The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 334: Espionage

“Captain Klaus?” Annan murmured in a low voice, “So, you have come to this place.”

Through Delicious Wind Goose’s perspective, he saw the familiar face and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Of course, he knew the man. He had even beaten him to death several times in his nightmares.

Not only did Annan know Klaus’ profession, but even the man’s fighting habits.

But he didn’t know Klaus’ full name was “Klaus Cass” until now.

However, he should have offended the Geraint family terribly and lost his chances to become a big shot.

So, he has ended up becoming a city gate guard.

He was fired from being the guard captain of the count family’s third heir and became the guard captain of the city gate’s garrison squadron — What a promotion.

But the promotion was limited. Worse still, under the watchful eyes of the Geraint family, his position was at the city gate, relatively far away from the Third Prince.

It wasn’t just his own identity as a traitor exposed. Under the surveillance of the “One-Eyed Crow” on the capital circle, he could be put to death silently at any time when his curse was exposed to the Crows.

“Ah.” Annan suddenly let out a soft cry in surprise.

He quickly realized that Klaus had submitted his mission in the outcome of “mission failure”.

In the beginning, he should have reported according to the standard of “mission completed”.

But later, after the death of Viscount Roseburg, the information that “Don Juan Geraint” was still active had gradually spread to the capital. Everyone from the Geraint family had already arrived in Roseburg. Sure enough, Prince Philip should have received information long ago.

One of the reasons why Annan returned directly to the Freezing Water Port from the ruins was that Don Juan and his second brother were still in Roseburg.

Annan had impersonated Don Juan even when the two looked different.

Even Eugene Geraint had long known that Annan wasn’t the real Don Juan Geraint. Moreover, it seemed a bit overboard to insist others in lying for him, forcibly interacting with him in full view of the public.

If the real Don Juan was now not on Old Crow’s side, he should be on Benjamin’s side.

With the birth of the new deity “the Man in the Mirror”, Benjamin no longer needed to hide his reanimation since he was the pope of this new deity.

So on Philip’s side, the information he most likely had gotten was: Don Juan is not dead, Benjamin is not dead, and the Book of Divine Transporter has failed to be retrieved.

Then, Klaus had done nothing to complete the mission.

Philip was already considered kind-hearted in not killing off Klaus as a punishment.

Thus, it was clear cut that Klaus had arrested Delicious Wind Goose to ask about “Don Juan Geraint”.

In that case… Annan thought for a moment, sat at the table, and slowly pulled out a piece of paper. He dipped the quill with black ink and quickly wrote something on the paper.

He couldn’t communicate with Delicious Wind Goose, but the other players could.

The players staying at Freezing Water Port with Annan now were Dove’s group consisting of four people and one cat. No matter whether it was Dove or the Child, they could contact the Old Goose offline and through the forum.

Klaus would never have imagined that Old Goose would still be able to collude with Annan when the Goose’s curse vessel was seized and he was imprisoned in the dungeon cell.

“Rather, this is a good opportunity.” Annan thought with his eyes skimming around.

While watching the live stream from Delicious Wind Goose, he followed his train of thought and continued to write the information “that could be revealed to Klaus”.

Delicious Wind Goose’s arrest was too sudden.

Annan knew that Delicious Wind Goose’s speculation, which he posted on the forum, was inaccurate.

It wasn’t that the transaction required him to be sent into the dungeon. If the smugglers utilized the same method every time, it was as blatant as sending the illegal goods directly into Philip’s mansion. It would be better to declare it as a gift to Philip to deceive the public’s eye.

The best way to hide a grain of sand was to drop it in the desert, not put it in a safe.

Klaus arrested Delicious Wind Goose because he realized that the Goose knew “Don Juan Geraint” when he was talking to the Goose at the city gate. He just wanted to get more information from the Goose.

Indeed, Klaus was trying to make up for his faults.

Delicious Wind Goose was unaware of Klaus’ purpose because Klaus was being careful in hiding it.

On the other hand, it was precisely because Klaus was carefully concealing his true purpose that he must be confident with the information he was getting from Goose.

It was a simple thought process. If Klaus had gotten a piece of information easily, he might wonder if it was deceit.

But if this information was obtained through hard work, risking his life, and many opportunities and coincidences, he would subconsciously think that the information he acquired was accurate even if the information was incomplete.

Even if it were falsified, he would only think it was “some kind of pretense”, trying to piece together “what the clue really wanted to express”.

Essentially, this was because Klaus didn’t want his efforts to go to waste.

Therefore, he would work hard to defend the “results” obtained through this effort.

That was to say, he would trust the intelligence provided by Delicious Wind Goose directly.

Since he had information that could be used against Delicious Wind Goose and it was a capital crime, it would be easy for him to control the Goose. Additionally, the Goose was a Transcended. Thus, this captive was unlikely to be a sacrificial piece Don Juan sent, and it would open up the possibility of Prince Philip recruiting him again.

Under coercion and promised benefits, Delicious Wind Goose would carefully consider the accuracy of the information he provides.

Thus, he was even less likely to hurt Delicious Wind Goose to send this vital witness to the Third Prince.

That being said, Delicious Wind Goose was in a fantastic situation.

Klaus wanted to interrogate information from the Goose, but he didn’t dare to hurt or even offend this captive. At the same time, he would also trust the information provided to him by the Goose.

This was undoubtedly a fantastic opportunity.

This was equivalent to Annan infiltrating a spy directly into the Third Prince’s side, and the spy could be put into use immediately. Not only could Annan send fake information, but he could also steal information from Philip.

“Let me think about giving what information to Philip.” Annan scratched his fluffy hair and murmured in a low voice, “First of all, let’s drop him a bomb and put the Delicious Wind Goose in high value. And I want information that can be verified quickly. It should be important, but it doesn’t affect much.”

Then, let’s tell him…

“…Also, grant him the information ‘I’m Annan Austere-Winter’.” Annan wrote so at the end of many pieces of information.

After that, he picked up Dove, who was lying beside the fireplace and put her on the table.

Annan pointed to the note and said to the cat, “Note this down and then try to contact Delicious Wind Goose immediately. Then, send this message to Delicious Wind Goose verbatim. If you understand what I meant, meow once.”

“Meow.” Dove let out a cute meow, took a screenshot of the paper, and posted it on the forum to communicate with Delicious Wind Goose.

Easy job. She nodded and came over to rub Annan’s arm. She stretched out her paw again, patted the table’s note, then pointed to the air.

“Did you send it already?”

“Meow.”

“Okay, thanks.” Annan nodded in satisfaction, sent out 200 experience points and 100 affection ratings, and took the cat back to the fireplace.

She shall be my bodyguard during my advancement process.

Then, he took off his coat and climbed into his bed.

Now that I get that settled. I can finally go into a nightmare.

But this time, he had to make some preparations in advance.

He had taken out the bronze syringe that Salvatore had left in advance.

It was the syringe previously used to inject the Sage’s Stone.

He had to inject at least five drops of “Frostwhisper’s Eternal Frozen Blood” for the ritual. Then, he would enter the nightmare with the advancement prompt appearing after clearing the nightmare dungeon.

But what Salvatore did say was as much “Frostwhisper’s Eternal Frozen Blood” as the body could handle.

He probably wouldn’t know that Annan would get a whole jar of it.

Annan used a syringe to siphon “Frostwhisper’s Eternal Frozen Blood” into the tube about eighty milliliters, which was definitely enough.

Then, Annan slowly injected it into his body.

He felt a chill entering his body.

Then, it was immediately followed up by an immense ache in his body. He couldn’t help but scratch it. It was like the feeling when the room temperature was too low during an infusion.

However, Annan soon endured it well with his willpower.

He suddenly felt a tingling pain until about 60% of the injection was completed.

Then, Annan stopped immediately.

He took a deep breath, endured the increasingly cold body temperature, and whispered, “The Venerated Skeleton—”

After a short delay, the familiar low voice rang in his ears, “I’m listening.”