early morning.

In Silvermoon City, by the Oriel River, the morning mist is curling.

"Rose~~ Freshly picked rose~~ Rose with dew on it~~~ St. Lundin's Day is coming~~ Buy one for your beloved girl~"

"Sir, would you like a bottle of fresh goat's milk? Or today's newspaper will do."

"Hi sir, do you need me to help you carry your suitcase?"

Rosen was walking alone on the riverside road paved with gravel and coal slag.

He wore a wide-brimmed round hat, a brown leather vest on the outside, a vertically striped white shirt on the inside, and wide-leg pants and brown boots on the bottom.

A pair of hands were not idle either.

He had a leather windbreaker draped over his left forearm and was holding a large wooden box in his right hand. He looked very anxious, just like a young wizard who had come from a small city to make a living in a big city.

As he walked forward, all kinds of vendors kept coming up to him and shouting enthusiastically, but Rosen dodged them all.

I'm new here and I'm not familiar with the place.

The news about Silvermoon City came entirely from various previous rumors and information sent back by intelligence agents, and he was really a little nervous.

But after walking for a while, Rosen relaxed.

Because he found that no one was watching him specifically.

In Silver Moon City, no one knows each other. Everyone is in a hurry and busy with their own little lives.

This feels a lot like the super city of a past life.

After walking along the riverside avenue for a while, Rosen turned right into an alley and had breakfast in a small shop that looked relatively clean. Before leaving, he took an extra portion in an oil-paper bag.

'This takeaway packaging is actually standardized. In other words, even this small field has formed a separate industry.'

This is a bit scary. It feels like Weilan is a generation away from here.

He continued walking into the alley for a few dozen meters and saw a stone staircase leading upwards on the side of the road.

Looking at the material of the stone stairs, it is very similar to cement.

Upon closer inspection, I found that it was cement.

In fact, Lawson also wanted to develop cement, but there was not much limestone on his island, so he had to choose tempered yellow clay.

There is a house number next to the stone staircase that reads '271 Sparrow Street, Home of Writer Margaret'.

The writer Margaret's identity is external, and her actual identity is a foreign intelligence agent developed by the Island Intelligence Bureau.

The news said that Margaret was a Northern Weilan who came to the Wit Continent to make a living. Her daily job was to collect important news from the streets of Silvermoon City, especially news related to big figures.

This is exactly the help Rosen needs most right now.

He carried the box and walked up the narrow corridor, which was less than one meter wide, with some difficulty.

I quickly reached the second floor, raised my hand and pulled the spring doorbell next to the door, and immediately a 'ding-ling~ding-ling~' sound was heard.

"Here I come~Here I come~~"

A somewhat impatient woman's voice came from inside the door.

After a while, the door opened, and behind the door stood a young woman in a nightgown, with messy hair, sleepy eyes, and an ordinary appearance.

She looked Rosen up and down. "Are you Special Operations Officer Robin?"

"Yes, Miss Margaret."

Rosen did not use any transformation magic on himself, but he changed his hairstyle and clothes, and also slightly adjusted his expression. The other party had never seen him before, so naturally did not know his true identity.

"Well, Mr. Robin, you're here really early. I haven't even gotten up yet."

Margaret scratched her hair in an ungraceful manner and welcomed Rosen into her cabin.

The house is very small, about 40 square meters, but it is divided into a living room, bedroom and bathroom.

There was a large square table in the narrow living room, on which were scattered newspapers, ink bottles, new fountain pens, and a scattered new women's bra.

Rosen glanced at the newspaper and found that there were not only words but also illustrations.

The paper quality is good, the font is standard, and the illustrations are vivid, showing that a very high level of journalism has been developed.

I looked at the bra again. It was black with contouring underwire and decorative padding.

Margaret noticed the bra from Rosen's eyes, and she let out a low cry, rushed over and hid the bra.

"Sorry, sorry~~ I was just throwing it away while taking a shower yesterday, and I didn't expect it to fall here."

Rosen shrugged, sat down on a small leather chair in the corner, and handed over a paper bag containing breakfast.

"I came here in a hurry. I don't know what the lady likes to eat, so I just bought something on the roadside."

Margaret was very happy. She took the paper bag and looked at it. She was slightly surprised. "The strawberry pie from the Grille Breakfast Shop is not cheap. But it is very delicious. Thank you."

She devoured the food without any image, and asked vaguely while chewing: "It says you want to go to the palace to see the king?"

Rosen nodded: "Yes, go to the palace to meet some important people and discuss some business."

Margaret understood: "It's not difficult. People come to the palace to see the king every day. All you have to do is pay money. It doesn't have to be much. A few ogges will be enough."

Rosen immediately said, "This kind of audience can only be viewed from a distance. I hope to have a face-to-face chat with the king."

Margaret shrugged. "That's a bit troublesome. Money alone is not enough. You also need the recommendation of an important person. And everyone wants the relationship with an important person, so the competition is very fierce."

After a pause, she continued, "Also, the king has not been in good health in the past two years and needs help to walk. He usually only chats with his close ministers and rarely receives outside guests."

Rosen nodded to show that he understood: "The funding from above is sufficient. Do you have any connections with important people?"

"Of course, after all, that's what I do. Wait for me."

After finishing her breakfast in a few bites, Margaret turned and went into the bathroom.

All sorts of private noises were heard in the bathroom at once, but the house was so small that all the noises could be heard everywhere.

This lasted for about half an hour before a frustrated voice was heard from inside: "Robin, hand me the bra I just hid, thank you."

Rosen had the illusion of returning to modern society on Earth, so he did as he was told.

Then he casually said, "This room is really a little small."

"It's indeed small, but it's just a small house, and the rent is 3 Oggs a month, and there are so many people competing for it. If you're not careful, it will be gone."

After that, he sighed: "Silvermoon City is not like our Weilan. The daily expenses here are ridiculously high. It is very difficult for ordinary people to support themselves."

"You may think this place is cramped, but it is already a very nice place to live. At least it has a bathroom with a separate water supply. This is a good place that countless girls dream of."

Margaret chattered on for half an hour and finally got herself ready.

"Click~"

The bathroom door opened, and a fully-decorated urban beauty walked out. In order to look better, she even used some transformation techniques.

It is indeed very beautiful at first glance, but you can't look into it too closely because there are so many flaws.

This made Rosen feel like he had returned to his previous life and met a smart and capable urban beauty.

"Wow~ So beautiful." He praised politely.

"Thank you, but my family knows our own business, and it's basically all fake."

"But there's nothing we can do about it. Men just like looking at beautiful women. For the sake of work convenience, we can only cater to their preferences."

It can be seen that Margaret is a very professional and capable intelligence officer.

Without any extra emotion, she picked up a lady's handbag and waved to Rosen.

"Do you need to prepare?"

"Hold on."

Rosen put on his windbreaker, opened the wooden box, quickly stuffed some magical weapons into the inner pocket of his windbreaker, and then used some magic to carefully hide them.

"I'm ready."

"Very good, follow me."

Margaret walked to the door first and explained, "You came at the right time. Today is St. Lundin's Day."

“Now if you go to the Great Temple of Saint Varet, you can see many important people watching the ceremony.”

"I can only take you to the place and give you the basic information about the big shots, but whether you can grasp it depends on your own ability."

Rosen nodded to show that he understood: "That's enough."

After leaving the house, Margaret said again: "By the way, this is an additional operation, so you have to pay for all the expenses."

"clear."

After leaving the alley and arriving at a new avenue, Margaret waited patiently by the roadside.

About five minutes later, a huge car emitting black smoke came on the road.

"The big carriage made of burning black stone is a new product. There are only about thirty of them in the whole city. A ride costs 2 krones. Do you want to try it?"

"certainly."

Rosen took out thirty Kren and handed them all to Margaret: "This is our operation fund for today. You can use it at your disposal. If there is any surplus, you don't have to return it to me."

"Very good~~"

Margaret smiled and took Rosen into the black stone carriage.

After sitting for a while, Rosen fully understood the principles of the car.

'The rune steam engine drives the gears, which in turn drive the wheels, with an output of more than 40 horsepower. The efficiency of the Black Stone thermal energy is about 10% to 20%.'

He had heard before that a senior wizard named 'Vakri' in Kao was researching this thing, but he didn't expect that a finished product has been produced and even used.

"Now that we have civilian applications, military applications will certainly be even better."

"It seems that Kaa is most likely already developing the Black Stone Battleship."

Kaa was doing it, and it was impossible for Aaron and Levender not to do it, so his information about the battleship was already beginning to fall behind.

It is estimated that in the near future, a large number of huge objects emitting black smoke and making rumbling sounds will appear on the sea.

“It’s developing really fast.”

Rosen had a feeling that the tide of the times was rolling forward.

The Black Stone carriage was not moving very fast, only about 20 kilometers, running happily on roads paved with gravel, coal slag, or stone slabs.

Even so, it took more than an hour to reach the destination.

It can be seen that this should be the upper city area of ​​Silvermoon City.

Because the streets are wide and flat, the buildings on the roadside are tall and exquisite, the pedestrians on both sides of the road are well-dressed, the number of carriages running on the road has increased significantly, and occasionally one or two private Black Stone carriages can be seen.

Rosen smelled the faint stench in the air and asked, "Why don't they deal with the black stone and just burn it?"

Margaret shrugged.

"It costs money to process black stone. These days everyone is trying to save money and wants to make the most of every penny."

"Of course, the smell is bad. As more and more blackstone is burned, Silvermoon City becomes more and more smelly."

These words made Rosen's heart move slightly.

'Extreme cost savings are a huge driving force for technological progress.'

Because many technological developments do not come from theoretical breakthroughs, but are simply the result of focusing on details.

Your steam engine efficiency is 20%, while mine is 25%. The same amount of coal can travel a longer distance than yours, so the cost is lower than yours.

Whether in market competition or on the battlefield, there are some advantages.

Countless small advantages accumulated together become a huge advantage that cannot be ignored, thus causing the opponent to be defeated bit by bit.

Unfortunately, there is no such competitive environment in the current Weilan society.

At this time, Margaret took Rosen to a very spacious square, behind which was an extremely exquisite and magnificent temple.

"In front of us is the Temple Square, and at the end of the square is the Great Temple of Saint Varet. Walk to the side and be careful not to block the way of important people."

Rosen readily accepted the advice.

Soon, the two entered the temple square. There were no carriages in the square and carriages were not allowed to enter. Everyone walked.

The square was also very lively, crowded with all kinds of people.

The vendors hawking their wares in low voices, the male and female tourists participating in the sacrament, the temple priests preaching, and so on.

There were huge crowds of people.

Margaret introduced softly.

"Saint Lundin is the natural saint of Kao. He preaches free love and says that in love, both commoners and nobles have equal personality."

"At first he was considered a heretic, but his words appealed especially to young people."

"When the young men of the past came to power, the heretics became saints."

"Now, every St. Lundin's Day is very lively and getting more and more lively."

"In the Temple Square today, commoners and nobles, rich and poor, enjoy basically the same treatment, as long as they dress neatly and behave decently."

"Because of this, you may meet the most destitute commoner or the most noble aristocrat here."

As Rosen listened to these words, he took advantage of his height to look out over the entire temple square. He indeed noticed a number of people who were beautifully dressed and had reserved demeanors, and who were obviously people who were used to a life of luxury.

Although these big guys still looked down on the little guys, Rosen could clearly feel that the gap between the two sides was quickly disappearing.

The purpose of his trip was to enter the palace legitimately, meet King Kao legitimately, and have a secret talk with him.

Therefore, one needs a big enough person to make the introduction.

But one can also feel that Silvermoon City is really, really big.

It is said that there are more than 4 million people living in this city, making it a megacity of this era.

In such a big city, there are hundreds of magic masters, thousands of combat masters, and three five-ring sages guarding the palace. There is even natural divine power guarding the blood of natural gods in the hidden darkness.

Any mortal, even Rosen, a wizard who possesses the peak power of ten rings and has inherited the iron dragon body, will vaguely feel a sense of insignificance and helplessness.

"In such a magnificent city, everyone is an ant."

As he was sighing with emotion, Rosen's heart suddenly moved slightly. He sensed the presence of an extremely strong natural force nearby, and his heart moved.

"Such a rich natural divine blood, I'm afraid it's from a member of the royal family of Kao."

He immediately wanted to chase after it, but soon he felt more than a dozen powerful auras of magic.

Three of them reached the fourth ring, and they stopped just after taking a few steps.

"When the royal family travels, even though they are wearing white dragon fish clothes, they have many guards, and there must be a lot of people paying attention to their whereabouts."

Therefore, even if a member of the royal family is discovered, they cannot be approached easily.

Just as I was thinking about how to approach appropriately, Miss Margaret's voice came from beside me.

"Robin, look over there, that's the famous Lady Blue Rose."

Rosen looked in the direction of the sound and saw a beautiful woman wearing a dark blue dress and a lace lady's hat.

She was chatting intently with several other women who were also beautifully dressed.

This group of women of distinguished status were surrounded by a group of guards.

"I saw it, and then what?"

"She is a widow, the late Earl of Doughtley."

"The Earl left her a very generous inheritance, at least 200,000 ounces!" Margaret's face was full of envy.

"Then what?"

"Then you are not bad looking, you can go up to her, compliment her a few times, please her, and try to get her to take you into the palace!"

Miss Margaret had a look on her face that said 'how could you be so stupid'.

"She can come and go freely in the palace?"

"Of course. Otherwise, why do you think she could get so much inheritance? Because she is the niece of the current queen."

Rosen understood that this was indeed a good opportunity.

"I'll try."

He moved his feet and slowly moved closer to observe.

Soon, he discovered that there were many potential competitors, and everyone was looking for a suitable opportunity to strike up a conversation, and he sighed inwardly.

"There are always many troubles around a widow!"

Then he sighed again: "Kao is really unpredictable, he is unpredictable in every walk of life. No wonder all the masters of magic can't stand it and run to Weilan to make a living."

Finally, he sighed: "In such a competitive place, anyone who can win must be a super monster."

'I have to give it my all and not take anything lightly.'

(End of this chapter)