

"Is second place bad?" When William heard this, he was not angry. Instead, he raised his eyebrows and looked at Giovanni with a hint of provocation in his expression.

"No matter what, the second place is still higher than the rank of Mr. Tang Ni? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. Tang Ni's current ranking is meaningless. After all, he has been expelled from Imperial College. That’s it.”

"Heh." Giovanni smiled nonchalantly upon hearing this. "Yes, my son is not ambitious, so I can only strive for it myself and pave the way for his future."

Having said that, Giovanni no longer said anything to William, but turned around and continued to join in the chat with other nobles.

This is how the nobles talk. Although they always have something to say, they will not stop until they choke the other person to death.

But if they are really provoked and make some rude moves, then they will really fail.

On the second floor, Vivian saw Lucius's current situation. She assigned the work to others, and then hurried downstairs and followed Lucius.