General King and Norton's trip to Black Harbor did not attract the attention of the nobles of White Rock City. Everyone only knows that the two left and returned in a hurry, and it took less than 30 days before and after. According to the prime minister's coachman revealed to the coachman of Duke XX, the coachman of Duke XX revealed to his coachman friends that the two big men went to Black Harbor to inspect and receive gifts.

As a result, in just a few days, the rumors in Baiyan City intensified, and the Central General and the Prime Minister went to Heigang to inspect the work and received heavy gifts by the way. Of course, the protagonists of the incident, General King and Earl Norton, didn't care about this, and their minds had been hanging in the air since they left Black Harbor City.

Earl Norton said that day that he might have guessed who the person who left the message was, but he did not explicitly tell General King later, that he meant that he would have to investigate again before he could draw conclusions. In addition to the payment, the focus of the two is naturally the remaining text.

"The undercurrent of the empire is not a source of water, the rise of darkness and the upheaval of the continent. In just over 20 words, the amount of information conveyed is not small. Literally, it means that the recent movements of the empire are not without reason, and an organization or person called Dark Rise is the original initiator, and their purpose seems to be to cause changes in the situation on the continent.

Two smart heads, put together, pieced together, most of them guessed some clues. They all thought of the announcement from the base camp before they set off for Black Harbor, and the dark organization forces caused a riot in the west of Desik, with the border guards losing two teams of soldiers and a bridge being destroyed.

On the way back from the carriage, General Kim pondered, "If we assume that the Rise of the Darkness is the black hand behind it, then the Westside incident is the latest commotion, and we can go back and look for any similar events in the country that have not been brought to our attention." ”

Earl Norton pondered for a while, "Throughout history, all the evil forces have their own style when doing things, and this dark rise, if it were an organization, they should also act in the same style, but it has not attracted our attention at present." Now there aren't a lot of clues, so I think your idea, you can give it a try. ”

So, after returning to Baiyan City, the two who broke up in the city went back to the military affairs tent and the state affairs tent respectively, to gather their henchmen to deal with the follow-up tasks.

As a member of the Desik Military Joint Council, General Kim, has the right to check all military intelligence in Desik's country. So, the first thing General Jin did when he returned to the big tent was to read the summary of the situation reported from the Western Border.

In the early winter of Kaiser Wilhelm IV 47 (Note 1), the Western Frontier Guards reported the following major incidents: the dark mage was discovered in Tarim City that night, and the mage caused an explosion in Tarim City, killing and injuring several soldiers, as well as many hunters of the Merchant Alliance's Adventurers' Guild hidden in the ranks of merchants. After a fierce battle, one dark mage and one archer, fled westward, killing nineteen of our guards at the bridgehead, wounding one, and twenty hunters of the merchant alliance on the way.

In it, the archer falls off a cliff during the battle, and the magician, aided by another samurai who appears later, escapes the Desik border, and in the process of escaping, triggers an explosion of the magic circle, blowing up the Westborder Bridge, and the border is completely blocked.

Later, Kane, the commander of our border guards, led more than a dozen soldiers to descend the cliff along the rope to search for the archer's body. Due to the complexity of the environment under the valley, only one broken arrow and several pieces of corpses were found.

The military physician examined the remains of the corpse and found that there were traces of wild beasts having eaten them, which was no longer worth investigating, so they buried them in place. Broken bow and arrow, sent back with the report.

Putting down this investigative report, General Kim found another brief report on letterhead: the joint committee, due to the destruction of the western border bridge, the border garrison has lost its control value, and the garrison is the closest border garrison to the Tarim turnover yard, whether to rebuild, under the advice of the battalion general Alvin.

It turned out that this was a request document from the border guards. It seems that although the Western Bridge has been destroyed, due to its location, the border guards seem to be unable to decide whether to give up or not, so they have asked for instructions in Baiyan Castle.

The base camp learned the news thirty days ago, on the eve of the day he and the Earl of Norton set out for Black Harbor.

General Kim continued to look down, and behind it was an oral document, which was the oral statement of the person concerned, recorded by the clerk of the army, and looked at the header of this document, which was the eyewitness record of the soldier named Kane in the previous report:

On the night of October 18 (Note 2), my squad and I had finished our day's work and were having dinner when we heard the sirens of the old Martins of the next fort (clerk's note, the 18th squad of the 73rd Frontier Regiment, which was stationed at the north fort of the Western Bridge at that time), and the old Martins died in a very short time. My squad was also shot to death by the archer almost in the blink of an eye, the dark magician, whom I later learned was a magician, and the black smoke he released was almost the venom of the satanic demon, and everyone who touched it would die in an instant. I survived (Clerk's note, Captain Kane was unconscious in the middle of the field).

When I woke up, the enemy had fled, and the regimental commander (clerk's note: the commander of the 73rd Frontier Regiment) arrived here, and he ordered me to climb down the cliff, saying that there was an enemy who had fallen off the cliff, and that he wanted to see people and corpses in his life. However, the commander's order could not be disobeyed, so I climbed down.

...

There was a lot of chatter about the soldier named Kane describing how he climbed off the cliff, how he found a broken bow and arrow on the cliff face, how he chased away the two beasts, and how he picked up the fragments of his corpse that had not been eaten.

Clerk's Note: Kane's sightings were confirmed by Green, the chief hunter of the Merchant Alliance's Adventurers Guild. The subsequent search down the Grand Canyon was completed by 20 soldiers. Then there were twenty huge mudras.

Green lifted the report, and there was one last document left. The handwriting of this document is rather casual, and it seems to be the opinion of some generals.

Western General Byron Scott: The incident took place in the Western Border Guards, on the territory of the Western Bridge. As a direct general, I have leadership responsibility, so it is not appropriate to express my opinions, and I will ask the joint committee to handle it.

Chief of Staff Clark Carr: It is recommended that a joint investigation team be sent from White Rock City to investigate the specific cause. It is also advisable to contact the Manning Adventurers' Guild.

Written by Duke Edward: This case is an extremely bad and vicious incident that happened to the Desik military, and in order to reduce the impact and improve morale, the military recommends severe punishment. In view of the fact that the front-line border guards died on that day, no further investigation will be pursued. The remaining living soldier was exempted from punishment because he went down the Grand Canyon to find evidence and make amends. The commander of the 73rd Frontier Regiment, the general of the Western Frontier Battalion, and the general of the West assumed the corresponding responsibilities and were fined 500 gold coins, 1,000 gold coins, and 3,000 gold coins to set an example. The Wasteland Samurai Regiment sent personnel to investigate the case in detail. The Westborder Bridge stronghold is abandoned and will not be rebuilt!

"Hmph, the style of turning big things into small things. General Jin snorted heavily after reading the follow-up handling opinions. Don't look at the punishment of gold coins, don't mention the drizzle, not to mention the two generals, even the border commander, they won't take it to heart. This Archduke Edward has also bought people's hearts in the army to the extreme, and in such a serious incident, no one has lost his head in the end.

"Dark mage, dark rising, what is the relationship between the two? No, such a coincidence, we just started to investigate, let's send it to the door. General Kim muttered to himself, startled by his own thoughts. "Well, Grand Duke Edward has already made arrangements for this matter, so there is no need for me to provide any more opinions" So, General Jin took up his pen and wrote the words "agree with the Duke's opinion" on the opinion paper, and threw the report aside. Now his mind is indeed not here.

Earl Norton, who also just returned to White Rock City, was not so easy. Looking at the large number of official documents piled up in the office, Earl Norton couldn't help but hold his forehead and exclaimed bitterly, "I knew what Black Harbor I would go with Jin!" Indeed, the domestic machinery is stepping up, and as the head of the interior, he cannot escape the blame, and the official business that needs to be handled naturally increases exponentially.

"Someone!" commanded the Earl of Norton, and a young clerk pushed the door open, "What's the matter, Lord Earl?"

"Go and call the Interior Officer, the Treasurer, and the Diplomat!" commanded the Earl of Norton. "Okay!" the squire turned to leave.

Several of the interior officials had offices in the State Tent, but they were so busy with affairs that they generally did not stay in their rooms. I don't know how the squire managed to find them, but it always took some time, and while he waited, Earl Norton came to the bookcase in the room and began to rummage through them.

As the chief steward of Desik's internal affairs, the Prime Minister's office will have reports on various things that have happened in the country over the past few decades. The clerk, after the documents are processed, will help organize and file, different bookcases, which contain different types: agricultural, commercial, civil disputes, diplomatic proposals, etc.

In the corner of these bookcases, there is a small inconspicuous bookcase sandwiched in the middle, this bookcase, which is rarely used, and even looks a little dusty from the outside. It seemed that the Earl of Norton had not "patronized" him for a long time, and it took a long time to find this bookcase.

Open the lock of the bookcase, and in this small bookcase, there are only dozens of thin documents, and the file covers are all red. The Earl of Norton picked up the paper and returned to his desk.

On the red cover, there were no names written on the papers, only a few large warnings "TOP SECRET! Royal Investigation Documents!" and a large golden Steppenwolf head coat of arms.

Note 1: Before the Second Continental War, the calendars of various countries were not very uniform, and Desik liked to use their emperor years, such as the 47th year of Kaiser Wilhelm IV, to convert to the continental calendar, which is the first 6 years.

Note 2: In order to simplify the calendar of this book, the Gregorian calendar is used for timekeeping. Twelve months a year, thirty days a month.