Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 472 The Cause of Everything
The study room in the town hall of Shanchagang exudes a rotten smell of old book pages, and there is also a faint smell of blood that is almost imperceptible in the air.

There is no doubt that this room has just been cleaned and tidied up, so although it is full of miscellaneous odds and ends, it does not appear to be chaotic: on the old bookshelves placed against the wall, the collections of the previous mayors of Shanchagang are arranged in alphabetical order Arranged neatly, a large number of documents and pages were bundled with elven plant fiber ropes produced in Yongsun City, and piled up at the corner to form a hill as high as a person.

The center of the whole room is naturally the long oak desk in front of the bookshelf: from the left side of the desk, there are a large stack of thick cowhide hardcover historical classics, quills and blotting papers inserted in ink bottles, and scattered books. There is a magic fragrance with dim blue fluorescent light, and a brass lampstand in the shape of a lion that burns silently.

The occupant of the house sat behind the desk: the flames of the brass sconce cast flickering shadows on the thin face of William Hyde—his eyes were so completely hidden in the shadows of their deep sockets that they could hardly be seen.

"Please chat with Lord Hyde slowly." The attendant who led the way turned sideways beside the study door, and stretched out his hand to signal the room.

On the other side of the desk facing William Hyde, an armchair with a rounded shape has already been placed. The style is probably the masterpiece of a master carpenter in the imperial capital.On the chair was a red velvet cushion with gold tassels.

Obviously, this is the seat prepared for the Lord of Frost Maple Ridge.

Xia Houyan first looked at William Hyde who was sitting motionless behind the table, then stared at the lion lampstand to the left of Hyde for a while, and then walked into the room.

Alice Comstock, Master Laurie and Master Spirit Song also wanted to follow the lord into the door, but were stopped by the attendant.

"Master Hyde wishes to have a private chat with Duke Igor." The attendant said respectfully, "Can the three of you join me in the porch outside the room and wait while drinking tea?"

Alice frowned slightly, her hands were still tightly gripping the sword hilt at her waist, and her feet didn't even move half a step.Master Laurie cast a questioning gaze on the lord.

"Please." William Hyde, who was sitting behind the table, said for the first time, "Lord of Frost Maple Ridge, I want to talk to you about something extremely private... Believe me, you don't want to have a third party." I personally overheard our conversation. As for safety, you can rest assured that I'm the only one here..."

Hyde's voice sounded hoarse and tired, but there was a faint hint of excitement, as if the strings were about to break at the climax of the music.

Xia Houyan looked at Hyde curiously, thought for a while, and waved his hands behind him.

So, Alice nodded slightly to him, and together with the two magicians, followed the attendants and left the door.

With a "bang", the door of the study room was shut heavily behind Xia Houyan.

"I appreciate your courage. Not everyone dares to come to the enemy's base camp alone and negotiate with the leader of the enemy one-on-one." William Hyde stood up and gave Xia Houyan a half salute from behind the desk. "Dear Duke of Frost Maple Ridge, this is not the first time we have met."

"Yeah, it's not the first time." Xia Houyan replied slightly mockingly.

The last time I saw the number one human traitor who everyone in the empire wanted to kill quickly was when Xia Houyan rode a dragon to the federal camp in Burning Crystal Canyon to issue an ultimatum to the orc generals.At that time, Hyde, as the only human being present, was really conspicuous among a group of green-skinned orcs.

Xia Houyan remembered that at that time, the two exchanged a few harsh words between each other.

Compared to the last time, William Hyde looks obviously more tired now, and he is far from the arrogant and arrogant temperament that he had all over his body when the orcs still dominated the occupied area.Perhaps because of the rendering of the lights, Xia Houyan always felt that the man in front of him looked gloomy and dangerous.

"Please sit down first..." Hyde gestured towards the chair opposite the desk, and he walked around the desk and walked to the door of the study, "I must arrange some necessary sound insulation measures..."

At first, Xia Houyan thought that William Hyde was going to cast a sound-proof magic at the door;
But he immediately realized that Hyde was not a magician.

From the pocket of his silk vest, the Governor of the Occupied Territories produced a thin gold chain, which he hung on the pear-shaped handle of the study door.

Accompanied by a slight fluctuation of the elements, a light blue sound-proof rune appeared on the surface of the door, and all the sounds from outside the door disappeared in an instant as if being strangled by the throat.

"I sent someone to buy it from Yongye Port in the South China Sea Trade Zone at a huge price. It's a high-end product from the demon race." William Hyde patted the magic sound-proof chain hanging on the doorknob, and smiled lightly at Xia Houyan, "Fuck us In this business, you have to be prepared, don’t you?”

Xia Houyan shrugged his shoulders: It seems that people with an intelligence background are all the same. He remembered that Karim Lodge also had a lot of weird magic props in his hand.

After confirming that all sound transmission inside and outside the room had been cut off, William Hyde returned to his seat behind the desk, sat down with a sigh.

"It stands to reason that tea should be prepared for you, but you must be afraid of me poisoning you, so you simply omitted it." Hyde smiled at Xia Houyan.

"If you drink water and want to go out to go to the bathroom, don't you need to trouble you to prepare another soundproofing magic?" Xia Houyan returned with a narrow smile, "Since you said you want to talk to me, let's get straight to the point without being polite. .William Hyde—what do you want? Surrender to the Empire?"

"Surrender? No! No, no, no..." Hyde laughed loudly, "No, that was to deceive those fools of the imperial nobles! You also like my little trick of sending letters with that little girl, right? She is from the Eastern Region in the Imperial Army Those noble officers, thinking that their dearest loved ones will suffer the same treatment, must be so frightened that they can't even hold their knives steadily..."

"Aren't you going to surrender?" Xia Houyan raised his eyebrows.

"Of course not." Hyde wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with his fingers. "You and I know exactly what the Imperials do to traitors. Even if Grim Rosario agrees to my terms of surrender, declare You can let me live, but when the imperial army occupies Shan Chagang, won’t I fall into the hands of the imperialists and be slaughtered by others? Who can guarantee that the empire will not suddenly turn around and push me to the guillotine? The empire really Will you allow me, a traitor who killed countless human compatriots and served the Federation orcs, to go to the South China Sea trade zone to enjoy life? No, I don’t think so... I like to hold my destiny in my own hands.”

"So...you don't intend to surrender." Xia Houyan nodded, agreeing with Hyde's point of view: indeed, falsely promising to pardon Hyde, and then making a list after getting Shanchagang, this approach is very imperial. .

William Hyde must have felt deeply about this "Empire Style".

"Yes, I am not prepared to surrender, whether it is to Grimm Rosario or any other imperial nobleman. The fundamental reason is that I think the empire cannot be trusted." Hyde said word by word, "Vincent Igor will understand what I'm saying."

Hearing this familiar name, Xia Houyan looked up at Hyde, and suddenly remembered something:
"I remember someone told me...you were expelled from the Imperial Military Academy because you spoke out about my father's treason case..."

"It's just a frivolous act when I was young." Hyde waved his hand, "If this incident and the later experiences have taught me anything in life, it is nothing more than letting me discover the darkness hidden behind the behemoth empire. ugly and ugly, and made me realize that people have to earn their own lives by themselves."

The darkness and ugliness behind the empire... Xia Houyan chewed on Hyde's words, and suddenly felt a little funny: William Hyde, who extorted tyrannically in the occupied areas of the eastern border and was a common man, could talk about other people's "darkness and ugliness" ?
"That's why you asked me to come to Shanchagang?" Xia Houyan looked at Hyde indifferently, "'Give yourself a life'?"

"Indeed." Hyde grinned like a shark, "You see, I once studied in the intelligence department of the Imperial Military Academy, and the most important lesson I learned was that information is valuable...I believe that I rely on myself The information obtained through our efforts should be of sufficient value."

"Information?" Xia Houyan turned his head and glanced at the soundproof rune on the door, "Do you want to sell me the information in your hand in exchange for your own safety and freedom?"

"...Not really." Hyde pouted, "A few years ago, I did feel unfair about what happened to Vincent Igor. Even after I was expelled from the military academy and sent back to my hometown, I didn't stop complaining In the past two years, after being elected as the mayor of Shanchagang by my lovely folks and appointed as the governor of the occupied area by the orcs, I used all the resources I could get to investigate. You Guess what I'm investigating?"

"Investigate what?"

"I'm investigating you." Hyde leaned back in his chair, holding a quill in his hand, and fixed his eyes on Xia Houyan.

The room was eerily silent.

"Investigate me?" Xia Houyan asked calmly.

"Yeah, Eliot Igor, it's a miracle, a legend, isn't it?" William Hyde smiled as he tapped his palm with a quill, "The down-and-out aristocrat who was originally exiled to the wasteland, the little-known The dude actually built the territory into such a terrifying behemoth in just a few years, even the mighty Glorious Federation had to succumb to the power of Shuangfengling! Everyone is praising this heroic epic, But I, William Hyde, are one of the few people on the mainland who wonder where it came from. Only I, who have been thinking, who created the myth of Frost Maple Ridge by himself, Elliot Igor, has he always been a An unworldly genius who lurks in the world and waits for an opportunity to emerge, or there is another explanation for the rise of Shuangfengling..."

William Hyde looked at Lord Frostmaple Ridge across the table, but did not get any response from the latter.He was slightly disappointed, turned the quill and said:

"Fortunately, because I cared about Eagle's Rest Castle and the Igor family in the early years, and because of my insignificant talent in intelligence, I was able to learn about some of the most core members of the Igor family—even It was information that Victor Laurie and Aaron Cousins ​​did not know before... Elliot Igor, who had been away from home since his early years and had little contact with his family, has always been nothing but He is a sensual waste, just like all the noble children in the empire who are addicted to alcohol, women and gambling. In any case, I cannot admit that the son of Vincent Igor has any desire and ability to rule the territory. "

Speaking of this, Hyde suddenly dropped the quill and stood up out of excitement:
"But everything has changed, hasn't it? When the Igor family was forced to relocate to the wasteland of the land of broken souls, the sad dude and the sad down-and-out nobles, you are like an awakened giant." Rise up like a dragon... Your Excellency, some people may say that I, William Hyde, climbed from an unlucky military student who was expelled from the imperial capital to the throne of the governor of the occupied area step by step. It is a great history of struggle, but I My heart is as clear as a mirror, my achievements are less than one percent of yours! Phoenix Terrace, Luna Village, Red River Valley, Yanxi City, Tumu Castle! Every step you take is accompanied by victory and glory! No one Your enemies can linger before you! You come, you see, you conquer!"

"Should I be humble?" Xia Houyan finally asked.

"Eliot Igor! This brat who is useless in school and only knows how to seduce women, is he the once-in-a-thousand-year hidden talent? Could it be that the rumors of his indulging in sex are just At the critical moment of the Igor family, is it a trick to hide their wisdom and avoid disasters?" William Hyde waved his arms excitedly, "No, I don't believe it! I have great trust in the information I have collected, I know , Elliot Igor before the transfer of the Igor family was definitely not such a genius lord! The reason why Eliot Igor could suddenly change and lead the Igor family to rise from the abyss, from the abyss Returning from hell, it can only be attributed to him being inspired by the apocalypse..."

"I have always been a devout follower of the Supreme Holy God." Xia Houyan said with a deadpan expression, "Amen."

"No! No! No!" Hyde shouted, shaking his fingers like crazy, "Compared with apocalypse and miracles, I gradually came up with another explanation... After you came to the Federation of Burning Crystal Canyon by dragon On the day of the barracks, all the information was summed up and concluded! You may have paid the most attention to Omar Setting Sun that day, but you didn’t notice that when I was talking to you, my eyes were watching you—I secretly investigated You have been three years, three years! And when you finally appeared in front of me in person, when I saw your unruly and aloofness engraved in the bones, I can finally be sure that the Empire, no, the Haiwen Continent will never leave you Such a hero!"

Hyde pressed the desk with both hands, stared into Xia Houyan's eyes, and hissed like a devil whispering:

"Lord Duke of Shuangfengling, you are not from this world, are you?"

(End of this chapter)