Chapter 15 Chapter Fourteen

I sit at the dining table.But this is no ordinary dining table. In front of me was a long and narrow table covered with a precious brocade tablecloth brought from Venice, and instead of heavy wooden cups or gold and silver goblets, there were the most fashionable glasses of that era.The golden wine flowed in the glass, tinkling and clanging, playing a series of bright notes, sparkling in the dazzling candlelight.The court cook worked for a week on the feast, killing perhaps a hundred sheep for the Easter main course, and countless chickens, ducks, and pigeons.They learned the art of sugar making from Western Europe and decorated their tables with huge sugar sculptures.On the main table is a dragon with teeth and claws, representing Dracula, and an eagle with spread wings, which is the emblem of Wallachia.

This is the first Easter after the new Grand Duke takes office.Vlad's palace was completely converted into a banquet hall, and at least two hundred guests attended the banquet.They are all local nobles with a long history and great reputation in Wallachia. Handsome sword attendants flowed among the guests, serving dishes and pouring wine non-stop.The court musicians played the most beautiful melodies in the corners, and the bards sang to the music.A naked boy covered in gold is dancing in the middle of the hall, with bells tied around his wrists and ankles.It is the biggest festival of the year, and all the guests are dressed in their best clothes, with happy and satisfied smiles on their faces.

Vlad was laughing too.In fact, he was the one with the biggest laugh in the crowd.He sat at the main table, next to his mysterious Lady Elizabeth, frowning at the reveling crowd before him.She didn't seem to be interested in the banquet, the plate in front of her was empty, and the barbecue that was just served was savory, but she barely touched the dishes on the table except for drinking with her head down. When they were full of wine and food, several drunk nobles began to raise objections.Such a noble banquet, even their wives and children were not allowed to enter the hall, but the Grand Duke kept such a mistress with no identity.Although the other party claims to be from Transylvania, no one knows her real surname except for the Christian name "Elizabeth".

If you continue to make bold guesses, it is hard to say whether she is a nobleman or not. In the end, an elderly nobleman stood up unsteadily: "Honorable Madam." He held up a glass of wine, "For your beauty, I must toast you. Excuse the old man, I dare say it is Tran Where did Silvania give birth to someone as beautiful as you?" "Sighişoara." The girl frowned, she glanced at D, and forced herself to speak. "So, Madam is our Grand Duke's fellow countryman." The old nobleman did not sit down, and he squinted at him with a pair of half-drunk eyes, "But Madam's Hungarian sounds like there is some accent, maybe the ancestors did not. A local, right?"

The girl's expression changed.She tried to get up, but D took her hand. "Even our Grand Duke of Wallachia has changed several times." D said with a smile, "Over the years, who can tell who is from where?" The old nobleman laughed loudly.Several other people around him also laughed. "Let's just talk about you, how many grand dukes have you seen sitting in this seat in your life?" D continued to ask the old nobleman. "I've lived a long time." The old noble said proudly, "at least thirty." "So what about you?" D turned his head and asked the other person beside him kindly.

"Twenty," the man replied. Then D stood up, looked around, and picked out a young nobleman with no white beard at the next table. "You are the youngest one present, Baron Price." He directly called the other party's name, "Tell me, how many grand dukes have you met?" "Seven!" The young man replied immediately, proud that the new Grand Duke remembered his name. "Then one of you will explain to me." D scanned the audience with a smile on his face, "Why is there so many grand dukes in such a small land of Wallachia?" "It's because we are too young!" said a nobleman whose face was flushed from drinking, "We can't survive without the support of neighboring countries. Hungary, Turkey, whoever they like, whoever they pick, will be our Grand Duke! "

Several people who were also drunk immediately laughed.But there are still some people who are still awake who don't laugh.They carefully looked at the Grand Duke's face, but the other party's expression was calm, and they couldn't see anything. "Wrong." Vlad said clearly, "Although Wallachia is small, it is capable of self-government. After it clears up its problems, it will begin to expand its territory." Before the words were finished, the people sitting next to him burst out laughing, as if they had heard the funniest joke in history.But this time there were more people not laughing.They stared at the new Grand Duke with wide drunken eyes, wondering what tricks he was planning to play.

"Walachia's own problem?" The old nobleman who toasted just now said again, "Then what do you think is our biggest problem?" He was very drunk, staggering and squinting at his lord. D turned his eyes to him. "You." D stretched out his finger and pointed at him, then looked around the venue, pointed to the guests in the venue and said, "You, and you, all of you. You are the biggest problem in Wallachia." At first, some people still wanted to laugh, but they were immediately suppressed by others.The musician stopped playing, the dancing boy stopped, and the hall was silent for a moment.There was no sound of speaking, not even the wind.Because all the doors and windows are tightly closed.The guests noticed this, and they also noticed that all the attendants in the meeting actually carried swords.

"You think I'm young, you think I won't remember the past. You're wrong. I haven't forgotten how you betrayed my father and how you betrayed me. I remember everything clearly, including whether you were How brutally killed my brother Mircea." Several sober nobles immediately changed their faces.They frantically searched for their swords, pressing their hands nervously on the hilts. D looks at them.Look at the past one by one.Everyone he saw turned their heads away, and no one dared to meet his cold, sharp gray eyes. "There are more than two hundred people here today, I don't believe that each of you participated in the crime of killing Mircea." D said slowly, "But I'm sorry, I have no intention of letting anyone go."

There was commotion in the venue, and the nobles who could still stand drew their swords one after another.They looked around hurriedly, scanning the closed doors and windows, but there were already full of servants with swords standing there.All of them are Vlad's people. "You can't kill us all!" cried one in despair. "Really?" D smiled grimly.He gestured.Several nobles who were close to the door and window were immediately chopped off by the swift guards with a sword, blood spattered, and they didn't even utter an exclamation before they died.Expensive glasses were shattered, and wine mixed with blood soaked the ground.The table was kicked down, and the gold and silver plates clattered and swirled on the floor.The resplendent banquet hall suddenly fell into a chaotic bloody battle.

"Stop your men! Let's get out!" a voice suddenly called out, "or I'll kill her!" It was the old aristocrat just now, he didn't look so drunk now, he took advantage of D leaving the table, grabbed the lady Elizabeth next to him, and put his sword on her slender neck. D turns his head.But unexpectedly, he did not show any panic because of the other party's hostage-taking, but instead showed a look of compassion.He looked at them quietly with his hard gray eyes, and said a word. "I kept my promise. Enjoy your meal." The old nobleman was inexplicable, he didn't know what the other party meant.He watched Vlad's back walking towards the door of the banquet hall, and he couldn't believe his eyes.He didn't believe that the other party would disregard the life and death of his only female companion.So he wanted to bring the sword closer and better get some blood so everyone would know he was serious. But he didn't have time to make a move.Because in the next second, he found that Mrs. Elizabeth was no longer there.And he has experienced hundreds of battles all his life, and he doesn't even know when the other party escaped from his grasp. "You're right, I'm not a local." A clear and sweet voice suddenly sounded in his ears, "I come from the abyss of hell, and that's where you belong." Easter is the day when Christ Jesus died and rose again, symbolizing rebirth and hope.But for the Wallachians, they saw hell that day.When they came back half-drunk, shoulder to shoulder, from various carnivals and banquets, they saw that right on the banks of the Arges, hundreds of pickets had suddenly been erected overnight. On each of the sharpened stakes, a dead man was poked. What's even more frightening is that when a few courageous people approached, they found that these people were not actually dead.Not dead yet.Sharpened stakes poked in between their legs, carefully avoiding vital organs, and protruding from their shoulders or necks.Thus they were strung on stakes for days, exposed to the sun and rain, until they died.