Chapter 5 Captain of the Guards

In the afternoon, the Royal Palace of the Blue Lion City.

The sound of horses' hooves sounded, and Li Cha returned to his residence with the guard captain and his party.

The first thing that appeared in the field of vision was a huge square with a radius of nearly 100 meters. On one side of the square, there are dozens of steps rising one after another, and above the steps is a huge palace.

Richard got off his horse in the square, and the captain of the guard clearly directed the soldiers to remove the dead python and send it to the palace, with Richard following behind. Before taking a few steps, a voice sounded behind him, followed by hurried footsteps, and a person caught up.

"His Royal Highness, His Royal Highness..."

Li Cha turned his head and saw a young man in his twenties chasing behind him. He was dressed in extremely gorgeous clothes, with gold borders embroidered on the sleeves and complicated patterns on the collar. A head of yellow hair shining like gold, a face full of kindness seems to be able to resolve all malice.

The other party is Li Cha's personal guard captain, who is responsible for leading the entire personal guard team to protect Li Cha's safety. The name is Edward Angele, and his identity is unusual. He is the son of an earl, which means that the other party is a noble. The reason why Li Cha was willing to be the captain of the personal guard was not because the other family was down, but because the other family showed their loyalty to the royal family in order to have a good relationship with the royal family.

This is a very common behavior of medieval nobles. In a sense, this is a kind of hostage behavior, but if it works properly, it may not be able to get huge benefits. For example, if Richard becomes the next king, Edward, who is the captain of the guard, and his family will naturally receive special treatment. At that time, it may not be an earl, but a marquis.

Edward himself obviously understood this, and he served Richard with all his heart on weekdays. But it is also possible that the other party's mind is put on it, and his own strength is very poor. He only has a few tricks of court swordsmanship. If he performs it, it is okay, but if it is used in battle, it is not as good as a soldier.

Therefore, this time Li Cha went to the dungeon and caught the python, but he didn't notify the other party at all, but he just didn't know where the other party heard the news...

As Richard was thinking, Edward, the captain of the guard, had already caught up, stopped a step away from Richard, and took a breath and said, "His Royal Highness, I heard that you went to the dungeon this morning? Take the dungeon again at noon. The people who went out of the city, caught what python?"

"Well." Li Cha responded and stepped forward.

Hearing Richard's confirmation, Edward immediately became anxious and said, "His Royal Highness, I am the captain of your personal guard, and the personal guard is your most loyal subordinate. You leave us alone and go to the dungeon and catch some python. , What if someone is against you? If you are injured, our entire Guards will commit suicide, and there is no way to clear the guilt."

Richard glanced at Edward, but he didn't feel that the other party was telling the truth, but he didn't bother to investigate, and said lightly: "Edward, if your swordsmanship can be more powerful, then I will consider bringing you next time. Besides, who in the entire kingdom would dare to harm me?"

Edward's eyes flickered, he approached Richard, and reminded in a low voice, "Your Highness, you have to be really careful, the eldest prince has always been unfriendly to you, and now His Majesty is sick again, in case... in case... …”

"There is no case." Richard shook his head and sneered, "The king is not dead yet, so my dear brother, William Austin, didn't dare to do anything to me."

"But……"

Edward wanted to say something, but Richard waved his hand and ignored it, walked to the end of the square and walked up the stairs. After passing through twelve marble pillars the thickness of one person hugging each other and entering the hall of the palace, Edward had to hurriedly follow.

The entire hall has an area of ​​more than 200 square meters, which is reasonably wide. But in fact, it was very crowded here at this time. There are dozens of tables on the floor of the hall,

There are various instruments and equipment on the table. In front of each table, there is a maid busy, fat or thin, tall or short, black or white, nervously operating the instruments.

On a table near the door, there is a whole set of simple distillation utensils. The core is a jar that is being heated in boiling water. The mouth of the jar is sealed, and only a leather tube leads to the outside. Weird iron pipe connection.

The middle of the iron pipe is immersed in water. On both sides, one end is high and the other is low. The high end is connected to a leather tube, and the lower part is connected to a glass funnel that looks like a horn. It is dripping colorless liquid into a porcelain bottle. .

"Puchi puchi", because there is some problem with the connection of the device, white mist is constantly sprayed, the surrounding air exudes a slightly pungent smell of wine, and the speed of dripping liquid into the end porcelain bottle is getting slower and slower.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tack-"

A maid with a ponytail looked at the device in front of her, her eyes wide open, she didn't know what to do.

Li Cha frowned and walked closer, the ponytail maid immediately seemed to be electrocuted, and her body froze: "King...His Royal Highness..."

"I asked you to distill high-strength alcohol, how's it going?"

"I...I..." The ponytail maid's voice trembled a little, but in order to avoid being scolded, she dared to answer: "I can do it... I can do it... well..."

"Is it okay?" Li Cha was expressionless, pointing to the pungent white mist that was constantly touching the connection place of the device, and asked, "Is this what you said is okay? What about the airtightness I asked you to do? Alcohol vapor I missed it, so how to collect the high-concentration alcohol solution?"

"I……"

Li Cha reached out to the water basin soaked in iron pipes again, felt the temperature, and said, "How long has it been since the water was changed? The water is hot, do you think it can condense? What do you think? This can make the high temperature alcohol vapor turn into liquid droplets when cooled, and then be collected into the bottle by the horn tube? I remember yesterday I just told you and the rest of the main points of distillation, why did you do this now? like?"

"His Royal Highness, I...I..." The maid with the ponytail trembled, with a cry in her voice, "His Royal Highness, I was wrong...I'm too stupid to remember. Wang...His Royal Highness , please give me another chance, I... I must..."

"Forget it, no need." Li Cha said lightly, "I said before, the maids in my palace can make any mistakes, even murder. But one thing must be done, that is, listen to me after I explain. Understand what I'm saying and go for it.

If you don't understand or forget, it's not that you are stupid, but that your learning ability is too poor, and the last thing I need is someone with poor learning ability. Because I don't have so much time and energy to carry out science popularization, I don't have so much time and energy to cultivate everyone into junior high school students with scientific accomplishments that surpass the limitations of the times.

So, from now on, you are no longer in the palace, pack up by yourself in the afternoon, and leave, don't let me say it again. "

When Li Cha said that, the beautiful maid with a ponytail trembled and her face paled. Once she was kicked out of the palace, it would mean that she could no longer find a place to earn five silver coins a month. Her poor family could not sustain it at all, which would undoubtedly be a disaster for her.

The maid with the ponytail couldn't help but shouted: "His Royal Highness, Your Highness! Please, give me another chance, I... my father owes others a lot of money, if I leave here, there is no money Pay him the debt, he will be beaten to death, please."

Li Cha didn't seem to hear it, so he walked towards the depths of the palace, and the ponytail maid's face became a little desperate.

Edward, the captain of the guard who followed behind Li Cha, saw it, glanced at the ponytail maid's handsome cheeks, and then glanced at the rest of the crooked maids who were busy in the hall, his eyes flickering.

After walking a few steps, he caught up with Li Cha and said, "His Royal Highness, I think that the maid named Aifu just now is actually quite good, but it may have been too short and she was not familiar with her, so she didn't do well. It's so difficult inside, or leave her for a few days, in case she is willing to redouble her efforts..."

Richard stopped, looked at Edward, his eyes were very calm.

Edward's body trembled, showing some fear, "His Royal Highness, I...I..."

"I know what you're thinking." Richard said, "but I have to tell you Edward: I can endure a person's ugly face, bad qualities, and corrupt behavior, as long as she can complete the task assigned. On the contrary, a If a person has insufficient IQ, low ability, and poor learning ability, then no matter how beautiful she is, I can't stand it. Because in the field of science, there are only numerical values, not appearance.

In a word, I am very busy, and I have been busy for more than ten years in this world, busy to understand some supernatural things, and then answer a question. So, everything that affects me is an obstacle, and I definitely don't put up with an obstacle. If you pity that girl, well, yes, she can stay, but only if you help her get things done, that's all. "

"I..." Edward lowered his head, and his expression changed rapidly. After a while, he lowered his head and said, "I see, Your Royal Highness," before turning around and walking towards the maid with the ponytail.

The ponytail maid watched Edward approach, her eyes flickered, and she whispered tentatively, "Lord, look at me..."

Edward didn't speak, and continued to approach. The girl showed a puzzled expression and stepped back subconsciously. Edward suddenly stretched out his hand.

"Ah!" cried the maid, her ponytail caught by Edward.

Edward pulled so hard that the girl was in so much pain that she was about to burst into tears. Regardless, Edward dragged the maid's hair and strode out of the palace, then pulled the maid to the ground with all his strength, and said coldly, "I warn you, you've angered His Royal Highness, get me out of the palace immediately, don't Appear in front of the Prince's Highness again, or be careful of your life!"

"I..." The maid stood up in horror, Edward had already flicked his sleeves, turned around and entered the palace again, chasing after Richard with a smile on his face.

"His Royal Highness, I have already dealt with the pig-brained maid for you. In the afternoon, I will definitely have someone replace her with a smarter and more obedient one. Do you think it will work?"

"Uh." Li Cha said, noncommittal.

"Actually... Your Royal Highness, I think some of your things can be ordered. There will be many people to help you do it well, and you don't have to do everything yourself. After all, you are His Royal Highness, and you should do more important things. Yes." Edward said in a suave tone.

"for example?"

"For example...cough cough, look, Your Royal Highness, His Majesty the King has always been in poor health. This time he is bedridden, and I don't know if he will be safe. In case something goes wrong and the eldest prince succeeds, there will inevitably be some unfavorable things for you. Yes, it is better to prepare early. You might as well get in touch with some nobles and get their support. In this way, you can at least ensure that your own interests will not be violated, and you will get a satisfactory territory and a satisfactory Grand Duke title."

After swallowing, seeing that Richard didn't have a big reaction, Edward continued: "In comparison, I think, Your Royal Highness, you are now looking for all kinds of weird things and conducting all kinds of researches related to wizards. There really is no such thing as It's too necessary. It's okay as a hobby, but it's really irrational to put all your energy into it..."

"Heh." Li Cha chuckled, "Do you mean to let me get involved in crown prince politics?"

"Uh, this..."

"Edward, let me ask you, do you think crown prince politics is important to me, or wizards and spells are important to me?"

"I think it's the Crown Prince's politics that is more important to you, His Royal Highness." Edward said with a serious face.

But Li Cha shook his head slightly, stepped forward, pushed open a red wooden door, and walked in.

Edward's expression stiffened and he stopped in front of the door. He knew that inside the door was Richard's independent laboratory, which was usually used when Richard personally did some special research. At this time, Richard hated being disturbed by others.

Sighing lightly, he stopped outside the door, looking at the wooden door in front of him, Edward couldn't help but muttered to himself: "His Royal Highness, you have to listen to what I say, otherwise... It's very difficult for me to do. My family has put all their hopes of rising on you, and now the king is seriously ill, if you don't do anything..."

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