Chapter Sixty: William Roose

"Ruse, give me a Carlsberg with ice." After approaching the bar and ordering his drink from the burly bartender, Old Man Bob turned his head toward Xiuxiu, who had placed his hat aside, and laughed heartily.

"Whatever you want, just order it. This round is on me."

"Is that so? Then I won't hold back."

Xiuxiu glanced at the drink menu, then turned to the bartender who had just handed the ice-filled Glenfiddich to the old man.

"Give me a 12-year-old Macallan, on the rocks."

"Right away, sir."

Old Man Bob, who had just been wearing a generous expression, froze slightly upon hearing the Macallan Xiuxiu ordered. The hand holding the Carlsberg couldn't help but twitch.

It wasn't that he couldn't afford to pay, but after treating this drink, he would be stuck drinking beer for the next week.

Yet Bob could not take his words back; he was an old man who cared deeply about his pride.

"What, is my order too expensive?" Xiuxiu asked innocently, dripping with sarcasm.

Xiuxiu had deliberately chosen such an exorbitantly priced drink after assessing Old Man Bob's attire and noticing the thickness and denomination of the bills when the old man had taken out his wallet earlier.

"Ah, haha, n—no, you really know how to drink, kid," Old Man Bob forced a strained laugh.

"Good to hear. Thanks for the drink." Xiuxiu didn't stand on ceremony with the old man at all.

When the bartender placed the glass of Macallan in front of Xiuxiu, Old Man Bob swallowed hard, and the Carlsberg in his hand suddenly lost its appeal. Meanwhile, Xiuxiu sipped his whiskey while keeping a close eye on the interior of [Darius Bar].

In truth, most of the people here were young, likely students.

To be honest, the majority of environmental activists were students looking to use protests to secure valid days off. Most of these rebellious kids were simply using the movement as an excuse to skip school.

Therefore, no matter how large the [Wilson Wildlife Response Team] grew in influence and numbers, they were nothing more than a mob of opportunistic rabble. While they maintained cordial diplomatic relations with the Celestial Court, their ties with Deva and Oleting were equally ambiguous.

Look... aren't we running into an old acquaintance right now?

Sipping his Macallan, Xiuxiu narrowed his eyes and stared at the bartender wiping down glasses in front of him.

William Ruse, an intelligence operative stationed in Zhongyang by the [Church of the Cog], was one of the targets he had come here to find.

In his previous life, Xiuxiu had encountered this fellow during the fourth act of the first expansion pack, *Polyphonic Performance*.

By that period, the man had long since been exposed as a Deva intelligence operative, and Xiuxiu, who had just transferred to the Celestial Court lineage, received his first mission: to assist a special operations squad from the Burial Agency in executing William Ruse.

In his past life, they found him because he slipped up. Coming to Capital City this time and making trouble alongside the [Wilson Wildlife Response Team] was all for the purpose of hunting him down.

Xiuxiu only knew that the guy had mingled within the [Wilson Wildlife Response Team] in his previous life, which was why he chose to infiltrate the environmental organization under its banner, hoping to try his luck and locate him.

He had expected to have to worm his way through every single environmental faction in the Frankish region, but to his surprise, he found him at the very first stop.

"Hannibal... Hannibal, are you listening to me?" A slightly tipsy Old Man Bob muttered to Xiuxiu beside him.

"I'm listening. You were just saying that back in your youth, Francia wasn't as suffocating as it is now, and earlier you even called me a Londoner," Xiuxiu replied with a smile, casting a subtle glance at William Ruse.

"Hic—when I was young, I even went to Iberia. The ships there were absolute leviathans. The Iberians and Aedici were filled with ambition for the so-called New World, hic—and... and the Holy See, they harbored ambitions for the New World too..."

Thud—

"If it weren't for Deva and Oleting, if not for their endless encroachments upon Zhongyang, we... we could have also..." Old Man Bob trailed off and drifted straight to sleep.

Old man, the New World is a literal hell.

Xiuxiu sipped his Macallan, silently thinking to himself as he looked at the sleeping Old Man Bob.

"Hey, handsome, can I sit next to you?" A flirty female voice rang out beside Xiuxiu's ear, causing him to turn his head.

A girl wearing large hoop earrings, colorful hair, heavy makeup, and revealing clothing boldly sat down right next to Xiuxiu. Her question felt more like a formality before making a move.

Kids these days...

Xiuxiu looked at the alternative girl beside him, momentarily rendered speechless.

As it happened, though, Xiuxiu needed a disposable assistant to look after Old Man Bob right now.

Moreover, Xiuxiu needed an excuse to make a quick exit. He had noticed the shift schedule at [Darius Bar] earlier; William Ruse's shift would officially end in an hour. He needed to leave before then, without drawing too much attention.

He knew that as an intelligence operative, the man was constantly observing him from the shadows, as operatives harbored deep vigilance toward everyone.

So, Xiuxiu flashed a brilliant smile at the alternative girl beside him:

"Of course you can."

So handsome!

The alternative girl was momentarily dazzled by the blonde youth's dazzling smile. She couldn't help but swallow hard, then gazed at him with burning eyes, looking as though she wanted to devour him whole.

She cozied up intimately to Xiuxiu, trying to strike up a conversation:

"Handsome, where are you from? What do you do for a living..."

Not only was she talking, but her hands were busy as well. Meanwhile, Xiuxiu maintained a charming smile as he chatted with the girl. Relying on practiced conversational skills, he successfully extracted her name, background, and...

Thirty minutes later.

"Beautiful Ms. Amy, would you mind doing me a favor?" The blonde youth leaned in close to the ear of the alternative girl named Amy, his face mere centimeters away from hers. From a distance, their heads looked pressed together.

"Y-Y-You... go ahead," Amy stammered, her face and neck flushed red. The warm breath exhaled by the blonde youth tickled her earlobe, making her feel deliciously tithillated.

Just a rebellious poser pretending to be tough. Seeing her reaction, Xiuxiu confirmed his initial judgment.

"Could you look after the heavily drunk old man beside me? Let me whisper a secret to you. He's a good elder who sneaked me out to come here, but my family is quite strict. If I return too late, I'll catch hell for it, so..."

Amy looked at the blonde youth's 'pitiful' expression and, for some inexplicable reason, found herself nodding in agreement:

"O—okay. Go on home early, I'll take care of him..."

Knowing that a reward must follow a favor, Xiuxiu excitedly grasped Amy's right hand, kissed the back of it, and thanked her with overflowing gratitude:

"Then I'll leave him in your care. I'll be coming back here with the old man later, and the next time I see you, I'll properly show my appreciation."

"Mm, leave him to me!" Amy looked at the hand that had just been kissed and replied to Xiuxiu with a resolute expression.

"Then I'll be off." Xiuxiu picked up his hat, stood up, and walked toward the exit. Throughout the process, William Ruse merely glanced over casually, looking every bit like a normal bartender.

The reality, however, was that William Ruse, acting in his capacity as an intelligence operative, had been closely monitoring the new blonde youth the entire time. The moment the boy showed even the slightest abnormal behavior, he would have prepared to bolt.

Fortunately, the blonde youth simply appeared to be a playboy.