On the streets of Turbidity Town, the battle provoked by the nezumen has come to an end. After the loss of the rat giant, the remaining nezumi began to flee in a disorderly manner, seemingly without a commander. Of course, no one with military common sense would think that the rat giants were the leaders of these rat men, and in Lothar's opinion, the reason why the rat men stopped attacking was nothing more than that the mastermind behind the drive them here had had enough. And after Leon told him that some of the nezumi had escaped from the blockade of Turbidity in the midst of the Great War, the Count of Montenegro was even more sure of this assumption. Although it seems that Lothar single-handedly defeated the formidable enemy and led the remaining warriors to reclaim all of Turbidity, once again holding the nezumi back into the county of Salon, the Count himself knew that he had been defeated in this raid. Whoever was behind the scenes, he had turned Lothar into a pawn on his chessboard, and it didn't really matter if the Count of Montenegro could defeat the Rat Giant.

In the town of Turbidity under the setting sun, the red remnant sun seems to be comforting the soldiers who are bleeding today. The warriors of the Kingdom Knights and the Bear Hunters have begun to dispose of the corpses scattered throughout the town. For those nezumi corpses, in order to prevent them from infecting ordinary people, Lothar ordered them to be cremated. As for the warriors killed by the nezumi, although the Count wanted them to be buried according to tradition, there was no guarantee that their corpses would not produce the plague, so Lothar had no choice but to order the corpses of these warriors to be cremated by a bonfire.

"This is the worst battle I've fought in years. Sitting on the side of the street against the wall, the Count of Montenegro said to the people sitting beside him in frustration.

"Heh, victory or defeat is something that no one can tell. Although you have fought a lot of battles in the past two years, most of them are only at the hundred-man level. When you have fought more big battles, you will know that as long as the drums of war are beaten, no one will be able to return from the battlefield in triumph. In contrast, your performance today is worthy of the reputation of the commander of the first army. I'm sure Your Majesty will be glad to hear what you've done. Leon, who was sitting next to Lothar, smiled and took a sip of the wine in his pouch and said with relief.

"Perhaps. Although I won the battle this time, I don't know how many rats took advantage of the opportunity to slip away, and even if they had sent troops to chase me, I am afraid they would not be able to kill them all. I am afraid that if this plague spreads to other parts of the kingdom, then I, Lothar, will become a sinner in the whole kingdom, and the glory of the Montenegrin family will probably be dusted. The Count shook his head, the action of which touched the wound on his body, making his expression hideous.

"Don't overthink it. The source of this plague and its effects cannot be stopped by martial artists like you and me. You know the mage who came with me, that kid's skills seem to me to be on par with those natural elders of the elves. But even if it's him, isn't it disgraced to investigate this plague?" said the knight with a smile and patted Lothar on the shoulder.

"By the way, speaking of that person, where did the mage go after you separated from them?" asked Lothar curiously.

"I think he'd already run away with Heather and the Hammer guys by this time. You're really, that Gregory wants to get me down, and you haven't learned the temper of the Hammer Duke, and you dare to shut it down Heather?" said Leon. It had been half a day since they parted ways, and as far as the Knight Chief knew, Cheese must have taken Heather and Elsa to join them. So it's okay to tell the other person about the company's movements at this time.

"What are you talking about? When did I lock up Heather? She helped me in the early years, how could I lock her up?" asked Lothar, confused.

"How is it possible that we found that place when we sneaked in last night, at the junction of King Street and Dawn Boulevard?" said Leon. He dismissed Lothar's denial as a pointless quibble.

"The intersection of King Street and Dawn Boulevard, is Baron Grey's private residence. I haven't heard from Heather since I came, at least not from Gregory or Baron Gray. I asked Baron Gray that question when he left last night. Lothar turned her head and said earnestly to Leon.

"Baron Gray's private residence? before he left last night? Didn't he die last night at the Apothecary Society's premises? The chief knight frowned, he knew that Lothar was not lying, but what the Count of Montenegro said conflicted with what he had experienced.

"What? Gray burned to death at the Apothecary's residence last night? No way, he had already left Turbidity with the Apothecary Guild in the evening, and it would be a waste of time to stay here any longer. My men watched their convoy leave Turbidity!" Lothar stood up and said earnestly.

"How...... But we ...... last night," Leon looked up at the serious face of the Count of Montenegro, and his mind kept replaying what he had seen in the apothecary residence last night, and one of the three corpses must have belonged to Baron Gray. This is guaranteed by the Knight of the Kingdom.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came from next to the two.

"You're both right. We did see Baron Gray's body at the Apothecary Residence last night, but I think the Earl of Montenegro also saw Baron leave Turbidity. Cheese didn't know when he sat next to them in his trademark gray robe. It would have been impossible to get silently through the guards to approach two battle-hardened veterans. But when the mage sat here and spoke, somehow neither Leon nor Lothar were too surprised.

"What do you mean? Heather was rescued, and why did you come back?" asked the chief knight.

"Rescued. After an afternoon of surgery, I almost couldn't save it. I said, Lord Earl, could you please get something to eat first? I haven't eaten for a day. The mage was leaning lazily against the wall, completely defenseless.

Although there were doubts about what Cheese was talking about Baron Grey, Lothar felt that the priority was not the life or death of the baron.

"I heard that you are also investigating the beginning and end of this plague, and some of the nezumi escaped from here during our battle just now, do you have a way to get them back?"

"There is a way. But what's the use? The plague has spread out of the county of Salon. And not just now, but last night. The mage said.

"Last night?" both Leon and Lothar wondered.

"Yes, when the fake Baron Grey left Turbidity yesterday, the plague followed him and spread across the kingdom. The mage's eyes looked out from under his hood at the fiery sunset in the distance.