"Tucker and Blanche are dead?!"
On the fourth day after the battle, Charles II, who was in the palace, received this shocking news. He stood up on the spot and stared at the letter in front of him as if he was about to spit fire. "How dare Roddy?! Is he brazenly starting a war? "
The royal family had six magisters on the surface, but there were only four royal guards as loyal as Tucker and Blanche. It could be said that the death of any one of them was a huge loss to the royal family.
Two of them dying at once was equivalent to cutting the royal family's secret magic power in half. Most importantly, the mission they were tasked with had obviously failed!
Charles II was not afraid of failure. This kind of loss pained him, but it did not mean that he would collapse. Right now, he only wanted to understand one thing: How did Roddy kill two magisters who were good at fighting?
However, the letter did not give an answer. Because Roddy had blocked the news in time, the letter could only find out that there were casualties caused by an "accidental attack in Elsen City".
"Your Majesty, it's time."
The attendant came to remind him. Charles II put down the letter with a gloomy face. With the help of the maid, he tidied up his clothes and walked to the council hall. For this monarch, the past two days had been one bad news after another. And just as he sat down on the throne, he heard an irritating news:
"Due to special reasons, the Elsen Magic Conference has extended the time limit to next May."
"Next May? Just say in a few days that the conference will be held for two years! "
Charles II frowned and waved his hand. "Just tell Crohn and the others that they can come back when they should. Do they really think that Elsen City has the final say in everything?"
Charles II, who was not in a good mood before entering the room, was obviously showing signs of exploding today. Because the situation of the refugees was not very good recently, the number of people freezing and starving to death was increasing every day. It was a shocking sight. He rubbed the space between his eyebrows and continued to ask, "By the way, this conference said there was a special reason, but did it say what the reason was?"
"Your Majesty, the source of this news is' Cullen's Age '. They said the news will be announced in the next few days." Count Duweiden was a little hesitant and added, "But I heard some rumors that it's because the Dragon Race is participating in the exchange …"
"Dragons?"
Charles II didn't react and asked, "What's wrong with the Dragons? The Dragons' participation can prolong the exchange? "
But as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized that he had exposed his weakness of not understanding the general knowledge of the magic world. Come to think of it, the Dragons, as a powerful race that transcended worldly affairs, had always been separated from the human world since the beginning of human civilization. No one had ever heard of any leaders of a human country having any contact with Dragons on the surface. Most of what everyone had heard were basically some overly fantasized "dragon slaying myths".
However, just because they did not participate in human activities did not mean that they could be ignored. Before the founding of the Kingdom of Karen, the rumors about Dragons were not all fictional. Dragons would often appear in battles involving higher levels of power. Charles II tried hard to recall and immediately remembered that several magisters seemed to have contact with Dragons in the early days of the founding of the kingdom, and the records of their conversations were full of awe.
In the past, the archmages who could come into contact with the dragons were all top-notch geniuses. As a result, people later regarded the 'interaction between the dragons' as a symbol of strength. However, in the past 30 years, there had been no similar incidents in the Kallon Kingdom. As a result, Charles II, who had become the king, had almost forgotten the importance of this matter.
"You said that the Dragons will participate in the conference. This should be just a gimmick."
Charles II thought for a moment and had already thought of how to deal with the words. "This kind of diplomatic rhetoric is sometimes alarmist. Just like the dragon slaying stories in the folk, no matter how heroic the protagonist is, the actual situation is often that he just happened to pass by the dragon's corpse and falsely claim the credit. "
He paused for a moment, and suddenly there was a sound of agreement in the council hall. Many people breathed a sigh of relief, which obviously coincided with Charles II's thoughts.
At this time, someone came out and added:
"Your Majesty, Roddy is the best at making a fuss. Now that he has the Age of Karen in his hands, we have to admit that ordinary people are often deceived. This means that … if a dragon was just passing by Elsen City and wanted to drink some water, they would also shamelessly claim that 'the dragon is participating in the exchange meeting' and use this as a justifiable excuse to spread the news. "
Charles II nodded. He obviously agreed with this point of view, but then he said worriedly, "Our newspaper can't give up this position. We are already one step late, and now the consequences are obvious … If we hesitate, we will be very passive in the future."
In order to compete with Roddy, Count Milnor had specially produced a few issues of the newspaper, but later because the content was not good enough, he fell from power. Charles II later also realized the importance of the position of public opinion, so he re-appointed Viscount Dels to do the royal weekly, and now the situation was a little better.
"Your Majesty, Roddy's method of borrowing power is very good, but this kind of lie is ultimately untenable! As long as we investigate, we can find the flaws. "
The viscount heard the emperor's words and hurriedly wrote out a list of loyalty. Charles II nodded with satisfaction. "The content of the next few days must revolve around this matter. I don't want the people of the kingdom to be bewitched by that guy."
He did not understand what 'public opinion building' was, but he gradually realized the horror of controlling the direction of public opinion. It was just a pile of regularly updated words and information, and it was easy to control the minds of ordinary people. Whatever they wanted to say, the ignorant people would believe it … This was much more powerful than those mental spells.
Having thus set the tone, the ministers began to devise strategies in the direction of Charles II. After the meeting, the follow-up countermeasures were basically confirmed, making his originally bad mood a lot better.
The tired Charles II returned to the study after the meeting. He closed his eyes and rested for a long time. However, he found that his heart had not completely calmed down. That was because the things that Rody had done over the years, regardless of whether they were true or false, were unpredictable. Thinking back to the first time he heard this guy's name, the other party actually killed an astonishing number of Orcs as a scout.
Then, is there a one-in-a-million possibility that the Dragons' participation in the exchange meeting … is true?
He thought about it, got up, and asked the royal scholars to look through all the files in the kingdom's history books that involved the Dragons, which took a whole day. The next day, Charles II finally finished reading the dozen or so pages of written records under the morning sun.
From this, he finally had a comprehensive and clear understanding of the Dragons. Now looking at the seemingly inconspicuous event of "the Dragons' participation in the exchange meeting," he suddenly realized that this not only showed that the Dragons were friendly to humans, but also represented a kind of identity recognition.
If all of this was true, it would no longer bring about a "political trend", but a complete "political storm"!
Because the Dragons had always dealt with the most powerful countries or forces on the continent. Now that they went to Elson instead of their own palace, the meaning behind it was self-evident …
"He doesn't have the ability."
Charles II's hand holding the file trembled a little. But no matter how he thought about it, Roddy had nothing to do with the Dragons. He comforted himself in this way, put down the scroll, got up, and walked to the fireplace to warm himself. Coincidentally, the waiter brought in today's newspaper. His eyes narrowed, and he reached out to take out "Cullen's Era," only to find that the printing of today's newspaper was completely different: the only word that entered his eyes was "Cullen's Era," and the cover, which was always full of words below, was replaced by a whole picture.
The whole cover showed a circular conference hall in a magic tower. The picture was exquisite, not something that could be achieved by a painter's hand. Whether it was the lines of the clothes or the expressions and demeanor of the people, it could definitely be said to be "perfect." Charles II, who was talented in art, was very good at appreciating oil paintings, but any excellent work would not be judged by "whether it was painted or not."
But the picture in front of him made him feel like he was in the conference hall.
At a glance, Charles II recognized Crohn and the other Archmages sitting in the front row. The slightly famous mages were all seated at the back, lined up in a circle, like magic apprentices listening to a teacher's speech … And in the center of this picture, stood a gentle and refined middle-aged man, smiling and spreading his arms. It was obvious that he was telling something to the mages around him.
The newspaper was black and white, but the different style of the mage's robe made Charles II frown. When he took a closer look, he was shocked to find that there were actually two horns on the top of the man's head!
He felt that it was a little difficult for him to breathe. His trembling fingertips opened the cover, and the title of the second page finally appeared:
"Elson City warmly welcomes the Lord of the Frost Dragon Race, Victor, to the magic conference and to give a speech!"
Charles II almost couldn't catch his breath. His eyes were fixed on the content below, and he spent ten minutes reading it three times, trying to find any traces of forgery or ambiguity …
The result was obvious. This was a completely "dry" report: the Frost Dragon Race announced his high-profile visit to Elson City and gave a short speech at the conference. At the same time, he also stated that "next, the friendly cooperation between the Dragons and Efta will be discussed!"
The article specifically stated that the cover picture was not hand-drawn, but was "shot" on the spot with the help of another Frost Dragon, Kardashian's "Ice Mirror Image" spell.
A great sense of powerlessness enveloped Charles II. He felt that the voices in his ears were gradually getting further away from him. There were some things that, when one did not understand, would give rise to ridiculous self-confidence. However, after a deep understanding, that kind of bone-chilling coldness was also difficult for others to understand.
"Why … him?"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
