Chapter 451

Although he did not tell Olivia about the specific cooperation between him and Elsa, during this period, Olivia obviously knew that Orson was on Elsa's side.

There are only two possibilities for the royal family to be forced to make concessions.

One is to release the private investigation authority and provide the previously investigated information to the Duke of Orleans for free. The other is to directly choose someone from the royal family to take the blame.

And that person is very likely to be Alsace.

After all, the Toulouse family emblem was found in Alsace's private property, and this emblem, after identification, is obviously authentic.

Even if someone framed him, Alsace's reputation would plummet before the person who framed him was found.

In this way, the resistance to Elsa's rise to power will be reduced a lot.

Imagine that one is a stubborn conservative, although he can protect the interests of the nobles, but he has a history of murdering nobles.

The other one is a reformist, but he has never murdered aristocrats. Even the trials conducted in the imperial court before were fair judgments based on imperial laws.

Although the nobles will still tend to favor Alsace, they will definitely have some concerns because Alsace's suspicion has not been cleared.

In addition, Giovanni, the traitor of the empire, is rumored to have had close contacts with Alsace before.

Whether Alsace is worthy of everyone's trust is a big question mark.

Olivia looked at Orson and said what he thought, and asked doubtfully: "Orson, don't you want the royal family to have too much influence?"

"Well, after all, I am not a member of the royal family. At most, I can only be regarded as having some friendship with some of them. The place where I was born and raised is Antica. How can I not consider the interests of Antica?"

...

On the other side, in the palace.

Since Odysseus learned that the family emblem of the Toulouse family was discovered, he has been dealing with related aftermath for three consecutive days.

First, the original task force was disbanded and a new group of people were responsible for the investigation.

Then he replaced the files in the Imperial Court and brought all the important files back to the palace.

After dealing with these things, Odysseus thought he could conceal the past. After all, he had paid enough hush money, and those who knew about this matter would not spread it.

But who knew that the Duke of Orleans suddenly put pressure on him and insisted on personally intervening in the investigation, saying that if Orleans was not allowed to participate in the investigation, it would prove that the royal family had something to hide.

It was very strange. Obviously, in the eyes of Odysseus and a group of high-ranking officials of the empire, the new regent Sean of the Duke of Orleans was an honest man and he would never have the courage to challenge the royal family.

But the other party not only did this, but also pulled other dukes to jointly issue a statement.

The situation is now even serious enough to send more troops to the border.

In desperation, Odysseus could only let the front-line troops return to defend while discussing the response strategy day and night.

The discussion finally came to a result, but it required the consent of Arthas.

That is, today, he plans to meet Arthas again and ask him for his opinion.

Chapter 85: Conversation

"Father, long time no see." Arthas looked at Odysseus in front of him and bowed respectfully.

"Well, you still know that I am your father." Odysseus snorted coldly, "Then do you know what I have been busy with these days?"

"I know." Arthas nodded. He had heard the rumors about the outside world in the palace these days. When he heard that the family emblem of the Toulouse family was found in a property he acquired not long ago, and it was the kind that was genuine.

Arthas certainly knew that he was framed, because he had never thought of attacking any noble from beginning to end, but the evidence was overwhelming, and the other party had used some means to throw dirty water on him.

The only thing that could make Arthas feel a little relieved was that this matter was also related to the royal family. Even if it was to clear the royal family's suspicion, Odysseus had to help him.

But these days, there have been a lot of rumors from the outside world, and even the dukes jointly issued a statement that the royal family must make concessions.

Whoever started the incident should be held responsible. Arthas understood the reason why Odysseus came to him today.

"But father, please believe me. I am definitely wronged and I have never done anything to murder the duke."

"Of course I believe you. I also know that you will never do such a thing. But, Arthas, things are not something that can be solved by just believing me. Now the dukes are anxious to get an explanation. If the deceased is a count, we may be able to make a big deal out of it, but the person who was assassinated this time is a duke after all. This kind of thing has never happened in the empire for hundreds of years."

"So... what does father mean?" Arthas looked at Odysseus in confusion.

"If we can't cover it up, we can only open the information to them. In this way, they will also know that Francois's death is related to you."

"And you are the only suspect in the open. Their anger will undoubtedly be vented on you, and then it will also affect the royal family."

Hearing Odysseus' words, Arthas felt cold in his heart.

"Father...I don't understand why we can't push a scapegoat to the throne?"

"Oh, scapegoat?" Odysseus couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

"Alsace, do you know how strong the guards around Francois are? Can a scapegoat be found casually?"

"Looking at the entire Saint Laurent City, how many families do you think have a force of warriors above level eight? If we randomly pull out a scapegoat, will they believe it?"

"And if we find someone with that strength to scapegoat, do you think the other party is willing to be our scapegoat?"

"..."Alsace was silent.

After a moment, he spoke again, trying to fight for his last chance.

"Father, what do you think we should do? Do I have to take the blame?"

"Again, this matter started because of you. If you hadn't taken action against those industries before, the original owners of those industries should be suspected now, right?"

Odysseus said this and sighed helplessly.

"..."Alsace nodded after hearing this. "Father, you are right. I shouldn't make this mistake. However, as you said, Saint Laurent City does have a force that can mobilize strong men above level 8, and we don't have to worry about affecting the other party's interests. On the contrary, we can completely wipe out all the evil forces in Saint Laurent City through this action."

"Oh?" Odysseus looked at Arthas curiously after hearing this.

"Tell me."

It was also a helpless move to let Arthas make sacrifices, but if Arthas had a better plan, Odysseus would not mind taking his advice.

...

Time went back to the night before Francois was assassinated.

After the banquet, Francois did not return to his residence with the guards as usual, but took a detour to a secret place, and then returned to his residence.

And this information is unknown.

"You just said that Mary left a legacy?" Francois sat on one side of the table and looked at the person sitting opposite.

This is a membership-based coffee shop, where dignitaries often come to discuss issues. Therefore, when registering customers, in order to protect their privacy, pseudonyms or anonymity are deliberately used.

Such occasions are very common in Saint Laurent City, because the nobles always have some private matters that are inconvenient to use their real names, no matter how big or small.

"Of course, don't you want to know how much private wealth Lady Marie left for herself during her reign in Antica?"

"That private wealth has been seized a long time ago, right?"

"You are Marie's brother. You should know how smart Marie is. Do you think she might be so stupid as to keep all her private wealth in one place without moving it away?"

"So, what do you mean?"

"Mrs. Marie has a lot of property directly under the royal family. These properties are either cash stored in the vault or turned into various industries, all under the name of one person. Do you want to know the location of that person?"

"...Tell me, as Marie's brother, I have the right to inherit her finances after her death."

"Of course, that's why I came here." The other party said this and handed Francois a business card. After Francois read it, he gave it back to the other party.

"I remember, I will go find it. If I don't find it, I can understand that you don't want to have any contact with me in the future."

"What if you find it?"

"What do you want me to give you? Give you half of the assets?"

"No, I just need you to be my friend. As for the assets, give me a part that can let me spend my old age in the Duke of Orleans."

"Friend? Haha, okay." Francois nodded, then stood up and walked out.

"Marie, Mary, I didn't expect that you would be betrayed by the person who was once the closest to you after you died." Back in the carriage, thinking about what happened just now, Francois smiled and shook his head.

"But it doesn't matter, Mary, I will inherit your inheritance, so that you will not be considered to have no contribution to the Toulouse family."

On the way back, he was still thinking about how to use the property, but at this moment something strange happened.

The carriage suddenly stopped, and then there was a sound of swords clashing around him.

The captain of the guard sitting in front of his carriage poked his head in half a minute later.

"My Lord Duke, a group of blind thieves just came outside and wanted to rob us. Now we have driven them away."

"Well, if there is nothing else, let's continue." Francois nodded calmly after seeing the report from the captain of the guard.

"Hmph, the security of Saint Laurent City will decline sooner or later if it continues like this." Sitting in the car, he snorted coldly.

However, the end of his fate was waiting for him not far ahead.

Chapter 86: Secret Transaction

The convoy continued to move for a few minutes. Just when everyone recovered from the tension of the attack, a pair of eyes stared at Francois and his party.

Just when several people passed a few people at the intersection, the black shadow hiding on the roof chose to attack. With just one blow, Francois's captain of the guard was dead, and then, with the sound of sharp weapons cutting flesh and blood around, Francois's guard members were being harvested like straw.

When Francois first saw the carriage stop, he thought the road ahead was blocked, but when he heard the sound of people falling around him, he began to panic.

His guards seemed to fall to the ground without even making a sound.

"Captain Russell? Are you okay?" Francois asked through the curtain of the carriage.

However, no one responded to him.

"My Lord Duke! Go!" At this moment, a guard finally made a sound, but then there was a scream, and he was obviously killed.

Francois was in a panic. The guard told him to go, but where could he go?

As a duke, he must have some means of saving his life, but these means require someone to buy time for himself. In this situation, no one can guess when the other party will appear in front of him.

When he releases the teleportation magic, he is extremely vulnerable. If he is attacked at this time, he will really have only one way to die.

"My Lord Duke, I will hold him for you, go!" At this moment, Captain Russell, who was attacked first and should have died, suddenly woke up. He said this and used all his strength to stop in front of the carriage.

"Oh? Still alive? It seems that I underestimated you." The shadow said.

"Captain Russell, I will never forget your life-saving grace." Francois was moved when he heard Russell say that, and then he quickly took out a magic scroll from his storage ring and began to chant the spell. Once the chanting was over, he would move to the safest place.

However, as soon as he read the first byte, he saw that some dark red liquid was sprinkled on the curtains, and some of it penetrated into the carriage through the curtains.

The next second, a pair of big hands pushed the curtains open.

"Sorry, Duke, I will take your life."

The other party said this, without leaving Francois even a second, and directly stabbed the sharp blade in his hand into Francois' chest.

He widened his eyes in disbelief.

Captain Russell, who has the strength of the seventh level, can't even survive a move in front of this person? Who is the other party?

Am I really going to die?

Good... pain...

This was the last thought in his mind. At the moment when his chest was pierced, the black shadow stretched out his other hand and probed into his chest along the wound.

"Is this... the blood of the Duke?" The black shadow looked at the heart that was still trembling and beating in his palm and sighed.

The world is unfair. Some nobles are superior when they are born, especially the great nobles headed by the royal family and the Duke. Their blood power has built a barrier between their descendants and ordinary people.

The heart in the black shadow's hand now still beats even if it leaves the owner's body.

If this fatal injury had not been caused, I am afraid he could still survive with his tenacious vitality?

"As expected of the Duke, he is so useful even in death." The black shadow said this, walked out of the carriage, and then instantly escaped into the dark alley beside the street.

The black shadow circled several large circles in the complex streets of Saint Laurent City, and then stopped.

"Come out, rats who like to follow others." The black shadow said this and turned his head away.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, a bat jumped down from a street lamp and appeared in front of the shadow.

If Orson was there, he would definitely recognize this person's features.

That was the Killing Angel who had worked with Orson before.

"Don't be so nervous, I have no ill intentions." The Killing Angel said this and laughed twice.

"I don't think a person who doesn't want to show his true face will have no ill intentions."