Imperial Crown

Snake Castle, the castle of the Slater family, was breached more than a year ago. Now it has been basically repaired. The old and new bricks on the wall overlap, and the mottled surface carries a trace of the vicissitudes of history.

The main body of the castle is divided into four floors, covering an area so large that if there is no one to lead the way, you will definitely get lost.

Raven walked all the way inside under the guidance of the servant and came to the study of Earl Tyrone.

Earl Tyrone's hair is slightly gray, his beard is trimmed short and neatly, and he wears a simple solid-color robe, without any of the luxurious decorations popular among the aristocrats.

Seeing Raven coming, Tyrone stood up with a smile: "Baron Raven, you always surprise me every time we meet."

"If you hadn't solved the vampire, I'm afraid I wouldn't look good."

Raven said modestly: "Lord Earl, you are too kind. It's a coincidence. Even without me, he can't escape your control."

Earl Tyrone did not comment, and pointed to the chair: "Sit down."

After all, Monen City is the territory of the Slater family. Earl Tyrone had heard about the ship early on, and did send Typhon's Fang to monitor, but did not take the initiative.

He was waiting for Raven to ask him for help.

Unexpectedly, Raven actually solved the problem quietly by himself.

Typhon's Fang reported the news, making it clear that the vampire had the strength of the third level, and to be able to defeat the third-level vampire, Raven himself must be at least the third level.

He has been a noble for two years and a magician for less than two years, but he has already become a third-level strongman.

Genius is not enough to describe the speed of his progress.

This is also the reason why Tyrone took the initiative to summon Raven instead of waiting for Raven to hand in his visiting card.

Tyrone asked: "I'm afraid it's not easy to fight against a third-level vampire?"

"Vampires are secretive and very agile, and it's really hard to deal with them." Raven smiled: "Fortunately, I have mastered several third-level magics that can restrain these dark creatures, and I am more familiar with the terrain of Mon'en City, so I won by chance."

In Tyrone's view, it is a consensus in the extraordinary world that magicians are physically weak. Raven is obviously not injured, which means that in a one-on-one duel, he suppressed a vampire so that it could not get close to him at all.

Vampires are much more sensitive than knights of the same level.

Being able to do this means that no Dou Qi user in the same level will be Raven's opponent.

Even if other factors are excluded, Raven is already one of the strongest in the Nord Province in terms of personal strength.

If Raven still relied on the power of the Fox family to stand in front of Tyrone and bargain with him when distributing military merits a year ago, now Raven is really qualified to sit at the table.

Thinking of this, Tyrone's expression softened: "It's a pity that I don't have a daughter of the right age, otherwise I would never let the Fox family get ahead."

Raven was stunned when he heard this, and then he was relieved.

As an old rival, it is normal for the Slater family to plant some spies in the Fox family.

But Raven was not going to admit it. Sometimes even if both parties knew the truth about something, they still had to pretend to be stupid:

"Fox is from the Earl family. He shouldn't be interested in my brother, right?"

Earl Tyrone shook his head and chuckled, and suddenly said: "Baron Raven, have you heard the story of 'fox laying eggs'?"

Without waiting for Raven to answer, Earl Tyrone said to himself: "Once upon a time, there was a golden eagle. It was very powerful. The prey it captured was hung on the branches, and its nest was decorated like a palace."

"An old fox took a fancy to this wealth, so he let his daughter get close to the golden eagle."

"The golden eagle and the little fox lived together, but one time when they went out hunting, the golden eagle died. .”

“The king of the forest, the lion, wanted to redistribute the property belonging to the golden eagle, but the little fox took out an egg and said it was the child of the golden eagle.”

“Everyone suspected that it was not, but they had to wait for the egg to hatch before they could come to a conclusion; and during this time, the old fox moved into the golden eagle's nest.”

“Three months later, the egg broke.”

“But the golden eagle's nest had been emptied, and all the wealth had gone to the old fox's nest.”

Raven thought for a moment and asked, “Then where is the snake in this story?”

As if he didn't expect Raven to ask this, Tyrone was stunned for a moment, and then said, “The snake is telling the golden eagle a story.”

At this point, the two smiled at each other.

In Earl Tyrone's story, the old fox refers to Montreal, the little fox refers to Nancy, and the golden eagle of course refers to Raven.

As for the snake, it is the Slater family.

Raven's question was to tell Tyrone that he was very clear-headed and would not let down his guard because of the good intentions shown by those in high positions.

This is the case for Tyrone, and of course he must be more cautious against Montreal.

To put it bluntly, it means - you old guys, stop interfering with my life!

After laughing, Earl Tyrone said: "There is one thing you may not have heard yet."

"Marquis Anthony has set off from the capital and will arrive in Nord Province in two months at most. He is carrying the king's order to re-examine the previous battle with the Hand of Death."

Raven's pupils shrank slightly: "Is it that Anthony?"

"That's him."

Anthony Edwards, the Marquis of the Empire, has a vast family power and great influence in the three central provinces, and has always been a loyal supporter of the royal family.

In the history of the Edwards family, there have been seven governors and nine marshals, and they have almost never missed the king's cabinet.

"Our king, His Majesty the Sixteenth Keynes, is still young, only 28 years old now." Tyrone said casually, "He is energetic, talented, and very opinionated. He is a rare British king in a century."

Raven's eyelids trembled slightly.

Being young means being impulsive and motivated; being very opinionated means being conceited and selfish.

Such a person will never allow power to fall into the hands of others, let alone tolerate betrayal by others.

There is no doubt that the previous actions of the Fox family annoyed the king, so Anthony was sent here. The so-called review is probably aimed at the Fox family.

No matter how powerful the earl is, he is only an earl and cannot fight against the king.

The good days of the Fox family are probably coming to an end.

After talking about the business, they entered the gossip session exclusive to the nobles. Even Earl Tyrone could not escape this kind of thing.

He stayed in the castle until noon, and had lunch with Earl Tyrone before leaving the Snake Castle.

What surprised Raven a little was that it was Mansene who was waiting for him outside the castle.

"Baron." Mansene saluted respectfully: "I'm here to keep you safe."

It seems that the former gangster lady, who was arrogant, was very upset that she couldn't help Raven last night.

"Have you eaten?" Raven asked.

Mansene was stunned: "Uh... not yet."

"Then accompany me to go out for a walk and eat something." Raven said: "Last time I came back, I didn't have a good walk in the city."

"But, didn't you eat in the Snake Castle?" Mansene asked.

"Denise should have treated you to a meal." Raven raised his eyebrows: "Did you enjoy the meal?"

Mansene was speechless for a moment, and her face was a little embarrassed.

When facing Denise, it was purely a subordinate facing a superior. There was no personal relationship or old feelings. The focus was on interpersonal relationships, and the mind certainly would not be on eating.

Seeing her look, Raven laughed: "Let's go!"

Sending away the Chamber of Commerce carriage, Raven and Mansene walked in the streets of Monen City.

The upper city was still the same as before, with clean and tidy streets. Soldiers patrolled every few dozen meters, looking down on civilians passing by, but smiling when they saw those dressed in fancy clothes.

When we arrived at the lower city, the environment changed.

The streets began to become narrow, and the buildings on both sides of the road became strange due to disrepair or random additions. A spider-web-like mess of hemp ropes was pulled between the houses, hanging clothes and shoes wet by the drizzle last night.

Old, messy, disorganized, but full of vitality.

But Raven always felt something was wrong.

When he passed a crossroads, Raven finally understood where this was wrong - it had just rained last night, and the ground should have been muddy and wet, with a pit on every step. Now, after walking for a long time, there was no mud on the soles of his feet.

Under Mansene's explanation, Raven learned that since taking over the Chamber of Commerce in the Lower City of Mon'en City, Denise had learned from Raven and began to improve the traffic environment in the Lower City.

The area of ​​the lower city of Mon'en City is huge. The Chamber of Commerce did not and could not spend a lot of money on fine road construction like the Eagle Town, and even the roadbed had to be dug two meters deep, but some people were mobilized to re-pave the main road with stone slabs and stone strips.

Afterwards, the Mercenary Guild was given a task to clean up the small monsters and criminals entrenched in the sewer system. Now the flooding in the lower city has basically been solved.

It is a thing of the past that light rain turns into streams and heavy rain turns into rivers.

The two were walking on the street. Although almost no one recognized Raven, Mansene's military uniform was quite conspicuous, so no blind guys bumped into them.

"Oh, here we are." Raven pointed to a building.

Mansene blushed. Raven broke into here by breaking into the house, saw her changing clothes, and revealed her identity as a man dressed as a woman.

The fate of the two was intertwined.

At that time, she did not expect that Raven would come as an absolutely strong man in the future, and she did not expect that she would become Raven's subordinate.

She was a little embarrassed and did not know how to deal with it, but fortunately, Raven did not extend this topic, but quickened his pace to the port area.

With the port, there is a huge amount of cargo throughput, which feeds many porters and makes the catering industry here particularly developed, with many special restaurants.

The most distinctive one is a fried roll, the outer skin is made of pig or sheep casings, the inside is covered with a layer of batter, a layer of red beans, and another layer of minced meat, and then it is fried in a pan after rolling.

Because the source of the raw materials is suspicious, one only costs 3 copper coins, and two weigh 1 pound, which is nearly half a kilogram.

Even a big-bellied man, if he grabs 5 and eats them, he will not feel tired after working for a day.

In addition to food, there are also drinks. Although heavy manual laborers like to drink, that is after work. Otherwise, if you drink too much and fall into the river, you will not only have to pay for the goods, but also your life.

So "dockside tea" became the most popular drink.

It's called tea, but it's actually a kind of dried black berry called "star" brewed with hot water. This berry is very sour, and in order to neutralize it, a lethal amount of sugar is added to it.

It's very sour and sweet, and it can stimulate the appetite and quickly replenish physical strength.

The two bought some fried rolls wrapped in palm leaves; they also ordered two large bowls of dockside tea, came to the Mon River, leaned on the railing and looked at the river view.

The boats came and went, and the setting sun shone on the river, which was beaten into pieces of broken dreams by the sparkling river water.

Taking a bite of the burrito and drinking a sip of dock tea, Raven suddenly stopped moving.

When he was still hanging out in Mon’en City, he often ate and drank like this. Sometimes when he was so hungry, he could eat six or seven burritos in one breath.

But now, after just two bites, he began to feel greasy; the dock tea that he once loved the most was also sour and bitter, and sweet and choking.

These two things have not changed, but Raven has changed.

Gently shaking his head, the setting sun cut his side into a lonely silhouette, breaking into Mansene’s eyes.

Following Raven all the way, she thought a lot.

In fact, since becoming the commander of the Security Army, she has rarely had the opportunity to shuttle through the streets of the lower city like this.

Like Raven in the past, Mansene is also a part of the lower city, like a drop of blood, running in the criss-crossing streets with dense blood vessels.

Born and raised here, absorbing all kinds of knowledge, she is also stained with the dirty and messy background of this city.

If nothing unexpected happens, Mansene and Raven will be like most people in the underworld, falling into corners and sewers before they get old.

If Mansene's identity is exposed, the fate that awaits her will be more miserable than death.

But Raven jumped out and became a nobleman.

When he came back, he was already above this land.

He did not feel disgusted, nor did he cover up this dirty history. Instead, he transformed the downtown area in his own way, pulling many people like Mansene, who were destined to live in the dark, into the sunshine.

At the same time, he also used his thunderous means to wash away the dirty and sinful background of the downtown area.

Perhaps this is the legendary savior of the evil.

Raven came back to his senses and looked at Mansene steadily.

She was wearing a military uniform, with the buttons of her top opened slightly casually, revealing the white cotton vest inside, and the wheat-colored skin above and below her collarbone reflected the sunset.

The wind blew, outlining her slender waist, and the skin around her waist could still be seen faintly.

Raven suddenly raised his hand and stretched it to Manse's cheek.

Manse's breathing stagnated, a trace of red appeared on her face, and her lips opened slightly, looking at a loss.

Only in front of Raven did she realize that she was a woman, and she had no experience in how to face men as a woman.

Raven's fingers gently brushed across her lips, sticking a piece of broken casing.

Manse swallowed her saliva, and her heartbeat, which had been raised, slowly slowed down.

"What do you think about the future?" Raven suddenly asked.

"This..." Manse's mind was blank: "...I haven't thought about it."

People in the downtown area, even top gangsters like her, take one step at a time.

The future?

That's a luxury.

Raven threw the fried burrito in his hand to the homeless man huddled in the corner not far away: "The mark of the City of Mon'en is too deep on you and me. If we continue to live here, we will never get rid of it."

"The Eagle Territory can give you a new start."

After saying that, Raven patted her shoulder and whispered in her ear:

"Think about it carefully, I'll wait for your answer."

……