"Welcome to you, my dearest friends of the Empire, I am very happy that I, the chief deacon of the Empire, will come to receive the Lords of Genoa. Thank you all the hard work along the way."

In the palace hall in the imperial city of Rusnina, the important ministers of Epirus, led by Nichifrus, received the Genoese delegation from afar. However, such high-level courtesy did not receive the enthusiastic response from the Genoese. On the contrary, the arrogant Italians standing in front of him were very cold, which made Epirus very dissatisfied for a while.

But when they remembered that the empire had requests from these Genoese people now, they had no choice but to swallow their anger before the emperor came back and keep a peaceful mood with these foreign Italians as much as possible.

On the other hand, Niki Fruz, the chief deacon who presided over the welcome ceremony, his enthusiastic attitude just now was ignored by the Genoa mission. He did not let go of his open arms, nor did he let them go. The atmosphere became very awkward for a moment. Obviously, the Genoa people were very dissatisfied with the emperor's failure to appear in person, and it was obvious that Mikhail Ducas was intentionally neglected.

Finally, after a few days, an old man walked out slowly in the mission with a cold attitude, and glanced at the Epirus nobles present with a faint look and said:

"Thank you for your warm welcome. I am the head of the Genoa mission, Constantoria. I believe I don't need to say more. You should already know what the purpose of our visit this time is. However, since it is such an important thing, I am very puzzled why our respected Emperor is not here."

The old man's peaceful voice seemed to hide an invisible force, which immediately suppressed the undercurrent of potential dissatisfaction. After hearing this, the nobles of Epirus also felt a little furious. Constantoria - it seems that Genoa really sent an amazing person this time! This made everyone feel a little more at ease about the alliance between the two countries. However, at this moment, facing such questions, the Greek nobles couldn't help but feel a little panicked. Their emperor had not yet returned from the palace. Although Emperor Mikhail deliberately left it aside because of dissatisfaction with the arrogance of the Genoa people, he wanted to suppress the spirit of the Genoa delegation, but no one wanted this to cause diplomatic accidents and cause discomfort to eventually lead to the two countries' alliance.

Therefore, as Mikhail Ducas' most trusted confidant, the Nikifrus Cadius Alliance explained with a pleasant look: "Please forgive me, Lord Constance. Our emperor naturally attaches great importance to this alliance with your country. It is just that today's Mass ceremony must be held by His Majesty the Emperor himself, so that time has been delayed. It is because of this that His Majesty the Emperor arranged for us to welcome you, and hoped that all the Lords of Genoa would not take it to heart." Nikifrus, who had already expected that such a thing, had already prepared an excuse, and the Mass ceremony in Plaza Mars was also held by him for Patriarch Epirus. In this way, even if the Genoese people did not believe it, at least there was enough reason to make excuses.

"Oh, so that's it." He looked at the other party meaningfully. Constellation was not saying anything more. He naturally knew what the intentions of the Greeks in front of him were. It was just some tricks between the diplomatic relations between the two countries. It was normal to suppress each other's arrogance, but it would be ridiculous to use this method to fight for initiative in negotiations.

Just when all the Genoese nobles were unquestionable about the attitude of the Epirus nobles, outside the palace, the fully armed guards came in and shouted loudly to the inside and outside the palace:

"His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!"

Everyone, whether it was the noble ministers of Epirus or the envoys of Genoa, were all taken seriously, with the arrival of the nominal Roman emperor.

Under the royal ceremonial guard, eunuchs slowly walked in with the emperor with a purple crown. With his arrival, the pomp and appearance of the entire palace suddenly became quiet and majestic.

He was the ruler of Epirus, and Mikhail Ducas, the co-governor of the Roman Empire.

Among the Genoese, there were eyes watching all this quietly without saying a word. They deliberately did not stand in a conspicuous place, and Andrea Doria watched coldly. This is why the Greeks always like to show their so-called majesty and religious influence. Unfortunately, their set of things may be useful in the past to suppress the ignorant barbarians, but they seem very ridiculous to them. Today's "Rome" is not even in their proud Constantinople, and their weakness is unprecedented. It is useless to them with such cards.

However, even so, they still need to satisfy the vanity of these Greeks, so the envoys of Genoa slowly bowed to the "emperor" on one knee.

"Greetings to His Majesty the Emperor." Both the ministers of Epirus and the envoys of Genoa said in unison, standing respectfully on both sides of the palace. The atmosphere that had been a little nervous before disappeared at this moment.

The belated Emperor Mikhail looked like a torch, like a goshawk, and glanced at everything around him. He looked at the Genoa mission that was coming, smiled, and said slowly in a majestic but cold voice:

"I'm late, hello, everyone from Genoa!"

...

...

...

On the other hand, Helena was handed over to the guard and followed the man who suddenly appeared. Justinian and the other party walked into an alley together and finally left the crowded square, which was unnecessary to attract attention. He could only breathe a long sigh of relief, but the man who had been walking in front of him suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Looking at the man standing in front of him, Justinian asked in confusion. He shouldn't have something to tell him, but he stopped because he brought him here. An ominous premonition arose, which made him suddenly alert.

However, at this moment, the man standing there suddenly spoke and shouted in a deep voice to somewhere: "Mr. Charles, I brought the person here." After that, the man jumped out of Justinian's sight with a neat figure and then distanced himself from Justinian.
Chapter completed!