Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 98 Kana
"Lucia, have you learned all the magic taught by Professor Ophelia last week?"

"Ah."

"Do you remember the genealogy of the aristocratic coat of arms that Professor Mentor taught us to memorize?"

"Ah."

"But I haven't remembered yet! I have to write silently in the next class!" Lataen grabbed Lucia's collar and shook it: "So you tell me, you dragged us here, and you still dressed like this poor mercenary What exactly do you want to do?"

"You'll know when you arrive, don't worry, I promise you won't regret coming out with me."

"Tch, you will be a ghost if you believe me!"

Christopher on the side of "His Royal Highness Rataen" comforted, "The heraldry pedigree is not difficult. I believe that with your wisdom, you can memorize them all when you go back. Since His Royal Highness Lucia must bring us out, There must be something important."

Today, at Lucia's request, he also took off the ancient dragon knight armor, and put on a dilapidated chain mail that mercenaries often wear, and a mask covering his face.

After meeting Lucia in Tolisha's clinic last time, he learned that His Highness had concealed his identity for a long time and honed his actual combat skills in the arena, so he also had a half-guess about today's destination.

On the other hand, Lataen on the other side, his burly body was covered with a pair of thick steel armor covered with scratches. This thing is considered valuable equipment for ordinary mercenaries, but because the material is ordinary and has no enchanting effect, in the real In the eyes of the nobles, it is completely rubbish that even the guards would find embarrassing.

"The Harvey family, the three-eyed black wolf with the coat of arms, the Duoris family, the steel fortress with the coat of arms, and the Kelier family" Ratarn recited endlessly, while drawing the complicated coat of arms in the air with his fingers, sometimes mixing Go in with a few swear words.

"I don't know why memorizing these messy things!" He propped his chin and said in annoyance, "Aren't the heirs of these families all in private schools? It's not enough for me to beat them with one hand. broken coat of arms?"

"I can't say it's useless, like that—" Lucia poked her head out of the car window and pointed to a tall building on the side of the street, "Did you see the heraldic emblem engraved under their signboard?"

Ratan turned his head and glanced, and said, "I don't know."

"The Celant arena is one of the seven largest arenas in Rodel," Lucia introduced, "That coat of arms is the symbol of the Duran family, but if you have carefully studied the aristocratic genealogy of the Golden Dynasty, you will know, Earl Duran's grandfather is the uncle of the Duke of Duoris, and the Duran family is also a close branch of the Duoris family that was separated from the Duoris family 17 years ago-combined with the size of this arena and the flow of audience, it can be judged that Seran The real supporter behind Te is actually Duke Duoris."

"Arena?" Lataen immediately became interested when he heard this key word, "I heard that Rodel's arena holds a battle festival at the end of each year. It should start soon, right?"

Speaking of this, he said with some regret: "It's a pity that we are limited by our status. Even if we want to go on stage to fight a few times, the person in charge of the arena will definitely not agree."

"That's why I asked you to dress like this!" Lucia grabbed the masked helmet in Ratan's hand and put it on his head with a speechless expression, "From now on, my name is Lucifer, your name is Tan, and you— —Your name is Chris, don’t tell me anything, understand?”

"Ah, that's how it is!" Ratarn's visor came from behind the visor, and he slapped Lucia's shoulder with a backhand, "I said that there is nothing wrong with coming out with you, Christopher. I still don't believe it!"

Christopher: "."

After arriving at the destination, the three jumped off the temporarily rented dilapidated carriage. Lucia looked at the tall and majestic bowl-shaped building in front of her, but the expression hidden inside the helmet was not as excited as Lataen, but instead revealed a calmness as deep as water .

Returning to this arena after a long absence, the so-called actual combat practice is only the most trivial purpose, and the deeper consideration comes from the two pieces of information he has recently gained.

One is the behind-the-scenes operations of the major arenas that he dispatched Eggers to spend many days investigating.

The results showed that, except for the Celant Arena, which was backed by Duke Duoris, all the large-scale arenas in the capital were in the hands of a certain nobleman, and most of the rest were controlled by wealthy businessmen who were attached to the nobles.

Of course, this was within Lucia's expectation. What really caught his attention was that the real source of profit for these large arenas did not seem to be the various gladiatorial events that lasted throughout the year, and the battle festivals at the end of the year were always running at a loss. ——There must be a deeper hidden channel that continuously provides income to the nobles and encourages them to devote more resources to these arenas.

The second is a piece of secret news that Christopher brought from the Ancient Dragon Temple shortly after the state banquet.

Since the first battle at Lake Rodell, the young knight has naturally become the link between Lucia and the Temple of the Ancient Dragon. Lance Shanks also intentionally let Lucia pass him by, and began to obtain what he needed directly from the Temple of the Ancient Dragon. all resources.

The content of the anecdote is that Duke Duoris, who had just won the victory and returned to court, secretly escorted a large number of living creatures back from the northern border. Among them are probably a group of Ice Fields with the blood of the flame giant and whose physique is better than ordinary trolls. troll.

However, they disappeared immediately after they were escorted into the capital. Whether it was the slave market, the private mansions of the nobles, or the arena where the most foreign races appeared, there was no trace of even a single mountain monster moving.

"Duoris, the arena, the troll, the battle festival." Lucia quickly remembered what Old Hart had hinted to him before, that there must be other things hidden behind the battle festival, which is known as one of the biggest events in the capital. What.

If it was before fulfilling the agreement with Ladagon, he would not want to get involved in this kind of thing at all. It was his only task at that time to protect himself wisely and avoid all troubles to improve his strength as soon as possible.

But the situation is different now. He already has more power and political capital in his hands. Instead of spending a few years of mediocre academic career, he should tentatively make more attempts—even if there are hidden dangers behind these attempts. There are many obvious or hidden risks, but some opportunities implied in the risks may never be grasped once this period of time is missed.

"Let's go in," Lucia said, "I've prepared a full set of fake identities for the two of you with Sister Torrance before, but it's yourselves, you must remember the aliases, and don't make any mistakes."

"Understood!" Latan patted his breastplate and laughed.

As soon as the three of them entered the arena, they sat in the rest area of ​​the fighters for less than 10 minutes, when a well-dressed waiter trotted up to him, and bowed deeply flatteringly: "Mr. Lucifer, Mr. Hart I invite you to his office for a while, and your friend can follow me to the VIP reception area to rest."

"I brought them here to see Chief Hart, just take us there."

"But."

"No, but," Lucia said without doubt, "Take us there, I assure you, the manager will never embarrass you after seeing it."

The waiter struggled for a while, facing the heavy pressure from the Zigang-level fighter in front of him, he finally nodded and said: "Okay, please follow me."

(End of this chapter)