The domain of the Lexar family.

"The blood orange is ripe." Lord Lexa commented in a tired voice, and the captain of his guard pushed his wheelchair onto the balcony.

He didn't speak for a long time.

He was right about the blood oranges, which kept falling on the pale red marble floor, bursting apart. With each breath he hauled, a rich sweet smell filled his nostrils, and the Lord of Lexa no doubt smelled it, and he sat under the orange tree, the wheelchair prepared by the Lexa family scholar with wheels made of ebony and steel, and plush cushions.

For several hours, the only sound came from the fountain pool of children's playfulness, with the occasional soft "snap" as another orange fell.

Then, the captain faintly heard the sound of boots stepping on marble on the other side of the palace, like a drumbeat.

His daughter came, and he was familiar with the way she walked, stride, hurried, and irritable, and in the stables outside the palace gates, her horse must have been covered in sweat and bloodied with spurs, and she always rode a horse, and she was heard boasting that she could tame any horse in the Lexa family...... And any man, and the person she admired most was none other than the female swordsman, Britney, and the captain of the personal guard heard other footsteps, and it was the Bachelor who hurried after him with small broken steps.

His daughter was always going too fast, she was always chasing something that could never catch up, and the captain of the guard had heard Lord Lexa say this about his daughter.

When she appeared under the triple arch, one of the guards blocked her path with a long axe, which was mounted on a six-foot-long Shancen wooden handle, and she couldn't get around. "Miss, don't go forward," his voice was deep and accented, "don't disturb your lordship." ”

Her expression had been like a stone before he spoke, and now it was darker. "You're in my way!" She was nearly thirty years old, tall and eye-to-eye, and she wore a mottled cloak of dark sand silk, and her riding outfit was an old brown leather coat, soft and soft—the softest part of her body, with a whip coiled around one side of her hip and a round shield of brass and iron behind her back. She left her spear outside, for which the guard, thankfully, knew that this agile and strong woman was no match for him...... But the other party didn't think so, and he didn't want her blood to be spilled on the pale red marble floor.

The bachelor shifts his weight between his feet. "Miss, I told you ......"

"Does he know my father is dead?" The young lady confronted the captain of the guard, ignoring the maester as if she were a fly—a fly would be unlucky if it were stupid enough to buzz around her head, and he she spoke of was his father, Lord Lexa.

This was a sudden accident, a few days ago Lord Lexa was riding a horse, his horse accidentally fell off a high slope, Lord Lexa was lucky to pick up a life, but his legs were paralyzed

"Miss, why do you say that, Lord Lord," said the captain of the guard.

"Safe and sound?" The young lady asked rhetorically, "My father's leg was broken, you know?" ”

"But he's alive and well."

"Live well?" The young lady sneered, "Live like a wreck?" Ever since I broke my leg, it doesn't look like my father! My father was tall and handsome, full of fighting spirit, and would never hide behind anyone even if he died in battle! Where has the will of the Lexar family gone? ”

She had received a letter from a carrier pigeon, black wings, a message of bad luck, a tiny font sealed in solidified red wax, as if she had read it all day, and she sat there, with the parchment on her lap, until the sun went down, and the night air grew cooler, and then he gazed at the stars on the water until the moon rose, and finally he took a candle and read the letter under the tree.

"There's nothing wrong with the young lady lord's strategy, and we're right to seek stability."

"We didn't do anything when the Turner family fell! We didn't do anything when the Randall family was getting stronger! We didn't do anything when Jocris's camp attacked Dubrovnik! We didn't do anything when the royal family led the army against the Chriss! Our family is like a coward, since Lord Lexa broke his leg, it is as if the man has died, and the will of the whole family has died! But isn't it just a broken leg? ”

The young lady reached for the whip, "The war of tens of millions of people is starting at this time in the Chriss family lords, the men are shouting angrily, everyone is spilling blood for the future of their family, and our lord has fallen to his death, already dead!" How can we avenge him? She leaned in close to the captain of the guard. Will he be well if he slaughters that horse? ”

"Don't disturb the lord." The captain of the guard repeated.

The captain of the guard knows the lord he is guarding, the current situation is not clear, the Lexa family can only stand by watching success or failure, a long time ago, there was a young man who was not deeply involved in the world, he was broad-shouldered and thick-shouldered, with a thick tuft of black hair, and now although his hair is gray, he has many battle wounds...... But his strength remained, and he always kept the sharpness of his axe, and he stopped him, and this time she could not pass, and he told himself, "The lord is watching the children play, and he must not disturb them while he watches them play." ”

"Captain!" "Get out of the way," shouted the young lady, "or I'll take the axe!" ”

"Captain." An order came from the rear, "Let her in, I'll talk to her," Lord Lexa said in a hoarse voice.

The captain put away his axe and stood aside, and the young lady glared at him a few times before striding over, and the bachelor hurried to follow. He was only five feet tall, his head was bald like an egg, and his face was so smooth and fat that it was hard to tell how old he was, but he had served the Lexa family longer than the captain of the guard, and even served the mother of the lord of Lexa, and despite his old age, he was still quite agile and witty, but he had a gentle personality and could not stand up to any sinister people, the captain of the guard thought to himself.

In the shadows under the orange tree, Lord Lexa sat in a wheelchair, his aching legs propped up in front of him, and deep bags hanging from under his eyes...... Whether his insomnia was due to sorrow or pain, he had no way of knowing, but in the fountain below, children were still playing, the youngest of whom was no more than five years old, the oldest of nine or ten, half girls and half boys, who could hear them splashing water on each other and snorting in a shrill voice.

"Not so long ago, you were a kid in the pool, miss." Lord Lexa said, and the young lady had arrived in his wheelchair.

She snorted, "It's been almost twenty or thirty years, have you forgotten?" ”

He didn't answer, so she folded her hands on her hips and said, "My father has been murdered!" ”

"I'm alive and well," Lord Lexa said, "right in front of you." ”

"He was murdered by his own weakness and incompetence!"

"Yes, but the family is alive."

"He's dead, what are we going to do?"

Lord Lexa laboriously turned his wheelchair and faced her, "I have planned to write to King Ronnihon and ask to join the battle for the final sweep when the war is decided. ”

"Write a letter? If you had half my father's backbone, you wouldn't have waited until now! All our family can do is clean up for others? Is it a sweeping job? The noblest and most sacred work? ”

"I'm not your father."

"I know that." The young lady's voice was full of contempt.

"You want me to declare war?"

"I know it's impossible, you don't have to leave your wheelchair, let me avenge my father, all the Lexa family's armies will be under my command, while the Chris family has not yet fallen, we will please kill behind the Chris family!"

"No! The winner is still undecided! ”

"If the winner is already divided, we won't have a chance!" Miss said.

"What we want is honor and stability"

"I want blood! Tell the world that the Lexa family is not the blood of cowards! ”

"You have been used by people with ulterior motives, those messages and words make you anxious, the Lexa family doesn't need to prove more, our strength doesn't need to be proven!"

"That's right! Just like our family's famous barbarian king Bianda, who was slain by the little-known one-armed Jolly in a sword duel, our strength doesn't need to prove more, just kill our family's power to gain supreme fame! Fame forever! Will our reputation live on forever? ”

"You're crazy, miss, those people are using your impulses to push the Lexa family into the fire pit."

"And who's going to send Jorchris's head? Or maybe it's the head of King Ronnie Sheen? The young lady sneered, "Let's just wait for someone to send it over, the lord of the Lexa family has become cowardly since he broke his legs, and he can only wait for others to become famous, and then do some work to wipe his ass!" ”

"Miss, look at those children, if you like." ”

"I'm not happy, I'd rather stick a spear into Jokris's stomach and let him sing Dubrovnik's Spring, I'm going to pull out his intestines and find out if there's any gold in it!"

"Look at those kids," Lord Lexa repeated, "I command you. ”

A number of older children lay face down on the smooth reddish marble, soaking up the sun, while the rest walked up and down the beach in the distance, three of them building sand castles with towering spires like the spear towers of the Old Palace, and twenty or so children gathered on the edge of the large pool to watch the water fight, in which the little ones rode on the shoulders of the older children and pushed each other waist-deep in the water, trying to knock each other down, and whenever a group of people fell, the water splashed, always accompanied by loud laughter. They saw a girl with brown chestnut hair pushing a boy with pale yellow hair off his brother's shoulders and falling headfirst into the water.

"You've played the same game, I've played it, and the reason they can play here is because of the longevity of the Lexar family." Lord Lexa said, "Let's count how much has happened in Dubrovnik since this time that nothing has happened before. ”

"Several prime ministers of the Dubrovnik palace have been poisoned or driven away or murdered, several kings have been poisoned or killed by dragons, many mysterious and strange black magic have gradually spread to the world, wars and strife have broken out, every lord, every important minister has his own thoughts, tell me, who knows what will happen tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow won't be a coward anyway." ”

"The one who can survive to the end is a warrior!" Lord Lexa said, "Only by breaking your legs can you see clearly what you couldn't see before, and this war is not a gladiatorial arena to compete who has more strength, but a game to compete who has more endurance." ”

The young lady laughed, "Is war a game?" ”

"That's true, I just hope for comfort"

"I don't want your comfort." Her voice was full of mockery. "My brave father is dead, and only a patient Lord Lexa is still alive! Is it difficult to do my request? ”

"It's not easy, miss, let me think about it."

"You've been thinking about it for too long!"

"Maybe you're right, and when I make a decision, I'll send someone to find you right away."

"Your decision can only be war! I don't believe it's a game! The young lady turned and strode away, as furious as she had come, and returned to the stable, got a new horse, and galloped along the road again.

The bachelor stayed. "Lord Lexa?" The fat and short bachelor asked, "Does your leg hurt?" ”

Lexa smiled weakly, "Is the sun hot?" ”

"I'm going to get a dose of painkillers?"

"No, I need to keep my head up."

The scholar hesitated and said, "Lord, let ...... Is it wise to let Miss send troops? She will definitely incite the people of the territory"

"Maybe soon the outcome of the war will come out." He pressed his fingers to his temples. "It's not a big difference."

The Bachelor was a little uneasy. "Is that wise?"

"Not a wise move, but maybe the Chriss will be more vulnerable than we think, or in other words, the people who want to destroy the Chriss are stronger"

"The people of the Jocriss family know black magic." Bachelor Warning.

The captain of the guard understood the implications, and the knights or civilians were constantly joining Jokris's side, and it was the rumored black magic that bewitched them, and the once powerful knight Janis Odo was also knocked to the ground by other dark magic.

Lord Lexa said, "If those dark arts are really as terrible as you think, the rebellion of Jokris and the others in the Dubrovnik Palace will be successful that day, and Jocris or Kreseen will become kings in no time!" But in reality, they ran away! That's right, they ran away, escaped from the royal palace, escaped from Dubrovnik! To praise them for fleeing from the thousands of guards? No! That means that even with black magic, you can't be king! Far from enough! Not at all! ”

"What each of us lacks is the will of the golden king!"

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