At night, the unpleasant heat and humidity of the tropics in the heart of the kingdom of Krant remained untouched, and did not seem to intend to lose its power as the sun went down.

The clay red bricks had turned mottled in colour from years of wind and rain, and damp moss clinged to its surface, as the dew of this afternoon's heavy rain reflected the light of the torches beside the streets.

An unknown bug squeaked and stopped in the moss, and it immediately paid the price for its actions - the large gecko unique to the swamp grabbed it with swift speed, and then its dark eyes flashed a swift shadow in the next second.

"Thorn-" The gecko quickly ducked into the shadows, the sound of footsteps repeatedly, the torches on the side of the street swayed with the sudden movement, the water splashed on the stone floor, and the uninvited guest in the black cloak stopped.

"Hahu...... ......"She let out a long gasp for air, then slowly turned around.

The object she was holding in her hand reflected the light of the torch, and in the next split second, she quickly lifted it up and took a blocking stance—"Woo-woo-"

-- Nothing.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and then patted her chest to calm her beating heart, but in the next moment some kind of red light flashed in front of her.

"No, don't, don't—" The right hand, which was clenching the scimitar, began to attack his neck uncontrollably.

"No-no-ahem-uh-"

Blood was pouring out, and only the crisp footsteps of the silent streets echoed lonely, like the wizened knuckles of death knocking on the door again and again.

Another life. Quietly passed away in the night.

......

Monroe. The largest commercial city in the Kingdom of Krant.

Just a hill away from the kingdom's capital, Xilin, it soon became the richest city in the territory of Krarant after the reigning Duke Aubrey von Munroe ordered the road to be repaired seventy years earlier. Locals even quote Avenella's nickname for Ashneil. Referring to Monroe as "the land of the eversummer" and "Ekasta of Crane".

Perhaps there is a mischievous god in the shadows who is playing a joke on the world, since last year, the Acaster region on the Avenera side has been plagued by many disasters. And Monroe, who quoted its name, Henry and his party just approached, and they deeply felt the ominous atmosphere.

It lasted eight days, together with the caravan that had set out from Ebbut, and although the road was full of twists and turns, it was fortunate that there was no real danger. After the nineteenth heavy rain, the group stepped out of the forest path and stepped onto the paved road, and soon came to Monroe Territory, which was made of crimson brick walls and a tall and magnificent structure, like a red labyrinth.

Like any city-state in the Kingdom of Crane, Monroe has experienced many wars throughout history.

The marks of the burning stones on the heavy walls are clearly visible. Years of wind and rain have only made its color deeper. The north gate to which the caravan came was Monroe's main gate, and the bricks on the entire section of the wall on its right side were a slightly pale orange color, and the boundary between them and the crimson bricks below was quite clear, apparently the result of being replaced and repaired after being hit and collapsed by siege engines such as trebuchets.

Compared with his colleague Ashneer, who was quoted by his name, Monroe, who occupies the heart of Crane, is a little less prosperous, but a little more like a veteran of a hundred battles.

It's hard to imagine that this is a "young" city-state that has only been established for less than a hundred years, and that its war-torn traces are like medals engraved in the heart of this veritable kingdom - but as we mentioned earlier, the air in this famous city-state of the Five Kingdoms has been a little cold lately.

The soldiers on the check-in at the entrance to the North Gate wore plate chest guards with chain mail hems and large monolithic shoulder plates. The armor, which should be classified as a half-armour, was carefully polished and oiled, with a steel half-helmet, spear, one-handed sword, and dagger, and although there were only two soldiers guarding the door, it was enough to make most of the ill-intentioned people flinch.

Monroe, as a powerful city in the kingdom, had such a defense, which Henry and Mira took for granted. But the whispers of the merchants who were traveling together caught their attention.

"This is the Duke's elite soldier, why did he send him to guard the door?Could it be that the magician has appeared again......" "Shhh ”

The discussion between the two merchants was in the dialect of Crant. Not to mention that the only thing Henri Milla could understand was the key word "magician", and their conversation immediately provoked a violent reaction from the other person.

Isn't it half a year since then? Forget about anything else, now even that murderer is running out!What the hell is the security post for!" he shouted hysterically in the lingua franca, and the somewhat neurotic man was the brown-skinned stocky merchant he had met before. What made Henry and Mira even more suspicious was that his conversation with the other two immediately caused quite a stir in the caravan.

"Silence me! Nothing has happened! Nothing has happened!" shouted the soldier at the gate of the northern city, as if noticing the presence of Henry and Mira, and he shouted again in the lingua franca.

The need to deliberately emphasize something often meant that something had happened, and after a careful examination, it took a considerable amount of time for the caravan, along with the other merchants who followed, to fully enter the city-state. The group, which didn't have much contact with each other, had just come in and scattered, and the commotion at the entrance to the gate seemed to have an impact on them, and many of them had picked up speed, apparently intending to hurry up and complete the deal and then leave.

"It seems worth checking out. Henry said this, and Mira nodded in agreement.

Curiosity is human nature, and even if there is any danger, the sage can solve it.

The brick-paved roads in Monroe were relatively damaging to horses' hooves. Coupled with the consumption along the way, the two of them first spent a little time finding a blacksmith shop. After paying the other party to change the horses' shoes, they began to wander the streets of the neighborhood on foot.

Although I have been to Abbot before. But based on the experience of the two, Monroe, who came this time, is actually a city-state in the true sense of the word.

The road surface is sturdy, and unlike Avenella, there are wide and large drainage openings on the ground that can be seen everywhere. The houses on both sides are also mostly made of brick and stone, and the roof tiles fired in the same color clay are also connected to the drainage pipes, and the various designs are ingenious, making people have to admire the creative ability of human beings.

Rats of no small size burrowed through the dark corners of the streets, and the northern city was a common residential area, and it was close to noon, and the smell of food came from many people's houses.

Two heavily armed mercenaries, one large and one small, stand out in a city full of civilians and merchants who have just entered the city. Just like Abbot, the bright-looking Henry and Mira also received a lot of attention in Monroe, but compared to the residents of Abbot, these civilians who should have lived a better life here are listless and even have a hint of hostility towards the two who carry weapons.

"Interesting. ”

Reading the special atmosphere in the air, the two reacted differently, Henry raised his eyebrows and half-closed his eyes and began to take a closer look at his surroundings, while Mira swallowed a little nervously.

It's already February 1st, and the Luo'an girl, who has been guaranteed adequate nutrition and exercise since they met, is not the same height as she was at the beginning.

The petite Lori in a maid's costume is now almost 1.5 meters tall and close to 1.6 meters, in addition to being relatively slender. She wears a one-handed sword and leather armor and light boots, and she looks like a professional mercenary.

Both her appearance and her knowledge have left her far away, but the more she advances and travels, the more Mira realizes her own insignificance.

That's where her nervousness comes from. The outside world is too vast compared to the small girl herself, and she has been studying hard, but she always feels that she has not learned enough.

Just struggling to survive is a matter of all you need – but that's exactly what it is. There is absolutely no room to back down.

A bustling noise reached their ears, and the same syllables were repeated in different tones in similar to the dialect of Arvenella. The sage and Mira looked at each other, and the girl nodded slightly.

He's always had this habit. Although it is not necessary in practice, Henry always asks the girl's opinion first when he does something.

Perhaps among the many things that Mira had not known in the past that she had gradually learned over a long period of time, the most curious thing for her was probably the character of the sage himself.

Powerful, but not arrogant. The white-haired Miss Loan was well aware of the fact that she was only a sidekick, as we have always said, that the weak were always very sensitive in such matters—but even so, Henry never had any impatience with her.

As the girl learns more and more, she is now able to understand the nature of the warm feeling she had been—and still has—from Henry, but it is precisely because of this that the mystery of the man named Henry Mayer himself begins to tangle further.

Not mercy.

Now Mira can assert this.

The sage did not choose to help her out of sympathy, nor out of pity - in fact, he never placed himself in the position of a high aloft benefactor, and even from the first moment of their encounter, Henry did not look at her as a weak man in need of help.

Rather, he is an equal person.

That's why Henry asks every time something needs to be decided, regardless of whether Mira is capable enough to make a judgment on the matter.

The book describing the knightly virtues of Sivalier calls such behavior "respect" and the good character of respecting others humility.

Mira wondered where this deep humility, along with many of Henry's other things, came from.

"Have you seen enough?" the sage's bland words brought the girl back to her senses, and she noticed that she had been staring at the other person's face unconsciously as she thought, and only then did he remind the girl when she walked up to the group of people who made the noise—the girl frowned, then rolled her eyes.

"Mr. Sage is the worst of adults. ”

"Yes, yes, it's me who is wrong. Henry shrugged, and the two walked over together.

"That's why I said it must be—"

Like a duck choked by the neck, the Monroe resident's words came to an abrupt halt.

"What's the matter, go on?" said Henry, smiling, and then said in lingua franca.

"There's nothing to say to you, mercenaries who don't do business!" the resident's face showed obvious disgust, and he shouted in a thick accented lingua franca, and the others around him were about to turn away, when a slightly older middle-aged male shouted, "Wait!"

He said this, then turned around and deliberately began to speak in a lingua franca that the two of them could understand: "These two are different, they are blue cards, and they are not like the scum of the bandits." ”

Henry shrugged his shoulders as he apparently addressed the two of them, while Mira stood quietly waiting for the other to come next.

"Two ...... Well, it's a well-known thing anyway, so there's no problem telling it to you. As if to give himself firm faith, he first chattered for a while.

"You look like outsiders, so most of you don't know...... The city-state has had an intermittent number of deaths since a year ago. The uncle continued: "It's not particularly strange that just dead people are dead, and the weirdest thing is that every dead person has a heart that disappears inexplicably, but there is no wound. ”

"There were men and women who died, and everyone died in a different way, some fell to their deaths, some drowned, and some were hacked to death. ”

"They don't have anything in common except that the murderer can't be found, and the dead shed a lot of blood. At first, the sheriff didn't think much of it, until the corpses buried outside the city were cut open by dragon lizards, and everyone found that all the corpse hearts had disappeared. ”

"The sheriff summoned the mercenaries and vigilantes and began to search the city, and then it was at this time that disaster struck. ”

"The number of people killed began to rise like crazy, and we angered him—" The uncle seemed to recall something, and he continued in an accentuated tone, "Mercenaries, vigilantes, civilians, a total of seventeen people died in two days, and all of them lost their hearts. ”

"No one, ever seen the killer. ”

"It was as if he were a magician who could do tricks, and there were more than 400 people searching for him, including volunteer civilians, and he killed so many people right under everyone's noses. ”

"And this guy, last night, reappeared. The uncle looked up at Henry, and the resident next to him, who had first spoken, spoke up again, "So I said, it must be dark magic, the Duke's son—"

"Shut up, Bandi. The uncle turned around and yelled at him.

"If you don't want to be arrested for slander, Bandi, you'd better stop spreading the word about it—even if we all think so. ”

As he spoke, he looked back at Henry and the others again.

"If you want to know more about the magician, go a little further, the sheriff's office in Monroe is there, and the sheriff will explain it to you. ”

As if not going to say anything more, the uncle waved his hand to scatter the people around him, and then turned and walked into his house.

"What do you think?" Henry turned to look at Mira again.

"Let's find out. The girl nodded. (To be continued.) )