"What's your name?" Thea asked with a wink.

"Pedro." The boy replied without hesitation, and although there was some timidity in his eyes, he looked around with great novelty, especially the black sea, which made him extremely afraid.

Thea continued, "Nice name, where do you live?" ”

She flicked her long hair casually, deliberately exposing the scales on her neck and collarbone......

"Yetipias Manor, my dad was a swordsman, a squadron leader there." The boy's gaze was immediately attracted by Thea's silver scales.

Thea asked him again, "Then can you usually play around the manor?" ”

"yes, I've been to all parts of this manor." The boy said proudly.

"Then let me ask you, is there any place where you live where you children are forbidden?" Thea asked, somewhat incredulous.

"There are many, such as...... Lord Penny's room, Captain Galt's office, and the basement of the manor, where I heard that there was a ghost a long time ago, and Lord Penny had it sealed off. The boy then said.

Speaking of ghosts, the boy looked a little intimidated.

"That's the last ...... Are you still haunted? ”

"Occasionally, you can hear the wails of ghosts!" The boy said.

He touched his arm suspiciously, felt the temperature, and was about to ask, when Thea sang a lullaby again, the song was soothing and melodious, and the boy's eyelids were closed under the song.

Thea helped the boy to lie down on the bed, then dispelled the illusion and nodded back to Surdak.

Walking out of the boy's room and back into the living room, the three of them sat back on the couch and did not light the lamp, and the night had no effect on them at all.

"Looks like we're going to have to go find that basement, maybe find something!" Surdak said.

Aphrodite also said at this time: "I can feel the breath of black magic, it seems that there is something here, it is constantly absorbing the soul power around it, but that breath is very faint, and it is very vague, it is easy to ignore!" ”

Thea asked, "If the Dark Arts Research Institute is really hiding in this manor, and they have not been discovered by the garrison and farmers in normal times, where do you think they will hide?" ”

Surdak thought for a moment and guessed, "Their residence is most likely the courtyard of Count Penny, or the basement under the manor, which is a very large underground structure......

"In fact, when I walked into this manor, I noticed a different place here, and the more I think about it, the more I think it is worth exploring." Thea looked out the window at the excuse and said firmly.

……

"That's it!"

Thea stood in the shadows of the street, pointing to the fountain in the middle of the square.

It was an ordinary-looking fountain, in the center of the crossroads, there were some rockeries piled up in the center of the fountain, and there was even a humanoid sculpture on it, it was a girl holding a water bottle on her shoulder, and a stream of clear water gushed out of the water bottle, soaking half of the body of the girl statue, and the clear water smashed on the rockery, and finally flowed into the pool.

This kind of stone statue of a girl holding a water bottle in her hand can often be seen in the small towns or manors of the Grimm Empire, so Surdak entered the manor without even looking at it.

Thea said to Surdak and Aphrodite: "Did you see, no matter how much water flowed out of that fountain, it did not overflow, and that fountain was clearly a magic pattern circle of water gathering, which means that this pool must have an overflow, and the waterway is either an underground well or an underground river. ”

"Since this pool is connected to an underground river, it is likely that this underground river is connected to the basement, if the basement is large enough, of course."

She turned to Surdak and said, "Dark, I want to look in the underground river. ”

"Then you have to be careful."

Surdak patted Thea's round shoulder, he couldn't figure out why Thea was so eager to show herself......

Thea nodded, and took advantage of the fact that there was no one at the crossroads, and quickly ran out of the shadows.

She runs with a very light step, as if she were dancing.

Then the perfect fish jumped into the pool, and its body faded little by little, gradually blending into the pool water, and even the figure of the mermaid was not conjured, and there was no splash in sight.

Seeing Thea infiltrating the manor's aqueduct system, Surdak and Aphrodite also decided to dive into Count Penny's mansion to investigate.

Aphrodite had concluded that there was no life in this house, and the two sneaked into the courtyard, and sure enough, the rooms inside were empty, many of them did not even have basic furniture, it seemed that no one had lived here for a long time, the ground was full of dust, and it seemed that the house had not been cleaned for a long time.

After exiting Count Penny's mansion, Surdak and Aphrodite returned to the opposite side of the fountain in the Plaza de la Corner, where they had made an appointment to meet Thea.

Alarm bells rang from the manor, and Surdak and Aphrodite looked at each other, and it seemed that the sleeping night warrior in the watchtower had been discovered.

The lights gradually lit up throughout the garrison camp, and not long after, a group of cavalry came out of the barracks, carrying pine resin torches in their hands, and began to search around the manor.

Surdak and Aphrodite sat in the shadow of a roof across the fountain square, and the cavalry walked up and down the street below the house, and no one noticed that two pairs of eyes were on the roof looking at the street below.

It took a while for Thea to emerge from the fountain, and as a troop of cavalry ran past the street, she quickly passed through the street and into the shadows, leaving only a trail of water-stained footprints on the stone floor.

She sped up to the roof and hid in the shadows next to Surdak, wruffling her wet hair and gasping softly.

"Did you find any clues?" Surdak asked Thea.

"Hmm!"

He blinked his big blue eyes and smiled. Then he said:

"There's a secret room down there......"

Surdak asked, "How many people are in there?" ”

Thea shook her head and said, "It's a lot, but I don't know the exact number, and I can't explore all the places." ”

Surdak asked again, "Did you find the exit to that basement?" ”

Thea nodded hurriedly and said, "It's not in this manor, it's on the cliff at the back, next to the dense bushes and valleys, it's very hidden. ”

Surdak said to Thea and Aphrodite: "You two wait for me at the exit, and I'll bring the hoplite regiment here......"

"Are we going to war with Count Penny?" Thea asked with some curiosity.

Surdak shook his head, and led the two of them outside the manor, saying as he went:

"Since the garrison here doesn't know about the existence of these dark magicians, let's go and wake them all up and let them know that there is a good neighbor hiding under their barracks station......"

……

The three of them made their way to the secret exit of the Dark Arts Retreat Institute.

There is a gurgling stream at the exit of the cave, and it seems to be surrounded by barbed wire, according to the sign outside the fence, this is the private hunting ground of Earl Penny, and the hunting ground usually raises some fierce beasts, which is a forbidden area around the manor. District.

Thea pointed to a rock, even if Surdak had 'insight', he looked carefully for a long time before he found that there was a magician lurking there, and the magic robe on his body seemed to have a layer of camouflage, and he could actually blend in with the environment.

"This stream is the upstream water source, and part of it comes to the fountain of the estate, and I went all the way down the river to get here......"

Thea hid behind Surdak and whispered to him.

Surdak glanced at Aphrodite.

Aphrodite nodded at him, and the meaning in her eyes was clear: 'Rest assured, I'll take care of her ......'

Surdak then ran into the bushes and quickly ran towards the camp on the other side of the mountain.

……

Surdak returned to the camp, where the bearded Edgar was still asleep in his tent.

However, the night warrior at the edge of the camp was alert, and keenly spotted Surdak trying to get closer.

Edgar climbed out of the tent and immediately gathered all the infantry warriors, these warriors were almost all the remaining elite troops of the rebels of the Gamp plane, they followed the bearded Edgar out of the canyon town all the way, experienced the Battle of Bansk, the Battle of Mukuso, and chased the Hell Legion into the Sayroman Plateau, which was the iron army after countless battles.

Surdak and his heavy infantry regiment bypassed the blockade of the lord's private army on the opposite side and broke into the Count Penny's ban. By the time of the private hunting ground in the district, the sky had already brightened.

The heavy infantry regiment surrounded almost all the woodlands, valleys, and rivers under the rock walls of the mountains, and the lord's private army guarding the boundary monument found that this heavy infantry regiment had quietly broken into their own territory.

The cavalry were the first to return from the boundary monument, and they heard that Surdak's heavy infantry regiment had entered the hunting grounds. area, and chased it this way.

Just as the cavalry had reached the edge of the hunting area, they were held back from the hunting ground by a two-headed ogre dressed in black heavy armor.

The dozen or so knights who rushed to the front almost all fell from their horses, these knights lay on the ground and let out a wail, their horses were knocked down by the great force of Gullitham, almost all of them smashed their organs, blood spurted from their mouths and noses and fell to the ground, and the ogre was already crouching on the edge of the hunting ground to start a fire, ready to set up another big iron pot to cook horse meat to eat.

In the face of the disparity in strength, a group of cavalry did not dare to act rashly at all.

On the other side, Surdak had already led the soldiers of the Heavy Infantry Regiment into the monastic institute hidden beneath the mountain wall.

Since this place is extremely secretive, the garrisons and farmers on the manor don't even know that there is such a hidden place at their feet, so there are not many dark magicians and magic apprentices in this research institute.

Under Aphrodite's charm, the magician guarding the entrance didn't even have time to give a warning signal before he became a puppet.

Surdak led a group of warriors into the cave first......