The guard looked at Lannister with a puzzled expression, then shook his head and said, "I'm very sorry, sir, I'm just an ordinary guard, how would I know these things? It's just that Commander Long Aotian was indeed suddenly parachuted in to lead our team. Our original commander has now become his adjutant, I think... no, no, it's nothing."
In the end, the guard almost blurted out his guess that "he must have some connections behind him," but fortunately, he remembered his own identity and the identities of the others present, and quickly stopped himself from saying anything more.
Lannister hadn't noticed this either, only frowning, utterly puzzled, stroking his chin and muttering his analysis: "Miss Memoride fled from the Duchy of Dragon, so logically she wouldn't have had any prior interaction with the people here. But that Long Aotian said they knew each other a long time ago, could he also have been from the Duchy of Dragon? But how could someone from another country suddenly become the captain of the royal guard?"
Nosha looked at Lannister helplessly. Miss Memoride hadn't shown him any particular favoritism, so how could this guy be so hopelessly infatuated? It was truly strange. He shook his head and said, "It's not absolute, is it? No one says you can't meet someone just because you're not in the same country. Maybe Miss Memoride has been here before, or maybe that Captain Long Aotian has been to the Duchy of Dragon. These are all possibilities. It's perfectly normal."
"That's true, but...it's just..."
Lannister pursed his lips. He had felt uneasy seeing how well Long Aotian and Miss Memorie got along, which was why he was deliberately trying to guess the worst...
Isaac patted Lannister's shoulder with pity, shook his head and sighed, "My foolish brother, just give up on that idea. No matter how you look at Captain Long Aotian, he's still someone who became captain at such a young age. Plus, he has a past relationship with Miss Memoride. How can you compare? With your now useless noble status? Even if Miss Memoride settles for second best, she still has Father Elon here. It's not your turn."
Elon, whom Isaac mentioned, remained silent, healing Edwards with holy light while glancing back and forth between the palace and his back. He felt that the closer he got to the palace, the more uncomfortable and disgusting the atmosphere became.
This was unprecedented, making him wonder if he was imagining things, or if the series of events he had just experienced had made him overly anxious and paranoid.
Just then, a loud bang suddenly came from the direction of the palace, as if something had exploded violently, drawing everyone's attention in that direction.
------------
673. Standoff
Let's rewind a little bit.
After Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian discussed it for a while, they grabbed the little girl who was probably a princess or something similar, kicked the door open, and rushed out before the guards outside could react. They broke through the encirclement and rushed towards the king's palace.
That's right. Zhou Ke'er just asked Long Aotian if he had sensed any beings stronger than him within the palace. Long Aotian replied that although there were, they were very few and not much stronger.
So isn't there clearly a path in front of Zhou Ke'er? She could simply rush to the king and force him to abdicate, either making him obey or getting rid of him and making others listen to her.
As for whether the royal family might have some special means of survival or hidden strength, Zhou Ke'er had certainly considered that—but there was no other way. Even if they did, they had to bite the bullet and go for it, otherwise all their efforts would be in vain—because if they failed, they would have to give up and move to a different location. But this process would not stop; it was endless.
If we can't even hold the first position now, other places will only fall faster and faster.
And most importantly... Zhou Ke'er had long harbored the idea of wiping out the entire royal family within the palace. After all, these people had been in such a dense atmosphere of evil for so long, they might have already mutated. For those in such a state, it was better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free.
Following behind Zhou Ke'er, carrying a little girl who had been knocked unconscious, Long Aotian narrowed his eyes slightly. Although what Zhou Ke'er said during their discussion earlier made a lot of sense, he still felt that it might be too extreme.
Even though she had acted somewhat erratically before, it's unlikely she would go to such lengths as to force a coup at the slightest provocation, and then kill everyone if the coup failed.
However... Long Aotian didn't say much, but he secretly paid attention to something in his heart.
The palace was quite large. After Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian shook off the guards by making several turns, they sped up and ran for a while before finally arriving at the king's bedroom.
Logically speaking, if the king were not holding court, he should be inside right now.
Zhou Ke'er stood in front of the door and turned to look at Long Aotian.
Long Aotian instantly understood Zhou Ke'er's meaning, shrugged helplessly, but had no choice but to go along with her wishes and burst through the door.
"Bang!"
The door slammed against the wall with a heavy echo.
The maids cleaning nearby looked towards the door with surprised and puzzled expressions.
With a kind smile on her face, Zhou Ke'er bowed gracefully to the maids and said, "I apologize, it was my guards who were too rash. His Majesty just summoned me for an audience. Would you please show me the way?"
After saying that, Zhou Ke'er seemed to remember something and pointed to the unconscious little girl that Long Aotian was carrying behind her: "Oh right, on my way here, I saw this young lady faint on the ground for some reason, so I brought her here. Why don't you take her to get some proper treatment?"
Although Zhou Ke'er said she was a guest, her words and actions didn't reflect that at all. Instead, she acted as if she were the hostess, ordering the maids around.
The maids exchanged glances, but seeing Zhou Ke'er's natural and composed demeanor, without any stage fright, they actually subconsciously did as he said.
After all, they were just ordinary maids, not head maids or stewards. Besides, in their minds, if someone wanted to harm the king, they would never have entered so openly and asked them to lead the way.
It was indeed quite strange to push the door so hard at the beginning.
Soon, the maid led Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian to the door of the king's room. Zhou Ke'er thanked her and then sent her away.
The room was in a very remote location and looked quite inconspicuous. Zhou Ke'er had just thought it was a magnificent room with guards at the door that she was passing by, which was the king's room. She never expected it to be this.
The fact that someone would resort to such underhanded tactics in the palace shows how terrified they must be of being assassinated—but it was all for naught.
The maid was originally going to open the door for her and announce her arrival, but Zhou Ke'er actually let her leave directly.
This puzzled her somewhat, but when she saw Zhou Ke'er seemingly tidying her clothes behind the door, she understood. She probably wanted to prepare before the audience, and it was indeed her oversight.
However, the truth is... Zhou Ke'er just wanted to tidy up her clothes so that she wouldn't feel restricted when they started fighting later.
Immediately after the maids disappeared around the corner of the corridor, Zhou Ke'er snapped his fingers. An evil aura surged from his body, rushed straight open the door, and condensed into a shield in front of him—one should always be wary of others. Although the maids seemed to have been fooled by Zhou Ke'er, it might have been a trap.
With a loud bang, the door opened, and a deep, authoritative voice rang out: "Who is it? Why didn't you knock?"
A man who looked middle-aged, but whose temples were already gray, raised his head, frowned and looked out the door, holding a quill pen in his hand, seemingly reviewing official documents.
When he saw Zhou Ke'er, he couldn't help but be stunned. He quickly thought about it, but he didn't seem to remember that there was such a person in the palace.
Zhou Ke'er smiled and replied cheerfully, "Your Majesty, what you said is quite interesting—what assassin comes to your door knocking? Do you expect me to announce my arrival and tell you I'm here to kill you?"
The king frowned deeply, but he didn't panic. He remained quite calm, as if he had something to rely on, and asked steadily, "So, you've come to kill me?"
As he spoke, he glanced up at Long Aotian behind Zhou Ke'er, "And you brought this...hero? No, I don't know how to address him?"
Long Aotian blinked: "You can still call me the Hero—I don't think there's any problem."
Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but laugh. Long Aotian was becoming more and more shameless. She didn't know who he learned it from, but his bottom line had dropped a lot.
Then, he sat down opposite the king with an air of familiarity and shrugged: "Whether I should kill you or not is still up in the air; it depends on your performance."
To be honest, these words sounded very sarcastic as soon as they were spoken.
As Zhou Ke'er spoke, a double pupil gradually appeared in her right eye. After carefully examining the king, she secretly revealed a knowing look. Just as he had expected.
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