The Book of Hibernation

Mentioning Ryan, Aldin and Kanai looked at each other and sighed at the same time.

Seeing them like this, Dongjiu felt even more uneasy.

Seeing Winter Thistle's expression, Aldin hurriedly comforted him: "Don't worry, your brother is fine, he was not injured and he was not punished. Under normal circumstances, he should have come back a long time ago, and he should have dinner with us now...but..."

"what happened?"

"It's his own reluctance to come back," Aldin said. "This matter is settled, and Ryan will not be questioned, but he can't let go of this matter. He ran to the city hall this morning, and I was not there. I don't know what he said... I guess he just stated what he knows. How much does he know about this matter?"

Winter Thistle said, "Lane knows there are living people in the cargo, and he knows about the elf rescue party, and that's about it."

He was actually relieved.Ryan is fine.This style is indeed in line with Ryan's personality, and it is enough to cause headaches.

Aldin asked: "You told me before that you suspected that these laborers were not going to the mines, but to the northern frost plains. Have you ever told Ryan about this suspicion?"

Winter Thistle said: "No. At that time, I used a masking agent, and I couldn't talk to Ryan casually in the warehouse. The elves will come in a few hours, and the time is limited. I thought I had to come back early to discuss with you..."

"Well done," Aldin looked at him with a smile, folded his hands under his chin, "I really want to thank you, fortunately you informed us in time. If the elves really attack, things will be difficult to end. As for Ryan ...As long as he doesn't mention the Northern Frost Plains, it's asking for trouble. But I guess he won't think about it."

Winter Thistle asked cautiously: "That caravan...they really aren't going to Frostfield, are they?"

"They didn't go to the Frost Plains," Aldin replied affirmatively. "The identity of the refugees from the Salvation Society was recognized by the Ten Nations Confederacy, so the refugees can only migrate according to the route approved by the document. They can only reach Sago and cannot be diverted halfway." Go elsewhere, because other city-states won't let it go."

Winter Thistle nodded, and finally scooped up the food on the plate and took two bites.

At the current time, he should also be hungry, but he couldn't remember to take the tableware because he was so worried, now he relaxed a little, and finally remembered to eat.

Aldin found that he was always peeking at himself and Kanai, obviously wanting to continue asking about his brother.

So Aldin took the initiative to say: "After your brother went to the city hall, he probably didn't get any results, so he went to the headquarters of the city guard. I don't know what he thinks, I wonder if he can find the city guard. What to say... In short, there is probably no result, he ran to the fishing port for a long time, and finally went to the Temple of the Day. He has not come back until now, and there is no news."

"Is the temple also involved in this matter?" Winter Thistle asked.

Aldin said: "No, the matter is over. Since no conflict broke out, the temple will not intervene in legal business. But Ryan is very persistent, probably still in the temple."

Winter Thistle said, "In addition to the dock, he might bring up the necromancer and the dead hunter... That hunter attacked the clergy, and Ryan was very angry about it."

Aldin waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. Necromancers and hunters have run away, as long as it doesn't affect Harbor City, it's nothing. In short, there is nothing to worry about now. Maybe the only thing you need to worry about is your brother's psychology." state."

Dong Ji nodded earnestly: "He is still young, and his thoughts are very simple. He must have never thought about how much these things will affect him. I will have a good talk with him in the future."

"Okay." Aldin raised his glass, but Winter Thistle just lowered his head and didn't react at all to clink his glass.

Aldin didn't mind either, so he took a sip of the wine silently.

During this dinner, Kanai didn't speak much.Winter Thistle was worried about Ryan's situation, but didn't think there was anything wrong.

After the meal, Dong Ji didn't know when it would be better to leave, so she sat silently in a daze.

It wasn't until Aldin took the initiative to speak and told Dong Ji to go back and have a good rest, then Dong Ji politely left the banquet hall.

After Winter Thistle left, the servants also withdrew.

In the spacious room, only Aldin and the Kanai brothers were left.

Kanai raised his hand and twirled his fingers.After his gesture, the door of the banquet hall was closed and bolted by itself, and all the windows were locked from the inside.

Kanai leaned back on the chair and looked at his brother: "Thanks to Winter Thistle this time. Fortunately, he believed you and came back to report the letter."

Aldin also said: "Yes. It was just a very simple thing, how did it become like this..."

Kanai said: "This is not normal. Absolutely not normal. In my opinion, it's not as simple as the island elves eyeing the caravan. Someone else intervened in this matter."

Aldin nodded.

The ease and comfort on his face just now had disappeared, and at this moment, his eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of dark clouds.

Kanai said: "The Carlos family has not done this kind of thing once or twice. It has never happened before. According to the existing agreement, we must be clean, otherwise we will not be able to provide them with long-term help. This time the caravan obviously mixed the dead with the living on purpose, I can't help but think about it."

Aldin said: "I understand what you mean. The Carlos family said that they will send Doris over to talk about it."

Kanai said: "There is also the island. The tribe of the elves does not support these rescue teams. After all, the prisoners are sold by themselves, so under normal circumstances, the rescue team cannot get a big boat and can only use ordinary small fishing boats. They couldn't sail so far, and they couldn't catch up to the port. But this time it was different. They used a large fishing boat that could sail long distances. No serial number. I can't find out what shipyard it came from, or who handled it."

"About this ship..." Aldin narrowed his eyes slightly, "Did your 'guest' say anything?"

Kanai said: "He said it. He said that the island elves rented it from the archipelago. It was a human boat. The ship was old in style and slow in speed, but it was safe, so the elves pooled their money to rent it. But this 'guest' doesn't know the owner of the ship, he only works as a receptionist in the harbor city and does not go to the sea, so he has no direct contact with the owner of the ship."

"Is he telling the truth?"

"I think it's the truth. In fact, I didn't ask him directly, but asked some other questions, and guided him to say it from the side. I also deliberately confused him, asked him the name and hometown of the leader of the rescue team, and pretended that It seemed to be a very important matter... As a result, he was very tight-lipped and refused to say anything. I think he probably felt that the identity of the rescue team was very important and needed to be kept secret; It's nothing to say."

Aldin sighed: "There should be a few island elves left."

"Indeed. I thought the Elves of Yoll would be enough, and thought I could find the keel number anyway... My mistake. I didn't think enough."

Aldin stood up, walked to Kanai, and pressed his brother on the shoulder as a sign of comfort.

He pulled out another chair and sat down beside Kanai: "Since this is the case, it means that someone did it on purpose. They hid in the dark, first planted hidden dangers in our long-term cooperative caravan, and then guided the elves Follow the caravan."

Kanai said: "Yes. No matter who it is, his purpose is definitely not to help the elves rescue the slaves with good intentions. He wants to cause chaos at the pier. Winning or losing is not important. The important thing is to expose what the caravan did directly. This will cause all kinds of troubles. The elves attacked the human warehouse in Harbor City, and slave trading activities and dead bodies were found in the warehouse... This is not a trivial matter. The city hall can't pretend not to see it. If you are not careful, the news may come back It will be even more troublesome if it is passed on to the capital. We will have to spend a lot of effort to calm this matter."

Aldin asked, "What do you think? Who do you think did it?"

Kanai said: "At first I suspected that someone was targeting us, but after thinking about it carefully, it didn't look like it."

"Why not?"

"What we did was to assist the Carlos family to go through formalities on the surface, and introduced a person to be a temporary bodyguard. The part we participated in was not much different from the part involved in the city hall. Even if someone took No matter how hard we try, we will eventually find a way to get out. After all, everything we handle is legal. So I thought again... maybe the people behind the scenes are not targeting us? Is it from within the Carlos family? Something went wrong? But that's going too far..."

After hearing this, Aldin smiled: "Brother, in fact, your suspicion was quite sharp at the beginning. Why did you deny it?"

Kanai looked at him: "You mean... this matter is really aimed at us?"

Aldin said: "Imagine it. A conflict broke out in the dock warehouse. Several elves died, and several people from the caravan and city guards died. Various slaves were exposed in a large pile of boxes. Half of them were real dead corpses... Then, the news spread, the city hall intervened, the city guards arrested the living elves, the temple came forward to check the corpses, and the news spread to the capital... This scene is the man behind the scenes Expect to see developments, right?"

Kanai nodded.

Aldin continued: "At this time, if anyone else asks you to find out about this matter, to test whether you know the use of slave corpses, and to test what you think of the behavior of the Carlos family... How would you answer? How What to do? If you had to go to the royal capital to be a witness, and the court asked you, how much do you know about the Carlos family? Is it possible that they might be involved in the Northern Frostfields? How would you answer?"

Kanai sighed softly.

Under Aldin's prompt, he also understood.

If things develop to that point, if someone really tests the attitude of Aldin and Kanai in this way, they must be careful about every word they say.

As long as someone trafficked living people and corpses at the same time, anyone with a discerning eye would suspect that it had something to do with Shuangyuan.Regardless of whether it is actually true or not, there must be no shortage of doubts.

If Aldin and Kanai supported the Carlos family and even endorsed their actions, then it would not only be the Carlos family who were suspected of cooperating with Frostfield, but Aldin's power would also be questioned.

If they express doubts about the Carlos family, that the caravan may indeed want to transport slaves to the Frostfields, or even take the initiative to speak against the Carlos family...then, what they will lose is that the Carlos family, including the many allies within.

Thanks to the efforts of the chamber of commerce and the Carlos family, the "slave trade" incident will surely subside in the end.For the Carlos family, they will definitely suffer losses, but it is not unbearable; for Aldin, he will not be severely hit because of this trivial matter.

However, the rift between the allies must start to spread from small to large.

Once handled improperly, Aldin's biggest loss is not money, but the trust and tacit understanding that he has finally established.

This is not only related to the relationship with the Carlos family, but also to all of Aldin's connections and his prestige as the head of the chamber of commerce.

Aldin played with the tableware casually, cut the food left on the plate into small pieces, then tied up a piece with a knife, and threw it into Kanai's restless wine.

"However, don't worry too much," Aldin said, with a more relaxed tone than before, "The person who arranged this matter, he started from the trivial things that I don't care much about, so it is easier for me to be negligent. Passive. Right now he is just testing me, interfering with me, and trying to weaken me... He doesn't plan to directly confront me. After this matter subsides, he shouldn't act rashly right away. Thinking about it this way, the current situation is also a good thing, At least we're aware of it."

Kanai said, "Well, that's right. Do you have anyone you suspect?"

Aldin said: "It's not easy to doubt casually, we can observe slowly. Compared with the distant things, there is still a small matter in front of us... How are you going to deal with that 'guest'?"

Kanai said: "That man...he is different from the barbaric island elves. He is from Yole Island. If you want to deal with it, you have to be careful."

"Does he know much?"

"You know what's on the surface."

Aldin said: "Let him live first, maybe it will be useful in the future. Besides him, we have a little trouble..."

"You mean Ryan?" Kanai frowned. "Ryan doesn't know much, but that kind of personality is really troublesome. Although he is only a trainee, he is also considered a temple knight. We can't easily..."

"My good brother, what are you thinking!" Aldin interrupted Kanai, and patted his knee hard, "Don't cause more trouble just to calm down one thing. Don't forget, we His refiner has to stay obediently, and nothing will happen to his relatives."

Kanai said: "Speaking of Winter Thistle, although he came back in time to report, it was not because he was partial to us, but because he cared about Ryan very much. He was afraid that his beloved brother would be stigmatized."

Aldin said: "Winter Thistle is an interesting man, and I like him very much. So, I will not hurt his only relative."

Kanai looked at his brother, waiting for him to finish.

From childhood to adulthood, Kanai has deeper knowledge and cultural attainments, but in some moments that involve people's hearts, his brother, a mercenary, is more sensitive.

Aldin said in a regretful tone: "But his only family member may hurt him."