IX

7:33:43 PM

Quasi-plane of unknown location, the headquarters of the Royal Security Department of the Old Palenia of the Holy Koman Empire

Rising from the broken bricks and rubble and looking at the scene before her, Bonnie Seiffel let out a meaningless sigh.

Her gaze pierced through the faint smoke and saw her surroundings. She didn't deliberately use a constant purification technique to purify the poisonous air like Ionette did, but it didn't seem to be able to penetrate the divine magic that protected her.

She fell on a muddy floor along with the entire inner wall of the room, and a large black building stood not far away.

It was a building with no color, no windows, not even a structure, a postmodern building like a stone office building without windows.

For Ionette Hartman, it was a different world full of poisonous gas, but for Bonnie, it was not.

When she saw the building, she knew the name of it.

"Old Palenia ......"

A land covered by a yellow cursed poisonous mist, the former capital of the Marquis of Palenia.

A place name that has disappeared into history.

History is known to all, the old capital of Palenia was a dead city destroyed by war, just like the ancient cities of the Eastern Empire that were swallowed up by the raging floods of the Hanging River.

During the 13th century's Papal schism, the Marquis of Palenia, who was then the Royal Minister of Security, sided with the Emperor's support for the Teresa Pope and gathered a heavy army near the territory in order to crusade against the Papal forces who controlled the Holy Land. The challenged Pope Taranto led an army to attack the Marquis of Palenia, and the two sides conspired to secretly, and in the end, the Pope of Taranto did not leave the place alive, and the city of Palenia and its ruler disappeared from the map.

Forty miles from the ruins of the old city, untouched by the war, the Emperor founded the new city of Palenia for the heir of the Marquis of Palenia, which is now one of the top ten cities in the Empire.

But there is also a theory that old Palenia, banished to another world by the Pope's curse, still exists until the summoning magic and dimensional portals are isolated from this world.

Now this legendary city stands before her eyes, proving the latter statement.

"Will anyone welcome me?"

Bonnie looked down, looked at her boots, and walked through the mud toward the building. She didn't see any decent roads, and speculated that it was probably the garden behind the postmodern castle.

Although the mud under her feet was full of venom and stench, it was as if she was walking on a paved red carpet, and there was not a trace of mud on her boots or calves.

Until now, Bonnie has not openly used a single magic spell, relying only on the magic items and blessings she possesses to overcome this malevolent and cursed environment.

She knew someone was watching her. Even if this were old Palenia, it certainly wouldn't have been as powerful and dangerous as the Archbishop of the Reformation Order.

But until I walked to the door, there was no messenger or monster to meet him. Bonnie reached out, pushed open the door, and walked through the back door of the postmodern building. Inside the door was a small hall, and the poisonous gas seemed to be much lighter.

She took a few steps forward, and the door behind her suddenly closed, and at the same time the magic circle under her feet began to activate!

The magic array wasn't even hidden, but wantonly emitted a dangerous red light, as if it was going to give her a dismount. If it were an ordinary intruder, I'm afraid he would have been scared enough to start preparing for defensive magic by now—but Bonnie, who had built more than one fortress with his own hands that was no less than here, didn't even blink an eye.

She just took a small step to the side, and she could see the effect of the magic array. After a closer look, she blinked: the effect of this magic array was really beyond her expectations.

"Oh, this room is an airlock?

As the magic array turned around, the air in the room began to be purified gradually. It's not very efficient, but it does effectively isolate the cursed poison gas from the outside. Bonnie immediately understood why the building seemed so postmodern, with no windows, no color, and no structure — to make sure the cursed gas didn't seep in through the cracks.

Of course, this kind of repeatedly purified air will definitely not smell good, with a rotten and moldy smell that has been around for two or three hundred years.

Bonnie took a deep breath of the non-toxic, musty-smelling air, opened her mouth and shouted:

"Sid Nasser!"

Voices echoed through the airlock. The air gradually purified, but the opposite door showed no sign of opening, and no one responded to her.

Between Bonnie's eyebrows were a small wrinkle of impatience.

"Death Bell holder, Immortal and Minister of Security, Sid Nasser, who took so much effort to bring me over, is this your hospitality!"

There was still no response, but the sealed door on the opposite side opened quietly. A man dressed in a gray robe, dressed like a medieval ascetic, appeared at the door.

"Distinguished guest, please come with me. Many parts of the building are used as training grounds and prisons, and while we certainly can't stump you, it's also troublesome for us to repair if it's damaged. ”

"It must be very troublesome to build such a building in such a place. ”

Bonnie tried to talk, but the other side had no intention of responding, just leading the way. The interior of the building is not postmodern at all, it is typical of a medieval castle: the structure and supports are chaotic, with numerous rooms and walls, and corners and corridors that look like a labyrinth. Due to the unreasonable structural design of the medieval building, the load-bearing columns that have been clearly reinforced with magic can be seen from time to time.

Oil lamps and magic lamps alternately illuminated, and there were places that were deliberately left unlit, leaving darkness behind. The guide navigates through the labyrinth, sometimes opening the door with a key, and sometimes pushing open a wall that appears to be unusually unusual, revealing a secret passage or a narrow staircase going up the staircase.

After climbing the stairs three times like this, Bonnie finally saw an office in which sat two ascetic men who were also dressed in gray robes. One of them stood up, whispered a few words to the guide, and became the new guide, who turned around and left the room.

"Next, I will lead the way for our distinguished guests. ”

The tone of voice, attitude, and even movements of the second person were very similar to those of the first leader, with a vigorous gait and slightly flexed fingers, indicating that they had been similarly rigorously trained. Bonnie speculated that he probably wouldn't talk to her, and simply began to use the speed algorithm to guess how many similar people were in the building.

"Assuming that a room can accommodate two or three people, there are up to twenty similar rooms on the first floor of this complex structure. Looking at the structure of the first two floors, there is probably no office area, so it is estimated that there are only three or four hundred people in use of this huge castle at most, right? No wonder I haven't met anyone else after walking for so long......"

Three floors up, one layer down, two more layers up, and one layer down. Bonnie speculated that the place was either eight or nine floors. Sophisticated protection and counter-detection magic can be seen around you, and occasionally teleportation locations. When approaching the top floor, a third lead was changed.

"The heritage and luxury of the empire are really not comparable to the nouveau riche in the south...... The Grand Basilica of the Holy See in Taranto and the Imperial University in Teresa also have this cascading feeling. It's a pity that I haven't been to the Imperial Palace of this era, and I don't know what kind of extravagance it is? ”

Bonnie thought back to the ancient buildings she had visited, compared to the one that had stubbornly entrenched in the curse. The closer you get to the top floor, the simpler the structure of the building becomes, with fewer load-bearing walls and columns, but more powerful protection and detection magic around you.

After climbing three hidden circular staircases, the guide leads her to a wide corridor. The hallway is covered with a delicate red carpet, and when you look up, you can see the roof, which has a skylight to communicate with the outside world, and the natural light casts a faint cast, which contrasts sharply with the musty floors below.

"Ah, no wonder you're building this building so high. That curse is around the land, so if you cultivate high enough, you can exchange air with the outside world, right?"

It dawned on Bonnie. The guide did not answer her emotion, but bowed slightly and pointed to the carved gold gate at the end of the corridor. The door was unexpectedly unmagical, and at least four different colors of magic could be read around the windows of the ceiling.

"Sid Nasser, it's not like I'm going to go around in such a big circle, it's not to buy time to take a shower and change clothes, right?"

Bonnie moved her ankle, which was a little sore from climbing too many stairs, and strode to the door, pushing it open as she threw her own grumbling at the owner inside.

"The welcome ceremony at the Royal Security Department headquarters was really long. Anyway, you're going to use dimensional magic to bring people in, can't you just teleport me here? There's not even a person to chat with along the way, it's boring. ”

The room was small, I couldn't tell if it was a bedroom, a palace, or an office, with a bed and a desk, but behind the desk was a luxurious silk chair and even a dining table next to the fireplace. It's not surprising that all the furnishings are typical of the court, richly decorated and decorated in gold and red—but from another point of view, it would have been surprising enough to keep such a room in an abandoned city that has been expelled from the Overworld.

But what surprised her the most was the owner of this room. It wasn't the gloomy-looking Sid Nasser.

"I hate it when people dirty this room, and it's a hassle to clean up in order to prevent poison gas from being isolated from the outside world, so the teleportation points for foreign guests are set up in places where it doesn't matter if they get dirty. ”

The owner of the room was an elegant woman who could not tell her age, she could say she was in her twenties, she could be said to be in her forties, and her hair was slightly shiny silver.

Instead of sitting on the ornate chair, she stood at the table, facing a square carved wooden chessboard, studying the black and white chess pieces on it. Even when the door was opened and visitors entered, it didn't draw her attention away from the board, and Bonnie could only see her face. Presumably because she was studying the chessboard, she wore glasses, not the monocle commonly used by lapidaries and alchemists of the era, but double-piece gold wire glasses that were closer to the style of later generations.

The first impression of her side face on Bonnie is that she is a very dangerous woman. Whether it is her eyes or facial features, she has a sharp and extraordinary feeling, and a mere pair of glasses can't cover her sharpness at all. This heroic and sharp spirit almost makes people forget that she is also a beautiful and extraordinary woman.

"I asked the current Minister of Security to find the chess player who wanted to play against us, but I didn't expect him to be able to figure it out, so he invited you all over. I thought the chess player on the other side would be a man, a politician, and maybe a soldier. ”

In the Royal Security Department building in another world, the woman who gives orders. Bonnie quickly searched her mind for her memory, and a possibility emerged. Very absurd possibility, but ......

She decided to ask the question head-on.

"I thought I would meet a man here. You're certainly not Sid Nasser, but you're in charge of the Royal Department of Security...... Who are you?"

"Now that you're all here, I don't mind letting you know the secret. Even in the court of Teresa, few people knew about it. ”

The silver-haired woman with glasses snapped her fingers, and the floor across the board suddenly rose to form a stool.

"Sit down. I'm Elaine Palenia. ”

The woman gave her name and sat down in the plush chair. She seems convinced that by just giving a name, the opposite chess player will understand everything.

Bonnie did get it, too.

"It's really the Marquis de Palenia. Are you still alive?"

It is enough to really report a name. All the clues are strung together to confirm Bonnie's absurd hypothesis.

Elaine Pareña, the founder of the Royal Ministry of Security and modern intelligence, is known as the "Holy Lady of Salvation" and was chosen by God to become a vote of the people at a young age. She was active more than 400 years ago, assisting the emperor to defeat the strongest Pope in history, Brand VII, and violently ending the period of church schism. In her hands, the Royal Ministry of Security was formed to deal with potential enemies inside and outside the Empire. Shortly after being crowned the first Marquisess of Pareña, Palenia was defeated by the opposing Pope Brand at the time, and both voters died in the area, destroying the city of Palenia.

But Bonnie then felt something was wrong.

"Not true. You are not a living person, but you are not an undead or an immortal either. Does it have something to do with the curse here?"

"He is worthy of being the most prominent figure in the Southern Church, and his talent is no less than that of the opposing Pope Brand. That's right, this is exactly the legacy left by Pope Brand. He sacrificed his elect to destroy all the Emperor's towns with a withering curse in order to establish an eternal papal see, but his ambition was too great for the other gods to tolerate, so he took his destiny with me, the chosen one, and inherited his curse. ”

"Took destiny...... Were you the chosen people of the goddess of fate?"

"Yes, until now. In return, I became a part of the city and this curse, immortal and unable to leave. It's like this chess piece, once it is played, it cannot be reversed. If the world is like a game of chess, all of us and all of our countries are just pawns on the chessboard. ”

Elaine grabbed a black oblate chess piece and placed it on the board.

"I loved swordsmanship when I was alive, but there was no opponent here to practice swordsmanship with me. So, I had to study all kinds of chess and games here for fun. This is my new Oriental chess that I acquired more than ten years ago, and it seems to be more interesting than chess and diplomatic chess. In this game, both sides have to construct their own plans through the falls, encircling and destroying the opponent's strategic plans, so that the opponent's pieces cannot form a string of interconnected pieces. Oriental people call this action 'dragon slaying', which is very vivid, and I think this kind of chess should probably be named 'dragon slaying chess'. Interested in having a plate?"

Bonnie shook her head, didn't sit down, and continued to stand, "The curse here sounds quite similar to the one in the Elven Undead Empire. No wonder the Empire dared to use a necromancer, an immortal, as the Minister of Security, because of your existence. If the entire Ministry of Security was controlled by an undead from another world, it wouldn't sound so dangerous to have an Immortal as Minister of Security. ”

Ai Lian lifted her glasses, and a sharp light flashed in her eyes: "Aha, Miss chess player, you are starting to be divided." I've always needed a security minister who can communicate with the current Empire, even if he's loyal to the Great Wasteland, it doesn't matter to me. It's better for a player who can get a sense of ideas and ideas than someone who doesn't know what they are about. In my current 'dragon', the interests of the Great Wasteland and the Empire are currently aligned. ”

"Aren't you afraid of getting your hands burned, Marquis de Palenia?" Bonnie retorted, "You can't even leave this room, so sure you can play this game well?"

"You don't always win in chess. I just hope that when we win, we can reserve a little bit more resources for the next set, and when we have to lose, we can lose a little less. I could not have imagined that the Unification Church would become a clarion call for an even greater schism, and that when their theology developed again, we would not even be able to find an enemy pope to defeat, and eventually tear the empire apart completely. In the game of the War of Freedom, our Royal Security Department lost badly. ”

"Aren't you afraid of losing even worse if you join forces with the Empire of the Undead?

"I want to make a real peace treaty on the basis of the present, not the current ceasefire that is clearly meant to be torn up. To achieve this goal, I must find a way to weaken the war resources of the Fortiburg Governorship, so that you will seriously negotiate peace, rather than continue to prepare for war. I invite you here to find out what your purpose is in this game of chess, and I don't know what your purpose is when you build such a huge chain in the countries of the South, and you don't hand it over to the Directory. If we don't have that much conflict of purpose, maybe we can reach a new situation, and we don't have to slay the dragon to win the battle. ”

From behind the lenses of Elaine's glasses, a sharp gaze shot out like a sharp sword. It seems that the marquis's hobby was sword training back then, probably true, Bonnie thought.

"If I said that my purpose was to save the world, would you believe it?"

"When I was twenty years old, I believed I was fighting for justice. Until now. For the first time, a smile tugged at the corner of Elaine Pareña's mouth, "But it's not your purpose that matters, it's what you want to do." I guess you want to destroy the entire trade route through the Great Wasteland, right? the trade route that connects the whole world. ”

Bonnie shook her head, "It's not that I'm going to destroy. But that trade route must be destroyed. The sea will take the place of land, and even if you succeed in annihilating all of our fleets, the sea trade routes will still replace the land trade routes. The Undead Empire was originally only built on a curse, and once the trade routes disappeared, it would inevitably embark on the path of destruction. I think that the princess of the Corman family has made a better decision than the Marquises. Since the sea trade route is bound to be established, find a way to control a part of it in the hands of the Empire, rather than vainly ally with the elves, living or dead, against us. ”

"Not necessarily, young chess players. Maritime trade is expensive. I've seen more than once that the trade of the Luxinhai and the trade of the Southeast Sea flourished and then disappeared. When the great ships sailed out and never returned, when the greedy rulers of the East and Mulleman began to plunder, maritime trade would disappear, and goods and wealth would continue to pass steadily through the Western Tang and the undead empire. ”

Elaine grabbed a handful of chess pieces, scattered them on the board, and pointed them out to Bonnie.

"Every game is new. Sometimes five or six sons survive, and sometimes dozens of dragons are slaughtered. If I were you, I wouldn't have gambled all this on the maritime trade routes, which, once completed, would surely be an accomplice in the destruction of peace. They will give the phase port too much power and then transport it to Fortiburg and Pyro to become an army. Except for you southerners and the Muremans who fought jihad until they were destitute, no one wanted to see this trade route become so huge. You can get a stable fortune through the church, so why do you have to gamble on it?"

"Because for me it's not a game of chess. Bonnie replied, "Maybe it's a big game for you, but it's not for me." I know that maritime trade will be victorious, just as I know that the Empire will not be able to recover the whole South. Both the Great Wasteland and the Empire's institutions are too fragile to adapt to the times that follow. ”

Elaine Palenia knows the past four hundred years, and unfortunately, Bonnie Sefier knows the next two hundred years. The two women, who were very similar in nature, were separated by a chessboard, and both realized that they could not convince each other.

"It seems that the negotiations have broken down. ”

Elaine sighed and slowly took off her glasses.

When she took off her glasses, she seemed to have become a different person—no, perhaps from a person to a sword.

Bonnie took a deep breath, and all the muscles and nerves in her body tensed. From the moment she set foot on this land, she left every ounce of her strength behind, ready for a big fight when the negotiations broke down.

On one side are the current electors of the goddess of fate, and on the other side are the first Protestant people whose arcane magic has reached the top of the world.

The confrontation between these two top-level magic users was enough to change the laws of this little otherworld.

Not long after entering the first floor of the building, Ionette Hartmann, who was taking part in a test, looked up in amazement. The cardinal realized that he could no longer connect with the power of God.

"What's going on?!It's like all the divine powers of the gods have been cut off and requisitioned by unknown forces!"

He asked in surprise, but no one answered him.

The real hostess of the Royal Department of Security put down her glasses, stood up, and began to clean up the pieces on the table.

Finally, the younger Bonnie lost her breath and said, "You can't keep me in this room. ”

"yes. Elaine picked up the sunspots one by one and replied.

"And you shouldn't be lying, the curse keeps you from old age, but it really shouldn't be without this room. ”

"That's right. The Marquis put a chess piece in her hand into a wooden box.

Bonnie was momentarily speechless. The belief in the other party was as sharp as a sword, but the answer was so bland that she couldn't figure out how to continue the conversation for a while.

"Uh, so what about ......? what happens after the negotiations break down?"

"Now that the negotiations have broken down, of course we have to finish this game. I can't keep you, so you just go back, or do you want to talk to me about something?"

"No, then why did you take off your glasses?"

"Oh, I'm trying to suggest you don't destroy my room. It's a hassle to fix. ”

Hearing this, Bonnie was stunned for another moment, then turned her head and walked out of the room.

"It feels like you've lost a hand......"

Bonnie grunted, quickly finding a security analyst and letting him lead the way to the teleportation location.

Teleportation anchors are the Empire's system, full of Empire-specific codes and drawing techniques that Bonnie can't fully master, but that doesn't prevent her from returning to her original world.

But at this time, she realized a huge problem -

The Empire's teleportation anchor system is of course different from that of the Republics. The Royal Department of Security has several teleportation locus, but of course does not include phase ports. From the time Bonnie was forcibly pulled into the Atlas, it was impossible for her to return to Phase Harbor in the first place.

"Well, it really made her win first. ”

Not to mention approaching Phase Port, she didn't even have the password to decipher the few positioning coordinates close to the core of the empire.

The anchors you can choose can be counted on two hands, and each one looks so remote.

"Forget it...... Take your pick. ”

She complained, completing the magic of returning to her original world.

By this time, it was already completely dark.

A chill hit Bonnie. Cold, very cold.

"Ahh

Bonnie Seiffel sneezed sharply.

There seems to be something wet on the tip of the nose. She blinked, making sure she wasn't feeling wrong.

It's snowing here. Although she couldn't see the snowflakes because it was a dark night, it felt like snow was right under her feet. It seems that this is a far, far place to the north, which is very different from the warm climate of early spring in the subtropical phase port.

"I'm afraid this is the northern border of the Empire...... It seems a bit far to get back to Phase Port from here, right?

Bonnie smiled wryly, patted the snowflakes off her body, and walked to the nearest place where she could see the light. At least not in the middle of nowhere, or in abandoned ghost towns.

"However, the battle over there should have been won, and even if I can't go back for a while, there shouldn't be any problem, right?"

Bonnie said to herself optimistically.

What she didn't know was that at the moment, Naimon was frantically hoping that she would be able to rush back to Phase Port as soon as possible.

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