"Why are you here too?"
"On a mission, of course."
"Aren't you shadows on the side of the nobles?"
"...Even if you are a member of a faction, you still need to collect necessary information."
On the dark roof, Kima, who was finally sure that there was no movement around, slowly straightened up, then sat down on the eaves, observing the spire house opposite: "What's more... someone seems to have visited this place. place."
"Isn't this the command post of the City Guard?" Duan Qing asked slightly surprised.
"Is this the information you learned from Hank?"
Kima, dressed as an aristocrat, took off his black top hat: "What an unprofessional guy..."
"Compared to professionals like you, they are naturally a little worse."
After carefully checking the movements around him, Duan Qing finally put down his alert posture, and then imitated the other party's example and slowly sat on the edge of the roof next to Kima: "But the person who does this kind of thing is more valuable than a person." To be honest, at least... they don’t have the same position as you.”
"...I was very concerned about it before, how did you realize our camp?" Kima half-bent his body, seeming to be diligently observing the situation ahead: "Did my warning have the opposite effect? ?”
"When I went to find you before, Wiesel defended the nobles once, and then you found me again and warned me not to continue to quarrel with the Valia Tavern..." Duan Qing said in a low voice: "Actually, from what I heard From the little bit of information that Wisel revealed, I already had doubts about him."
"There are too few people who know the location of the Speaker." He grinned in the darkness: "Including the status of the guards at night, the time of shift change... not many people can know."
"...So what?" Kima's eyes turned to one side: "Didn't the attacker fail in the end?"
"There were only two of them."
Duan Qing shook his head gently: "One of them is still a parallel importer, so... it is impossible to achieve that level without sufficient information as a bottom line."
"Judging from the confidence they showed... they must have been very prepared."
Eyes slightly condensed, Duan Qing's gaze also fell on the pointed eaves opposite: "So, the final question becomes...how did they know?"
"...So you want to say that the secrets were leaked by the nobles above us?" Kima asked in a low voice.
"What, you don't know?"
"...I'm just an ordinary executor of the Shadow Society." Kima shook his head and replied, "Why should I know this?"
"You don't look like a regular enforcer."
Looking at the small earring next to the other person's ear, Duan Qing's eyes gradually narrowed: "Otherwise you wouldn't have come here to warn me with nothing to do."
"Tell me, do you... or do you all know something?"
"Why do I……"
"Don't say anything that has nothing to do with me."
Duan Qing turned his head: "Otherwise, I wouldn't be squatting here."
"……All right."
Playing with his politeness in his hands, Kima gradually raised his gaze, seeming to be placed on the night sky above: "Actually, we don't know much. At most, it's... the attitude of the nobles."
He held it tightly with one hand, suddenly jumped off the roof, and then whispered as Duan Qing followed him: "Our shadow will be all over the world, more or less, but there is one thing... It’s one of the essential reasons why we people can survive.”
"We can help others...do things they can't do." He hid by the wall of the target building in two steps, and Kima explained without looking back: "Do you understand what I mean?"
"Your purpose... is indeed very consistent with those nobles." Recalling the history he had heard in the library, Duan Qing replied in a low voice: "Is this your way of survival?"
"It's more than that."
After waiting patiently for two seconds, Kima lowered his head, and then walked out at a leisurely pace when two guards happened to pass by the opposite side of the intersection: "But... in Tania, this is indeed the case. Our best means of survival.”
"It makes sense." Duan Qing nodded in agreement: "This way you can still catch them. What a wonderful cooperation."
"...We have no idea of falling out at the moment." Kima turned back and glanced at Duan Qing: "We probably won't in the future either."
"Why, do you really want to join in the evil deeds?"
"...Right and wrong are originally two-sided attitudes."
Stopping in the shadows in front of another intersection, the man in the dress lowered his head, and then put the top hat on his forehead again: "Perhaps in the eyes of you adventurers, the nobles are indeed a group of uncompromising people." You are a bastard, and the so-called warrior family is the one you can trust, but according to our observation, the so-called nobles... are just a group of poor people who have to struggle for their goals."
"Just like this war."
"...Aren't they opposed to adventurers participating in the war?" Duan Qing asked in a low voice, "Is this also for the future of the principality?"
"To be precise, the future of their family."
Kima retracted his head and closed his eyes: "Even if the principality is destroyed, as long as they themselves are not destroyed... the result is acceptable."
"...Isn't this treason?" Duan Qing immediately widened his eyes: "Did they compromise with the empire a long time ago?"
"Yes, and also wrong."
Kima looked back at Duan Qing: "They... are the most neutral party."
The figure in the dark night suddenly disappeared in front of Duan Qing, and then appeared at the wall at the intersection after the turn. A guard stationed there was immediately grabbed by the neck by a pair of hands without warning, and then fell down quietly. Go down. On the other side of the gate of the tower-like spire building, another guard who noticed the movement immediately turned around, then raised the spear in his hand, facing the man in formal dress standing in front of him under the backlight: "You... !”
Boom.
The next moment, an ethereal echo sounded at the back of his head. He grunted, and then fell down very neatly, gradually revealing Duan Qing's figure behind him: "Next time, can you advance in advance?" Give me a notice?"
"After the last hospital incident..." Kima looked at the other person with contempt: "Do you think anyone will still look down on you?"
"...So how do you people know this?"
With these complaining words in his mouth, Duan Qing imitated the other party's example and finished handling the two fallen bodies. Then he followed the other party and sneaked into the building quietly: "Nobles are neutral. One party? Why do you say that? "
"Fortus has never wavered due to changes in the situation. He has already thought about how to deal with the imperial invasion." Walking calmly in the corridor inside the command post, Kima did not look back. He replied: "In his eyes, the quarrels with the civilian faction and Pamir are just a boring and ridiculous time, and they will not actually have any impact on the decisions that have been made on his side. It’s just that some other uncertain factors were later mixed in, plus some... differences of opinion within them, and these plans were later slightly changed."
"Let me guess... the so-called uncertain factors don't refer to us adventurers, right?" Duan Qing asked in a low voice: "For example, Jianghu or the Sword of Justice..."
"You are indeed one of them."
The man in black dress slowed down his steps again: "But the most crucial thing... is Pamir's counterattack."
"The Adventurer's Act?"
"Fortes believes that it is the speaker's last resort to get rid of the parliament." Kima's tone revealed a hint of helplessness: "In the final analysis... he is still afraid that you hard-working adventurers will be used by Pamir. It’s just the last bargaining chip.”
"Sounds wonderful." Duan Qing replied disdainfully: "It's a pity that the principality is gone now, so there must not be many adventurers who would place their bets here..."
"At least at that time, the situation in the principality was not like this."
Stopping in front of a certain lighted door, Kima stopped in his tracks, and then listened for a while: "They are not here... let's go to the second floor."
"The stairs are...well, I'll follow you anyway." Duan Qing shook his head indifferently: "What about now? The current principality...haven't you given up hope yet?"
"The problem is not us."
Glancing quietly at the top of the stairs, Kima gestured to Duan Qing: "It's up to you."
"You have never given up resistance." He whispered: "Including the adventurers from the empire."
"...So it's us who have been causing trouble all along?" Duan Qing curled his lips, and then showed a wry smile: "But speaking of it...it seems that it is indeed the case."
"The explosion before Fars Fortress, as well as the fall of the past few days, were all hindered by you adventurers." Kima sarcastically said without mercy: "Including the two prisoners who assassinated the Speaker... ...After our preliminary investigation, it seems that they are also two unidentified adventurers. Your efforts have reached the point where it is enough to cause war between the two countries. Even the arrival of Falhan is inextricably linked to you adventurers. Relationship."
"Hey, hey, don't blame me too much, okay? Do you still want to convulse that water mage..."
Duan Qing suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence, and then looked at the teasing gaze projected back from above the spiral staircase: "Yes, it's you."
"The source of all destiny can see your shadow." He chuckled: "The favored one by fate."
"……joke."
The light in his eyes condensed for a while, and then Duan Qing shook his head to get rid of some memories and sudden thoughts that appeared in his mind: "It's all just chance and fate, how can it be all blamed on me?" …”
"Every inadvertent choice you make has the potential to produce immeasurable changes in the world."
Duan Qing choked on his words again, but the next moment, Kima's serious gaze gradually softened: "This is a famous saying that Mesterdi once said."
"...Which kind of magician is this?"
"The ancestor of the Destiny Weaver, the first Destiny Weaver." Kima's eyes gradually disappeared as his figure disappeared: "He is also the founder of the 'Destiny Thread'."
"It sounds very powerful, but I've never heard of any of it." Duan Qing spread his hands in vain: "So what does this have to do with me?"
"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't."
Unexpectedly, Kima, who was walking in front, gave up the verbal confrontation with Duan Qing: "I will not force you to do anything, just like..."
"As if you would follow me to this place tonight."
"Hey, hey, I was the one who arrived first, okay?" Duan Qing immediately retorted: "Although I don't want to argue with you, I still have to..."
"Shh..."
The warning voice came suddenly, and then gradually subsided as Kima suddenly lowered his body: "There is someone."
"...I thought we could do a big search."
Duan Qing, who was approaching, also lowered his voice: "Who is it?"
"Maybe it's the deputy captain of the city guard, or maybe it's a certain squad leader." Kima replied intently: "Of course..."
"Maybe he's the person I'm looking for."
"There may be someone I'm looking for..."
With these words in his mouth, Duan Qing quietly followed someone, and then with an almost imperceptible breathing sound, he stuck to a wooden door at the deepest part of the second floor: "...This is the situation for the time being. Mr. Barnes."
"I'm not here to interrogate you, Mr. Boris, so please don't be so nervous."
As the two pairs of ears got closer, the conversation between the two people inside the door gradually became clear to their ears: "I just want to clarify one thing. Our President... is very concerned about this city defense and security work. of attention.”
"I understand, Lord Barnes, but many commanders, including General Tasker, have already gone out to fight the enemy, so..."
"I know, I know." Another voice interrupted the other person, and then slowly came to the side of the door with the movement of his body: "Those of us who are subordinates are not doing our boss's work every time. I have worked hard, so I understand...the difficulties you are encountering now."
"……what do you mean?"
"The President can help." The man's voice turned back and looked into the room: "We... still have many people who can be mobilized."
"Sorry, Your Excellency, but this seems to be against the rules..."
"These are extraordinary times." The voice became farther and farther away, seeming to return to the center of the room with that person's pace, but Duan Qing, who was close to his ears, understood that it was the effect of the other party deliberately suppressing: "Betrayal Today, with many criminals and fugitives flying around, the situation in the city is still very unstable, so... maintaining the stability of this place is the first priority, isn't it?"
"I believe Tusker... and other people in the Principality will be happy to see your efforts." A voice patted on the shoulder followed: "And your generosity... The President will come to thank you in person. "
"……Well."
A long nasal sound immediately echoed in all corners of the room, which was the muffled sound of another person's hesitation, but Duan Qing seemed to have no longer paid attention to the conversation inside the door, because next to him, the figure The man in black dress had opened his eyes wide and stared at Duan Qing's face with a dull look.
"This... bastard."
He clenched his fists, showing a look of gritted teeth.
