Rogge calmly put the old grave keeper with a broken neck on the ground, raised the old man's purple hand to show everyone, looked down at the old man's old face and said, "He has been infected, and he will die in a few days, we might as well help him dig a home now, so that he will not continue to infect more people." ”

Catherine and Tali looked at each other unbearably, and both lowered their heads uncomfortably, Antonio turned around in frustration, and Locke silently watched Rogge take out a shovel from the grave keeper's hut and dig a pit to bury the old man in it, he wanted to step forward to help, but Rog refused to let him not be infected.

The people who left the cemetery were in a heavy mood, and they all bowed their heads and did not speak, and when they entered Dixontown, they found that the situation in the town was very similar to that of Lucca, the streets were empty, the houses were closed, and not a single wild dog could be seen.

The group walked around the silent street, and finally found a house with an open door, judging from the sign at the door, it was supposed to be an inn, but at this time it was already a door, Rogge let everyone stay outside, and walked into the store himself.

The inn was empty, and the empty tables and chairs were covered with dust, Rogge walked to the bar, wiped the dust from the bar with his hands, and looked up and shouted, "Is there anyone?"

He shouted twice, and finally a sluggish voice came from inside: "Here, wait a minute." ”

After a few moments, a man with a dead face came out of the curtain behind the bar, looked at him with some surprise, and stepped forward to him and said, "Is there anything that can be served?"

"Where have all the people gone here?" asked Rogge, looking around.

"It's all gone. The boss sighed, and sighed with his hands on the table at the bar, "You're from out of town, you must have seen the cemetery outside when you came, if you don't want to live with them, you might as well leave here early." ”

"Is there a similar situation in other towns besides you?" asked Rogge, staring calmly at the boss's dejected expression.

"I heard that this kind of thing has happened in several nearby towns and villages, and some villages have fled so much that there is not even a single living person," the boss sighed and shook his head, "If the Holy Council can't think of a solution again, I'm afraid that we will become like that here." ”

He turned around and took half of the bottle of brandy from the empty wine cabinet, took out two empty glasses, poured them and pushed one of them in front of Rogge and said, "I've got a treat for this one, man, I've been without guests for a long time, and I've been thinking about closing the door and leaving for the last few days, but I always hope that the priests will control the situation." ”

"What have the priests of the Holy Order done?" asked Rog as he picked up his glass and clinked it gently with the boss, bringing it to his lips and taking a sip.

"Oh, they've been hunting witches and cats, owls, crows, and snakes, and at first there were many hunters who accepted their bounties to help them hunt these animals, but then many of the hunters died, and the others didn't dare to do it anymore, and now only the priests of the Holy Congregation were searching for witches. ”

The proprietor pointed to the left side of the inn and whispered, "In a house next to my shop, the hostess was taken away yesterday by the priest, and the priest of the Holy Congregation said that she was a witch, and in the middle of the night she saw an owl fall outside her window, and heard that she and several other witches who were caught were going to be executed today." ”

"What do you think about this?" asked Rogge, glancing in the direction of his boss's finger.

"I only hope they can find the witch and end it all sooner, but maybe she's not in town at all, and the legend says that witches all live in forest huts?"

The boss shrugged his shoulders and sighed, "If the woman in my neighbor's house is really a witch, then she can disguise herself well, I have been a neighbor with her for four or five years, and she is a very lovely person." ”

"Where did they execute those witches?" Rogge drank all the brandy in his cup, put it down and asked the boss, who raised his hand and pointed out the door and said, "Go out from here and follow the road, turn left at the fork and go all the way out of the town, and then walk two or three hundred meters further on, there is a bridge, and there is a bridge, right there." ”

"Thank you for the drink, good luck buddy!" Rogge patted the boss on the shoulder, turned and strode out of the inn, he beckoned to Antonio and the others, and told them his conversation with the boss as he went, and the group followed the path of the boss to leave the town, and soon came to the bridge.

This is a stone bridge seven or eight meters long, under the bridge is the turbulent river, Rogge and others saw several guards guarding the bridge on both sides of the stone bridge, a group of priests standing in the center of the bridge, several unkempt women standing on the side of the bridge, priests are putting ropes on their heads.

"Captain, it's best for you to deal with them in this matter, I'm afraid I can't help but let them die in front of the 'witch'. Rogge paused and said to Antonio in a strange way.

The head of the knight nodded silently with a little groaning, and let everyone wait in place for him to stride towards the stone bridge, and the soldiers at the head of the bridge saw someone approaching, and immediately came forward with weapons in hand, and shouted: "Go back, this place is now closed to traffic!"

"I'm Antonio, the head of the Knights of the Wings of the Silver Dragon, what's going on here?" Antonio strode up to the soldier and tapped his fingers on the Silver Dragonwings crest on his armor's chest, and several soldiers hurriedly saluted and led him to the chief priest.

"Your Excellency, there have been a large number of deaths in this place recently, and we suspect that there are witches colluding with demons to cause harm, so according to His Majesty the Holy Emperor's witch killing warrant, arrest suspected witches and bring them to justice on the spot, so as to protect innocent subjects. The chief priest saluted Antonio respectfully.

"What proof do you have that these women are witches?" Antonio looked back at the women at the bridge, all of them were pale, their eyes flashed with fear and helplessness, and some of them crouched in front of the railing of the stone bridge and sobbed quietly, their whole body trembling.

"Of course we have proof," said the chief priest, pointing to a woman, "and our priest was on night patrol when he heard the meow of a cat coming from her house, and as you know, the cat is a symbol of witches, so we arrested her immediately." ”

"So, did you catch the cat?" Antonio asked the chief priest, looking at the woman.

"Not really, the cat had already run away when we broke in, and that's where witches are hard to deal with, they have nine lives, and if we kill her once, they can be reborn from their cats. ”

"I'm not a witch, I'm wronged!" The woman seemed to see Antonio's nobility, and suddenly raised her head and shouted to him: "My lord, I am not a witch, I have never had a cat, it was my child who was only a few months old that sounded that night, and I had just put him to sleep when the priests rushed in, I am really not a witch!"

"Does she have a child at home?" Antonio looked back at the chief priest suspiciously, and the chief priest's face became a little ugly, and he nodded after a moment of silence and said, "There is indeed a baby, but ......"

"Isn't that enough?" Antonio interrupted him angrily, "Isn't it normal for a child to cry at night?

The chief priest was silent for a moment, then turned back to the other woman and said, "There may be doubts about that just now, but this one must not be wrong, our night watchman saw the owl landing on her windowsill with her own eyes, and made a strange cry, she must be a witch!"

"Don't you tell me that you didn't catch that owl either?" asked Antonio, squinting coldly at the chief priest.

"We really didn't catch it, because she had already let the owl go by the time we rushed in......" replied the chief priest in a somewhat low voice.

Antonio stared at the chief priest with a blue face, and couldn't help but clench his fists, and the chief priest saw that his face was wrong, and his heart was also a little weak, so he hurriedly pointed to another woman and said, "And this, she ......"

Before he finished speaking, Antonio stopped him sharply: "Enough, don't say it anymore, let these people go immediately, there is no conclusive evidence in the future, you are not allowed to kill good people like this again!"

"Captain, this can't be done!" the chief priest was shocked when he heard this, and quickly shook his head and said, "We are carrying out the law according to the will of His Majesty the Holy Emperor, how can we just put these evil women back, that will kill more people!"

"Wicked woman?" Antonio said in a deep voice, leaning his face close to him, his gaze like a sword into his eyes, "can you prove their wickedness with the examples you have just given?

Hearing Antonio's words, the chief priest glanced at his cold face, and after a little muttering, he replied coldly: "I'm sorry Chief Antonio, forgive me for not obeying orders, I am a priest of the Holy Order, and I only obey the orders of His Majesty the Holy Emperor and the High Priest, and no one else has the right to order me, please don't obstruct us from enforcing the law." ”

"You ......" Antonio glared at him angrily, but he could do nothing about him, he knew that what the chief priest said was not lying, just as the high priest Goethe could not command the knights of the wings of the silver dragon, and Antonio had no right to command the priests to obey his orders.

"Ready to be executed!" the chief priest gave him a cold look, and turned back to give a loud order to the priests, Antonio looked back angrily as the priests put all the ropes around the necks of the female prisoners, and wanted to rush up and kick them all off the bridge, but he couldn't mess around because of his identity.

At this time, a whistle suddenly came from the direction of the town, Antonio turned back to follow the sound, and saw Rogge standing in the distance and beckoning to him, the knight commander hesitated for a moment and turned down the bridge to come to Rogge, Rogge glanced at his face and smiled: "It seems that the conversation with the captain is not going well!"

"We have to save these people, they obviously have grievances, these bastards, killing innocents indiscriminately will not help stop the spread of the epidemic!" Antonio said, glancing back at the chief priest with annoyance.

"I think they did a disservice. Rogge looked at the priests mockingly and said, "They have done this before, hanging people under the bridge and then violently killing the corpses for a few days, the river water washing on the corpses will pollute the water quality, but it will aggravate the epidemic, what a smart move!"

"So we have to stop them!" Antonio said, looking at Rogge anxiously.

"We?" Rogge glanced at him unhurriedly, shook his head with a smile, and said, "No, no, no, it's not us, it's her." ”