Lord of War

Under the dim night, a man wearing a taupe hooded cloak was walking briskly.

Although he has been walking in the shadows as much as possible, and he still walks against the base of the wall, but in the eyes of some senior thieves, this person's concealment skills are very poor, and it can even be said that he keeps leaving various traces along the way .

Fortunately, it was late at night, and there were not many people on the street. Except for the soldiers of the Seventh Legion who were constantly patrolling back and forth, no one was seen. It stands to reason that walking on such heavily guarded streets, even experienced thieves and even assassins must move forward cautiously, but for this person, it seemed as if he had entered the land of no one. It is always possible to get stuck in the blind spot of vision that is almost less than a second between the two patrols.

Many people had noticed the sight of the person wearing the adventurer's cloak, and after realizing this, they all chose to look away.

Today, fish and dragons are mixed in the Tonys Fortress. Even though the Seventh Legion has fully implemented military control, when the huge flow of people poured into this giant fortress, no one knows how many people with ulterior motives have mixed in among these people. In addition, now that the Principality of Ryan is about to be upgraded, both the upper and lower nobles in the domestic aristocratic circle are facing a reshuffle, so although there is no foreign enemy invasion for the time being, it is still unavoidable that the entire Kingdom of Ryan will fall into a state of political turmoil in a short period of time .

Usually, political turmoil often means conspiracy, assassination, and may even be accompanied by the decline and demise of one, two or even several families.

Political victims, that's all.

It's just that the political turmoil that is about to be caused by the Ryan Kingdom this time is actually limited to a relatively small range.

To put it bluntly, it is the conflict of interests between the old Lane nobles and the emerging Lane nobles of the capitulation faction.

In an almost uninhabited state, the mysterious man soon came to a small hotel that looked rather dilapidated.

This is a hotel with a certain amount of historical traces in the inner city of the Tonis Fortress. It is said that it was established when the fortress began to be built. And during that busy time. This hotel has always provided high-quality and cheap food and hot wine for the soldiers and the few workers in the fortress, so when the fortress was built, the Marquis of the Tonis Fortress held a meeting here The celebration banquet, and this has since become the most proud sign of this hotel.

However, as time went by, when more and more people began to pour into this fortress, and various higher-end taverns and hotels began to open, this hotel was gradually forgotten in people's memory inside. And now, this hotel has become the best choice for those poor travelers. Even adventurers with a little money will not stay in this place.

But for some people, the existence value of this hotel is extremely high.

Because there are no adventurers, mercenaries, demon hunters, etc. to stay. Naturally, this hotel will not be popular. A place without popularity usually means a lack of information exchange, which is naturally a worthless place for those who rely on information for a living, so no spies will come to such a place . In this way, this hotel is equivalent to a natural sound insulation place, so in the eyes of those who really know the goods. This hotel is the best choice.

The person, whose identity has not been revealed so far, glanced around cautiously, and then pushed open the wooden door of the hotel and walked in.

A rotten and musty smell came oncoming.

This made the mysterious man frown slightly.

The owner at the counter in the hotel. It was a little old man who was getting old, his skin was already attached to his bones, giving him an unusually penetrating feeling. He raised his head slightly and glanced at the mysterious man who entered the door. His eyes were so indifferent that it was incredible. This mysterious man in the cloak even had the illusion of being seen through. How long has it been since he had this illusion?

"There's only one room left." The old man's voice was hoarse as if blown out of a bellows. The mysterious man could even see that the old man's chest was compressed directly when he said this, which made him very worried whether the old man would die immediately after saying the next sentence.

"No, I'm just looking for someone." The mysterious man said quickly. Even he himself didn't know why he was so reserved in front of this old man, it felt like he was meeting some elder.

"The woman who took the lead?" The old man glanced at the other party, "Go up, it's in the second room on the left, they're not asleep yet."

The mysterious man thanked him somewhat stiffly, then turned around and started to go upstairs.

The whole small hotel gave people a feeling that it seemed to collapse at any moment. The man just stepped on the stairs, and there was a creaking sound, as if he would be crushed if he stepped on it a little harder. In this way, it was natural that he only dared to go up the stairs cautiously and did not dare to use too much force. Fortunately, when he reached the second floor, the floor became much thicker, which made him feel a little more relaxed.

The aisle on the second floor of the small hotel has obvious traces of modification. It seems that there was no such aisle at the beginning, but even so, this aisle can only accommodate one person to pass through. According to what the old man said, the man who hadn't taken off his hood and cloak knocked on the door of the second room on the left, and the door opened the next moment.

The hotel room is smaller than expected, just a bed placed against the wall, a table near the window, a chair, and nothing else. However, it can be seen that these things are obviously quite old, and they must have a history of at least ten years. It can be seen that these things definitely existed before the completion of the Tonys Fortress.

The only redeeming feature is that the bedding in the room was washed very clean, and even gave off a faint fragrance.

It was Ruina who opened the door. She had already taken off her cloak and armor. She was only wearing a white coarse cloth shirt and a pair of trousers with tight feet on her lower body.

After seeing Rina, the man finally lifted his hood.

The face under the hood was clearly Brod.

There was a strange look in Rina's eyes, it was obvious that she was a little unclear about Brod's intention to go here in such a deep night. For a moment, the atmosphere outside the door seemed a little tangled and gloomy, after all, it was this morning. The two of them almost got into a fight, but it didn't take long for Brod to visit late at night. It's no wonder that at this moment, Rena's whole body tensed up.

In the room, Sean was sitting at the desk, seeming to be flipping through a book. He read it so seriously that Brod didn't notice it immediately when he came. It wasn't until the atmosphere in the room became a little weird and gloomy that Sean came back to his senses. When he turned his head, he saw that Brod had been blocked by Rina, and he would often do it if there was any disagreement.

Cecilia, who was lying on the bed, opened her eyes and looked at the person outside the door. After seeing that it was Brod, she closed her eyes again and continued to sleep. The journey these days has made her feel very tired. With Brod's strength and situation, it's not enough for everyone in the room to go out together. One Reina is enough for him to come and go. So just flipped over. Cecilia fell asleep again.

As for Sefanio. She was leaning against the window, not knowing what she was looking at, and she put the ice cream aside, from the beginning to the end, she didn't even glance at Brod from the corner of her eye.

"Let him in." Sean said softly.

Rina glanced back at Sean, with some puzzled eyes, but after seeing Sean nodding. Rina moved out of the way anyway and let Brod in.

After entering the door, Brod closed the door, but he glanced at the room and saw that there were no extra chairs. And after Rena and Sefanio were both standing, Brod simply took off the cloak and threw it on the ground before sitting down. This action made Sean look a bit surprised again. It felt like Broad had indeed changed a lot in the past year, which made Sean's original frivolous attitude slightly changed.

"You came a little later than I expected." Sean said softly.

"Crossing most of the inner city without being noticed by anyone is not an easy task." Brod said, "I believe you should have a clear view of the current situation of Fort Tonis today."

"Indeed." Sean nodded.

Speaking of this, Sean looked at Brod with interest again, and said with a smile: "But I didn't expect that you would say that kind of thing this morning. I thought..."

"Think I'll tell you about your coming here?" Brod interrupted Sean.

Sean smiled noncommittally.

"If it was before the war with Dabion Kingdom broke out, then I would indeed do it, but after that, I won't." Brod said calmly, and then said calmly, "I know we were in the There may have been some festivals in the past, but in my opinion, those are just trivial things. As you said, we are all nobles, so you and I are very clear about the practices among nobles, then you must have heard a sentence... ..."

This time, it was Sean who interrupted Brod's voice: "There are no absolute friends, only absolute interests, right?... If I remember correctly, we can't even be considered friends, right?"

"Friends and enemies are always just in one thought." Brod shrugged, "Besides, I don't think our previous animosity would be too great. Of course, what happened that time was indeed mine. You have gone too far, so in order to show my sincerity, I am here to apologize to you, and I have already prepared a manor for you in the capital, and I promise that if you don't want to, no one will be able to harass you."

"Except for you?" Sean narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Yes, except for me." Broad admitted frankly, "After all, the manor is going to pass through my hands. But I can guarantee that this manor is absolutely clean, even if you No one will know the relationship between you and me if you move in."

"You want to reach a secret alliance agreement with me?" Sean tilted his head.

"Yes." Brod nodded, "We are all very clear that after the upgrade of the Principality of Ryan this time, the domestic political situation will inevitably be turbulent. Of course, the Principality of Ryan has now been divided into nobles inside the Great Wall and nobles outside the Great Wall..."

"Has the assignment in the noble circle been finalized?" Sean asked in surprise.

The aristocratic circle has never been static. They will choose to form groups or oppose each other because of differences in political ideas or conflicts of interests. Therefore, no matter whether it is a group or an opposition, in order to continue to ensure the establishment of their own family in the country, they will choose to form alliances with other noble families. circles.

Usually, circles that have been established for a long time will become established nobles, while those families that have only recently become nobles are generally called emerging nobles. If a rising noble does not have an established noble as a referrer, the noble will be completely rejected outside the circle. Therefore, if the families known as emerging nobles do not want to just become political victims, they will also choose to form a group, so the contradiction between the old and new nobles will naturally unfold from this.

This is an unavoidable internal struggle among nobles in all countries.

However, in the history of different countries, there are completely different distinctions between the definitions of old and new nobles. For example, in the Principality of Ryan, the old nobles are those families that have been established for at least two hundred years, and since there are almost no new nobles in the middle of nearly a hundred years, the division of new and old nobles is very clear, and there is no blurred boundary.

Therefore, the distribution in the aristocratic circle is not just casual talk, at least a certain consensus must be reached.

"Yes." Brod, as one of the veteran nobles, of course knew what Sean meant, so he nodded.

"Then what about the conflict between the established aristocrats and the emerging aristocrats?" Sean frowned suddenly, "Isn't there a huge irreconcilable conflict of interest between the two? Why did they suddenly join forces?"

"That's why I said that there are no absolute enemies and friends in this world, only absolute interests." Brod shrugged, "Those veteran nobles gave up all kinds of money with a total value of about 18 million gold coins. Materials and resources, so those emerging nobles naturally jumped at the first time. At least before the end of this great turmoil, the Kingdom of Ryan..." Broad emphasized the words "Kingdom of Ryan": "The previously entrusted Those nobles are already united as one."

Xiao En did not expect that the political situation in the Ryan Kingdom would change so quickly, which was completely beyond his cognition.

At least, he still remembered that there was no such situation in the game.

"So what do you mean?" Sean asked in a deep voice.

"I only have one request." Brod said softly, "Help me become the next head of the Rhodes family, then I will stand by your side." (To be continued...)