Hordnock's meeting room was built on the principle of a semicircle, with the central part extended to the front. And in fact it was divided in two, namely, into a rounded part, in which the members of the board of thirty-three were located, and a large podium behind which stood the elected chairman and head of the ruling faction. This location was considered the most effective for the work of the government and the adoption of important legislative acts. But at the moment, all this was of little use, the meeting room was in chaos.
"This is just nonsense, but how dare they appropriate the desert of death for themselves!?" one of the board members shouted, "what do they think, they drew a map for themselves, gave it to us, and we, like this, recognize their state borders ?!
"It's against the law, how dare they restrict our movements.
- Yes, yes, who they are, we do not know them, they have no rights.
— SHUT UP! Fung Zhen yelled, slamming his fist on the podium with all his strength, "you are completely crazy!" They have a hundred thousandth army of giant golems, they didn't care about your laws or requirements, trust your wishes and opinion to them to one place, strength speaks for them! And for you? Sit here and shake your tongues, forgot that everything is decided by force!
"Calm down, chairman, we need to solve the problem, and not be scattered in vain," Long Feng said calmly.
— Yes, how about these here, you can decide something, they are… Okay, what about your brother? We're in this... In this position, just because of him.
- Are you talking about Gen. secretary? He is under house arrest.
"Yes, he needs to be cut off for this, he set us up!"
"There is no need to exaggerate, even without Secretary Shino's mistake, the situation would not be the best. The ambassador of that country said he was only here two days ago, right? So after he was refused, only forty-eight hours had passed. During such a time, the army cannot be pulled up to the borders, which means that they wanted to do this from the very beginning and only found an excuse. So let's not blame everything on the gene. secretary.
- Even if everything is so, do you understand in what light he exposed our country, how will we justify ourselves now?
- I don't think it's so important, because of such a war they don't start.
- Yes, you are ...! You don't understand at all...
Fung Zhen's speech was interrupted by the door being thrown open, and two men were standing in the opening.
The first of them, being of medium build, a little over 170 cm tall, was dressed in full plate armor, with a closed visor on his helmet. He, calmly examining the meeting room, held in his right hand a scabbard, with a sword located there.
His companion, standing a little further away, dressed in a baggy shirt and trousers covered with a rag cape, had bright red hair, so rare in these places, which, combined with dark skin, betrayed him as a resident of a dark kingdom.
"Help from the kingdom? Long Feng thought, "No, too fast, our messenger hasn't even reached their country yet, apparently they came for a different reason."
Having carefully examined the hall, with the members of the council sitting there, whose faces had not yet lost surprise, a red-haired guy, who looked about twenty-five years old, jumped, levitated to the center of the room, and turning his back to the podium, raised his right hand, after which he said.
[Eastley.]
- What is this? Hot. Hot! AAAAA — jumping up, yelled, one of the members of the board, clutching his head with his hands.
- My hands, how it hurts, it hurts! AAAA help! yelled the one sitting next to him, whose hands began to darken.
Literally in a moment, the unbearable heat was felt by everyone else. Screams and groans, muffled only by pleas for help, reverberated through the building. Writhing from unbearable pain, the bodies of the board members literally turned black before our eyes, and the bright red pattern that appeared on the black skin, in the form of cobweb-like threads, testified to the wild flame raging inside them.
Their bodies, like coals in a furnace, smoldered from the inside. And as soon as the blackness completely swallowed up the body, the flesh literally disintegrated into dust, and, caught up in a draft, it spread around the room, still smoldering and blazing with a scarlet color.
The red-haired guy turned around and looked at the two men standing behind the podium. They were the only survivors.
"I guess I'm done," said the man, behind whom a dark crimson ash swirl blazed.
"All right, I'll take care of the rest," his companion, clad in armor, said, coming close to the podium.
Dumbfounded by everything that was happening, the chairman and head of the faction could not budge.
"I believe you are Long Feng," asked the approacher.
- D.. Yes.
[Flicker] - An unknown spell was cast from the lips of the armored man, and his blade was sheathed again.
The right hand of the head of the faction fell to the floor, and the stump remaining at shoulder level smoked as if it had been burned. There was no blood.
"AAAAAAA," the head shouted, falling to his knees.
"Isn't it sad that you don't have healing powder right now, Mr. Long Feng?" Of course, he would not grow your arm, but he would reduce the pain. By the way, you were lucky that I cauterized the wound, otherwise you would have died without this miraculous powder. I hope that now you understand how bad it is when the supply of this important ingredient for some reason is disrupted, because of some traders who completely forgot where they belong. I hope you're ashamed
Unable to say anything because of the shock of pain, the head only snorted something unintelligible, lying on the ground.
- You know, we, as ambassadors of the dark kingdom, are very kind to our allies and for the first time we will forgive your mistake, but. We want you to understand your place.
Grabbing Long Feng by the hair, the armored man lifted him above his head with ease.
"Remember, you are only intermediaries that we need, since Tai-Lon flatly refuses to trade with dark humanity. And if you didn't have such a well-developed system of experienced caravaneers, we would have wiped this miserable town off the face of the earth by now. After all, you were well paid for the goods, protected from the encroachments of other countries, and you?
"Okay, while he comes to his senses," Long Feng was thrown on the floor like a bag of garbage, "I would like to talk to the new chairman. You were recently elected, weren't you? Are you already in the know? Can you tell me when you can supply us with the next batch of healing powder? We really need her.
"Sorry," Fung Zhen, breathing deeply, wiped sweat from his forehead, "you probably don't know, but yesterday, one unforeseen situation occurred, if it can of course be called that.
"Yesterday? Yesterday we were on our way here and could not receive any notice from our spies in Hordnock. What could happen in two days? Don thought in surprise.
- Report in full, Mr. Fung Zhen, if I'm not mistaken?
- Yes, I'm Fung Zhen, let's sit down at the table.
Don't worry so much, speak calmly.
- Certainly! Bowing, the chairman said.