It was already midnight, and the palace was still brightly lit, and it was an all-night banquet to celebrate the welcome of a new member of the True Red family and the addition of strength to Fernandez.

The band played one song after another, and the people on the dance floor in the center of the hall danced one song after another, and the attendants around them brought food and wine to the tables next to them.

The music, the wine, the food seemed to be endless, and there were not even some fundamental restrictions in this grand and wonderful extravagant banquet. There is a small arcane magic circle in the center of each table, and several refined alchemy potions are placed in the middle, some of which can make people maintain strong energy without fatigue for four or five days and nights, and some can enhance people's digestion and metabolic rate dozens of times, no matter how much food they eat and how much wine they drink, they will not be drunk and unconscious, and of course there are more interesting potions that can make some of people's limb functions stronger and lasting, there are many rooms prepared for guests in this palace, and anyone can go together at any time to rest and seek some different happiness。

It is a convivial banquet that completely inherits the spirit of the Empire, and although it cannot be compared to the extravagance of the real Imperial Age, it is also a sea of desires and enjoyment that can be enjoyed and enjoyed to the fullest.

However, the host of this banquet, the Duke of Felton, did not swim in it for long, and just after midnight, after dancing with a beautiful woman, he shook his head and laughed at everyone, saying that he was too old and had no energy, so he should leave the stage first, and ask the others to continue.

After all, the Duke is old, no matter how much arcane assistance is used to maintain his health, after all, he is also an old man who is over the age of six, and it is normal for him to have little ability to catch these entertainment activities, no matter how good the alchemy potion is, there are side effects, and for the Duke, any kind of entertainment is not new. Everyone understood this and sent their blessings to the Duke. The Duke gave the protagonists of the welcome banquet, Phil and Julia, the two young men, a lot of encouragement, and then left with the help of his attendants.

The duke's dormitory is in the True Red Palace, which still maintains the appearance of the last True Red Grand Duke before the war, but it is very simple and old, not only has it not been renovated for decades, but many of its valuable luxury things have been removed for money during the famine, so compared to the private space of the helmsman of the True Red family, it is really a little shabby.

But the Duke of Felton didn't care about this at all, as soon as he walked into the dormitory, he waved his hand to let the attendant retreat, and then he took off the wig on his head and threw it away, kicked each other with his left and right feet, and the two shoes flew to the corners on both sides of the dormitory, grabbed the placket with both hands, and the luxurious and neat dress fell to the ground in two, and when he finally lay down on the big bed in front of him, his hair was messy and his face was full of makeup, and he only looked like the head of the real red family with only a close-fitting short coat, and he was completely an old man of a rural landlord who had just walked dozens of miles to collect rent from a tenant's house。

"Well, this pretending is fucking tired......" said Duke Felton stretched out greatly on the bed, his stubby limbs making him look like a stripped-down caterpillar. "I hope I don't have to attend this kind of banquet in the future, and if there is another one, let them go to their own pleasure. ”

"By the way, I said, even if it's a bit tiring, it's okay to attend once in a while, and you're not interested at all, and go meet the guys and have a few words, and if you like, I can arrange some pretty girls for you." ”

Duke Felton, who was lying on the bed, suddenly spoke. But there was no response in the empty room, and it looked as if no one could respond to him.

"Hey, I'm asking you, Huey. The duke took off the socks on his feet and wrapped them in a ball, threw them and smashed them on a mass in the corner, and the mass shook slightly, and it turned out to be a man who had been cowering in the corner.

This is a obese man who looks like he is in his forties, with unkempt hair, a sparse beard, a sloppy look, eyes narrowed into two lines that seem to be closed, and a fat face full of greasy pimples, like an autistic person who has not seen the light of day for many years. If you look closely, you can see that although this man is taller and fatter, the contours of his facial features are very similar to those of Duke Felton.

The man turned around, staring at his hands with squinting eyes that he couldn't open, and a small illusion was now emerging on his hands, on which was a very delicate girl dancing and singing in the light. The man watched intently, and although no sound came from the girl's vision, he seemed to be able to hear it and swaying slightly to the beat.

Duke Felton also looked quite speechless, so he could only lie on the bed and roll his eyes to look at this obsessive middle-aged man. It was only after the illusion in his hand was over that the man took a long breath of satisfaction, and after a moment of silence, muttered, "You shouldn't have asked with that true knowledge." ”

"What?" the Duke of Felton was stunned, waiting for a moment to react. "You're saying there's something wrong with the Arcane Scroll? How do you know, haven't you been here all the time?"

“... I quietly took over a small half of the palace's reconnaissance sequence, don't tell Lao Mo, he will come to talk again if he knows. The man said nonchalantly, and a new vision resurfaced in his hand, the girl singing, but the dress and outfit were different, and it seemed to be a different scene. “... There is no problem with the scroll, what can be wrong with the scroll of the cause and effect order...... Without the super-large Ten Rings sequence of the Aoguang Fortress, no one can do anything about the causal sequence now, and there will be no problem......"

"Is the scroll okay, but the arcane is okay?" that young man named Phil is sure to be the bloodline of our Fernandez family?" Duke Felton quickly sat up and asked.

"It's... No problem. That's what you asked, and Arcane gave you a clear answer: yes. That is a response based on the causal nature of the world, and it cannot be wrong. ”

"That's right. The Duke lay back down. "Then why don't you use that true knowledge inquiry? Then it's also a nine-ring arcane scroll, and it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if you say that the causal sequence arcane will have any reaction force, it's the guy in the mountain who bears it, and the old guy loses it...... You didn't see the old guy's expression, it was as ugly as eating a piece of, he must have thought that druid kid was the secret son I wanted to arrange for the family, and he was clever enough to come and make trouble for me, and the result was ...... Hahahaha......"

"It's not... I've always felt that the bloodline of that man named Phil is a bit strange, the elemental affinity has exceeded the theoretical limit of humans, if you use the bloodline identification scroll I gave you I can analyze more......" The man looked intently at the girl singing and dancing in the illusion, and muttered casually as if talking to himself. “... Maybe it's a mutation of the endemic elements of the high-level druids?, ah, there are no living specimens like this, so I want to get a ......."

"Hey, Huey, don't mess around, he's our family, we're all surnamed Fernandez!" said the Duke of Felton and sat up from the bed again. "Although there are many idiots and annoying guys with the surname Fernandez, it is enough to kill or exile some at most, and there are some things that cannot be done, such as living specimens and the like, we have the same blood in our veins. Have you forgotten what my mother once told us, it is precisely because we are all a family of blood that we Fernandez can come together for so long and become strong...... Well, seriously, you're not of Fernandez's blood, but your brother and I are, so you can be too!"

“...... Okay, I see......" The obese man replied absent-mindedly as he looked down at the illusion in his hand.

“... I said Huey, it's really time for you to try and change your lifestyle...... At least try it with a woman first... At least the beginning of a little deep contact with a living woman, not mentally and spiritually, at least physically. The duke looked at the appearance of this obsessed man named Huey, and he was really a little helpless, a little deflated and a little angry. "What's the point of those arcane dolls, those fake illusions? they're all fake...... You haven't touched a woman until now, I mean you other than dissection and arcane modification, you know what that means, you're not interested at all? Damn, I remember when I told my brothers about my brother that my brother was a virgin who wouldn't dare touch a woman more than fifty years ago, they were already laughing......"

“... They can't laugh now. The obsessive man muttered in reply, still expressionless and absent-minded, as if he had poured ninety-nine percent of his life into the illusion in his hands, leaving only one percent for the real world.

"Nonsense, they're all dead. Poor fellows, little Maury, who had the best luck, only took his last breath when he saw me truly becoming the head of the Fernandez family...... His posthumous son had just inherited the winery in the north of our hometown the day before yesterday, and that was what he deserved...... It's been so many years before you know it...... We've lived for a long time......" The Duke lay back down, his eyes blankly looking up, but not at the ceiling above, as if looking beyond the view to some other place in the distance.

After a moment of silence, the obsessive man suddenly asked, "...... By the way, what about her?

"What? who?" the lying duke tilted his head, glancing at the equally awkward obsessive brother from a very awkward angle.

"She. The man spread out his fat and short hand, and the illusion that was originally just in his hand was immediately projected into the room, and he saw a vivid vision of a girl spinning and dancing in the center of the room, and the high and melodious singing and music immediately rang out. "Didn't you say you were going to bring her to the palace and give it to me?"

"Ah, you mean this singer, what is Ulysses' name......" The Duke nodded abruptly and pursed his lips again. "There was something unexpected in this matter, a Westerner envoy took people away, and our family was not a small shame. This seems to have alarmed even the old man Magnus...... It seems that those Westerners have a lot of energy, and I don't know what they want to do......"

“...... Then I'll go back to Oroyosta tomorrow—" The obsessive man buried his head again, withdrew the illusion he had released, and muttered as he watched.

"Don't be like that, Huey, you've only been back for a few days? Anyway, the damn Arcane Revival has collapsed, so why don't you just go home and stay there?" the Duke sat up again in dismay. "That singer didn't get it, why don't you just change it? How about the most popular one in Oroyosta a few years ago, or the one with a particularly big breasts in Anthony's family? Speak as long as you like, don't say one, two, three, four, I'll get you as many as you want." ”

“... No, I just want her. She's different. ”

"What's the difference? I've inquired about it, this singer only came out of nowhere in the past two years, and she is beautiful and sings well, but also has a sense of mystery, so it has attracted a group of gentlemen from Oroyosta. But Huey, let me tell you, women are all the same, no matter how beautiful they are, how temperamental, what mystery they have, and what they feel, they are actually deceitful. Those temperaments and senses are the same as the clothes and jewelry on their bodies, they are purely ornaments, and they take them off and throw them away when they don't want them. By the way, do you remember little Bass? The second son of the baron in Dongcheng, the guy who slapped you when you were eleven years old and snatched your honey from the dried meat, and then I cut off three fingers, you should remember, right? Wasn't that guy very infatuated with Oroyosta's singer and actress named Millie at that time, saying that it was the goddess of his dreams, and he would spend thousands of dollars a month to go to Oroyosta to watch an opera performed by this woman, and also spent tens of thousands of dollars on the clothes that the woman had worn and drank water cups or something, and said that he was willing to pay 10,000 glasses to drink the woman's bath water, and later heard that the woman was a countess and cried and got drunk for a few days. At that time, I was very curious about this woman, of course, I didn't have the money to go to Oroyosta, but I saw a few illusion images, and she was indeed a very good-looking woman, which made me have a little reverie about this woman......

“... And then it's interesting that after the war, weren't there quite a few people who fled from the Great Plains to come to the red collars. I had just fooled the elven army away, and I had tried my best to settle the guys in my family who wanted to cross the river and tear down the bridge, and as the new lord I went to meet the fleeing guys, and I saw the woman in the crowd. Without the elaborate makeup, without the illusion of light and shadow, the frustrations and tribulations on the way to escape made the woman look a little haggard, but I still recognized at a glance that this was the object of my reverie...... As for the future, the resources in the territory are limited after all, and only some of the people who can stay can stay, so that woman found me and became my mistress for half a year, in exchange for the qualification to stay in the territory and a sum of money. Aha, it was an interesting time, and I knew this woman very well both physically and mentally, and I can assure you that she was no different from any woman I had ever come into contact with, and even annoyed me a little later, for she always liked to pretend, as if the poor earl's inheritance had also been acquired by she, and I felt that the barmaids of the Old Tavern of the Bronze Crown had a little more innocent energy and charm than her...... It's a pity that little Bass was chopped into minced meat by the elven slaves along with his father, and if he saw the woman drinking my bath water with the expression of tasting red wine, and moaning in a singing voice that had turned him upside down, he wondered how wonderful his expression would be. ”

"So, Huey, don't expect too much from those women, all that is pure and beautiful is your illusion! No matter how beautiful and pure they look in the aura of illusion, they will still be licking and crawling like a dog at night with the work of some powerful old fellow like me! Wake up, Huey, from those frivolous fantasies! Just like when you took that rag doll apart when you were eight years old, you know that it's not really worth liking when you realize that she's nothing but hay and rotten cotton wool inside. ”

Regarding the duke's foaming mouth and his affectionate appearance, the obese man just raised his eyes to look at him, his thick lips squirmed slightly, and he said softly and unusually firmly: "No, that girl is different, you won't understand......"

"Oh,. The Duke fell back again, slumped on the bed and looked limply at the ceiling. "Huey, you're the only one in my life who can't help it...... Okay, okay, I'll send someone to Oroyosta tomorrow, find a way to force it, negotiate terms with those Westerners, and get that woman here for you. ”

The obsessive man didn't speak again, but lowered his head again, and threw all his spirit and life into the illusion in his hand.

"Your Excellency, as you expected, everything seems to be going very well. ”

In one of the palace's lounges, in a makeshift protective circle, Julia bowed to Duke Linshan.

Julia's body was not in the air, her fair and delicate carcass was exposed to the air, and on the bed behind her, two equally naked girls were sleeping unconscious, and the flush on their faces had not yet dissipated. If you want to leave for some private events during a banquet that will last a day or two, it is a good opportunity to find a few companions to take such an entertaining break.

Duke Linshan's gaze swept over Julia's perfect body, and his deep and gloomy eyes couldn't help but reveal a hint of burning, even with his experience and vision of dozens of elven slaves, this body was perfect, almost every inch of shape and every inch of skin showed the greatest charm of the human body.

However, this reaction, which should not be felt as a superior person, was quickly suppressed, and the Duke of Linshan reverted to his original serious and old-fashioned appearance. He himself had long since left, and this was nothing more than an illusion of arcane communication, and even such an illusion would have to cost a lot to conceal the detection of the arcane from the palace. He didn't have the leisure or time to think about anything else, so he asked directly, "That young man named Phil has no problem anymore." ”

"Yes, with the identification of that causal sequence arcane scroll of yours, Lord Felton already has complete trust in him. He also told me to be sure to accompany the homecoming wanderer, but the wanderer seemed to be accustomed to the druid's way of life, and did not like this kind of celebratory occasion very much, so he went out to breathe and relax. ”

"Good. You must try your best to catch this young man, such a young great druid, who is also a powerful force that has nothing to say on the side of the temple, and his position in the family must be very important in the future. Even better, he has no other background or connections, and you've already determined where he came from. "Duke Linshan's voice and tone are the same as his appearance, deep and majestic, full of the irresistible aura of a superior person. "Felton has been sitting in that position long enough. Although this lowly gang leader did have some abilities and means to get the Fernandez family through the difficult post-war time, his lowly gangster style, especially his short-sighted vision and ambition, would never lead a noble surname like Fernandez to a higher and brighter position. His only role now is to train young people for us. ”

"Yes. Julia nodded. Even though she was wearing nothing, her posture was still graceful and generous, because she had absolute self-confidence, and this body was more beautiful than any clothes in the world.

"So you must make sure that he is on our side, and you must ensure that no matter what means are used!" Duke Linshan's gaze swept over Julia again, and he did not hesitate to spend a lot of resources to use such a completely face-to-face illusion to communicate under the surveillance sequence, not because he liked luxury or to show his majesty, but so that he could see the reaction of the person from his body and expression. He was now very sure that this woman was absolutely good at it and was happy to use her body. "Have you ever had a relationship with him?"

"Not yet. He was reserved and conservative in this regard, perhaps as a result of the teachings of the druids. At this point, Julia was slightly depressed. Although this time she 'picked up' this wild newcomer with unlimited potential, she was simply hit by a golden pie falling from the sky, but her incomparable charm that has never been against the opposite sex seems to have failed. The young druid, though he also showed a crush on her, was purely a crush on the gracious family he had met for the first time, and the charm she exuded, whether intentional or unintentional, was completely ignored. Of course, it seems understandable that the clergy lived a life of isolation from the rest of the world as they grew up, and that the clergy's own desires became weaker and weaker as their faith deepened.

"Then you don't behave casually with men and women. Since he had never experienced it, it was time for him to have a little more room for fantasy. Duke Linshan's gaze swept over the two unconscious girls on the bed behind him. "You should know exactly how to do it, so I won't say more. In short, you have to understand that this young man may be an important bargaining chip to get the Fernandez family out of the hands of that gang leader, so no matter what, be sure to hold it in your hands. ”

"Well, that's it. If there is no important matter, don't contact again, the gang leader, although vulgar, is also a cunning and difficult opponent. You just have to remember that the Fernandez family, which is returning to glory under my leadership, has nothing more to offer you than it has now. ”

After saying this, the figure of the Duke of Linshan disappeared. Facing the empty spot, Julia narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, then smiled, smugly.

At this moment, on the top of the True Red Palace, Phil, a young man who was supposed to be one of the protagonists of the banquet inside, was standing in the void.

The wind swirled around him in the night sky, and he closed his eyes, as if he were purely tactile, smelling, and hearing the ancient and massive building below. The history of the family that this building gathers, and everything that is happening in it at this moment, seems to be brushing his skin, inhaling the tip of his nose and converging in his mind.

"Hehe... Mother, this is the family you have always forgotten...... This is a rotten and twisted vortex that will sooner or later be torn apart by a larger vortex...... I'll get what you deserve back before it's torn to shreds....huh?"

Phil suddenly opened his eyes and looked into the distance below, where it was only an outbuilding of a palace, but his higher-level perception beyond the mortal detected something unusual.

"....... seems to be a huge undercurrent that is about to set off a new whirlpool, so let's see for myself what this whirlpool looks like. ”