Stormwind City, the King's Governing Hall of Stormwind Fortress, is where the kingdom's big bosses and high-ranking officials and nobles gather.
Mathias Shore, the young leader of MI7, is here to meet with King Varian of the Kingdom of Stormwind, who is sitting on the throne, and is making a report on the city gate incident a few days ago. Countess Katrana Prestor and Duke Bolvar Fordragon, as well as several other nobles and senior officials, were standing on either side of the king.
Yesterday, he did not rashly assign Ravenholdt the assassination mission of a queen from another country. This matter was definitely not something that Mathias could easily decide on his own, even if the other party was just a person who was not affected by the storm. A country recognized by the Kingdom!
Therefore, after obtaining information about the two little girls from Ravenholdt, an organization of the Assassin's League, Mathias, who felt that the situation was a bit serious, returned to Stormwind City as soon as possible and returned to Stormwind the next day. Now in the morning, I met King Varian and reported everything he knew from the Assassin League yesterday.
"Madias, are you sure that the information you obtained is true and reliable? There is no error at all?"
King Varian held the written report signed by several important leaders of MI7. After reading the details for a while, he handed it to Bolvar who was standing aside. While asking questions, he looked at Mathias with a somewhat unnatural expression.
From Varian's point of view, this matter is full of weirdness, and from his point of view, many aspects seem very unreasonable!
First of all, for the queen of the Fire Kingdom named Anne Hastur who blew up his Stormwind City gate. Why did she travel thousands of miles from the northernmost part of the continent to the Kingdom of Storm in the south for no reason? What's the purpose?
Secondly, since the intelligence said it, the other party didn't seem to know the person named Vanessa Van Cleef. A few days ago, there was no interaction between the two!
So, why did she inexplicably save the daughter of Van Cleef? And recklessly blowing up the gates of Stormwind City in one fell swoop? And he also killed at least thirty city gate guards?
As the king of a country, he takes action so casually, and moreover, in order to help an unknown person, he openly becomes an enemy of another powerful country? This approach, in Varian's opinion, is very unreasonable! Anyway, in his opinion, no king would do such an outrageous and stupid thing!
Finally, the information even said that the Fire Queen named Anne Hastur was actually an eight-year-old human demigod mage? Scared away a powerful demon without taking any action?
What kind of joke is this?
Therefore, when Varian saw this, he absolutely did not believe that there was an eight-year-old human demigod!
Medivh, the demigod guardian created by humans, was not so outrageous back then, right? Not to mention, the other party even scared away that supposedly very powerful being, the big demon named Archimonde!
Scared away? No official war? How could such a thing be possible?
That Ravenholdt wants to make up a story to get money, please make it a little more reliable!
Anyway, Varian absolutely does not believe that there is any little girl who is a demigod. At most, she is just a little genius and a little stronger! As for the other party's move to save Vanessa, even Varian was puzzled!
He would never have thought that as the queen of a kingdom, little Anne would never take this seriously! When she saw something that made her unhappy, she was in a bad mood. She just grabbed the fireball and started to fight. As for the consequences, she never thought about it at the time, and she didn't care about such things at all. !
Little Annie wants to hit you when she sees you unhappy, so what can you do? Do you still dare to dissatisfy? Do you still dare to stare? Be careful, she'll let Tibbers out and bite you to death!
"Report to Your Majesty! This matter should be true."
"Because, according to their Ravenholdt intelligence: In the entire Eastern Kingdom, there is a mage who has the ability to cast spells to blow up the gates of our Stormwind City, and she is still a little girl of this age. I am afraid that the only one is the Queen of the Fire Kingdom! It is said that she is particularly good at fire spells, which is consistent with her performance when she blew up the city gate a few days ago."
Having said this, Mathias paused for a moment. When he saw that His Majesty the King had no particularly objectionable emotions, he continued speaking cautiously.
"Moreover, shortly after the Stormwind City Gate incident a few days ago, Ravenholdt Manor obtained exact information: the Queen of the Fire Kingdom did return to her palace with a weak little human girl! Among them! , and the most important thing is: that weak little girl, her name is Vanessa Van Cleef!"
After finishing speaking, Mathias stopped talking.
Speaking of which, this matter is indeed a bit embarrassing. Their majestic MI7 was actually reduced to purchasing intelligence from the Assassin's League...
However, you can't really blame him for this. Not long ago, he had just received an order from his superiors, requiring MI7 to send people forward to establish intelligence stations in the four northern countries.
Now, the spies and other personnel sent are probably still floating on the merchant ships, heading to the eastern port of Lordaeron in the north, right? The intelligence collection work will probably take a long time. Moreover, it will be very troublesome to send the message back by then. They don't have a large number of mages to cast spells to help with communication. After all, Dalaran has been destroyed now, and the surviving mages are said to have gone to the north. What happened to the Flame Alliance?
"Okay, even if the information you got is true...but, what can we do now? Katrana and Bolvar, you should talk about it, do you have any good ideas?"
Even if all this is true, the gate of their Stormwind Kingdom was indeed blown up by the queen of another kingdom.
This kind of behavior is obviously hostile and has offended their Stormwind Kingdom. They will never let it go! But for a while, Varian couldn't think of many effective ways to deal with it.
After all, the distance between the two countries' countries is so far, and there are several continents in between and areas where the undead and demons are raging. Whether they send troops to threaten or send envoys to protest, it will seem meaningless under the current situation. !
"Uh... Your Majesty the King, this matter... is indeed a bit difficult to handle! Maybe... we can directly hire those Ravenholdt killers to get rid of these two wanted criminals?"
After Bolvar read the contents of the parchment in his hand, he handed it to Countess Katrana next to him, and also made a decent suggestion to King Varian.
Until now, the Kingdom of Storm still does not recognize the Kingdom of Fire and the Flame Alliance!
Since the queen of their Fire Kingdom, the leader of this illegal force, came south to blow up their city gate and killed so many Stormwind City soldiers, then this matter must be discussed!
Besides, judging from what the other party did in the past few days, Bolvar could tell that the Flame Queen seemed to be very hostile to the Kingdom of Storms!
In this case, since MI7 is currently beyond the reach of MI7, we might as well just pay the money directly and let Ravenholdt's League of Assassins take action to eliminate the Fire Queen and Van Cleef's daughter in one fell swoop to avoid causing trouble in the future. There will be a lot of trouble!
"How can we come up with such a large amount of gold coins? Bolvar, you don't know the current financial situation! Even the little money for repairing the city gate, those bastards in the council have been wasting their time. After a few days, I reluctantly agreed to send it!"
Without thinking, Varian directly rejected Duke Bolvar's proposal. By the way, he also complained and cursed at the group of bureaucrats and nobles in the parliament.
The Kingdom of Storm is very poor now. To put it bluntly, besides having no money, it still has no money!
Not to mention the bullshit of spending 50,000 gold coins to bribe a group of assassins to assassinate the queen of another country! In fact, they may not even be able to come up with the deposit of 10,000 yuan in a short period of time!
If he really had so much money, Varian would be more willing to send troops directly to find trouble for the other party, instead of like now, a group of high-level officials are discussing how to send out killers for assassination, which is extremely dishonorable behavior! You know, he, Varian, hates using assassins to assassinate the king the most!
"Uh... well... this is indeed a big problem!"
When it comes to money, there is no luck! Bolvar had to nod and agreed with the king's statement.
That's right, Storm Kingdom just has no money now! Otherwise, why would they have been worrying about the Defias Brotherhood before? Even not long ago, those bullshit officials were wrangling for several days over the money to repair the city gate!
What makes Stormwind Kingdom even more embarrassed is that the craftsmen are starting to become more and more outrageous. How dare they say they won’t work unless they get paid? Is the Kingdom of Stormwind that bad? Still owe them so much money?
Well, the Masonic Union's failure can only be an exception. It's just because the money is too much and can't be taken out in a short time, so they will rely on... ahem, anyway, they are You will never refuse to pay for the money to build the city gate. It's just a city gate, and it's not worth a lot of money!
"Your Majesty, then, what should we do now?"
Mathias looked at the King and the Duke below. The two argued for a while, as if they could not make up their minds. When they began to fall silent, he had to ask again carefully.
He is just a person responsible for running errands and performing tasks. He doesn't want to get involved too much in the affairs of the kingdom's upper echelons. Now, he has gotten back all the information about these two wanted criminals, and he should have completed his mission.
Therefore, he has no responsibility for this matter. In the end, it is up to the big guys above to decide what to do! Mathias would do whatever they said, and it would never go wrong.
"No need to do anything! Just put it aside for now. Okay, let's break up the meeting!"
Varian felt particularly aggrieved because his kingdom had no money! It is impossible to make ends meet with that meager tax, so for the time being, a large part of the expenditure can only be raised by the nobles and bureaucrats.
This also forced him to carve out a large part of the rights that belonged to the king. In the end, it made him subject to others everywhere and put him, the king, in a very embarrassing situation!
There is no need to talk about this matter anymore. When there is no money, there is no need to pay for Ravenholdt to assassinate. And the other party is really too far away from the Kingdom of Storm, so there is no way for the time being, so we can only put it on hold.
In this case, there is no point in continuing the discussion now. Therefore, after Varian announced that the meeting was over, he waved his hand and took the lead to leave, out of sight and out of mind! This matter should be left for later... If there is a chance in the future, let's go to the other party to settle the score.
"Your Majesty the Duke, tell me, if I can convince the council to come up with the 10,000 gold coins, will the assassination plan be feasible?"
After seeing His Majesty King Varian leave, Katrana didn't know what she had in mind, but she actually said such words to Bolvar who was about to leave.
"No way? Can you still convince those stingy guys to pay such a large amount of money? Forget it, Ms. Katlana, don't waste your time! Those guys, asking them to pay this money is tantamount to asking them to Take their lives!"
Bolvar shook his head and waved his hands, turned around and strode away from the hall. Now that His Majesty the King is gone, what is he still doing here?
It was rare that he had nothing major to do recently, and since he had been caught in the rain twice in the past few days, his body was feeling a little uncomfortable. It was just in time that he had nothing to do, so he had to go back and take a good rest first.
"Bovar! What if I can actually get that money together?"
The Countess looked at the Duke with a smile, who had turned around and strode away. Before the other party was about to walk out of the door, she suddenly shouted to him.
"Then I'll leave this matter to you! Do whatever you want!"
After finally waving to the countess behind him, Bolvar finally walked out of the door and turned around to leave. Of course, Bolvar doesn't want to deal with things that His Majesty the King can't do anything about, so he can just let her do it.
Anyway, Bolvar doesn’t have to pay for it himself!
If Katrana can really raise the money, let her do it! It's great that the assassination was successful, as it eliminated two potential enemies for Stormwind City! If it failed, Bolvar didn't care, since he didn't pay even a single copper for it!
"Madias, come here..."
After achieving her goal, Katrana, who had obtained the authorization, began to smile, waved and shouted to Mathias, the leader of MI7, who was stunned by the conversation between the two.
Money, gold coins, etc., are completely meaningless to Katrana!
Even without the money from those greedy and ugly nobles, she, Katlana, could just take out a mere fifty thousand gold coins, and there are more. Who is she?
How great would it be that something as interesting as now, whether successful or not, can add hatred between two countries?
Look, for just a few gold coins, you can add a feud or sworn enemy to the Kingdom of Storm for nothing. This is simply not a good deal!
From Count Katlana's point of view, she wants to see things that can be easily solved or achieved with gold coins. In that case, she wouldn't have to worry about anything else. It would be a waste of time and energy, so how could it be so satisfying to hit people with gold coins? How great is this?
…
Speaking of Ravenholdt, the League of Assassins, they are not only powerful, but they have also always been very secretive. Many people who have never come into contact with this League of Assassins even suspect that this so-called Assassin organization may not exist at all. does not exist!
But in fact, the headquarters of Ravenholdt Manor is located in the mountains and forests southeast of the Alterac Mountains.
The specific location is to the south of Icewind Hills, to the north of Durnholde Castle, to the east of Tarren Mill, and to the west are the mountains bordering the Hinterlands.
The owner of this secret manor is Duke Jorach Ravenholdt! This man who is known as the King of Thieves is also the supreme leader of this powerful assassin alliance!
In the past two months, although the undead army led by Kel'Thuzad swept across the Hillsbrad Hills, because Ravenholdt Manor was too secretive, they were not affected by the undead natural disaster at that time. any impact. So now, in the manor, the assassin gang is still doing what they should do, without paying any attention to the scattered undead or demons still wandering outside.
"Your Majesty the Duke! News has just come back from Stormwind City that they are indeed willing to pay the money, and the 10,000 deposit has been received."
In the manor, Duke Giorachi Ravenholdt was drinking afternoon tea and eating pastries in the gentle sunshine on a wooden terrace on the second floor of the manor, enjoying his wonderful afternoon time.
When he closed his eyes and seemed to be sleeping, a masked thief quietly appeared behind him, knelt down on one knee, and quietly reported the latest news from Stormwind City.
"Hmph... very good. It seems that we are going to make another windfall!"
After Qiao Laqi became a demon for a while, he said with a smile.
"Have all the personnel in the Fire Kingdom been in place? Then... now you can go and summon the people. Let them wait a few days and take action when they find an opportunity."
Without even looking at the person behind him, Jorachith Duke Ravenholdt continued to pick up the teacup and took a sip before humming a few times. He seemed completely unconcerned about the fact that he was about to assassinate a queen. Take the big things of heaven into consideration.
When he thought about it, the other party was nothing more than a little girl with powerful magic power. It was unclear whether she was a demigod or not. No matter how powerful the magic power was, what would happen if she couldn't release it? Besides, the fact that Kalimdor traveled back has proven that even demigods can be killed!
Moreover, they seemed to have never seen the little girl show corresponding strength. At that time, when facing Archimonde, she only had a burst of strength, which looked scary. However, in the end, she didn't even use a spell, and the opponent just ran away inexplicably!
Instead of believing that the other party has great strength, he is more willing to believe that the other party must have some kind of collusion with the devil secretly! Recently, news coming from the top of Lordaeron also vaguely proves this. The fire elements are unwilling to cross the river that seems to have been regarded as the border by default, and the undead and demons are the same. Well, after thinking about it for a while, this matter becomes very interesting!
The most important thing is that this little girl acts carelessly all day long and has those powerful fire demon guards, but when she goes out, she never takes a single subordinate with her!
Now, for the Assassin League to kill such an unsuspecting mage, isn't it just a joke? This is simply a free windfall. If you don't vote for it, you will be sorry for the conscience of their assassins!
"Yes! Your Majesty the Duke! I will go and summon you right away!"
The masked thief behind Duke Jorach Ravenholdt responded, then gently turned around and left. Qiao Lazi was left alone to enjoy the tranquility of the afternoon.
…
As time goes by, old John, a late bloomer, has been very proud of himself recently! After the end of the Second Orc War, for a long period of time, his position at that time had never been touched at all.
However, since the natural disaster of the undead raged, he had risen from a small second lieutenant duty officer at the sentry tower to becoming a steward of a refugee camp, and later became the mayor of Flame Town.
But now, the construction of Flame Town has not been completed, and he has been transferred to the biological residential area of the City of Flame, serving as the top executive of the biological area, responsible for the management and daily operations of this large special area.
Now, in the harsh and icy winter season of the northern continent, the City of Fire, as warm as summer, has naturally become more and more prosperous. It has become a good place for rich and powerful humans or high elves to spend the winter!
A large number of Lordaeron's remaining nobles or wealthy businessmen, or high elves who were tortured by the Demon Hidden, ran to the biological zone of the City of Fire under various names, either to spend the winter or to Draw on the abundant fire element magic here to alleviate the magic.
And, the most important thing is: as soon as they came to live here, they started to set up tents or build houses randomly, preparing to be lazy and not want to leave.
Even if Old John wants to send troops to drive him away, it's because this is completely in line with the covenant signed by the Flame Alliance!
Because of the increasing number of nail-biting households, Old John had to re-plan the entire bioregion, knock down all the scattered houses and rebuild them, and auction off a lot of land that had been sorted out so that these people who planned to live there for a long time could The humans or high elves here can build their own houses and live in them without disrupting the basic order of his jurisdiction.
Soon after that, thanks to the exaggerated construction speed of the fire elements, the order of the bioregion under his control finally improved a lot, and it began to become more and more prosperous.
From the time he was ordered to take over this area, in just a few days, this place has become the most prosperous and lively place in the entire Fire City, apart from the business district!
To do business, go to the commercial district across the broad avenue; to eat, come to the prosperous biological area. This has become a mantra that is familiar to all the fire elements and creatures of all races in the City of Fire.
Whether they are dwarves, humans, or high elves, they all have a considerable number of owners living here.
After all, all the citizens of the four countries of the Flame Alliance enjoy the right to live and travel freely in the other three countries. These people came here, bought land and built houses to settle down, which did not violate any rules of the Flame Alliance.
"Hey! Hello, John Consul, are you free recently? Why don't you continue to come to our place for the winter dance tonight?"
A nobleman from Lordaeron who was wandering on the street quickly hurriedly saw Old John, who was dressed in casual clothes and leading two guards wearing fiery red full-body plate armor and holding fire symbols on a routine patrol in the biological zone. He came forward to chat and build a relationship, and tried to invite the other party to his dance party.
Now this old John, who was born with mud legs, is a very popular figure in the City of Fire.
After all, for the former nobles of Lordaeron who no longer have much power, the most accessible and easiest-to-reach high-level person in the Fire Kingdom may be Old John, the chief executive of this human area.
"Aha, it's Baron Pusius... Well, thank you for your kindness, but... I don't have that much time these days. You must have seen that I have been very busy recently, in the bio area There are so many things in such a big piece of land that I need to deal with personally. Let’s wait for another day! If I have time another day, I will definitely come!”
Old John kept a smile on his face as he dealt with these bastard nobles who only knew how to have fun all day long.
Ever since he participated in such a winter dance not long ago, he never wanted to participate in it again!
That kind of extravagant and lascivious dance was definitely not something that John, who was used to being poor, could enjoy. Old John didn't like this kind of life very much and was disgusted with it! When he thought of that so-called winter dance, he felt uncomfortable all over!
After dealing with the difficult Lordaeron noble, when Old John turned around another more lively street, he saw the figure of a little girl wandering around carrying a teddy bear. What a coincidence. It is Her Majesty the Queen of their Flame Kingdom!
Seeing this, Old John's eyes lit up. Since he met him here, he must have gone up to say hello and try his best to show his face in front of Her Majesty the Queen. Opportunities like this are not too many. After all, even if he is already the ruler of the bioregion, he is not qualified to enter the queen's palace casually.
Well? Something seems wrong?
Just when Old John wanted to go up and greet the Queen, as a veteran warrior, he discovered that the crowd around Her Majesty the Queen... seemed a little abnormal? Murderous?
Those few humans eating at a stall seemed a little careless? Are your eyes still glancing at Her Majesty the Queen who is walking over there from time to time?
etc! Also, the two goblins on the other side were obviously selling expensive things at a stall, but they came here instead of running to the business district opposite? Didn’t you know that this place specializes in selling food? Looking at the deserted look in front of their stall, they neither cared nor shouted. Is this what goblins who are greedy for money should do?
They are simply wasting their time, and to them goblins, time is money!
Finally, on Her Majesty's way, there were two trolls... somewhere? Are they guards hired by a caravan? But...their route seems to have been intentionally or unintentionally outflanking Her Majesty the Queen? ah! Are they reaching into their backs?
not good! There is an assassin!
"There are assassins!!!"
Old John's heart trembled. He finally realized why he had always felt that something was wrong. It turned out that someone was actually trying to harm the Queen? After understanding it, he only had time to scream loudly and heartbreakingly, but in an instant, together with the two guards around him, he was suddenly knocked unconscious by the attack from behind...
A common skill among thieves: sap!
I don't know when three thieves appeared behind the three of them. They were just three sap. They knocked Old John and the two plate armor guards who had just shouted to the ground. In no time, the three of them I'm afraid I won't be able to wake up.
At the same time, the two trolls who had walked to both sides of Little Annie, in an instant, took out the hands they had put in their backpacks. They turned out to be two daggers exuding a miserable green color. It was obvious that , they were smeared with all kinds of poisons!
The troll on the left swiped the sharp dagger directly at Annie's thin white neck with lightning speed. That was the thief's fatal skill: slit and wipe the throat!
The troll on the right squatted down, with two daggers also coated with poison, and stabbed at both sides of Anne's back at a tricky angle. It was also a thief's signature skill. :Kidney shot!
These two trolls, obviously habitual offenders, actually cooperated perfectly. When the blade was about to touch the little girl's skin, she seemed to have just reacted. Those cute big eyes were full of curiosity and a little bit of surprise... …
