Roger felt that he had gone too far in deceiving him. He was probably going to be excited until dawn.

He thought, how can I have the nerve to tell you my real reason? I am running away from marriage.

He closed his eyes, but his memory returned to the night before Chengjue.

…

"Mom, how many wives can I have?"

Roger hurriedly ran into Adelaide's room, and Adelaide gave him a hug.

"Aha, my little man has grown up and already starts to miss his wife?"

"Mom, this is the information obtained by Mu Tieyi. You can read it yourself."

The high-end goods in Roger's hands were the paper bought from the Arabs.

"Read it to me. I feel dizzy when I read the Latin."

So Roger explained it point by point in Norman French.

"Let that shameless Duke of Provence hang by his mistress's belt," Adelaide scolded angrily, "Let him die if he dares to use his illegitimate daughter to match my little Roger!"

Roger felt as if he was being compared to a breeding stallion, but he said nothing and continued reading.

"Alfonso is good. I heard he is the emperor. My little Roger should be matched with a princess."

Roger thought that the title of emperor was self-proclaimed by Alfonso, and the Pope did not approve it.

He thought, Mom, don't you care about the situation? Alfonso's opponent is Yusuf ibn Tashfin of the Al-Murabit dynasty, a great hero. Alfonso has never defeated him once.

If this continues, he will become the last emperor.

Roger continued reading, and he read all the messenger's information.

Adelaide was in trouble: "I can only marry one wife, who should I marry? These seem to be good ones."

Roger couldn't help but remind him: "Mom, don't you care about their threats?"

"What? There's still a threat?"

Roger has a headache. Do you want to talk about politics anymore?

"Ah, by the way, these shameless guys still dare to threaten."

Adelaide finally stepped out of the role of mother and returned to her true nature as a person in power.

"Prohibit trade," Adelaide said with a solemn expression, "I'm afraid this is that guy's original intention. He wants to attack our trading partners and use us as a reason.

As for raising business taxes, I'm afraid Alfonso has run out of money from the war, so he's just looking for a reason to ask for money.

The other few didn't have good intentions either. Judging from the conditions they proposed, I bet it was the Venetians who were behind this, and it seemed they were jealous of us.

These damn Venetians chose to send the Crusaders to the Holy Land, messed up the trade with the Arabs, and now they come to make trouble for us. They want to force us to give up our trade share."

"Mom, what should we do? We can only agree to one family at most, and others will take the opportunity to make trouble."

"It's better to silence them before they bring it up."

"Then how about mother directly find a family, such as Robert, Duke of Normandy, and announce her marriage to him before anyone else can say anything, so that others can't say anything."

"Robert can't. Once he and his brother Henry, King of England, fight, the Normans under your command are likely to be beaten by him."

"What about the others?"

Adelaide thought for a while and said: "Maybe we don't need to make a decision in a hurry. We can delay it until they give up."

"How to delay? Even if I don't meet them, they will definitely find a way to find me. Do you want me to hide in the palace all the time?"

"No, son, you can't stay here. You go to the territory to judge. Use your power to promote your reputation and let your people know who their lord is."

"Assize?" Roger didn't know what it was.

Adelaide explained in detail, she said: "I don't care whether your judgment is right or not, anyway, it is mostly a matter for the untouchables, so just make whatever judgment you want. The key is to let them know who is in charge of this territory."

…

Roger brought back his memory. He lay on the straw mat and thought that the key was that he was too weak.

At my father's time, none of these countries dared to be nagging. Even if my father was deceived by Bohemond and lost all his troops, others would not dare to stroke his beard.

Simon can still use his father's remaining power to get his turn, but alas, there is still a long way to go.

A loud bang made Roger jump.

He rushed to the balcony and lay down to observe, and saw across the street, the door of the hotel was smashed open.

Two dark figures were wrestling on the straightaway, and the hotel lobby burst into laughter.

A man pulled off the shaky door panel, and the light in the hotel leaked out.

Roger could clearly see that the fight was between two scoundrels in ragged clothes. They were pulling each other's hair and clothes and beating each other without any structure. They were greeting each other's female family members, as if they were talking to each other in cross talk.

A voice came from the lobby: "Loss plus a door."

Another voice followed: "I'll pay, keep fighting."

Roger looked past the two scoundrels toward the lobby, which was decorated like a tavern. Simple wooden tables were placed randomly in random directions, and the stools were just a long wooden board stretched across two large wine barrels.

All the wooden boards were occupied, and it was obvious that this tavern was doing a good business.

Someone shouted: "Three more glasses of fresh beer and ale."

So a fat, middle-aged maid opened the wine barrel, poured the wine into leather and wooden cups without matching sets, put it on the tray, and squeezed past the seated guests with strength rather than agility.

She ignored the curses and curses from the guests who were squeezed in, and directly placed the tray heavily on the table of the guests who wanted drinks.

She said: "The wine is here, use it slowly", turned around and left.

A customer at the next table took a piece of bread that had been aged for who knows how many years, banged it on the table, and shouted: "Boss, your fish stinks!"

I don’t know who answered: “The bacon is burnt too!”

The boss at the bar didn't seem to hear.

Another customer was spooning out soup from a large bucket in the corner, smacking his tongue and shouting: "This bran broth is too salty!"

The boss scolded the maid: "You prodigal woman, you don't need money for salt!"

A voice that Roger had just heard shouted: "Another glass of wine!"

Another voice shouted: "Give me a drink too!"

The boss stopped scolding. He took out a bottle of wine from the bar, carefully poured two glasses, and asked the maid to send them over.

Roger followed the maid's path and saw two people dressed as nobles deep in the lobby, each occupying a table and sitting facing each other.

Each of them had a Palermo City guard standing behind them. The guard seemed to be protecting and monitoring them both.

The two of them were drinking and yelling at each other.

From time to time, a person would hold up his money bag and wave it, shouting: "Hit me hard and defeat the false king! Long live the new king!"

The other one didn't show any weakness, also holding up the money bag and shaking it: "The harder you hit, the more reward you will get! Down with the traitor! Long live His Majesty Heinrich!"

So the two scoundrels outside the house fought even harder, shouting "Long live your Majesty", "Slap you in the mouth", "For the new king", "I'll give you a kick", etc. The crowd in the lobby was watching the excitement again.
Chapter completed!