"Here it is, your highness."
Kevin pointed to a secret door and said. Kevin brought Melina and Ladybug to the meeting place. The place was in the basement of a tavern run by the elves in the east district of Tucket City. The Eastern District was the district where they approached Kevin last night. The district was filled with restaurants and pubs, and the guards that partoled there were not strict. But Kevin still took advantage of the early morning when there were few guards to take Melina and Kevin to the hideout. Arriving at the tavern, Kevin even mysteriously exchanged a code word with the tavern owner before reaching the secret door leading to the basement. Obviously, these secret strongholds have been operated for a long time. These elves have wanted to rebel against the kingdom for a long time. The reason why they haven't done anything yet is that they are few in number and lack a strong backer. But now that they have a possible backer, the Golden Dynasty, The only thing they lack is to see if the Golden Dynasty was trustworthy.
Kevin opened the secret door, and a stale smell of wine came to his face. Ladybug speculated that this basement was probably originally a wine cellar. The tavern owner led the two of them down the wooden stairs and into the dark basement. Barrel after barrel of wine is displayed on the wall inside the underground, it seems that this is an ordinary wine cellar. However, when Kevin and the tavern owner walked to a wooden cabinet with a height of one person and pushed it away, what it revealed was a short tunnel going down, and the secret room at the other end of the tunnel was where the elves were hiding.
The large secret room is illuminated by several oil lamps, has wooden floor boards, and there are many wooden boxes and cabinets for storing supplies. There are about fifty elves inside, most of them are dressed as adventurers, but there are also a few dressed as other professions. When the owner of the tavern led Kevin and the duo from the Golden Dynasty into the room, the elves soon began to talk about the new arrival. After looking around, Ladybug took off his hood, took a deep breath, and immediately coughed because of the dust in the basement. Everyone looked at his funny performance and silently questioned the reliability of the Golden Dynasty.
Kevin saw that everyone was beginning to waver, and quickly clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention to himself. As the organizer of this secret meeting, he, like the duo of the Golden Dynasty, hoped that the meeting would be a success.
"Thank you for coming to this meeting in spite of your busy schedule. You are here because you all have the same thoughts as me. The nobles of the kingdom have bullied us for too long. They have taken away our wives, daughters and sisters , even our mothers! They enslave them and turn them into toys for their amusement! I ask you, can you abide by that?!"
"No!" As Kevin raised his arms, the elves responded indignantly.
"That's right, we are not taking this face down! But, when we asked for help from the Adventurer's Guild, did the guild ever speak out for us? No! When we asked for help from our motherland, did the elders' council ever support us? No!"
"Yes!" Although many people still responded to Kevin this time, compared with last time, there were significantly fewer voices of support. Many elves still have delusions about their motherland, hoping that their home kingdom can come save them.
But it was too late for Kevin to stop, so he continued with his speech.
"But you don't need to despair anymore! Because a reliable and powerful force is finally willing to support us. If you have received our secret notice last night then you will know that the city lord of Ligu City who has always supported us, Sir Einar, defected to the Golden Dynasty, and had convinced them to come and liberate us. So allow me to introduce their esteemed emissary. This is Princess Melina of the Golden Dynasty, and her royal bodyguard, Ladybug. They have come here personally to assist us in overthrowing the kingdom's tyranny!"
Kevin pointed to Melina and introduced her loudly to everyone. Melina also took off her hood and showed her appearance to everyone. When the elves saw her, they were all amazed by Melina's beauty.
"What a beauty!"
"Can humans really be this beautiful?"
"Should only we elves have such great beauty?"
"Why is only her left eye closed?"
"Is it a local aesthetic custom?"
"They send the princess of their own country out in person, it seems that they are serious!"
Various discussions revolved around her. Ladybug saw it's time for Melina to give her speech, so he reached into his carry-on bag. But after feeling around its inside, he didn't feel the unique texture of the envelope's paper. He quickly looked down into the bag. There was no trace of the envelope inside.
"Ah shit."
Only then did Ladybug realize that he had left the letter at the hotel. Kevin noticed Ladybug's embarrassed expression, and quietly walked over to him and whispered:
"Hey Ladybug, what's the matter?"
Ladybug looked at him embarrassedly and said:
"I accidentally left the letter in the hotel."
"Eh?"
"I forgot the letter at the hotel."
"Dude, are you serious?"
"I aml sorry…"
Kevin felt that the corners of his mouth were twitching crazily because of this massive blunder.
"You know that the only way to convince them is to use Lord Einar's personal letter, right? What am I gonna do now? Talk out of my ass?"
"Listen, I'm sorry! But I've been incredibly unlucky, it happens to me a lot."
"I don't care about your luck! What are we going to do now!?"
Just as the two were about to continue arguing, a discordant voice suddenly sounded from the crowd.
"How can we trust that the Golden Dynasty will keep its word?"
One of the male elves dressed as craftsmen suddenly questioned.
"Yeah! How do we know they won't be the same as the kingdom?"
"Yeah thats right!"
"And if we really did rebel, can we stand up against the army of the kingdom?"
When the first person raised an objection, the uneasiness in everyone's hearts had already been ignited. Gradually everyone began to doubt the feasibility of this uprising, and voices of opposition came and went. Melina, who was not good at words, didn't know how to appease the crowd in front of her. Just when Kevin thought that the uprising he planned with all his heart was about to come to naught, Ladybug suddenly walked up to the crowd and said loudly:
"Guys! Guys! Calm down! Calm down! I know you're scared, and I'm scared too. After all, we're up against an entire country. But if you don't do anything, then you're just letting nobles get what they want. This changes nothing! So we must now unite and stand up for ourselves!"
Ladybug thinks this speech is very passionate, just like in the movie. When the protagonist stands up to encourage everyone, everyone will let go of their prejudices and become united.
"Who the hell are you!"
"Why should we listen to you!"
"That's right! Saying it like it's something easy!"
"You are not one of us, what do you know!"
The momentum of opposition is still strong. Melina and Kevin behind him thought he could reverse the situation, but they didn't expect his attempt to be this useless.
It is useless for Ladybug to speak positively, so he can only come up with ugly words.
"Seriously? Alright, so you want to play rough! huh! Well listen up! The army of the Golden Dynasty is surrounding this city as we speak! And let me tell you, the army of Tucket city stands no chance against them. Whether you like it or not, the Golden Dynasty will conquer here. So if you don't want to sink with this city, then please cooperate with us! There is no harm in it, I promise you that!"
Sure enough, when Ladybug said this, everyone looked at each other in blank dismay and fell into a brief silence. Then…
"I'll join!"
"That's right, we should rebel against the Kingdom!"
"That's right, we can win with the Golden Dynasty!"
"Long live the Golden Dynasty!"
Everyone unanimously decided to give up their pride.
Kevin was a little speechless about the speed at which his people folded, but in the end the result was good. Melina also heaved a sigh of relief, and then leaned into Ladybug's ear and asked:
"Mr. Ladybug, I didn't know you were good at speeches?"
"Ah? I was improvising just now! Originally, I was going to show Einar's letter directly, but I forgot to bring the letter."
The ladybug responded with a naive smile. Seeing his stupid grin, Melina didn't know whether to praise his adaptability or worry about his IQ.
All in all, the elves were convinced, and everyone began to discuss the battle plan. Kevin said that he is very familiar with the distribution of guards at each city gate. Ladybug said that the Erdtree Army is now camped south of Tucket City, and they can use special magic (Grace telepathy) to communicate with each other remotely. So after some discussion, everyone finally decided to sneak to the south gate of the city, kill the guards secretly, and let Ladybug use telepathy to inform the news to their forces, so that the Erdtree army can take the opportunity to rush into the city, and beat the army in the city in a blitz attack. After everyone finalized the plan, they set the time for execution that night. After all, it was best to move fast under their circumstances. Moreover, it will only be a matter of time before the Erdtree Army is discovered by the defenders. It is better to act early to avoid complications. Melina also reported the results of the discussion to Marika.