The Edward family behind the nezumi has undoubtedly caused a lot of trouble for the rats. However, due to the sheer number of nezumi and the fact that their distribution was not at all as regular as that of the human army, the rest of the human soldiers were completely unaware of this, except for the Iron Knight on the city wall, who had a great instinct to find out about it. After all, in front of them, the number of nezumi is still undiminished.

But on the sand table in the command room of the Witch's House, Roland could clearly see that the power of the nezumi had been cleared by nearly one-tenth, and then he gave an order to the resentful spirits around him to ask the ghouls to withdraw from the battlefield and withdraw from the battlefield. The task of causing chaos within the nezumi and buying time for humanity to regain its strength has been accomplished, and there is no need to throw the strongest troops currently in their hands into an endless stalemate.

The wraith received the order and disappeared into the shadows of the lamplight, leaving the old man as the commander rubbing his aching muscles. Roland's big hat was placed on the side of the sand table, and after a whole day of commanding, the old man could no longer care about maintaining his image, fatigue made him realize that he was no longer young, and at the same time made him understand that it was better for him to hand over the command to someone else before he had made a mistake because of this.

"Ms. Aemia. The magician turned to the witch who was sitting and resting. But Aemia didn't react, and the witch's eyes stared blankly ahead, not knowing what she was thinking. Roland shook his head slightly, in fact, Emia had been like this since she returned from solving the plague crisis.

"Lady Aemia!" said the old man in desperation, raising his voice.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Mr. Roland. I was distracted. Awakened, Emia smiled apologetically as she got up from her chair, "Is there anything I need help with?"

"Nothing. Looking at the other party's haggard appearance, the old man dispelled the idea of handing over the command to Emia, she looked like she needed more rest than Roland, "I want to tell you, you'd better go and rest." You don't look good right now. ”

"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Roland. But I can't rest yet, especially now. The witch could tell that there was no malice in the old man's words, and she looked at the various chess pieces representing enemies and allies on the sand table, and rejected Roland's suggestion. This is indeed not the time to rest, nor is it the time to dwell on the nightmares of the past.

"Are you worried about Colanty?" asked the old man, taking a puff on his pipe. He could think of the thing that worried the witch so much was her daughter, who had followed Cheese to the Apothecary's Guild and had not returned. Although Roland has never had children, there are still a few juniors close to him in his life, and the old man can understand this concern.

"No, Colanty has grown up. She had to face her life and learn how to live. What's more, since Mr. Cheese has promised her that she is safe and sound, then I choose to believe it. Shaking her head slightly, Emia really didn't care as much about her daughter's safety as Roland thought. Since the ring on the mage's hand is still there, it means that Kolandi must still be alive, and as long as the little witch is not dead, Aemia believes that her situation will definitely not be worse than in the royal capital.

In fact, after confirming that the witches, led by Kouira, had arrived in the royal capital, Aemia even secretly rejoiced at Kolanty's surprise. Because from then on, even she wasn't sure if she would leave the city alive. It was at this time, in the witch's perception, that the door to the building was opened. Cheese's magic reaction appears on the porch, and the gray-robed mage returns.

"Bang!" the heavy apothecary's log was casually thrown next to the sand table by Cheese, who approached the room, and Cheese looked at the situation in the royal capital on the sand table with a gloomy face.

"How's it going?" Roland asked, puffing on his cigarette and raising an eyebrow. Although judging from the mage's expression, he should not be very happy, but what happened to the Apothecary Association at night still needs to be asked.

"It sucks. After thinking about it for a long time, Cheese uttered these two words. He let out a long sigh, as if he wanted to sigh out all the unhappiness in his heart. He then sat down behind the empty object, and interestingly, instead of sitting on the ground, an invisible chair caught his body, allowing Cheese to explain the results of his thoughts along the way in the most accustomed posture.

"We started thinking in the wrong direction. The mage pressed his left leg against his right leg, supported the invisible armrest with his elbows, and pressed the fingers of both hands against each other, looking at the sand table in front of him.

"I got involved in this because of a trial. This made me ignore the question of why such a plague was happening here and now. The Nezumi Plague was clearly not a simple natural disaster, but a curse orchestrated and spread by some people. So, who's going to profit from this, and who's going to lose so much from this plague?"

"All along, I've been blindly tracking the spread of the plague in an attempt to put an end to it. But I didn't expect that I had been pulled into this fog unknowingly, forgetting the most important thing. Liches, cultists, bewitched mortals, demons and their summoners. These guys may not have been all the way, not in the first place, and they probably had their own reasons for getting caught up in the game, just like me. ”

"It was the new witches who made me think this way. Their presence was too coincidental. While Greene's death was a good reason for them to go on a rampage, if it were me, I would never let a traitor die, knowing that it was a whole group of witches who hunted her down. ”

Cheese's words made both Roland and Amia frown, and the witch's eyes flickered, and she thought of many things. Something that could not be explained before, but could only be understood as a coincidence, was slowly connected together under the mage's inference, forming a clear vein.

"You mean, someone deliberately brought them in at this point in time?" said the old magician, putting down his pipe, the subject leaving him no longer on the subject.

"Exactly. Even I guess it's probably not just the witches, but your presence is in the other side's plans. Otherwise, a wanderer like you would have come to this small and remote country at this moment, and you also happened to save me from being swept away by the turbulence of magic, which is completely unreasonable, isn't it? ”

"Listening to what you kid said, I didn't know what I thought at the time, so I wanted to come to the lion for two days. Roland nodded and said.

"But what's the use of knowing that?" the witch asked, interrupting the conversation, "I mean, even if we were all like you said, we were treated like pawns on a chessboard, but every battle you and we have had so far has been true. Even if we guessed that we were being used, but how?"

"Purpose, ma'am, purpose. The mage said lightly tapping on the unseen handrail.

"Once we understand the intent of the Messenger, we have the opportunity to counter the Guest and anticipate the next move by guessing his purpose. Roland also said.

"That's right! Now that I think about it, the fact that the lich and I were caught up in a magical turbulence seems very suspicious. It's as if the other party deliberately threw me into the quagmire of the royal capital, and then used the bait of the fake baron to firmly trap me here, so that I had no time to take care of him. Now even such a large-scale nezumi attack has been launched, which is not in line with the habits of the nezumi at all, is it? ”

"Well, gentlemen, I'm a little out of step with you. Can you just share your conclusions? Emia rubbed her forehead, saying that she really couldn't keep up with Cheese and Roland's train of thought.

"My conclusion?" said this, the mage smiled, and with a flick of his flick, an invisible blade flew over the sand table and hit the map of the Grey Lion hanging on the wall. A small hole appeared in the map that was hit, and the location of this small hole was in the Dukedom of Hammer, Molten Iron City.