When a whole treasure was at stake, Vanessa was immediately escalated to an important figure and brought to the leader Horst. The mercenary who had carried the princess before was overjoyed that he had finally gotten rid of this burden, and of course, if Vanessa hadn't spit out his ale, he would still be willing to continue to carry her.

At this moment, Vanessa's eyes were bloodshot and swollen, her lips were slightly red from vomiting, and her originally soft and fluffy hair had lost its luster and became messy, like a nest ready for a hen to lay down and hatch eggs.

Horst looked across the table at the woman in front of him, the light of the butter candles flickering on the table casting shadows on the mottled wall behind him. Vanessa's jewel pouch was open in the center of the table, and the stones inside rolled out halfway, and the finely cut blue diamonds dazzled the princess with countless dazzling flickers of light.

"Give me back the gem." Vanessa made a gesture to grab it, trying to be as normal as possible.

"Huh—" The beautiful sound of the sword unsheathed stopped her movements in time. "You know, I hate intrigue the most," Horst slouched the tip of his sword and patted the back of Vanessa's hand, "I like to go straight." Tell me, who are you, why are you in my town, and," he said, gesturing to the beautiful gem, "where did you steal it?" ”

"Stolen!" Vanessa screamed, "How did this be stolen!?" If I commit theft, will my finger be intact? The princess stretched out her hands to show them, and made a grasping gesture with her fingers towards the jewel, and of course, was slapped again before she succeeded. I'm a declining nobleman, and I've partnered with someone to come to the Burning Flame Country to try my luck, and I'm just so much valuable, so I beg you, leave me a little. ”

"I said I like to be straight," Horst was unmoved by Vanessa's lies, and the two large bags of eyes on his face looked like a pair of extra eyes under the flickering candlelight, making him look more terrifying and evil than suspicious. "You've mentioned half of the treasure map to my men, tell me what's going on."

"Your men are really loyal," Vanessa put away a flattering smile and sternly snorted, "I was expecting them to catch that little imp quietly and share the treasure with me." ”

"Okay, now it's time for the show, let's talk about what everyone cares about." Horst called for a chair to be moved and pressed Vanessa to sit on it, "If I think what you say is true, I'll let you go; If you dare to lie to me—" he pulled a glittering dagger from his waist and slashed it on the table, "I'm afraid you'll have to talk to it for the next few days." ”

Vanessa looked at the dagger, the handle of the parquet was as strong as black iron, and the thumb-sized sapphire was inlaid with it, and the swallow was tightly wound with golden silk vines from Haken Island, and the short blade was faintly visible with layers of fine forging ripples and blood grooves of moderate thickness, from a layman's point of view, it was indeed a work of art in the cold front. But like its owner, the dagger had a fatal flaw - it was easy to break. Oropus had no steelmaking skills, and with Vanessa's knowledge of weapons, all iron swords with a bright luster lacked long-term tempering, which was called lack of fire. This weapon looks bright on the outside, but when it encounters a strong impact, it will shatter into pieces, except for weapons that have been blessed with magic, of course. The mercenary captain usually licks blood with his knife, and he will not know the details of this dagger, unless it is not Horst's in the first place, just to take it out at the right time to fill the façade.

A clue that could not be ignored flashed through my mind - it was the dagger that the lady had used.

Vanessa took her eyes off the dagger, looked at the mercenary captain calmly and sternly, and instantly regained her princess aura, and the small room was suddenly filled with a sense of coercion, "We all know that this little toy can't scare me." She looked at the mercenary captain contemptuously, "A single woman swaggering through the market with a whole bag of gems is very suspicious in itself, isn't it?" ”

Horst pointed to the princess, "That's why I left you with this mouth." ”

"If you have a bag of gems, rarer than the same weight of gold, you don't want to stop, you want more, even if you know there is a trap in front of you, you will go forward, lo and behold, this is the nature of our lovely race." Vanessa spread her hands and shrugged her shoulders, "I'm not exempt from vulgarity. I'll tell you the truth, this bag of gems was obtained by chance, it was originally a big bag, very heavy, heavy and evil," the princess shook as she lifted one leg and pressed it against the other, trying to look like a ruffian, "Its original owner was crushed by this evil force. So we did the poor soul a great favor by helping him consume most of the gems. Later, uh, his body was found," Vanessa scratched her hair and pulled the bandage on her forehead as low as possible to cover her right eye, so that she looked more like a murderer, "We were forced to escape from the Land of the Valley of Wine. ”

"The Land of the Valley of Wine," Horst repeated, then looked at Vanessa inquiringly, "us?" ”

"My partner." Vanessa looked at Horst like an idiot, "You don't think I'm bold enough to cross the border alone, do you?" In those days, the King's Road was relatively safe for robbers and thieves, and even hunters had to travel in company. ”

"How many of your partners are there?"

"Enough to deal with a few of you," Vanessa scowled at the mercenaries in Horst's house, "if I can find them." ”

"So, you're separated from them." Horst quietly reasoned that it was not clear from the big bags under his eyes whether this guy had bought the princess's account.

"Let's just put it that way." Vanessa's eyes sharpened and she spat on the ground, "Then again, it's not all about greed. The original owner of the gem had a treasure map, and the two of us tore it into two for the sake of fairness, but then I broke a lot of people on the way to smuggle in, and in the end I was the only one left, and they turned red and tried to kill me several times to monopolize the treasure. When I got ashore, I avoided them as much as possible, intending to reorganize the mercenary group and hunt for the treasure by myself - the half of the map I got showed the exact location of the treasure, while theirs only had the mountain range - I didn't expect that this time, they would take advantage of my sympathy and let a child lie to me! ”

"Tell me how he lied to you."

(l~1`x*>+``+