Earl Norton opened the top-secret documents in front of him, thin documents, each of which recorded a mysterious event that occurred in the territory of the Desik Empire, a total of more than ten copies.

The earliest records date back about ten years, about a decade ago, in a small village north of Desik, where a lady cook somehow went mad and took pleasure in sucking human blood. In less than three months, the cook killed dozens of women and children, sucking them all dry and donating blood to the wilderness. All of a sudden, the people in the village were panicked, and rumors began to circulate that there were man-eating monsters. Later, Desik's army moved into the village and eventually captured the mischievous cook. However, in the end, it was not clear why this woman went crazy.

As a result, this case was recorded, becoming the first recorded mysterious incident in Desik in recent years. Later, this happened many times in various places, and it was a very normal person, mostly civilians, and there was also a baron, who suddenly went crazy and began to suck blood for a living, and when he was captured, they themselves could not tell the reason.

This is a kind of event, and there is another category, which is even more strange, this is a kind of livestock sacrifice event, which has happened three times, twice in a country village, and once in White Rock City, which also begins with the mysterious death of livestock, the carcasses of these livestock will be artificially arranged in the shape of a pentagram, and the apex junction of the pentagram will be dug up and filled with the blood of dead animals.

Since one of them happened in Baiyan City, the city security team and the garrison under the central general all participated in the investigation, but due to the lack of eyewitnesses, they finally failed. Fortunately, in this type of case, the last dead are livestock, and apart from causing some panic among the people for a short time, there is no other special effect. In terms of time, this one that happened in White Rock City was the closest, probably more than four years ago.

It's strange that the two types of cases basically do not intersect, they occur anywhere, and there are not many similarities, except for the words blood appear.

Puzzled, Earl Norton rubbed his eyes. It seems that these independent random events are not related to anything, nor are they related to dark magic events, and there is no mention of any dark rising.

Continuing to look down, there is one last document left, and this document is much higher. Although it is also a top-secret document with a red cover, on this one, in addition to the Steppenwolf coat of arms of the royal family's top-secret document, there is actually the emblem of the Wasteland Samurai Orderaralei, as well as the crown prince's hairy Steppenwolf head mark, which was recorded about three years ago.

"Hey, how can there be a mark of the crown prince here?" Earl Norton instantly became interested, opened the file and looked through it carefully.

Three years ago, in the early spring, Prince Ferdinand, on a whim, brought out a total of thirty-two heavy prisoners from the prison of the De Sick Imperial Security Corps, and the reason given by the prince at that time was that it was too wasteful for these prisoners to stay in the dark prison, and he offered to trade with these prisoners in exchange for freedom and gold in exchange for ten years of service for him. These serious criminals, all of whom were guilty of major injuries, were highly skilled in martial arts and did not hesitate to die, and later when investigating, the prince did not explain much, but just said that these people would be more desperate to be dead.

Earl Norton almost laughed out loud, the former crown prince of the Desik Empire is really interesting, after reigning for so many years, he has done a lot of ridiculous things, this is obvious, this is another thing he made on a whim.

These dead soldiers, let's call them dead soldiers, were kept by the prince in captivity outside Baiyan Castle in a royal manor "Rose Manor", which was a royal asset famous for its blooming roses, and was also a reward when the prince was crowned crown prince. All day, the gang had nothing to do, so they stayed in the manor to practice martial arts, and an instructor of the royal moorland warriors was sent to help teach them.

However, before the teaching was completed, the gang was inexplicably killed one night.

Seeing this, Earl Norton looked a little strange, "It doesn't make sense, what kind of mysterious event is this?"

Fortunately, at the end of the document, a detailed investigation report of the Royal Wasteland Samurai Regiment was attached, which was of a fairly high level, and on the front of the document, the Prime Minister saw the signature of Archduke Edward at that time. "It's a strange thing again, such an important investigation incident, why don't you have an impression, but use the military forces of the Wasteland Samurai Order and Archduke Edward?"

Eagerly opening the last of the investigative papers, Earl Norton was immersed in it. The document was led by a high-ranking samurai of the Wasteland Samurai Order, his name is Colby, and the following is Colby's own statement.

Early in the morning of March 16, I received orders to go to the Royal Rose Manor outside Desik to investigate a murder. This is very strange because we are the Special Investigation Team of the Wasteland Samurai Regiment (Note 1), and we are usually tasked with investigating supernatural events, and we rarely come into contact with murders, so it seems that this murder is not ordinary.

I led five warriors of the wasteland, as well as more than a dozen soldiers of the security team, and hurried out of the city. Rose Manor is a beautiful, quiet royal manor, but thirty-two corpses, neatly arranged in the manor, are extremely weird.

The autopsy was not smooth from the beginning, and no external injuries were found on the thirty-two corpses, and all of them lay there peacefully, looking like they were sleeping, but they were not breathing. Basic toxicity testing also showed that none of the people were poisoned.

It was strange that thirty-two armed men, unwounded or poisoned, died inexplicably, and my companions and I were confused. Although I am often exposed to some supernatural events, it is the first time I have encountered such a strange thing.

Inspections of the manor have also not progressed, and all indications are that no one has ever entered the closed manor. Just imagine, these thirty-two people are quite skilled in martial arts, not some unarmed and powerless cripples, it is really difficult to imagine the cause of their death.

Since they are His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's people, the security team brothers went to the Crown Prince to record a confession, and heard that the scene was very joyful, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that he was saving sinners and hoped to influence them, but if it wasn't for the people you investigated, he would have forgotten that he was going to do this. Although everyone thought His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's answer was ridiculous, apparently everyone believed it, because, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, it was really famous.

The investigation must continue, and I had to start looking at the social connections of the gang and try to find out if there was any vendetta or other possibility. However, my last attempt failed. These people, before being rescued by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, had been in prison for a short time, and then they were sent directly to the Rose Manor, and outsiders did not know the news of their release.

The Wasteland Samurai who was ordered to train them returned to White Rock Castle three days ago, and he didn't know what had happened, so after a brief investigation, we ruled out the possibility that he had committed the crime.

Later, things went thanks to a vigilante soldier. The soldier, who was an experienced gardener before becoming a vigilante soldier, discovered that the plants in the rose manor had been artificially pruned. I sent someone to climb to the top of the highest building of the manor and look down, and the pruned plants actually formed the shape of a pentagram!

"Pentagram again?" Seeing this, Norton suddenly thought of the records of the previous documents, and the mysterious symbol of the pentagram appeared again, and he still looked down patiently.

The people of the investigation team are well-informed, and their questions are similar to those of Earl Norton, and they are also strange pentagrams. However, De Sick was not San Jose, they did not have such a presence as a court magician, and no one at the time could have discovered that the pentagram pruned by this plant was actually a rather clever magic circle.

We began to investigate the gardener's master gardener, only to find out that the man had left the manor ten days before the incident, he had been fired by the manor's steward after a minor conflict, and when the Wasteland warriors went to investigate, they found that the man had disappeared out of thin air, and there was no record of how this person had first appeared in Rose Manor.

As a result, the members of the investigation team at that time began to suspect that this pentagram was a secret method of some cult that could kill people. Later, under the leadership of Bud (the gardener-turned-soldier), we dug up the roots of the plants, and found copper pipes in the soil, into which the roots of the plants had been filled with blood and had dried up.

This discovery was so shocking that the investigation team unanimously concluded that it was a secret murder incident of a cult.

Later, after all the inspections were done and nothing else was found, we were ready to submit the report to our superiors, but, strangely, my superiors informed me that the report needed to be handed over to the base camp and received by the Military Joint Council in person. I didn't doubt it, so I turned it in. Three days later, the report was returned to me in its original form, but I found that the signature of Archduke Edward had been added, and the previous part of the report had been sealed, and I did not know if the contents had been changed.

This concludes Colby's autobiography, and the last piece of paper is obviously a later addition. It appears that his report had been personally reviewed by Archduke Edward. Earl Norton pinched his brow, and it was really strange.

After reading the reports of mysterious events in the Desik Empire over the years, Earl Norton began to feel that the mysterious man's words were by no means alarmist. At first glance, none of these things seem to be related, but Earl Norton always has a faint feeling that behind this, there seems to be an invisible net enveloping everyone.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells!" Earl Norton shook the brass bell on the table, and after a few moments, the clerk outside the room pushed the door and walked in, "Lord Earl, what are your orders?"

"Go and prepare the carriage, and then inform General Jin, and say that I will wait for him at the gate of the East City in the afternoon! ”

"Yes, Lord Earl, are you going out of town?" asked the clerk.

"Well, I have some personal matters with General Kim, so you don't have to ask. ”

The clerk hurriedly apologized in panic, "I'm sorry, my lord!"

"Alright, you stand down!" said Earl Norton, bowing his head.