Reinforcements from Ashenil, led by Prince Edward himself, arrived three hours after Henry and Milla arrived.
Considering that the sage and Mira were just two people and the reinforcements had to summon nearly 10,000 soldiers, this was already considered to be extremely fast. However, no one expected that the other party would retreat after just breaking through the city gate, and the entire support force could not be put to practical use.
Concerned that the attackers had retreated into the forest under the cover of night and might still be on the plains of Ecasta, Edward sent half of his army back to Ashenil to prepare for the worst, while the rest stayed there. Assisted in post-war reconstruction efforts in Wawasika.
This always elegant and calm His Royal Highness the Prince can be said to be furious this time. He had been trying to adjust the relationship with Sivalier before. After hearing all this, he almost led the rest of the army towards Inznir advanced.
Charles was unable to stop the angry prince, so he had to ask the soldiers to invite our wise man from behind.
Henry, with a gloomy face, came to Edward and immediately calmed down the prince. He and Charles stood together and looked at Henry together.
"Sir." Edward nodded towards him, and Henry responded with the same gesture: "Your Highness."
"Don't be too hasty. This is deeper than you and I imagined." Henry said to Edward. The trust of the prince in the sage was obvious, so he suppressed the anger in his heart and clenched his fists tightly. Tight.
"I heard from the soldiers that you captured some prisoners, where are they?" Henry spoke again, but this time he looked at Charles, and the city lord nodded: "There are prisoners. Although those people are powerful, they are not invincible yet. degree."
"But... they are unwilling to speak, and no matter how we use torture, it will not work." Charles sighed. How did he come to this conclusion? We will not delve into it for the time being. After all, he has experienced a life-and-death battle, and soldiers killed each other. It is common for prisoners to vent their anger, as long as there are still people alive. Henry half-squinted his eyes and said softly: "If you don't want to speak, it's just that you didn't use the right thing."
…
Mira stayed with Minna. The blonde girl now needed someone to accompany her very much, so apart from the soldiers, only Henry, Edward and Charles came here.
This is the second time that the Dungeon Sage of Wavasika has visited, but unlike before, this time he can enter and exit freely.
The underground of the high ground near the mountain is relatively drier than that of Kia Sinier, but it is quite damp and cold in the dungeon in winter. In this cool and gloomy environment, only I am locked in the cell under the swaying candlelight. , Ordinary people don't even need to be interrogated and they will answer their questions after being imprisoned for a day or two.
The leather boots sewn with hemp threads made a dull sound on the ground. When he finally arrived at the cell with two plate-armored soldiers standing at the door, Charles waved his hand and told all the soldiers to go away.
The sound of metal colliding disappeared in one place and then sounded in another place. The prisoner wearing only thin and worn clothes came over with shackles on his feet.
"..." There were many traces of torture on his face, but his gray-blue eyes were still full of energy.
The prisoner, who is about the same height as the three outside, can tell from his appearance that he is different from ordinary people. He is tall and strong, with a calm and determined expression. Simply put, he looks like a person with faith. .
Henry observed him, and the prisoner opposite also observed Henry.
Edward and Charles on both sides are all in plate armor, obviously the leaders of Avenella. The sage standing among them was dressed as an adventurer and had a blue mercenary card hanging on his chest. He was out of place and naturally attracted the other party's attention.
The sage's expression was plain, and there was a hint of gloom in his eyes.
Bernie's death had some impact on him, although this was not the first time he had to say goodbye to his friends. Like pain, you may be able to learn to tolerate it, but every time, it still hurts.
The air was damp and cold, and Henry looked down at the prisoner who was slightly shorter than him. The prisoner was shaking a little because of his thin clothes and previous torture, but his eyes were still firm.
The prisoner forced his body to stand up straight, with a calm expression and a hint of confidence.
The two stared at each other silently, until Charles almost couldn't help but interrupt, and Henry slowly spoke. But the words he spoke were not something Edward or Charles could understand.
"They told you to ignore the pain and focus on that little spot on the wall, right." The sage said to the other side in a language that was pronounced in a way that was close to Shivariya but shorter and more vague, The man's eyes widened and he immediately took a few steps back.
"Sir?" The other party's reaction naturally attracted the attention of the two people next to him. Edward said, while Charles looked shocked. This prisoner was a tough guy that he had to admire. He remained silent during all kinds of beatings, water immersion and other tortures, as if he didn't care about it all. But Henry just said a word and he was stunned. There was such a big reaction.
"Who are you?" The other party seemed to regret his reaction. He then asked Henry in a common language with an accent similar to Sivalier's, and the sage shook his head and sighed.
"Do you still think you are not exposed? What did they tell you? If you would rather die than surrender, you can go to heaven and become an angel after death." Henry took a step forward and emerged from the shadows, carrying a The weight at the end of the sword reflected dazzling light under the torch at the cell door. The prisoner opposite narrowed his eyes, and then he widened his gray-blue pupils that were the same as Henry's.
"You...you are..." The fear on the prisoner's face began to become obvious, and Henry turned his head and asked for the key from Charles, and then unlocked the iron chain of the cell.
"Qiang——" Tie Feng fell to the ground, and he pulled out the big sword from behind, and then turned it sideways, deliberately letting it appear under the light of the fire so that the prisoners in the cell could see every detail. .
"Holy Maid and the Church of Yetina!!!" The lines of the luxurious sword came into view, and the prisoner finally couldn't hold back and screamed loudly. He was speaking in Lamani, which was what Henry was saying the whole time. language.
"You sinner... why do you appear here, sinner, god of death, monster..." The sage slowly put down the sword, with the tip of the sword pointing downwards on the floor.
"It can be seen that you recognize this sword, just like any elite soldier of Padrosi should do." He looked down at the other person and said slowly at the same time.
"Paderosi?" The identifiable keywords in the words attracted the attention of Edward and Charles, and the sage leaned his sword against the fence of the cell and pushed open the wooden door.
"No, monster!! Stay away from me." The prisoner began to scream loudly. He changed his previous calmness and clung to the wall. Then he put the fingers of his hands together again. This action was Edward saw it and easily judged that this was a gesture used by the White Church to ward off demons.
"Heh..." Henry smiled softly, and the prisoner opposite actually began to read scriptures at this time.
"Blessed by the Holy Maiden and the Holy Spirit, the infinitely glorious, omniscient and omnipotent god - bang -" The fingers that formed the so-called exorcism mark were held by Henry with one hand, and the sage's hand was almost twisted to the point of breaking if he exerted just a little force.
But this pain seemed nothing to the prisoner. What made him start to struggle crazily was Henry reflected in his eyes, eyes that began to slowly emit blue light in the darkness.
"Monster! Monster! God - keep him away from me! Keep this god of death away from me!!" He turned to Edward and Charles and shouted in common language: "Keep him away from me! Just keep him away from me!" ! I'm willing to say anything!!" The sharp shouts echoed, and Henry finally let go of his hand, turned around, and walked outside.
"Uh... shall we take over the interrogation?" Charles was stunned for a moment and murmured, but Edward on the side just shook his head.
"No." The blond-haired prince said seriously: "That's not necessary anymore. We have already got the answer we need."
"These people are from the Padrosi Empire."
The conclusion was drawn in the cold dungeon.
The firelight swayed, and the captive who was calm a few minutes ago covered his hands and looked at Henry who inserted the sword back into his back while trembling, while the black-haired sage just remained silent.
…
Getting an answer doesn't solve the problem; on the contrary, it makes it bigger.
"Paderosi..." The three people who returned to the city lord's palace stood next to the wooden table. Edward opened the huge parchment map and pointed to a certain place on it.
The huge map that is more than two meters long and wide is Rigar's world map. Although many details are not clear, most nobles will still ask someone to draw one.
The place Edward pointed to is extremely far away from where we are now. It is on the other side of the Morbigas Inland Sea, and the east coast is almost as large as the west coast.
"After the Lamanite Empire was divided, the empire established by the Lamanites who won the civil war could not reproduce the glory of the empire, but it was still an extremely powerful force." Edward's expression was very serious, and it was marked on the map The Padrosi Empire is far larger than Avenella on the other side. In fact, on a map of this size, the Padrosi Empire is larger than an arm, and compared with In comparison, Sivalier, the strongest country on the west coast, is only the size of a palm.
This is true of Silvalier, not to mention Avenella, which is almost the size of a little finger and is insignificant even to the Avenella people themselves, and this is the reason for the stern expression on Edward's face.
——If Silvalier sent an army to attack and Avenella could still fight with the help of the terrain, then if Padrosi wanted to destroy this small kingdom, they might not be able to make a splash even if they tried their best.
More evidence can show that the attackers did come from the far away shore. In fact, many merchants saw the attackers landing on the coast. It is impossible for a ship carrying thousands of soldiers to completely escape everyone's sight.
Coupled with the equipment, combat effectiveness and degree of cooperation, everything shows that the attackers are indeed from Padrosi.
But this also raises a bigger question - why would a huge empire across the river attack a small kingdom like Avenella, and not attack the prosperous Ashenil but Vavasi? Take action in a place like this.
And more importantly, why are the Padrosi pretending to be Sivaliers?
A series of questions popped up one after another, and even Henry was silent.
Edward looked at him. He couldn't possibly be unaware of the entanglement between the Sage and the Padrosi Empire. In his heart, the prince couldn't help but have the slightest doubt whether Henry was the Padrosi who attacked Wawasika. reasons, but this idea was too far-fetched, so he just shook his head and gave up on it.
"They didn't even send a legion." Silence filled the air between the three of them, and it took Henry a while to break it.
The legion is a Lamanite-style military unit. Unlike the countries on the west coast that use a levy system of knights and sergeants, the Lamanites have had standing armies from hundreds to thousands of years ago, and as the orthodox successor, Padro The same is naturally true for the Western Empire. A legion usually has about 10,000 to 13,000 people. When dispatching troops, one legion is usually used as the standard.
The fact that there are less than half of the legion is one of the doubts, but what is even more puzzling is why they pretend to be Sivaliers.
"They want Avenella and Silvalier to start fighting again." Henry said this, and both Edward and Charles nodded. This is the only conclusion that can be drawn from this matter, but the problem is, It's really not necessary.
The Padrosi Empire was fully capable of destroying Avenella easily, so what was the point of complicating all this? Henry gave the answer.
"The Padrosi people don't want to leave any traces here, they want to stir up troubled waters." The sage judged based on these details.
"Is there anything?" He half-closed his eyes and his eyes became sharp.
"There is something in Avenella or Sivalier that the Padrosi people want."
