I will be crowned king

At No. 20 Boulevard Bleman, little Périgord, who had just sat down in the tavern, looked up at the commotion in the cafe opposite, subconsciously holding on to the table and trying to get up and leave.

Just as he was about to move, a cold and biting touch suddenly hit him, piercing the top of his skull from the back of his neck, and a shrill, almost desperate howl sounded in his ears.

The troubled-looking little Périgord was silent for a few seconds, and finally sat back down leisurely. He even leisurely took out a match from his arms and smoked his pipe.

It's too late... The opponent's magical aura is so strong that even I can feel it. It's already a threat that I don't even bother to cover up. If I dare to show any signs of trying to escape, the scream I hear next will come from my own throat. .

After thinking about this, he no longer even felt nervous and began to think about how things would end tonight.

Pat-ta-ta-ta-ta-

The firelight flickered past, and the intoxicating smoke beside the wine table obscured the night scene outside the window, and also obscured the sight of little Périgord.

When the smoke dissipated from his eyes, a familiar figure was sitting opposite him, also smoking a pipe and looking at him warily.

As if he had just woken up from sleep, little Périgord's expression was dazed and stiff, and he was stunned for more than ten seconds before returning to normal.

"you……"

"Good evening, His Excellency Maurice Périgord." Anson said with a smile, his pupils flashing with blood-red scarlet: "To be honest, it is quite a bit disappointing to see each other again so soon. Accident."

With his pipe in his mouth, he seemed to be not here to raise an eyebrow, but simply to see an old friend. For this reason, he had made some careful preparations to prevent the other party from leaving without saying goodbye again like before.

"Yes, it's not just you, I'm also surprised."

There was a bitter smile on little Périgord's face: "I never expected... the famous Major General Anson Bach, a loyal minister of the Osteria royal family, a devout believer certified by Clovis Cathedral, actually actually is a spellcaster."

"It's not a major general, it's a brigadier general." Anson, who was not in a hurry to take action, corrected him. While chewing on his pipe, he took out a golden monocle from his pocket and carefully clamped it in his right eye socket: "It seems that there is nothing like that inside the Holy See. They seem so united on the surface, but the Judgment Knights didn’t tell you such important information?”

"Oh my, you don't have to be so deliberate if you want to destroy the relationship between the monastery and the Order of Judgment, Brigadier General Anson Bach?"

The corners of Little Périgord's mouth raised, as if he was not affected at all: "I admit that this time it was indeed a miscalculation; the original plan was to silence you, your sister, the clerk and the landlady quietly, completely. I didn’t expect that you would open up your spellcasting area directly in the inner city of Clovis City without any concealment.”

"As far as I know, the last such arrogant spellcaster was Mace Honard, who died in your hands during the Clovis City Rebellion in the 100th year of the Saint's Calendar... Haha, it should be said that there must be a teacher. His disciple?"

"I take this as a compliment." Anson narrowed his eyes slightly: "Can you ask me more, why?"

"Why..." Little Périgord touched his chin: "Why do I want to attack you at this time, or why do I have spellcasters under my command?"

"...Both."

"Then I can only say that you are asking questions knowingly, Brigadier General Anson Bach; you killed my good friend 'Whisper' and tried to overthrow the Bayonet Club. I can not interfere in these; but you gave me the difference machine If you leave it to the inquisitors, that would be a little less than a friend."

"I didn't kill Whisper. It seems you were the one who did it yourself."

Anson said coldly: "As for the Difference Engine... Not to mention your intentions in leaving it to me, do you think it is possible for such a thing to be left openly in Clovis City without being discovered by the Inquisitor? "

"Maybe, maybe not." Little Périgord said with a faint smile:

"But I know that this cautious Brigadier General Anson Bach has launched a spellcasting field directly on the streets of the inner city of Clovis; even if the judges of the Truth Seeking Order are all blind and deaf, they should come to visit tomorrow morning Alright?"

"Of course, you can kill me or even kill everyone on this street to silence me. I believe it will be easy for you to do this; but I also know that you will not do this - otherwise you would not have done it at all. It’s necessary to show up, isn’t it?”

"Mr. Anson Bach, who has been tested by me, now you need my help. To be more precise, you need the help of my spell casters to help you cover up the magic aura left behind when you do it. Please ask me." The fellow inquisitors of the True Cultivator will not be completely unable to do their jobs."

"This is the only reason why you are here and I can continue to breathe air." Little Périgord became more and more proud and even arrogant: "The winner of this farce tonight is you, but I want to have a good time." To end it, I, a loser, still need to be willing to cooperate...Am I right?"

Anson did not answer immediately, but his scarlet eyes were still looking at Maurice Périgord who looked confident, as if he had regained the initiative.

At this moment, a fierce blast of horns suddenly came from the dark night outside the tavern window.

The sound came from a very far away place. Perhaps it was because Boleyman Street was too quiet at night, but it could still be heard clearly. Judging from the clarity and direction of the sound, it was most likely coming from...

"Red Brick Street."

The proud Maurice Périgord could no longer hide the raised corners of his mouth: "At least thirty policemen from Whitehall Street are coming from Red Brick Street."

"They received a report during the day that someone was going to attack the church bank. They have been stationed there for a long time in full force. Any sign of trouble will alert them."

"...Did you report the case?" Anson said without changing his expression: "Even the police on Whitehall Street are among your people?"

Little Périgord smiled proudly: "Maybe, maybe not, there are many possibilities, and your guess is just one of them."

"But they are only two streets away from here and will be here within a quarter of an hour; this means that if you want to clean up the mess tonight, you... only have a quarter of an hour."

"If we don't reach an agreement within fifteen minutes, the news that the dignified Army Brigadier General and his cutest sister are spellcasters will become the front page headlines of all the newspapers tomorrow."

"I really... really don't want to see that scene happen. Really, the purpose of my coming is just to meet my old friends and mess up the city of Clovis, but I never wanted to let the Holy See and Clovis go to war. "

"Oh, are you still so kind?"

"This has nothing to do with being kind or not. Clovis is very important to the Holy See now. We want to see the Osterian royal family in trouble, but we don't want to see them lose their throne or even the entire kingdom fall into collapse... That pair Everyone is bad."

"It is so touching to see the Holy See's sense of responsibility in being so concerned about the balance and stability of the ordered world."

"Everywhere, they are just serving thousands of believers, not worth mentioning."

He waved his hands nonchalantly, and the little Périgord, who was smiling more and more calmly, put down the pipe at the corner of his mouth, tilted his head and looked at Anson, who was forcing himself to be calm in his eyes:

"So, Brigadier General, what are your options?"

"My choice?" Anson said calmly: "I want to know so soon. Are you anxious?"

"Afraid, of course not, but people outside may not think so." He took out an enamel pocket watch from his arms and gently opened the pure gold watch cover inlaid with pearls:

"Ten minutes left...there is not much time left for you to make a choice."

"Really, that's only about 600 seconds. Isn't that plenty of time?"

Adjusting the golden monocle on his face, Anson said without looking back: "We might as well wait a little longer, maybe something unexpected will happen, I don't know for sure."

"..."

Little Périgord suddenly stopped laughing.

Vaguely aware of something wrong, he glanced at the night scene outside the window with the corner of his eye, and found nothing except the dark streets and dim street lights. The tavern was also peaceful, and the guests in twos and threes were still chatting happily with each other. The bartender seemed I was still discussing the strange news in the cafe opposite with the doorman... I couldn't see any signs of anything unusual.

No, there must be something wrong, there must be something happening that I don’t know about.

Maurice Périgord, who was forcing himself to be calm, suppressed his anxiety and turned his attention to the calm Anson Bach again.

Could it be that this guy has secretly reached an agreement with the Franz family, allowing the police on Whitehall Street to ignore his presence?

No, this is impossible. Even if the Franz family had such courage, Luther Franz, as the archbishop, would never dare to put the matter of hiding the Old Gods, or even spellcasters, on the table; this This kind of behavior is almost hostile to the entire world of order... They don't have the guts!

Little Périgord, who is not a spellcaster, is even more aware of the power of conjuration than many conjurers; only within the scope of the spellcasting field can they distort reality, and this range may change the shape of the covered area, but There is a limit to the size, and areas outside the range will not be affected by the distortion force.

Not only that, the more it violates the laws of reality, the more energy it requires; if a normal human wants to block the light of the entire street, he will die suddenly on the spot if he can't hold on for more than ten seconds.

And long before that, the magical aura he released was enough to attract the inquisitor of Clovis Cathedral here; without having to do anything on his own, Anson Bach's future would be ruined if he self-destructed.

So...what is his confidence?

Time passed by minute by minute amid little Périgord's doubts. On the quiet Boulevard Beaulemain, the sound of the alarm bell of the police carriage on Whitehall Street could be faintly heard.

At the same time, the two blood mages were still fighting with Lisa outside the door of the townhouse apartment. The flickering firelight was mixed with the sound of gunshots like fried beans, which was a bit more eye-catching than the cold moon in the sky.

However, despite such an eye-catching scene, the Whitehall Street police officers who rushed over seemed to have seen nothing. They directly ignored the figure fighting in the middle of the street and ran straight through Braiman Street. Not even the slightest thought of stopping.

This... little Périgord's pupils shrank slightly.

The moment the four-wheeled carriage whizzed past, he suddenly realized that not only the police, but also the residents of the apartments on both sides of the street, the guests in the cafes and pubs, the bartenders, the waiters... everyone seemed unaware of what was happening; The sound of gunfire was clearly loud enough to rival a gang fight, but no one noticed it at all.

Suppressing the panic in his heart, he refocused his eyes on Anson Bach in front of him, but found that he couldn't focus on the other person's existence; even though he was sitting in front of him, he always had the subconscious urge to ignore him.

"You seem to be very concerned about the carriage that just passed by. It seems that you misjudged the situation... Unfortunately, they did not come because they heard the noise on the street here." Anson said softly:

"In fact, I don't even think they know what's going on on Boleman Avenue, just like the residents on this street, and no one knows that you and I exist."

"For them, this is just an ordinary night; the bizarre accident in the cafe next door may become a topic of conversation for many people, and the sudden sound of gunfire in the middle of the night will become the beginning of a bizarre story, based on a third-rate novel The gesture was published in some unknown tabloid...that’s all.”

At this moment, little Périgord suddenly felt his heart tightening. The ordinary scenes around him made him feel sick, as if he was not living in the real world, but...

"In someone's dream."

The drinker on the side suddenly turned his head and spoke to little Périgord seriously.

Périgord sat upright suddenly.

"Your Excellency Maurice Périgord, you are very smart and have carefully arranged this dead end that has no solution at all." The bartender who was just chatting and laughing with the doorman said, and walked step by step towards the table where the two of them were sitting. : "Unfortunately, you still missed a step."

"You think I don't dare to act openly, but in fact... I actually have many ways to expand my territory without being noticed by anyone." After taking the words, Anson slowly took off the "anonymity glasses" on his face:

"Is it possible to expose traces by expanding the domain? It's simple. Just let the domain cover the entire street without leaving any dead ends, and then distort the surrounding laws until they look no different from normal. Isn't that enough?"

"Of course, this takes time...and your confident caster subordinates gave me just this time; they released their magic aura unscrupulously, perfectly hiding my traces in the open field for a moment."

Bang——

The wine glass on the table fell to the ground, and little Périgord finally showed a trace of panic on his face.

However, Anson put the monocle into his jacket pocket without haste. The guests and waiters in the entire tavern stood up one after another, looked at the two people expressionlessly, and spoke simultaneously with Anson:

"Now, how do you think tonight should end?"

"Now, how do you think tonight should end?"

"Now, how do you think tonight should end..."