Chapter 602: Deception and Fraud
In the face of the various reasons given by Cyril, the receptionist who had a slight dumb look only used one excuse to reject him—that was, the Great Wizard Li had learned about the visit of the Sun King and he would summon Cyril if he wanted to meet him.
In the face of a wise and eloquent person, a person would have to have a better brain and eloquence or to have a straightforward and stubborn personality like a stone.
After having no gain despite exhausting all his efforts to say all sorts of things, the anxious Cyril no longer could repress the anger in his heart as he finally threatened, “Mr. Wally, I’ve brought a very urgent information to see Wizard Li God under the command of the Sun King. If your stubbornness causes this matter to be delayed, ask yourself, will you be able to bear the terrible consequences of this matter?”
“Mr. Cyril, His Great Majesty Wizard Li has already learned about your visit. If he wants to see you…” The receptionist who had already received the order from Wizard Li’s dispatch officer ignored the Fran’s messenger threat and repeated the same sentence for the umpteenth time.
When Cyril saw how the skinny receptionist in front of him still maintained an unmoved look despite the serious threat that he gave, he finally realized that this slow treatment he received was probably the result of Wizard Li’s deliberate command. At once, his heart turned cold as his irritating emotions disappeared in an instant.
“There’s a saying that goes like this, ‘a weak country has no diplomacy’. Looks like it’s indeed this case.” Recalling the attentive and courtesy way he received when he was sent for a diplomatic mission when Fran was still powerful, Cyril suppressed the anger in his heart and sighed in a miserable voice. “Alright, in that case, I’ll just wait for the Wizard Li God to summon me. Please tell him that this matter is extremely urgent.”
“Mr. Cyril, I’ll pass your words to the Holy See dispatch officer.” Wally answered with a stone-like expression. “Please wait patiently for a while, I believe that His Majesty will summon you when he’s free.”
“Summon me when he’s free? Sigh, I hope that His Majesty Wizard Li will be free soon.” A situation was stronger than a person. Being anxious would only make things worse. Cyril calmed down and smiled wryly as he said, “Then can I go out while waiting to be summoned?”
“Of course, you are free to do whatever you like and can go anywhere you like. On top of that, as a foreign envoy, you’ll have a carriage waiting for you the entire day and you can make a request if the travel expenses are not enough. You can get an extra subsidy of five gold coins per day.” Wally replied meticulously.
“Wow, what a good condition.” Cyril was stunned a little before asking seemingly casually, “Is it because I’m the messenger of the King of Fran?”
“No, this is the decree that treats all foreign envoys in the land that is covered by Wizard Li God’s faith.”
The legal system was so perfect that even the treatment of foreign envoy could be stipulated in such a detailed manner meant that the stability of the political rule had begun to allow the policymakers to take into considerations of meticulous details. After probing the information he wanted to know, the Fran messenger’s heart turned even colder but remained an unchanged expression as he replied, “What a civilized decree. Speaking of it, I have never been to the famous mainland city of Sea Haines City before. It’s not bad to have a chance to go around.”
“In that case, I won’t bother your aesthetic mood anymore. I’ll take my leave first, Mr. Cyril.” After the receptionist said so, he finally smiled politely and turned around before disappearing in several steps.
Wizard Li mainland’s fallen land had now become like a theocracy country at this moment. Even though the treatment for the Fran messenger was somewhat slacking, his residence was very decent and it was an elegant manor on the outskirts of Sea Haines City.
However, no matter how quiet and pleasant the residence was, Cyril who was on a mission did not have the intention of staying too long. Since he could not meet with the Wizard Li God immediately, he felt that he could inquire more information about the land covered in his faith so that he could learn more about the other party. After the receptionist left, he also left the manor in a hurry shortly after.
In the next three days, the Fran messenger would leave early morning and return late at night to have a greedy understanding of everything in the Sea Haines City. Even though it had not yet fully restored its prosperity, the market that had already re-emitted its vitality; the crowds spontaneously gathered on time to go to pray at the temple every day at dawn; some of the paladins patrolling on the street who were well-equipped had already started to wore life-like strange beast armor and dressed like the barbarian elite warriors who had started to make him feel that a new order had been built in the fallen land.
By the early morning of the fourth day, the heavy-hearted Cyril stood on the steps of the manor and asked the servant to prepare the car for him as per convention. When he was ordering so, a group of paladins wearing silver heavy armors surrounded on the left and right sides of a carriage depicting a simple ‘L’-shaped galloped up to him.
Upon seeing the ‘L’ representing the theocracy from afar, the manor servants hurriedly kneeled on the ground. Only Cyril held his head high and thrust his chest forward, appearing to be solemn as he looked at the paladins and carriage getting closer to him.
Unfortunately, when the paladins guarded the carriage to the Fran messenger, nobody appreciated his manner of neither arrogant nor humble. The paladin leader who was the tallest and sturdiest drove the dragon beast below him to take a step forward to look at Cyril before saying in a low muffled voice, “Fran messenger Cyril, His Majesty Wizard Li summons you.”
“This is my honor, Sir Paladin.” The Fran messenger politely bowed and straightened his clothes. With a solemn expression, he entered the carriage and was beyond shocked to see that there was already a young man, with slightly long black hair casually smoothened on his head sitting on the seat wrapped in soft black leather.
The instant their eyes met, his body froze as a premonition rose in his heart. However, not daring to believe his own judgment, Cyril was stunned for a while before pretending to be calm and ask, “I’m sorry, may I know who you are?”
“Mr. Cyril, since you have already guessed who I am, why bother to ask anymore?” The black-haired young man smiled even brightly and pointed to the opposite seat. “Please take a seat. The carriage is going to move soon.”
The Fran messenger had often imagined the way he met with the Wizard Li God in the past few days, from a palace that was so splendor it was like heaven, to a dark and gloomy underground cave which would not take him by surprise. However, at this moment when he saw the amiable god who looked like an ordinary young man in an ordinary carriage, Cyril immediately felt that he was so baffled that he was beyond speechless.
He sat in the opposite direction of Zhang Lisheng as told and after a long moment of silence, he said with a wry smile truthfully, “It’s indeed true that a mortal can’t speculate on the manners and behaviors of the gods, Your Majesty. I really didn’t think that you’d look like this, much less how you’d actually personally come to see me after deliberately being cold to me for a few days.”
“I didn’t mean to be cold to you. It’s just that I was busy summoning the thinkers to formulate the ‘Ethnic Code’ so I didn’t have any free time at all.” Zhang Lisheng randomly came up with an excuse and his words were somewhat vague, but the term ‘Ethnic Code’ was enough to leave enough space for imagination to other people, particularly a smart one.
Sure enough, Cyril’s eyes lit up unwittingly. He subconsciously overthrew his previous judgments seemingly trying to ask questions but he had forced himself to hold it back. Respectfully, he said, “Your Majesty, as a messenger, I should first perform my duties. I’ve brought the greetings from His Highness Otto to you.”
“Greetings?” Zhang Lisheng curled his lips in a profound meaning. “But I heard His Highness Sun King is discussing with the leaders of the mainland countries on how to drive me back to the sea in the palace fort in the green lake in Rhilo Garden.”
“Your Majesty, when the Hellfire believers under you occupied the various countries in Kattaman, it was originally thought to be an invasion of the barbarians. As the King of Fran, it was natural for His Highness Otto to fulfill his responsibilities first in such a situation. However, when he learned that the truth of the matter was actually a religious war carried out by a powerful newly born god in order to spread his faith, the Sun King feels that there was no need to be an enemy of you. Because of this, he rejected Yassen King’s suggestion of forming a continental army to conquer you.” Rio said incessantly, “And thus provoke Dignity King’s hostility. However…”
“Alright, Mr. Cyril, the century-old war between Fran and Yassen is not a secret. Even if the Sun joined the mainland coalition, the Dignity King would not respect a loser who was defeated by his own hands anyway.” Zhang Lisheng waved his hand and interrupted the Fran’s envoy before saying sardonically, “Stop telling all those nonsense. Tell me directly, why did the Fran King send you to see me? It can’t possibly just to try to save his children right?”
As though he was at loss of what to do for seeing the Wizard Li God so humanely expressing his own thoughts, Cyril was stunned once again. After a moment of silence, he said, “Your Majesty, even though the years of war have exhausted the various countries in the mainland, in the situation where Dignity King obtained the victory in the century-old war between Fran and Yassen to become the king without the crown of the mainland, his will cannot be violated, and the formation of the mainland coalition forces is imperative. However, Sun King can guarantee that the Fran Kingdom and Fran’s traditional allies and vassals will only symbolically send a small number of soldiers to join the coalition to express their goodwill…”
The Fran messenger did not finish his words. When Zhang Lisheng waited for a while and saw that he did not continue, he already knew that it was time for him to make some sort of promise. After pondering a while, he pretended to say sincerely, “Mr. Cyril, just like how the mortals will not snatch the leftover food carried by the insects on the mud, I’m not greedy over the power of the mortal world. A god seeks for eternality and requires belief. If the Fran King is willing to believe in me, then I can promise all his conditions.
The needs of gods and mortals were different, so there was no fundamental conflict between the two when seeking benefits. This common sense that had been verified several times by the history of the Green Leaf Mainland, was the most critical condition for Zhang Lisheng to lure Cyril.
In fact, if it was not for the fact that the young man had to take complete control of the Shrimp World No. 2 to fight against the Atlantean civilization, he might be willing to help one or more monarchs to become his spokespersons so as to spread his faith more effortlessly. However, right now, it was destined for Sun King’s plan to be a miserable tragedy.
