Chapter 166 - A Test
Chapter 166 - A Test
Ten minutes later, the butler knocked on the door of Prince Finn's study.
"Your Excellency, there is a gentleman who wishes to see you."
"Who?" Prince Finn frowned as he sat behind the desk. "I told you not to bring anyone here without an appointment..."
Before he could finish, the person behind the butler had already entered the study. She was tall, had long black hair, and dressed so plainly that Prince Finn would have sneered at her. Prince Finn didn't know who this person was, but he felt that he was making him feel uncomfortable, so he asked, "Who are you?"
Ning Fei stretched out his hand directly towards him——
A bright light flashed across the corridor through the half-open door.
Then Ning Fei poked his head out of the door: "Okay."
Duan Yunhong was actually touched by this action for a moment. After he came to his senses, he turned the corner of the corridor and walked over.
When he entered the room, Ning Fei had already sat down on a single sofa, Prince Finn was standing beside the desk, and the butler was standing beside the door with his head bowed. It seemed that the owner of this room had become Ning Fei.
In fact, it was almost the same. Ning Fei glanced at Duan Yunhong and said teasingly without any scruples: "Are you so afraid of light magic?"
As he spoke, his eyes moved around Duan Yunhong's left hand.
"I am afraid. Of course I am not afraid." Duan Yunhong replied calmly, dragged a chair to sit next to Ning Fei, "You know why I am afraid."
He ignored Prince Finn the entire time, and the prince was not surprised by his appearance: "...Earl Andrew? You are indeed Ning Fei's subordinate. But you are afraid of light magic?"
"Don't compare me to you." Duan Yunhong glanced at him, then looked back at Ning Fei, "Did you tell him what you wanted him to do?"
"No. Isn't this waiting for your arrival? It saves you from asking again later." Ning Fei sneered, then turned back to look at Prince Finn and asked directly, "Where is His Majesty now?"
"In the Summer Palace, Feilar Castle." The prince kept frowning and staring at Duan Yunhong, seemingly dissatisfied with his attitude in responding to Ning Fei, but he still gave priority to answering Ning Fei's question, "Do you want... the integration of politics and religion?"
"No. I'm not interested in controlling the country." Ning Fei thought for a moment, "Feilal Castle... is about a week's drive from the capital? According to the size and speed of the royal convoy, it might take ten days."
"Your Majesty is traveling in simple attire this time and will arrive in seven days. He is afraid that your death notice will befall him, so he wants to run out of the reachable area in seven days to force you to give up the 'hunt' for him." Prince Finn answered, and then asked, "I heard that his name was written on the central square... Have you decided to kill him?"
Ning Fei jokingly said, "I also wrote your name. Since your brother has run away, why not kill you first?"
"...My value is much greater than that of my brother who is incompetent and only knows how to spend his days in debauchery. I believe you can understand that." The prince's face suddenly changed, but he still maintained his demeanor. "At this time, I can mobilize more troops to enter the capital, which has already proved my courage and ability."
"Since you are so brave and capable, go and kill your brother."
After these words were spoken, the study room fell silent for several seconds.
Prince Finn's expression was not that shocked, but he was not sure what Ning Fei wanted to do, so he confirmed: "You want me to... stage a coup? If you don't want to run the country yourself, do you want me to replace my brother?"
"I'm not playing tricks with you about divine right to rule. I just need you to kill your brother and bring me his head. And keep the news of this matter a secret and don't let anyone else know. Do you understand?" Ning Fei stared into the prince's eyes. "As for how the country will run after the king's death, whether other ministers and nobles will have doubts and what they will do, I don't care at all."
"...Understood." Prince Finn lowered his head, which was a courtesy to show submission and obedience. "Then what will happen to the queen, princess and princes..."
"No one wrote their names, but I don't care whether they live or die. Keep it a secret or throw them into a mass grave, it's up to you." Ning Fei said slowly, "As a prince, you don't need others to teach you how to impose internal martial law, right?"
"Yes." Prince Finn actually understood. He just needed to confirm what mode Ning Fei wanted. He already has his own army, so it is impossible that he has never thought about how to control the royal family in power. In fact, what Ning Fei said was relatively gentle. If Prince Finn really staged a coup, I am afraid that the heads of the king and queen would be hung in the central square and exposed to the sun for many days. Only in this way can we deter other nobles who are ready to make moves, and deter everyone.
After giving the instructions, Ning Fei stood up and prepared to leave, and Duan Yunhong naturally followed. Prince Finn couldn't resist the admiration and intimacy brought by the light magic, and couldn't help but chase after him: "Aren't you going to stay in my manor? Most of the palace has been burned down. The conditions here are already the best in the capital. You can rest here with peace of mind."
Ning Fei pointed at Duan Yunhong and said jokingly, "The last person who took me in had his home burned down, and he became a homeless 'stray dog'. Are you sure you still want to take me in?"
Duan Yunhong raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard this, but did not speak for the time being.
Prince Finn said firmly: "No one dares to burn my place, and no one can break through."
"Tsk..." Duan Yunhong laughed sarcastically, "You really take yourself too seriously."
"you……!"
Ning Fei was too lazy to listen to any more nonsense and turned around and left. Prince Finn quickly asked, "How can I present your Majesty's head to you after I'm done?!"
Ning Fei stopped and asked, "How long will it take you to take his head off?"
Prince Finn said, "I am willing to travel day and night, ten days at the latest!"
"Then see you in ten days." Ning Fei turned back and waved his hand as he walked towards the door, "I'll come find you."
***
When Ning Fei and Duan Yunhong returned to the casino, it was almost dinner time, so they asked the staff to prepare meals and send them to their room.
The people at the casino mentioned that the price of food had gone up recently, but other than charging a little more, the dishes were served as usual. Just like the town that Ning and Duan passed by on their way back, even though there had been a fierce conflict in the central square last night, and so many civilians had died, and the deaths were very tragic - the vast majority of people were still living their lives as usual.
This is not surprising. Most people are not interested in Ning Fei's "Seven Days of Joy of Killing" and have never even heard of it. They don't care what happens in the square or whose names are written on them. Perhaps they talked a little about the death of the Pope and the King, but that was all. The country has a new leader, but life hasn't changed much for them.
"What exactly do you want to ask me?"
While eating dinner, Ning Fei suddenly asked: "Just ask directly."
Duan Yunhong: "I don't have anything to ask."
Ning Fei raised an eyebrow and glanced at his left hand: "Are you sure? Then don't ask me later, or don't guess my thoughts at random. If you guess wrong and still insist on having your own way, don't blame me for being rude to you later."
"…Just two scratches, is that considered 'you're welcome'?" Duan Yunhong looked at the scar on his left palm and smiled. While Ning Fei was still squinting, he changed the subject and said, "Okay, I do have a question, but you want me to ask it now? Didn't you say not to suddenly ask about your plans while you're having a meal?"
"But you always look at me with a constipated look, as if you want to say something but can't. It also affects my appetite." Ning Fei knocked on the table with his back knuckles. "Hurry up, the sooner you ask, the sooner it's over."
"Okay." Duan Yunhong still maintained a casual and relaxed tone, "I just want to confirm, why did you let Finn kill the king and then conceal the news?"
"Otherwise? You think it should be publicized?"
"At least you wouldn't hide the news that your target is dead." Duan Yunhong said, "The death of the king is more intimidating than the death of the pope, but you kept it a secret. Have you changed your mind?"
"What do you mean 'changed'? If it had changed, why would I bother to sneak into the prince's manor? Why would I ask him to kill the king?" Ning Fei slowly cut the steak, and with a clang, it reached the plate below. "Isn't it better for me to just lie there and let it rot?"
"Then why did you kill him but hide the news of his death?" Duan Yunhong asked, "You can't say that you want to wait for Finn to come back after killing someone and then kill him, so that you can get a double kill and surprise the civilians, right?"
"What if it is?"
"You're quite humorous then."
"Ha." Ning Fei laughed, then lowered his head to eat meat. I don’t know if he just wanted to eat or if he wanted to avoid the topic temporarily.
Duan Yunhong didn't wait. He had already entered this topic and decided to push it to the end, so he began to guess: "You don't want this country to fall into a state of war in an instant? Or do you want to test civilians?"
Ning Fei was no longer surprised that Duan Yunhong could guess him. He felt that he should hate this situation, but he still couldn't help asking, "Testing civilians? Ha, what's there to test about those people? Don't I know them well enough?"
"Because of your understanding, you want to test it, don't you?" Duan Yunhong didn't care about Ning Fei's words and tone, he just stared at his eyes, as if he only needed to get the answer from here, "You want to test whether they will really wake up, and try to accomplish it themselves after hearing no news of your action. Or, you just want to see how they will react if they don't get any response after they desperately exchanged a few signatures.
"Will they be disappointed, or will they continue to look forward to you with faith? Or, they may even turn their love for you into hatred. They hate that you cheated so many lives with an illusory promise, but you threw them aside so easily and ignored them."
"'Turning love into hate'? They have never 'loved' me, Lord Earl." Ning Fei sneered softly, "But you guessed half right - I want to see if they will hate me."
"You are testing human nature." Duan Yunhong said, "But we all know that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. This is human nature. A little kindness will bring resentment. This is also human nature. Especially in a place like this..."
"Poor mountains and bad water, you can be more direct."
"In short, this is not a good place to test human nature, or rather, you have already preset the answer." Duan Yunhong lowered his eyes. He actually wanted to sigh, but he realized that Ning Fei didn't like this. It would make Ning Fei feel pitied. So Duan Yunhong just looked at Ning Fei again and said in a firm tone: "But since you have decided to do this, I hope any answer will not make you too disappointed. After all, this game was just to make you happy in the beginning."
"Why, do you still want me to 'remember my original intention'?" Ning Fei lowered his eyes and smiled, poked a piece of fried potato, then raised his eyes and looked at him, "Come on, stop trying to be my psychiatrist. I know what's going on."
Under normal circumstances, Duan Yunhong would most likely respond with "You're nothing".
But at that moment, Duan Yunhong always felt that he read some signal from Ning Fei's eyes, so he stopped asking questions.
——Is it what I thought?
——It doesn’t matter. Even if he isn't, I can still pull him back.
"Come to think of it, would you mind using some light magic? The wound on your hand can be healed instantly."
"No, I don't want to touch any more light magic. Distorted XP is exciting, but very twisted. I don't have the masochistic hobby of Yue Fengping, thank you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
