madnovel Chapter 78 Have you ever quit drugs?
Chapter 78 Have you ever quit drugs?
Richard turned to look at Xueyue, only to see her small face tense, her rabbit ears drooping, and her lips tightly closed.
After giving her a gentle look, Richard turned to Oscar, tapped the table, and said in a deep voice:
"The matter should have ended peacefully at this point, so what's the deal with the Holy Light Knights?"
Oscar swallowed hard, his voice becoming even deeper.
"Reporting to my lord."
"After the priest was punished, the atmosphere in Frost City calmed down considerably, and the patrol teams on the streets no longer set up checkpoints arbitrarily."
"The city gates have been reopened, allowing refugees outside the city to enter and go to the Church of Light to request aid."
"But..."
"Just two days later, some unfamiliar adventure teams, as well as some traveling merchants and small caravans, suddenly appeared in and around the city."
"At first I didn't pay much attention, until later I recognized a few people in a tavern in the east of the city, and realized that these people were not ordinary adventurers or merchants, but..."
At this point, he glanced at Xueyue again, then paused.
Richard raised an eyebrow and quickly took over the conversation, his tone full of disbelief.
"A slave-catching team?"
"You mean..."
"Have a lot of slave-catching teams suddenly appeared around Frost City?"
Upon hearing this, Xueyue beside him trembled violently, nearly dropping the silver wine pot she was holding.
She bit her lip hard.
It still didn't make a sound.
...
Oscar nodded emphatically, his face also showing a look of confusion.
"It was the slave-catching team."
"Their appearance suddenly made the atmosphere in Frost City strange, and at that moment, a Holy Light Knights order of more than thirty people arrived outside Frost City."
"They publicly accused Miss Lucy of deliberately spreading the news to lure the slave-catching team to capture the Snow Rabbit tribe."
"Miss Lucy was furious and immediately declared the city gates closed, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving, thus trapping the Snow Rabbit tribe, who had planned to follow the preacher out of the city, inside."
"She also publicly declared that the Holy Light Knights should immediately leave Frost Territory, or else she would consider it a provocation."
Speaking of which...
Oscar looked embarrassed and bowed.
"My lord, you have no idea. I had just arrived at the city gate and was about to set off when the gate slammed shut, blocking me for two whole days."
"This is absolutely not a deliberate delay by my Ferret Trading Company; it's simply that the situation is beyond our control. We implore you, Lord..."
--Tap tap!
Before he could finish speaking, Richard impatiently grabbed his wine glass and slammed it on the table, spilling a considerable amount of wine.
"Stop talking nonsense!"
"Quickly tell me about Frostcity. What happened after the city gates were closed?"
Oscar was startled by the sudden reprimand and dared not ramble on any longer, speaking much faster.
"Later, Miss Lucy brought in even more Frost Knights, who confronted the Knights of Light outside the city."
"The atmosphere was very tense at the time, and there were more and more slave-catching teams outside the city. It is estimated that there were more than 30 superhumans in more than a dozen small teams."
"The Holy Light Knights were probably worried about the Snow Rabbit Clan in the city, so they didn't leave, but they still put away their weapons and disarmed themselves."
"They said they came to Frost City on the orders of the Holy See to preach, and had no intention of provoking Frost with force, which barely maintained the superficial stalemate."
"Frost and Light stood in a stalemate for a whole day, neither side willing to back down. The city's inhabitants all thought a fight was about to break out and were too frightened to go out."
"Things took a turn for the better the next day when Viscount Brad returned with the Snow Deer and Snow Fox Knights."
"They joined forces with the Frost Knights, and the three knightly orders directly surrounded the Holy Light Knights in the open space at the city gate."
"Then, the Viscount ordered the city gates to be opened. I was afraid that if we delayed any longer, other things might happen, so I set off immediately with the ferret caravan."
"I don't know what happened in Frost City afterward, or whether a fight broke out."
...
Oscar finished speaking.
He let out a long sigh of relief.
A brief silence fell over the hall.
Richard, his face contorted with rage, gripped his wine glass tightly, holding back for a long time before managing not to spill the drink on his head.
This guy must have gone through drug rehabilitation, right?
This is such a huge news story, why didn't they stay and finish digesting it before running away?!
Couldn't we at least have watched what Viscount Brad would do?!
The contract stipulates that there are still two days until the delivery date, what's the rush!
Even Im, who was standing guard nearby, gripped the hilt of his knife tightly, staring at Goatee with a gloomy expression.
Xueyue was deeply distressed, her face filled with frustration.
...
Richard sighed, raised his glass, took a sip, suppressed his anger, and asked:
"Your Ferret Trading Company has been established in the North for so many years, you must have some cooperative relationships with certain slave-trapping teams, right?"
"Didn't you ask those slave-catching teams who tipped them off about the Snow Rabbit Clan in Frost City?"
The strangest thing about this matter is how those slave-catching teams got wind of it so quickly and arrived in Frost within two days.
Don't think about it.
Someone definitely leaked it!
...
Oscar quickly bowed in response.
"I did take the opportunity to ask a familiar slave-catching team, and they said they had received an anonymous message."
"They said that the Frosty Church of Light was hiding thousands of Snow Hare tribesmen, and that capturing them would fetch a good price, so they rushed here overnight."
Richard raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"Anonymous messaging?"
"How exactly was this anonymous communication method used? Was it a letter or a verbal message? Didn't the slave-catching teams ever doubt the authenticity of the message?"
Oscar hesitated for a while before finally bowing deeply, his tone tinged with apology.
"My lord, I am truly sorry."
"This involves their way of life, which I don't know and can't tell you."
...
Richard fell silent.
The other party's meaning was clear: even if he knew about this anonymous method of communication, he would not tell him.
It must have involved some shady people or things, and as someone who knew about it, he was asked to keep it a secret.
Okay...
At least in the future, if I sell food for survival to the ferret trading company privately, I won't have to worry about them spreading the word all over the world.
Thinking of this.
Richard leaned back in his chair.
Close your eyes.
I quickly went through the whole story in my mind, scrutinizing every detail.
Slave-catching teams do dirty work, but they are often connected to major merchant houses or noble lords.
In other words...
The fact that they could secretly notify so many slave-hunting teams and get them to willingly venture into the heart of a large territory like Frost City suggests that a powerful force is behind it.
So...
Who is most likely to spread this message, and what is their purpose in doing so?
...
From the perspective of the Holy See, Frost would certainly be the first suspect.
Because Frost's act of using the refugee crisis to extort money is essentially about making money, how could Frost possibly let go of this batch of rabbits worth tens of thousands of gold?
In order to keep all those rabbits in Frost City, they could find an excuse to close the city gates, and then, on their own territory, those rabbits would be at Frost's mercy.
And Frost is one of the old noble families in the North, so isn't it normal for him to have some cooperation with slave-catching teams in private?
It makes perfect sense that he could summon numerous slave-catching teams with a single call.
Furthermore.
Even if Frost City didn't eat this batch of rabbits and eventually let them leave, the combined strength of so many slave-hunting teams wouldn't be small.
If this incident escalates, and even one of these rabbits is captured, the Holy See's reputation in the North will be completely ruined. Perhaps this is the biggest trigger point behind this whole affair...
—The lords and the Papacy have begun their struggle.