p.s. Here is today’s update. By the way, I’m asking for votes for the Qidian 515 Fan Festival. Everyone has 8 votes. If you vote, you will also get Qidian coins. I beg you all for your support and appreciation!
Throughout the history of mankind—no, perhaps I should say the history of all living things on Rigar. When a bloody conflict occurs, one party kills the other, and there are countless variations in the methods and post-mortem treatment. But in comparison, the reasons for taking other lives have always been the same throughout the ages.
Starting from tiny arthropods with simple intelligence, killing other creatures to eat to sustain their own survival; to large predators fighting for territory killing their competitors; or it may be an attack by humans who claim to be advanced animals of civilized creatures. Another war - killing other lives for profit and survival. This is the most primitive wild instinct spread from ancient times.
In addition to the interests of their own survival, another reason appears more in creatures with higher intelligence - they have broken away from simply following their instincts to survive, and have begun to possess desires. Started to have emotions.
Hate, jealousy, and even believe it or not - love. Emotions, which are so complex that even the greatest sages cannot explain them clearly, have been accompanied by various bloody conflicts since the birth of civilization, whether it was great national liberation or the rise of unyielding heroes. When we brush away these golden slogans that decorate the surface with incomparable luxury, all that remains are countless dead souls and mountains of blood and corpses.
——Different from interests, the process related to death driven by emotion is often more magnificent. Until now, we have not been able to draw a conclusion about whether its existence is good or bad. It is true that rational and calm thinking is far more reliable than impulsive emotions in many key decisions, but without emotions, will civilization itself be Will it be born is a big question.
...To get back to the original point, as we said above, everything related to death can be attributed to two reasons. This extends to murder cases and is called "motivation" in human society. Under normal circumstances, if you can find the "motive" of one thing, then figuring out the ins and outs of the rest of the thing is just a matter of following the clues.
It's already mid-March.
Herman, who had previously wanted to get information from the Duke's merchants responsible for shipping goods, encountered a bottleneck after suffering a setback. The Duke of Monroe's family has been keeping a low profile during this time and everything is running smoothly. Even though they were probably planning something somewhere, it was obviously completely hidden from the eyes of the royal guards.
The failed capture operation alarmed the other party. Although it still seemed very peaceful on the surface, both the Duke's Palace and the royal guards were silently alert.
Unable to - go further.
Several probing methods have been tried within half a month. Herman even personally visited the Grand Duke of Monroe. As an earl, he came to the door. Duke and Mrs. Oscar naturally came out to receive him. The head of the Royal Guards asked many pointed questions. But he couldn't catch any clues from the other party's words and deeds.
On the surface, the active search and detection failed. When he went to the security post to get any possible help, Herman learned from the clerk Franco that Henry had previously judged Henry based on the wounds on the body. Magicians have a thing about two people existing. After thinking about it, he found the two mercenaries who had been neglected, and then he spoke clearly and explained everything clearly.
"If the test is fruitless, how about taking a step back and starting with the behind-the-scenes investigation? First, find out the other party's motives. Although I have always thought that the 'magician' killed people just for fun and show off, but maybe there is more to it than that. how about this."
The sage whose way of thinking was different from ordinary people pointed out the way to the point. Like an enlightenment, Herman immediately applied for more manpower support from the royal capital.
Like Henry, the decisive and iron-blooded Grand Master of Crant believes that everything happens for a reason. Even if the Royal Guards and his entourage were not trying to capture the real magician from the beginning and bring justice to the residents of Monroe, even if they were trying to find a reason to force the Duke's family to reveal their lies and confirm their long-standing suspicions, it still had to be everything. Only solid evidence will do.
Start tracing back to the source. Even if the murder was probably just for fun, why the heart was missing is a question that has been ignored by people as if it were dark under the lamp.
Weijia, who discovered this for the first time a year ago, is said to have investigated it, but if the dragon lizard hadn't digged out the body, no one would even know about the missing heart - in fact, even if the dragon lizard dug it out, no one would know about it. Many people still believe that it was actually eaten by it. If Weijia hadn't become suspicious and dug up the body for investigation, they might not have known about it.
There was no wound at all on the outside but his heart was missing like this. The Sheriff and others, who only had a rudimentary knowledge of the wizard's spells, attributed this to the interference of spells. But people who know a little more about it all know that although the interference spell looks miraculous, it does not reach the level of making organs disappear out of thin air.
It would be redundant to describe it in detail here, but in short, after establishing a new direction of investigation, Herman requested support from the direction of Xilin. Two or three days later, a group of more than ten people, including higher-level court mages, scholars enshrined by the Krant royal family as a reference for knowledge, and accompanying mage apprentices, arrived at Monroe's location.
The reason they came here from Xilin was that they had no corpses to study.
To understand the purpose of collecting the heart, they must first know how the heart was taken away. However, the last corpse was produced more than 20 days ago. Even if buried in the soil, it can slow down the speed of decay. Obviously it cannot be used as a basis for investigation.
From this point, we can see the difference between the country of Crant and the west coast kingdoms such as Sivalier that believe in the White Church. The church creed that advocates abstinence and devout prayer has different views on the human body. There are strict rules for all kinds of funeral rituals. They strongly believe in this theory that they will ascend to heaven after death. Therefore, even figures such as knights who died in battle would have their lost limbs replaced with prosthetics if they could afford it when they were buried, in order to "completely transform them into images of truth, goodness and beauty when they arrive in the Kingdom of God."
In contrast, the west coast countries with traditional polytheistic beliefs like Krant choose burials just to prevent wild beasts from digging up the corpses and spreading diseases. After all, in such tropical areas, corpses rot. The speed is much higher than elsewhere.
So so, to sum up. In short, things like dissecting corpses are usually not allowed in places where the influence of the White Church is stronger, even though ironically many medical advances are obtained by dissecting corpses - back to the original point . Areas like Krant do not prohibit this, so there are naturally people who specialize in this field among scholars, and these people, together with the mid-level second-level magicians who are top magic consultants, came to Monroe to watch and wait for magic. Another victim of the teacher appears, and we can start researching it as soon as possible.
But a long time has passed and it is now such a critical moment. No one thinks that the magician will come out to kill people again.
Once there will be a second time, and once again stuck on the place that should be focused on, Herman called Henry and Mira again and asked the sage for advice.
Henry arrived this time without any armor or even his iconic sword. The weather in late March became even hotter. During this period of time, he and Mira had been sparring more and more often, and the resulting wear and tear on the equipment was naturally becoming more serious.
Fortunately, the number of mercenary tasks has gradually increased recently, and I have accepted some small tasks such as guarding, and it is still not beyond my means. The two people's armors were customized when they set out from Wawasika at the end of last year. Although they were a little shabby along the way, they were not completely broken. But Mira, who was still in the growth stage, had her originally reserved size of leather armor shrinking more and more. In addition, because it was trimmed at Aibot, she was almost exposing her belly when she put it on now.
Naturally, such armor cannot be used anymore. Considering that there will probably be higher demand as the mercenary mission progresses, Henry sold the unwanted weapons and armor to the blacksmith shop and spent a considerable amount of money to build a set of lightweight typical weapons for the two of them. Plate armor style armor.
The specific structure of this kind of armor, which is close to plate armor, is the opposite of scale armor and pierced armor. Unlike these two older armors, which cover metal on the leather, plate armor is made of a A relatively thin layer of leather armor covered with multiple metal blocks and riveted together.
The size of the metal block is not small, so its resistance to puncture and slashing is very good. With the outer leather cover, it will not reflect light like plate armor or produce unbearable high temperatures due to direct sunlight. Apart from the high price brought by the higher requirements for blacksmith craftsmanship, plate armor is indeed a pretty good thing, at least for mercenaries like them.
Returning to the original point, the sage, who was just traveling lightly, wore simple, lightweight adventurer-style clothing. The loose collar opened all the way to the collarbone, and some tattoos on the neck and shoulders were revealed - here They had been blocked by the edge of the leather armor before, so Herman frowned when he saw these for the first time.
But what was worse than him was the white-haired chief court mage of Krant who had just arrived behind him and was about sixty years old.
"Gu Gu Gu Gu... Ancient times..." The old man said this while pointing tremblingly at the corner of the pattern on his neck. Herman and Mira both looked at him, and Henry remained silent.
"Your Excellency Donald?" Herman said, while the old mage on the other side, whom he called Donald, folded his hands demurely. Then he bowed to Henry amidst the surprised eyes of everyone.
The old mage then slowly straightened up, and then nodded towards Henry.
"..." The sage was silent for a while, and then responded with the same courtesy.
"Are you the one who knows the secret language of the Druid?" Henry asked in words that no one else could understand. Donald's body trembled even more. He nodded repeatedly, not like a steady chief mage, but like a child.
"You, are you?" He asked back with some stiff words. Henry pondered for a while, and then said softly.
"Traveler."
"..." Donald seemed to understand that he didn't want to say more. He clasped his hands and bowed again with great respect.
"Your Excellency, mercenary Mel, what is this?" Herman frowned and looked around at the two of them. Others present were also puzzled by this, but no one seemed to intend to explain.
"It's better to focus on the current problem." Donald changed the topic directly. The chief mage of the palace has a high and powerful status. Therefore, once he spoke, no one else dared to say anything.
Although they still looked at Henry with some doubts, there were more important issues at the moment and everyone quickly forgot about it out of professionalism.
"...The problem we encountered is roughly like this." Herman told him that there were no fresh corpses for research, and then looked at Henry.
"..." The sage pondered for a while. But he did not answer directly. Instead, he turned his head and looked at Chief Mage Donald next to him: "Does the heart, an organ, have any special significance? I mean in the use of magic."
"Hmm..." Donald stroked the long white beard on his chin and thought for a while. But the one who gave the answer before him was a young male mage apprentice under his banner.
"Magic material!" This person said in a tone very similar to the one Mira would use when she figured out the problem. Donald nodded slowly: "It's true, the mana pool of the human body is located near the heart, even if For ordinary people who are not talented enough to use magic, their heart and blood will contain a trace of magic to some extent."
I don’t know if it’s because of their profession, but all magicians seem to be super talkative. Donald just started to analyze and talk to himself, but because he had a high position and what he said made sense, no one interrupted him: "It is extremely inconvenient to preserve blood. Once exposed to the air, it will quickly begin to oxidize and harden. Although the total volume is larger, the magic power contained in the same quality of blood is not as huge as the heart, which is a blood supply organ. The hearts of various monsters have always been It is an excellent casting material——"
"Well——!" Donald's expression suddenly became serious. He said to the male mage apprentice just now: "Gary, bring out the previous report." The chief court mage ordered this, and Gary, who was an errand boy, immediately began to rummage in the leather bag he carried. Knowing what the other party was referring to, he quickly took out a medium-thick scroll.
"You all get out of the way." Everyone was standing in front of the bar that served as the big table in the temporary conference hall. Bernard said, and everyone else took a step back, and the old mage just rolled out the entire scroll. Then he read it carefully at a speed that a person of this age should not be able to do.
"Here, is it really like this..." He sighed. Then he slowly raised his head.
"Your Excellency?" Herman asked, and everyone including the mage apprentice looked at him.
"The lapis lazuli used to store magic, the silver and brass used to guide magic, and the lead ring engraved with the spell itself. These things must form a self-operating system on their own. In other words, it is closed... "The old mage said this. Several mage apprentices thought about it for a moment and all had expressions of enlightenment on their faces, while the guards of the royal capital had blank expressions on their faces.
"Sigh... To put it simply, lapis lazuli will absorb the magic power in the blood of the holder, and then export it through the silver and copper buried in it. This is what makes the magic circle carved on the surface of the lead ring work. The principle of its effect." Bernard said this in a popular explanation. This time everyone nodded, and the old mage continued to explain.
"But before I only focused on how it works, but I forgot one thing."
"When forging this ring, if a certain amount of magic power is not injected in advance, not only will this self-contained structure not become a magic device after it is formed, but it will become a magical device due to the closed structure and lead as an important component. It becomes an 'anti-magic weapon' that refuses any interference from magic."
"After all, they originally chose lead as the main body of the ring, probably to allow it to wrap the internal structure and prevent the spell from failing due to external magic interference."
"But in this case, no matter who is making this thing, the person who makes this thing must constantly add the magic-containing substance in a precise amount during the entire process of making it. Precisely control it so that it can only have the effect of skin contact. To feel the weak flow of magic power, you cannot use ores or magic crystals, because they will leave residues, so it is very difficult to control the specific dosage." Bernard shook his head: "It must be something that can be completely burned. ,For example……"
"Heart or blood."
"But blood is not easy to preserve, and the heart can maintain its activity for a considerable period of time as long as it is soaked in medicinal wine."
"So they killed people to make this kind of magic device?" Herman said, Bernard nodded, and Henry next to him frowned, and then took a step forward.
"Is anyone missing in the nearby villages?" the sage asked. The royal guards were not idlers, and they reacted quickly once it was pointed out.
"Send the cavalry to investigate. All missing cases in the Monroe Territory and Xilin Territory Province must be known. By the way, this also includes Warcraft. All those who acquire Warcraft-related materials such as hearts and magic glands must be investigated and follow the clues. Confirm one by one whether they have any contact with the Duke of Monroe’s Palace!”
"hurry up!"
"Tap, tap, tap, tap!" Dense footsteps sounded one after another, and the envoys on horseback spread quickly. Herman looked around with a serious look on his face.
"I have a hunch it's going to be a pretty staggering number."
[515 is coming soon, and I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list. By May 15th, the red envelope rain will be able to reward readers and promote promotional works. One piece is also love, I will definitely update it! 】(To be continued.)
