The axe cracked through the skull beneath the cortex, and the last of the castle guards to resist fell to the ground with their legs limp. Crane withdrew his axe from the enemy's flowering head, exhaled and looked around, to find that the platform on the roof of the castle was finally under the complete control of his own men.

During the attack on the castle, Arroyo assigned the elite personnel of the Brotherhood of Thieves to Arno and Scott, and gave most of the militia of Bunigs to the leadership of this middle-aged man who claimed to have been a mercenary in the past and performed well in battle, so the development of things had the current result, the killers of the Nightspawn seemed to have retreated under the opposition of the Brotherhood members, and the castle defenders, whose morale had already fallen to a low point, either chose to disarm and surrender, Either they put up pointless resistance to the end, or they fulfilled their foolish loyalty to their lords until the last moment.

"Uncle Clonde!" Shouts came from behind him. Crane heard the familiar voice, and then turned back to see his nephew, Randy, approaching him with a spear and a few other young men with their weapons.

"It feels like you've won a battle." Beside Kronde, a bald black man about his age carried a sledgehammer of iron on his shoulder, and looked at the young men with Kronde, and said with a bit of a barbarian accent in the western region of the Faentan Empire, "Your nephew has grown up. ”

"Of course, that's my boy." Clonde grinned proudly, but as soon as he said something was wrong, he added, "Oh no...... I mean, his mother's man is my cousin's husband, but I raised this child since I was a child, haha. ”

With that, the boy named Randy and his little comrades had already come to Crone and the bald black man. Randy looked back at his companion behind him, then raised his spear to his side and turned his head back to report to Clonde, "Uncle Clonde, Mr. Arno and Mr. Scott have sent word that the red-eyed Assassins have all been repulsed, and they have jumped out of the castle window and fled out of the city. ”

"Good." Kronde nodded, "What about you?" I remember a few of you volunteering to patrol the corridors, and did you encounter any remnants of enemies? ”

"Met a lone red-eyed assassin who was mortally wounded and defeated by us." Randy clenched the spear in his hand, and his voice suddenly became a little muffled, "But Ron was replaced by him...... The Assassin attacked us first, and he killed Ron, but I avenged Ron with this spear with my own hands. ”

With that, he gritted his teeth, clenched the spear in his hand, and turned sideways to let the other lads behind him carry over a young man with a sackcloth on his face. Kronde was stunned for a moment, and then noticed that the young man's small group was one less than before he set off.

The lads carried the bodies of their companions in the direction of Kronde, and then stepped aside without saying a word. Clonde fell silent, glancing at the bald black man beside him, then crouched down and reached out to slowly uncover the old linen cloth covering the corpse's face, and then confirmed that the deceased named Ron was the only son of their neighbor's family.

Randy choked in his throat and quickly raised his arm to wipe his eyes. Crowne took a deep breath, covered the sackcloth from the dead boy's face, stood up and stroked his nephew's head, then sighed at the breath he had just inhaled, turned to the militiamen who were gathering and said, "Go and ring the bell." The Baron of Torrenster made an appointment with us, and when we took control of the castle, we went to ring the bell on the castle bell tower to signal our victory...... Tonight was unbelievable, but we were victorious. ”

As he had finished speaking, the militiamen looked at each other, nodded to each other, and then, as Clonde had arranged, ran to a ladder on the roof of the building, ready to climb up the bell tower to ring the bell that would prove their victory.

"Uncle Crown, are we going to fight like we did tonight?" After a while, Randy looked down at Ron's body a few more times with some sadness, then raised his head again and asked his uncle, "Although I had been thinking about fighting Singler before tonight, after this battle, I realized that the battle is really dead, and the friend I know is standing next to me one second, and the next second he may fall down...... Fighting isn't a good thing, I'm not afraid to fight those brutes anymore, but I really hate fighting anymore, and those heroic stories of kid coaxing are fake. ”

Crowne turned his gaze back to the young man, pursed his lips, placed his thick palm on his shoulder, looked into his eyes and replied, "yes, Randy, fighting has never been a good thing. Fighting will kill people, but in this era, battle will always find you, and what we can do is to show the courage and consciousness to be ready for battle at any time. ”

"But courage and consciousness don't solve everything." Randy raised his head and looked deeply into Crown's eyes, "If the farce here keeps going on and on somewhere else, then this country needs to change, because something must be wrong with it." ”

"That's the responsibility of the nobles, and it has nothing to do with us little commoners." Clonde shook his head, "Remember, Randy, we are not nobles, we are born to rely on our own strength to fight for our happiness, not to sit back and relax like those old men. We can't change the country, but we can change the way around us, unite for the common good of ourselves and our fellow travelers, or follow a wise leader who can guide us to the future. ”

"Is His Majesty worthy of our trust?" Randy tries to get an answer from his uncle's eyes.

"No, Your Majesty has been there for a long time." Knowing that Randy was referring to His Majesty, he naturally meant King Bagh, so he casually denied it without even thinking about it, "Besides, the royal city is too far away from us, and Your Majesty can't manage it here." ”

"What about Lord Baron Torrenster?" The boy's eyes dimmed for a moment, but they soon lit up again.

"Who knows." The middle-aged man shrugged, "But then again, I really didn't expect him to be willing to stand up for another nobleman for us commoners...... He was a man of integrity, and I respected him even if that integrity didn't match the talents he should have. ”

After the words fell, this middle-aged man looked up at the night sky, remembering that a few years ago in the wasteland under the city of Thorns, west of the Violet King Perades, the night sky there was as dark as it was seen tonight under the smoke of another war, but the difference from this moment was that he could faintly see a little light of hope from this dark night, and at that time there was only powerless despair in the eyes of people.

**************

With the exception of Freyr, who claimed to have foreseen the future, everyone present witnessed in amazement what was happening before their eyes. In front of everyone's eyes, the knight in silver armor drew his broadsword from the bleeding corpse of Baron Singler in full view of everyone's shocked eyes, and then turned to face the people who had not yet recovered from their surprise.

"You...... Who exactly is it? Arroyo got up from the ground clutching the wound on his shoulder, and looked at the silver-armored knight in a daze. The dozen or so Boenguez militiamen brought by Ferrandon and Arroyo had already gathered around Arroyo to protect him at this time, and the strength of the Silver Knights was all witnessed, and no one dared to take this guy who was not sure whether he was friend or foe lightly.

However, just when everyone did not dare to relax their nerves, Freel came to Arroyo's side with his crutches as if he was nothing, and asked the silver-armored knight with a smile on his face: "Knight of the Thorn Vine, why don't you kneel down to him when the descendants of Fillandz are standing before you now?" ”

As soon as the blind half-elf poet said this, the silver-armored knight tilted his head, his gaze peeking through the gap in his helmet and carefully examining Arroyo for a few moments.

Then, he tucked the broadsword in his hand into the scabbard that hung from his waist, raised his hands and loosened the helmet, plucking it from his head and tucking it under his armpits, revealing a pair of pointed ears, elven standard blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and a handsome face.

The blonde knight who took off his helmet was no more than thirty years old, based on human age. The blonde-haired, pointy-eared knight's eyes looked at Arroyo calmly, then he took a half-step forward and crouched down on his knees, bowed respectfully to Arroyo, and said in a solemn and humble voice, "Captain of the Thorn Vine, Draco Barton, knock to see my king. ”

"Wait, wait, who did you just say you were going to meet?" Arroyo stared blankly at the Silver-Armored Knight who called himself Draco Barton, and his head froze for a moment.

In fact, as soon as Draco's words came out, not only Arroyo himself, but even Ferrandon and the militia members present looked at each other with a puzzled expression.

Feeling that the atmosphere of the scene suddenly became a little weird, Freel stood up again in time and explained to Arroyo, "As Knight Draco and the following said, your lordship has the blood of the former King Atrik's Phillandez in your body, and you are a true Violet royal family. ”

"You say Arroyo is a member of the Fillandz family?" Ferrandon stared at Frell in disbelief, "This is outrageous...... Do you have any evidence to prove it? ”

"Of course, beautiful Lady Ferrandon." Freire kept a smile on his face, then took out the ring he had just picked up from the wall when he had just squatted down and said to Arroyo and Ferrandon, "The name of this ring is [Ring of Green Vitex], and it is a [Heroic Contract]. ”

"Heroic Contract?" Arroyo frowned slightly, "So what?" ”

"The so-called Immortal Contract, simply put, is an item used to sign a contract with [Immortal]." This time, it was Draco's turn to be the blonde knight in silver armor raised his head and personally answered Arroyo, "O current king of Fairlandz, I am an alien knight who followed His Majesty Atrik in the founding era of Violet Lauraine, and I am a member of the Legion of Thorn Vine under His Majesty's command, and I am forever proud of the fact that His Majesty the Ancestor gave me the surname of Woolbarton and canonized me as a knight of his army. On the occasion of the death of the First Monarch, all of our Legions of Green Vitis voluntarily gave up their right to requiem into the Land of the Dead after death, and under the auspices of the Celebrant Lord Varneo, all of them became Heroic Spirits and settled in this ring, so that future generations could continue to be loyal to the descendants of the First Emperor and thus repay His Majesty's unparalleled kindness to us. We had been blinded by the evil alchemists of the Zingler and vampire clans, and if it had not been for the removal of this curse from my sword by your blood, Your Majesty, we don't know when our long-cherished wish would have been fulfilled again. ”

"So, now you are not a living person, but a heroic spirit who lives in that green vine ring?" Arroyo understood a little, "But, did you misunderstand something?" The gods are above, and I am not the king to whom your legions are allegiated. ”

"Indeed, until the official coronation of the throne, the king's son will always be a prince." Freel answered Arroyo's next question, "So, Knight Draco, the prince standing before you at this moment is indeed a descendant of the Fillandz bloodline, but he is not yet a king. ”

"In other words, His Highness has not yet been crowned?"

"Exactly."

Between the questions and answers, the knight in silver armor and the blind poet looked at each other for a second, and then the knight, who claimed to be a heroic spirit, told Arroyo: "Then please forgive me for my rudeness, and ask Your Highness to accept my loyalty in the name of the prince." If His Highness still has doubts about his own bloodline, then please take the ring from the hands of this half-elf gentleman. Your Highness wears the ring on your finger, and Your Highness will see the legacy left to your Highness by the Emperor in the world of the ring. ”

After he finished speaking, Freire then cooperated and handed the ring in his hand to Arroyo. Arroyo took the ring from the red-haired Blood Maiden, hesitantly observed the ring for two seconds, then slipped it into the middle finger of his right hand as Draco had instructed.

The next moment, as if he had traveled through the constraints of time and space to a world, Arroyo felt his head empty, and the world in front of him turned into a white expanse in an instant, and then quickly appeared in his field of vision into another vast coastal plain.

His eyes looked down from the sky from a bird's-eye view, and he saw a bustling city in the middle of the plain, surrounded by a barracks guarding the city and a church for citizens and soldiers to pray, and a wharf on the bank of the river on the outskirts of the city where several cargo ships were parked.

The strange sight lasted in his eyes for a few seconds, then turned back to a pure white of nothing the moment he came to his senses, and then returned his vision to normal, back to the secret passage of Baron Boenigs' castle.

"What was the picture I just saw?" Arroyo buried her head in a bit of vertigo and raised a hand to cover her forehead.

"It's a world in the contract, and it's now equivalent to an independent plane for your own Highness." Draco replied, "The members of our Ivy Legion are stationed in the barracks of that world, coexisting with the surrounding cities, praying to the Ancestors in the churches there, waiting for His Highness's order to summon us from the Lord of the Rings to this world. ”

“…… Well, whether I'm the one your legion is after or not, I'll leave you at stake for now. Covering his forehead in contemplation for a while, Arroyo felt that he had digested such a large amount of information for a while, and then waved his hand to show that he believed Draco.

Then he turned his head to Freir to ask more about the half-elven poet who claimed to have the Prophet's Eye, to find out how far this fellow who always had a confident smile on his face could see through his blind eyes in the future, and how much he knew about himself hidden in his mind without telling him beforehand.

That's when it happened.

"Knock-, knock-, knock-"

"Arroyo, it's the bell." Ferrandon closed his eyes and listened to the sound coming from the direction he had come, and immediately relayed the sound he had heard to Arroyo.

The bells from the castle's bell tower prove that the Brotherhood of Thieves and the militia forces of Boenigs have taken complete control of the castle, which once belonged to Baron Singel.

Arroyo blinked, looking back in a trance, and suddenly an unreal illusion enveloped him in his mind.

He had the illusion that the long secret passage in front of him was just beginning, as if the future he was about to face. At the end of the night's fighting, the charges of rebellion were branded on all of them according to the laws of the kingdom, and the only way to turn back was completely blocked, and the only way to move on was to move on.

Perhaps aware of a responsibility, or perhaps just unprepared to face all this, this young thief who had only spent his life as a nameless thief in the history of another time and space suddenly felt that an invisible burden had been pressed on his shoulders.

He took a deep breath, felt the weight of this burden, and raised his head and stared at the bottomless night sky as if he were looking up at the bottomless night sky through the thick walls of the entire castle's secret passages, but at the same time, far northeast of Boenigs, the young paladin who had been followed by him had also raised his gaze to look up at the same night sky as him.

"Finn, what are you looking at?" At the exit of the northern part of the Dagger Forest, Leah followed Finn out of the wooded area, looked up at the sky with curious eyes, and then lowered his gaze to the latter and asked.

"It's nothing, just remembering a friend who I haven't been separated from for a long time." Carrying the moonlight greatsword that had been wrapped in a long cloth, Finn smiled relaxedly and looked back at his companion behind him, "So, let's move on, Leah, Arya, Camussa, Lilith. ”

…… (To be continued.) )