As soon as the black shadow landed, Claire put the dagger in his hand on the man's neck and asked lightly, "Who sent you here?" The tone was filled with a faint murderous intention.
After feeling the coolness on his neck, Joseph's body couldn't help but tremble. However, he was afraid that in the process of trembling, he would accidentally stretch his neck forward and come into close contact with the blade, so he controlled his trembling body and stopped.
"Viscount Claire! It's me, don't do it."
"Huh?" Claire felt that the voice sounded familiar, and then he waved his hand to light up the Magic Lamp in the room before he could see clearly who the person in front of him was.
Aren't those round belly and gray mustache exactly Joseph Grand Judge?
After seeing the person clearly, Claire took the dagger back and smiled, "Sir Grand Judge, I'm sorry, but suddenly someone came from outside. I thought he was here to assassinate me like last time."
Joseph patted his chest with palpitations, "It's okay, it's okay. I came here uninvited. It's inevitable if you take precautions."
After confirming that the person who came was not a threat, Claire glanced at the window. The room he lived in was on the fifth floor. It was about ten or twenty meters from the ground. How could this guy climb up if he was so fat?
Although Claire didn't say it out loud, Joseph knew what he was thinking from his expression, and explained with a dark face, "Don't look at me like this now. I accompanied His Majesty on the battlefield before! I gained weight because I didn't have time to exercise after becoming Grand Judge."
Claire laughed awkwardly and said, "No, I was wondering how could Sir Grand Judge suddenly come to visit me at such a late hour."
Regardless of whether Claire was telling the truth or lies, Joseph replied, "His Majesty sent me here to visit you. I am relieved to see that you are fine."
"There are so many people around during the day, so it's not convenient for me."
Claire nodded. The only contact he had with King was Joseph, but he was apparently close to the church. Even if he received the news of his return, it would really be difficult to come see him directly.
"There should be someone watching outside, haven't they been discovered?" Claire asked. Whether it was to prevent something from happening to him or because of something else, Claire didn't believe that the church would send someone to keep an eye on him.
Joseph laughed softly and said, "Don't worry, it's all solved."
"Oh?" Claire raised his eyebrows. This simple sentence could hide many lives.
"Sit down first." Claire made a gesture of invitation to the sofa nearby, and then took the lead to sit on the single sofa nearby and asked, "Joseph Grand Judge came to me so late just to see if I was injured."
Joseph glanced at Claire, with a hint of surprise in his eyes. Compared with the last time they met, Claire in front of him seemed to have a little more sharpness.
When he saw Claire before, he felt more like a sword that kept a low profile but now the sword was pulled out just an inch, revealing the cold light inside.
But just a few days later, a person's personality has changed so obviously? Did that assassination have such a big impact on him?
Joseph sat down in the direction Claire pointed and asked, "Do you know who Archmage was who came to assassinate you that day?"
Claire suddenly raised his eyes and glanced at Joseph. After a few seconds, he shook his head and said, "I don't know, maybe it's the church. After all, I have offended them before, but I don't have any definite information. Do you have any?"
Joseph suddenly laughed, "Of course, otherwise, why would I come to you."
"Oh?" Claire became a little interested when he heard what he said. He leaned forward and asked, "What's the news?"
Joseph looked embarrassed and said hesitantly, "If you are talking about definite news, I don't have any. However, there are a few insinuations."
"Tell me and listen."
"You know the tribunal in Church of Light, right?"
"Of course I know." Claire nodded. The Church Tribunal is a law enforcement agency in Holy See. In other countries, it does some invisible things for the church there. The main thing to do is to clean up people or things that are detrimental to the development of the church. These things are unknown to the common people at the bottom, and are almost all things on the surface for the nobles.
"After you disappeared, I used my relationship with the church to get some news. In the past few days, a person from the Inquisition came from Guangming Holy See. I didn't find out who it was specifically..." Joseph stopped talking at this point. He believed that Claire could know what he was talking about.
Claire's eyes flashed and he asked, "You mean that Archmage is the person from the Church Judgment Office?"
Joseph closed his mouth and neither admitted nor denied. He just looked at Claire and smiled slightly.
"Didn't you tell me a few messages? Is there anything else?"
"Yes." Joseph took out another roll of paper from his arms, spread it out in front of Claire, and explained, "This is the record I asked for from City Guard's supervisory agency. The day before your accident, an unknown Archmage did enter the royal capital."
For mages below Archmage entering the city, the royal capital's control is not very strict. They simply record their personal information and put it in, because mages or warriors of that level can cause minimal damage to the king. Even if they want to attack and kill important people in the royal capital, which one of them does not have two or three Archmage protecting them? What can a Archmage do?
The moment Joseph unfolded the roll of paper, Claire's pupils shrank, pointing to the photo above and said, "This is the person, the one who assassinated me that day was Archmage."
Joseph also had an expression of surprise on his face, "Really?"
"Yes, I will never forget his face until I die. He almost killed me." Claire gritted his teeth and said bitterly.
"It will be easier to confirm that it is this person. We only need to find out who he is connected with to know who is behind it."
Claire put away the fierceness on his face and thanked him, "Sorry for the trouble."
Joseph rolled up the piece of paper again, put it in his arms, and said with a smile, "No need to bother, the attack on you in the royal capital was originally my fault, Grand Judge, who manages City Guard. Of course I have to find out who is behind the scenes."
After saying that, Joseph stood up and continued, "But now I can't be sure that this person has a relationship with the church... But I'm not in a hurry. If there is any news later, I will inform you again."
Claire also stood up, walked to the window and said with a smile, "Then don't go through the window next time."
Joseph also laughed a few times. He was a dignified Grand Judge and it was indeed a bit embarrassing to walk through the window, but he was the only one who was most suitable to come here.
Claire stood by the window and watched Joseph climb up to another eaves. A mage quietly appeared beside him. After Joseph waved hello to Claire, the mage and his figure slowly disappeared into the night.
After Joseph's figure disappeared, Claire closed the open window, the corners of his mouth that were still slightly upturned flattened, and his eyes were indifferent.
I was just a little suspicious before, but now it seems that the Archmage who attacked me that day was most likely sent by Joseph, or in other words, King.
Criminals often return to the scene of a crime because they want to see if they have accidentally left any important clues that others may discover.
When Joseph asked himself, "Do you know who Archmage came to assassinate you that day?", Claire felt something was wrong.
As for the subsequent information listed by Joseph, there is no credibility at all. The first one is completely unfounded, saying that it was obtained from the church using its own connections. The second article was obtained from City Guard's supervisory agency. City Guard was originally one of the agencies under his management. It is too easy to cheat.
And it doesn't have to be fake. They can completely follow the process and leave enough clues for Claire to discover by herself, and those clues will eventually lead to the same goal - the church!
It was only after Claire advanced to Archmage that he realized how big the gap was between High Mage and Archmage. The Archmage that day didn't want to kill him at all, otherwise he wouldn't have talked so much nonsense with him. In the end, he was attacked and killed by him for talking too much.
As for their purpose, Claire can also guess a rough idea. He had previously rejected King's invitation to fight against the church, so King wanted to create a conflict between himself and the church, so that he would stand in the same camp as him.
In order to achieve this goal, he naturally could not kill himself. If he had not killed Archmage, he would definitely be driven away by City Guard in the end. In the end, he would leave certain guiding clues to induce him to investigate. However, he did not expect that he would be sucked into Wizard World due to an accident, and the clues that Joseph and the others carefully arranged for him to discover would be useless.
So after he returned to Mage World, Joseph would come and lay out all the clues that he was supposed to discover on the table, tempting him to investigate again.
However, the above are all speculations by Claire, and it may actually be done by the church. However, based on the existing information, it is more likely that King and Joseph did it. Therefore, Claire's impression of King couldn't help but drop a few points. Although the other party's purpose was not to kill him, the design made Claire very unhappy.
But even if you know, so what. Although I have advanced to Archmage, my strength is still too weak. Whether it is the church or the royal family, it is simply impossible to break up those two behemoths.
His fingers tapped rhythmically on the table. Claire raised his head and looked at the ceiling, muttering, "Sure enough, the capital is still too chaotic. Let's go back tomorrow."