While Annan and Cafney were talking in a low voice in the corner of the main hall, old Merlin appeared out of nowhere.
"His Royal Highness Annan."
Old Merlin didn't look at Cafney, but whispered to Annan, "His Royal Highness Dmitri is looking for you."
There was no emotion in his thin face.
His silent and indifferent atmosphere was very similar to that of Dmitry.
But even if it is the same expressionless face, because of the difference in appearance and clothes, Dmitri's body reflects an awe-inspiring sense of majesty; but if it is placed on Merlin's deeply sunken cheeks, it is not It just feels like a scary monster.
Here in Noah's Kingdom, Transcendents who break the law are generally only "softly wanted".
That is to hang his name on the arrest warrant and notify the grassroots, but never actually send out pursuers. But the wanted person, like a normal wanted criminal, cannot cross the border, cannot borrow money, cannot marry and have children, and will not enjoy the protection of the law.
By depriving transcendental beings who violated the law of their legal rights, they suppressed the scope of activities of these transcendental beings and provided punishment that was better than nothing. When they really committed a serious crime, they would actually send out a troop of extraordinary people to hunt them down.
In fact, this is a kind of compromise and tacit understanding-as long as you have the self-awareness of being a mouse, keep a low profile and don't mess around, then the kingdom will treat you and your crimes as if they don't exist.
After all, if an extraordinary person jumps over the wall in a hurry, the threat he brings will be too great... And if he really kills him, it will only leave a new nightmare.
But it's different in the cold winter.
Especially in the turbulent winter year—while Duke Winter is nervous, the blizzard will also minimize the adverse effects of the death of the extraordinary. Moreover, the population density of the Duke of Winter in winter was much smaller than that of the Kingdom of Noah.
So they won't make any compromises.
The Hand of Winter is a special operations force responsible for chasing and killing extraordinary people.
Even if an extraordinary person kidnaps ordinary people as hostages, the Hand of Winter will never compromise in any form. Even if an extraordinary person kidnaps nobles, or even members of the Winter family, the Hand of Winter will completely disregard the safety of the hostages and kill them mercilessly.
The Hand of Winter relies on this harsh style of conduct without exception and does not accept any negotiations, in order to maintain the stability of the Duchy of Winter.
According to Annan's understanding, this generation's Grand Duke Winter... is Annan's father, Ivan Winter. When he was only a teenager, he was kidnapped once:
It was a group of seven extraordinary people. There are four silver, one gold, one bronze... and even a ritualist.
They kidnapped Ivan, and Ivan's brother - of course, they couldn't ask for money.
Their purpose was to force the then Grand Duke Yuri Winter to release a political prisoner.
The specific background and name of the political prisoner were vague in the information brought by Salvatore, and Annan did not find out. All I know is that he is also a Rendong man, and even a nobleman, who was later locked up as a political prisoner.
But even if his two sons were kidnapped... Grand Duke Yuri did not compromise with the kidnappers.
Grand Duke Yuri sent troops to surround the target and negotiated for two days and three nights. And at last, when the patience of the captors was running out... The Winter's Hand troops broke through the door and delivered a lightning strike, killing six and taking one prisoner.
But in this unsuccessful rescue, Ivan's younger brother died unfortunately.
—And the person in charge of this operation is Merlin.
But not only was he not held accountable for the failure of the rescue, but he was credited for his decisive action, successfully capturing one person, and interrogating the conspiracy behind it.
According to Annan's understanding in Nightmare: The White Tower, Merlin should have retired five years ago due to a leg injury. At the very beginning, Annan thought that Merlin was really dumb... It wasn't until the end of the White Tower that Annan realized that Merlin had a tongue.
And the general Winter Hand will have his tongue cut out when he retires—the information is like mysterious knowledge, which cannot be written down after being encrypted. Can only be transmitted a limited number of times through speech.
So cutting off the tongue is the best way to deal with it.
But judging from the present... Merlin should have been granted a license and still retain his speech ability.
He can even gain the trust of Grand Duke Ivan, let him protect Annan and Dmitri to go to Noah.
Did Grand Duke Ivan have no feelings for his younger brother
In the case of Dmitry, this is unlikely.
Annan speculated that this was because Grand Duke Ivan had extremely high trust in Merlin.
Why on earth is a silver-ranked disabled wizard... trusted by the Grand Duke so much
It is not that the Duchy of Winter has no talents of the golden rank. And there are several more.
But this time following Dmitri and the others to take the subway to Noah's escort, the highest-ranking transcendent was Merlin.
It's a pity that Annan didn't see Merlin go all out in the White Tower...
He deciphered it too fast.
Annan doesn't even know what Merlin's curse is now.
Presumably Dmitry and the original Annan should know something about it.
Annan vaguely realized that if this nightmare cannot be successfully overcome with his own strength... he must find some way to borrow Merlin's strength.
But how could he get Merlin's assistance without revealing his identity? What is the approximate level of power that Merlin possesses
Many thoughts flashed through Annan's mind.
He soon had some calculations.
He stood up and nodded silently.
Annan gave Cafney a look, signaling her to stay here.
Kafni looked at Annan seriously, expressing that she understood.
She knew what Annan was going to do this time—
Three minutes ago, Annan said to Cafney:
"I need to go to those six places. But I can't escape Merlin's stalking... I need your help."
"...?"
Cafney tilted her head silently.
She didn't know exactly what kind of help Annan needed.
But afterwards, Annan explained his plan to Kafni:
He needed Cafney to take him into a private room with a secret passage. Then Annan would go out from the other end of the secret passage—during this time, Cafney had to pretend that Annan was still in the room.
Until Annan came back.
And such a private space is easy to find.
Cafney is more or less a princess.
Her own room met all the above needs.
Annan was a little worried, whether Cafney could understand his plan as a child...
Another worry is... as a stranger of the opposite sex meeting for the first time—will Cafney be willing to bring Annan into her room
But Cafney hesitated, and finally agreed.
—Then the rest of the question is Annan's.
Annan got up, straightened his clothes, and followed Old Merlin to Dmitry.
He was asking his brother Dmitry for a leave of absence.
Let him know... that I'm going to follow Cafney to a more private place; and convince him that I don't need Merlin to follow.
... It seems that it is not very simple.