Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 330 Surveillance
As the night deepened, Domitia opened her notebook and began to write furiously.

She thought she came to Egypt with a mission, which was to monitor the situation of Orville, especially the situation of Orville and Cleopatra.

Apparently, Tia was not in a very good mood after returning to Rome. It was not convenient for her to tell others about this kind of thing, so the only person who could listen to her complaints was Domitia, who probably understood the whole story.

In her opinion, the blame lies 4% on the Queen of Egypt and 6% on Orville himself. First of all, it is barely reasonable for Cleopatra to do such a thing. After all, she has to rely on the Romans to maintain her rule. If the person who came was not Orville, who was barely her confidant, but a middle-aged bald man in his forties or fifties who could be her father, Domitia estimated that Cleopatra would also let herself fall in love with him. This was determined by the interest relationship.

Not to mention that Orville is only a few years older than her and has always had a good relationship with her. Whether from a personal emotional or political perspective, Orville would be a good choice.

So Domitia is different from her sister Tia. Tia put all the blame on Cleopatra, but Domitia thinks it is reasonable for her to do so. The question now is why Orville condoned this and why he had been flirting with Cleopatra all those years.

She did not have the same naive political ideas as her sister. In fact, she could fully understand Orville's actions. Another man would only do something more exaggerated. As far as she could see, Cleopatra did not seem to have climbed into Orville's bed. The relationship between the two was limited to being a couple in political occasions. Occasionally, there would be some intimate behavior, but it was still within the limit.

But understanding is one thing, and anger is another. Domitia is still quite unhappy about it, so she has to tell tales and exaggerate. She doesn't plan to have a big fight with Orville over this matter yet. Just write everything down truthfully. How to deal with Orville is Tia's own business.

To be honest, she was pessimistic about this matter. Tia was softer and easier to talk to than her, but it had nothing to do with her. She just had to do her own thing. Tia was quite supportive of keeping a diary. She was also very curious about these things, or rather, very worried.

After taking a brief note, Domitia let out a long breath and took a sip of the diluted wine that only had a sweet taste. She then closed the notebook and turned her attention to a pile of account books on the other side of the long table.

Young Domitia was still unsure about what to expect for her future, but influenced by her sister, she did not want to live the life of an ordinary woman - it was always said that Roman nobles were henpecked, which was basically a nice statement. People like Orville were actually very rare. It was more common for husbands to have some respect for their wives, and that respect was based more on the power and money of the wife's family.

Looking through the phenomenon to the essence, it is actually a small space left under the checks and balances of patriarchy and husband's power. Growing up in this era, Domitia would certainly not be so fanciful as to talk about equal rights movement, but she really did not want to fall to such a level and live on others. She also has her own dignity, so she is determined to go into politics or business. Before she had time to explain things to Orville, Cleopatra saw through her thoughts.

It should be said that the two of them sympathized with each other in this regard. As the king, Cleopatra gave Domitia the opportunity to train. She let Domitia be her financial officer and learn to deal with financial issues so as to accumulate experience for the future.

She was now almost twenty years old, which was the age when she began to become sensible and independent according to the ancients' concept. Domitia gladly accepted Cleopatra's olive branch, but she did not completely let down her guard.

Her sister was not fully prepared to be the emperor, because when she was a child, Vespa was just a member of the middle-level bureaucracy of the empire. Although she received a good education after growing up because of her father's promotion, it was essentially very sudden for Tia to become the crown prince. Domitia was completely different. She was mentally prepared to become the successor of the empire when she was a child, and she had an education and growth environment that matched it. She had a deeper understanding of many issues, especially those related to politics. Tia was almost blank in this regard, and it was all up to Orville and her father to pave the way and deal with the problems.

Thanks to this, Domitia was more vigilant than her sister. In her opinion, Cleopatra's behavior that was close to abusing power was very dangerous. Orville had a clear mind but there was no guarantee that he would not be affected. Having someone to keep an eye on him would make the situation more reassuring. This was one of Domitia's father's secret requests.

So Domitia felt that her task was quite heavy. On the one hand, she had to learn and improve herself, on the other hand, she had to keep an eye on her brother-in-law to make sure he didn't make too many mistakes, and on the other hand, she had to keep an eye on Cleopatra to prevent her from plotting anything.

…………

Apart from the incident of Domitia, Egypt as a whole was rarely peaceful - potential dangers were either resolved or temporarily suppressed. Orville had already dealt with the Greek immigrants, border guards, authoritarian eunuchs and the dark-skinned people from the south. The only thing that had not been resolved was the temple, which was too powerful to be eliminated. However, the temple was also suppressed by powerful military forces, and Cleopatra was collecting land from one farm after another and returning it to the central government.

The development of the Indian Ocean route is proceeding in an orderly manner. Ivar organized another voyage. This time the fleet is larger and carries more cargo. If nothing goes wrong, he should be able to make a lot of money. If he does this a few more times, he will basically have successfully opened up the trade route.

Orville waited patiently for the final result. Before Jeanne arrived, he sent out invitations to several famous preachers in history. Now they are still on the way. Orville has no plans to meet them for the time being. As a Palfian, he has to avoid suspicion. Jeanne can just hand over to these people when the time comes.

In addition, he began to collect another relatively precious strategic resource throughout Egypt - cattle horns.

The military factories in Orville are operating smoothly, producing a steady stream of various weapons and equipment, but some things cannot be produced in the void, such as compound bows.

After several years of experimentation and the introduction of technology, the craftsmen in Orville basically mastered the production technology of compound bows, but the supply of some things was not sufficient, such as ox horns.

This is an essential material for making compound bows. If goat horns are used, the performance will be greatly reduced. Fortunately, Egypt is a region where ox-drawn plowing is relatively developed, so you can still get a lot of ox horns for making weapons on Taobao.

(End of this chapter)