Port Lyon was originally a chaotic port, with a mix of civil, dock and affluent areas, with no street parks or city squares, and although the city was very commercial, it was very uninhabitable.

However, with the expansion of the deep-water terminal, the port area has also undergone a large-scale renovation, with the replanning of the urban areas such as the common, commercial, affluent and garden districts, and the construction of better sewers in the process of renovation, so that the port of Lyon does not have the same sewage flow as before.

Located on the south side of the port area, next to the garden area and backed by a large area of virgin forest, the rich area has a separate rich wharf, which can be said to be the best residential area in the port area. The vast majority of the people who buy houses in this area are not natives of Port Lyon, but more of them are directors or wealthy businessmen of various chambers of commerce in Port Lyon.

Although the overall national strength of the United Kingdom has not only not weakened, but has also increased a lot after losing the area north of the Dibia Mountains, as if it has lost a big burden, for ordinary people, the loss of such a large piece of land and such an important city without resistance to the United Kingdom is a great defeat that shakes the foundation of the country. And this sentiment has also affected businessmen abroad.

The port of Lyon, which is dominated by foreign maritime trade, has been most affected, with almost no villas and apartments in the merchant district, and only a few servants in charge of cleaning and maintenance remaining, and most of the directors have temporarily left the country under various pretexts, and it seems that they will not return until the situation has completely calmed down.

However, at the same time, there are some adventurous and business-minded businessmen who remain, because they know that the more turbulent the place, the more opportunities there are to make money and make a lot of money.

In order to avoid conflicts with those local snake chambers of commerce, which caused unnecessary losses, the Gude Chamber of Commerce did not get involved in the transactions of various strategic materials with the greatest interests like other chambers of commerce, but focused on those who fled and focused on the wealth of the refugees.

Before the city of Miria was completely blockaded by the Imperial army, the wealthy and scholars of Miria City, who had not had time to flee to the south, took refuge in the port of Leon on the west side, where they prepared to wait for the situation to calm down before returning to Miria City.

However, as the Empire showed its determination to completely destroy the city of Miria, these wealthy people and scholars all chose to leave by boat, and the port of Lyon, which was facing north and south from the port of Leon, became the most suitable refuge landing spot.

With the exception of a few who had relatives in the cantons and counties of Lancy who were able to leave, the rest of the merchants and scholars who were born and raised in Miria were confined to the port of Lyon because of British control.

Fortunately, as long as the businessman has enough money on hand and relies on his previous connections, he can do some small business in the port of Lyon and establish himself in the port of Lyon for the time being. Those scholars are miserable, they hardly know any other skills to make a living except for academic research, which makes their lives even more difficult.

The Gude Chamber of Commerce saw the business opportunities in these fleeing businessmen and scholars, and purchased the valuables on hand from the fleeing merchants at a low price, which was the first transaction, and then took advantage of the convenience of the chamber of commerce to do business with these fleeing merchants, and collected the funds for the purchase of valuables, and also borrowed closer business relations to bring these businessmen into the influence circle of the Gude Chamber of Commerce, and strengthened the heritage of the Gude Chamber of Commerce.

Although the fleeing merchants seem to be very depressed now, they are only a temporary bad luck, once these merchants are given a chance, these merchants can quickly recover, and investing in these merchants is definitely a profitable industry.

As for the scholars, they are the best commodities in themselves, and in the United Kingdom, there are a large number of merchants who are willing to pay a lot of money to hire a scholar from the city of Miria to be their tutor, business consultant, etc., and the Goode Chamber of Commerce has established an intermediary company for the fleeing scholars in the first place, and is willing to lend money to those scholars for free even before they are hired, so as to maintain the living needs of those scholars.

Through some means, the relationship between the Chamber of Commerce and these scholars is brought closer, and then these scholars are indirectly influenced by the merchants who employ them, so as to expand the influence of the Gude Chamber of Commerce.

Although this will be a loss-making business for a while, the potential benefits are enormous, at least so that the Goode Chamber of Commerce, which has just established itself in the port of Lyon, can have access to high-level officials such as the United Kingdom General Chamber of Commerce in a short period of time, and obtain some lucrative business opportunities from these high-level executives.

Spike Goode, who is the decision-maker of the UK Goode Chamber of Commerce, has single-handedly led the Chamber's business expansion plans in the United Kingdom, and has successfully run the United Kingdom branch, which is considered a burden by all members of the Goode family, and it will not be long before it becomes one of the best branch chambers of commerce among the Goode family countries.

It's just that Spike Goode is in a very bad mood today, because he just received the news that the men he sent to receive guests in Fog Bay Town found themselves dead in the forest not far from the city, and they have been dead for more than an hour, so he has not even had a chance to send someone to make amends, so he can only sit in the office and wait for the bad news to come.

Ten days ago, an order came from the headquarters of the Gude family in the Moisan Continent, which was stamped with the exclusive seal of the family elders, and was the highest order among all family orders. The order was simple: Spike was to help a scholar leave the United Kingdom and travel to Moissanism to assist in the family's ongoing research on monuments.

As a member of the family's New World faction, Spike is not happy with the old family's obsession with ancient family legends, the remains of ancient civilizations, and so on, and he and the other young people in the family believe that the family's prosperity depends on more modern things, such as the latest steam ships, steam locomotives, and other steam machinery.

So he didn't pay much attention to the order, and it wasn't until he tried to help the scholar get a pass to leave the United Kingdom that he found things unexpectedly difficult.

The United Kingdom seems to be conducting some clandestine research, and it is extremely well guarded, that even if he had only sent someone to inquire about it, he had already lost three of his best men, and had been warned by a well-connected senior United Kingdom member by implication.

And the scholar who was the target of his mission happened to be involved in this research.

Sensing that things are unexpectedly difficult, Spike has to pay attention to the matter himself, and uses all his connections to secretly contact the scholar, reach a cooperation agreement, and then take the scholar out secretly.

Although the matter was troublesome, it went well, and in order to avoid being noticed or even found out to be related to him, he did not dare to send someone to approach the scholar, and always only contacted him indirectly through his client. Late at night, after the client from Button Town put people on the train, they used the latest telegraph to pass the news, and they only needed to go over to pick them up.

Originally, he was going to pick up people in person, but in the early morning, he suddenly got an important news, there was a big customer who wanted to negotiate a huge profit deal, if this deal was negotiated, he Gude Chamber of Commerce might be able to improve by leaps and bounds, so he had to stay in the Chamber of Commerce, waiting for the arrival of that big customer, and he just sent two of his men to meet the scholar.

Looking back now, he felt that the so-called big deal was probably just a fake news, in order to divert his attention, otherwise if he traveled in person, he would have five or six bodyguards with him, and there would be no accident like now.

Spike sat in his office waiting for the bad news to arrive, and the family punishment for himself after his mission failed, the best case scenario was to lower his support level, and the worst was to find someone to replace him in his current position and transfer him back to the family headquarters in Mozambique, so that everything he had done in the United Kingdom for half a year would be in vain.

Just as Spike is nervous, there is a knock on the office door.

"Come in. Spike adjusts his posture and clothing, his heart full of unease, but his face remains flat, and he doesn't want to be abnormal in front of his men even if he hears bad news.

The office door opened, and Assistant Spike walked in and said, "Boss, Mr. Diego has sent a letter to him, he says that Professor Dior Bronno has arrived at the safe house without any problems, and he asks if you have any other arrangements." ”

"Huh?" Spike momentarily wondered if he was hallucinating, and immediately confirmed, "What did you just say? Professor Dio Bronno has made it to the safe house?"

"Yes. Spike's assistant looked at his boss in confusion and handed over the note he had just received.

"Didn't he meet those disguised killers?" Spike, who received an affirmative response, couldn't help but wonder a little in his mind, and took the sticky note and looked at it, and soon he realized that things were not as he thought.

The note stated that Dior Bronno had arrived at the safe house in the Steam Locomotive of the Goode Chamber of Commerce, but the driver who arrived with him was not a subordinate he had sent, nor a killer who had killed his men and disguised himself, but a person he had never heard of, a student of Dio Bronno.

"Dio Bronnor's student?" Spike looked confused. It stands to reason that if there was such a person as a student of Dior Bronno, the client would have mentioned it in all the reports of the exchanges, but the client did not mention this person from beginning to end. This made him wonder if this so-called student would meet on the train.

While this speculation may sound ridiculous, Spike can't think of any other plausible answer.

Moreover, he thought more, such as why the professor and the so-called student drove back to pick him up in the car? This undoubtedly means that the killer who killed his subordinates failed, and what was the reason for the failure? No matter how you think about it, it should not be the scholar professor who only knows how to study ancient civilizations, but the mysterious person who suddenly appeared and became a professor and student.

"Silver Mask. Spike immediately thinks of Silver Mask, the secret service of the United Kingdom, and suspects that his secret act of taking Professor Dio Bronno has alarmed Silver Mask, so they send someone to investigate the matter.

But then he denied this speculation, because according to his understanding, if he was really targeted by the silver mask, the other party would never appear in front of him like this, blatantly investigate, and only secretly collect evidence, and the moment the person in the silver mask appeared in front of him, that is, when the other party made a move.

Spike couldn't help but be curious about the mysterious student, thought about it for a moment, stood up, and instructed the assistant, "All the meetings this morning will be moved to the afternoon, and if you have an appointment, you will arrange another time, unless it is a very important document, let the heads of departments decide for themselves." ”

With that, he took his coat from the hanger, put it on his body, walked out of the office, went downstairs, got into the carriage he had prepared, and drove towards the safe house.

In total, the Chamber of Commerce of Gourde has set up five safe houses in Port Lyon in case of emergency, four of which are located in the quayside area and only one in the wealthy area. The safe house, a private clubhouse ostensibly a meeting place for scholars funded by the Gourde Chamber of Commerce, has recently gained a reputation as one of the few cultural exchange venues in Port-of-Lyon.

Spike was in charge of the safe house, but now it is Diego, a master architect from the Moissanite continent, who has been hired to host the fleeing scholars.

In the family mission he received this time, Diego also contributed a lot, because it was very coincidental that Diego and the target of this mission, Dio Bronor, had been friends for many years, and Dio Bronno would ask Dio Bronno about some classical architectural decorations, and Dio Bronno would also ask Diego to help him find some unique ornaments with civilization characteristics on ancient buildings.

Thanks to Diego's help, Spike was able to find enough leverage to entice Dio Bronno to agree to the family's archaeological mission to Moissan, so Spike also gave the matter to Diego in terms of reception.

Diego didn't know about the accident at the reception, but he sensed that something was wrong from the fact that the person who brought Dio Bronno to the safe house was not from the Goode Chamber of Commerce, but a student of Dior, but the vehicle he was riding in was a steam locomotive of the Goode Chamber of Commerce.

So, after sending someone to tell Spike Goode that the mission target had arrived safely, he went to the room where Dior Bronno was housed and asked what was going on.

Dio Bronno did not hide his friend and told him directly what happened on the road.

"What Wakanha want to assassinate you?" Diego was also a little surprised, and at the same time he stole a glance at Leo, who was admiring the oil painting in the room, surprised both by Leo's status as a student and by his ability to deal with the killer.