At nightfall, the western outskirts of the city of Nigal.

A meandering river runs through the rolling green hills, and at the bend of the riverbed, there is a large village ruin.

There were originally a few small villages living in the western suburbs, but because they are located in low-lying areas, they are vulnerable to river flooding. A few years ago, during a torrential rain, the river suddenly swelled, causing floodwaters that flooded the village.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the people of the village felt that they would suffer from the floods in the future, so they gave up the rich land altogether. Coupled with the inconvenience of the road, there are few people passing through here, and it looks extremely desolate.

Kevin, clad in black and masked with a short crossbow on his strap, walked towards the village.

The ground here is a bit muddy, and even if you step on it gently, your shoes will sink into the mud.

"Babble. ”

He brushed aside the half-man-tall weeds and peered into the village in the dim moonlight.

With a bleak view in front of him, uneven ground, rotting planks and ruined houses, he gripped his sword tightly and cautiously walked towards the center.

Greta couldn't have come to pay homage to the ruins, maybe there were traps and traps she had laid here.

Kevin watched his feet as he exuded his spiritual power to look around. After a careful search, he noticed that the grass on the left edge showed signs of being trampled.

The traces seem to have been cleaned up, and only subtle tread marks can be found on the grass, and if it weren't for the mental power, others wouldn't be able to find it at all.

Spirited, he focused his search near the grass, and soon found some clues, which he put together and pointed to a nondescript wooden house.

"Greta is here in this house, I'd like to see what she's doing here. ”

The wooden house was very dilapidated, the roof had been torn off by the flood, the moonlight was pouring down from the sky, and the stove and the corners of the walls were covered with cobwebs, and the hoe half-hidden in the dirt was covered with reddish-brown rust.

An invisible force permeated the entire room, and the spiritual power was like a precise detector, penetrating into the gaps between each plank.

"Found it!"

Kevin walked into the room and pulled out a wooden plank on the ground, revealing a dark passage underneath it, and faintly visible stone steps.

"Kick... Kick click. ”

He touched the wall with his hand and walked on the steps, the sound of his footsteps echoing through the narrow passages, unusually noticeable in the silence.

After a while, the steps disappeared, and the terrain flattened, revealing an underground cavern in front of me. The environment of the cave is somewhat humid and the air circulation is poor.

As he slowly approached the entrance of the cave, a foul smell came to his face.

"Uh.... What does it smell like?"

Kevin couldn't bear it anymore and pinched his mouth and nose tightly with his hand. The stench was a mixture of feces, rotten food, moldy stuff, and so on, and it was extremely disgusting.

He walked into the cave, and the inside was illuminated by torches hanging from the walls.

He was amazed by what he saw, a pile of pots and bowls in the corner of the cave, food scraps on the walls of the bowls, a swarm of rats crawling around in it, and a wooden bed on the other side of the cave, on which a man lay on his back, excrement was everywhere on the bed board, and feces were running down the river.

When the person on the bed heard the movement, he didn't react, and opened his mouth wide to look up.

Kevin strode forward, letting his guard down. Because in his perception, the breath of life of the person on the bed is weak, and he is almost a dying person.

Lying on the bed was a balding woman, her face pitted, as if it had been corroded by sulfuric acid, and her body was so thin that she could see her bones directly, completely losing her feminine beauty.

The woman's skin was covered with black dirt, and she hadn't been washed for a long time. The teeth in her mouth were sparse, her legs had been severed, the wounds had not been treated, pus was constantly flowing from the incisions, and the heavy chains tied her last remaining hands to the iron frame.

Kevin's body chilled, and he gasped, it was the first time in his life that he had seen such a miserable person who was tortured.

As he looked at the woman, the woman also saw Kevin, her eyes full of surprise and doubt.

"You... Be.. Who?" the woman's voice was choppy, hoarse, and the tapes seemed to have been destroyed.

Kevin didn't answer, he stood there and pondered for a while, then asked, "You... Is it the real Greta?"

Randall's report to him mentions that Greta suddenly became reticent nine months ago, preferring to be alone and wearing loose clothes, not all the time. And he found a human skin mask in Gretta's dormitory, which was hard not to associate with him.

The woman shuddered suddenly, her eyes widened, her eyes seemed to bulge, and two lines of tears slipped down her cheeks.

Kevin saw the woman's reaction and knew that his guess was right.

He took out a tissue to wipe away Gretta's tears and asked softly, "Do you know who your captors are?"

"I don't know.... I don't know anything, why?!" Greta burst into tears, and she couldn't stop it.

She went from a noble child who enjoyed the life of the academy and was pampered to a prisoner, locked in a dark cave and tortured for nine months, which was really worse than death.

But she didn't even know who did it, and when she suddenly saw Kevin, fear, hatred, grievances and other emotions were intertwined and exploded instantly.

Kevin patiently wiped away his tears, and when Greta had calmed down, he asked, "What is she torturing you for?

"No, she's a devil... Wanted to replace me completely. Greta looked frightened and recalled her days in the cave, "She used all kinds of torture to interrogate me about my habits, and everything about the Vian family, she wanted to return to the territory, she..."

Before Greta could finish her sentence, she coughed violently, her bodily functions were so badly damaged that she could say that her life would be short.

Kevin made a simple idea in his mind, if the fake "Greta" returned to the territory and cooperated with Alfred, the harm caused was unimaginable.

The two men's territory was located at the throat of the hinterland, which could cut off the connection between the Kingdom of Turin and the outside of the country, and if the troops and information could not be conveyed in time, at least half of the country would fall by then.

He was expressionless and said coldly, "I'm sorry, I can't let you out, it will disturb her." But I can tell you that she is also my target. ”

"What's the point of living like me?" said Greta with her head raised, grinning, and resentful, "I only beg you to inflict on her the pain I have suffered, so that she may also taste the taste of life worse than death." ”

Kevin didn't answer, he was a little shaken in his heart, there must be a large organization behind "her", and Alfred is likely to be among them, so the risk has risen sharply, with his strength, it will be difficult for the organization to escape death.

So far, "she" has not found out about Kevin's actions, and his safest thing to do is to give up this black mist possessor, pretend not to know anything, and hold on to the wizarding academy to recruit new people.

No matter how much the war spreads, it will not affect the Wizarding Academy. Such an approach, while selfish, is definitely the safest.