The torches were swept by the air currents at the castle gate, and the flickering light made everyone's faces and the door in front of them flicker. The tamed horses were not frightened by all this, and they appeared quite quiet, much to the relief of all.

Horses tend to be restless when they feel the scent of beasts, as they had shown when they first stepped into the castle, but everyone including Henry was bent on finding a place to spend the night. Walking to this side, the horses quieted down, which was about a good sign, and "hiss" Heng sniffed vigorously a few times to make sure that there was no rather annoying smell of rat dragons in the air, and nodded.

"Bjorn, Till," Bernie beckoned to the back, and the bearded mercenary and another mercenary with short blond hair immediately walked over with a torch in one hand and a weapon in the other.

Henry noticed the name of the bearded mercenary who was about his height, and combined with his pitch-black hair color and the style of weapons he used, the sage judged that he was most likely from the Danrasso region of the four northern islands of the Northern Rical Sea - in other words, a northerner who was often called "Norse" by the Yavenela and Sivaliers.

One of the four hometowns of the Spinn pirates was the Dan Lasso, and to this day, the broad-bladed axe is still one of their most iconic weapons.

The D'Radas have a reputation as formidable warriors on the entire West Coast and even on the continent of Rigal, and in the well-known common sense, the only people who can match them in terms of individual and squad combat effectiveness are probably the Loans to which our white-haired Lori belongs.

But it is also obvious how the warlike race will end up, and in addition to these things that are generally known, Henry and some other people who have seen the world know that there is actually a race that is more powerful and even more powerful than many people believe that they are not human but demigods.

The independent Carmisians who live in the absolute far north of the continent of Rigal, beyond the territory of the Ottolo Empire and deep into the uninhabited snow-capped mountains, are the remnants of the independent Carmisians.

In fact, they do have some inhuman traits on the looks, with their translucent lilac hair, blood-colored pupils, and a nature that goes berserk when they enter a combat state, which seems to exist only in legends, making the Carmicians sound unreal in any way - we're talking about it.

In short, it was well deserved to be led by the Dan Lasso Axe warriors, one of the three most famous fighting races in the world in Rigal, and the torch in Bjorn's hand illuminated most of the passage - this side looked like the other side of the passage, except that the path spiraling down looked more wide.

"Safe!" the Danlaso warrior seemed to prefer to roar rather than speak, so it was up to the one-handed swordsman next to him, who sounded like an Avenella, armed with an Avenella-style weapon, and had a very Avenella-style hair.

The ......group didn't say anything more, and several people, including the Humpty Dumpty mercenary, held the reins to control the horses from rushing down the ramp too quickly.

No one spoke, only the sound of the horseshoe striking on the white stone floor echoed clearly.

In the darkness, it sounded like the sound of death knocking on the door with its bare knuckles.

"Da, da"

Once, twice, the footsteps of the horse in the probe echoed alone. Mira moved closer to Henry, and despite being surrounded by others, she could only feel safe thanks to the sage.

The passage here is not long, although the disc rotation bend has increased some length, but it will not take long for the group to complete the whole journey.

Henry's rough estimate was that the passages were about five to six meters high, equivalent to two stories of an ordinary inn or house, which was the standard height of a castle's façade - and he could have roughly judged why the passages were made flat rather than stepped.

"Oh, the bed crossbow," said the Humpty Dumpty mercenary, who had run to the forefront again with the lost treasure of Princess Onia in mind, and found the rotten objects piled up in the corners at the end of the road, and his words proved Henry's reasoning.

Obviously, the reason why these circling passages were built so wide was to make it easy to push bed crossbows and ballistas with wooden wheels up the city walls in time of war, and the passage in front was narrower than this side, probably to prevent the influx of enemies - in this case, the main entrance of the castle was on that side, and the group was heading to the depths of the castle at the moment.

The firelight illuminated the pile of defensive weapons that had only been left in shape, and when they were created, they were powerful beyond any individual, but in the face of time, only dark black, moss-covered wood was left to tell the glory of the past.

Leaning against the wall to serve as ballista and bed crossbow ammunition, some of the short spears of about 150 cm may have been made of moth-proof wood or had been specially treated, but they had only become black over the years but not completely decayed, but the tips used to kill were obviously overwhelmed.

"It's all a pile of rags!Treasure!" the Humpty Dumpty mercenary angrily swung his one-handed sword and smashed the rotten weapon rack to pieces, while Bernie behind him finally couldn't stand his actions and shouted.

"Rodney, shut up" the team leader had to shout at him, his voice echoing through what looked like a weapon storage area and through the empty passageway.

"Oh, it looks like it's big over here," Tyr and Bjorn walked towards the place where the echo sounded with their torches, the bed crossbow and ballista were quite large, so the place where these weapons were stored was actually not much smaller than the previous hall, and the two of them walked towards that side only to find a wide, flat and large walkway.

But Henry noticed something else, and he frowned, noticing that only the lively young lady and the little Loan Lori had changed the sage's expression.

"What's wrong?" the blonde-haired lady asked Henry, who somehow seemed hostile to her approach, and Henry just shook his head, "I just thought I heard something." ”

He didn't go on, and he didn't ask. There is only one path in front of them, and everyone can obviously only move in this direction.

Without lingering too long, after checking the general environment and making sure that no other people or creatures had come, the group began to walk slowly again. The road was wide, and the sides seemed to have been used to store weapons, but now the spears and axes on them were already decaying.

This made Henry pay a little attention, because according to his previous analysis, the castle must have been through a battle, but what he saw before him, whether it was the weapons of the city or the weapons of the soldiers, was in order, as if their owners had died in battle before they could get their hands on them.

'Could it really be that he was attacked by a dragon?' the sage immediately dismissed his idea. Dragons exist on the West Coast, but most prefer to live in mountainous environments rather than plains, and while dragons may also live in the sea, those large sea dragons have long since lost their claws for running and turned into fins over the centuries, occasionally climbing on the beach, and even becoming a meal for despicable coyotes when they go deeper into the plains.

Henry shook his head and shook off these unrealistic ideas, and the focus for now was on finding a place where he could spend a safe night. He had already made a note of the location of the castle, and it would not be too late to come back here if he needed to.

The firelight flickered, and the footsteps of men and horses echoed. The wide road on both sides made it difficult for the torches in the hands of those standing in the middle to illuminate the nearby walls, but fortunately the people had enough light by adopting a square array.

"Plate!" The stocky mercenary whom Bernie called Rodney let out another fuss-like cry, and he left his companion behind and ran forward, the still gleaming metal surface reflecting the light of the torch in Rodney's hand, and the others followed.

In front of this section of the wall lay several pairs of rusted but undamaged plate armor. The cold metal made up the shape of a human, except for the black pressure at the helmet's observation port, where the castle's former occupants no longer were, as if they were still guarding the empty home.

"Well, these look like they can be used," Bernie said, touching his stubble chin, a good pair of plate armor usually costs a lot of money, they are not just some pieces of iron that can be formed by beating them, and if the blacksmiths use uneven force when hammering, it is easy to make the plate armor of different thicknesses. And this is the brunt of the cuirass that is hammered into an arc with a whole piece of metal, and if it is an inexperienced blacksmith, in the process of hammering out the shape, it is likely that the whole cuirass will eventually be made thin in the middle and thick on both sides, so that no one will want to come out.

With high technical requirements and the amount of metal consumed, even in modern times, the only people who can afford a set of plate armor are knights and famous mercenaries.

At the time of this castle, it was probably owned by nobles such as high-ranking officers, generals, and city lords.

After all these years, the other weapons have rotted and rusted, and only they appear to be more or less intact are a testament to their worth, and four complete sets of plate armor - and perhaps the historical value of them - are a lot of money, even Bernie, as the leader of the team, is a little tempted.

But unlike Rodney, who was keen to become rich, Bernie thought about it slightly.

They were still in the process of fleeing, and one set of armor had to weigh 35 kilograms, to say the least, and four sets added up to the burden on the horses.

If you want to wear it on your body, it's also a burden. Second, the plates didn't necessarily fit their size - the team leader thought so, as if sensing his thoughts, and the stocky Rodney immediately ran up and took apart a pair of plates to put on himself.

It's good that he didn't move, but when he moved, he stabbed the big basket. The plates themselves were not excessively damaged, but the wooden shelves they used to hang from were crumbling.

And so—

"Ding—— clang—— clang—— clang—— clang—— clang—— clang!!"

A series of cacophony noises made several people can't help but cover their ears: "Boom-boom-boom." Bernie stomped on the helmet that was rolling on the ground, and looked at Rodney with a dismal face.

"No, Boss, I didn't mean to......" The Humpty Dumpty mercenary's legs subconsciously weakened, he raised his hands as if trying to protect his head, but forgot that he still had a torch in one hand, and his hair was burned all at once.

"Oh, oh, oh, chop!" the pudgy mercenary, who immediately shouted again, shook off the torch with a bright orange glow, and then fell down—

"Damn it, I'm sorry, boss—" Rodney, grinning over his forehead, looked at Bernie and Henry, only to find that no one was looking at him.

"O merciful gods...... Bernie closed his eyes and nodded his forehead and chest in a prayer gesture, while the others were silent, no one looked at Rodney, and the stocky mercenary turned his head to realize what his torch illuminated.

Skeleton.

Countless bones.

Leaning against the wall, he crawls on the ground, and before he dies, his hand seems to be stretched out in this direction.

"Step, step" Henry walked up with Mira, Bernie, Tier, and Bjorn.

"It's the soldiers, I think they were attacked in their sleep, which explains why they didn't have time to pick up their weapons. Henry said as he looked at the bones, many of them lying on their backs, only a very small number of them were wearing blackened and rusty chain mail, while most of the others were wearing loose clothes made of linen.

The clothes had become tattered over the years, and the others had come over, leaving Rodney standing beside the pile of tattered plates, and he saw that no one was paying attention to himself, and he was crouching down and fiddling with them.

“...... Have they been sneak attacked? Mira said this in a not very high voice, she was still a little shadowed by the rat dragon before, and the girl was careful as if a louder voice would attract those monsters. Henry nodded, which made Mira even more confused.

"But、But,Isn't a sneak attack an undeclared war?,You said before that it should be the people of the knight's country who attacked here......" The white-haired Lo'an looked a little incoherent, Henry could probably understand her inner turmoil at the moment, after the destruction of the Luo'an people, the people of her generation felt injustice and indifference in society, and in this case, I often heard people say that the people of a neighboring country not far away practice chivalry, respect others, and help the weak, which will become a little comfort in the sleepless night.

comforted himself and said that there is still a place in this world where people like themselves can also be treated gently by others - but this is just a dream after all.

"Little girl, this is war, not a knightly contest. It wasn't Henry but Bernie who answered him, and the team leader shook his head and sighed, then reached out to touch Mira's head, but the girl just dodged him.

Bernie was stunned for a moment, and the lively young lady next to him stepped forward, and this time Mira did not resist her approach.

The girl and the big Lori stood hand in hand, and Henry, who had crouched down to examine the corpses, turned gloomy at this moment.

A trace of cold sweat seemed to ooze from his forehead, and then he suddenly got up and quickly looked left and right with a "hmm-" sound.

"Mel, what's wrong with you?" Bernie was startled by Henry's sudden move, and the Sage didn't bother to answer, he quickly ran from left to right to inspect it carefully, and finally locked his gaze on the low ceiling.

"Whew-whew-" The torches raised were blown by the breath blowing in from the vents, and the huge paw prints that spread all over the mouths of the pipes made everyone who saw it break out in a cold sweat.

"......," Henry turned his head with a twitch out of his eyes, and said slowly.

"Sorry...... Just now, those rat dragons seem to be juvenile bodies, so they will be near the entrance, because the mouse dragon is a very territorial creature, and the mouse dragon will be driven away from its home when it grows up. ”

"And then we like...... Broke into the lair of an adult body"

As he spoke, there was a clanging sound behind him, and the crowd quickly turned their heads.

"Squeak-squeak-"

Half of the breastplate shook face down slightly, and Bernie frowned.

"Where's Rodney?"

He asked, and the next second there was a dense noise coming from the direction behind Henry.

It's like a thousand rats running.