Angela's Tavern is a tavern located southwest of Redcar, the imperial capital. It is located in a small corner of this red ocean. Because of its remote location and the fact that the name of the tavern fits the characteristics of a few tribes, many people who come to patronize this tavern There didn't seem to be many people. After asking around on the street for a long time, Duan Qing finally found the location of this sparsely populated tavern with the help of the incomplete adventurer's map in his hand. He compared the cards hanging above the tavern with those in his hand. After a long while, he let out a heavy sigh: "Okay, I suddenly remembered this mission."
He put away the note and took out a black letter that had been pressed in his arms for a long time: "The letter Hank secretly sent me before seems to refer to this place..."
"There were so many things that happened in the middle that I had already forgotten about it."
His eyes stayed on the surface of the black envelope for a moment, he raised his head with his lips curled, and then after a period of hesitation and preparation, he reached out and pushed open the door of the tavern in front of him. The familiar sound of bells then echoed in his ears, slightly diverting his attention from staring at the scene inside the tavern. A man sitting behind the slanted bar was wiping the wine glass in his hand. The man in the gray and black bartender uniform then raised his head when he heard the sound, and looked at the guest who chose to visit the pub at this moment with a dull gaze: "Welcome, may I ask -"
"Someone stuffed something like this into me." After weighing it in his mind for a while, Duan Qing finally chose to take out the note that was stuffed into him first: "I followed it to find it."
"Room 201?" The bartender took the crumpled piece of paper and stretched it out and looked at the other party with a strange look: "Angela's Tavern does have Room 201, but it's just a building. It’s just an ordinary warehouse.”
"What?" Two black lines popped up on Duan Qing's face: "Did someone deliberately trick me?"
"Yes, that's it."
A calm and smiling voice then sounded in Duan Qing's ears, and accompanying it was a figure belonging to a middle-aged man walking slowly from the depths of the deserted tavern: "I'm just giving you this thing." Just a reminder, I just want to give you a goal while wandering around on the street. As for leaving messages about rooms..."
"I just want you to stand here at the counter."
He walked up to Duan Qing and stretched out one of his hands at the same time. Duan Qing, who looked at this familiar face, then showed an enlightened smile and held his hand with the other person: "I I should have guessed it was you, Lord Tristan."
"After all, there are not many opportunities to contact you." Tristan grinned and said, "Especially in this extraordinary period."
"That is to say... you are still in contact with the shadows?" Duan Qing raised his head and looked around the tavern: "You can actually find me accurately in a million-level big city like the Imperial Capital?"
"It is not my intention to borrow the hands of the Shadow Society."
Turning his head towards the direction of one of the wine tables near the deepest part of the tavern, Tristan, who was leading the way, replied in a low voice: "But since the current situation is extraordinary, now is not the time to care so much. .”
"Why, do you really need this meeting?" Duan Qing, who was walking behind, asked slightly strangely: "Has the situation in the empire reached such an urgent level?"
"Whether the situation has reached this level, I can no longer make a judgment now." Tristan, who was the first to sit down, shook his head and replied: "After all, I just came here not long ago, and in terms of status, I am only a They are just new nobles who have returned to the country, and their popularity and connections are much worse than any of the imperial nobles who have already lived here."
"This is not a disadvantage." Duan Qing, who also sat down, responded with a smile: "If you didn't have such a stance, you wouldn't be able to do your best to help us speak in the hall, right?"
"This position will not last long, at least not now." He let out a deep sigh, and Tristan slowly put away the smile on his face: "A Tristan who has no position at all. Stan may still be able to say those words without fear in the hall, but with the current undercurrent in the empire, it is almost impossible to stay alone."
"Have you already gotten into trouble, Your Excellency?"
"The Amfleet family."
After saying this name, Tristan stretched out his hand and waved in a certain direction behind Duan Qing: "When I first came to this city, the Amflette family took good care of me. They helped me deal with it. Some matters that are inconvenient for me to handle, you even agreed to my entrustment to take care of you..."
"As a result, their tavern has been burned down." He spread his hands towards Duan Qing, then turned to look at the bartender in gray and black uniforms who was walking forward: "I have already received so much care, Now I can no longer maintain my neutral position...a cup of dark blue ice, thank you."
"No more, sir." The bartender holding the wine tray replied expressionlessly: "The transportation in the empire has been a bit inconvenient recently, so the goods are somewhat scarce."
"...Then just an ordinary Bailan Bar." So Tristan showed a helpless expression towards Duan Qing: "Look, the impact of the Volavos incident is really big. Now it's hard to order a glass of wine that you like. Very…well, what do you want?”
"Plain water." Duan Qing twisted his nose, waved his hand towards the bartender, and then before the other person left expressionlessly, he suddenly raised his voice and turned around as if he remembered something: "Two glasses. "
"Why, are you thirsty after walking so long?"
He turned around and faced Tristan's smile again: "Don't worry, this time it's my treat."
"Ah, that's not the case." With an embarrassed expression on his face, Duan Qing then brought the topic back to the previous direction: "Is the Amfleet family really worth what you do?"
"I know that you adventurers like to weigh interests and values, so I can introduce you to the basic situation of this family." Tristan shook his head and replied: "Of course, even without their status as the Minister of Local Affairs of the Empire With a series of background relationships behind them and other factors, I think we should repay their kindness a little bit."
"Sure enough, you are a former candidate for the throne, and you do have some consciousness of being a king." Duan Qing shook his head in a low voice: "I hope you can restrain yourself a little bit in your future life in the empire. Be conscious, otherwise...sooner or later you will be attacked by someone with serious intentions."
"If this matter can be resolved smoothly, I will return to the province of Santerius to continue to take care of myself." Tristan replied with a smile: "I don't want to continue this kind of struggle for power with the nobles of the empire. Life, that kind of life is no longer suitable for me after resurrecting from the dead.”
"Well, even if it is for your future peaceful life, we have to find a way to survive this disaster." So Duan Qing sat upright: "Tell me your judgment——"
"What is the emperor above us thinking now?"
Amidst the mixing sound of ice cubes and wine constantly shaking and colliding, Duan Qing, who had his hands in front of him, smiled and looked at Tristan's face. The latter crossed his arms with an indifferent expression and raised his eyebrows. He also slowly closed his eyes with a thoughtful expression: "Well..."
"His Majesty the Emperor may not be afraid of this challenge, because there are already some signs of division within the empire's nobility."
Pointing to the tops of their heads, Tristan replied thoughtfully: "The nobles may think this is a good opportunity to gain power in their own hands, but after the court meeting the day before, the positions of many nobles have also changed. They have fully demonstrated their position - they have no intention of working together."
"Just like the holders of the throne of our Free City, everyone is scheming against each other all the time." His voice kept vibrating in Duan Qing's ears: "Some people are afraid of the consequences and are unwilling to come forward, and Some people hope that their mortal enemies can stand in the way, and there are even some people who are visible to the naked eye and are already on the emperor's side."
"Oh? Who is it?" Recalling the processes he had witnessed in the previous court meeting, Duan Qing asked with interest: "I really want to know about such an unscrupulous nobleman."
"It was those people who hoped that Volavos would be found guilty." Tristan pointed at Duan Qing's face with a smile: "They hoped to use this to discredit your character and thereby convict those other criminals in Tanzania City. All thrown at your head."
"The serious crime of collaboration with the enemy placed on Volavos' head must have been specially prepared for this." Duan Qing held his chin and asked lowly: "Do they hate me so much?"
"This is just a need for competition. The truth or not is actually not within their scope of concern at all." Tristan shook his head and replied: "They only need to ensure the victory of the imperial power, and then get the appreciation of His Majesty the Emperor. enough."
"I know what you want to ask. Maybe that Drenier doesn't really like these guys who are following the trend." Looking at Duan Qing's eyes silently staring at him, Tristan then added: "But Even if they are unintentional, they will still leave an impression on His Majesty the Emperor. Although this impression will not be effective temporarily, it will play its due role somewhere one day."
"After all, that is Drenir Frey Cadreft, the current emperor of the empire." Duan Qing also sighed softly as he recalled the scenes when he met the emperor deep in the palace. Tone: "To be able to rule a country like the Empire for such a long time, you should still have these little control methods."
"If the nobles of the empire cannot unite, this silent confrontation will most likely end with His Majesty the Emperor's victory." Tristan once again spoke of a more pressing topic: "His Royal Highness the Prince will be vindicated by then, and You will also be officially the losers."
"Everyone who goes against His Majesty the Prince will receive the punishment they deserve, right?" Duan Qing replied with a wry smile: "It seems that the list His Majesty the Prince left before he left is really... I stayed here because I had expected it."
"You can rest assured about this." As if he mentioned something concerning, Tristan frowned slightly: "When he questioned me before, His Majesty the Emperor seemed to have revealed something. A strange attitude—"
"He doesn't seem to really intend to pin the crime on you and me." He also followed Duan Qing's example and folded his hands on the corner of the table: "He should have another purpose."
"Are you referring to those strange questions he asked in the palace?" Duan Qing recalled: "For example... people from the military?"
"The Gloria family seems to have been favored by Marshal Red recently, and His Majesty the Emperor has probably discovered this already." Tristan skipped the explanation stage directly: "If we can break up all the attacks from below If you drop it and sell it to Marshal Red for a huge benefit, His Majesty the Emperor may gain even more."
"...Locke."
The image of an imperial officer carrying a big sword who stepped forward to assist him in the battle at the last moment appeared in his mind. Duan Qing couldn't help but mutter aloud: "His Majesty the Emperor intends to use his son's face to betray Glo." A favor from the Rhea family?”
"That's right, but no matter how much you sell it, this favor is just a bonus."
The footsteps belonging to the bartender were approaching slowly in the direction of the two people. Tristan replied in a low voice: "His Majesty the Emperor's main target must be that person."
"That person who can still be accepted even if Prince Chris causes such a big farce, a target who can easily ignore such a serious crime and can be recognized by the emperor." He took the drink handed over by the bartender. The glass of wine was filled with ice, and his swaying eyes swayed back and forth along with the glass: "She disappeared during the trial that His Royal Highness directed and acted on that day."
"...Now, all the imperial nobles seem to be looking for her." Duan Qing took a deep breath: "Do you value that woman so much?"
"Of course, not to mention her own strength that can be called a top powerhouse, her identity is already a huge weight." Tristan blinked his eyes: "Although with this identity, I still have There was no investigation.”
"Use the power of the Shadow Society to investigate...Aren't you afraid of arousing the emperor's vigilance?"
"Don't worry, this tavern is relatively safe."
Raising the wine glass in his hand, Tristan gestured towards Duan Qing's position: "And you are a bigger target in front of me. They even put you and your family in order to investigate you. The companions were stuck in Anfu Rose's room for three whole days... Well, what happened to you?"
"nothing."
After taking the two glasses of boiled water handed over by the bartender, Duan Qing let out a few inexplicable chuckles and then turned around and placed one of the glasses of water on another empty wine table behind him.
"Let's continue."
