When was the last time you were looked down upon by someone else?
Elminster obviously doesn’t remember clearly.
Because when he was young, he worked as a shepherd, a robber, and a thief until he witnessed a dragon destroying his hometown, and then he was guided to the path of a mage.
During this time, he developed good swordsmanship, pickpocketing and stealth skills.
These skills will also be of great help to him in his future adventure life.
Even in the years when he went to study in Myth Drannor, facing the extremely arrogant and conceited elven high mages, Elminster had never suffered such naked and undisguised contempt as he does today.
After all, he had been transformed by magic into the image of an elf, and she was a beautiful, elegant, and beautiful woman, and she had done some indescribable things with the second-generation magic goddess.
As for after the fall of Myth Drannor, he has mastered enough magical power, and has the blessing of the electorate of the goddess of magic. No matter who sees him, he will give three points of courtesy.
Even the most powerful enemies are more afraid and afraid of them.
In the turbulent year, Elminster even relied on the divine power and divinity sealed in his body by the goddess to personally confront the saint of Bane, the god of tyranny.
With this power, he summoned the fallen second-generation magic goddess with the elemental spirit of the magic network, and successfully defeated the dark monarch's attempt.
It is precisely because of this incident that many people mistakenly believe that he is the closest to a god among all active legendary mages in Faerûn today.
Although Elminster is very clear that there is a huge insurmountable gap between himself and the real gods.
But this does not prevent him from enjoying the various benefits brought by this huge reputation, especially the awe of enemies like Manson and Sazastan who also possess powerful magical power.
But now, what is most unacceptable to the great sage of Shadow Valley is that he is actually regarded as a ignorant, stupid and ignorant stubborn old man by a junior who may not be a fraction of his age.
Especially the compassion revealed in his eyes was like an extremely sharp needle, deeply piercing his self-esteem and the pride he had always had.
Strong anger burns quickly like hay on fire and cannot be suppressed.
To sum it up simply, it breaks the defense.
Zuo Si undoubtedly noticed this and immediately laughed and joked: "Hahahaha! Are you angry?
It’s okay to be angry!
Do you know what is the most annoying thing about you?
It’s this condescending attitude of always lecturing others with the attitude of a sage, a senior, and a veteran.
You always stand from an empirical point of view and mistakenly believe that the primitive, barbaric, chaotic and highly decentralized world of Faerûn over the past few hundred years has been the norm.
I feel that maintaining the existing city-states and each territory and village not belonging to each other can reflect the so-called free will.
As everyone knows, that is just the most insignificant part of the tens of thousands of years of history on this land, and it does not represent the future development trend.
To be precise, you don’t understand what politics is, what the laws of economic development are, let alone what most people in the world living at the bottom of society really need.
Of course, this is not your fault.
Because many times even they themselves don’t know what they are longing for in their hearts.
After all, before this, a huge country with a high degree of political and economic unity had never been born on Faerûn, and there had never been a stable regime that had never experienced turmoil for more than ten years or even decades.
And what I want to do is to show this possibility.
Maybe the country I established will one day collapse and perish like Netheril and Imaskar after hundreds or even thousands of years.
But it can plant a seed in the hearts of all people living on this land!
This seed will be like a candle in the darkness, illuminating the way forward for the people who were plunged into war, famine and suffering after the collapse of the empire.
All subsequent leaders and rulers will regard the restoration of the empire that I personally founded as the highest goal they pursue throughout their lives.
Do you think what I am doing is to satisfy my desire for power and dominance?
No!
What I really want to do is to raise the expectations of the people at the bottom of the world for a better life!
Let them understand what life is, instead of trying their best to just maintain the most basic survival like now.
It is precisely because of this that I don't care at all about the hostility between you and the Harper Alliance.
After all, this time, you are playing the role of destroyer of order, standing on the opposite side of the interests of most people.
I am on the side of the majority."
"Hmph! Then let's wait and see!"
Elminster extinguished the embers in his pipe, showing the extremely stubborn side of his character.
Perhaps he has seen how too many people have been corrupted by power, so he opposes the establishment of an overly large country from the bottom of his heart, and believes that it will only lead to the concentration of power to a few powerful people, which will lead to terrible corruption, oppression and slavery.<
/p>
Of course, to a large extent, his idea is not wrong.
The larger the country is with its land area and population, the more it needs to build a complex and rigorous governance system.
Once this system is completed, power and wealth will inevitably begin to flow into the hands of the privileged class.
No matter whether this class is bureaucrats, aristocrats, or businessmen who dominate capital;
No matter what kind of system this country adopts.
Eventually, when vested interest groups form a monopoly, the country will completely become its tool to squeeze and enslave ordinary people.
At this moment, the more powerful the state machine is, the more serious the harm it will cause to the people at the bottom.
As for the corruption caused by the transaction of money and power, it is an almost unsolvable problem.
So far, no political system can eliminate internal corruption problems.
Whether it is the Silver Moon Alliance under the leadership of Alustriel, the city of Neverwinter led by the Church of Tyr, the God of Justice, or the City of Waterdeep where the judicial system is considered relatively clean, the corruption problem among its internal bureaucracies is quite serious.
After all, most people are selfish and greedy by nature.
Especially in the absence of effective regulatory means, many bureaucrats with real power can take advantage of legal loopholes to benefit themselves.
As a person from a modern society, Zuo Si knows very well that corruption can never be eliminated by relying solely on the judicial system.
No matter how independent, honest and fair the judicial system is, it is pretty good if it can effectively curb the spread of corruption.
Taking a closer look at the modern countries on earth, none of them rely on legal means to clean up large-scale internal systemic corruption. Political means are usually adopted.
So he chose to let the undead lichs outside the power system be responsible for supervision and draw an insurmountable red line.
Once a powerful person crosses this red line, what awaits them is no longer a judicial trial, but may affect the disappearance of the entire family.
Although Zuo Si is not sure how long the deterrence-based supervision system he has established can last, at least it is still very useful at this stage.
Maybe in the future, we can consider adding Shuoyou mobile terminal as a monitoring supplement.
As Elminster was angered by the stimulation, the two of them soon fell into a silence that lasted for more than ten minutes.
If it had been in the past when there were less people in the hotel, the difference between them might have been quickly noticed by Jasira and Khalid, who were sitting more than ten meters away.
However, due to the recent raging of Sarevok's bandits, the Friendly Arm Hotel was crowded with merchants and convoys who were too scared to go out for the time being.
At a glance, the entire hall is in a mess.
Some of the more unlucky ones have been trapped here for many days, and their moods can be said to be extremely bad. The slightest bump in the road will immediately lead to conflicts and abuse, and in more serious cases, fights will break out.
Thanks to Bantly Mirror Shadow being a very powerful dwarf mage, he can often stop the situation before it becomes irreversible.
Otherwise, an ordinary hotel owner would probably have to watch the guests in the lobby physically mingle.
Taking advantage of this moment, Zuo Si looked at Jasira, who he had worked with not far away, with great interest, and found that the half-elf druid had become more mature and feminine than a few years ago.
Especially the kind of beauty with a slightly strong and wild temperament can easily make men with strong hormone secretion desire to conquer.
In addition, "married woman" is a bonus in the eyes of many old sex critics...
No wonder Aberdare, the son of Baal, could have thoughts about him when he first met him.
In just a few minutes, Khalid had to step in and send away several guys who came to strike up a conversation and harass his wife.
"Aren't you going to go and say hello to them?"
Elminster had obviously calmed down and spoke again to break the silence.
Zuo Si chuckled and shook his head: "Let's forget it.
The last time Jasira and Khalid and I were separated was not a pleasant one.
To be continued...