Lufuna stood in front of the wooden door. The key had just been inserted into the keyhole and had not yet had time to turn. There was a clutter of footsteps behind him. It was not the sound of one or two people, but the sound of many people - dense, messy, and coming from a distance like a tide.
She turned her head and saw several guards in black armor walking along the street, shouting as they walked. The guards' armor shone coldly in the afternoon sun, and the scabbard of the sword on their waist tapped lightly on their thighs as they walked.
They were not walking fast, but the aura of "this is an order" could be felt half a street away. "Gather near the city lord's palace! His Majesty's order! Everyone, now, immediately!"
The people on the street were stunned for a moment, and then started to move. Some people put down their things, some patted the dust on their clothes, some pulled up the children who were still playing next to them, and some held up the hats that were about to be squeezed off their heads.
They came out of the shop, out of the alley, and stood up from the steps on the roadside. No one asked "why", no one said "I don't want to go".
The emperor's order requires no explanation or reason in the city of the Vagrian Empire. Just like the sun will rise and the rain will fall, you just have to carry out what the emperor says.
Lufuna was stunned for a moment. She pulled the key out of the keyhole, held it in her hand, and walked towards the crowd...
The square is already full of people.
From the fountain pool in the center of the square to the surrounding street entrances, from the steps of the city lord's palace to the eaves of the shops opposite, there are people everywhere, crowded and shoulder to shoulder.
Some people were talking in low voices, some were looking around on tiptoe, and some children were slithering through the crowd, only to be pulled back and pressed down by adults.
Everyone is looking in the same direction - the open space in the center of the square.
King Ghidorah stood in the open space, with three heads raised slightly, and the golden scales were so dazzling in the sun that people dared not look directly at them. He was not standing on the steps of the City Lord's Mansion, nor on any "stage", but just standing on the stone floor in the center of the square where his soles made shallow dents.
But he stood there, and the whole square seemed like his throne. The crowd stopped a hundred steps away from him, not stopped by the guards, but by themselves. They didn't dare to go any further.
King Ghidorah's three heads rotated slowly, and six golden vertical pupils scanned the dense crowd in front of them. That's almost it.
He waited a little bit in advance for people to gather, and then his telepathy spread like a calm tide, appearing in the minds of thousands of people present at the same time.
A more direct feeling, like something was lit deep in the consciousness. The same sentence appeared in everyone's mind at the same time.
"All the people of Vagrian..."
"I am your emperor, Caesar the Great."
The square was quiet for a moment. The kind of silence was not "no one spoke", but "everyone forgot how to speak". Some people were rubbing their ears, some were blinking, and some were looking around to make sure that they were not the only ones with voices in their heads.
It was not an illusion, everyone was spoken to by the same person at the same time. After a blank period, someone shouted.
I don't know who it was, but the voice came from the back of the crowd. It was young, loud, and with a reckless recklessness - "Caesar Long live your Majesty!"
This sentence was like a stone being thrown into a calm lake, and the ripples spread out in circles. The second sound came from the left, the third sound came from the right, and then there was a messy and uneven shouting.
These shouts quickly merged into a torrent - thousands of people were shouting at the same time. The shouts bounced, overlapped, and amplified among the buildings around the square, making Lufuna's eardrums hurt.
She didn't shout, she just stood in the crowd, raising her head and looking at the golden dragon. His three heads were glowing in the sun, and his six vertical pupils were half-closed, as if he was listening to a not too unpleasant song.
Hmm. King Ghidorah squinted at the things in front of him. Not excited, but with a "small sense of accomplishment". It's okay.
He looked away from the crowd and casually scanned the streets and rooftops around the square.
The visual coverage of the three heads is much wider than that of humans. There is no need to turn your head deliberately. As long as you spread your attention to the three heads, you can see the front, left and right at the same time.
Then he noticed.
At the very back of the crowd, there was a narrow alley on the edge of the square. Several figures were walking out. Not into the square, but into the alley. When everyone was rushing from the alley to the square, they went against the flow of people, squeezed into the alley from the edge of the square, and disappeared into the narrow alley.
Well. King Ghidorah looked back. His three heads continued to rotate slowly, and his six vertical pupils continued to scan the crowd, as if he was enjoying this moment of worship from all the people.
"Who is that..." King Ghidorah's telepathy switched from "group sending" mode to "single chat" mode, and the target was the mayor Hermann who was standing on the edge of the crowd and trying to maintain his appearance.
Hermann's body stiffened suddenly.
"Come here, I'll give you a favor."
Several people walked into a house deep in the alley and closed the door. The door latch sounded loudly, like a gate being lowered. The house was not big, the windows were covered with thick dark cloth, and the light was dim.
There was a long table and several chairs. There was a map spread out on the table, with several lines and crosses drawn with charcoal on the map. There were several wooden boxes stacked in the corner, and I didn't know what was in the boxes.
There was a damp, old, musty smell in the air, as if no one had lived there for a long time.
Several people sat around the long table and were silent for a few seconds.
"That is the emperor of Vagrian?" A person said. His voice was very young, with a sense of "did I see it wrong?"
"Isn't their emperor the red dragon? That Old Dragon who has lived for who knows how many years." Another person answered, his voice was deeper, as if he was deliberately suppressing his volume.
Destruction and Revelation Society does not have many activities in Vagrian. Their understanding of this country mainly comes from public intelligence and some sporadic informant reports.
Red Dragon Emperor Valerirus, the oldest dragon in the empire, has been on the throne for more than a thousand years. This is something everyone knows.
No one told them that the emperor had changed, and no one told them that the new emperor was a golden, ridiculously big dragon with three heads.
"And isn't that dragon too big?" The third person's voice was a little tight, like a string that has been tightened too much, "It's higher than Tagore Building."
Tagore Building is a stronghold of Destruction and Revelation Society in a certain city, and it is also the highest standard they use to measure "bigness".
Tagore Building is already very high. The height from the ground to the top of the tower is enough to make an ordinary person raise his head until his neck feels sore. But when the dragon stood in the square with its three heads raised, Tagore Building couldn't even reach his knees.
"Even the legendary Dragon God isn't this big..." The fourth person's voice floated out, very softly, as if he was talking to himself.
Legend has it that Dragon God's body can cover the sky and the sun, but legends are just legends after all. No one has ever seen Dragon God.
Today they saw something that might be bigger than Dragon God, but they were not sure if it was Dragon God.
There was silence for a moment.
"Then our business..." the young man said.
"Do it." A low voice said, "It must be done. After all, it is a matter entrusted to us by the Chief."
When the "first seat" was mentioned, everyone bowed their heads slightly. That person's authority was not based on status, but on strength. He was one of the founders of Destruction and Revelation Society, and the only one among the original group of people who was still alive. He said that the meaning of Destruction and Revelation Society was to "explore the truth of the world."
"But..." The man leaning against the wall hesitated and did not continue.
"But what?"
"However, we have been unable to contact the leader for several days." He finally said this.
Destruction and Revelation Society has a very complete communication system. Although it is not as efficient as the wyvern network of the Vagrian Empire, it is already at the top level among human countries.
Under normal circumstances, the communication between him and the headquarters will not take more than three days. He has sent many communication requests these days, but has not received a reply.
"There seems to be something wrong at the headquarters." Another person spoke, his voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of being heard by people outside the door.
He is the one responsible for liaison with the headquarters among these people. During the recent communication attempts, he vaguely felt that something was wrong.
It's not that there is no signal at all, but that the signal has become abnormal. It seems that someone at the headquarters is using the communication equipment, but their calls have never been responded to.
"Just act accordingly. Anyway, everything is ready. I'll find that person later, and then go to Forbidden Land." The deep voice was unmistakable. "Let's get ready now."
Forbidden Land. Vagrian Empire The restricted area in the east is a secret that Red Dragon Emperor has spent more than a thousand years guarding. Destruction and Revelation Society has been eyeing it for a long time.
They have been collecting information about the Forbidden Land, and have been waiting for an opportunity to enter.
Everyone stood up, their movements were very skillful and orderly, like a team that had rehearsed many times.
Someone walked to the door and pulled the latch.
The door opened.
The alley outside the door was full of people.
No, it's not a human. It's a wyvern, and the knight on its back. The wyvern's wings couldn't be spread out in the narrow alley, and were folded up on both sides of the body, as crowded as a sardine can.
Their scales glowed with a dark brown luster in the afternoon sun, and they made a low, restless grunting sound from their throats, as if they were about to erupt at any time. The knights wore Vagrian Empire standard armor and held spears, with the spear points pointed at the door.
The leading knight stood at the front with one hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Take it."
The wyverns rushed forward.
In the square, the crowd has not dispersed yet. King Ghidorah's telepathy speech has ended.
Some people were discussing the voice that sounded in their heads just now, some were debating whether the new emperor really had three heads, and some were trying to squeeze in to the front to see clearly whether those golden scales were real.
King Ghidorah stood in the center of the square, with three heads hanging slightly.
A wyvern swooped down from the sky above the city, folded its wings, and landed steadily on the edge of the square. The knight jumped off the back of the wyvern, walked quickly through the crowd, and whispered a few words in Hermann's ear.
Hermann's face changed a little. It wasn't fear, but the kind of "something happened", with a hint of helplessness.
He took a deep breath, straightened his collar, walked quickly to King Ghidorah, and bent down.
"Your Majesty, the Hussars have captured those heretics. Do you want to take a look?"
King Ghidorah didn't even raise his eyelids. "No need, wait until the review is completed and sorted out and sent to the palace for me." What he wanted to see was the result, not the process.
After saying that, King Ghidorah opened its wings. The golden wing membrane unfolded in the sun, and the bioelectric light on the wing bones suddenly burst out. There was no storm, just a strong wind spreading from the center of the square to all directions, making the clothes of the crowd rustle and the windows of the city lord's palace clanging.
King Ghidorah rose from the ground, the three heads turning slightly in the air, and flew away in the direction of the capital.
Hermann stood in the square, maintaining a bent posture. The wind almost blew his wig away. He held the wig down with one hand and patted the messed up clothes with the other hand.
He straightened up, raised his head, and watched the golden dragon fly further and further away, turning into a small golden dot on the horizon and disappearing into the clouds.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead. The sweat was not hot, but cold. He took out a handkerchief from his arms and wiped the sweat from his forehead. When he turned around, the gentle and cautious expression had disappeared from his face.
It was replaced by an expression that was colder, harder, and made the person standing next to him take a step back unconsciously.
"Go, take those people to the basement." Hermann's voice was not high, but every word seemed to be fished out of an ice cellar.
"I want to judge it myself."
The laws of the empire give city lords the power to deal with incidents that "threaten the security of the empire" within their jurisdiction. There is no need to report the power of interrogation, conviction, and execution. They are executed directly and reported afterwards.
This was the case when His Majesty Valerirus was in power, and His Majesty Caesar should not object.
Hermann wiped his forehead again, and this time the sweat was hot. Those heretics, they are lurking in Gerlen City, on his territory.
As the city lord, he didn't know that if the new emperor didn't find out, they didn't know how long they would hide here and what they would do.
And the strength of those heretics is not weak - the report of the Hussars said that the strongest one is even at the level of Fifth Tier.
Hermann had another layer of cold sweat on his back.
Damn it. Don't affect my performance next year.
Somewhere far away, in a dimly lit room, there was a faint smell in the air, like incense or herbs, mixed with the smell of old wood and dust.
There is a rectangular wooden table in the center of the room, which is covered with black velvet. Several people are sitting on both sides of the table. Their faces cannot be seen clearly, and their approximate positions can only be distinguished from their voices and outlines.
"What's wrong?" a voice said.
A sigh sounded - female, helpless, and full of exhaustion. "Those who were lurking in Gerlen City were caught."
"How is that possible?" The male's voice suddenly rose a few degrees, then dropped quickly, like the short sound made by a rubber band that was stretched too tight and bounced back to its original shape.
"How could that city lord find out?"
"There's no need to go into details." The female voice was abnormally calm. "The important thing is that there is a problem with our plan. Not only this, but the chief can't be contacted right now."
After a short silence, an old voice that had never spoken before and seemed to come from far away asked - "What about that matter?"
"It still needs to be done," the woman said, "But it needs manpower."
"Then..." the old voice paused, as if he was making a difficult, reluctant decision with no other choice.
"Go ahead and ask him to come. Agree to all his conditions - including that one."
"But where is the first one--"
"After the matter is completed, I will apologize to the leader." The old voice was calm.
No one spoke anymore.