The massive purge campaign earned the royal guards a high reputation. After half a year, the residents of Monroe could finally sleep peacefully at night again.
The magician was dead, and the mercenaries who would attack them had turned into dead bodies on the ground or fled Monroe in embarrassment. As if the stubborn illness that had been lingering had been removed, the civilians of Monroe felt relaxed, and sincere smiles appeared on their faces again after a long absence.
Compared with the cathartic and carnival laughter before, this smile comes from the bottom of my heart.
Although the mysterious and terrifying murderer "Magician" has also caused great psychological pressure, for most residents who have only heard a little about him and never met him, the reality is real every day and night. What disturbs their peaceful life are the foreign mercenaries everywhere.
Four or five days passed, and no one was disturbed or tortured by the mercenaries. The cold-blooded policy of leaving no one alive has been effective, and even some local bullies and gangsters have learned to behave with their tail between their legs.
The guards of the royal capital walked on the avenue with their heads held high, and the people's respect for the king increased because of the outstanding performance of these soldiers who represented the royal family of Crant. In contrast, the Duke of Monroe's family seemed to have had their vocal cords interfered with by a wizard. Until late February, there was still no movement.
The matter is not over yet. Herman knows who the real culprit behind all the incidents is. This tough-minded grand leader worked day and night to try to find out some clues. Time passed nervously like this, but let us turn our attention away for a moment.
Feli disappeared again at such a critical moment, but few people in the huge city-state really cared about him. After his mother died a year ago, the nearby neighborhood residents were responsible for taking care of her. Half a year ago, after the foreign mercenaries started making trouble, these people also dispersed. Only Sheriff Vega is still there and still cares about him, but this middle-aged man with gray hair is also very decadent now.
So naturally the only ones left are our Henry and Mira.
But as we have mentioned many times before, in a place like Monroe, which is paved with hard masonry, it is obviously impossible to find a person who does not want to be found through the traces left behind.
It took four or five days for the sage and the white-haired Luoan girl to visit many nearby areas where they could hide. Not only did the Wang family's personal guards clear out the mercenaries, they also drove many homeless people into the city. outside. Even after the slums were cleared, the two took this opportunity to search every inch of the land.
They even extended to several other areas, but the more concise and clear craftsman area and market area are not suitable places to hide, and the rest are properties belonging to the Duke of Monroe. How can ordinary people get permission to go there? Enter.
In addition to the vast Duke's mansion itself, there are many luxurious buildings in Monroe's city that are also owned by the Duke's family. These buildings were used to house the Duke's important guests, such as nobles from other parts of Krant and even envoys from other countries. Seventy years ago, during the reign of Archduke Aubrey, when Monroe was at its peak, the scenes of these villas with richly dressed upper-class people coming in and out have been forgotten by time, but today they still retain their unruly appearance. The ban on entry is prohibited, but it has become a silent ghost town.
After searching most of Monroe, there was still no trace of Ferry.
Mira had some doubts as to whether he had run outside the city, but apart from this man-made city-state, the surrounding area was surrounded by vast tropical rainforests. Poisonous insects and beasts are everywhere. Even if Ferry is a native resident here, it would be difficult to survive outside.
They searched carefully in every place they could think of, but still found no results. The two had to return to the dilapidated and small security post again.
The time of arrival was just after lunch. The guard at the door and the clerk Franco were not there. In the deserted security post, only Vega was lying on the table and sleeping soundly.
Pottery wine bottles and corks were everywhere, and the remaining liquid in the bottles, which had begun to stink, attracted some insects like flies that were buzzing around.
Mira frowned and looked at the Sheriff, while Henry took a decisive step forward and shook him awake.
"Uh... ah?" The sleepy Vega raised his head. It seemed that he hadn't taken a shower for a long time. His dirty hair was a mess all over his body. Seeing that it was Henry and Mira, he wanted to lie down again, but the sage's calm words forced the sheriff to cheer up again.
"Ferry has been missing for almost a week. We can't find him anywhere in the city. Do you know where he might have gone?"
"..." Vega stopped moving to lie down again. Although he had been drinking to drown his sorrows recently, he was not ignorant of everything.
"Alas..." He stretched out his big rough hands and rubbed his messy bird's nest-like hair. Weijia thought for a while and then nodded: "Go and have a look at the outskirts of Nancheng District."
He said: "His mother's grave is there. Ferri is a filial child. Even if he avoids other people, he will still visit her."
"It's the leftmost one in the row with wooden pillars on the right side. It was originally a fence to prevent dragon lizards from coming back to dig out the corpses, but later a wall was built so it was no longer necessary."
"Go there and try your luck." Vega said. Henry and Mira nodded to him, turned around and walked out. The Sheriff thought for a while and picked up another bottle of fruit wine from the table to sip. Take a bite.
"...It stinks." He spat the liquid in his mouth on the ground casually. Then he stared quietly at the busy street outside.
…
Nancheng District is mostly home to craftsmen's workshops. The houses here are much lower than those in the North City, but the area occupied is correspondingly much higher.
Looking down from above, Monroe looks a bit like a slanted mango. Its city walls are not square and regular in shape. With the expansion of the city-state, the newly built walls include more land to protect more residents. Because of the need for water, the artisan district of the southern city is sloping like the lower end of a mango, close to the widened Shir River, a branch of the southern basin of the Galil River.
Since the Ridela area went underground, this huge river has begun to appear again in this section. Although the one in Krant is only one of its tributaries, it is enough to nurture civilization on both sides.
The name Laquancire is a Sivalier-style title like Ridela. Its original meaning in Shivariya is "complex labyrinth". Obviously, when the Sivalier people who came to the south saw that this river was different from the endless Garriel River on the other side of the Ecasta Plain, it was hidden among shrubs and snarling trees. If the people traveling by boat were If you are not careful, you may be swept into the water by branches and there are intricate forks in this river, which left a deep impression.
Now a lot of time has passed since it was named. In order to establish a city-state, the locals cut down all the nearby trees. The water-powered mill rotated leisurely, thick smoke rose into the sky from the masons firing bricks, and clanking sounds came from the blacksmith shop. The carrion that had been cleaned up during the fur smoking was thrown directly into the river. The small fish in the river who had long been accustomed to this instantly gathered together and began to fight crazily.
Because the distance to be walked was relatively long, Henry and Mira mounted war horses.
The sound of the hundreds of kilograms of war horses running on the spacious masonry road was quite loud. When they encountered residents passing by, the two slowed down. Despite this, many people hid on both sides in panic. and cursed loudly behind them as they passed.
The two people ignored the dissatisfaction of these people. Compared with the Beicheng District, the guards in the Nancheng District were just ordinary soldiers. There were many more people than the Beicheng District. They wore irregular chain armor and leather armor, and some even just took them with them. With shield and spear.
When they saw the two blue mercenaries riding war horses, they naturally let them pass without even checking. After leaving the city gate and walking a long distance along the wet dirt road, there was only a small thatched hut. Monroe Cemetery, where the gravekeepers live, came into view.
The wall Vega was talking about was just a short wall of dirt. And it only roughly covered the side close to the forest, so the two people coming from the city had to go straight in.
Traces of the freshly turned soil still existed, and Henry and Mira frowned immediately when they saw the dense footprints on the ground here.
The leaves are hidden in the forest, and the traces of outsiders like humans are very easy to trace in the natural environment because they are out of place. But it becomes extremely difficult when the target you want to track is in a place with lots of traces of human activity.
The purge activities of the royal guards produced a large number of corpses. There has been an endless stream of carriages transporting corpses and workers burying them in the past few days. The ground is densely covered with footprints of different sizes. Has Feli ever been here? It's really hard to judge - or maybe not?
"Fresh." Mira pointed to the tombstone that Vega said should belong to Ferri's mother. There are some wild flowers still carrying moisture on it.
Wild flowers with the same appearance grow under the corners of the low fence, swaying gently in the spring breeze. The sage nodded. They could tell that the young mercenary had been here, but looking around, they could not find any traces.
"Go back first..." After four or five days of busy work, he still found nothing. Although he knew that Fei Li had been here, that was all. Without any more clues, the two people started walking back. When they arrived at the southern city gate, they encountered another team riding war horses.
There has been no movement at Duke Monroe's house recently. At this time, the only people riding horses that can be encountered in the city are the knights of the Royal Capital's personal guards.
"What a coincidence. Count Hermann has invited you two." The nobleman, who was not too hot even wearing plate armor, said this in a condescending tone that was very similar to the Duke of Monroe's wife. Henry and Mira looked at each other. A glance, then a nod.
…
"Twelve days ago, the notorious 'magician' in Monroe City was executed on the spot..." The tavern below the caravanserai was transformed into a huge conference hall. Herman stood in the middle and said this, turning to look at Henry and Mira who had just come in from the back row.
"But we all know that it's not that simple." There were less than twenty people present, including the two of them, and except for them, the rest were all the elite of the Royal Capital's personal guards. There are well-armed elite soldiers guarding the perimeter to prevent anyone from trying to pry out information.
"According to the investigation, the person considered to be the 'magician' was Lawrence Chamber, an elite soldier under the Duke's command. He was forty-one years old at the time. He had a wife and a daughter, but their whereabouts are unknown."
"The biggest suspicion in this matter is the fact that Lawrence, who has no magician blood and has never shown any knowledge of magic beyond ordinary people before, suddenly mastered the key interference spell."
"After all, a person who knows magic can definitely find a better job than being an elite soldier. It is unbelievable that he has lurked in the Duke's Palace for so many years and suddenly exposed his identity." Herman continued. Said: "Coupled with all our original suspicions about the Duke's Palace, the fact that Lawrence is not a real 'magician' but a scapegoat becomes more and more like the real truth."
"And the interference spell he used probably came from the magic tool he was holding at the time, rather than having the qualifications to be a mage." The Earl looked at Henry: "So when the black ring was destroyed, Lawrence's spell It ended abruptly. As the mercenary Mel involved, can you prove this to be true?"
"..." Everyone turned their heads and looked at him. The sage nodded.
"A magic weapon that enables ordinary people without any magic qualifications to cast simple spells is a very terrifying weapon. There are many places who are greedy for the powerful destructive power of magic and want to mass-produce magic weapons to equip the army. Lords or kings exist, but few people actually realize them because of the high cost. And..." Herman paused: "Let ordinary people without magic power use magic tools, even if the spells they inspire are the most powerful. The lowest level is the simplest, and it is a kind of exploitative behavior that is tantamount to killing the goose that lays the egg."
"Your Excellency Leatherman. Please explain to us in detail." Herman gave up his position, and a mage who was about forty years old wearing a dark blue robe with a gold rim on the cuffs came over. Henry noticed his He also wears a golden ribbon on his chest, which obviously belongs to the royal family of Krant.
"Ahem..." The mage with deep nasolabial wrinkles on his face cleared his throat and then said: "The magician's principle of casting spells is to use his own magic power as a medium to mobilize local resources to cast spells. Take elemental magic as an example , different types of elements will consume different types of resources, but no matter which one, it is inevitable that it will have an impact on the environment."
"The result of using a large amount of soil magic somewhere is that the local soil will become barren and lifeless, so..." "Sir Leatherman!" Herman interrupted the other party awkwardly: "Please speak Just focus.”
He nodded, and the skinny mid-level mage frowned. After sighing, he continued: "In short, magic is a system that consumes one's own power to mobilize the power in the surrounding environment. The stronger one's own power, the greater the power that can be mobilized. On the contrary - if a person His magical talent is pitiful, just like everyone here is just an ordinary person."
"If you have to force yourself to use magic, and it is also the most advanced wizard's interference spell that puts the greatest burden on your body, then the result... well, to use a term that everyone here can understand, it is to set yourself on fire, and then It’s the same as rushing over and fighting the enemy.”
The skinny and deeply wrinkled mid-level mage continued: "Even if the person using that magic device is not injured, he can only live for less than an hour at most. The result of forcing the thin magic power in his body to launch an attack is that A large number of blood vessels have been ruptured due to pressure. This is why things like magic guides cannot be used as practical tools. Speaking of which, this kind of thing was originally used for..." "Sir Leatherman!" Herman rubbed it. His own temple had to interrupt him again. "..." The mid-level mage glanced at the earl silently, and then retreated.
The two of them have used common language up to this point. Henry and Mira are one of the reasons, but to be honest, they are not important to this level yet. The main reason for this is that there are not so many professional magic terms in Krant's dialect. Even the local magicians use an older language when learning.
"Well... what Mr. Leatherman explained is the basis for us to be completely sure that the person who was killed was not the 'Magician' himself. If he will die after using it once, he obviously cannot be our murderer."
"So the answer became clear. It was obvious that the mastermind gave him the ring and asked him to act as a scapegoat. Starting from the ring, the court wizards of Silin used alchemy to break it down in order to study the ingredients - —Finally made a breakthrough today." Herman nodded, and then continued: "The main material of the ring is lead. Secondly, there is a small amount of copper and silver used for magic guidance, and finally The lapis lazuli that stores spells.”
"Lead is a common material everywhere, so it is not easy to track it - if the quantity is not large." Herman's eyes were bright with determination on his face.
"Going southeast in Monroe's territory, there is a lead mine in the middle of the dense forest. Because the output is not large, it did not attract much attention before. After discovering this, we followed the lead and checked the past information through the Ministry of Finance of the Royal Capital. It was found that the production of lead ore produced in the duchy has shrunk by at least 50% since three years ago.”
"In addition, the Duke's family also has the habit of regularly purchasing lapis lazuli, a rare gemstone. The carriage will arrive at the end of every month. We did not inquire into the specific number in order not to alert others. And next time The arrival of the transport caravan is tonight." Herman frowned and continued: "The caravan will not come directly to Monroe City, but will go to the lead mine and then pass through several transfers. It was only delivered to the Duke’s Palace.”
"We set off tonight and ambush near the lead mine. The person sent by the Duke of Monroe's family to purchase this important commodity must be someone they trust. As long as we capture him as a tongue, we can grasp the key evidence."
The count slapped his hand on the table: "Everyone set out lightly, don't ride horses, and don't attract the attention of the Duke's Palace."
"Dismissed!" (To be continued.)
