"Don't worry about the details, and don't worry about where the news comes from. Anyway, I can guarantee that the identity of the one on the throne is questionable, and she is planning to use the death of Prince Trierred to plan a comprehensive purge against us."
“Droop…?”
Heltim's mind was blank.
"If you don't want to die, you have to take the initiative. There's nothing you can do about it."
The old woman exhaled another puff of smoke.
"Sometimes I think it's too cowardly to teach you generation after generation how to circumvent the royal power."
"Now that the eclipse has been expelled from the Icarolin continent, the threat of the gray fog has been reduced to the lowest level ever."
"It's time to put the monarch's power in a cage."
Chapter 84: Eve of Change
The car that Rose and Heldim were riding in circled the city for seven or eight times, and when it drove out of a narrow street, it suddenly changed its color.
The car changed from the deep black of the night to a pure white shell, the specifications of the four tires were also changed, and even a small flag embroidered with cherry blossoms and sunflowers was inserted in the front of the car. This almost made the tracking agent lose track of the target, and he secretly cursed this group of people for being too cunning.
Li Ang was the person in charge of the surveillance operation. He was not surprised at all after hearing the report.
What's the point of talking about being cunning or not? You have to see what the people you are staring at are planning to do.
If a group of people know clearly that what they are going to do next is undoubtedly a rebellion, but they are still careless and don't pay much attention to various details, then to be honest, Li Ang would find it very boring to handle such a case.
If the mouse isn't cunning enough, the cat will find it boring, right?
Of course, there might be a lot of rats this time, and they might be a bit big...
[This is 'Black Cat'——Sand——]
There was a hoarse transmission coming from the other end of the radio.
[They went all the way to the suburbs - sand -]
[But it's not the direction to Barish's house. It's probably to find Umuri-Dodge——Sha——]
[There are far fewer cars in the suburbs. If we continue to follow, we might get discovered - Sha -]
[Do you need to continue tracking? Please reply as soon as possible——Sha——]
"They are heading northeast, right?" Li Ang held the microphone and tried his best to pronounce clearly. "I remember there is a winery halfway there. You can stop when you reach the winery, then abandon the car and follow on foot."
"Sir..." Duo Lei, who was standing beside him, was stunned when she heard that he had made such a decision. "Wouldn't it be possible that we would lose them..."
"What they want is still here, how can we talk about losing them?" Li Ang glared at the young man unhappily. "Besides, didn't you learn the new Soul Course? We now have more than a dozen ways to track remotely!"
He didn't go into details, because these methods actually came from a transcendent being named Aisuen Hitzfeld.
A superhuman, not a detective.
"We've checked it out." Lori just pushed the door open. "The narrow street they came out of has been rebuilt. There was an auto repair shop there half a year ago. Someone from Barish or the Dodge family must have been lying in wait there, and they tore off the black film covering the car when they entered."
"The black Duke of Kaino was registered a few years ago, right? It seems they had a plan in advance." Leon tightened his gloves and said to a young agent who was guarding a pile of documents and files, "Don't be dazed. You heard it, 'Duke of Kaino', 'white'!"
"Ah! Yes!"
The young agent immediately buried his head in the files and started searching according to his request.
"As for you, Dorey." Leon looked at the female agent on the other side, "It's useless for you to pester me. I can't let you interrogate Amura."
"But Alfred is very important to me." Dorey looked at him with a determined look in her eyes. "I just want to ask him why he can throw away something that some people regard as a treasure like garbage. I just want to hear what he has to say."
"It's meaningless." Li Ang shook his head. "What does it matter if you hear it? Are you going to grab the iron railing like a female gorilla and go crazy? Believe me, you are not the only one who is qualified to do this. If you really count the ranking, you will probably be ranked behind the top 20."
Duolei was obviously very annoyed by the description of the "female gorilla", but she suppressed her anger and just stared at Li Ang with wide eyes.
"How about we compromise?" Lori began to smooth things over. "Mr. Cornerell assigned me the task of going to the winery to explain the situation. Dorey, why don't you come with me?"
Duo Lei was vaguely moved.
After all, to put it bluntly, she just wanted to do something for the sacrificed Alfred.
The old agent died so tragically that everyone in the system would feel regret and indignant after knowing the inside story.
If you just want to do something, it's a waste of time to go meet a criminal suspect who has already been convicted compared to actually joining the ongoing operation.
After all, according to the confession record, Amara was not the source of everything. The real murderer who caused this tragedy is still at large.
"Got it, Mr. Cornerell." The young agent who was looking up information finally spoke.
"'Duke of Kaino', 'white', 'flag on the front', 'large tires'... Among all the registered cars, only the president of the Boca Chamber of Commerce, Dumont Punkville, meets these requirements."
"Send the message to the third team." Leon nodded, "Ask them to investigate the Boca Chamber of Commerce. I want to know what they are doing recently."
"As for you two, get out of here."
He waved to Lori and Dorey.
"Find someone to get your weapons and equipment. Ice blast ammunition is limited, and each person only has three magazines. If you go too late, they will be gone. Don't blame me for not reminding you."
Duolei was fine. When Lori heard the word "ice bomb", he became excited and pulled her away without waiting for her to say anything.
Only Li Ang and two other working agents were left in the office. He assigned them the follow-up tasks and asked them to type out the previous steps for record. He then went out to the corridor to smoke.
The two young agents exchanged glances after he left, as if asking if Mr. Cornerell hadn't said he wanted to quit smoking a long time ago?
From this perspective, the situation is not optimistic.
After lighting a cigarette, Li Ang stood at the intersection of the corridor, looking at his subordinates wandering around in departments and offices, without any joy of promotion at all.
The situation is indeed not optimistic because this matter involves a wide range of issues.
If there were only refugees, mobilizing the Knights would be enough.
If there were only nobles, the lifting of the Xieyang would be enough to suppress them.
But this time it is not that simple. It involves refugees, nobles, and the vast majority of uninformed civilians, and even the clergy who have been suppressed and divided due to internal ideological differences during this period... This time the enemy intends to unite all these groups in one go.
What's the use of the mechanical Yang?
The king of Sara can suppress any evil spirits with the help of the Xieyang, and this can be done openly and honestly. Any Sara person, no matter what his identity or class, will only feel a sense of security from the bottom of his heart when he sees the Xieyang.
But if these people really succeed, they can use that name to unite all these forces, even if it's only for a short while.
Can we use Ji Yang to suppress it here?
Using the power that should be used to deal with evil spirits to suppress the people?
The nature of this is completely different, and it’s not easy to just do it.
In the final analysis, they found the loophole.
The only loophole, the nominal... identity of the king, was discovered.
Princess Xilu is indeed dead. She was guilty of treason and it was Charuni himself who ordered her execution.
But her blood sample is still kept in the central diocese. If the ministers are really deceived and demand to verify the blood sample certificate, it will be a real trouble.
This was originally just a formalism passed down, used to add ceremonial procedures to royal authority in various ceremonies. Who could have thought that it would eventually become a sharp blade that cuts down the flag of royal authority?
Even the late king had never thought of discovering that Erwin was not Xilu.
"What the hell..."
Li Ang couldn't help but curse under his breath.
"How on earth did they do that?"
Chapter 85: Fixing the Leakage
"How on earth did they do that?"
Almost at the same time, Xia Yibing, who had just received the radio communication, asked a similar question.
She really couldn't understand this. The fact that "Alwin is not Xilu" was already one of the country's top secrets. Although there was no secret-keeping ceremony for this matter, it was not something that a few rebellious people could guess by blindly guessing, right?
Rebellion is a life-threatening undertaking, and these people are willing to risk their own heads for this cause. This cannot be described as a lie; they simply take the news seriously.
"It's not a guess." Hitzfeld had just returned to her office from the bathroom when she heard this complaint and answered her, "Who told you they guessed it? They know the secret for sure."
"But..." Xia Yibing spread her hands, "How did you know?"
"I'm wondering if I've been spoiling you too much lately." Hitzfeld commented on her unceremoniously, "The Xia I know and admire is not the kind of person who always asks others for help when she encounters a problem."
She knew that this was because she was too conspicuous in every case, and that Aisuen Hitzfeld was too easy to use.
It’s like a tool. You know that this tool is very useful - but it’s not that useful. Well, even if you are a normal person with normal intelligence, why can’t you use it more often?
This situation could perhaps be called "Hitzfeld addiction". The girl knew and understood it. After all, laziness is human nature and cannot be avoided. So she could only try to urge and remind Xia Yibing more every time she "had an attack".
This is also a kind of training, to prevent her brain from being corrupted by emotions and turning her into an idiot, or a pervert like Luchiel Drayeman who stares at her feet all day long.
"Oh... you mean the information has already been given, but I just didn't notice it before?"
Xia Yibing's expression suddenly tensed.
She was indeed dependent on Hitzfeld. After all, who would use a hand dig when they could use a shovel... He who has the tools doesn't use them is not a fool, but this does not mean that she can endure the "humiliation" of being despised by Hitzfeld.
This was a declaration of status, and Hitzfeld didn't care, but she did. This might be because she always lost to the girl in this battle, even though she could always win in bed, but she certainly wanted to impress the girl in serious matters.
And she herself was indeed an excellent detective, so she immediately thought: "Is it Barish...?"
"Richard Barish? Just like you told me before, you doubted that this guy was not dead?"
According to the information currently known, the Golden Crown had come into contact with Richard Barish, turning him from a "wise man" into a "sage of the time."
When it comes to exploring secrets, Xia Yibing estimated that nothing could be better than the metal headband that was now huddled in the box. According to the crow's description, once you put this thing on, you can automatically comprehend all the mysteries of knowledge since the origin of the world - as long as you have the ability to keep your brain from bursting, then after taking off the crown, some of the most profound knowledge will definitely remain.
That's all knowledge and secrets... Compared with secrets of this level, "Alwin is not Xilu" is naturally nothing. Therefore, Xia Yibing felt that this secret was discovered by Richard Barish when he wore the crown.
But she found that Hitzfeld's expression became very strange after hearing her guess.
It was a painful expression as if he was trying hard to hold back his laughter but was almost unable to hold it back.
So she soon realized the logical fallacy... Richard Barrish was older than Charuni, but they were also from the same era. When Richard died, Charuni didn't know whether the plan of switching babies had been carried out. In other words, he couldn't be sure who Alvin was and who Xilu was...
"It is possible, actually." Hitzfeld corrected her after listening to her description. "You are thinking wrongly, Xia. Richard died in the 21st year of Sarah VII. Even if Xilu and Alwin were not born at that time, he would definitely notice the existence of the Old King's Party and the True Blood God Clan the moment he put on the crown. In this regard, I think the Asfen family has a tradition of substitution. He will definitely be able to find clues from the mysteries of past history and even use them to deduce what may happen in the future."
It sounds mysterious, but it is actually not a special ability.
Let me give you an example. Suppose - suppose Alwin's parents, of course, were also true-blood gods, but they also experienced intermarriage with Asfen, and one of Alwin's mother or father had also had their identities changed using similar means.
Or guessing from one generation ago, it was during the time of Sarah V or even Sarah IV... In those times, the royal family used such a substitution trick.
As long as it has been used, the trace will definitely remain.
Just as her eyes could read the trajectory of time, Richard would also be able to see the history as long as he wore the crown. He could of course infer from this that the royal family might do the same in the future.
"That must be Barish."
Xia Yibing was a little excited. "He figured out the secret... Whether he survived or passed the secret on to Wumuli Dodge, it could only be related to him."
Because the crown has always been in Amera's hands.
Since they were not sure what the crown looked like, Xia Yibing was more inclined to the latter possibility. They were obviously looking for the crown based on the information left by Richard, and Amara took advantage of the loophole.
And Amera has always held the crown. He was once bewitched by the crown, but he was very careful and never actually put it on his head.
So it can be said that no one has actually worn it since Richard Baresch died.
In other words, there would be no chance for another person to know this secret through the crown.
That leaves only Richard.
Only Richard could know, and she believed her guess was correct.
But she saw that Hitzfeld was still shaking his head.
"…What does it matter if I leaked it?" She couldn't help but widen her eyes.
"You can't say you missed it."
Hitzfeld wanted to laugh when he saw her.
After finally arriving at this office, she had intended to take a closer look, but in the end she found that nothing in the environment was as interesting as the person sitting behind the desk.
That desk, that sign, that uniform, even the office itself symbolizes her identity and her power.
To be able to make her look so dull...
Ah, I think I've also become a bit of a bad person...
