Although the two forces of the Dark Night Mask and the Searle Concession, one light and one dark, are directed against each other and indeed break out sharp contradictions, the most direct victim of this conflict is the chaotic Ximen City.

Until the tenth day after the kidnapping of the Dilari Mansion, Simon was still in a boiling turmoil, although the murder of the nobles by the Night King did silence the city for a while, but it did not stop the turmoil - the original hustle and bustle turned into an undercurrent of silence, in fact, the corpses thrown into Simon Harbor every night did not decrease much, from the powerful to the commoners, more and more people chose to leave the city in order to avoid the coming great turmoil - Most of the people who live in such cities have a sensitive sense of crisis, and they know that no matter how long it takes, this day will come.

Merchants who came from far and wide to do business at Ximen also used their keen sense of smell to dock their cargo ships and wagons on the islands or small towns on the way - at least until the situation in Ximen City became clear, they did not dare to come here to make money, they were merchants, not mercenaries, and did not dare to joke with their lives.

However, some mercenaries have smelled the smell of war, and in a few days, dozens of large and small teams of mercenary adventurers have been stationed in the city, numbering more than 100 people - but a series of assassinations have taught these mercenaries that they are not welcome - this is undoubtedly a trick of the Night Mask.

And those who are still in the dire straits of Ximen City, whether they are nobles or the common people, need an opportunity to resolve the turmoil as soon as possible.

But anyone with a discerning eye knows that if you want to solve the turmoil, there are only two ways out, or let the time pass slowly, and the vampires will regain control of Simon in the shadows as before, which is undoubtedly worth looking forward to for the Night King, however, the loss of the duke, the list provided by the Serge Concession has also made the network spread by the Night Mask on the upper layer of the West Gate almost completely torn apart, and the boiling Simon nobles have made Albach's work to reorganize the control network progress extremely slow.

What's more, the nobles were reluctant to be controlled by the vampires, and the Duke's death had made them aware of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the Night Mask had not fully recovered from this series of shocks.

However, the situation was equally awkward for the nobles, because of the vampires' manipulation for several years, there was no leader in Simon's upper echelons with sufficient authority - of course, because of the Night King's ambition to establish a kingdom on the Dragon Coast, and the kidnapping of half of the important people, which made these forces panic day and night, and other powerful people were managing civil strife in their homes or dealing with vampires, in short, it seemed unrealistic to expect this scattered sand to fight bravely and break free from the control of the vampires.

As time passed, the situation became more and more favorable to the vampires, and the scattered nobles also realized that they needed to gather and seize the opportunity to drive away this group of dark forces that had haunted Simon like a nightmare for so long.

But the question remains, who is authoritative enough to be the leader of Simon's upper echelons?

And before that, there are more important issues waiting to be solved.

That group of unlucky nobles was still imprisoned in the Serre Concession and needed to be rescued.

Until their problems are satisfactorily resolved, the upper echelons of the West Gate will probably not be able to settle down.

At this time, the person who can solve the problem will of course receive special attention from the nobles of Simon, and after the initial panic, the nobles who have calmed down turn their attention to Lady Vika Edmont.

Because the Seer Concession spoke: If you want to redeem those nobles, you must first settle all the disputes between Ximen and the Sere Concession.

As we all know, the most recent dispute between Simon and the Serre Concession was the blockade of the Serre Concession triggered by the Assassination of the Sermons in Edmont House, and the key person to end this dispute was the lady of the Edmont family. ...,

If this lady is willing to settle this dispute, she will certainly gain a higher prestige.

Of course, the Vampire King will not let the conflict between the upper echelons of Simon be resolved, and in the past few days, several waves of Assassins have visited the Edmont Mansion, but their goal is very cunning, and they have moved into the Mage Tower in the south of the city early to storm the place, even the Night King would not do such a stupid thing.

However, this also made it much more difficult for Simon nobles to find Lady Edmund, and they had no choice but to find all kinds of people to pass on the news to Vika and try to initiate negotiations, but the news repeatedly fell to fruition, and it was not until this day that Vika sent an official spokesman to inform the ruling council that for the sake of Simon's stability, she was already considering abandoning the dispute with the Serles, and would give the matter a satisfactory solution at the right time.

This, of course, made countless nobles secretly relieved, and began to prepare gifts, hoping to impress this lady, as we all know, because of her lover, the contradiction between Edmont and the Serre Concession was very acute, and it was not easy to resolve.

Before that, however, there was a lesser-known episode that took place at a tavern in the Harbour District.

The smell of melon honey and grilled fish wafts between the hot smoke.

The chimney of the oven leads to the roof of the house, so although the stove is burning vigorously, there is no smoke, and the smoke in this house does not come from the fire, but from the water in the adjacent pool.

The pool was steaming, and although he was not in the habit of exposing his body in front of others, but in front of the feast, Penny could only be disrespectful, he surrounded a large towel, soaking in the specially heated hot spring, which seemed to be pleasant, but if you looked closely, you could see that a membrane of force field isolated his skin from the pool water, and he tossed and turned around with the grilled fish on the plate, his fingers rubbing between the crispy skin and the crispy tender meat, as if he was removing the fish from the bone spurs, but in fact he was probing for the poison that might be hidden in it.

As a wizard, such caution can be called excessive, but Penny must be careful, who let the person sitting across the pool be Mr. Celion, the owner of the Bloodsails?

The wizard was surprised to receive this invitation in the morning, but after much consideration, he chose to accept it anyway.

He was also interested in having a positive contact with this man, and as for security, he was not very worried, because this news had been communicated to him by this person through Bishop Qajar.

However, in the face of such an unknown character, the wizard was silent on the surface, but still very vigilant in his heart.

This is a terrifying figure who may have legendary spell-casting abilities, and the Bahn Church who is also in charge of the Flame Dagger and Simon does not look like a fuel-efficient lamp by any means.

Although soaked in a warm bath, within the special bracer of the right hand, the magic bag has always maintained a state of being able to draw things out of it at any time, and the contents in it, what kind of psionic oscillator spell scroll wand, are readily available, and they have the power to adapt to all kinds of situations.

And he obviously wouldn't allow this dangerous guy to get too close, and thankfully, this guy didn't seem to be used to being close to him.

"Mr. Diesel, you must wonder why I invited you to the hot springs at this time. Celeon lifted his glass of juice and behaved with grace: "For I am convinced that man is most honest when he is clean and immaculate, and we need to be honest with each other for the sake of our cause in Simon...... Oh, and I'm sorry I'm not used to drinking, so there's no alcohol here. ”

He took a sip of melon juice, looked at the mouth of the cup, and showed an apologetic look on his face: "As a spellcaster, I believe you can understand. ”

Spellcasters are unusually cautious about things that might affect their ability to think, and most mages quit smoking and drinking - both of which can confuse their minds, and some wizards who are very strict in their practice don't even drink coffee and tea. ...,

Of course, a few wizards with a particularly clear mind can be exceptional, such as Lord Ilminster in Shadow Valley, who is a large smoking gun known in the Torrell universe.

"Oh, I'm not in the habit of drinking. The wizard pulled out a fillet and raised his eyebrows slightly, "You're so polite, but ......" Penny said in a corrective tone, "Simon's business? ”

"It doesn't matter? No, no, no, Mr. Diesel, we are all understanding. Selion shook his head repeatedly: "You must know that you are pulling the interests of the Dragon Coast Association and Edmont, these two forces, if a full-scale conflict breaks out in the future, it will undoubtedly not be ignored. And, of course, the Serre Concession. ”

The half-sentence that seemed to add to the string made Penny suddenly wary, and the man seemed to have noticed something.

In the past few days, the actions of the Serge Concession have indeed been so big that they are enough to arouse the suspicion of others.

However, it was quickly realized that something was wrong, which was still beyond Penny's expectations.

He silently glanced at Selion, who was still smiling incomprehensibly, and the moment's hesitation deprived him of the opportunity to pretend not to hear, but there was a way to remedy it.

"Your Excellency seems to have something going wrong, even if Edmont reconciles with the Searle Concession, it is impossible for those red-robed mages to help Simon attack the vampires. The wizard pretended to misinterpret Selion's words, "The events at Delarry's Mansion can only be said to be opportune, and there is no reason for them to deliberately go against the vampires. ”

As Penny spoke, Selion kept that unfathomable smile until Penny finished speaking, and then shook his head: "No, no, no, Your Excellency the Wizard, you seem to have forgotten that few people in Faeron know that there are many factions within the Red Robe Mage Society, some of them want to kill, and the other part may not think so." ”

This kind of inference undoubtedly made Penny feel a little on pins and needles, and he finally understood that this man had deduced the correct answer from the wrong path, and that he had come to the showdown when he realized that something was wrong, and that if he made a mistake in his answer, the consequences would be quite serious.

It's okay to continue to pretend to be crazy and stupid, but you must be in a good sense of proportion:

"Oh? This kind of thing should be a secret in the Red Robe Mage Society, since most people on Faren don't know about it, where did you learn about it, Mr. Selion?"

Selien shook his head and smiled: "It's just that I'm very interested in arcane, and I used to visit the magicians when I was young, so I know more or less about these anecdotes, oh, don't mention the affairs of the Serens, let's talk about the vampires, I wonder when Lord Diesel is going to contact the nobles of Simon to remove the Night Mask?"

The question pulled the conversation back to the point, and the wizard frowned, knowing that the conversation was about to turn into a real deal.

It seems that the big cake of Ximen City was distributed in advance through secret transactions, but is this really the case?

He looked at the smiling scarred face, and countless speculations floated in his mind.

Maybe this man was trying something, but he had undoubtedly tried to find the answer he wanted, and if Penny hadn't known about his hidden power in advance, he would have decided to attack him just now......

No, probably not, according to the usual personality of wizards, he should be patient as well.

After the events at Delarry's mansion, the most important part of Penny's scheme has come to an end, and the rest of the developments, even if a sensible person can sniff out something wrong, will definitely not spread the word......

Unless this person has a deep hatred for Penny or Edmund.

Because the wizard has the support of the Serre Concession, the Coastal Wizards Association, and Edmund, and he has obtained critical news about half of Simon's magnates through the kidnapping case, even if someone breaks this conspiracy and lets most of Simon nobles know that this is a big drama directed by Penny, I am afraid they only dare to be angry but dare not speak. ...,

And if there is a further turmoil, it will not be good for everyone - a full-scale conflict will completely deprive the upper echelons of Simon from the vampire's control.

The conspiracy has reached this point, and it is useless to puncture it, and those who have some ideas will probably find a way to get more benefits like this Selien gang leader.

As if aware of the wizard's hesitation, Celion continued to look at the wizard with such unhurried eyes, and suddenly narrowed his eyes, and a cold-looking waitress walked up to the pool from behind, kneading the shoulders of the gang leader with both hands.

The wizard's gaze turned to the sudden woman, a young girl, to be exact, who looked to be fifteen years old at most, with only a bra and a short skirt all over her body, and a somewhat flat figure, which did not look attractive, but when filled in with the black snake tattoo that spread from the corner of her right eye to her chest, she looked very eye-catching.

What made the wizard feel a little uncomfortable was that the girl had a trance-like aura floating on her body, as if she might disappear in place at any moment, which made the wizard understand that this was an excellent killer.

"Oh, her name is Rando, and she's my adopted daughter. Sensing the wizard's doubts, Celion opened her mouth: "Her mother was injured by a serpentine shadow of the Shadow Realm when she conceived her, and that power seeped into her body, giving her a special hidden ability, I have given her a code name called Shadow Dragon, and sometimes it can be her last name." ”

"Hmm, so she can easily take someone else's head like an assassin?" The wizard smiled and glanced at Selien, deciding to fight back against this guy, he couldn't be led by the nose by this person, he pinched the psionic oscillator in his sleeve: "I suddenly thought of an assassin organization called 'Flame Dagger', which seems to have been active in Simon before. ”

The mob leader's expression suddenly stiffened, and the light in the eyes of the girl who was pinching his shoulders dimmed, and the lifeless eyes shifted to Penny's face.