Artemis waited in the hallway, leaning against the windowsill, behind her father's room. She had been waiting here since Manfred began to operate on her father, and before she knew it, the eastern sky was already lit up with a white belly. This tumultuous and unexpected night is almost over.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and Atmiss looked back to see that it was Yang standing behind her.

Yang handed her a cup of hot milk. "It's been all night, aren't you going to rest?" the rare softness of his neutral voice, which was between teenager and youth, comforted Artmis.

"If I go to rest now, then there really won't be anyone to direct the thirteenth lesson. Artemis shook his head, then turned to look at the unclear sky, "What's going on with the Metternich family?"

"I've sent someone to monitor it, and there is no news yet. Yang stood straight behind Artemis with his hands behind his back, "What the hell is going on, he shouldn't have been hurt like this so easily." ”

"I don't know. Atmiss lowered his eyes slightly, looking at the ripples of milk in the glass, "He said he was going to observe Jericho and Metternich to find out if there was any secret between them, and after a while he became like that." ”

"Did Jerry Co do it?" said Yang, frowning.

"Not sure, but he's the most likely at the moment, and the details won't be known until Dad wakes up. ”

What if I can't wake up?, Yang quietly glanced at his sister beside him, and thought secretly in his heart.

"Still, this guy is as pedantic as ever! Do you know what he said to me when he was dying?" Seeing Young shake his head, Artemis said with a mocking smile, "He told me to say hello to Metternich before leaving, otherwise it would be too rude." Oh, he's dying, and all he wants is to maintain his aristocratic demeanor. ”

Yang didn't laugh, it wasn't funny to him. "Do you want me to write a report to the Tiamat Palace?" he asked quietly.

"Now my father is like this, and only I went into the palace to explain it to the emperor on his behalf. Hey, I don't want to go. "Although she took on the responsibility of the Hecate family and the Thirteen Lessons after the Earl's coma, Artemis still hated these things in her bones, even if she can actually do them well.

"You usually say that you don't like the family and the heavy responsibilities of the Thirteen Lessons, but when it comes to this, you will still take on it. What a duplicitous person. ”

"I really don't like it. Attmis's eyes were lowered, her long eyelashes quivering, as if to speak of her melancholy, "because once I take over this responsibility, I will inevitably lose something." ”

"But you'll get something, too. ”

"Those things don......" Artemis blew on the steaming milk, "it doesn't matter. ”

Outside the window, a man wrapped in a black cloak rode into the gates of Fort Govelenburg on horseback. Although it was strange why someone was here at this time, because the Count was still in surgery, Artemis had to personally receive the sudden guest. She turned away, leaving her finished mug on the windowsill.

Yang picked up the quilt like a housekeeper who cleaned up after the eldest lady who littered her things.

"It doesn't matter to you, but to me, that's what it means for me to struggle, sister. Shrouded in the last darkness before dawn, Young looked at Artmis's distant back, his eyes shining with a hideous light.

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And while the siblings were talking, in the Earl's room across the wall from them, Count Hecate slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing that caught his eye was the bare back of Manfred's head.

"Yo, your face looks bad. Manfred stood in front of the window, and he opened the taut curtains a crack and looked out.

"Manfred......," Count Hecate spat out a few words weakly.

"I'm curious who made you look like this, the wound is both torn and cut by something sharp, and it looks like a piece of meat has been pinched off by the pincers of a giant crab. ”

"Jericho......" The Earl's weak body could not even support him to speak, "Beware of Jericho......"

Manfred turned his back to Count Hecate and nodded, signaling that he understood.

The Count could not stay awake for long, and soon he closed his eyes again and fell into a deep sleep. Knowing that the Count had fallen into a complete coma, Manfred turned around, and if the Count was awake, he would have seen two bloody tears on Manfred's face.

The Count's sobriety was not accidental, in fact, it was Manfred who woke the Count from his post-operative sleep. He tried to search the Count's memories for the memories of the time before he was injured, but for breaking the oath he had made, he was punished by the oath and woke the Count awake.

"Jericho......" muttered Manfred, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he recalled the vague figure he had seen from the count's recollections. Two bloody tears were absorbed by his skin, and soon, there was no trace of it at all.

————————————

"Hello, Miss Hecate, we meet again. When Artemis went downstairs, he was surprised to find that it was Mr. Franz Noe Metternich. The gentleman had hurried from Dwedt to Glamorgan in the middle of the night, and had not slept all night when he saw Artmis, but his voice at least sounded very energetic.

"Hello, Mr. Metternich. Although he was quite surprised at the sight of this gentleman, it soon dawned on Artemis that this Monsieur Metternich must have found the blood stained on the Count in the mansion, and thought of the Count when they left, and assumed that it was the Count of Hecate who had been wounded. However, the fact that he was in such a hurry still made Atmiss very puzzled. Could it be that Daddy had really discovered Metternich and Jericho's secret?" she thought to herself.

Mr. Metternich was not in ordinary anxiety. Not only did he endure the cold and night wind overnight, and drove twenty kilometers to Dweide, but he didn't have time to wait for Artemis in the parlor when he arrived at Govellenburg, so he talked directly to Artmis, who came downstairs, in the antechamber.

"It's a bit surprising that someone as respectful as Count Hecate would get drunk. Is the Count alright?" he spoke to Artemis in a hurry, but his tone was as if he were passing by to see an old friend.

What a diplomat. Artemis sneered inwardly, but on the surface he said with the same hypocrisy as Mr. Metternich: "Father is still sleeping. When he wakes up, I will tell him about your visit, and I am grateful that you have come to care for my father. Artemis bites the word "specially".

"Presumably, it is a shame for the Earl to be drunk, after all, given his position in the Ministry of the Interior, such a thing is not easy to publicize to the public. Franz smiled, as if he hadn't heard Atmis's sarcasm, "But I'm not going to talk nonsense." The Count is a friend of our Metternich family. ”

Artemis furrowed his eyebrows, but did not speak, and continued to listen to Franz.

"I'm embarrassed to say, but what nobleman doesn't have some little secrets in this day and age? However, the aristocracy is a group of people who value elegance and fame, and they are all happy to hide these secrets in good faith, especially to friends, and we Metternich are willing to keep today's secrets for the count, just as everyone has always done, we keep each other's secrets, don't we?" Franz smiled, as if in return, and he bit the word "mutually" very hard.

Artemis roughly understood why the Metternich had come so late, and it seemed that the Count had heard something important to the Metternich in that mansion, which was why they had come in such a hurry to ask the Count and the Hecate family to keep it a secret.

But what exactly is this secret? Artemis thinks that this secret may not be a big secret of life and death for the Metternich family, but a big plan of their family, a big plan related to Jericho. If it was a crime or a secret that was bad for the Empire, they should now be thinking about how to get rid of the Count, instead of running to the castle of the head of the interior to beg him to keep it a secret.

Jericho ...... Artemis meditated on the last name in his mind. Recently, more and more things have happened with this surname, and it has become more and more tricky, as if it were some kind of mysterious curse.

"I'll tell my father that the Hecates are happy to see the generosity of the Metternich and to make friends like Metternich. After some quick mental consideration, Artemis gave a reply with a smile on his face that would satisfy Mr. Metternich.

"That's great news. Hearing Artmis's reply, Franz really smiled, "I'm sorry to bother me late at night, in your appearance, I probably haven't slept all night, please rest early." ”

"Aren't you too?" Atmis, looking at Franz's tired face, sneered in his heart, "Please be safe along the way." ”

"Thank you for your concern, goodbye. ”

Franz didn't say hello to Artmisto, and now there was still a lot of work waiting for him there, and he was really tired.

"Metternich looked nervous, like he had stepped on their tail. After Franz left, Yang also came out of the shadows.

"It seems that this time my dad really discovered a big secret. Artemis sighed, his expression looking rather troubled, "Now we won't know what happened until he wakes up." ”

Half of Young's body was hidden in the shadow of the pillars, and he looked at Artemis with a smirk. "What are you going to do if, I mean if, Metternich and Jericho's secret is a danger to the Empire and the Emperor. ”

"This kind of thing is going to give my dad a headache, I'm tired enough. Artemis shook his head, a little tired on his face.

"You'd better not overwork Your Excellency the Earl lately. The voice came from the stairs, "He needs to get some rest." ”

"Manfred!" Atmiss looked at him in surprise, "How's Daddy?"

"I've just woken up for a while, but I'm asleep now. Let him rest for a while, he needs to recuperate, and don't let him use or touch magic during this time. With that, Manfred glanced at Yang covertly, but the child simply disappeared into the shadow of the pillars. He refused to even pretend, and said that he wanted to get everything. Manfred snorted inwardly, his eyes flashing with imperceptible coldness and disdain.

"By the way!" Artemis remembered what Manfred had told him earlier, "you said his body couldn't stand the erosion of magic anymore, what was that?"

"The wounds he received were torn open by magic. At this, Manfred had a strange and chilling smile on his face, "It's like a pincer made of magic that has torn a piece of flesh and a hole in his abdomen." Moreover, the caster's methods can even be said to be vicious, he is not only creating wounds, he is also taking a part of his life force away from His Excellency the Count. His methods were very rough, and a large amount of excess magic poured into the body of His Excellency the Earl, causing a huge impact on him, probably because of this, His Excellency the Earl could not even cast a magic to save himself. ”

"That sounds ......," Atmiss looked at Manfred with a strange expression.

"Looks like I did it, didn't I?" Manfred laughed, completely unconcerned about Artmis' gaze, "To be honest, at first I thought this guy was so similar to me that I thought he was my imitator or challenger. However, if you look closely, you can see that this guy's methods are not so much deliberately so rough, but that he is too immature. The large amount of excess magic power was not deliberately released by him, but he couldn't control his own power, and His Excellency the Earl could be said to be unlucky. ”

Looking at Manfred, who burst out laughing, Artemis fell into deep thought, and in her mind, there was a face that lingered all the time. "Do you think Jerry Co did it?"

"Which Jericho do you say?" Manfred smiled kindly, and the smile was distinctly ominous, "Viscount Ernest No. Jericho, or Count Swain No. Jericho?"

"I don't have time to play word games with you here. Artemis looked at Manfred angrily, "You know that Viscount Jericho doesn't have magic on him, and he's not from the jurisdiction of our Thirteenth Class. ”

"Do you think, then, that Count Jericho did it? doesn't he look too young?" Manfred's voice was like a demonic grin, annoying Atmis.

Attmis took a deep breath to calm herself, and then she said very seriously, "Remember the day we went to see him?"

Artmis's earnest look made Manfred's laughter stop. He slowly frowned as he remembered the events of that day. "Ah, of course I do. The first glance of the Earl Jericho gave me a strange feeling, his magic went up and down so much, it looked very unstable, and I wondered if he had ever done anything with someone before. ”

"Well, that's how I feel, too. However, I have another feeling. ”

"Huh?" Manfred looked at Artmish with some surprise, not expecting her to find something she hadn't even discovered, "What is it?"

"He seems to ......," Artemis frowned, not as if he wasn't quite sure, "he doesn't sense our magic." ”

Manfred pondered the details of that day, and it seemed that it was really as Artmis had said.

"Remember when I deliberately unleashed a mana wave before I left?"

"Of course I remember, you really embarrassed me back then. ”

At the time of the day's farewell, everyone stood up, except for Artmis. Others may not understand what she is doing, but Manfred understands that she is transmitting her own magic fluctuations. Artmis's magic fluctuations were directly aimed at Count Jericho, but the count seemed to have no feeling at all, not only did his expression not change, but the magic on his body did not react, and it was not at all like he sensed it. If expressions can be hidden and disguised, then the instinctive reaction of one's own magic cannot be restrained even if he wants to.

"That's ......," Manfred gradually understood what Artemis meant.

"Yes, I suspect Sven Noe Jericho, he wields a great deal of magic and can't use it with ease. He is now the most likely person to hurt his father, and he has similar conditions, although he doesn't know the reason for all this, but when his father wakes up, everything will be understood. ”

Manfred nodded thoughtfully, but what Artemis didn't know was that what Manfred was thinking at this time was not what he had suggested. He already knew that it was Count Hecate who Swain had injured, but that was the kind of trick......

It's fun, it's so much fun!

He laughed heartily inside.

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While Artemis was still deceived by Manfred's performance, Jan walked alone to the top of one of the tallest towers in Fort Govelen, where the cold night wind was further amplified by the power of the tower, while Jan was completely unafraid of a height of more than forty meters, swirling on the steep spire. He had seen the rising dawn, and the sun would soon rise.

"Can people who are hidden in the shadows really be seen by the sun?"

He muttered to himself, continuing to whirl and jump on the spire as if he were dancing.

"Manfred, you've lived so long that you've forgotten something. You've lost the arrogance and pride that terrified the entire empire, and now you're laughing in a sewer-like tunnel, and under the sun, you're going to play a clown and do menial work. Ugly, too ugly. Manfred, you have disappointed me, but I will still draw nourishment from your wreckage. I'm going to let you see it, I'm going to let this castle, this family see it, I'm going to let the whole world see me!"