When Tails was escorted out of Mindis Hall by Gilbert and Ginny with serious expressions, he had no idea what was happening. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"What's wrong?" For the first time in twenty days, Tails stepped out of the cedar door of the Mindis Hall, looking at the familiar dark carriage with a puzzled expression.

"Gilbert will explain it to you. Ji Ni's unsmiling appearance made him nervous, and she shook the whip in her hand, jumped lightly into the driver's seat, and replied briefly: "All you have to do is get in the car immediately." ”

Tails turned his head in confusion, and the middle-aged nobleman took out a boarding bench out of nowhere and gently placed it on the ground.

"Please, little sir. ”

"Ms. Jenny doesn't like to sit in the car. I'm sorry, but you have to put up with an old man like me in the same car with you. Gilbert's attempts to unleash his humor failed completely, and even two horses could sense that he was preoccupied and deliberately avoided him.

This is...... What's wrong?

Restless and apprehensive, Tails stepped onto the boarding bench and carriage pedals, and glanced back at the guards in the Mindis Hall, seeing that they had no intention of leaving with him. As if sensing Tails' gaze, the swordsmen led by Jorah bowed their heads in respect.

"They're not going to go with us – a carriage, it's more low-key. Gilbert said lightly.

Tails looked at the extremely solemn expressions of the two, resisted the desire to get to the bottom of the matter, and only asked: "Let's set off this time...... Will you be back?"

"It depends on Your Majesty's will," Gilbert's tone was somewhat heavy, "with all due respect, but we must set out as soon as possible." ”

How serious is it?

Tails said no more, and simply sat into the carriage, followed by Gilbert who gently closed the door.

In the dimly lit carriage, there are still crimson sofas from twenty days ago, glass embellished with crystals, carriages decorated with nine-pointed star coats of arms, and glowing luminous paint.

Ginny's whip was light and rhythmic, but it was much faster and, of course, much more bumpy than the last time Gilbert had been on the wheel.

As the carriage tossed up and down, Gilbert watched the moonlit Mindish Hall fade out of the window, and looked solemnly at Tails.

"Time is of the essence, so I choose to focus on it. ”

Aside from the conversation in the back room, Tails had never seen Gilbert so serious, which made him nervous.

"The envoys of the Kingdom of Exeter are scheduled to visit the stars around the New Year. The middle-aged aristocrat looked at Tails earnestly.

Tails narrowed his eyes, trying to remember the history of the continent in the past twenty days.

Kingdom of Exeter.

The human hero of the End, the nation founded by Necaju Aix in the Northlands.

The Dragon of the North, the Land of Heroes, the Blade of the Western Land, and the Northern Neighbor of the Stars.

Gilbert solemnly continued: "There is urgent news from the north: three days ago, the Exeter mission was on its way south to the Central Consulate...... They were all robbed and killed, and none of them were spared. ”

Tails' eyes widened in disbelief.

"The slain included six Exeter nobles, as well as ...... Prince Moral Walton. Gilbert sighed:

"He is King Exeter and Grand Duke of Dragons, the only son of Nune VII, the heir of the Walton family, and the next Grand Duke of Dragons. ”

The traverser gasped.

The first power in the Western Continent, the only son of the king, and the heir to the territory.

Robbed and killed in the realm of the stars?

"Including the accompanying star nobles, there was no living mouth at the scene, no clues, only a line of blood words poured on the ground with the blood of the victims......"

Gilbert looked directly into Tails' eyes, nodded slightly with a worried face, and said, "If the stars are there, the empire will live forever." ”

The family motto of the Bright Star Royal Family?

Tails was stunned.

"This kind of clumsiness and naivety is obviously a means of blaming the blame and sowing discord between the two countries......" Tails pondered the nature of the matter, but he suddenly realized something, and raised his head in disbelief and asked, "Is it really useful?"

"It's unfortunate - it works, and it's bad. Gilbert whispered.

Terrible?, Tails thought to himself.

The carriage drove out of the Twilight District, onto King Street, towards the Central District.

King Street is one of the largest streets in Yongxing City, second only to the central district in the north as a transportation hub, Xingju Square, where merchants and shops from all over the world gather, and a large market where residents of the lower classes on the side of the West City Gate gather.

Unlike the roads in the XC and West Ring districts, which are still lit with torches and animal oil lamps, King's Street is lit with the second most inextinguishable lights of the Dongcheng district, and there are gradually more and more pedestrians on the road, from the bards who sell their arts, the softly shouting shopkeepers (some of which do their business at night, such as ready-to-wear shops and watch shops, which are still open), to the domestic servants of the nobles hurrying to and fro, the officials who come and go for entertainment, and even the real nobles passing by in horse-drawn carriages or on foot.

Here, their carriage is inconspicuous.

Nestled on the border between Twilight and Central, King Street has a high proportion of the wealthy and wealthy classes, and is more conservative and quiet than the Starry Square and Grand Bazaar that Tails has seen, less noisy and bustling with the bustle of the former and the rude and cheesy of the latter, but even here you can see ragged beggars and homeless people on both sides of the road, groaning and reaching out to passers-by.

Fortunately, the carriage was equipped with one-way glass, so it was not afraid of being detected from outside.

But Tails' mind was on Gilbert's words at the moment, and he glanced at the street scenes.

The words of the former Foreign Secretary continue to ring in his ears:

"The key lies in the Peace of the Fortress. ”

"At the end of the Scarlet Year, Exeter invaded, the Broken Dragon Fortress fell, and most of the stars fell into war from the north, cliffs, western wilderness to the East China Sea. The major generals were weak, and the kingdom was almost desperate, and His Majesty, who had just succeeded to the throne, even considered conscripting children under the age of fourteen into the army. ”

Gilbert breathed a long sigh of relief, his eyes wandering, as if he remembered the beacon years.

"Out of the fear of the Northern Dragons of the Western Continents, and the concern of the Eastern Continent and Himble for the affairs of the Western Continent, we tried our best to mediate diplomatically and seek the intervention of the Powers, and finally forced Exeter's troops to retreat and sign a peace treaty, and Exeter was even forced to vomit out a wasteland occupied by the stars before the Year of Blood. ”

"I was a signatory of the Peace of the Fortress and know all too well about it. ”

Tails' eyes lit up: "We lost the war, but we won the negotiations?"

Kilbert nodded, but his face was not relaxed: "That's bad—it's not so much a peace treaty as a record of humiliation." ”

The carriage drove forward a little further, and there were many more beggars on the road, and some even stretched out their hands to Ji Ni, who was the driver, but the cold-faced court lady ignored them, and the horsewhip became more and more brisk.

"At a time when the riches of the land were within reach, the combined powers forced a truce or even a landstake was more shameful than losing a war—many of the lords of Exeter, especially the Grand Dukes bordering the stars in the south, were so angry that the Peace Treaty even shook the rule of King Nunn for a time. In the past ten years, the relationship between the dragon and the stars has been below freezing, coupled with the discovery of a large number of new leachite deposits in the north, and the deep sea whale group in the East China Sea, which is rich in oil sources......"

Gilbert sighed.

Exeter, a nation and a nation still in the making - Tails said in his heart: war is needed to forge out the whole community of nations.

"The lords of Exeter, at least the three archdukes bordering us, are eagerly awaiting war—they are longing for the vast lands, resources, and riches that were at their fingertips twelve years ago, but ultimately lost. ”

Gilbert shook his head and looked out the window, his eyes revealing sadness:

That is why the Exeter mission came to visit, and they were bound to rebuild the Fortress Peace Treaty, and they wanted to redefine the border between the two countries. ”

"And now, the envoys were robbed and killed halfway before they reached Eternal Star City—can you imagine what it would be like when the news came back to Exeter?"

The carriage jolted over an uneven surface, and the whole carriage shook.

Tails frowned: "Do you think it was the lords of Exeter who planned this robbery?

Gilbert looked up, his gaze very intimidating at this moment.

"It's worse than that. The former foreign secretary said coldly: "Exeter has adopted a system of electing kings, with the great lords voting for the kings - the Waltons have been sitting on the throne for two generations in recent decades - and Nunn VII is by no means a beloved beauty." ”

Tails said suddenly: "So, this is the common need of some lords of Exeter to ask for resources externally and fight for a change of king internally?"

"Near, little gentleman, one step further, one step forward. Gilbert carefully guided the kingdom's only bright star bloodline, and said indifferently:

"In the period between the assassination of the legation and the consequences, the pressure of this matter will be placed entirely on the shoulders of His Majesty Kessel. How to decide, how to respond, whether to fight or to make peace, how to do it, how to be tough and weak, glorious and humiliated, all the responsibilities are borne by His Majesty - from now on, all the nobles of Xingchen will have their eyes firmly fixed on the Fuxing Palace. ”

"What do you mean?" Tails asked, puzzled—even if he was a genius, he was not in the context of aristocratic rules and could not understand the meaning of the matter.

At that moment, Gilbert's eyes suddenly became complex and profound, making Tails unpredictable.

"First of all, although the handling of this matter is complicated, whether it is war or peace, Your Majesty cannot escape the accusation of being cold-blooded and ruthless, unsympathetic to the people, or weak and bullying and insulting the stars, which will greatly deal a blow to Your Majesty and the Bright Star Royal Family, the prestige and authority in the country. ”

Tails' pupils narrowed suddenly—he began to understand what he meant by "worse than that."

"Secondly, to deal with this important matter, whether it is military mobilization or national decision-making, it requires a force far beyond the territory directly under the royal family, and it requires the cooperation of the entire star, and the cooperation of the lords, which means that Your Majesty must obtain the full support of the lords, especially the six great families and the thirteen wang clans, and this is by no means without a price!"

The price - Tails was shocked - for example, the next candidate for the High King of the Stars?

"Again, there are pros and cons to war, not only to bring about a crisis, but also to bring about a re-washing of power in the country of the stars - after the baptism of war, the weak are eliminated, the old are out of place, the strong are born, and the living are stronger - some lords usher in the end, and the other part is reborn. ”

Under Gilbert's burning gaze, Tails sat in the carriage in a daze, feeling the jolts and vibrations.

"In the end, the royal family has no heirs, and the stars have had no heirs for twelve years," Gilbert's voice rose sharply: "What could be more powerful than an imminent crisis in the kingdom to force His Majesty to choose an heir early, leaving a way out for a possible war?

Silent.

Tails stared out the window blankly.

He understood what Gilbert meant.

It's just that he was shocked by the fact that he was brain-burning and scary, and he couldn't let go of it for a long time.

Gilbert looked at his expression and shook his head slightly.

Hopefully, this cruel and bloody game for thousands of years will not deter this clever and gifted little gentleman.

It was a long time before Tails spoke dumbly

"So, it's not just Exeter's will: war and a change of king. It is also the will of many people in the country of Xingchen: to compete for the royal family. Tails struggled to make up the final conclusion:

"The assassination of the envoys was the result of a combination of many political factors...... It is something that will inevitably happen under the tacit agreement of the careerists of the two countries......"

"yes. Tails spat out the last two words, using an affirmative sentence.

Gilbert looked at his state worriedly, blinked hesitantly, and still spoke: "In view of the current situation of the royal family, your presence and appearance, whether facing the lords at home or Exeter internationally, will become the target of public criticism - for your safety, I will advise Your Majesty to postpone the recognition of your ......"

"Is it worth it?" Tails didn't pay attention to Gilbert's words, and he interrupted the middle-aged nobleman with a soft voice.

Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of person would expect and hope for war?" Tails asked feebly.

"It's not a game of eating each other's children on a chessboard," Tails slowly closed his eyes and clenched his fists: "This is war, it's two groups of living people, standing face to face, reasonably and legally, depriving each other of their lives, until one is completely deprived...... War. ”

"They have experienced the catastrophe of the bloody year, why are there still people looking forward to war?"

"Just for a crown, for the sake of authority and power in a ruined and decaying kingdom, in a barren and starving land, among a numb people, and then to reign in a miserable, fearful, and suspicious manner for twenty years, and then to impose the same misfortune on his own descendants?"

"Is it worth it?"

Gilbert tried to answer, but was momentarily speechless.

Tails, who had no answer, shook his head with a low expression.

However, this is probably history.

History of human behavior.

There was silence in the carriage again.

As the carriage drove away from the hustle and bustle of King's Street, there were more and more beggars outside the carriage, and Ginny had to use a horsewhip to scare them away.

"It's not just war," Gilbert said softly, looking at his students with a worried face, "it's politics." ”

"We are all gamblers who aim for power. ”

"Land and people are nothing more than bargaining chips that can be exchanged. ”

"Between winning and losing, it's just a transfer of chips. ”

"This is the game of the aristocracy and the state. ”

Tails raised his gaze and chuckled helplessly: "Yes, war is a continuation of politics - a game of thrones, a feast for crows." ”

But I don't like that.

In his heart, a voice whispered.

The traverser's eyes shifted to the window of the car, where a beggar reached out with a sad face and felt for the axle.

Looking at the beggars in the royal capital, Tails thought in a deep voice: This is already a ruined kingdom -

Wait a minute!

The carriage passed by a bright, inextinguishable lamp, and Tails focused his eyes on the beggar's hand for an instant.

It was a pair of rough, calloused hands.

But instead of being evenly distributed in the areas where the palms of laborers and beggars habitually touch and bear weight, the calluses are concentrated around the thumb and forefinger, and near the mouth of the tiger.

His brain spun into action.

He had also seen such a unique cocoon in the hands of another person.

Yara Saleton.

Tails was startled and turned to another beggar, then a third, then a fourth......

"Gilbert!"

The middle-aged aristocrat looked puzzled.

I saw Tails say quietly:

"Something is wrong. ”

"These people are not beggars. ”

The traverser takes a deep breath:

"They...... They are ......"

Yodel's hoarse voice came from the void, and he took his words:

"It's an assassin. ”

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Thank you for the reward from the "Broken Strings" at the starting point!