It seemed that the situation with the surplus of ordinary food in the warehouses had been saved by Maria's research, which proved that it was better for vampires to consume some simple human food in addition to blood. But the man didn't have time to rejoice, his tribesmen preferred meat to porridge as a supplement. And so the rebellion in Zalon simply "goldized" the vampires.
All the surplus was sold at triple the price. The impending purchase of supplies for winter and the next year was completely bought up and there was still money left over. It was these occasional supplies from the vampires that saved the barony and the assembled army from starvation.
Alexander, hearing from the returning Constantine of the Duchess's request, had snapped out of his seat and left for Kas. Such a high reputation had to be maintained and the knight was going to personally inform the worried mother that he would certainly fulfill her wish and go to the campaign. Already during his stay at the duchess's house new information was received. The army to Zalon will be led not by Duke Kas, but by Archmage Dukun.
The second of the archmages of Elur, personally persuaded the king to release him to suppress the rebellion in Zalon. All he asked for was all the artifacts from the pass and a young duke to help him. Of course the king gladly agreed. After the Archmage Elos was declared a rebel, the kingdom was in a situation that the Orodians had wanted to create last year.
The north of Elur was being overrun by enemies and the king needed to remove the army from the borders to free his lands. Dukun's proposal allowed to leave the army in place, although it weakened it, but the border fortresses even with a weakened army could be defended almost forever and the archmage got the appointment he wanted.
In the capital of the duchy, the detachment of the new commander going to Savoyardi, did not even stay long, just spent the night and went on. The conversation was not honored, neither Alexander, nor the duchess. It even made him a little angry. The vampire was already used to being a local celebrity, and the duchess was the mother of the local lord.
But the archmage simply ignored them. Having received a message from the servant that the mages had left Kas, the knight only glanced at the woman, but neither of them said anything. In general, they spent together for the third day in a row, and if the Dowager Duchess was not considered old, gossip and rumors would be ensured. And the Duchess is not even forty-five years old. But by local standards, she is old. And the woman herself was seriously preparing to die soon. And for good reason.
Medicine in the world was at an abysmal level. Magic, which could have replaced it, ran into opposition from the people themselves. After all, according to religious beliefs, this world was hell, so why prolong their existence in hell?
People, not gifted with magic, died early and life expectancy was very short, almost no one lived even to fifty years, a rare exception were some of the powerful, but even so usually helped to go to the next world their heirs. Magicians, not being in essence creatures of a particularly religious nature, still had a lot, as if reaching the state of paradise according to church ideas already in life.
And to die, leaving the local hell, it was as if and not with a hand, which led to the fact that mages rarely died of natural causes before reaching a hundred years of life. At the same time they almost never had a family and often died in the process of training, which at least somehow smoothed the imbalance.
Alexander did not consider the Duchess old at all and more and more often caught himself thinking that he liked this woman. Naturally it was not the sexual desire of a horny teenager for his teacher. All the steam and tension he let off in bed with Stephanie and thought quite rationally, not letting his cock think for him.
But the duchess, besides intelligence and sensuality, also had excellent external data. At least it was worth a little to put the woman in order and she would have no shortage of young stallions, and no one would not even dare to think about her age. The vampire even thought that if he could remove a little here, and add a little there and rejuvenate....
"Well, I don't need to think about that kind of thing, I have to go home. I'm tired."
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