"My lord, it's not good, our blueprints have been stolen!" In the early morning, Rand had not yet woken up from his sleep, but a miserable cry spread throughout the entire Empty Ferry Territory.

Rand's consciousness was not yet fully awake, and he let out a very annoyed sigh in the bed, as if he was angry that a good dream had been disturbed, but three seconds later, Rand's hands and feet were as cold as if he had been splashed with a basin of cold water in his face, and in the blink of an eye he sat up straight, looked at Payne with red eyes, and asked in a trembling voice, "What did you say?"

Payne looked at the tired Rand with a tired face, and lowered his head in shame and did not dare to look into Rand's eyes, the work of guarding the palace has always been in charge of him, just this morning when the servants were cleaning the room, they found that the drawing room on the second floor was pried open, and it was turned into a mess, and the drawings and parchments were all over the ground, after careful investigation, Payne was horrified to find that all the drawings involving the design drawings and methods of the ballista were stolen, and other drawings such as the chariot were also messed up, full of ink and stains, and it looked like an intention to destroy the design progress。

Payne clearly knows what the ballista represents, the appearance of this thing is enough to make the air ferry leader lead the mainland in terms of weapons, and the ability to defend the city has been greatly improved, everything about it is top secret, once it is leaked, then the air ferry domain has just established the advantage will be gone.

When I made my rounds last night, the door of the drawing room was fine, but I didn't expect such a serious theft to occur in just a few hours.

"The blueprints for the ballista, including the armor-piercing arrows, have been stolen!" Payne looked flustered, "The drawing room has been messed up. ”

Rand suddenly felt a tightness in his chest, he forcibly took two deep breaths, and ordered himself to calm down, the blueprint of the ballista is not as important as Payne imagined, once Rand uses this weapon, there will soon be imitations, he is angry that there is always a thief lurking by his side, he is likely to get along with him day and night, and is familiar with the terrain of the palace.

The thief must have someone close to him, such as a guard or a servant, because it is impossible for a fresh face to bypass the patrol and approach Rand's palace, where three guards are constantly patrolling day and night, and if they find a suspicious stranger, they will immediately expel them.

"Check the cooks, servants, watchmen, and guards of the palace, and see if any of them have behaved more abnormally lately. Rand's brain was racing, "Go to the gate guard and ask if there were any guys who were going out of the city in the middle of the night last night." ”

"Do you suspect that the thief is someone who knows us better?" Payne frowned, he also calmed down at this time, he remembered that he was on the second floor, and he did not find any signs of prying in the other rooms, indicating that the thief knew the specific location of the drawing room from the beginning, which also confirmed Rand's suspicion.

There are not many people who are qualified to enter the Rand Palace, and those who can know the specific location of the Rand drawing room are even rarer, although it is not ruled out that someone may have leaked their mouths, but compared to that, the possibility of a thief is greater.

"The ballista had just been built and passed the experiment, and the drawings were immediately stolen, so it seems that he has been staring at me for more than a day or two. Rand frowned, he hated the feeling of being betrayed.

"Let's start investigating, Payne, and I want to know the results before noon. ”

......

The streets are very narrow, and the beggars and the original inhabitants have built sheds out of animal skins and rags, but they still can't resist the cold wind, and people spill feces and urine on the streets, and the air is dirty and disgusting.

The women walked the rocks in the mud, they were unclothed, showing a large area of red skin blown by the cold wind, but the look on their faces was not ashamed, but very numb, they had no way to change the situation, they could not even afford to buy clothes for the winter, they were like most poor people, they endured the torture in silence, and then died of cold and starvation one winter, this is their fate.

They had no fields to cultivate, and the fertile land was divided among the nobles, leaving them with barren mountainous land, rocky and overgrown with weeds, which could not be cultivated at all.

Several scrawny little boys followed behind the woman, their eyes glazed over.

Penn watched the scene, was silent for a moment, and continued to walk deeper into the pig cage, he had seen a more tragic and desolate picture, the nobles had all the resources in their hands, and they could enjoy themselves to their heart's content, while the poor people could only kneel on the ground and pray that the nobles would give them some hard bread to feed the hungry stomachs of the children.

Payne walked slowly, not because he wanted to see the tragic picture for a little longer, but because the mud under his feet had grown thicker and thicker since just now, he walked deeper down the rugged street, followed by two knights with swords behind him in silence.

"Are you sure Marko's hometown lives here?" asked Payne, fanning the foul-smelling air in front of him, at one of the knights behind him.

"Yes, he lived here with his mother for a long time, but when his mother died, he settled in the cabin and never came back. The knight nodded.

Marco, one of the members of Payne's Knights, was supposed to change his guard last night, but he didn't wait for his figure all night, and no one found out his whereabouts until he got up early this morning, which greatly aroused Payne's suspicions, and after asking everyone to no avail, Payne led two knights to the residence where Marco once lived, ready to look for some valuable clues.

"If ......," Penn sighed, Marco was from a poor family and worked hard to become a knight, and Payne had a good impression of him, and from the bottom of his heart, Payne didn't want the thief to be him.

"My lord, I have inquired with the residents of the neighborhood that Marco did come back here in the early hours of last night, and not alone, he has a companion. "One of the knights in charge of the investigation said with a serious expression, "The resident said that Marco was panicking and arguing loudly with his companions, as if the price and remuneration were mentioned. ”

"My lord, it could really be him!"

"I will interrogate him myself, and if he violates the rules of knighthood, and commits theft and betrayal of the lord, I will not show mercy!" Payne stared at the wooden house in front of him, the wooden door was hidden, "go and see if there are any clues." ”

"Squeak...... a knight pushed open the broken wooden door that had fallen into disrepair, and walked in with his head down, and a moment later, the knight's voice was heard inside.

"My lord, I don't think you need to interrogate Marco anymore. ”

"Why?" said Payne's heart.

"Because the dead can't answer your questions. ”