diymy #352 - You guys are obviously laughing
#352 - You guys are obviously laughing
The gear-shaped knocker on the oak and iron-clad door rattled twice. Horn knew it was Patrick from the rough way of knocking.
"Patrick?" Horn stopped René, who was reporting the origins of Mormont and the other wizards, and asked towards the door.
"Who's Patrick? I'm Chrispar," Patrick's aged voice sounded from outside the door.
Horn waved René off and beckoned Duvaron, who was near the door. The constable standing by the door opened the study.
"Come in," Horn said to Patrick, who was standing at the door.
Patrick swaggered in and unceremoniously plopped down in the seat opposite Horn, coughing twice. "Your Majesty, what did you want to see me about?"
"Pfft!"
Patrick looked at Busak beside him, puzzled. "What are you laughing at?"
"I suddenly remembered something funny." Busak regained his poker face after momentarily losing it.
"Chrispar, tell me honestly, are you actually Grand Mage Patrick?" Horn gave Patrick one last chance.
"No! Who's Patrick? My name is Chrispar."
Horn sat upright in his chair, watching his performance helplessly.
He had never understood why, if you were going to disguise your identity, you wouldn't do a better job. Wasn't the name Chrispar an obvious giveaway?
Yet Patrick was extremely confident in his disguise, thinking no one could see through it.
When exposed, he stubbornly refused to admit it, trying to salvage his dignity as if he hadn't been found out.
In that case, Horn wouldn't hold back.
"Pat... I mean, Chrispar, I have an important message to inform you of," Horn put down the quill in his hand, "regarding Black Serpent Bay."
"Black Serpent Bay? Aren't they blockaded by the Copper Fortress?" Patrick asked in surprise. "After Fort Jeanne fell, they should have sealed off all the key routes."
"Yes, but the Sandpiper Knight, Nidsal, has a wizard slave camp. A few days ago, there was a riot, and four wizards escaped. They were recently captured in Sour Gourd Town.
They brought two letters, one for the captured Cush Knights, and one for a mysterious person named Patrick."
"What... me? Oh no, no, Patrick?" Patrick coughed, shifting uneasily.
"Both letters were opened and inspected by the Cheka. The first one is a family letter from the Arco family, mainly telling the Cush Knights to hold on, the war will definitely be over before August, and they will be redeemed then, or something like that."
Horn put the knights' letter aside and picked up the other one. "The Cheka confirmed that this letter did not leak or transmit any secrets. Since it's a private letter, I didn't read it..."
As he said this, Horn could clearly see Patrick visibly relieved, and the previously leaning body leaned back in the chair.
"But since we don't have a Patrick here, let's put it aside for now."
"Don't! Maybe we can find him if we look again. Let me help you look," Patrick tried to grab the letter, but Horn snatched it first.
"Good idea," Horn opened the letter. "I'll read it aloud, and you can help me figure out who it is..."
"Cough, cough, cough... Wait a minute," Patrick's expression changed drastically.
Before he could stop him, Horn read aloud, "Dear Panny, oh, this nickname is quite sentimental, Panny..."
"Wait, wait, wait," Patrick, his face red and his neck thick, jumped up in a fluster. "Okay, okay, don't read it yet. I know who Patrick is."
Taking out a handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Alas, I didn't expect that this matter I've hidden for so long, without anyone finding out, would ultimately have to be revealed."
Standing up straight, Patrick had an expression of revealing the mystery. "I admit, Patrick is me... my alias!"
Unfortunately, no one present, not even the constables, showed even a hint of surprise.
"Oh, so Chrispar is Patrick's alias?" Busak interjected as if suddenly realizing.
"Yes... oh, no, no, no." Patrick, looking at the smiling eyes around him, puffed out his chest. "Patrick is Patrick's alias... Patrick is Chrispar's alias!"
Even the constables next to him couldn't help but snicker.
Seeing Patrick's embarrassed appearance, Horn didn't make things difficult for him anymore. After all, it was just a small prank, not a real attempt to humiliate Patrick.
"So it was you. You should have said so earlier, shouldn't you?"
Although he didn't know the meaning of Patrick's obsession with an alias and fake identity, Horn still handed the letter and the copy to Patrick.
Patrick unfolded the letter and read it quickly in a fair and square manner. At first, his complexion was normal, but later it suddenly turned red, and then he frowned again.
"Your Majesty..."
"What is it?"
"There is an important message I must inform you of."
"What?"
Patrick carefully tucked the original letter into his bosom, took out the copy of the letter, tore off a corner of it, and handed it to Horn.
"...Remember? After my husband died, the first time we made love, it was in the autumn, if there is a chance this summer I... uh..."
Horn subconsciously read it out softly.
"Whoo!" Duvaron next to him immediately blew a whistle with an ambiguous tone.
Under Patrick's fierce gaze, Duvaron suppressed his laughter and shifted his gaze to somewhere else, studying the new patterns on the wall.
Horn looked at Patrick blankly. "Are you showing off?"
Even Patrick, with his thick skin, was a little flushed. "Your Majesty, this is not showing off. My... lover is a shy girl, and she rarely writes these things in letters."
"Alright, this topic is getting more and more inappropriate. It's good that you're happy, you don't have to report everything to me." Even Horn was embarrassed by Patrick.
Is this something to talk about on such an occasion? You're getting old, and you're still playing it so wild?
The latest novels are first published on Liu Jiu Shu Ba!
Patrick coughed lightly. "In fact, my lover is a noble lady from Gold River Township, and I suspect she is passing information to us."
"Information? What information? Why would she pass information to you?"
Involving the front-line war, Horn's casual expression suddenly disappeared. He propped up his body and stared at Patrick with burning eyes.
"Although she is a noble lady, her family made their fortune by smuggling with Black Serpent Bay, so she can barely be considered one of our forces. I am willing to vouch for this!"
Horn glanced at René, who understood and immediately drove all the servants and constables out of the room.
René walked to the window, leaned out to look around, and then nodded to Horn.
"Tell me in detail."
"After her husband died, the first time we made love was in the winter, at her house, but our first date was in the autumn, at Black Mountain."
"You mean?"
"It's not a holiday, why would she write to me? Why would she show a different attitude from usual? Why use such an unusual method? Why pass the message to me through a few wizard escapees?
She asked me to meet her in Black Mountain in the summer, which feels like an indication of the location of Black Mountain. You see, the Arco family also promised the Cush Knights that the war will definitely end before August."
Closing his eyes and recalling the map, Horn immediately opened his eyes. "The Sandpiper Knight is preparing for a frontal battle? But the location of Black Mountain... oh no, that's right!"
A flash of inspiration in his mind, he slammed his forehead. "The military food was burned, and Nidsal had to advance, but he didn't want to disrupt the original harassing tactics, so he chose Black Mountain."
If this is true, with the current efficiency gap between the two sides, taking advantage of this information gap, Horn believes that the Savior Army can definitely occupy a strategic advantage, but...
"Is this information reliable? Are you sure it's not a smokescreen released by the other side?" René, who was standing aside listening, suddenly spoke.
"Guaranteed to be reliable." Patrick said, then rubbed his eyebrows hard, and said hesitantly, "But it's best to investigate first."
After thinking for a while, Horn immediately decided, "Notify Jeanne on the front line to send Hussars to scout the Black Mountain area."
Holding the armrest of the chair, Patrick stood up. "I'll go there myself."
"Alright." Horn also stood up and patted him on the shoulder seriously. "Take good safety precautions. You're quite old."
"Alright... huh?" Patrick squinted his eyes suspiciously, feeling that there was something behind these words.
He stood up, walked to the door and suddenly turned his head, seeing Horn still being serious.
"What's wrong?" Sorting out the documents, Horn looked up strangely. "Is there anything else?"
Blinking his eyes, Patrick thought he had seen it wrong, so he pushed the door open and went out.
"Click--"
"Hahahahaha."
Suddenly turning his head, Patrick grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open, seeing Busak, Duvaron and others still reporting.
"Is there anything else you need?"
"No, nothing." Scanning the room, Patrick closed the door.
"Click--"
"Hahahahaha--"
This time, Patrick didn't push the door open again, but his old face turned red, and he quickly ran towards the stables at the door under the gaze of the constables.