The Imperial Court's Secret Treasure
The Marquis of Courage and Resolve stepped forward and addressed Lister with some puzzlement.
"Young master, may I ask what brings you to my residence today?"
"Judging by what you and your guard are wearing, I take it you aren't from Great Chu?"
He had, after all, sensed the powerful aura surrounding Lister.
Even though his daughter had come home looking disheveled and was now being searched, putting him in a bad mood, he remained polite.
After sizing up Lister and the special red armor Rolf wore behind him, he instinctively guessed that it was armor made for the Kingdom of Lucian.
With his black hair and dark eyes, Lister actually had a more Eastern appearance.
Rolf, on the other hand, looked somewhat more Western.
Of course, Lister had heard that, in the game, the Earth Federation had made no obvious distinctions between the races or appearances of characters from different factions because of political correctness.
Even the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty had people with distinctly Western faces.
So the most obvious clue the marquis had to the two men's identities was their clothing.
Lister's silver leather armor, handed down in the Merrick family, was harder to identify, though a closer look showed that its craftsmanship was unlike Great Chu's.
Rolf's special red armor, however, was unmistakable. Its style was completely different.
"My name is Lister Merick. I am an earl of the Kingdom of Lucian and an envoy from the kingdom, here to visit the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty and establish diplomatic relations."
"I encountered this young lady under attack on the road. The bandits seemed to have set their sights on a painting she carried, so I escorted her home."
By now, Lister was convinced that they did not have the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method.
If they did, there was no way it could have escaped the system's skill investigation.
He briefly put the matter aside and focused instead on identifying himself as a member of the diplomatic delegation.
"Attacked? When did this happen?"
Before the Marquis of Courage and Resolve could speak, Assistant Commander Li, who had stopped paying attention to Lister, seemed to notice something.
He strode past the Marquis of Courage and Resolve and stopped in front of Lister.
"Just yesterday."
"May I ask if the bandits took the painting?"
His tone was urgent, and there was a hint of panic in his eyes.
Lister had only just put aside his desire to investigate the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method, but seeing Assistant Commander Li's expression, he felt as though another lead had appeared!
"It's right here with me. This is the painting the bandits took that day."
Since it was a fake visualization method anyway, Lister handed it over readily.
Assistant Commander Li merely opened the painting before his gaze sharpened. He glanced at the Marquis of Courage and Resolve behind him.
His face turned stern, and he drew the sword at his waist and gave his men an order.
"We've found it and confirmed it was at Marquis Yongyi's Residence. Everyone, withdraw!"
The Brocade Guards immediately stopped what they were doing and assembled behind Assistant Commander Li.
"Assistant Commander Li, what exactly is this painting my daughter had, to trouble you to come here in person today?"
The Marquis of Courage and Resolve was still completely baffled, his face full of confusion.
Even now, all he knew was that the painting was what Assistant Commander Li had been looking for. He had no idea what it actually did.
"Heh! My lord, there's no need to play dumb with me!"
"Very few people know about this item, and it was found at your residence today. There's nothing more to say."
Seeing Assistant Commander Li turn to leave, the Marquis of Courage and Resolve dared not let him go like that. He hurried forward and caught hold of him.
"Assistant Commander Li... Assistant Commander Li, you can't be so hasty in drawing conclusions about where this painting came from!"
"The one who actually produced the painting today was this foreign young master. It had nothing to do with my daughter."
Sure enough, the Marquis of Courage and Resolve also sensed that something was amiss with the painting.
Assistant Commander Li kept stressing that it had been found at his residence, as though he meant to smear him.
He immediately directed the blame toward Lister.
Lister narrowed his eyes at the sight. They really were family.
The Marquis of Courage and Resolve looked dignified and upright, but when it really mattered, this was all he was capable of.
"Heh! Now you're slandering a delegation that came to Great Chu bearing tribute?"
Lister had not expected Assistant Commander Li to speak up for him before he even needed to explain himself.
After giving it some thought, he felt that the matter was becoming increasingly strange.
By rights, it made no sense for Assistant Commander Li to help a foreign envoy like him instead of a marquis of Great Chu.
Not to mention everything he had done after entering the house, as though he had come specifically for Xiong Ranran.
It was as if he was determined to pin the painting on Marquis Yongyi's Residence.
"I'll continue investigating until I get to the bottom of this."
"Marquis Xiong, I suggest you stay put at your residence for the time being."
"I don't have the authority to arrest you. Everything will be decided by imperial decree!"
With that, Assistant Commander Li swept the hem of his official robes aside and led his men away without looking back.
That afternoon, Lister and his party had settled into an inn in the inner city.
He had expected Xiong Ranran to complain to her father and that he would have to exchange a few blows with the Marquis of Courage and Resolve to intimidate him.
Instead, the entire household had no mind to deal with a foreign envoy like him. They were frantic over the painting and searching everywhere for connections.
With nothing else to do, Lister continued browsing the game's public chat.
"Wild coordinates 12XX, 32XX, level 11 minotaurs. Any brothers want to team up?"
"Looking for leveling partners. Anyone want to join me?"
Most messages were still about teaming up to kill monsters. At the start of the game, players were mainly focused on getting familiar with the monsters.
Few went to NPCs to try their luck at getting quests. After all, Divine Revelation had made an announcement.
All side quests in cities were completely random, determined by the passage of time in the expansion's setting.
In practice, quests were given out randomly according to world events in the game. If an NPC had a need and was willing to offer a quest, they would; if not, they really would not give players one.
So, aside from dedicated main quests, most players were more concerned with leveling in the wild and learning monsters' weaknesses in advance.
"Holy shit, guys, I think I've run into a hidden boss."
"Bragging again, Brother War God?"
Seeing War God of Jiangling Prefecture, the first player to log in during the closed beta, on public chat, Lister grew interested.
A hidden boss? Could there be an expert above level 20 in the city?
"Who the fuck is bragging? I even got a side quest from the hidden boss."
"Look, I took a screenshot."
A picture of an NPC was quickly posted in public chat, and Lister really did know the man.
It was Assistant Commander Li, whom he had just met at Marquis Yongyi's Residence.
The screenshot also showed a screen full of question marks from the player's attempt to inspect Assistant Commander Li.
After all, Assistant Commander Li was level 40. It would have been strange if War God of Jiangling Prefecture, at a mere level 9, could get any information on him.
The player soon posted the quest information in public chat as well. This was a closed beta with a data wipe, so all current quest rewards and player levels would be erased anyway.
As a result, closed beta players were fairly open about sharing some information, and there was little infighting. There was no point to it for now.
Lister was delighted as soon as he saw the quest's name.
"Side quest series—the lost secret treasure of the imperial court: first quest, find the whereabouts of the bandits who attacked Xiong Ranran, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Courage and Resolve, outside Jiangling City. Quest rewards: 1,000 experience, 10 gold coins."
So the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method was actually a secret treasure of the imperial court.
No wonder Assistant Commander Li, an assistant commander of the Brocade Guard from the imperial capital, was in charge of the task.
And no wonder he had shown the Marquis of Courage and Resolve no courtesy at all, giving him no face whatsoever.
Even so, Lister's doubts remained. Much of Assistant Commander Li's behavior was still difficult to explain.
The visualization diagram was clearly a fake, yet Assistant Commander Li had not examined it closely today and had insisted on pinning it on Marquis Yongyi's Residence.
In that case, where exactly was the real visualization diagram now?
Lister now had his suspicions. Could Assistant Commander Li have secretly kept the treasured visualization diagram for himself and then framed the Marquis of Courage and Resolve?
Could Assistant Commander Li have had someone forge this fake diagram himself?