"...Since you’ve already heard, there’s no reason for not to speak."
Nigel fell silent for a mont and sighed.
He didn’t doubt that this ’Duke Annan’ was impersonated by soone, nor did he even ask.
Being a devout follower of the Paper Princess, his perception of the elent of ’beauty’ was exceptionally profound. He had the ability to see through the essence of ’beautiful things’ and never forget them.
This was precisely why, based on a fleeting glimpse, he could replicate part of the beauty of the Paper Princess.
This ’absolute aesthetic’ sense, surpassing reason and nearing intuition, was enough to transform into a special, sharp intuition.
Previously, when Nigel saw ’David,’ he rely felt like he was looking at a solid stone statue—filled with the beauty of craftsmanship, as if a fine statue had co to life.
And when he saw him revert to Annan, it was like seeing the statue crack open, dazzling light leaking out from within.
The brilliance similar to that of the Paper Princess, yet seemingly fragile ’beauty’ of Annan, Nigel only needed to see once... and he would never forget it.
Nigel relaxed entirely, his entire body slumped backward, and his tensed nerves finally relaxed.
"I just feel that, without any evidence, talking about this with you would undoubtedly drag into a troubleso vortex..."
The middle-aged painter said with a bitter smile, "I truly have no ill intentions, Your Majesty. I am just an ordinary person, and all I could do in such a situation was take the opportunity to escape."
"Rest assured, I understand your aning."
Annan nodded calmly, "You’ve already shown your sincerity earlier. Although you didn’t want to co to directly, you were still willing to have soone tip off... so I believe you are still willing to stand with ."
It was normal for Nigel to choose to flee in this situation.
As an ordinary person, he didn’t have the intense desires of a Transcendent, and being a successful person himself, he was more cautious.
He didn’t want to involve himself in troubles unrelated to him. This was quite reasonable.
Annan could completely understand him and fully agreed with his views—he did not owe Annan anything, and he wasn’t even from Winter. To choose to stay out of it was fair enough at this ti.
The governor of Saint Felix province was Earl Felix.
His family, though not comparable to the lvins and the Rasputins, was still quite accomplished—their family had once had a grandmother who beca Pope, and in the last 130 years, there had always been at least one ’Felix’ in the curia, and at most three.
This was a genuine ecclesiastical nobility.
In Winter, ecclesiastical nobility ant tradition and authority.
No law had granted the grandmother Pope any subli authority. Theoretically, they had no authority of their own, and Winter Duchy still recognized the real powers behind the ministers as the true holders of power.
But as with respected elders in a family,
The authority of the grandmother Pope was higher than that of the ’family elder,’ and naturally, bishops were over priests. Throughout Saint Felix province, the ’Felix Family’ was unanimously recognized as diators.
Thus, even though there are no mbers of the Felix family in the cabinet of the Winter Duchy today, they still held considerable prestige among the people.
They had done nothing wrong, paid taxes in full and on ti, and even guarded one of the only two fortresses in Winter without any incidents to date.
Due to Saint Felix province’s stable political state and good economic situation, they were also one of the finest sources of troops for the Winter Duchy—one of Duke Winter’s most solid supports.
As for Nigel on the other side, he was even a foreigner. The only connection he had with Duke Annan was a few hours’ conversation on a train.
— Just a stranger t by chance.
Nigel had no evidence and dared not stand up to testify. He also didn’t see the point... after all, he wasn’t a Winterite, and whatever Earl Felix was doing might not be as severe as he imagined.
However one thought about it, the scales were completely unbalanced.
In that case, better to take his bucket and run.
The attitude of Earl Felix was quite gentle, indeed.
He directly allowed Nigel to return to his country, even providing him with travel docunts—the docunt Nigel used to return to Noah was guaranteed by Earl Felix himself.
Then Annan took a deep breath.
He poured a cup of tea for himself and Nigel.
Then, raising his own cup, Annan asked Nigel, "What do you say this is?"
"...Tea?"
Nigel was a bit confused, "It seems to be the Erald Tea from the United Kingdom..."
"No, this is alcohol."
Annan interrupted him, "This is the liquor I brought—the strong drink from the Winter Duchy. Because we had t once and I saw that you were troubled, I ca here specifically to invite you for a drink.
"And coincidentally your alcohol tolerance isn’t that great. After drinking, you keep complaining..."
Annan’s gaze was profound.
His hands touched lightly, fingers tip to tip, placed in front of him.
Despite being less than half the age of the other, Annan appeared rather the more composed of the two.
Annan continued calmly, "Can you understand? This isn’t an order or a request. It’s just idle chat between friends, your complaints after having too much to drink..."
Nigel paused for a mont, clearly a bit bewildered.
But he quickly understood—
Since it was a complaint from drinking too much, a little exaggeration could be understood.
Talking drunken nonsense wouldn’t get him in trouble; nor would Annan use his drunken words as evidence to confront soone else. After he got drunk, this is what he said—such words naturally wouldn’t hold any credible strength.
In other words, this was Annan’s way of officially telling him:
Just say what you will, and I’ll just listen as I will.
I may not believe you, but you don’t need to be responsible for your words.
If there’s really information worth noting, Annan would surely investigate later. It doesn’t matter whether you were wrong, not precise enough, or misunderstood sothing. I don’t expect you to stand as a witness in court... Once you’ve said this, it has nothing to do with him anymore.
"...Then I’ll just say it, Your Majesty."
Nigel hesitated no longer.
He took a deep breath and recounted his observations truthfully: "Deep in Furnace Mountain... I saw another world."
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