In the north of the Tansfogg continent, 10 miles outside the main city of Serdia, Silbera, a cavalry formation of ten people was shuttling through the forest path of the Tung Forest.

They were from Silbela, dressed in improvised protective gear and with a saber at their waists, and the group was made up of young men, except for the older leader.

"What do you say about the past few months, from time to time there are some strange things, such as our mission today, going out to investigate the collective disappearance of the patrol team, this is not a good errand, there is no oil and water at all. A blue-eyed, brown-haired young man named John in the team chattered and complained, apparently tired of the job.

"Youshui, you always worry about oil, we have to find something to do, to prove that we are really doing practical things after we get a salary, besides, our Cerdia economy has not been in recession for a year or two, and the old and young of the family are still counting on my salary. The rest of the team spoke.

"So shut your foul mouth, little John, he's right, lose this bullshit job, and you're not far from those skinny beggars on the corner. The leader remembered his distant relatives, who had either starved to death without a job during the great famine in previous years, or went crazy to steal corn from the manor, and then were caught and nailed to death at the city gate.

"It's as if we can buy a lot of things with this salary, and I only pay 20 cats a month, and I can't even afford to buy a brioche bread for my sister during the holidays. As he spoke, John tightened his windy collar, when suddenly his horse was frightened, barked uneasily, and sprang in circles.

After finally pulling the reins to control the situation, the leader drew his saber, said "keep up", and led the team slowly towards the south.

Bypassing a few stout trees, they spotted a man lying on his stomach facing the ground by the edge of the tree not far away, dressed as a Serdian soldier, his clothes and armor appeared to be intact, but his appearance was stained with a few places of dark red blood that had coagulated.

"John, you go and scout the situation. The leader looked around vigilantly and said this.

"I wish he was just a drunken soldier. John rode over reluctantly, but there was a laugh behind him - "Are you blind, if he is drunk, I will give you 10 carttes!"

"Hey, man, are you alright, wake up. John dismounted, and there was a field of dirt beside the tree, and there were no other people's footprints.

It was quiet, not like it was sleepy. When John saw that the man on the ground was not moving, he turned the man's body over with his hand.

"Ahh I saw that the man on the ground straightened his stiff body, and when he turned over, his eyes were festering to black—as if they had been burned by fire, and the skin at the corners of his eyes had turned burnt. Look at the corners of the corpse's mouth, there are more blood stains there, and when you open the mouth, you can see that the tongue has been cut off by the roots, and it is neat.

"This smell, it's really nastic... Ahem... Judging by the changes in his face since his death, as well as the Celdia dagger he was wearing, it should be a missing patrol member, and he can't be wrong. The leader pinched his nose and got off the horse, rummaged through the belongings on the corpse, and found a patrol order, "This person should be the leader of the patrol team, I don't know who I met, and I was subjected to such a cruel poison." ”

"Who is crazy enough to dare to attack a patrol near Silbera, and is it the exiled prisoners who escaped from the city to do it?"

"It's not like it, the carts on the corpses are still there, and they shouldn't be here for the money. The team leader found more than a dozen carts and quietly left a few in his pocket.

"The purpose of the perpetrator is to kill him?"

"It's unlikely, according to military regulations, he is not the only one in the patrol, he should have taken the rest of the team with him at that time, you are all looking around, maybe there will be new discoveries. ”

After receiving the order, the team members dispersed, searching for the rest of the team in the nearby bush.

"Come on!" Soon, the team members from the north made a new discovery.

"I've got that too!"

"I've got two corpses here!"

"Damn, is this a cemetery. When the leader heard the voice, he hurried over, and there were several corpses on the north, west, and east, and the corpses were also in the appearance of Serdia's soldiers, with blood on their mouths, their tongues cut out, their eyes blinded, and no scars on their bodies, except for a few wisps of blood in the corners of their clothes, which seemed to have been splashed during the torture.

After counting, there were six corpses in the east, west, north and south combined.

"There were no traces of resistance and fighting, and the footprints were not messy, they should have been patrolling until this time, and they fled around after being frightened when they encountered something, but they still couldn't escape the vicious claws of the assailant. ”

"Look at the tree!" one of the team members cried out in horror as he pointed to the nearby tung tree.

Looking in the direction he pointed, everyone saw a horrific scene—they saw that the tree had six bloody tongues on its body, and they were regularly arranged into six slashes, and the slashes were in pairs of two, which were spread out from top to bottom in a right-angled shape, forming a strange and special pattern.

"This mark!" the leader recognized the source of this pattern after thinking about it in his mind, "I remember, this is the symbol of Noze, the six-striped flag!"

"Noze's six-striped banner?" The team exploded in an instant, all possibilities were ruled out, and it seemed that only the rest of the countries were left with the forces that dared to take the lives of Serdia's soldiers.

"It's a big thing, it's going to be a big thing, bring me all the corpses back to the city quickly, and we have to report this to the House!" the leader did not forget to cut off the bark, and after giving the order, he rode his horse and led the way towards Silbela.