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Daelin's words startled Jaina.

"Father, what do you mean?"

"We were wrong, we were all wrong. Our opponent never cared about any profit. All he wanted was to see Stormwind Kingdom descend into chaos of blood and fire, to see the people of Stormwind Kingdom wail and struggle in his schemes... Such a guy has no humanity at all!"

Listening to her father's angry words, for some reason, Jaina suddenly thought of the question Tanis had asked her after that bloody night in Stormwind.

Which nobleman is more wicked?

21. Logos's Victory

"Boom!!"

A muffled rumble of thunder rolled across the dark night sky, jolting Logos awake from his nightmare. Unable to sleep, he sat up in bed, put on his robe, and walked to the bedside, staring blankly at the sky crackling with lightning.

"What's wrong, Logos? We have the final tomorrow, we can't afford to not get enough rest."

Valera, on the other bed, was awakened by Logos's movements. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked at the tall man standing by the window.

"I had another nightmare, Valeera. I dreamt about the past, about my father's death, about the moment I heard that Marshal Lothar had died in battle..."

Logosh sat cross-legged on the ground, slowly recounting his past, while Valera, who already knew Logosh's true identity, sat on the edge of the bed, quietly listening to her comrade's story.

"—The deaths of my father and Marshal Lothar have made me constantly want to plunge my sword into the neck of any orc, but..."

Logos paused for a moment.

"Valerian, do you know Tirion Fordring?"

Valera shook her head, indicating that she had never heard of this human before.

"He was one of the original five Grand Paladins of the Silver Hand, and the most benevolent and kindest of them all. He should have had a bright future, but a disaster ruined it."

"The Scourge?"

Valeera immediately thought of the nightmarish Legion that swept through Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas.

"No, he saved an orc—after the Second War, he saved an orc because the orc was a noble man and deserved to be saved."

"Orcs have noble qualities..."

Valeera's words were abruptly cut off by her. She suddenly remembered that Fordring was tried after the Second War, when the orcs were considered savage and bloodthirsty, both to humans and to the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas.

"Yes, so he was stripped of his Holy Light and exiled from the Knights..."

Logos didn't say anything more and went back to his bedside.

"It's late, get some rest, Valera."

---------------the next day--------------------

"Roar!!!!"

Amidst the rousing battle cries, Lo'Gosh, using a pillar of the Ratchet Arena and a tree trunk hastily cultivated by Broll using druidic magic, executed a near-perfect mid-air leap, slamming directly into the face of his opponent's spellcaster—an orc shaman—and dispatching him with a two-handed sword. This spectacular strike not only sent shivers down the spines of the orc shaman's two teammates but also elicited the commentator's hoarse shouts of excitement from the audience.

"Did you see that! Everyone! Did you see that!!! Lo'Gosh crossed a third of the Great Arena in the blink of an eye! That's right! A third!! My God! He directly broke through Muko's lightning shield! As if the lightning shield didn't exist for Lo'Gosh! Lo'Gosh swung his sword! Clearly! He wanted to eliminate Muko directly! However, Muko's earth shield was as hard as granite! Could Lo'Gosh do it! He did it! He did it! Muko was teleported out of the Great Arena! Muko could no longer stand! My God! Now I believe! Lo'Gosh is the Ghost Wolf! The legendary Wolf God! The Ghost Wolf!!!"

"Logosh! Logosh!!!"

Amid the goblin commentator's enthusiastic commentary, Lo'Gosh raised his two-handed sword high with one hand, signaling to the audience chanting his name in the stands. He no longer cared about his other two opponents, because he knew that Valeera and Brok would handle them perfectly.

"Forehead!!!"

"what!!!"

Amid the cheers, two faint yet clear screams pierced the air. Just as Logosh had predicted, the remaining two, having lost most of their fighting spirit, were easily defeated by Valeera and Brol, securing victory for Logosh in the first Ratchet Tournament.

"Well done, Logos."

Rhaegar's slightly aged voice reached his ears, and only then did Logos realize that, amidst the cheers of the audience, Rhaegar, one of the referees, had already descended into Ratchet.

“Rega…”

Looking at the orc shaman who had cared for and taught him for three months, Lo'gosh gripped the hilt of his two-handed sword tightly, then relaxed.

"You've paid off my debt. Your life is yours now. Go to the Tinkerman's Mansion in Ratchet. Someone's waiting for you there."

After saying this, Rega turned to leave.

"why?"

Although Logos didn't finish his sentence, Rhaegar understood what he meant.

"Binding a ghost wolf will only bring disaster to the tribe."

————————————The Repairman Building——————————————————

As Logosh stepped into the dimly lit reception room of the Tinkerman's Mansion, all the lights suddenly came on, prompting him to quickly draw his sword and draw it at an angle in front of him, assuming a defensive stance.

“You are now a true warrior, Logosh… no, Varian.”

As Daelin's voice rang out, several projectors lit up in the meeting room, displaying images of Daelin, Jaina, Tannis, and Thrall.

"You already knew?"

“We’ve been watching you, Varian.”

Dai Lin spoke calmly.

"Why didn't you send me back to Stormwind, instead of letting me waste three months in Ratchet?"

"Because there is another Varian in Stormwind, and you two are both Varians."

Tanys's words made Varian's eyes widen, and Jaina continued Tanys's train of thought.

"On your way to meet the Horde, you were attacked by an unknown force. Unknown evil magic split you into two people. Lo'gosh is the reckless and warlike side of Varian, while the side in Stormwind is your indecisive noble side. I have had close contact with that Varian many times—in the eyes of nobles, he is more like Varian than you."

"How are Stephen and Anduin?"

Taking two deep breaths to calm himself down from the fact that there was still a genuine Varian in Stormwind, Lo'Gosh asked the question that concerned him most, aside from the Kingdom of Stormwind.

"They are good. The one in Stormwind is also you. He won't allow things that you wouldn't allow."

"Then you can tell me your plans—how do you plan to get me back to Stormwind? I don't think you're going to all this trouble just to keep me a gladiator in Ratchet for the rest of my life."

"First, we need to uncover the mastermind behind this—I have some intelligence from Darkforge City that can help us find the enemy's true identity."

22. The Black Dragon Gradually Revealed

In fact, when Tannis received this information from Darkforge City, she had a sense of déjà vu that the timelines were converging, because the whole thing was like this.

First of all, it's no surprise that Marshal Windsor and several of his personal guards were wiped out by the Dark Iron dwarves, as the Dark Iron dwarves and Stormwind Kingdom are enemies.

Then, because Marshal Windsor was of high status, the Dark Iron dwarves did not want to forge a blood feud with the Stormwind Kingdom, so they first separated and imprisoned him and his personal guards, which was quite normal.

But what happened in the third step was quite interesting. The Dark Iron dwarves conducted an 'inspection' of Windsor and his personal guards, and to their horror, they discovered that one of Windsor's guards was a black dragonkin!

The Dark Iron dwarves, already driven to the brink of nervous exhaustion by Nefarian, swiftly eliminated the black dragonkin. They then subtly inquired about the situation from Marshal Windsor. Completely bewildered, Marshal Windsor, unable to understand why the Dark Iron dwarves were so fixated on the life of one of his personal guards, readily recounted some less important details. After piecing together the information, the Dark Iron dwarves realized that Marshal Windsor was utterly unaware of the black dragonkin lurking among their ranks.

Therefore, Moira personally took charge and, as the princess of Ironforge, had a long talk with Marshal Windsor. Upon learning that an adult black dragon might have entered Stormwind, Marshal Windsor's expression was priceless. He begged the Dark Iron dwarves to find a way to reveal this to Grand Duke Fordragon, for which he was willing to pay any price.

“We can’t contact Stormwind, but we can contact Admiral Daelin through Ratchet.”

This is Moira's reply to Windsor.

"Dailin it is."

Although he didn't want to air his dirty laundry in public, Windsor knew this wasn't the time to worry about what kind of family scandals were best kept secret. If they couldn't find the black dragon lurking in Stormwind, the entire city might be doomed.

Thus, amidst this series of events, whether by chance or inevitability, the existence of a black dragon in Stormwind was indirectly discovered by Marshal Windsor...

——————————————The Tinkerman's Building————————————————

"Is there a black dragon lurking in my city? Did I become like this because of the black dragon's hands and feet?"

Upon learning this news, Logosh felt no fear, but rather an endless rage rising from his chest, burning his soul. Rhaegar's teachings, the battles in the arena, and the fight in Ashenvale had hardened his heart to the rock.

"Yes, but we cannot be sure who the black dragon is—now, apart from you, your queen, and your prince, everyone in Stormwind could be that black dragon. In addition, the fact that black dragons have appeared around Marshal Windsor suggests that there must be even more black dragons living in Stormwind, waiting to carry out the orders of their evil master at any time."

Daelin's words made Logos narrow his eyes slightly. Although he inherited the warrior's side, he had not lost his political acumen as a king. He had already figured out what to do.

“I need to talk to Windsor and see if he’s willing to accept that there are two ‘Varians’ in Stormwind. Since Ratchet is dealing with Darkhearth, they should have a way to ransom Windsor. I’ll pay him afterwards.”

“We asked, and Marshal Windsor refused to leave Darkforge until the identity of the black dragon was confirmed—because Darkforge is in some ways safer than Stormwind.”

"Then, is there any way for me to enter Darkforge City?"

"Yes, you can challenge the gladiators of the Darkheart Arena as the champion of the first Ratchet City Arena."

"It seems that being a gladiator champion isn't so bad after all."

Logos flicked the blade of his sword lightly.

"I agree."

———————————————Blackwing Lair————————————————

As usual, Nefarian, the black dragon prince, sat on his throne, reviewing his latest experimental reports, until a communication from Onyxia forced him to temporarily halt his 'meaningful work'.

"My dear sister, what's wrong?"

Nefarian lazily answered the call; he knew why his sister was looking for him.

"Nefarian! Did you teach that spell to the Dark Iron dwarves?!"

"My dear sister, what difference does it make whether we are human or dragons before the weak?"

Nefarian leisurely took a sip of his drink. Just as Onyxia had said, the spell that could disrupt the dragons' shapeshifting magic and force them to reveal part of their forms was something he had inadvertently 'leaked' to Darkhearth.

"...You...do you know that you've created a fatal flaw in my plan? If the Dark Iron Dwarves of Darkforge leak this information, my entire scheme will be ruined!!"

"what?"

Nefarian's cryptic laughter continued to infuriate Onyxia.

"Nefarian! Give me an explanation!!"

"Fine, fine, my foolish sister, look, a tiny, almost harmless spell can ruin your years of planning, and you still think your methods are better than mine?"

"...Is this your reason for ruining my plans??"