Even if they were surprised, the habit of following orders for a long time made all the hunters raise their guns without thinking.

Rows of black muzzles were pointed at the surrounding villagers, and the hunters lined up in the center of Alexandria formed a dense phalanx, and the door-like baffle mounted on the carriage had been hinged off, waiting for the shutter to tip over, revealing its terrifying fangs.

There was a commotion among the surrounding villagers, but still no one was willing to back down, they held all kinds of weapons in their hands and stared at the army, many of them had nervousness and a little fear on their faces, but more inexplicable excitement and the urge to rush up at any time.

"Schel, what brave fellow countrymen you are, they can be the best soldiers in Europe, you must have heard those legends, right?" Alexander exclaimed softly, these fierce Balkan mountain people reminded him of the brave warriors of the ancient Macedonian kingdom, and it was with such soldiers that the Macedonian kingdom rose rapidly, and Philip II and his genius son Alexander were able to build that formidable empire.

"I've heard of a great father and a greater son," Schell licked his lips, his eyes fixed on the villagers who seemed to be ready to rush up at any moment, and then he took advantage of the gap to glance at Alexander quickly, "Sir, please allow me to say that you are also Alexander." ”

"Yes, but I can't be him, you know, he conquered distant Persia, and I may not even be able to reach Constantinople," Alexander said, looking at the approaching villagers and raising their muskets, "and I don't want to have a Hephaetian of my own, so listen to my orders and get ready!" ”

The musketeers aimed at the villagers on the opposite side, although as Alexander said, these people were indeed their fellow villagers, but as soon as they gave an order, they would not hesitate to pull the trigger, and they had already been numb and boring for a long time, and the battles they had experienced again and again had turned them into combat machines, not that they were not afraid, but that they had formed a natural reaction to orders when facing the enemy.

"Stop!" A nervous voice came from inside the house, and the upper body of a man peeked out of the window, perhaps some innate common knowledge of the special meaning of a certain color, and he held a white strip of cloth in his hand, which looked very conspicuous.

The heavy door of the house was opened again, and Vateretto rushed out of it, and he desperately ran to the open space between the two sides, which were already very close to each other, and waved his hands at the people on both sides: "Stop, this is an order!" ”

He shouted to the villagers, and when they slowly stopped, Vateretto gasped and looked back at Alexander, who was standing among the hunting guards: "You have won the duke, please come in, we can talk again." ”

"No," Alexander's words made Vateretto's face froze, and then he continued, "arrange a place for my men, they are too tired to be vigilant since entering this mountain, and I confess that you have caused us a lot of trouble, so I need to rest first." ”

Vateretto moved his lips, but silently nodded his head and accepted the offer.

It's just that Schell was somewhat puzzled by Alexander's words, so when they finally walked into a farmstead of a local landlord who looked like a good past, Schell immediately asked a little impatiently: "What are you doing here, sir, they have already softened, shouldn't they take this opportunity to make them bow to us immediately?" ”

"Do you think it's not that smart for me to take the initiative to admit that they pose a threat to us?" Looking at Scheer's insincere demeanor, which was no matter how obvious it was, Alexander smiled, "Listen to Schel, because this may be very useful for you in the future, when you want to negotiate with someone, remember never let the other party control the whole rhythm of the negotiation, even if it seems that you have the upper hand, but in fact you may have fallen into the trap set by the other party." ”

"So you mean, when do you want to talk about it?" Schell asked thoughtfully.

"Learn quickly, guard officer, keep learning hard, you will become a difficult negotiator in the future, you must know that Uliu came here like this, I believe you will not be worse than him." Alexander said as he walked over to a bed that looked thickly made, and before he could take off his boots, he fell asleep.

Hearing that the Duke compared him to the famous Imperial Officer, Sher wiped the tip of his beard a little proudly, and then immediately walked out of the door quickly, arranging for the huntsmen to be on guard.

Just when Alexander was falling asleep, there was a fierce argument going on in the town hall at the other end of the village, Vateretto and several people who had met with Alexander before sat around a table and quarreled, each of them kept talking, but no one was listening to others, so when Vateretto finally couldn't bear to stop everyone's quarrel loudly, looking at the indignant eyes of those people, Vateretto suddenly felt an inexplicable frustration.

"I said that the Duke of Romantesia won, and he did, look at the way we look, that man is said to be sleeping now, he is sleeping! But here we are arguing, who do you think is being threatened, is it or us? Vateretto asked aloud, "If we can't even decide what to do with him, how can we continue?" ”

"What's this, just kill him," said a man in a dark plush coat rarely seen this season, "and we promised him that he wouldn't leave the mountain alive, and that whatever he knew would always be a secret, so we don't have to worry about it at all." ”

"But how can you be sure that he didn't leave what he knew to anyone else, why did he suddenly return to Rome from here, have you thought about it?" The other man left and retorted, "Maybe he already knew about the Truth Society, so he came for us this time, if that is the case, he can't be the only one who knows about it, if he really dies here, what will happen next, who of you knows?" ”

"But how can you be sure that he is coming at us, how is he our existence, knowing that it has been so long, that even Peter, who hanged himself upside down on the cross out of guilt for his heir, did not tell his students the truth about the one apostle, Judas, how do you think this man would know?"

"Maybe it's because of the Vatican records?" Someone said with anxiety, "We all know that he is a popular man in the Vatican, and I heard that the Pope treats him as a son, so he has found clues about us from those Vatican documents, not to mention that the truth is not only us, Aragon, but also our brothers in other places, after all, so many centuries have passed, and the descendants of the saints who followed the one apostle Judas with our ancestors may also leave various clues." ”

This speculation was obviously very convincing, and even the few people who insisted on killing people at first could not help but fall silent, they looked at each other and tried to get answers from their companions, but everyone was unable to make a decision for a while because they were confused, and finally all eyes could not help but look at Vateretto.

"We have to talk to him," looking at those eyes, Vateretto said helplessly, "We don't know how much he knows, but you should understand that if the matter about the Truth Society is exposed, don't say that the Vatican will not let us go, even those Prague princes will not spare us, you must know that we have taken too much money from them, if they know that they have always done business with the Truth Society, they will kill all of us mercilessly in order to clear themselves, So the only way we can do it now is to find out how much he knows about us. ”

"It's a disaster, where did this Duke of Rome know this, the Vatican has never really acknowledged our existence, even after all these centuries of trying to eradicate us completely." One of them asked angrily, and seeing the equally blank faces of the others, he said to Vateretto, "It seems that you have to stabilize him first, or tentatively ask him what he wants, since he already knows our secrets and only brings these people, maybe he just wants to talk to us about the terms." ”

Vateretto wanted to agree, but then he suddenly shook his head: "No, it's not me, it's all of us, you also have to participate in this negotiation, you must know that if this person really discovers our secret but does not reveal it, then he must want a lot, so this negotiation must be attended by all of us, because I can't be the master, and I don't want to bear all the responsibility alone in the end, so if you want me to talk to him, you have to agree to my condition." ”

Hearing his words, the others looked annoyed, but finally reluctantly agreed to his terms at Vateretto's insistence.

Alexander slept soundly, in fact, from leaving Montina to embarking on the way back to Rome, his trip was always urgent, especially after arriving in Bucharest, while trying to solve the problems between the Wallachians, the Greeks, and the Balkan nobility, whether overt or dark, but also to take care of Sofia, who had changed from grumpy to moody because of pregnancy, and when the children were finally born, he had to start a new game with Croatia because of the cathedral incident.

People don't know that at the most tense moment on the border between Wallachia and Croatia because of Alosia, Alexander could only sleep for a pitiful three or four hours a day, which made him have to find another room in order not to disturb Sophia and the children, which made him very tired, and the unquiet atmosphere on the way home also forced him to cheer up, so when he could finally lie in bed, Even when hundreds of Balkan farmers could pop up outside the house at any given moment, he slept so soundly that Schell had to push his shoulders a few times to wake him up from his sleep.

"Is it already night?"

"It's almost dawn," Schell reported as he waited for Alexander to put on his cloak, "the Vateretto has arrived, and they have asked for a new negotiation, but not over there this time," Schell pointed back with his thumb in the direction of the town office, "and he invites you to the castle of Schwara for a detailed discussion." ”

"Schwara Castle?" Hearing the name, Alexander couldn't help but think of vampires, and looking at the twilight sky that was still slightly shrouded, he couldn't help but think that he might really be visiting vampires at night this time.

Schwara Castle is not far from the village, or it was originally a grange that originally belonged to Vlad III's domain, so the road from the village to the castle is very smooth.

Alexander can also understand the minds of those people, it is clear that although they have not learned any professional negotiation skills, they are not stupid, so consciously or unintentionally, they are also using some small means to try to grasp the initiative in negotiations, and choosing to negotiate in Vlad III's castle is obviously a means for them to try to regain the initiative.

Schwara Castle is located on the plains of the Transylvanian Highlands, on the summit of the Mavnoros Mountains.

This not very high mountain, but the steep terrain of the castle was built because of its steepness, and for a long time it was known as a strong position for the Transylvanian nobility to resist invasions.

However, whether it is now or in the future, it is the legends about vampires that make this castle famous, and all kinds of bloody but strange and beautiful love stories that have been deduced because of vampire stories are also endless.

This makes Alexander sometimes wonder if in a few centuries, someone will associate Chipes with Sophia and make up some poignant dark legend of human ghosts, and what role will he play in such a story?

Although the way up the hill was a little winding, the journey became much quicker in this kind of thought, and when they stood in front of the eerie castle gates, they saw Vateretto and his companions already standing in front of the drawbridge.

"Duke, we thank you again for coming," Vateretto had regained his relaxed and casual appearance when they first met, although the contact was not long, but he knew that the young man in front of him was really difficult to deal with, so after deciding to negotiate, he did not immediately inform Alexander, but carefully discussed with his companions how to deal with this person, and most importantly, they wanted to find out from him whether their situation was safe, "This castle originally belonged to the Chipes family, However, because Vlad III was unable to repay the debts he owed during his lifetime, it now belonged to the Order. ”

"It's a classic merger."

Alexander replied, knowing that Cepes was strapped for his father's lack of a good fortune until his death, and it is said that he had taken out the last bit of private money to maintain the army, so that after his death his army almost mutinied because of the lack of pay, but it was at that time that Sophia received the first patronage from the Jews of Venice, so that most of Cepes's army was now part of the army of the King of Wallachia.

Looking at this castle now, although it looked a little penetrating in the middle of the night, Alexander couldn't help but suspect that those dragon knights had been eyeing Vlad III's family property from the beginning, so they did everything possible to tempt him to join in, and made him willingly pay so much money to honor them, so that his son lived so tightly in the future.

This made Alexander wonder if after all these years these followers of Judas had changed careers and engaged in the Rats Society.

The castle is spectacular, with tall porticos, beautifully carved Roman columns, and a castle dome with typical oriental colors, which makes Alexander regret not seeing the eerie Gothic style of the vampire style, but even so, it is still chilling to walk in such a castle in the middle of the night.

It wasn't until he finally came to a hall full of candles, looking at the thick candles in the lampholders on the wall that illuminated the entire hall like day, Alexander couldn't help but muttered in his heart: "What a group of local tyrants......"

It was still those people, but Alexander guessed that there should be other people hiding in the shadows, and the reason why he deliberately delayed the negotiation time was actually to give these people time to gather more companions, and from the fact that they chose the negotiation location at Schwara Castle instead of the town hall that obviously did not hide too many people, it can also be guessed that they were obviously trying to give more people a chance to "observe" the negotiation.

"So, Duke, let's talk to each other frankly first, and tell me how much we know about it?" Vateretto, who sat across Alexander's table, narrowed his eyes slightly, and in the candlelight, his figure cast a huge shadow on the wall behind him.

Alexander felt that the nerves of the men sitting across from him seemed to tense at the request of Vateretto, and although they looked like they didn't care, it was evident from their slightly shrugged shoulders and their jaws that held their breath that they were concerned about the question.

Alexander didn't answer immediately, although he knew the answer after some trial and error with the specious legends in his head, and he felt that he was completely sure that he would be able to get out of this thousand-year-old mystery unharmed, but now he had a new idea.

Thinking about the money these people had extorted from Vlad III in the first place, and the wealth they might have amassed over such a long time, Alexander suddenly felt a little sorry for himself if he left like this.

"Duke, please answer my question," Vateretto said again, his hands pressed on the table, his eyes fixed on Alexander, "if you can't give us a satisfactory answer, then ......"

"Well, begin my show......," Alexander replied, then he looked around at the people across from him, and then said in a slightly strange tone, "has no one ever told you that your so-called truth will never be a secret?" ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone's expressions changed instantly.