Chapter Fourteen: Courting Disaster

  The two exchanged a glance, one suddenly took over all of Bast's offensive moves, while the other dodged Rude's sword and rushed towards the window. As he jumped out of the window, he also threw the dagger in his hand at Celsia.

  Luz had no choice but to give up the pursuit and struck forward with his sword, knocking the dagger flying.

  At this time, the man had already rushed out of the house and rolled on the ground to avoid Raymond's horizontal sweep aimed at his waist. Then he got up, slid out another dagger from his sleeve, and in a few ghostly flashes, several robbers immediately cried out in agony, their necks bleeding profusely as they fell to the ground.

  "My goodness!" Harriet was about to rush up with a few people, but seeing the situation, she exclaimed and hastily retreated.

  Taking advantage of the opportunity, the man took out a magic scroll from his bosom, unfolded it and spread it on the ground, quickly reciting the incantation to activate it.

  "Dense Fog Technique!"

  In an instant, a white mist burst out of the scroll and rapidly spread in all directions, instantly engulfing the man's figure. This was just a very simple low-level water-based spell, but for a high-ranking thief like him, it was more effective than many powerful attack spells.

  "Don't let him get away, chase after him!" The group of thieves saw this and blindly rushed into the thick fog.

  Raymond didn't intend to chase after him, the other party's actions were suspicious, who knows if he really ran away. If he rashly rushed in and was ambushed by the other party, that would be bad luck.

  Anyway, Xier Sha has been rescued, and Raymond is about to go back to the wooden house to take a look. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

  Freddie!

  Logically speaking, he was a captive, and the chaotic scene was his best chance to escape. But from start to finish, there was no sound coming from the wooden hut where he was being held, it was unusually quiet.

  Could it be that he was actually waiting for rescue?

  The thought had barely flashed through his mind when Raymond heard several cries of pain from the direction of the wooden hut. He felt a sense of foreboding, and without waiting to call out to Rudolph, he grabbed a long spear that was lying on the ground and rushed in that direction.

  And at this time, in the wooden house, Freddy calmly looked at the black-clothed man standing in front of him: "Is that so? I thought it was someone who came to save me, but Ochi has already regarded me as a stumbling block for climbing up."

  "Sorry, Mr. Freddy, we're just following orders." The man slowly closed in on him.

  Just then, a gust of wind was heard, and a long spear shot in through the window, straight at the man.

  The thrust of the spear was so sudden and unexpected that the man had hardly time to realize it before it was almost upon him, and he had only just room enough to dodge to one side. At the same moment Freddy also sprang into action.

  Taking advantage of the opponent's dodge, he suddenly raised his right hand ring finger. The blue gemstone on the surface of the ring suddenly emitted a flash of lightning, and the man was caught off guard, immediately suffering a severe blow.

  He let out a cry of despair, his body convulsing violently from the electric shock. At that moment, the window shattered with a loud crash, and Raymond leapt out, landing on the ground with his sword already in hand, rushing forward to pierce the man's chest.

  Looking at the long sword that pierced through his chest, the man's eyes exposed outside the mask showed an unbelievable expression, as if he couldn't believe that with his own skills, he would die like this.

  Then Raymond kicked him in the body, drew his sword with momentum, and the man fell to the ground with a big splash of blood.

  "I rushed over desperately, originally intending to stop him from rescuing you. Who knew..." Raymond shook off the blood on his sword and turned around, saying: "So this guy wasn't here to rescue you after all."

  Even after having just come back from the brink of death, Freddy still had that gloomy and calm demeanor. He said lightly: "This is the world I live in."

  "But that thing." Raymond pointed at the ring on his hand: "I didn't think you still had a trick like this up your sleeve."

  Freddie turned the ring lightly: "It's just a small trick of magic items, and it's not powerful enough to kill people for convenience, just in case of emergency."

  "Master, are you alright?!" At this time, the large door of the wooden house was suddenly smashed open and Bast rushed in.

  When she saw the man's corpse on the ground, Catwoman finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  Seeing her, Raymond hastily asked: "What about the other person? How is it over there now?"

  "Of course I killed him with one slash. The woman is fine, but she's scared out of her wits. Rudeus and Riki are over there protecting her."

  As she said this, she expressed some surprise and said: "However, this time the guy is quite tough, completely different from those people before."

  "Of course." At this time, Freddy suddenly said: "They are a secret force established by the king himself, modeled after Rulin's Night Shadow Corps. All of them were selected from the army and received strict training. Although they can't compare to the real Night Shadows, they are far better than ordinary thieves."

  "So, you who can easily take them down are the ones who are truly surprising."

  Freddie, who had always shown an uncooperative attitude, suddenly said something astonishing. Raymond was taken aback at first, then stared at him in shock and asked: "What did you say, Your Majesty? Who...who are you exactly?"

  "I am a senior official of the king's subordinate secret intelligence agency 'Hidden Thunder', Freddy."

  In front of Raymond, Rudeus, and Ricklet, Frey calmly introduced himself.

  At this time, as the two invaders were taken out, the valley gradually calmed down. Raymon then pulled Ricky and others to this side, because Freddy showed a cooperative attitude for the first time.

  "You mean you're acting on behalf of the king?" Rickett asked incredulously.

  "Freddie said discontentedly: 'How many times are you going to make me say it?'"

  "So, this time's attack..."

  "That's right, it was Your Majesty who ordered it." Freddy nodded calmly again.

  "What... why?" Ricket stuttered, unable to help himself, this news was just too explosive.

  "Simple, Your Majesty wants Kavi Land. Kavi Land is the fief of Prince Wiruk, who has great prestige in the military, and Kavi Land supplies weapons and equipment to the entire Dinar army. What does this combination mean? You won't be unaware, will you? So, His Majesty the King has long wanted to bring Kavi Land under his own control."

  "But even so, why did you have to lay hands on the countess?" Ricket asked in puzzlement.

  "If Rosylia were to meet with an accident here, Your Majesty could use this as a pretext to remove the Lord of Prasa's position and install his own person. This would allow him to control Kavi's external equipment trade, thereby gaining influence over production, which is the most crucial aspect, and greatly weakening Wiruk's power in Kavi."

  "If it's just about getting the position of city lord, is it necessary to go this far? Sylsa is His Majesty's own niece!" Rikito said angrily.

  As this matter is directly related to him, he was almost the one asking questions, while Raymond and others became onlookers.

  Freddie said, "If it were just for this, of course, there would be no need to go to such lengths. However, Sylvia and the current Lord Cavie's only son are engaged, which is an important political pawn for Willuck to control Cavie. This time, she secretly took a detour from Plazza to the main city of Cavie, carrying Willuck's letters and gifts to meet with the Lord of Cavie."

  Freddie was not one to speak out of turn, but once he opened his mouth, a barrage of revelations burst forth. How could Rickert, a mere assistant to the lord of this small castle, possibly know such things? His eyes widened in shock, and for a moment, he was speechless.

  "Anyway, if we let Sylvia die in Cavi, the greater benefit is that it can destroy the good relationship between Wiro and Cavi's lord for a long time, which is the most important thing. Now, do you understand why I'm making such a big fuss?"

  "Is... is all of this your plan?" Rickett asked incredulously.

  Freddie nodded calmly, as if talking about something that had nothing to do with him: "I found out that killing Silsa would be very beneficial, so I advised Your Majesty. After Your Majesty agreed, I planned this attack, but unfortunately, it failed."

  "You..." Kit stared at Freddy, clearly unable to believe that someone could be so calm after doing something so terrible.

  Who would have thought that behind an ordinary-looking attack was a brutal internal struggle within the imperial family.

  Unlike Ricket, Raymond seemed much calmer. For him, this kind of royal life-and-death struggle was not uncommon at all. To say the least, his mother had seized power from her own brother, and her nephew had snatched the throne back from her mother's hands - a real-life event that had happened to him personally, and one that was no more heartwarming than what was happening now.

  Besides, Dinar was still his enemy country half a month ago, so this place doesn't really matter to him.

  Now all he could think was: bad luck, it seemed like he had gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble.

  "Why are you suddenly so cooperative?" Rud interrupted at this time.

  "Because I suddenly realized that my situation is not good. I was born a commoner, and to climb up, I would do anything ugly without hesitation, for which I don't know how many obstacles I kicked out of the way. But just now I found out that at some point, I myself also became someone else's obstacle that they wanted to get rid of."

  "In my line of work, failure often means death, especially for someone like me who knows many secrets. Once captured, the concern isn't about losing an important person, but how many secrets I'll reveal. Ochi knew this and that's why he dared to give the order to eliminate me."

  As he spoke, Fress tipped his hat brim up a bit: "So now my situation is the same as yours, and naturally there's no need to keep secrets either."

  "Who's on your side, anyway?" At this point, Harlot finally lost his temper: "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

  "Rather than blaming me, you should blame your own greed first." Freddy's gloomy smile: "Just because of money, dare to do anything, then should have the awareness to bear any consequences."

  "I...," Haru got tongue-tied all of a sudden.

  Saying that, Freddy pointed at Raymond again: "And you, are too curious. I've said it before, curiosity can sometimes be fatal."

  Raymond had nothing to say, and could only spread his hands in agreement.

  This guy may have a gloomy personality and speak with a sharp tongue, but he's not a dull and uninteresting person.