Just after noon, it was the time when the sun was burning like fire, but the courtyard of the palace was much shaded because it was shrouded in a large canopy of dense trees.
The statue of Goddess Isdar in the middle of the courtyard was bathed in sunlight, holding stars in her hands, and the water droplets from her feet splashed into the fountain basin.
The fine water droplets form a water curtain, which dissipates the heat in the courtyard.
Heimos stood by the fountain pool, reaching out to catch a few splashes.
Cool drops of water fell on his hands, wetting his palms.
He was in a trance for a while, and for some reason, he suddenly remembered what happened here a long time ago.
At that time, he was only a teenager and had just entered the palace not long ago.
One evening, when the sun was setting on fire, he was standing in this place, just as he is now, in front of the little child who was sitting on the edge of the fountain basin.
At that time, he had realized that the child occupied a very important place in his heart.
Therefore, he said to the child that he would accompany him and protect him in this life, and would never let anyone hurt him.
It was the first time he held his feelings in front of others.
It was the first time he wanted so much to protect someone, to be with that person all the time.
Looking back now, that might be his first confession to Gallan.
And...it was rejected by Garlan, who was still a child.
'I don't need you to protect me. '
'I hate you. '
Children are very straightforward, like is like, hate is hate - although I don't know why, but Garlan, who was still a child at the time, seems to have not liked him very much from the first sight.
And this kind of outright rejection could almost be described as cruel to him, who was still a teenager with high self-esteem and was extremely sensitive and vulnerable.
He even had a sense of shame as if he had been slapped in the face.
Feeling ashamed and uncomfortable, he swore in his heart that he would never approach that child again in the future!
Well, swearing nothing counts.
Does not count.
Heimos, who was standing beside the fountain, thought so, then raised his lips unconsciously.
The things that made his young self extremely uncomfortable at that time, now, in retrospect, it has become a special memory that can make him smile from the bottom of his heart.
All the memories with Garlan, from childhood to adulthood, are almost innumerable.
Those good or bad, no matter what kind, up to now, as long as he thinks about it, it can make his heart feel warm and soft.
Just when Heimos was thinking about the past, the person he had been waiting for for a long time finally came out of the room.
Heimos, who turned around after sensing the footsteps, looked up and saw Garlan walking quickly.
The long black hair was tied into a bundle by a white hair band behind him, and the young man was wearing a sleeveless corset, similar to a ranger's capable outfit.
Although Garlan's height is not outstanding, his body proportion is very good, and his legs are extremely slender.
This made the thin short cloak draped behind him only cover his thighs.
Heimos couldn't control his heart skipping a beat when the handsome young man walked towards him quickly.
He thought that no matter what time he looked, his heart would only beat and lose control for the person in front of him.
Just as Avtomir prayed for the pity of the beautiful young man, he also yearned for the love of the person in front of him.
"Heimos, sorry for keeping you waiting."
Walking up to Heimos, Garlan said, "It took a little more time for Tapti to dye my hair."
He asked Heimos, who was looking at him with a fixed gaze, suspiciously.
"What's the matter? Am I dressed in the wrong way?"
Heimos smiled.
"Do not."
He said, "I was just thinking, if you're going to be disguised, why don't you just dress up as a woman like you did last time..."
Before Heimos finished speaking, with a snap, Garland slapped his mouth and covered his mouth.
"Shh!"
Garlan covered his mouth with one hand, and raised his index finger with the other hand to make a silent motion beside his mouth.
"You promise I won't mention that again!"
While speaking in a low voice, the young man looked around, and he was relieved after confirming that the people around him, including Tapti, were far away from hearing their conversation.
He stared at Heimos discontentedly.
Heimos, Kaijos, and Shulos all knew that they had disguised themselves as women, and the three of them are already a lot, okay
He didn't want one more person to know his dark history at all.
Grabbing Garlan's hand and removing it from his mouth, Heimos raised his eyebrows.
"It's okay not to mention it, but you have to answer a question for me."
"what?"
"Why did you hate me when you were young?"
"what?"
"Here." Heimos pointed to the fountain next to him, "You said at that time, you hate me and don't need me, why?"
Garland froze for a moment, then remembered.
When he was a child, in order to cut off Heimos' good impression of him and alienate him, he did say that sentence.
"That is… "
He hesitated, but didn't answer right away.
It cannot be said that it was because he was killed four times that he feared and disliked Heimos at that time.
"Why do you hate me?"
Heimos asked persistently.
"...I don't remember what happened when I was a kid."
The golden red eyes narrowed and looked at Garlan.
But after watching it for a while, Heimos didn't ask any further, which made Garlan heave a sigh of relief.
Then, he heard what Heimos said next.
"It doesn't matter."
Heimos, who was squinting at him, raised his lips slightly and said, "Even if you said you didn't need me at the beginning, you didn't say that you need me by your side."
The corners of Heimos's raised lips revealed a little bit of joy, apparently in a very good mood at the moment, with a little smugness.
Garlan looked at the man in front of him who was smiling happily, and suddenly followed with a smile.
"It's true that I'm not talking, but I also remember that someone said, 'I don't like men even in death', and I still swore to Shamash."
He said, "Why don't you talk about it first? Stop liking me?"
The corners of Heimos' raised lips twitched instantly.
Garlan didn't evade and looked at him with a smile.
- Come on, hurt each other.
In the end, it was the Black Knight who was defeated as always.
As Avdomir, the goddess of love and beauty, said, in a relationship, the person who falls in love first is always the loser.
Heimos sighed and said, "Speaking of which, including the one time when I was a child, I was rejected by you three times in total. Don't you feel sorry for me being rejected so many times?"
In pursuit of his beloved, the black knight who was as invincible as a bloodthirsty Shura on the battlefield shamelessly labelled himself a poor weakling.
"Not at all."
The boy answered decisively.
If you really want to settle the account, you have killed me four times, and I have only rejected you three times.
Garland sneered in his heart.
Don't say refusal three times, there are four times.
So, Heimos, who wanted to win a little bit of Garlan's sympathy and sympathy through the fact that he was rejected many times, slapped himself hard.
And he himself didn't feel it at the moment.
Just as the two were talking, the little fat man Tal had already come over.
"Are you ready to go?"
He ran to Garland in a flash, cocked his head, and rarely showed a worried look in front of Garland.
In the more than a year since Gallan ascended the throne, Tarr has rounded up again at a speed visible to the naked eye. At this moment, the whole person is like a round meat ball.
But fat is fat, he is always the fastest when he rushes to Garlan's side.
Tarr's talent in numerical calculation is almost well known, but to everyone's surprise, after Garlan became king, he did not put Tarr, his confidant, in the Finance Office as everyone expected. Go to office, thereby taking control of finances through Tal.
The financial controllers must be the confidants of the reigning king.
After all, generally speaking, the new king would never rest assured that such an important financial power would continue to be controlled by the henchmen of the previous king.
However, this young king seems to be different. He let the Finance Department continue to operate according to the original personnel and gave them full trust.
This made the old ministers who had already done a good job of the new king and would be removed from the throne were full of gratitude to King Garlan.
Garland didn't plan to put Tal in the Treasury from the beginning, he had his own plans.
In addition to the existing department, he established a new department, directly appointed Tal as the head of this still empty department, and then sent Tal directly to do things.
He did it for another purpose, of course.
…
Skillfully exiting the palace through the side door as a bodyguard, Garlan stepped onto the broad stone avenue in the palace.
The three of them were riding horses, and Tar's chubby figure was lying on the horse, walking in front, diligently taking Garlan to the side of the royal city.
Even on horseback, he walked for a long time, and he arrived at his destination almost in a remote corner on the edge of the royal city.
This is a huge open space surrounded by stone walls.
An arched tower rises straight in front of the stone wall, with a total of six floors. The bottom layer is embedded in the stone wall, just like the gate of the stone wall.
It took Tarr half a year to build it, and it is also the office of the department under his command.
Garlan dismounted in front of the outer gate, tied it to the stone pillar outside, and walked straight in through the gate.
As soon as you enter, there is an extremely huge hall, so wide that it can accommodate thousands of people at the same time.
At the end of the hall, in the shape of a circular arc, it is divided into dozens of separate rooms. In each room, there is a clerk responsible for the work and records of the place.
And those rooms leading to the back space are also separated by solid stone walls, that is to say, entering from different rooms will lead to different places.
In the middle of the hall is a huge cypress board, which looks like an erected bulletin board.
It's just that this bulletin board is a boxy cuboid, with dozens of strips of parchment sticking to it on all four sides of the board.
As long as the merchants who come here are willing to pay a certain fee, they can write the goods and prices they have on these long strips of parchment, so that everyone who enters the hall can see.
At the moment, however, the strips of parchment were blank.
Heimos looked around the hall and asked Garland, "Is this the Trade and Exchange Office you were talking about?"
This so-called Commerce and Trade Office looks to him as an existence that is almost like a market, a place where commerce and trade are concentrated.
It's just that the market is generally gathered by the people in the square, and this is a large-scale market officially established by Garlan in the name of the royal court.
Although this building looks extremely huge and magnificent, the hall is very empty and deserted. Except for the clerks and others who work here, almost no outsiders are seen.
You must know that the royal city of Aaron Landis is located in an excellent location, almost exactly in the center of the entire continent. Caravan exchanges are very frequent, and commerce is also very prosperous. Even the transaction volume in one day is extremely large.
However, this trade and exchange office is so deserted, it can't help but make Heimos feel strange.
Hearing Heimos's words, Tar looked at Garlan with uneasy eyes, no longer as lively as he used to be, and looked slack.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, it's all my incompetence..."
This Trade and Exchange Office started operation half a month ago, and he has tried his best to promote its existence in the entire Wangcheng.
However, those big businessmen or large caravans, as long as they heard that there is a certain percentage of fees to be paid for trading here, of course they shook their heads vigorously and did not want to come.
You must know that when they come to Wangcheng for business, they only need to pay a city entry tax when they enter the city, and they can freely trade in the Wangcheng.
Aaron Landis said that there is no commercial tax. It should be said that there is no commercial tax in the entire continent. Most of the merchants need to pay the customs tax, city entry tax, etc. This kind of tax is charged according to the transaction volume. A certain percentage of the tax things are simply unheard of for them.
If King Garlan forced the merchants to conduct transactions in this trade and exchange office, then in the eyes of the merchants, it was King Garlan who was forcibly scraping oil and money from the merchants in another way.
Although they didn't dare to resist, they naturally wouldn't be happy, and they would avoid the royal city in the future.
As a result, the commerce and trade of Wangcheng will gradually become depressed, this kind of behavior is equivalent to killing a chicken and taking an egg.
But what reassured the merchants was that King Garlan did not force the merchants to trade in the bureau, but said that everyone came voluntarily.
In this way, businessmen who are accustomed to being addicted to money are naturally not willing to pay such a large amount of business tax, and of course they will not come to the so-called Commerce and Trade Office.
Therefore, it has been running here for a month, and it is still this deserted appearance, which has also caused many people to secretly watch jokes.
They dared not say anything about Gallan, and could only mock Tarr in secret. Of course Tarr was very angry, but the reality was indeed the case. He was so anxious to get angry, but now he was constantly mocked behind his back, so he felt more and more aggrieved.
He thought of a lot of ways, but just because of the need to collect business tax, the merchants were reluctant to come here to trade. Now, Tarr really had no choice but to tell Garlan the situation helplessly.
At this moment, he looked at Garland eagerly, for fear that Garland would feel incompetent because of the failure of this matter.
Garlan, who was also looking around at the hall that was becoming more and more empty because it was too spacious, turned his head and looked at Tar's slack appearance. He smiled and raised his hand to pat the little fat man on the shoulder.
"It's not your problem."
He reassured Tardau.
People are always afraid of new things they are not used to.
"Don't worry, I'll find a way."
…
After leaving the depressed Commerce and Trade Office, Garlan asked Tarr to stay here to sort out all the information on the large-scale commodity transactions in the royal city in the recent period. Several well-known market places have turned around.
These places are all located in the square, which is a natural market for a long time. There are large and small. You can buy goods from all over the country here. Therefore, it is very lively from morning to night. Those merchants who do not have much goods are directly come here.
On the other hand, some large merchants with backgrounds are scattered all over the Wangcheng, and they directly open their business offices. Many caravans of large transactions go directly to their business offices to sell or buy the goods they deliver.
After spending an afternoon strolling around, Garlan walked back while thinking about how to open the Trade and Exchange Office.
They walked out of a market entrance, and they were already hungry all afternoon. When a smell of aroma drifted from the stall selling snacks at the market entrance, Garlan's eyes couldn't help but glance over.
Heimos, who was on the side, saw him like this, smiled slightly, and walked towards the crowded food stall.
So Garland stood there obediently, waiting for Heimos to help him buy the delicious food back.
After waiting for a while, I heard a familiar voice.
Turning around, it was indeed an acquaintance.
I saw that Soga, the priest of Nanna under Heimos, was wearing an ordinary person's attire at the moment, arguing fiercely with a woman in a strong suit on the edge of the market.
The woman's face was heroic, her sword eyebrows were raised, and her long black hair was tied into a ponytail at the back of her head, giving people a feeling of heroism.
Garlan looked at it, and felt that this woman seemed a little familiar.
The two didn't know what they were arguing about, but Suojia, who had always shown a calm and ruthless attitude, looked a little embarrassed.
The priest of the night, who was able to talk calmly in front of a group of high-ranking ministers, was forced to retreat step by step in front of the heroic woman, and it was quite an overwhelming feeling.
Anyway, that appearance made Garlan, who was hiding, watching with gusto.
And just when Garland was happily eating the melon crowd, the woman snorted coldly.
"Suojia, I don't have to you, as long as I like it, I can find another lover now!"
The woman turned around and walked away, just in the direction where Garland was, and strode past Garland.
Garlan subconsciously gave way to the side, he moved, and the hood covering most of his face fell back a little.
Others may not be able to see clearly, but the woman who just walked by Garlan turned her head and saw Garlan's face clearly.
Her eyes lit up instantly.
There is no other meaning, her shining eyes are purely admiration and wonder at seeing beautiful things.
She suddenly stopped and looked curiously at the rare black-haired boy in front of her.
"Fataya!"
The lover who was left behind by her shouted her name and eagerly chased after her.
A trace of anger appeared on the woman's face.
She glanced at Garlan, and suddenly her eyes lit up again, as if she had thought of some good idea.
She turned around and looked at Suojia who was catching up with bad eyes.
Then, she stretched out her arms and wrapped her arms around Garlan.
"Listen, Saugar, I've made up my mind."
she says,
"He's my new lover!"
Gallan, the melon-eating crowd: "???"