"A letter from the Grand Foundry Master? Delivered to us?"
[ Shit Appraisal Master ] and [ Good Times Don't Last ] met the visitor in the assembly room on the first floor.
The burly man in front of them had met a few times before. Although he had changed his clothes and was not carrying any weapons, it was still clear that he was a member of the Great Library's guard team.
"That's right, His Excellency the Grand Foundry Master instructed me to personally deliver this letter to you two."
Did he say anything else?
" The Grand Foundry Master requests that you two open this letter now and inform me of your willingness to accept the task."
The burly man showed the undamaged sealing wax, handed the letter to the two men in front of him, and then began to wait.
The two Soul Returner returned to the second floor, dismissed their attendants, and opened the envelope, only to find that it actually contained two letters.
One source is the true Grand Foundry Master of the Great Labyrinth City, which is the Great Labyrinth City itself.
Its font is so neat it's almost rigid; you can tell at a glance that it was typed out letter by letter by the Machine Spirit operating a typewriter.
The second letter came from Gray Griss, the Grand Foundry Master from everyone's memory.
The two have been busy preparing to open the shop recently, and Gray, as the nominal leader of the Graycast Corridor, has also been very busy, so the two have not met.
Aside from pleasantries, Gray's letter contained only one request: that the two cooperate with the Great Labyrinth City Machine Spirit on an operation.
According to Gray, there are traitors in the Great Labyrinth City who have secretly submitted to other forces, and they have been gathering evidence and conducting in-depth investigations in order to bring them all down.
Over the past month, this group has secretly met several times, and the suspects have now been largely identified.
However, they seem to be plotting a new scheme against Gray. After discussing with Gray, the Great Labyrinth City Machine Spirit decide to turn the tables on them, thwarting their plot and arresting them to deter potential enemies.
Gray is naturally the classic bait spot in this plan.
"So what does this have to do with us?"
With these questions in mind, the two looked at the letter written by the Machine Spirit himself.
The meaning of "The Great Labyrinth City's Machine Spirit" is simple: it wants the two Soul Returner own the shop to do one thing for it—to promote the Machine Spirit to a few stubborn individuals on the list, in their personal capacity.
The cooperation between the Graycast Corridor and the Second Holy See —no, the Theocracy— is no secret, and many people have now accepted the new creature, the Machine Spirit.
However, some old-fashioned individuals still refused to accept the Machine Spirit. They were either genuinely cautious and instinctively wary of new creatures, or they harbored malicious intentions, fearing that the Machine Spirit would expose their schemes. In short, their attitude towards the Machine Spirit could be summed up in two words: No way!
The two individuals' trip, conducted under a private guise to promote the Machine Spirit, served two purposes. Firstly, it was a way to win them over and express goodwill towards both the Graycast Corridor and the Theocracy. After all, the two sides had already joined forces and begun to deal with the Graycast Corridor's northern neighbor; if they didn't join, were they perhaps trying to flirt with the Eternal Domain?
Secondly, issue an ultimatum, informing them of a final deadline for accepting the Machine Spirit, hoping they won't be ungrateful.
If you help Gray and the Grand Foundry Master complete this task, they will reward the two of them, as well as other Soul Returner who may be involved in the project, handsomely.
As for the list of no more than ten people, the two of them looked over it as well, and the first name that came up was an old acquaintance: the adventurer Suolaer Aoermo.
"No, he's a sea adventurer. If he had Machine Spirit, sailing would be so much easier. Why would he refuse?"
"So he's the real traitor, and he might have done this because he has something to hide."
"That makes sense. I think the rumors about the ' Ginseng Rooster ' weren't entirely unfounded back then; maybe he figured something out at the time."
"I assure you there's absolutely no such possibility; it's just a pure fabrication that happened to match up."
Having read through the letters between The Great Labyrinth City and Gray, and through [ The Shit Appraisal Master ] and [ The Good Times Don't Last ], I now have a clear understanding of the whole story.
"I think I understand. They mean to send Caesar to the meeting alone, and then turn the tables on everyone, including Brutus."
[ The Good Times Don't Last long] Frowning deeply:
" Gray is only a Middle Tier fighter, right? Can he even beat those opponents?"
[ The Shit Appraisal Master ] scoffed:
" Caesar might not be able to defeat all the senators, but what if the Senate were to stand up?"
"Oh wow, I forgot about that."
After discussing it for a while, the two quickly decided to accept the mission.
After returning to the first floor and relaying the message to the guard, the guard nodded, took the parts he had replaced, and turned to leave, leaving the two men standing there with tense expressions.
"Alright, looks like we need to get ready to go."
[ The Good Times Don't Last ] Take a deep breath:
"This is my first time doing something like this, I'm a little nervous."
"What's there to be nervous about? You're not afraid of dying, are you?"
"Of course not, the main concern is that if I mess it up, I'll get Gray in trouble."
"No, it won't."
[ The Shit Appraisal Master ] pondered for a moment and said:
"The fact that the Great Labyrinth City has come back to life is a secret; apart from us players and a few NPCs, nobody knows about it."
"If it weren't for the goal of wiping them out in one fell swoop, the Grand Foundry Master wouldn't have devised such a plan."
"So even if we mess things up, it just means the plan will end ahead of schedule, and at least it won't harm Gray and the others."
That makes sense.
[ The Good Times Don't Last ] After thinking for a moment, he said:
"Don't we have a batch of good stuff that Cuiske produced before he died? Let's get it ready and use it to open doors."
I think it's fine.
After exchanging a few words, the two began preparing separately.
Although Cuiske had already been beheaded, he had still managed to contribute some of his remaining energy to the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant before heading to the Holy City to meet his end.
As High Tier entity within the plant system, Cuiske's general-purpose parts and tools are naturally of higher quality than those Stained Ones Middle Tier and Low Tier Stained Ones.
Although its quality is only so-so, it is still genuinely good, which naturally justifies a premium price.
Furthermore, these tool parts bear the stamp of Cuiske, who is now dead. As a rare and irreplaceable work by a deceased Master, Cuiske's products naturally have added value.
And so, the two, carrying their rare, out-of-print artwork, embarked on their journey to visit the diehards in a Hoofed Beast carriage, a sight seldom seen in the Graycast Corridor.
What the two were unaware of was that although Cuiske had become famous throughout the country, his worn-out High Tier body was still recycled by Ed and became a core production resource in the first branch of Geliwusi's High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant.
In the endless future, the parts and tools that Cuiske personally produced during his "life" will become the "1982 Lafite" of another world. Even though only a few months passed between his capture and beheading, the things he produced could never be used up.