When Rhodes returned to the reception room, Ann's expression was much better than before, perhaps because of the persuasion of Marlene and Lijie, and now the original deep pain and despair on the girl's face had faded a lot. Seeing Rhodes walk in at this moment, Ann hurriedly stood up and looked at him with uneasy and expectant eyes. It was as if a prisoner was standing in the dock, anxiously waiting for the judge to give her a death sentence or a not guilty verdict.

"I already understand your situation."

Rod looked at the girl in front of him, and said without the slightest hesitation, and when she heard Rode's words, An couldn't help but tremble, she raised her head and looked at the man in front of her. But before An could make any further moves, Rod had already said what he wanted to say very crisply.

"Miss Clark, you can stay in the Land of Atonement. The dark power in your body is nothing more than a sequel of the previous pagan rituals, and unfortunately, because this force has begun to merge with your soul, so it cannot be eliminated, and you can only accept your destiny, which is to merge with this force and live on. You don't have to worry about this, I'll find someone to help you solve this problem. But beyond that, if you want to stay in the Land of Atonement, then you have to work for me. What do you think of this condition? Miss Clark, my subordinate, never keeps idlers. ”

Rod's words are not alarmist, in fact, there is really no idler under his hands, although Anne eats and sleeps all day, but the girl is still very serious when it is time for her to fight. Even Christie, who has no combat power to speak of, will be in charge of some of the design drawings of the construction in Labis's alchemy workshop. And if Clark wants to stay here, he naturally has to find a job.

"I do!"

Hearing Rod's words, Ann barely hesitated at all, and quickly nodded, which was almost the last straw for the girl. If Rhodes is not willing to lend a hand, then the girl really has only one way to die. And now, this lord is willing to take him in, so whatever he wants to do, he will definitely do it!

"Good."

Hearing Ann's answer, Rod nodded in satisfaction. Then he turned his head away.

"Agapy, you go and arrange a room for this young lady, Miss Clark, it's getting late today, you go and rest first, if there's anything, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

"Good ......... Thank you, my lord. ”

After the boulder in her heart hit the ground, Ann soon felt a deep sense of exhaustion welling up in her heart. Along the way, the despair, insecurity, and fear of death have been deeply entangled in the girl. She hadn't even slept well in those days, and every night had been sleepless and painful for Ann since she was forced to leave the house again. At that time, it became a luxury for her to even live, and now, the dark cloud that had been pressing on her heart finally dissipated, which also made Ann finally put her mind at ease. She bowed respectfully to Rod. He then left the reception room under Agapy's leadership. And looking at the girl's departing figure, Rhodes just shrugged his shoulders. Then he turned to look at the other two people next to him.

"Marlene, Miss Clark will follow you for the time being tomorrow, and you can let her help you with it, I think she can do this little thing. And I want you to teach Miss Clark a little bit about the powers of darkness in this interval, lest our eldest lady spend her days worrying about when she will suddenly become a living dead. ”

"Good, Rod."

Hear Rhodes. Marlene couldn't help but sneer, but she quickly nodded in agreement, with Marlene's understanding, Rod's words were really not a joke, for ordinary people who lacked magical knowledge. What magical soul power is simply like a demonic curse and blasphemy, terrifying. And as a mage, Marlene certainly couldn't tolerate such a barbaric and ignorant thing happening around her. In fact, even if Rod didn't say it, Marlene would find an opportunity to talk to Ann, after all, this issue is not a trivial matter.

Human beings are always full of fear of the unknown, and deep fear will eventually lead to only two outcomes——— either fleeing because of extreme fear or giving in because of extreme fear. As you can't defeat your enemies, join your enemies. Too often, those who are gifted with strength are unable to overcome the concept of fear in their minds, and thus let themselves fall into the very thing they fear. Because then they are not afraid of anything.

"Lijie."

After giving Marlene's orders, Rhodes turned to Lijie again.

"I think it won't be long before the news about Miss Clark will spread throughout the Land of Atonement, and I want you to communicate with the church on our behalf before then, tell them the truth about this matter, and get their cooperation as much as possible, and leave this matter to you."

"No problem, Mr. Rhodes."

Hearing Rod's order, Lijie did not hesitate at all, and quickly nodded in agreement. And after getting the replies from the two, Rod finally put his mind at ease.

In fact, although Rod was very cold to Miss Clark on the surface, in fact, deep down Rod valued this girl. Because for him, Ann's appearance is a supplement to his own power.

This wasn't Rhodes' exaggeration, but in fact, Rhodes had already had the idea when he learned from Shanna that Ann had come to ask for his help. Among the current strength of Rod's men, the most lacking is talent. In terms of government affairs, the students brought by Marlene can barely fill the gap, but there is another aspect that has a very obvious shortcoming——— that is business investment.

Although Ruder Finn is currently working with several powerful associations, the two sides are only cooperative. The only one who can be regarded as a subordinate relationship is Mace. But Rhodes will not hand over all business operations to this fat businessman to complete, firstly, this is in the spirit of not putting all his eggs in one basket, and secondly, Mace is an old fritter after all, although he is now happy to work with Rhodes, but after all, he is an adult, and he has been in the business world all his life. Personality and a sense of independence have been developed, and he can work happily with him, but loyalty to himself is unlikely. And Mace has built his own business, and many times, he is also responsible for his own business. This is an objective factor, and it is impossible for Rhodes to ask Mace to sell his wife and children to himself. It's also unrealistic. But now he doesn't have a good candidate in his hands, so he can only do it for the time being. Marlene was born into a noble family, although she has a keen political mind and a sense of the overall situation, but she has the pride of the nobility, and she is not interested in the existence of merchants who deal with the lower classes. Rod couldn't imagine a noble lady like Marlene haggling with others like a traveling merchant......... It's too out of tune.

As for Lijie, don't even think about it, she may be a good boy with a kind heart, but unfortunately the quality of kindness is a fatal flaw in businessmen, and Lijie is not good at this kind of thing. As for the others......... Not to mention.

Because of this, when Shana's report was obtained. Rod's eyes lit up.

Although he himself and Ann. Clark didn't have much contact, but after rescuing the young lady, Rod still learned about her resume from the side——— she was born in a merchant family on the Cole Plateau, and was the eldest daughter of the Clark family. Most people's assessment of Ann is that she is a quiet, docile and obedient child. And other than that. She seems to have inherited her father's talent in business, at least after Ann turned fifteen. She has followed her father out for business negotiations more than once, and her father has a very high opinion of Ann.

It's inevitable that there will be some water, but even so, it's a good start for Rod. If he can keep Ann in his hands, then it will be for the Starlight Guild and the commercial development of Glenbel's territory. will be a good thing. Moreover, unlike Mace, Ann is now alone, and she can only continue to live in this world by relying on herself, and Rhodes is not worried that she will turn back. Nor is she worried that she will betray herself. As long as she can work wholeheartedly for herself, then it's a good thing for both her and Rod.

Now the only question is whether this eldest lady's ability is as good as rumored, after all, after meeting Ann a few times, Rhodes found that this young lady's usual behavior is indeed very quiet, docile, and looks harmless to humans and animals. But on the other hand, he didn't see that this young lady was talented in business——— of course, Rod didn't actually have any business things to hand over to his rescued passers-by.

But Rhodes is not without a backhand, even if this young lady's business talent is just an exaggeration, but she was born in a wealthy family and is still a rare talent with a good education under Rhodes, even if this kind of talent has no business talent, take it to give Marlene a shot or something............ It's still no problem.

For Rhodes, this was just a small episode.

And just under the same starry sky, far away, an unprecedented tremor erupted.

The old man threw the letter paper in his hand on the table, his face was pale, he gritted his teeth and stared at every word on it, every sentence, the white letter paper inlaid with gold edges could clearly see the beautiful and smooth font on it under the light of the fire, but in the old man's opinion, this elegant font was like a poisonous snake wriggling on the stationery, which was disgusting! And the people sitting on the round long table in front of him were looking at the old man with white hair with different eyes at this moment. Some of them were worried, some were angry, and some looked at him with mockery and contempt. Although there was silence in the conference hall, it could not hide the waves of the dark tide underneath.

"What do you guys think about that?"

Under the gaze of everyone, the old man realized that his actions just now were really a little out of shape, and he hurriedly returned to his seat and sat down, and then raised his head to look at everyone. Hearing the old man's inquiry, a man in a black dress sneered disdainfully.

"The Duchy of Moon protests to us? Are you kidding? The Inquiry Team was unanimously approved by our Council of Light, and they have enough power to do anything anywhere. Now that they have discovered the culprits who are likely to attack the Windtide Trade Route, it is natural to arrest them and inquire about them. But now, the Duchy of Moon has not only resisted by force, but even wants to take the lead in the first place? I don't think the Council of Light can afford to remain silent any longer. We must protest with the toughest attitude. Demand that the Duchy of Moon hand over the murderers if they are unwilling to ..............."

"What do you want? Are you still planning to send troops to the Duchy of Moon? ”

Before the man finished speaking, he saw another person sitting not far from him stretch out his hand, raised his glasses, and then said coldly.

"In the current situation, what can we do with the Duchy of Moon?"

"We must show the dignity of the Council of Light. Let those young people know how good we are! The investigation team represents the face of the Council of Light! If the tyrant of the Duchy of Moon and her lackeys are allowed to be so wanton and humiliated, where will the belief in justice, liberty, and fairness and justice that we have always held to end? How do we explain this to the families of those who died in the war? Moreover, if other territories were to learn about it, what would they think? ”

"Now is not the time to talk about this, we should focus on more important practical issues! Because of the changes in the trade routes before the tide and the recent poor harvests in several border areas, the financial revenue of the Land of Light this year is not enough to make ends meet, if it is at this juncture. We've taken a hard stance on the Duchy of Moon, so what if the Grand Duke cuts off Moon's funding again? ”

"What are you talking about? Is it not as good as the freedom and justice that I have earned through generations of blood and my life compared to the copper-smelling money? Are you insulting the dedication of our ancestors for generations for their ideals and beliefs? ”

"I don't mean that, I just want you to look at the problem with a more practical eye, because in the previous series of events, there have been voices of dissatisfaction with the parliament among the people, and if we can't get the funds from the Duchy of Moon this year, then there will be a vacuum and a hole in our funding chain, and we don't have enough money in our hands to fill this hole. If this time we lose the funding of the Duchy of Moon. Then at least three territories will go bankrupt directly. How can this problem be solved? Are we going to increase taxes? Is this what you want to see? The people of Barcelona, Glenk and Drexus were already unhappy that the council was spending their hard-earned taxes to help the remote and bitter cold regions. If we were to raise taxes, support for parliament would fall! And, the new year is ..............."

“…………………”

There was a dead silence.

No one spoke, but everyone knew what the councillor meant, and the next year was a four-year general election. It's the people's approval rating that counts. However, in the past two years, the parliament has not shown enough to satisfy the people, and this year's trendy trade road incident and the subsequent follow-up have also caused the parliament quite a headache. Not only that, but the people did not resolutely send troops to assist the revolutionaries of the Duchy of Moon who were pursuing freedom and ideals in the Principality of Moon. Rather, it was the brutal suppression of the freedom-seeking independence army by the ruthless tyrant that also made the parliament tumble for some time, according to the survey, the current parliament led by the old parliament speaker has dropped from the initial 48 percent to 35 percent, and now, the opposition and the center camp have also taken this opportunity to start eyeing the throne of the parliament president.

"That's why we need to be tough in front of the people, so that they know that we are not afraid of the threat of a tyrant! Our Land of Light remains a beacon of freedom, fairness, justice and ideals on this continent! ”

"But you can't fill your stomach with empty words, and if we can't fill the financial hole, how are you going to face the House of Commons? Moreover, Moon is an independent country, and according to the Radiant Dragon Regulations, we have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and we have protested against the brutal and bloody repression that took place in Moon's territory, and we have done everything we should have done, and there is no point in continuing to hold on to this! ”

The people who said this looked very indignant, full of righteous indignation, and argued with reason——— at this time they remembered that Moon was a sovereign and independent state.

Looking at the noisy council hall in front of him, the old man frowned, and he stretched out his finger and pressed it on his forehead, letting out a long breath. The letter in front of him made him look very irritable, of course he knew what the little girl was trying to do when she protested at this time, but ......... But I can't help but accept it. But now, what can he do? Thinking of this, the old man's face was slightly gloomy, and he looked at the parliamentarians in front of him who were arguing with reason, but he felt more tired than ever. He was the one who made the decision to send an investigation team in the first place, because he also hoped to be re-elected, and re-election required the support of the major domestic consortium of Hikari. The raid on the trade routes has caused certain losses and impacts on the major consortia, and in order to appease their dissatisfaction, the old council president has to do something. But now, he finds that his hopes of being re-elected are getting slimmer. But can you be willing? Can he just give up?

Thinking of this, the old man involuntarily grasped the arm of the chair.

And at this moment, suddenly a deep voice sounded.

"Guys, I think I have a solution to this."

Hearing this, the crowd immediately stopped arguing, and they turned their heads to look at the man who had uttered the words——— and under the gaze of the crowd, he stood up and looked at his colleague in front of him with confidence and pride.

"I think you're also well aware that it's time for the Dragon Soul Sacred Scripture soon......... Perhaps, we can make a fuss on it. (To be continued.) )