This place had been putting airs of peace and prosperity. For this place, the war at Grand Tonitas Fortress seemed to have never happened. Under the disguise of ordinary aristocrat siblings, Clyde and Lucifer were casually roaming around, planning to collect information about the mysterious hero party.
In a small gem store established by Douglas Clan, Clyde and Lucifer accidentally met the members of that mysterious hero party, Paladin Edward, Elemental Archer Fulan, and Assassin Selina. These three people had holy artifacts for their weapons. The most dangerous among the three was Selina’s holy artifact, “Hands of Judgment” dagger. This was the weapon that managed to seriously injure Ancient Demon King Philip. It was unknown whether Selina was professional enough or not; if Clyde were in her place, he would definitely have chosen to immediately disfigure the opponent.
The only divine weapon that was more dangerous than this dagger was currently not here. According to the speculation based on their discussion, it should be in the hands of this hero party’s captain. The captain of this hero party was on watch duty at Grand Tonitas Fortress with one other member to guard against the return of the monster army to avenge Ancient Demon King Philip, who was defeated during the day. Due to the invitation to the banquet to celebrate the death of Ancient Demon King Philip from Earl Royle, the hero party had arranged for three members to attend this victory celebration banquet out of courtesy.
Now, Clyde had realized that he seemed to have somewhat looked down on a certain junior. As an Ancient Demon King, Philip’s combat power was nothing, but he was very good when it came to scheming. He actually played dead, making this hero party truly believe it. They thought that they had truly killed the Ancient Demon King Philip. But Philip’s combat power was not good. Otherwise, after playing dead, he would have come back to carry out a sneak attack and kill them.
“Boss, how can we let the heroes who saved our city pay! We will buy all these discounted gem ornaments and give them to the heroes!”
“The… discount is just for the lord heroes. If you all want to buy…”
“Boss, we are also not buying for our own use. Why doesn’t the discount count? Could it be that you are hiding something?”
The acting of Clyde and Lucifer was perfect. While playing the two-man act, they truly acted like pretentious aristocrats with tacit understanding. This profiteer shopkeeper struggled for a while. Even if he sold at the discounted price for heroes, he would still earn a good profit, but if he could sell without giving a discount, he could make ten times more profit. If he sold to these aristocrats according to the discounted price for the heroes, he was at a loss.
“No, there is nothing inconvenient about it, you can buy all these!”
Clyde had a way to deal with these unscrupulous merchants. With his back facing towards the hero party’s members, he just happened to block their sight. He then took advantage of the moment when they couldn’t see to intentionally reveal Colclough Clan’s badge he wore to that profiteer shopkeeper. With the power and influence of the Douglas Clan in the Adrian Empire, he could ignore most of the nobles in the empire. But he didn’t even dare to look at a super clan like Colclough Clan, whose influence covered the entire Ximengsi Continent. Even if one were in a different country, they had a way to kill the provoker of a nation of Victor Alliance remotely from Clark Alliance’s nation.
After seeing the badge on Clyde, which symbolized Colclough Clan, the shopkeeper was so scared that his face turned deathly pale. His complexion also changed greatly as his entire body was covered in a cold sweat as if he saw a terrifying existence here. Therefore, he immediately changed his words on the spot. Colclough Clan was so powerful that he couldn’t afford to offend them. In case he accidentally offended the other party, it was as easy as turning one’s hand to kill a small character like him. As for the Douglas Clan that backed him, there was no way that they’d be offending Colclough Clan for a small character like him. Douglas Clan that had a strong desire to survive would definitely make the most beneficial decision for the clan, which was to abandon him without any hesitation.
“Brother, we are the heroes. We can’t accept so many valuable things for no apparent reason.”
“It’s no problem, my younger sister and I are from a well-off family. We aren’t lacking in money.”
Clyde and Paladin Edward played their respective parts on the scene. Both of them were showing their acting skills. Edward said no but didn’t stop his hand, picking all the beautiful gem ornaments and giving them to Fulan and Selina, which was the typical example of presenting Buddha with flowers given by others. Since a sucker was willing to pay, no matter how he calculated, he was not losing anything. But Clyde was not losing anything either. In any case, everything was free. Once Tonister City was captured, as long as this profiteer shopkeeper was not killed to worship Heaven, the money would return back to Clyde.
When the shopkeeper received the money, he felt a kind of indescribable chill as he had goosebumps all over his body as if this were his last deal. However, this money-loving greedy character couldn’t stop and accepted Clyde’s payment with a clear conscience. Little did he know, when Clyde looked at him, it was like he was looking at a dead man.
Unlike the hypocritical Paladin Edward, Elemental Archer Fulan was quite modest. Since she was influenced by the bloodline of the Elf Race, she repeatedly thought of excuses to not take those precious ornaments. However, under the persuasion of Lucifer and Selina, Fulan could only reluctantly take one. During this entire time, she kept thanking Clyde and Lucifer. After all, she had received such an expensive gift.
As for the Assassin Selina, her bearing, words, and deeds greatly resembled those courtesans. She was looking at Clyde with a provocative gaze like those senior courtesans for rich youth in high-grade nightclubs. Clyde was extravagant as his attractiveness index was also very high. At a glance, he was her suitable hunting target. She herself also had this capital. But with Clyde’s true identity, the identity of the final prey was already self-evident.
After the trading of ornaments, Clyde and Lucifer played a real fake show. They followed these heroes to the banquet held by Earl Royle. In actuality, they went to eat and drink and investigate Earl Royle in passing to see whether that fellow was a formidable man or a coward. After the defeat of Marquis Charles, Clyde was not interested in Earl Royle’s 30,000 mishmash troops. If the condition permitted it, Clyde had no intention to incorporate them and demand a surrender, and directly wipe them out.
The location of the extravagant banquet held by Earl Royle was Kunting Grand Hotel, the most luxurious hotel of Tonister City. When Clyde and others arrived, this place was already overcrowded with people. It looked very lively. The number of aristocrats that followed Earl Royle was not small. Therefore, it was easy to gather so many aristocrat guests. This group of humans was a bit too early to be happy. In fact, Ancient Demon King Philip had never died. He had just pretended to die. If he knew that these people were celebrating his death, then he wouldn’t be able to sit still and directly attack Tonister city tonight.
“Welcome, three heroes, please take these honored guest seats over here!”
Fulan and Selina, who were wearing jewelry, looked especially attractive. They attracted the attention of many male guests as soon as they arrived at the venue as they stepped forward in succession to take the initiative to indulge them. The handsome paladin also attracted the attention of many aristocratic misses and even young and beautiful ladies. It seemed Edward also had the potential to be a playboy. At least, Clyde thought so. Edward could easily handle thousands of flowers with skill. At first glance, one could see that he was a flower veteran.
Clyde and Lucifer didn’t attract much attention. Although they were also a combination of a beauty and a handsome man, since they had not taken the initiative to show their family’s symbol, most of the aristocrats present here didn’t know whether they were truly not showy people or they were just too embarrassed to reveal their family background. Therefore, out of aristocrat etiquette, the other aristocrats didn’t shoot off their mouths. Unless someone took the initiative to ask questions, they wouldn’t be the bird who put up its head first.
Clyde saw many familiar acquaintances at the banquet, such as Baron Haydn, who had given up Rhodes Village and ran away. This prodigal son’s face was still glossy. Moreover, he looked leisurely and carefree. Apparently, he didn’t receive any punishment for losing an important town, not even a symbolic punishment. Marquis Charles had retreated too fast. In his words, the first defector leader should be decapitated on the spot to frighten those potential defectors and dispel their wishful thinking.
Earl Royle also appeared at the banquet. He was a somewhat thin grey-haired old man whose temperament was completely inferior to Marquis Charles. He looked like a senile old man as if he would kick the bucket at any time. Clyde could understand why this fellow was so afraid. He was simply afraid of death. The older one got, the more one would worry about carelessly losing all assets. This kind of commander was not suitable for offensive warfare. They were more suitable for defensive warfare, minimizing the loss.
After seeing Earl Royle himself, Clyde was even more confused. He truly couldn’t understand why this scared old Earl chose to stay in Tonister City. His nominal master, Marquis Charles, had already retreated in defeat. Staying here was not worthwhile as there was a chance that Steinbeck Fief would concentrate its military power to attack this place to settle accounts. In the end, who gave him this courage?
Clyde pretended to drink while looking around to see the identities of the aristocrats participating in this banquet. Soon, he discovered a problem. A group of people wearing foreign attire was especially conspicuous. Clyde recognized that attire. It belonged to the Franconia Empire of the Clark Alliance that was hostile to the Victor Alliance that Adrian Empire belonged to. Moreover, that empire had invaded the Adrian Empire before. No one had thought that they had already staged a comeback in such a short time. It seemed the answer to certain problems had already begun to take shape.
