9 There are many doubts

At night, a curfew was imposed in the city of Ancessen, shops were closed, homes were closed, and even beggars on the streets gathered in shantytowns in the ghetto. Soldiers on patrol are required to light torches, otherwise they will be treated as enemy spies. Without the vigor and vitality of the past, the entire city of Ansesen fell into silence.

On the outskirts of the city were the United Kingdom troops, intending to use the siege to exhaust the city's fighting power or attract reinforcements from the Empire. Besieging a city is a wise move, as long as it is consumed, your side has a great chance of winning, and siege is the last and last option, even if the commander of the United Kingdom army is stupid, he will not order his men to attack such a fortified city.

In the castle, Erin has returned to her room, and as the liaison between the church and the castle, she is able to participate in the operational missions offered by either party, a position that is very satisfying for her, who has always sought to prove herself with her actions.

Next to Erin's bed was her bolt-action rifle and a bag containing some iron pieces and rifle bullets - this was produced by the newly built weapons factory of the Splett Empire, and the production and inspection methods of bullets were epoch-making, but due to the high demand for process accuracy and human resources, the output has not been increased, and only a small part has been produced, so the bullets in the bag are very expensive, and ordinary people cannot afford and cannot buy them. Erin picked up an empty magazine (bridge clip) and held it firmly on the table with one hand, and picked up the bullet with the other hand and pressed the bullet into the magazine, one magazine can hold five bullets, and the bag contains only twenty-five bullets.

After pressing the first set of magazines, Erin wanted to get the second empty magazine, but her hand stopped in mid-air, lost in thought, and remembered what the wind chimes had just said......

“…… There are many doubts, but let's just talk about the main ones. Wind Chime said, pointing to the portraits of the Risen family members in the hallway by the light of the oil lamp, "You should have noticed that the leader of the Risen family wears a ring decorated with the family crest on his right index finger, because it is a special rule of the family. Erin looked at the portrait pointed by the wind chime, not only the one in front of her, but the portraits of all the family leaders proved what the wind chime said.

"Do you remember on which hand the ring on the body was?" Wind Chime asked, and of course Erin remembered—on the ring finger of her left hand.

Without waiting for Erin to answer or confirm, Wind Chime continued, "If I am not mistaken, Duke Ryson was killed in the bath, when he took off his clothes and ring, and after his death, someone helped him put them on, disguised as if he had been poisoned by eating. Because she didn't know how the Risen family wore the ring, she brought the wrong finger, and because her body was wet when she was wearing it, her clothes were a little wrinkled...... "Erin also remembered that this was indeed the case when she looked at the body.

"And the poison is poured into the person after death, so the throat part is purple, because the poison can only go there, and it is not swallowed into the stomach." Wind Chime let out a long breath, "Why do you hide your death, if it is an assassin sent by the enemy, is it necessary to do so?" ”

"Then why are you suspicious of Sevia?" Erin finally responded, her tone was cold, as if she was fighting back against a provocation, if an angry gaze can kill someone, then Erin's gaze is the best weapon.

"When you said you were going to be alone for a while, I took advantage of that time to go to the duke's valet," the wind chime was not frightened by Irene's momentum, and she said confidently, "He said that the duke would not even let the servants in when he was bathing, and could only knock on the door to report the news. However, before the Duke was killed last night, he made an exception to meet a person in the bath—" The corners of Erin's mouth began to twitch when she heard this, and her hands trembled.

"—His chief lieutenant, Severia, because there is an urgent military situation to report, the Duke will not delay such an urgent matter. After that, Sevia brought dinner to the duke, and when the valet went to collect the dishes, he saw the duke, who was nothing more than a body......"

Erin's eyes drooped, and she thought about the words of the wind chime repeatedly in her head, what she said was not confirmed by herself, but there were indeed many suspicious things about the body of Duke Risson, and if the matter about the valet was also true, then Sevia was indeed very suspicious.

Hesitating and skeptical, she picked up the empty magazine with one hand and began to press the bullet with the other...... One, two, three......

"In addition, as for the content of the enemy's letter of persuasion, I suspect that it was a premeditated show." Wind Chime began to recount another major suspicion she had observed, "In the course of war, we always have to think about what our opponents think, and if the British army learns of the death of the Duke of Risson, what should they do best? It is an attack, not a persuasion. ”

"The fortifications of Anseson City are too strong, and of course they don't dare to attack easily." Erin retorted.

"Then the point of assassination is gone." "Even if it's just a simple tentative attack, they didn't do it, and if they can let people infiltrate and assassinate the duke, then it's not difficult for a few people to come in and destroy the city defenses." However, after the death of the duke, they almost did not move, and from last night to this day, they only silently surrounded them, and did nothing. Even the soldiers on both sides did not start fighting, so they first sent a letter of persuasion to surrender, and persuaded the deputy commander to surrender by name; What's more, killing the leader here first aroused the hatred of the defenders, and the chance of success in persuading the surrender would be even lower, and the commander of the United Kingdom army should not be so illogical. I don't think the besieging army outside even knows that Duke Risen is dead......"

The second set of magazines was pressed, and Erin placed it next to the first. She loves Sevia, admires his courage and wisdom, and admires his strength and perseverance, but every paragraph of the wind chime invisibly flattens the unattainable mountain in her mind step by step, and finally has to dig it into a ravine and step on two feet, she began to hate the wind chimes a little, but ......

Erin picked up a third empty magazine, this time grabbing a handful of bullets and pressing them into the empty magazine alternately with her fingers. She knows very well that these small bullets can easily take a person's life. In war, how many lives are easily taken, if the death of a person is a family tragedy, then the death of 100,000 or a million people is just cold statistics...... More than three years ago, Erin failed to fight the djinn on the battlefield, but she joined the Imperial Army's medical team, and saw countless lives under her hands like dead weeds on the grassland, leaving this world with ease, without a sound. When she bandaged the wounded for the first time, she vomited from the shock...... But when she bandaged the wounded for the hundredth time, she was also numb......

"Can I really face it?" Erin asked herself.

"Then why are you telling me this, don't you know my relationship with him?" Erin angrily asks Wind Chime, who she thinks is nonsense, and that Sevia, whom she loves and trusts deeply, has nothing to do with the Duke's death.

"I want to protect you," said the wind chime, "and if Savia has anything to do with Duke Risson's death, then you may one day be easily eliminated by him like a tool." ”

"Then you don't have to come to save me, besides, you don't have real evidence!" Erin is stubborn, and she does not allow the wind chimes to tarnish her trust and affection for Severa.

“…… It's time for me to go, it's curfew soon......" Wind Chime said, not responding to Erin's words.

Erin thought to herself, "Get out of here", and watched the wind chimes leave. From gratitude and closeness at the beginning, to suspicion and anger now, the image of the wind chime has changed subversively in Erin's heart - because of her love for Sevia.

As soon as the wind chimes disappeared from her gaze, she immediately went to the duke's valet to confirm what the wind chimes had said, but unfortunately, what the wind chimes said was all true. And the valet also revealed one thing to Erin: the criminal who assassinated the duke was expelled because he molested the noble women in the city, not only magic, but also fighting and sneaking, where would the enemy let such a person do such a high-risk thing? And how was he able to return to the city, enter the more heavily guarded castle, complete this assassination, and disguise his death?

There are indeed too many doubts......

Erin hadn't killed anyone with her own hands, she had fired many shots, but she had never confirmed that she had shot at humans, and the non-human shadows in the desert were the targets she had fired at for the first time in battle. But she understands the brutality of the battlefield, and sometimes she has to consider the influence of politics on the battlefield, and the conspiracy can sometimes be like a poisonous snake, shuttling between fear and suspicion, and the originally united army can collapse in an instant. She had loaded all her magazines, lined them up neatly on the table, and pulled out two of them and put them in her pocket.

"Would you like to check with him?" Erin asked herself.

Erin stood up lightly and walked to the door, hesitating to go to Sevia. She was terrified, her heart beat faster, her fingers trembled, and her body began to sway...... She gripped her rifle in a ghostly manner, and instantly felt a sense of relief and relief, a sense of security rising from the bottom of her heart, burying her fear in the depths......

It was nearly midnight, and Erin walked out of the room with her rifle in her hand—in the castle, carrying a weapon without asking for permission was a crime. But she was anxious to regain her trust in Sevia, and she was even more afraid to confirm the truth, and she couldn't care so much about it.

In the darkness of the castle, a pair of eyes were silently staring at Erin......