The empty courtyard was extremely quiet. There was only one guard on the inner wall battlements who pulled his cloak tightly against the cold. He was curled up alone in the corner, bored.

Sheng, song and dance music flowed out from the open window not far away. This was the kind of music that Brian didn't like to hear the most.

"The lord can receive you now, Mr. Wizard."

A steady voice came, and Brian followed the sound and looked.

He saw that the knight who came to summon him was tall and thin, with a clear-cut face and messy brown hair. He had a sword hanging on his waist and an khaki cloak fastened on his shoulders with a heavy copper buckle from a Bactrian camel.

"What is your name?" He stood up from the stone bench and asked casually.

"Zander." The knight spoke with a bit of arrogance, "I am Lord Graal's cousin, and I have the honor of commanding his guard. Come with me."

Brian looked at the half-elf poet Elend beside him and followed him.

As the envoy of the War Mage of Cormyr, he came to the manor of Graal, one of the two actual rulers of Mokou Town.

The purpose was naturally to persuade the lord to switch sides at the last moment and help him deal with the forces of Yinhun City and Sanlin Tower that were entrenched in Mokou Town.

However, when Tuca and Lando brought them here, a banquet was being held inside, and in the end they had to be placed in a remote corner of the manor to wait.

The knight named Zander led them through a dark hall, down a worn staircase, and through an oak forest. The oak trees here grew so tall and tangled that they enveloped all the surrounding birches and elms.

The thick branches of the oak even squeezed into the walls and windows on the walls. Their roots were as thick as an adult man's waist, and their trunks were as wide as any.

Knight Zander opened a rusty iron door and paused to light a torch. When the torch burned brightly, he led them down more stairs to a cellar with a barrel-shaped ceiling.

"Where are we going?" The poet Elend looked around curiously, his voice echoing softly in the darkness.

Brian noticed that the bard's face was as calm and composed as ever.

This surprised him slightly.

You must know that the reason why he was able to act so calmly in such a strange place was that in addition to being able to evacuate at any time, he also knew the merchant lords of Mokou Town relatively well, which was also one of the reasons.

Obviously, this person is very likely to be like him.

"We were on the steps below the staircase, directly below the manor house, leading up to the Chateauneuf."

The knight said calmly, "This is a secret passage, Your Excellency. The entire Mokou Town is full of spies from the Sanlin Pagoda Society. Although in my opinion, this is completely unnecessary, my cousin insists on doing it."

At the end of the stairs was another wall, and they came to the room behind the wall.

The room was warm and comfortable, furnished with a variety of furniture, with sambia rugs on the floor and beeswax candles on the table.

Vaguely, Brian heard the playing of the flute and harp, and felt the faint tremor coming from above through his "vibration perception" characteristic.

This made him realize that the banquet above was far from over.

A faded sheepskin map hangs on one wall of the room, depicting the terrain of northern Cormyr, with the Gnoll Pass in the Stormhorn Mountains also marked.

The fat Lord Graal sits at the bottom of the map, with his son Lando standing beside him.

As described by the poet Ellender, the richest man in Mokou Town was very fat. The padded armchair he occupied was enough to accommodate three people of average stature, but Graal still felt a little cramped.

He forced himself into the seat, shrugged his shoulders, spread his legs, and put his hands on the armrests, as if they were too heavy to lift.

"Please take a seat." Lord Graer raised his hand, revealing his fingers as thick as sausages from his sleeves. "Do you two need anything else? If you are thirsty, there is wine here."

"I'm here to negotiate with you. The king appointed me here, not to drink with you." Brian looked at the fat lord and stated his purpose straight to the point.

"King? That's your king, not my king." Lord Grall's fat face showed disdain. He pointed to the ceiling and said: "There may be enemies of Cormyr up there, but there are no enemies of mine.

"

"Not even the people who killed your son and wife?" Brian pondered for a moment and then said pointedly, "Do you think it is a coincidence that the adult red dragon grew up in the year of despair?"

He knew that Lord Graal had three children in total. Lando's brother was killed in the Red Dragon Rebellion ten years ago, and his sister was trapped in a book hiding a secret realm.

"That adult red dragon was the work of the Rockland Baron of Cormyr." Knight Zander stepped forward and said coldly:

"He was the one who lured the mad red dragon here. This damn beast also burned my wife and son to death. If the people from the Sanlin Tower had not killed the red dragon in time, we would all have died under the dragon's flames.

.”

"My child has always been a brave warrior. Ten years ago, he faced the dragon and died like a hero. I am not surprised by this." Lord Grall said sadly.

"This blatant lie made me smile from ear to ear in surprise." The poet Ellender said in a mocking tone, "If you even believe this kind of lie that cannot withstand any scrutiny, I think it is nothing to do.

Let’s talk.”

"I think so too." Brian agreed with the poet's words.

"Let's go, I'm not here to watch you pathetically praise your enemies, insult and belittle the heroes who once saved Mokou Town from the flames." He dropped a word and turned to leave.

He was serious because he didn't want to talk a lot of nonsense to these people and go back and forth to test them.

Since the other party knew that he was an envoy from the Kingdom of Cormyr, he still insisted on meeting him.

It was obvious that the fat lord was very willing to cooperate.

After all, the human kingdom of Cormyr is naturally a better choice than joining the dark forces dominated by the Wraiths.

The fundamental reason why Brian is so confident is that he has learned about the history of the Shadow Wedding.

Although Lord Gral of Mokou Town was wiped out in this conspiracy-woven wedding, his little daughter who was trapped in the secret realm of the book survived.

It was through this branch in the game that he learned that Lord Graal's secret allegiance was actually Myrcella Raul, the Grand Duchess of Arabel City.

When this far-sighted Grand Duchess lost Mokou Town, she immediately planted a chess piece of her own.

She secretly supported the merchant Graal and allowed him to grow and develop slowly, until the day when the army of the Kingdom of Cormyr counterattacked Mokou Town.

Unfortunately, before this chess piece could play its role, it was completely wiped out by the people of Yinhun City in a wedding ceremony.

It is precisely because he knows these things that he dares to meet the other party without fear.

I just don’t know what the Grand Duchess of Arabe would think when she saw the peaches she planted being picked by him, Brian thought to himself.

Of course, he also did not dare to reveal their identities immediately and ask them to serve him.

He must first observe whether these people have two minds.

"Wait a minute!" Just as he expected, Lord Graal stopped him.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at his cousin, and then said, "Actually, we don't want to have anything to do with any force. When you came to Mokou Town, you should have seen that the whole town is

Residents and adventurers are living and working in peace and contentment."

"Your Excellency claims that he represents the Kingdom of Cormyr to save the people from fire and water, and to protect the land from the invasion of ghosts and evil humanoid creatures." The fat lord took a breath and continued:

"But our Mokou Town has not been harassed by humanoid creatures for many years, and it is even less likely to be attacked by the ghost people. You are not here to resist the abyss demons and hell demons for us, right?"

"That's right." Knight Zander said coldly, "Lord Brian, let me call you 'Sir' for the time being. I know what your king of Cormyr wants from us: swords, gold and silver, and knees.

But people from the Shadow City have also said that as long as we show absolute loyalty, they will not only help us drive out the forces of the Sanlin Tower, but also give us the family name from the Shadow Empire, and also offer to let Lando marry

Wife is the daughter of a shadow prince.

In my opinion, these conditions are quite generous, which is a good basis for a fair and lasting peace, and now you want us to overthrow them all. I want to ask you, Lord Bryan, what benefits can the Kingdom of Cormyr give us?

?”

"What I bring you is the chance to live." Brian said in a slightly cold tone, "and revenge. Revenge for your relatives and brothers, revenge for the murdered lord of Mokou Town, and revenge for those who died ten years ago.

Countless Cormyrians took revenge."

"That's right!" Lando ignored his father's look and continued speaking, insisting on speaking his mind:

"I have long disliked the people of the Sanlin Pagoda Society and Shadow City. If Cormyr's army is willing to take back Mokou Town, we should fully support it. At the beginning, we were homeless, looking around at a loss, without any friends.

On the day and night, it was Baron Yandi of Mokou Town who took us in and sheltered us in times of need, so that our family can continue. In return for their kindness, we have promised a long time ago that we will always be people of the Kingdom of Cormyr, isn't it?"

Lord Gral's fat face suddenly became ugly, and even his cousin Zander looked a little ashamed.

Brian was also shocked by the words of this irritable young man, because these words were exactly what he was going to say next.

However, the effect from Lando's mouth was obviously better than his.

Seeing that the time was right, he looked at Lord Graer with feigned disdain, "The City of Shadows is one of the most powerful arcane forces in the entire continent. You really think that you can climb this high branch based on your status. If not,

They are afraid of the power of the Sanlin Pagoda Society and it is not convenient for them to attack Mokou Town directly. Do you think they will look at you businessmen?"

"So, whether you join the Sanlin Tower Society or the City of Shadows." Seeing the change in the expressions of the two of them, he said coldly, "You will end up destroying yourself in the end. If you don't believe it, just ask this guy

Harper Scouts from Shadowdale."

Brian looked at the half-elf poet Elend beside him.

In fact, he didn't know that the other party was a Harper scout, and naturally he couldn't be from Shadow Valley. He made up these words at will to test the poet.

Hearing the Harper scout, Elend looked at Brian in surprise.

He thought for a moment, and under the eyes of everyone, he slowly put his hand into his pocket and took out a brooch. The pattern engraved on it was a harp in the center of the crescent moon, with four cross stars in the center of the crescent moon.

Surrounded up, down, left and right.

"Yes, I am from the Harper Alliance."

Ellender cleared his throat and announced in a serious voice: "Our philosophy is to fight against crime and evil, and to protect good civilizations from fear and tyranny. Although this ideal sounds very simple and is somewhat unattainable, we

The people of Harper have been moving towards this goal from beginning to end.”

The Harpers Alliance is a representative organization of forces of good. Their core concept is: overthrow tyranny and make all living beings equal.

The main responsibility is to fight against the evil plots woven in the shadows, maintain world peace, eliminate sources of danger, eliminate threats to good things, and manipulate the affairs of civilized races in order to protect their balanced thoughts.

At the same time, they will often secretly assist adventurers and other groups who promote good ideas. These assistance usually include: a kind hotel owner in an evil town, a traveling priest who suddenly appears when an adventure group is harmed,

Or a surprise attack against ordinary opponents.

That’s why many people call them ‘nosy people’, and to a large extent this assessment is correct.

Because many of the ways they can achieve success include: deceiving, misleading, and acting in secret without openly conflicting, which is the so-called good intention to do bad things. They are typical representatives of chaotic kindness, very similar to those knights who like to steal from the rich and give to the poor.
To be continued...