Rise of Rurik

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Now, Theresa the Blackbird sits quietly in the palace of King Rus. It was her first time here. As soon as she entered the main hall on the first floor, she was startled by the decorative circle of ferocious bear heads.

Speaking of this building alone, it is far inferior to the magnificent Aachen Palace.

However, many details here are full of humanistic care. It has no sense of depression and has a strong sense of life. What's even more wonderful is that there are toilets, bathing facilities, and even rooms where dry food and clean water can be stored immediately. There is no need for a full-time servant to serve you what you need, especially some snacks. It is extremely convenient to be able to get them immediately when you are hungry.

She had spent more than half a year adapting to the new Ross-style life in the Great Temple. Compared to the depressing feeling of living in the Aachen Palace, she was also taught various precepts in the Great Temple. Obviously those rules were far less than those in Aachen. Chen is so strict and rigid.

For example, during the Aachen period, it was a strictly forbidden taboo act for a princess to sleep with her personal maid Alicia. She had no friends and deliberately did it secretly, even if she was discovered, she would be punished.

This is why, at that time, Alicia would be physically punished, and then she would be carried back by the princess. After a while, poor Alicia would be whipped again on her calf.

Alicia was really tortured by this master, and she didn't want to live a boring life as a nun in the future, so after being captured by Asgard Alixon, a young Ross general, she decisively accepted her new master. Welcome to another life.

There is no such commandment in the territory of the Rus. The women here are full of power, and female warriors abound.

Many things that cannot be done at the Aachen Palace can be found here

You can do it with confidence and boldness. In Aachen, even if you guard the huge hot spring, it is forbidden to all the women in the palace. Although there are no hot springs here in New Roseburg, anyone can take any bath they want, even a magical sauna.

There are too many repressions in Aachen, but life in New Roseburg is relatively free, even unrestrained and violent.

But the inspection just now was simply a humiliation, even if the person who performed the inspection was a noble high priest and a noble woman.

Her body was turned around and pulled, and even her hair was pulled hard to make sure not even a needle was hidden inside. Blackbird was tortured quite a lot, and there was a sense of resentment in her heart. On the outside, she was sitting upright and quite solemnly. .

She just sat quietly on the leather cushion, her mind starting to get tired from the boring waiting.

"Do you think I will hurt King Ross?" Blackbird suddenly muttered.

Rumia was suddenly startled, silently showing a hint of ferocity, and especially threatening: "If this happens, King Ross will easily break your neck."

"I don't dare, and I won't. I want to be Theresa the Blackbird, and I don't want to be Gisla anymore. It's just that you... keep holding on to her." She muttered silently.

"Can it be cut? You can give up your old beliefs, but you can't deny your own flesh and blood."

"You..." Blackbird continued to tilt his head, staring blankly at the leather mat and wooden floor: "Treat me as a tool."

"But you are not a tool? Your father raised you as a tool."

These words went straight to the heart of Blackbird. I remember that Blue Fox had always said that about himself at that time - just a tool.

Maybe it’s because he is such an existence, Uncle Lian

Ludwig also refused to take him in, even suggesting that "she should die a dignified death."

It is true that as a princess, or as a marriage tool, or to spend the rest of my life in a monastery, I have never been qualified to plan my own life.

Lumia wanted to take in this girl from Blue Fox, so she naturally wanted to learn as many details as possible from her mouth. So much so that the household affairs of the Frank royal family that Blue Fox discovered in Aachen were so jealous that he informed Lumia. Ya.

The story is true or false. What is absolutely true is that in the past, Gisla was used as a tool to choose opportunities, just because she was not a prince.

Blackbird's heart felt like a weight was weighed down on her, and she became silent again.

"At least, Blue Fox regards you as family. But... you are an enemy princess after all. You are in Ross, and only the King of Ross can decide your fate. I advise you not to do anything stupid." Rumia finally said.

Did the blackbird listen? The child stared blankly at the wooden floor, feeling quite strange in his silence.

On the other hand, the impatient Verica, after complaining about boredom, swayed around, now she curled up and fell asleep like a kitten.

…

Governor-General Cornuson Jr. treated the newly arrived warriors like normal garrison soldiers. A batch of sturdy iron pots were set up, and a large amount of oats mixed with some rye and buckwheat were poured into it to cook, and some chopped onions and thyme were added for aromatic seasoning.

A group of hired cooks will boil the wheat into a paste, which will take some time.

The most indispensable large livestock in the capital is reindeer. In ancient times, the area around Lake Ladoga was herded by the Karelian people and related tribes.

Domain, the victory many years ago allowed Ross to capture a large number of reindeer, and immediately used the surrendered deer herders (Lapps, Sami) to multiply deer herds for the kingdom.

The kingdom's deer herds had a huge population from the beginning. After the violent war, no one threatened the power of Rus in this space. All the people living were Rus in various forms.

Those deer herders are legally "slaves of the king", and despite their seemingly low status, they receive a kind of privileged protection because of this status. They are directly responsible to the king legally, and all the reindeer they hold are legally the property of the king - a reindeer population of more than 100,000.

The stable environment led a group of northern deer herders to move south to the Lake Ladoga area, where they were admitted to the territory of the old Karelian tribal alliance for grazing. Nowadays, spring and summer are the reproduction period of deer herds and the trading period of reindeer products.

The population of registered deer herders is slowly increasing. Although the high priest Rumia is from this ethnic group, this ethnic group has not been significantly elevated due to the existence of the kingdom's high priest. They received certain rewards for grazing for the king, so the deer-herding families grouped into family clans began to have more family property than before, and the largest property was the reindeer itself.

With a large number of reindeer in hand, they could clearly distinguish which ones belonged to the king and which ones belonged to them.

Just because a group of deer farmers are no longer illiterate, the younger they are, the more they can acquire some key cultural knowledge. The younger generation can already understand Norse and Slavic languages ​​transcribed in Roman letters.

They began to get the right to receive education, and they also realized that they wanted to live a better life in the Kingdom of Rus.

We must rely closely on the power of the king.

They raised deer for the king, pulled sleds for the king, and provided the king with a steady supply of deer skins, antlers, bones and meat. No one knows how to raise deer better than them. Precisely because they are the most professional, Rurik has to keep his eyes on them and think about the special services these special loyal ministers can provide in future expeditions.

Take some deer from the royal herd and kill them to reward the army? Little Conuson was a little scared.

He sent someone to chat with the deer breeders who were selling deer skins and antlers in the market, and soon a group of private reindeer were driven into the city to be slaughtered quickly.

On one side, the iron pot is cooking wheat, and on the other side, the iron pot is stewing venison. An area became a large open-air kitchen, and the aroma here aroused the greed of the soldiers to eat now.

Stewed barley porridge with a pat of butter and a bowl of salty soup containing chunks of venison was Ross's best field meal.

When the king was in the capital, the chefs who were supposed to be delivering food to the governor's palace appeared and resumed their status as royal chefs.

There are even some women with special status here who live a low-key life as Catholics.

They were female prisoners taken from Britain ten years ago. They would survive by cooking for the Ross army at that time. In order to survive, they had to live in peace, and were even dragged away to New Ross Castle and the Kingdom of Mercia to which they once belonged. Split.

John Invall, a Danish orphan, is still the so-called "Bishop of the Diocese of Ross".

This person is a student of Eskil, the northern bishop. In Eskil's view, this son is equivalent to a son-like existence, but the existence of the "Ross Diocese" itself is a joke.

In the Kingdom of Rus, there quietly exist two

The small monastery is an inconspicuous little monastery. They are just two longhouses with a simple appearance. There are no standard crosses on the roofs, and only the interior furnishings imitate the churches in Hamburg.

John Invar had to keep a low profile. As a young man in Rus, he was always conflicted about his identity - am I a follower of Odin or a follower of God?

All the Catholic believers who stayed in Ross for various reasons at least have a destination for their faith. This also includes the old Danish chief Harald Clark who was defeated and abdicated in the war and was expelled. The old man has completely lost his power. Having lost everything, he stayed silently. He stayed in the Novgorod monastery in a simple way, and once he put on his rough robe, at first glance, he looked like a bitter old man.

Rurik had indeed fulfilled the promise of the war three years ago. The political career of the captured Harald Clark was completely over, and his physical body would die quietly in Rus and have a dignified end.

As for the British women who were captured earlier, most of them still maintained their past beliefs within ten years. If they wanted to convert to the northern gods, they could immediately marry the locals and live a normal life.

No matter what choice they make, if they continue to work as cooks for the royal family and the Governor's Palace, their living conditions will be extremely good, which is evident from their well-fed bodies. What will the future hold for them? The last princess of Mercia has passed away many years ago. She had a son with the King of Ross. The boy's identity is already recognized as the legitimate King of Mercia. As long as the cook is willing, they will transform themselves into the cooks of the new King of Mercia.

King Ross is full of whimsical ideas when it comes to eating.

Frying, stewing, steaming, various wonderful cooking methods accompanied by some special cooking utensils make Ross's state banquets always frequent.

Before going to bed, Rurik ordered a comfortable meal of braised noodles and a bowl of stew soup in the evening.

The cooks had to quickly knead and wake up the noodles. When the strong whole-wheat noodles were ready, they waited for the king to cook the noodles immediately after he woke up.

Rurik slept until the sun went down, then he twisted his body and slowly got up.

At first, I was in a trance when I saw a familiar and unfamiliar environment. After a moment of patting my face, I suddenly realized: I'm home.

The west is orange, and the eastern world has dimmed.

Every household was lit with oil lamps, as were the attic palaces, the great temple, and the governor's palace.

On the first floor of the palace, all unused bronze oil lamps were lit in preparation for the king's reception of guests.

On the second and third floors, the lighting facilities here are activated, and the pulley facilities raise the chandelier matrix, thus making the interior brightly lit.

Rurik rubbed his eyes lightly and walked out of the sleeping room. He yawned and suddenly saw Rumia waiting for him?

Are there two maids accompanying you?

No! One of them is Verika.

"How long have you been waiting?" he asked.

"It's not that long. What's one afternoon compared to a whole year of waiting for your arrival?"

"Are you blaming me?"

"I can not."

"Miss me." Rurik smiled: "I will accompany you well in the next few days. And..."

His eyes glanced at his eldest daughter Verica, who was eager to give birth, and he made a gesture: "My baby. Come! Let me hold her."

like listening

When the starting gun sounded, Verika, who was sitting next to her, instantly jumped up and ran into her father's arms, rubbing her cheeks non-stop.

"Dad, I miss you so much...it's been a year...woohoo."

She hesitated and choked silently, stroking her waist with one hand and her little head with the other. Rurik just let his daughter get excited and act coquettishly.

However, from the corner of his eye, he couldn't help but notice the only outsider sitting here.

A girl? Whose daughter is she? From the Goulds? Absolutely not. Aslaki's? She has no daughter.

Or a merchant's daughter who has a close relationship with the high priest?

Even though Rurik quickly went through the process of elimination in his mind, he still had no way of knowing the identity of the girl wearing the priest's robe.

In this secret environment where only close family members are supposed to be, it is really strange to suddenly have an outsider appear.

He patted his daughter's back with some force, pushed Verika away slightly, and sat down on the floor very casually.

Without any polite words, he pointed directly at the girl and asked in Enochian language: "Who are you? Who gave you the qualification to enter the king's palace?"

"She! She is..." Rumia was about to explain, but the girl quickly took off her burqa and spoke.

Blackbird sat upright and opened his mouth in Latin: "Your army majestically broke into the palace of Aachen, broke into my life and took me away. At that time, did you ever ask me how I felt? Now, I also I enter your palace majestically and sit in front of you. King Ross! Do you... know my identity?"

Is this little girl so crazy? Wait, what did she say?

Rurik was shocked, and Rumia was also sweating deeply at the girl's shocking words, and subconsciously rushed towards her.

The first one covered her mouth and scolded: "Shut up! You have no right to be rude to King Ross."

"Let her continue!" Rurik ordered with a frown.

"Yes." Rumia had no choice but to let go.

Blackbird didn't have any timidity at this moment, she was not afraid of anything.

"King Rus. I! am a Frank."

"A Frankish girl? How dare you speak to me like that? A nobleman? That word you just mentioned. Aachen?"

"Yes. The Royal Palace of Aachen is my home. I am the daughter of the emperor who was kidnapped by you. The daughter of the Roman Emperor."

This was something Rurik didn't expect. For a moment, he didn't question him at all. He just trusted him. He was so shocked that he stood up and asked again and again: "Emperor of Rome? Is your father Lothair?" Your Latin is so rulic that it is unmistakable for a great nobleman.”

"It's Lothair."

"Who are you?"

"Gisla!" He stared directly at her with sharp eyes like a wolf cub, and the hidden murderous intent made Rurik instinctively alert. "I am Gisla, the Roman Emperor Lothair on my father's side, and Ermengarde of Tours-Alsace on my mother's side."

She deliberately spoke slowly, hoping that King Ross could understand the meaning of some key words.

Rurik heard it clearly, and admired the girl's ecclesiastical Latin for speaking it fluently, and there was indeed no ambiguity in the key nouns.

Those nouns refer directly to some characters. After thinking about it for a moment, aren't they all old acquaintances?

"You? You should have an aunt named Edgard."

Now, it was the blackbird's turn to frown. "King Ross, do you...do you know my aunt?"

"I don't know

. But I know your aunt's husband, Robert. "

"Robert. Robert of the Rheingau. Well, but he was my father's enemy. That was their war, and in the end the war affected me... you." Blackbird calmed down: "You sacked Aachen! You guys Killing people everywhere in the city! You almost killed me too."

The emotions that had been suppressed for more than half a year were vented towards King Ross in an instant.

The massacre of Aachen was described in Blue Fox's letter as a major victory for the expeditionary force. In addition, there were the massacre of Maastricht and the massacre of Liège. In short, the expeditionary force would kill people as soon as they arrived. Gungun, as for the fact that the local Frankish army was so raging and there was no strong resistance, it can only be said that this was a sneak attack by Ross taking advantage of the civil war between the two princes and not respecting martial ethics.

This girl's complaints are just to vent her emotions. Her voice is louder but not bitter. Maybe she is born with good emotional control ability?

"So, what should I call you? Gisla?" Rurik asked calmly after adjusting his mood.

"Call me Blackbird. Gisla, it's over. I have renounced God, the Lord I betrayed. Now, I am a priest of Rus, I am a servant of the gods..."

Just this one sentence, the amount of information is enough to discuss it for a whole day and night.

Rurik was full of interest in the girl, and had to admit that she was very bold. She still maintained the arrogance of a noble in the face of a king who could take his own life.

But it is meaningless to evaluate her courage. Rurik never knew that there was such a great nobleman who was firmly controlled in the capital of Rus. She could enter the great temple and be led by the high priest.

Action, as a king, he didn't know such a big thing.

"Blue Fox. You deceived me! Why didn't you tell me about such a big thing in the letter?" Rurik thought silently, planning to take the time to pull the Blue Fox guy to his side and question him.

Then I thought about it, a Frankish princess fell into his hands, what did Gisla have? With nothing but a clever mouth and a bold heart, she could be manipulated.

She is Lothair's daughter, and Lothair is the target of the second expedition.

Would a father ignore his daughter?

Although he is a rogue, Rurik has a plan in mind - to take Gisla with him to Frank, control him as a hostage, and blackmail Lothair into submission in some possible situations.