Wistrom City, Upper District, Fleur-de-Lis Palace.
The Fleur-de-Lis Palace is the residence of the Wysteria Dynasty's royal lineage and the core of the kingdom's government.
This may not be the most magnificent and tallest building in Westrum City, but it is definitely the most luxurious and elegant structure.
The main body of Iris Palace was constructed 150 years ago. Its builder and designer were the same person—Queen Una, the kingdom's first female monarch. She also directly earned the title of Master Builder for this achievement.
To be honest, Queen Una's talent in architectural design was clearly superior to her ability to govern the nation.
Since then, every ruler of the Weisler dynasty that governed the Westrum Kingdom almost invariably expanded this palace, constructing new halls.
The construction and design of Iris Palace are said to be based on the Baroque style from the classical period before the Great Calamity by Queen Una herself. Thus, the entire architectural complex of Iris Palace is unique within the entire Westrum City and even the entire new era, with no similar counterparts easily found.
On the long corridor of Iris Palace, two men walk past pillars with intricate and exquisite reliefs.
Under the shining sunlight, golden walls radiate brilliance, yet their conversation is so gloomy.
"Those fools of the Skeleton Gang! Their inadequacy in accomplishments and proficiency in destruction!" says the leader, a stern middle-aged man full of anger, dressed in a black and gold-edged gorgeous attire, holding a pure gold cane in hand.
If there were anyone here familiar with the upper echelons of the kingdom, they would surely recognize his identity: the chief power noble of Westwold, Duke Norman Hargraves.
Standing beside him is one of his most important allies, Lumen Fenn. He is the current chairman of Blackbird Heavy Industries and a famous big capitalist in the Westwold Kingdom.
Considering his advanced age, the elderly man in a suit was already somewhat inconvenient in his movements. With the aid of a cane, he exerted a great deal of effort just to keep up with Duke Northman, who was leading him by a pace.
He said: "When they previously discovered the trail of Princess Yasmin, they were not certain that it was her personally. They also deployed their core forces to intercept her, but what they didn't expect was that the Hunter's Guild would intervene so rapidly..."
"Enough!" The Duke of Northman, his back turned to Fynn, said angrily, "Fynn, there's no need to make excuses for those greedy and shortsighted people. That insatiable rat, Barnet, wouldn't have acted on his own after receiving the intelligence and not reported the princess's whereabouts unless he intended to take my dear little niece for himself and demand more from me as leverage. I've had enough of the Skulls' incompetence; Barnet must pay the price for wasting such a good opportunity for me!"
Fynn let out a soft sigh, silently mourning the old leader of the Skulls, Barnet, in his heart. The man before him was a hero, and an unmitigated despot. He vowed to make Barnet pay a price, and that fellow was doomed.
Although Fein felt a bit reluctant, after all, Barnert was someone he had been investing in and nurturing all along. But that jerk played too hard this time, too unreasonable, greedy people will always die because of their greed, and he could also be said to have died in place.
"Barnert has to pay for his greed, but, Your Grace, you don't have to worry too much. I have arranged thousands of half-mechanical creatures in the bio-research center on Merlin Avenue, and launched an uprising on the pretext of the loss of control of the bio-research center, which covered our master's raid on Princess Yasha's motorcade. According to the front-line messages, Princess Yasha should have died on the spot in this disaster."
"Should?" Norsman sneered, "You talk to me about the word 'should'?"
Fein said: "Our mole in the Hunter's Guild saw that car burned into scrap iron."
"I'm asking you, has anyone confirmed the body of my little niece?"
"This... Mals from the Hunter's Guild arrived on the scene immediately after the battle, none of our people who saw the situation at the scene escaped, no one had the chance to confirm the condition of the body."
"Then how dare you say Yasha is dead? Investigate at all costs immediately, what I want is a completely certain result, not this kind of ambiguity!"
"Yes, Your Highness." Fion responded, and then he raised another question: "Your Grace, how do we deal with the riots in Merlin Avenue and the Clover Community?"
"Let the Hunter's Guild worry about it." Northman said, "Those guys, who don't accept my goodwill, saying they adhere to neutrality, in the end, dare to help the royalists! Just put on a show, don't deploy any forces in Clover and Merlin Avenue, if their Clover branch is destroyed, that would be the best!"
Fion frowned and said, "Forgive me for being blunt, Your Highness, but I believe our previous strategy towards the Hunter's Guild is problematic. We threatened them by saying if they don't stand with us, we will impose restrictions on the Hunter's Guild in the future. We are essentially pushing those hunters towards the royalists."
Northman sneered, "I do not want a Wistom under my control in the future that has such a group of hunters who disobey orders and like to cause trouble. They must be restricted, and if they really dare to get too close to the royalists... I don't mind banning them in the future!"
"Sigh..." Fion sighed. He knew he wouldn't be able to persuade Northman. In his view, the Hunter's Guild is an organization with profound heritage. Their history is even older than the Wistom Kingdom, even said to date back to the Great Catastrophe era.
Offending such an organization is not a wise choice.
Northman is somewhat overconfident in this matter.
But what else could he do? He couldn't persuade the warlord, so he could only try his best to cooperate.
As they talked, they walked to the end of the long corridor.
Passing the corridor, they came to a garden.
A maid servant was already standing at the garden entrance, waiting there for a long time.
"Where is Her Majesty the Queen?"
"Please follow me, your Highness the Duke."
Following the maid servant, Duke Northman and Fein saw the woman sitting on a stone bench, holding a harp in her hands.
She is the current head of state of the Westdoom Kingdom, Queen Mayne.
It has to be said, the title of the most beautiful woman in Westudam is not at all excessive when applied to Queen Maine. Thirty years ago, when Maine was only sixteen years old and still a princess, she had already made countless nobles kneel before her beauty. Now, after thirty years, time has not affected her beauty in the slightest. There are no wrinkles on her face, and her figure remains slender and elegant. It seems as if the years have not cursed her, but instead have given her better gifts.
The girl from that time has now become a still incredibly beautiful lady of quality.
Every time Norrisman sees Her Majesty, the flames of jealousy burn fiercely in his heart. He is furious, thinking that if he had married Maine instead of his foolish younger brother back then, how would the current situation be like now?
He exhaled, released the fragrance from Maine's body, then gently leaned over and greeted, "Your Majesty, good afternoon."
Queen Maine ignored him.
Norseman didn't take it to heart either; a heavy sadness was written all over his face as he declared: "This morning, a research center on Merlin Boulevard suffered an explosion. The semi-mechanical creations stored in warehouses on Merlin Boulevard and Clover Community have all gone berserk, resulting in immense turmoil."
A look of sorrow appeared on Queen Maine's face: "Finn?"
"Your Majesty, I am here. I deeply regret to have such a serious safety accident happen at our Blackbird Heavy Industries. We will definitely establish comprehensive measures and fully cooperate with the government to control the disaster and compensate for any harm caused. Whenever the government has needs, Blackbird Heavy Industries will never shirk responsibility."
"Is playing schemes and conspiracies such that you are willing to go to the extent of causing riots that could spill over into a couple of communities? Norseman, you have already killed my husband, your own brother, and now the entire kingdom is under your rule. What more do you have left to be discontented with?"
"Your Majesty, you are overreacting. This is just an accident, including my brother Justin's death, it was merely an accident, how could it be related to a conspiracy?" Duke Norman said "sadly", "By the way, I have some not-so-good news. Do you want to hear it?"
Her Majesty the Queen strummed the harp on her own, ignoring him.
Normans didn't need the Queen's permission either. He continued to talk to himself: "I've heard that my niece, Princess Yasha, was previously in the hunter's guild of the Clover Community..."
Before he could finish, the strings of the harp snapped.
Queen Maine, who had her fingers cut by the broken strings, suddenly turned her head and stared fiercely at Norman: "What do you mean?"
"Your Majesty..."
"Norman!" Her Majesty roared: "My daughter... If you dare harm her, I'll rather die than let you win!"
Northman suddenly laughed: "Your Majesty, there is no need for such anger. Perhaps, if Princess Yasmin were alive, you might have a chance to fight me to the death. But if my little niece is dead, you truly have no chance at all."
With that, he turned and left, the sound of a harp being smashed echoing behind him.
Northman said to Fenn beside him: "That was His Majesty's favorite harp. It's a pity to break it like that. Go find another harp for His Majesty, and remember, it must be the best."
"Northman! You are a devil!" Queen Mein screamed.
...
Yasmin sat in the car, listening to the rough, crackling noise of the super elevator descending, and was somewhat fascinated.
Of course, she was not appreciating the noisy sound, but rather her heavy worries that could only be placed on this at the moment.
In this escort mission, Gu Shiqiu, the captain of the Four Leaf Grass escort hunter squad, saw the sorrow on Ye Sha's face.
He comforted her: "Your Highness, please do not worry too much. For now, the enemy will definitely not be able to track our whereabouts in a short period of time, and moreover, seven senior demon hunters dispatched from the headquarters have joined the team to protect you, so there should not be much danger anymore."
Ye Sha smiled and said, "I trust you all very much, I was just thinking about my father and mother."
Gu Shiqiu fell silent, not knowing what to say.
He had never thought that one day he and his group of colleagues would be able to undertake the escort mission for the princess of the kingdom.
To be honest, when he was at the Four-Leaf Clover Branch and heard Minister Mars say that the young girl sitting in the meeting room was actually Princess Yascha, the biological daughter of the late Prince Justin and Queen Main, he was genuinely startled.
And when he learned that his mission was to escort Princess Yascha to Wa Hu Town to deliver her to her maternal grandfather, Duke Jiang Yunliang, he was absolutely astonished.
He is a highly experienced demon hunter with strong combat abilities. He has completed countless difficult and arduous commissions and has fought various powerful monsters. In some aspects, his sense is also very keen.
The Hunter Guild spared no effort in this matter. Apart from the president Mars himself, most of the cutting-edge combat power of the Four-Leaf Clover Branch is here. Many top-notch experts have been mobilized from the Hunter Guild headquarters to be responsible for Princess Yascha's safety.
Does this imply that the Hunter's Guild, which has always remained neutral and chosen to stay out of various courtly intrigues and power struggles, is now going to join this power struggle?
He doesn't know.
He feels that it's better not to think so much, as he won't be able to come up with any solutions anyway. All he needs to do is focus on completing the current mission and safely delivering Princess Aisha to Duke Jiang Yunliang's hands in Wahu Town.
It's said that Duke Jiang Yunliang commands a formidable army and has numerous masters serving under him, not to mention that he himself is a top-tier powerhouse renowned in his region.
More importantly, his status is significant. His daughter is Queen Jasmine, and Queen Mayne is his niece.
He sighed, shaking off the thoughts in his mind. The power struggles in the high levels of the kingdom had always felt far away from him, and even now they still did. Although he had considerable strength, in the hunter's guild, which had profound depth, he could only be considered a high-end combat force, still far from the management level. Such matters should be left to the big shots at the guild's headquarters to ponder.
Casting aside thoughts, returning to reality, he had just opened his mouth, preparing to comfort Ya Sha, but he only felt a shake in the vehicle.
The super elevator had reached the bottom.
The elevator door slowly opened, under the command of the guides ahead, vehicles and people lined up and orderly exited from the super elevator.
Looking ahead, Gu Shiqiu's gaze condensed. He noticed on both sides of the passage outside the elevator, there was a squad of fully armed soldiers. On their arms, it read "Wesites."
This emblem, Gu Shiqi, of course, recognizes it: the special service agency of the kingdom government in Westldum, the Royal Kingdom Secret Service, abbreviated as KSS.
The official forces of the Westldum Kingdom are roughly divided into three parts. One is the police station, responsible for the security of the jurisdiction. When encountering monsters and mythical beasts, in addition to helping to evacuate the crowd, they basically have no effect.
Next is the royal army, which is the core force. However, unless it is a large-scale military operation, the army will not be mobilized.
And the most mysterious one is the KSS. They are a gathering place for government agents. Although the number is not large, they are all elites, responsible for dealing with various mysterious things and monsters.
Hunters have a bad relationship with the police station, and their relationship with the KSS is even worse. There have been many conflicts between the two sides. There have even been many cases of hunters being arrested by the special agents and never coming back.
These people are even more annoying than the police.
And at this critical moment, Princess Aisha was sitting in her own car. The KSS, who usually do not take action, suddenly stood guard outside the Super Elevator. What does this mean?
Gu Shiqiu became nervous.
He took out his walkie-talkie and whispered, "Everyone be careful. There are KSS mad dogs ahead. Yu Guo, is your illusionary camouflage working properly? Don't get discovered."
"Yeah, don't worry."
The vehicle slowly drove out, and Gu Shiqiu's hand had already grabbed the hilt of his knife. In case of any accident, the "Autumn Leaf Knife" was ready to be drawn immediately to drink blood.
"Calm down, don't be noticed," Yu Guo's reminder came soon after.
Her illusionary effect could make the target see whatever she wanted them to see. At this moment, to the eyes of those from the special service agency, the group of people in their car were just a group of ordinary-looking people who came to the lower district to handle affairs.
The vehicle drove out, passing the line of sight of the KSS, and everything was safe.