Sunset

After nearly a full day's march, the team reached the dense forest outside Ryan at dusk.

The day's siege should have come to an end at this point, and Carolus climbed to the top of the giant tree, just in time to see the misty mountain people in the distance who had been driven off the wall again.

They looked embarrassed.

Arrows shot from the towers above Ryan's walls were greedily reaping the lives of his enemies, and one figure after another fell within his vision, and only a lucky few were able to escape.

"Long live Livingston!"

The cheers from afar were almost inaudible after such a long distance. But judging from the posture of the heavily armored soldiers holding their weapons aloft, it was not difficult for Carolus to judge the current situation.

"I haven't even been able to breach the outer city, let alone the Castle of Ryan's Heart, which stands on the cliffs...", he pursed his lips and thought to himself, "It seems that Lance's father, Duke Alexis, is really in his chest..."

Climb down from the top of the giant tree.

Carolus couldn't help but combine the information he knew before, and guessed the true intention of Duke Alexis, "With the opportunity of the full moon of the Misty Mountain People, he deliberately let the Misty Mountain people cross the Krens Mountains to raid Ravenston's territory, what does he want to do?"

"Could it be..."

A startling conjecture popped up in his mind.

"Treason, self-reliance?" These words kept swirling in Carolus's mind, and they also made Lance, the first apostle of the Temple of Order that he had inexplicably cultivated for himself, feel quite worthless, "Although he is only an illegitimate child, in terms of blood relationship, he can be regarded as a member of the Stoke family..."

"Can you give up your own son for the throne?"

Carolus finally understood the cruelty of the power game among the world's aristocracy.

Not to mention an illegitimate child who has no status at all and deep emotions, as long as it is a necessary moment, the right price and harvest, Duke Alexis is estimated to be willing to sacrifice even his eldest son.

"If he hadn't shown up at the beginning, maybe Lance would have died in the hands of those Misty Mountain people at this moment, and even the corpse would have gone into the wolf's belly..."He sighed inexplicably, a little entangled in whether to tell Lance this cruel reality:

His own father, the family who worked hard to gain recognition, was behind the secret deducing that all this happened!

Whether it's leaked news...

Or a friend who died in the town of Lane...

Or the gossip that propagates its vileness...

Carolus, who had been through it all with Lance, had almost enough information to confirm that Duke Alexis was the master of the intrigue hidden in the depths of the darkness.

After all, even he himself was deeply involved, just like the words of General William when he was escorted down: "You poor and pathetic, you wretched fool who is caught in the whirlpool but does not know it, and is hopeless!"

That's not wrong at all,

The conspiracy of Duke Alexis is a huge maelstrom,

A vortex that has nearly turned the kingdom upside down, embroiling countless families and old and new nobles to compete and survive, and potentially reap amazing rewards.

It all started after dealing with the crisis of the seizure of power and successfully taking command of the Highland Raiders - after leaving Barak behind, the two had a brief secret conversation in the camp.

As the heir of the Clermont family, his brother Barred Clermont's temporary assistant and vassal, while assisting him in the affairs of the realm, Barak was able to learn some important information.

Just when the Earl of Silverblade Castle led his elite soldiers to Ilkettrin to investigate, and planned to find the local acting lord, that is, Lance's trouble.

The Clermont family's patrol of the territory captured a sneaky rider who tried to cross Fesdena to Ryan, and when he was discovered, he resisted desperately when he was warned.

His archery skills were amazing, and he shot at least four patrol soldiers. Therefore, after being successfully captured, Lord Barred Clermont did not hesitate to order him to be tortured.

Eventually, it was learned that this was a serving Ranger under the command of Ilketlin, who was stationed on the front line to defend against the Misty Mountain People.

He defended himself by claiming that his son in Ryan City had sent a letter, and that his wife had been bullied by the local dark forces, members of the Bloodblade Brotherhood, so after asking the commander to no avail, he became a deserter and tried to rush to Ryan City to take revenge.

The reason why he was sneaky and resisted after being warned was purely out of fear of being caught, and he was escorted back to Irketlin to be tried by the local commander, who would have been punished quite severely.

This is a very honest statement.

Therefore, after correspondingly corresponding to the military file and the identity information of the ranger, Barred Clermont announced his acquittal out of sympathy for him, as well as his dexterity and courage to take revenge on the dark forces alone.

and promised that the Clermont family would come forward to solve the worries of the deserter hat for them. And as long as he can swear an oath to be a knight loyal to Barred Clermont, he can take the soldiers of the Clermont family and teach those Clermont Brotherhood clay legs a hard lesson.

It was only surprising that the Ranger refused the knighthood and the extremely generous terms offered by Barred Clermont.

Although he explained that because it was his own grudge, he should go to the knot alone, and deeply thanked Barred Clermont for his kindness, and promised that after settling the matter, as long as he did not die, he would definitely return to repay the lord's kindness and swear allegiance.

But that, in Barak's opinion, is enough to call it a brain disease.

However, his brother, who was immersed in the heroic knight's novel, praised the Ranger very much, and held a grand dinner party for him, and arranged for several delicate and lovely maids to sleep, intending to use beauty to retain him in disguise.

Of course, as for the description of this during the secret talks...

Carolus could almost conclude that among these lovely maids, there must have been Barak's sweet little lover, but out of fear of his brother, he had to give it up.

So the whole thing that happened after that shouldn't have been the motive of sensing something suspicious and revealing a flaw in the ranger as he claimed.

But in short, this kid did a good thing behind his brother's back!

He ordered his loyal servants to rush to the roads of Ryan City to set up an ambush, and in one fell swoop captured the smug and completely relaxed vigilance.