"I don't understand, Father."
Little Holguin gazed at his father and inquired, word for word.
"Why would you want me to go to bat for that lord? You know, not only does this offend the Karil family, but it's impossible to gain anything by helping a madman who's no different than a dead man."
Old Holguin was speechless for a long time, then slowly opened his mouth.
"Do you believe in premonitions? My child?"
"A hunch?"
Little Holguin was baffled. What the hell was that?
"That's right, when you travel to a place and suddenly have a hunch that you can make a lot of money buying and selling its goods, or when you walk to a city and suddenly feel that it's very unsafe. This kind of premonition ... sometimes, people have to believe in their own feelings, not just rely on the eyes to see and judge things. I don't know why, I just have this premonition, although everything seems to be going against him right now, but I still feel that he seems to have the ability to turn the current situation around."
"But ..."
Little Holguin wanted to say something else, but his father didn't let him.
"Don't worry, even if it's just an old man's delusion, I've always looked at that old man Karil with disdain, and being able to take advantage of the opportunity to find some trouble with him isn't a bad thing for me."
Old Holguin twirled the crystal wine glass in his hand with a wise glint in his eye.
And in the other room, Vito was watching Jared with a confident smile.
"Have you made your choice?"
"That's right!"
Jared slammed the table.
"I've come to the realization that I can't protect the woman I love if I keep going on like this. Those royal bastards and the Council have done this to me! I'm so cold! I'm ..."
"Okay, stop it, I know all about it."
Vito's heavy hand was placed on Jared's shoulder, looking at him kindly, while not far away, Caroline also looked uneasy, completely showing her feminine side, apparently she also seemed to be frightened by the scene at the banquet. At that moment, Vito took out a strange runestone from his pocket and placed it in Jared's hand, then whispered to him.
"Do you want to get back to where you are now, and beyond?"
"Lord Vito, what do you mean by ...?"
"I have a little plan ."
Vito spoke softly, but without saying anything of substance." I'm offering you a chance to not only avoid imprisonment, but to enter the center of power in this country. How's that? Jared, the only way to protect the woman you love is to do whatever it takes, right? Imagine what will happen to Ms. Caroline when you lose your power. You don't know that, do you? Now that you've made your choice at the banquet, the nobles won't let you go. Since you've lost everything, why don't you take a gamble?"
"I ..."
Jared hesitated.
"But there's no time for that, huh? Jared."
No time?
Vito's words made Jared's inner heart skipped a beat, this is a bit wrong, he originally thought that Vito will take on his subtle influence, and then slowly subdued. But the way he was acting now, he seemed to be trying to rush him, why did he have to rush? What had Vidocq done? Did he run out of time? No, since he chose to assassinate Kylie, it means that he is a very patient person, every time he chose the time when Kylie and the academy have the strongest connection, this kind of situation is not easy for ordinary people to find. But now he actually said he didn't have time ...
Is it possible that something compelled him to take urgent action?
Jared's fingers behind his back curved slightly and tapped the palm of his hand twice. Caroline immediately understood what he meant, and she closed her eyes, pretending to be thinking.
"Answer me, do you want revenge, or escape ... Don't forget, the power of the Empire is everywhere, no matter where you escape to, you can't live a happy life, only endless killing and fleeing, is this life what you expect?"
"No!"
This time Jared's head was shaking quite firmly, in fact he was getting tired of it.
"I've figured it out! I'm willing to serve Lord Vito!"
"Very good."
With no sign of skepticism at all, Vito took a small paper packet out of his pocket and placed it in Jared's hand.
"This is a little stupefying potion, later on I want you to mix this into the wine and give it to those nobles. This way, the important figures of the three great families will be in our hands."
"But my lord, there are still twelve hundred Konos outside ..."
"Those are my private soldiers, just better dressed."
Vito answered Jared's question lightly, but he couldn't have just given Jared the benefit of the doubt. Jared also realized that if Vito really took more than a thousand of his own private soldiers with him, the Council would never agree to it. He's a civil servant, not a military officer. Why would he need so many soldiers? Is he going to invite everyone to go out for a drink?
"So, that's all you have to do, and don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."
Vito patted Jared on the shoulder and proceeded to walk out of the room, and just then, Caroline opened her eyes.
(Jared, there's movement in the northern part of the forest. Appears to be federal troops, numbers unknown.)
"... I know."
Jared nodded, he finally understood why Vito was in such a hurry. On the one hand, in this kind of emergency situation, as long as you accidentally step in, then it will be like being pushed by a wave, even if you don't want to go deeper, you still have to move forward step by step, at that time there is no turning back, no matter what Vito really wants to do, he can only follow closely.
With that in mind, Jared walked over to Caroline and grabbed her hair again and played with it. Caroline waited and watched Jared quietly, not complaining about his behavior. Jared played with Caroline's hair for a while before letting go, a confident smile appearing on his lips.
"Let's get moving."
(No problem...)
Soon after, Jared gathered the men working in the castle and briefly ordered them to stay out of the way no matter what happened, then he pulled over a couple of elves and ordered them to deliver desserts and wine to the nobles and lords, while secretly mixing in the medicine that Vito had given him. Jared himself took the same meal and went to the guest room in the south of the castle and knocked on the door.
Little Holguin opened the door and froze at the sight of Jared.
"My Lord, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to deliver the food, after all, there's not enough staff."
Jared said, actually ignored the little Holguin's stop, so directly into the room, and then put the meal on the table, and the old man sitting on the sofa slightly bowed. But I don't know because of nervousness or what, his elbow accidentally touched the wine glass on the dinner plate, the whole glass of wine so knocked over on the ground. And little Holguin was already frowning, clearly not liking Jared's attentive attitude.
"Then, I'll take my leave ... It's a shame, I hope you two can have a good dream."
Jared gazed at his wine-stained clothes with some embarrassment, smiled helplessly and bitterly before saying his inexplicable goodbyes and leaving quickly.
"This man is so rude! What on earth is he doing here?!"
Gazing at the dessert, which had become ugly from mixing with the wine, young Holguin was furious, while old Holguin stood up, walked slowly over to the plate, and reached out to pick up the glass of wine and look at it.
"My child."
Then he whispered.
"Tonight, let's not sleep."
"What is this for? Father-sama?"
Little Holguin asked in disbelief, while Old Holguin smiled coldly.
"I've told you before, don't be fooled by appearances. That lord has just clearly reminded us of what will happen tonight ... He deliberately knocked over the wine glass, but left in such a hurry without apologizing to us because he knew there was no need to apologize."
"But we just helped him!"
"He has returned the favor."
Old Holguin turned the beautiful crystal wine glass in his hand and smelled the flavor. Then he smiled bitterly and sat down again.
"We're all screwed."
"Eh? Father-sama ... you mean ..."
"Doesn't it seem strange? My child?"
Old Holguin puts down the glass in his hand, taps the rim gently, and reveals a pensive look in both eyes.
"Where on earth did the news come from that the Convocation was going to punish this lord?"
"Where to pass ... this kind of thing don't even need to think about it, father lord, the discerning can see that this lord lord is already about to have bad luck."
"A sighted man is sometimes no different from a blind man."
Old Holguin's face turned as cold as ice in an instant.
"Has the Convocation officially given its orders? Has the Crown officially expressed its displeasure? No, it's all just our speculation, our delusion. We took it for granted that these things would be done under the water, not on the table. We were too presumptuous, and in retrospect, it's all very suspicious. What did the Convocation promise? It only promised Minister Vidocq to come here to investigate his daughter's death, why not also bring the Lord's judgment? It's all over the empire, but the Convocation has never clarified or confirmed it, what is the Lord of the Heavens thinking?"
Little Holguin was so dumbfounded by all this that it took him half a day to get over it.
"Father-sama, what do you mean by ...?"
"It's late at night."
Old Holguin interrupted his son.
"Put the lights out."
"But didn't you just say ..."
"I only said lights out."
Old Holguin's face actually showed a rare hint of a mocking smile .
"Didn't say sleep."