The hotel has a very special position in the country, and in almost every medieval or Western fantasy novel, the protagonists of the story will always sit in the hotel, meet all kinds of people, come into contact with all kinds of things, fill their stomachs with ale, bread, and barbecue, and rest for a night and set off.

Even most of the time, the protagonists recruit teammates not in the Adventurer's Guild, but in the hotel.

Is there something wrong with the protagonists' brains?

Actually, no, the real reason is that the inn (bar) is more suitable for recruiting partners than the adventurer's guild, because the innkeeper has a much more reliable network than the adventurer's guild, and he can always help you find the right teammates and provide the right guarantee.

Similarly, a large carriage inn such as the Karan Hotel is actually more than an ordinary hotel.

Owned by innkeeper Tamar Joa, the three-metre-walled fortress not only serves as a hotel and tavern, but also serves as a cargo depot and part of a trusted supply chain.

The innkeeper is also a businessman and a part-time notary, and also provides custody services similar to those of a bank.

The inn was also a trading center, especially in the wilderness, where merchants often carried out some trading activities, and the inn was also a post station, where the kingdom's messengers would stop, and the patrolling army would rest here.

Finally, the inn is also an important place for social exchange in the country, where people socialize, share each other's observations, exchange each other's opinions, and are a hotbed of culture and politics, and some secret societies often appear in hotels, bathhouses, and other places.

This is true of the kingdom, in the Middle Ages and even in modern times.

"When the German ...... comes from the tavern"

———— classic joke

Sometimes these associations are good and beneficial, for example, the priests of Ilmat, the most revered god of suffering, often appear in the inn to collect money from the rich and give magic and necessary alms to the poor.

Sometimes these associations tend to engage in clandestine activities, such as the evil priests who are always trying to please their gods at the expense of causing unrest.

To sum up, innkeepers who own a large inn have a very considerable position in the kingdom, they are often very charismatic and influential, they are all local stars, they are the elite of the city, they are powerful allies or at least servants of the local nobility, they also act as guarantors, notaries, and brokers.

So when Tamar Joya, the half-elf innkeeper, took Aaron's arm and wanted to introduce him to the people in the hotel lobby, Aaron had to give him this face.

Pushing open the door of the hotel, there were about twelve to fifteen long tables in the wide and far-reaching lobby, and at least thirty travelers were enjoying dinner in the lobby, including three elves, who looked like day elves from Comanso, this group of racists, who had always been known for their arrogance, couldn't help but look at the radiant Aaron a few more times, and was amazed, thinking that there were not no handsome guys and beauties in the human race, but relatively few.

Candles and kerosene lamps had been lit in the hall, and Aaron was amazed at how high the ceiling was in the lobby, and there was a magnificent crystal chandelier, and the smell of ale, food, and the smell of rotting wood and human excrement, a complex smell mixed with sweat, urine, bad breath, and fox odor.

The innkeeper had tried his best to mix the scent with rose petals and lavender, but Aaron had noticed at a glance that Miss Priest, who had a strong sense of perception, frowned.

The last Salian stood under the chandelier and greeted the people in the hotel.

"Dragons fly over Cormier, horses gallop through the birch forest, Aaron Salian, son of Manuel, greetings to all of you in the inn, Cormier welcomes you!"

His charisma quickly overwhelmed most of the people present, and when he expressed his hope that everyone would have a pleasant evening, there was even intermittent applause on the dozen or so long wooden tables.

By this time it was completely dark outside, and the bard, who had been interrupted by Aaron's appearance, was playing the tambra and oud and telling the famous epic poem "The Affair between the Archmage Ilminster and Queen Hembo".

Ilminster is a legendary wizard known to everyone in the whole country, the elect of the second generation of the goddess of magic, and the owner of the silver fire.

The Bard tells the epic story of the legendary Grand Wizard, how, in a turbulent year, he used the power of the second generation of the Goddess of Magic to defeat Bane, slay Mirkor, and lead peace against evil.

However, the bard has only briefly said this part of what Aaron wanted to hear.

On the contrary, how Ilminster hooked up with Queen Simb, one of the seven sisters of the Northland, how to use various drugs, and how to use the "giant magic" on himself to let Queen Hembo know that he was not old, but he explained in great detail.

Especially in the process of the two people hooking up, the glamorous but always dressed in tattered clothes, the unkempt Queen Agolaron, the mysterious Northland One of the Seven Sisters of the North, and Ilminster, the legendary wizard who has been active in the mortal world for more than a thousand years and left countless epic myths, how the two hooked up, how the sky thundered and caught fire, how to have a tryst in the Comanso Forest, how to enjoy a vacation in the valley, that is a detail.

The bard even made a few ambiguous gestures on stage, which immediately aroused applause from the audience.

Aaron smiled helplessly and had to applaud along.

He was really, genuinely interested in the famous figure of Ilminster.

In his previous life, he didn't know much about the forgotten realms, except for the well-known gods and the turbulent years that almost every author would write about, Netheril, there were actually only two people he had heard of in the official Forgotten Realms, one was Trist, the drow elven ranger, and the other was Ilminster, the great sage of the Shadow Valley.

Triste in the online article hardly has any appearances, and it seems that the authors don't like him very much.

As for Ilminster, the evaluation of the great sage of the Shadow Valley in the online article is seriously differentiated.

Some writers consider Ilminster to be a great sage, a guardian of peace, a great mage, who played a pivotal role in many major events, and can be called the white-robed Gandalf of the kingdom.

Some authors believe that Ilminster is an iron waste coward, he obviously has the love and power of the goddess of magic but almost no action, as one of the top wizards in the kingdom, he rarely takes action in person when he is older, always appointing and guiding novices to send them to death, usually this great sage always hides in the wizard's tower in his shadow valley to enjoy tobacco and wine, and the long life brought by the divine power of the goddess of magic.

Aaron wanted to hear the story of Ilminster, not the lace of Ilminster!

Aaron ignored Miss Pastor's unapproachable aura and pulled her to sit down in the corner of the lobby, smiling all the time.

She wanted to hammer him, she wanted to.

"You guys love this bite, don't you?" Miss Pastor was obviously in a bad mood because of what had happened before, and even through the mask, Aaron could feel the displeasure in her tone.

Not far away, Ferrara, Montero and the others were clearly elated, and they were in a very good mood and shouted loudly that they must let the bard describe what position Queen Hembo preferred, and one after another gold coins bearing the headcard of the former king Yasan IV were thrown on the table, and the bard smiled with joy.

"Or else?" Aaron motioned for the waiter to come up and order, and Viscount Sarian, who was handsome and handsome, with a purple-gray light in his eyes, asked with a smile: "Then you asked the bard to talk about the operation of the Great Sage, the magic of the Great Sage, and how the Great Sage mediates the major forces and balances good and evil through the alliance of harpists, do they understand?" Even if they can understand it, do they like it? ”

Miss Pastor was silent, she pursed her beautiful cherry lips, nodded unwillingly, and looked at the bard, who had won a lot of applause and a lot of rewards: "I know, he wants to eat, he wants to live." ”

More than eighty percent of the human race in the kingdom are illiterate, and the highest literacy rate in the entire kingdom is Deep Water City and Silvermoon City of the Northland Lords Alliance, and the literacy rate in those two places can be more than forty percent, and the rest are also illiterate.

Things that are too complicated, those esoteric magic, those intricate forces, people don't understand and don't like to hear them.

Aaron didn't say any more, he handed the menu to Eleanor from the waiter: "If you want to eat something, just order, it's okay." ”

"Just point, are you sure?" Miss Pastor took the menu, and at first glance she saw the first line of the recommended list on the menu.

"Fine Jam Ginger Bread - Imported from the Xianglong Empire, 2 Gold Lion Dollars per Ounce."

In the kingdom, bread is divided into eight grades, and the hard, dry, and unpalatable brown bread that many people are familiar with is not even the lowest food.

The best bread is made with rich dough, fermented with finely selected pure wheat flour, spices, butter, and jam, and a fluffy and delicious "queen bread" with a sweet and delicate taste.

Later, with the degree of selection of wheat flour, the grade of bread decreases in order, the less wheat flour, the more bran, the more barley flour, the harder and darker the bread, and finally the familiar black bread.

However, brown bread is not the worst bread, because there is rye under the barley, buckwheat and oats under the rye, and even "dark bread" made of peas, ferns, soil, wood chips, and acorns under the buckwheat and oats, which is really the lowest food.

Miss Pastor, who had always been sustained by vegetable porridge, fish, cured meat, fruits, and brown bread, retracted her hand when she saw this high-grade bread as if it had been bitten by a poisonous snake, and she thought to herself how many poor people could be saved if this ginger bread could be replaced with the same amount of ordinary black bread.

As soon as she thought of this, Miss Pastor looked at Aaron differently.

It's the enemy!

Aaron, it's the enemy!

"Don't look at me like that." Aaron raised an eyebrow: "I remember that the most high-end cheese popular in the kingdom seems to be the 'Death Cheese' made by the Monks of the Silver Lady in the swamps on the border between Zambia and Cormier, right?" You sell it so expensively, you can't buy a piece for 5 gold lion coins, and when I was a child, I could only cut a small piece on the Holy Day of the Silver Lady at home. ”

"The lucrative profits from Death Cheese are an important source of income for the branch of Our Lady of Silver here in Cormyr, right?"

Miss ............" Miss Pastor was so blocked that she couldn't speak again, she was so angry that she made random comparisons on the menu for a while, and then sneered: "You're really not afraid of me messing around? I remember someone confessing at the door of my lord's altar that you can't afford to pay for miracles, and what rich people are you here now? ”

"You're right, but I'm on business." Aaron's fingers were interlocked, and there was a sly glint in his eyes: "My food expenses can be accounted for, and then the royal family will write them off for me." ”

Our Lady of Silver! I want to hammer him now! Right now!!!

The menu was thrown on the table, and Miss Pastor's attitude changed: "No, I'll just order my own." ”

"Then let's have two servings according to the knight's standard set meal, oh yes, my one has a little more bread and two glasses of mead." Aaron handed the menu back to the waiter.

"Miss Eleanor, your funds are not blown by the Goddess of the Wind, we must learn to use our limited funds in critical places." Aaron said kindly, "How about even my insignificant gratitude for your life-saving grace?" I beg you, a good body, rich nourishment, so that we can better serve the great Silver Lady. ”

"All for the sake of the Great Silver Madonna, eat, Lady Eleanor, it is our duty!"

Miss "............" found herself speechless that day than she had been the year before.

She knew that Aaron was playing with words, but she couldn't find a point to refute it, and she even knew that Aaron was helping her make excuses.

Let's eat, let's eat, Miss Pastor is tired.

The waiter was soon served two knightly standard meals: roast lamb with onions, rabbit soup with beans, leeks, bacon, corn cheese, fluffy and delicious butter bread, two large glasses of mead, and pickled pear pudding with cinnamon cloves.

After the meal began, neither of them spoke again, except for the sound of the bard's music, the laughter of the people in the lobby, and the footsteps of the waiters.

Out of the sight of Miss Pastor, Aaron put away the smile on his face.

Although he had speculated before, today's encounter made him figure out some of his problems.

He can't increase his power by killing.

After crossing over, many people are bound to abilities like "Children of Killing", and they can gain power and improve their strength by constantly killing.

Aaron didn't, because Slaanesh didn't like to fight, he didn't like to kill, and the Prince of Pleasure saw killing as a low, boring experience, so killing was meaningless to Aaron unless it gave him a fresh experience and a sense of near-death crisis.

So how can Aaron improve his strength?

Today's encounter has already illustrated: when Aaron killed the jackals with a magic missile, he found that he didn't get any improvement, but when Ferrara and the others looked at him with adoring eyes, he felt that he had absorbed some of the chaotic energy.

When the bard recounts the legendary epic of Ilminster on stage, Aaron's body is even more restless, and this restlessness does not come from Aaron, but from the power of Slaanesh within him.

This feeling of fame in the world, Slaanesh likes!

Slaanesh likes to be famous, likes to tell his story everywhere, likes to show his coquettish deeds to others, and likes to have people tell his legend in every corner of the kingdom.

Slaanesh wanted Aaron to be the prettiest boy in the kingdom, like Ilminster.

Slaanesh wants Aaron to go to Oita and become famous! This will increase his power and unlock more of Slaanesh's powers!

This is almost the opposite of Aaron's plan at the beginning to "hold on to stable development and come out to play a group later".

But does Aaron have a choice?

He didn't have any choice, he knew that there was a price to use the power of chaos, and he knew that the power of chaos was a glass of highly poisonous wine, a chronic poison that could quench his thirst, and he could only drink it.

It's a race to the ground, and either he'll succeed in absorbing the power of the four gods with the Chaos Priesthood before they can find him, or he'll end up with destruction.

So Aaron hadn't communicated much with Miss Pastor before, but after meeting Ferrara, he would tease Miss Pastor from time to time, annoying her, making her angry, and making her speechless.

This thrilling sensation, Slaanesh likes!

I'm not afraid of you crying, I'm not afraid of you laughing, I'm afraid that you won't cry or laugh!

And...... Miss Pastor is indeed quite cute, Aaron thought to himself, thinking that Miss Pastor was undoubtedly sent by the Church of Our Lady of Silver to spy on him, if the relationship between the two sides is bad, he will be restrained in whatever he does next, on the contrary, if he can get Miss Pastor, what he has to do will be much easier.

Now that I've broken Miss Pastor's mental defenses, it's time for the second step of the plan......

Thinking for a long time, knowing the thirst for thought, only the holy Tzeent, don't be trapped!

While Aaron was thinking about his "big plan", something changed in the hotel lobby.

While the bard was going down to rest, a young man in a gray robe with a string of tooth pendants on his chest rushed to the stage, and he shouted at the crowd with his fist at the sight.

"Cormiers, glorious Cormiers, please listen to me!"

"Today, I stand here to warn you and advise you with my heartfelt truth."

"Our nation is losing its centripetal force!"

"The despicable Alice Serre, the regent of Susar, is depriving us of our freedom, of our pride, of the dignity that belongs to us Cormiers!"

"We are not slaves of the royal family, we are free ......"

The young man was halfway through his sentence when two heavily armed guards suddenly appeared and pressed him directly to the floor, gagging him with a ball of rags.

"Queen's Blade, sir, please come with us."

"Woo woo ~ you don't have the right to do this...... I...... Woo woo woo ~ "The young man was knocked unconscious by the two queens' people with old punches, and then he was dragged away.

Aaron tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Is there really German in the beer hall?

However, this was not the end, and a bureaucrat in a clearly higher rank, flamboyant military uniform, stepped out of the inside of the lobby and came to Aaron.

"Luckily, Queen's Blade, Captain, Hendry."

"Your Excellency Viscount Aaron Sallian, regarding your mission this time, we have received an anonymous report that you are suspected of colluding with the Dark Sun or even some outside the realm to murder the War Mage Apprentice Hicks and the Patrol Leader Volcker."

"Could you please cooperate with our investigation and answer a few questions?"