Lord Willett has always despised those nobles who only care about enjoyment after official duties and do not understand that the body is the capital of everything they do. Nowadays, he still keeps practicing martial arts and seems quite content when talking about topics related to physical fitness.
However, Lord Willit did not forget the topic. After An's reminder, he quickly thought of the reason why the warehouse changed owners: "Could it be that these chambers of commerce..."
Lord Willett immediately suspected that these chambers of commerce were colluding with criminals.
Fireworks and firecrackers, firewood, rice, oil, and salt, and daily clothing. Merchants who deal in these three categories of items generally require large-area warehouses and corresponding guards and maintenance personnel. These requirements completely cover the prerequisites for criminals to commit crimes. It is difficult to believe that there is no difference between the two. No connection.
However, these chambers of commerce have grown up little by little under the nose of Lord Willett. Emotionally, he cannot accept his guess.
Under the tangled gaze of Lord Willit, An shook his head and said, "It's unlikely. As you said, these chambers of commerce were registered in this town, and this is their foundation. To develop to a medium-sized scale, it must be It took a lot of time.”
"Yes, roughly speaking, it has been almost ten years."
An was surprised by this time span, but Lord Willett's words just confirmed his speculation. He continued: "That's right, after such a long time, the sense of belonging will become strong enough. Unite outsiders to commit crimes in the town This behavior is equivalent to destroying one's own foundation. People who can make the chamber of commerce bigger will not be so unwise. From a profit perspective, doing this kind of thing will only be harmful to these chambers of commerce and will not bring any benefits. .”
"They may have been coerced and faced danger to their own lives, so they had to hand over the ownership of these warehouses. Judging from the secretive behavior of the plotters, on the surface, this process should be wrapped in the skin of a legitimate transaction. This may be an investigation direction." An's words were cautious, but her tone was very confident, "But my suggestion is to first appease these chambers of commerce, announce the case, and take corresponding measures to appease the people. The operation of the town has been greatly affected by the case. , restoring normal operations is the top priority.”
Although what An said made sense, he still hoped that Lord Willett would stop investigating. The culprit of the town's crimes lies in the Empire and is completely beyond the reach of Lord Willit.
If we continue, not to mention the danger, it is destined to be fruitless!
Lord Willit's character left a good impression on An. He wanted to give Lord Willit a guarantee, saying that he would eventually give an explanation to the residents here. But now An is playing the role of a high-ranking person. People in high-ranking positions must There are a lot of things to take into consideration, and you can't get carried away with such enthusiasm.
After all, Lord Willett was someone who cared more about the people. Although he felt resentful towards the mastermind behind the incident, he was aware that he did not have the ability to continue investigating.
He looked at An and Leonhardt, nodded solemnly, and chose to believe them.
An subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
Even if the attacker's real target is the Queen's convoy, the town that has suffered the most so far is this town. If Lord Willit really wants to pursue it desperately, he really doesn't know what kind of identity he should use to stop it.
Seeing that Lord Willett could control himself, An couldn't help but feel relaxed, but thinking that he would have to find ways to get Lord Willett to hand over the main culprit of the case to him, he couldn't help but feel guilty.
An felt a little tired and stretched out his fingers to rub his forehead.
"!!"
An suddenly felt that he had touched something inexplicably.
Could it be that something was overlooked somewhere?
As soon as she felt this way, Ann began to quickly review everything that had happened before in her mind.
Seeing An's sudden silence and frowning, Leonhardt and Lord Willit looked at each other.
Leonhardt realized something and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong?"
He had no intention of avoiding Lord Willett, and his voice was low because he was afraid of disturbing An's thoughts.
"I seem to have forgotten something." An replied without stopping thinking.
What methods did the people who attacked the convoy use along the way?
Assassination…
ambush……
trap……
Bait...bait!
They never take human life seriously, even if it is their own companions, they will not hesitate to swing the butcher knife in order for the plan to proceed smoothly!
In this case... in order to ensure that no more information is leaked, the executor of the plan may also be silenced by another monitor!
Suddenly he became aware of the things he had ignored, and the consequences were so serious that he was horrified.
"Let's turn back and go the other way, quick!"
Before he could explain too much, An turned around on his horse and quickly ran towards the other group heading to the prison.
Leonhardt followed Ann without hesitation.
"Walk!"
Lord Willett was a little slow, but he also called his men to follow him.
"boom--"
We walked quickly to the fork, and as soon as we took another road, An heard a loud noise in front of us!
——The unused gunpowder in the tunnel!
After realizing what caused the explosion, An's face darkened, and he rushed towards the place where the loud noise came from. Behind him, Leonhardt, who had been practicing horse riding since childhood, was unable to keep up.
Not long after running, An saw the flames burning in front of the sky.
Fortunately, in the previous careful planning, the surrounding residents were within the evacuation range, otherwise the explosion would have affected many innocent people!
But An's heart didn't feel much lighter. When he rushed to the scene of the fire and saw a group of disgraced members of the escort team, as well as the security forces nearby who were not fatally injured but had just fainted, and when he roughly confirmed that the number of people had not decreased, An relaxed a little.
Looking up at the dilapidated and collapsed buildings in front of him, the blazing flames reflected in An's pupils, like a reflection of his heart.
The captain of the escort team came under the hooves of the horse driven by An, knelt down and saluted, and reported loudly: "I didn't notice, someone planted gunpowder here! We only had time to rescue the soldiers of the security army... the prisoners captured earlier Most of the casualties were casualties, and the incapacitated killer also died suddenly!"
Now that the killer is dead, the most direct avenue of investigation is now completely cut off...
Under the flickering firelight, An's face was dim and unclear.
The squad leader lowered his head even lower, his fists and teeth chattering due to anger.
This was the first time he lost his temper like this: "Please punish me!!"
The horse under An was frightened by the high temperature brought by the flames and the shouts of the squad leader, and became a little restless. It stamped its hooves everywhere, and almost stepped on the squad leader several times, but the squad leader did not make any move.
Leonhardt, who arrived later, heard the team leader's report and looked at the tragic situation on the street, and was speechless for a moment.
Lord Willit's face was filled with anger and happiness. He was lucky that all his soldiers survived the horrific explosion.
The security forces who managed to survive with the help of the escort gradually came closer. The soldiers looked at the squad leader kneeling on the ground and wanted to plead for him, but the atmosphere surrounding them made them afraid to speak.
In the silence, Lord Willett, who understood his subordinates' thoughts, was about to help speak when he suddenly noticed a change in An's demeanor.
An put his hand on the horse's back and neck, and the horse slowly calmed down a little distance from the team leader.
The team leader, who was half kneeling on the ground, noticed it and raised his head to meet An's eyes.
"No need to blame yourself, my anger has nothing to do with you..."
The familiar voice made the team leader slightly distracted. Feeling guilty, he reacted and said hurriedly: "But the responsibility does lie with me..."
"No one can know about the accident. It is not easy to save all the companions. You have done a great job, so why should you be at fault?"
In the squad leader's field of vision, the man on horseback's eyes were gentle and filled with relief, but it made him feel panicked.
The enemy's method of planting gunpowder was indeed insidious and cunning, but it was also true that he failed to notice it!
Especially because of his negligence, the important clues to the attack were broken here!
This made the squad leader think that he had no face to face the person who entrusted him with such a heavy responsibility.
Looking at the squad leader who lowered his head and refused to get up, the man got off his horse and came to the squad leader.
"Remember the first words I said when we first formed the Guard?"
The team leader was startled and raised his head. The man's face made him feel a little dazed.
He murmured: "The first criterion is to preserve life..."
"That's right."
In the squad leader's field of vision, the person in front of him gradually overlapped with the figure in his memory.
"Then you remember that I said that saving lives includes you, right? Stand up, Mr. Fast, and answer me."
"Keep it in mind..."
Fast was helped up by the man just like before, and Fast's answer was the same as before.
"king!"
"Haha... In this case, I say that you have merits and demerits, do you have any objections?"
"No!"
