The Kingdom's Complex Situation

"Need something from me?"

Li Si looked serious, so it seemed he had something important to discuss. Arsen nodded and rose to his feet.

"My room?"

"Alright."

Li Si set his raincoat aside and followed Arsen directly to his room.

Although Ya Er and the others were curious, they had no intention of eavesdropping. If Li Si had been willing to tell them, he would not have gone into the room.

Arsen's room was on the eastern side of the villa's first floor. Besides a simple bed and wardrobe, racks along one wall held many different styles of longswords and suits of armor, all neatly arranged.

Seeing Li Si looking at the weapons and armor, Arsen said, "It's a small hobby of mine. I like collecting these. Some were forged by Dwarf Masters, while I had others purchased from foreign countries."

Li Si nodded. He had appraised them. It was an extremely expensive hobby. At last, he had found something about Arsen that resembled a young master from a wealthy noble house.

"Enough of that. What did you want to see me about? You're being so serious."

Arsen changed the subject, brought over two chairs, and gestured for Li Si to sit.

"You know I rarely interact with other nobles. If there's something I want to ask, you're the only one I can turn to."

Li Si spoke slowly. Arsen had been the first person who came to mind.

As the young son of Duke Hardt, one of the Fies Kingdom's foremost nobles, Arsen naturally had a general understanding of the kingdom's upper ranks.

And as adventuring party companions, Li Si had come to feel through his interactions with Arsen that this future commander of the Golden Lion Knights was someone he could trust.

"What do you want to know?"

Arsen was curious. What could Li Si not learn through other channels, forcing him to ask another noble?

"It's like this. Do you know which nobles in the kingdom might, perhaps, want to start a war with another country?"

Li Si carefully chose his words as he spoke to Arsen.

Arsen was stunned. Even the normally composed young duke's son nearly lost his composure.

"Do you know what you're saying?"

Li Si's expression did not change. He raised his head, stared at Arsen seriously, and said, "I know exactly what I'm saying. Can you tell me?"

Arsen raised a hand to rub his temple, feeling a headache coming on. He had never expected Li Si to ask such a sensitive question.

To be honest, after their recent interactions, Arsen had come to see Li Si as someone well worth befriending. Most of the rumors he had heard about Viscount Kane were probably baseless fabrications.

He was a low-key, steady genius!

If Li Si needed his help, Arsen was naturally willing to offer whatever assistance he could.

That was the Hade Family tradition.

Make fewer enemies, make more friends.

But this was not the kind of help one could casually provide!

If he spoke carelessly about such matters, it could bring great trouble upon the Hade Family.

But... Li Si should not be that unreliable.

Arsen looked up at Li Si's resolute gaze, considered it for a moment, and said, "Can I know why you're asking this?"

Li Si nodded and directly gave the explanation he had prepared beforehand. "To be honest, I received information from elsewhere that someone may want to provoke a war between the kingdom and another nation. So I want to know who in the kingdom might have such inclinations."

"Something like that?"

It was not that Arsen doubted Li Si. It was simply that the continent had been peaceful for a long time. Under the mediation of the Church of the Gods, any conflicts or disputes between kingdoms were settled beforehand through neutral negotiations. There had not been a large-scale war of aggression in a very long time.

The most recent minor clash had been a military standoff involving roughly a thousand troops at the border between the Fies Kingdom and the western Norton Kingdom several years ago.

But Li Si knew that after so many years, even with the Church of the Gods acting as mediator, the accumulated conflicts and the various kingdoms' demands for development had become like an ever-expanding powder keg, waiting only for the final spark.

Arsen did know of some nobles who were dissatisfied, believing that their development had stagnated for years and that they urgently needed a new opportunity to rise.

He had not taken some of those rumors seriously before. After all, noble lords complained about all sorts of things: how recent operas lacked originality, how their children were not as outstanding as they had been, and so on.

But Li Si's mention of the possibility of war was something Arsen had never considered, forcing him to assess the likelihood of war truly breaking out.

Li Si said in an extremely certain tone, "That is the actual situation. The intelligence I received is genuine and reliable, but I cannot tell you its source. You understand why."

Arsen nodded. This might concern the Kane Family's foundations and resources, so Li Si naturally could not disclose every detail to him.

With that in mind, Arsen could no longer sit still. He rose and paced back and forth through the room, his mind racing.

After a while, Li Si thought Arsen still had not made up his mind and was about to press the matter further.

Just then, Arsen stopped. He stood before the window with his back to Li Si, seemingly admiring the July thunderstorm outside.

Facing the window, Arsen seemed to be speaking to himself, yet his voice carried clearly to Li Si's ears.

"Duke Ramu of the kingdom's Eastern Border has always claimed that the kingdom should have its own outlet to the sea and should not let those Bertich people earn so many of the kingdom's Gold Coins for nothing."

"Minister of Finance Braford Gitte has said that tax revenue growth can no longer keep up with the kingdom's expenditures and that new sources of revenue must be found."

"The number of court nobles is steadily increasing, placing an ever heavier burden on the royal family. At the same time, the court nobles' desire and demand for territories are growing stronger."

Well, well. Arsen truly knew quite a lot.

Li Si listened while committing every word to memory. The mastermind behind this might be among those people.

Arsen turned around and said seriously to Li Si, "You can only keep these matters to yourself. You should know how much trouble it would cause if word got out."

Li Si understood clearly. Before the matter had been clarified, speaking carelessly would only bring trouble to his own family and alert the mastermind behind it all.

"I understand. Thank you, Arsen."

After some thought, Arsen carefully said, "You need to handle this matter cautiously. If you obtain any further information, you can come to me."

In Arsen's eyes, Li Si was an outsider in noble circles, yet he had obtained such crucial intelligence. It seemed the power he had hidden was far from simple, making him worth cultivating a deeper friendship with.

Moreover, Arsen had just realized that when all these pieces of intelligence he had previously overlooked were linked together, the shadow of war seemed to be enveloping not only the entire Fies Kingdom, but the whole continent.

It seemed he needed to return home and discuss this matter with his father.

After all, as one of the king's trusted confidants, his father should know far more than he did.

Li Si nodded. Arsen's words amounted to a promise that he would provide limited assistance in this matter. That was already an unexpected gain.

After all, Arsen was not a transmigrator. He could not be as certain as Li Si that war would inevitably erupt in the future.

"I'll keep an eye on what you mentioned. If there's any new information, I'll let you know."

"Alright, then I'll head back first!"

Li Si put on his raincoat, said goodbye to Ya Er and the others, then walked out into the curtain of rain.

Happy National Day, everyone, and thank you all for your support.

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