Make Azeroth breathtaking

“Tannis, are you interested in the mage Khadgar? I have a biography of him. You can read it at the Theramore Library after things have settled down in Stormwind.”

Suddenly, Jaina's voice rang in her ears. Tanya turned around and found that Jaina was already standing beside her with a smile.

"You should just ask him about his life, Jaina..."

Tanya straightened up and said something that stunned Jaina.

"Khadgar...is not dead?"

“Kael'thas encountered him in Outland. It’s not exactly top secret. You can go and confirm it with Romans.”

Tanis brushed the dust off her knees.

"Speak, Jaina, what did you find that brought you here in such a hurry?"

9. The Shadow Beneath Stormwind

Upon hearing Tanis's question, Jaina's expression turned serious. She flicked her fingers lightly, creating a sound illusion barrier, before speaking with a worried expression.

“I arrived two days earlier than you, and then I paid my respects to King Varian in my capacity. He was perfectly normal, perfectly normal from every angle.”

"You mean the Lo'gosh we found wasn't the King of Stormwind himself, as your father suspected, but just a man who looked exactly like the king and was cursed?"

"No...it's precisely because King Varian is too normal that he's abnormal..."

Jaina began to walk into the city of Stormwind, with Tanis walking alongside her.

"Oh?"

“I know Varian’s temperament. He and I are of the same generation. Back when Lordaeron was still around, he and Arthas had a good relationship... How should I put it? The Varian in Stormwind Keep now is too elegant, so elegant that he’s like a proper nobleman!”

"...Admiral Daelin described Lo'Gosh as being like the most rude Varian king, while you described the one in Stormwind Keep as overly elegant. It sounds like they're both Varian kings, but each is only half?"

Tanya's half-joking words froze Jaina's expression, and a hint of fear flashed deep in her eyes.

"A split... Yes, you're right. The two Varians are like they've each inherited one of Varian's noble and one of his warrior aspects, making them feel both familiar and incongruous... Good heavens, if this assessment is true, then wouldn't that mean..."

"Let's keep that judgment to ourselves for now, Jaina. You should know that if Varian really suffers such a disaster, we won't be able to counter it immediately. Assuming we alert them, the enemy only needs to kill half of Varian..."

Tannis's words made Jaina's face turn slightly pale, but she still responded to Tannis's words.

"Then Varian will never be able to come back."

————————————The Countess's Residence——————————————————

"Master, this is Jaina and Tanya's activity schedule for today."

A dragon-man guard in human form respectfully handed Onyxia a piece of paper. Onyxia lazily took the paper and quickly glanced at it.

"Hero Valley... Khadgar's statue... they met there..."

Onyxia crumpled the piece of paper into a ball and burned it. She frowned and began to think about why Jaina and Tanya would meet in that kind of place. Judging from Tanya's movements, it was basically certain that she had wandered off to Hero's Valley in a daze. In other words, Tanya did not intend to arrange a meeting place with Jaina.

As for Jaina, the situation is even more difficult to ascertain. Due to the special nature of her identity, Jaina's trip to the Valley of Heroes could have been intentional or unintentional. After all, it doesn't seem unusual for Jaina, as the apprentice of the Archmage of Dalaran, to take some time to pay her respects to Khadgar's statue. Moreover, according to intelligence, Jaina did not contact anyone from Ratchet in Stormwind before going to the Valley of Heroes. Based on these factors, their encounter is more likely to have been accidental.

'But it's still very suspicious... If Jaina noticed something amiss during her meeting with Varian, it seems plausible that she would specifically seek out Tanys to speak with her... Well, let's confirm it.'

Onyxia acted on her impulse and quickly summoned her guards, whispering a few words of advice to them. The guards, having received their instructions, swiftly left Onyxia's residence and split up to go to the embassy and the mage tower to gather intelligence.

About half an hour later, two more intelligence reports arrived in Onyxia's hands. If Jaina saw these two reports, she would definitely exclaim in surprise, because they were letters she had sent back to Theramore Mage Tower and her father's residence after her meeting with Varian!

"Are they just simple private letters of peace and well wishes, or rather official letters...? Perhaps I'm overthinking it."

Having confirmed that Jaina had not mentioned anything related to Varian in the letter, Onyxia put down her doubts, donned her robes, walked to the table, and touched a crystal ball.

"Notify those people that their 'opportunity' is coming."

—————————————Stormwind, Market District——————————————————

Inside a small bar, a middle-aged man was dozing off at the counter. The empty hall and the few bottles of liquor on the shelves behind him clearly indicated that his bar business was not doing well.

"Boss, do you sell Wilderness Spirits here?"

A man's voice woke the shopkeeper from his dream. He mumbled something and then turned around to start rummaging through the counter.

"Large bottle or small bottle?"

"I don't want either large or small bottles, I want the wine from a sixteen-liter barrel."

"The barrels are in the cellar; today, the sixteen liters are red."

"Ah."

The man nodded, pushed open the door to the bar and went into the kitchen, then stomped down into the cellar, while the owner continued to doze off at the table, as if he hadn't just made a sale.

———————————————The Endless Sea——————————————————

"Mr. Sdenney, what do you think of this drawing?"

Sitting in the swaying passenger ship, Van Cleef, having removed his hood, looked at the goblin sitting in front of him, flipping through blueprints, and a glint of shrewdness flashed in his slightly narrowed eyes from time to time.

"If you want to build a combine harvester like Ratchet, then this blueprint is undoubtedly a piece of waste paper. But if you want to use it to harvest people, then this blueprint is quite valuable—although the things you make may not be very sturdy, they will still be a deadly threat to people who are not fully armored."

“What I want is the Reaper’s harvesters—and if possible, I’d like all the harvesters in the Wild West to become Reaper’s things.”

"Although it will be difficult, I will deliver a satisfactory result as long as the compensation is sufficient, Mr. Van Cleef."

"If things go well, you will receive the reward you desire; this is a deposit."

Van Cleef pulled a bag of gold coins from his pocket and pushed it in front of Steiner.

"I appreciate clients like you, and it's been a pleasure doing business with you."

Van Cleef's money and assurances brought a slight smile to Steiner's lips, and he extended his hand to Van Cleef.

"Pleasant to work with."

10. The Chaos of Stormwind

As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, the moon and stars of Azeroth rose one by one onto the curtain of night, casting their light upon the earth. The streetlights along Stormwind Avenue were lit one by one by designated lamplighters, illuminating the road in a dim yellow glow.

Embraced by the darkness, in Stormwind's civilian and trading districts, people who had finished their day's work had long since returned home, and the lights in the houses had long been extinguished—although lamp oil was not expensive in Ratchet, the common people would not stay up all night unless absolutely necessary.

However, for the nobles of Stormwind, nighttime is when their true lives begin...

————————————Stormwind, Noble Quarter, Royal Theater——————————————

When Stormwind was ravaged by the orcs, the magnificent theater built by the royal family of the Kingdom of Stormwind, the Wrynn, was not spared. The beautiful marble that made it up was pried off by the rude orcs with hammers and chisels and sent to the battlefield as material for bunkers and ammunition for catapults. Therefore, when Stormwind returned to the hands of its people, the Royal Theater, like the other buildings in Stormwind, had been reduced to ruins.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the stonemasons of the Brotherhood of Stonemasons, the magnificent Royal Theater rose again in Stormwind's noble quarter in less than three years, even more splendid and magnificent than the old theater. Ironically, however, the building's chief architect was stabbed to death by guards on his most prized statue in the theater during the chaos that engulfed Stormwind 16 years after the Dark Portal was opened.

"Ha... I guess I'm still not quite used to this kind of environment..."

Tanis slumped listlessly in the sofa chair in her private room, occasionally sipping a small sip of lemon juice. Gianna sat beside her, elegantly enjoying her snacks. Although her attire was simple, it exuded an air of nobility.

"This is a promotional event for your product, Tanis the Great Tinker. Besides, the theater troupe you hired for this event is the best in Stormwind—are you not satisfied with their performance?"

Jaina smiled slyly, gently patting Tanis's face—during the interaction in the hall earlier, Tanis had used her as an advertisement for the event, almost causing her to be surrounded by noble ladies from Stormwind Kingdom. It's worth noting that Ratchet controls most of Stormwind Kingdom's jewelry and spice trade, and its location in Kalimdor often allows it to sell rare works of art. Combined with Ratchet's ruthless advertising capabilities, Ratchet's luxury goods have become synonymous with fashion among Stormwind's nobility.

Tanis's lips twitched as she watched Stormwind's best opera troupe perform Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf on stage with shoddy props.

"...well enough."

——————————————Stormwind, Commoners' Quarter——————————————————

"crunch-"

With the sound of an old door opening, a man dressed in black, almost blending into the night, cautiously stepped out of the door. After looking around to make sure no one was there, he took out a small whistle-like object, put it in his mouth, and then gently exhaled.

"Wow-wow-"

A sound like a crow's cawing shattered the surrounding silence, then returned to stillness in an instant. A small patrol of soldiers heard the sound but did not stop—crows were not uncommon in Stormwind, though not rare, and they were completely unaware that there was anything wrong with the sound.

"Creak—"

About two minutes after the whistle blew, the door of another house opened. The man who blew the whistle closed his own door, silently walked across the street under the dim light, entered the house, and skillfully went around to the kitchen, opened the cellar door, leisurely went down the stairs, pushed aside a shelf in the cellar, and crawled into the secret passage.

About half an hour later, the man emerged from the secret passage and entered a spacious underground room. In the middle of the room was a table with a candle lit on it, and several people were sitting around the round table... well, there were humans, orcs, and even ogres.

"You're too late."

A well-dressed man pointed to the hourglass on the table, which was empty of sand.

“Sorry, Bakis, there was a slight change in the patrol route of the guards in front of my house today, so I had to wait a little longer.”

The man apologized as he sat down in his seat, then frowned as he looked at the inhuman race.

Who are these two?

"The Brotherhood's new officers are warriors recommended to us by our superiors. They are absolutely reliable. This is the orc warrior Ghana, and this is the ogre warrior Gogol. They will bring some elite young men to help us hold off the patrolling soldiers, giving us more time to complete our plan."

"It seems your preparations are even more thorough than I expected, Bakis. Is everything in place?"

"of course."

"That's fine......"

A cruel smile appeared on the face of the man known as Kachi.

"It's time for those nobles to pay for their crimes... Victory belongs to the Brotherhood!!"

Kachi's words prompted Bakis, Ghana, and Gorgor to raise their hands in unison.

"Victory belongs to the Brotherhood!"

————————————————A few minutes later——————————————————

With Bakis, Ghana, and Gogol gone, only Kachi remained in the basement. A strange smile played on his lips as he gently touched the candle flame. Strangely, the flame caused him no harm whatsoever…

"Master, they have begun their operation. Just as you predicted, Bakis did not contact Van Cleef after learning of this opportunity and hastily launched the plan."

"Very well, my servant... I believe you know what you should do next."

"Yes, my master."

Kachi's hand left the candle flame, and the last remaining light flickered twice before being swallowed by darkness. In the dark basement, a pair of scarlet pupils stood out starkly.

"...Mortals, for the mistress's great plan, offer your lives and your souls!"

——————————————The dividing line of the plan————————————————