In December 404, the procession escorting Prince Theo back to Sassen set off from Lorne Fortress.

It was a team of about 100 people, of which except for sixty-five soldiers who were regular soldiers, the rest were Prince Theo's personal guards.

It's nice to say it's a pro-guard, it's hard to say, it's just some noble children who go to the front line of the battlefield to gild, don't expect those guys to kill the enemy bravely, once they set foot on the real battlefield, they run faster than anyone else!

Lorne Fortress is a newly built fortress to resist the orcs in the west, and the soldiers stationed in the fortress are basically drawn from the north, some from Artak, some from Galik, and some from Gron, and the soldiers from the south are not absent, but relatively few.

The commander of Lorne Fortress is the twenty-four-year-old Earl Brian, although he can sit in this position mostly by his family strength, but this young earl does have some ability, at least he did not make a mess of Lorne Fortress, on the contrary, he took care of it well, and did not fall behind in the past few skirmishes with orcs.

But the arrival of Prince Theo is a great headache for him, and the arrogant prince is bent on reclaiming the Empire's occupied territories in order to prove himself, in a vain attempt to break the Cold War between the Empire and the Orcs.

In desperation, Commander Brian had no choice but to launch several small-scale harassment battles against the orcs, but fortunately, these harassment battles did not touch the bottom line of the orcs, so the victory declarations quickly spread to Sassen.

The captain of the escort is a confidant of Commander Brian, named Deel Matthew.

Like all the soldiers stationed at Lorne Fortress, Deel Matthew had no affection for Prince Theo and the so-called 'guards' around him.

During the break, the soldiers of Lorne Fortress sat in a circle around the campfire, while Prince Theo stayed with his 'guards', and the two groups did not speak any words.

Looking at Prince Theo and the noble-born guards sitting together excitedly talking about their battle with the orcs, the eyes of all the fortress soldiers were very cold.

But the children of the nobles did not see this, and continued to tell their battles, a nobleman named Alec Garfikin, who actually said that he had killed two orcs, and looked at his weak muscles, and really doubted that this guy was enough to cut the orc infantry with an axe.

Of course, these noble children are not stupid, on the contrary, they are very smart, and they are very clever to use themselves to compliment Prince Theo, and Prince Theo is very happy with the compliments of these 'subordinates', but in order to maintain his majesty as a superior person, he seems very calm.

To be honest, Prince Theo was not satisfied with Brian, the commander of Lorne Fortress, not only because the other party rejected his opinion several times, but also because Prince Theo saw distrust in Brian's eyes.

Suspicion, compared to the hard military life in Lorne Fortress, this is what Prince Theo can't bear!

And for those victorious battles, Prince Theo was also very dissatisfied, and led hundreds of men to attack a patrol composed of a dozen orcs, how could this prove his bravery and good fighting? It was a shame!

Of course, Prince Theo would not know that before he reached Lorne Fortress, there had been several clashes here, and according to statistics, the casualties on both sides were one to four, that is, four human regular soldiers were worth one orc infantryman.

God, it was drizzling, and it was really not interesting to travel in such a ghost weather, not to mention the noisy nobles, even Prince Theo's face was a little unhappy, although they could use horses to get around, but the wet clothes that clinged to their bodies made them feel very bad.

"Captain Matthew," said Theo, looking at the weather, as he rode his horse to Captain Deel Matthew, "should we find a place to shelter from the rain?"

Dil Matthew glanced at Prince Theo strangely, endured the unhappiness in his heart, and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, we have rested enough, and if we continue like this, I am afraid it will be difficult to reach Sassen within the scheduled date!" As he spoke, he seemed to feel the impatience in his tone, paused, and continued in a steady tone, "Your Royal Highness, I have the responsibility to send you to Sassen safely, the news of your departure from Lorne Fortress has been released for more than ten days, for the sake of Your Highness's safety, we still ......"

"Or what?" Raising his hand to interrupt Captain Matthew's words, Prince Theo sneered and said, "In the territory of my empire, is there anyone who wants to be unfavorable to me? You think too much, your responsibility is not to protect me, but to arrange all kinds of problems encountered on the way, Captain Matthew!" As he spoke, he paused, leaned down slightly, and said word by word, "Go find a place to spend the night, we will hurry tomorrow, this is the order, Captain Matthew!"

“...... Yes!"

Shaking his head, Captain Matthew had to call a few soldiers to explore the road nearby, and suddenly, he seemed to see a dark shadow faintly attacking in the bushes on the side of the road, and subconsciously pressed the sword on his waist, he shouted, "Who?!"

"Captain Matthew?" the other soldiers didn't seem to notice what had just happened, and looked around suspiciously, surprised, "Is there anyone else nearby?"

Matthew shook his head slowly, walked to the bushes with bated breath, drew his sword and slashed at the dead grass a few times, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Captain Matthew?"

"It's okay," shaking his head, Matthew turned around, inserted the sword back into the scabbard, and said in a deep voice, "Let's go!" As he spoke, he couldn't help but glance behind him again, with a faint premonition in his heart.

[I did see a figure just now...... Am I mistaken?]

Out of uneasiness, Matthew immediately took the soldiers back to the resting place, and said to Prince Theo, who was sitting on a stone and drinking, "Your Highness, there is no place to rest nearby......!"

As he was talking, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves in the distance, and Matthew turned his head to look, but saw one of the nobles of the prince's bodyguard coming on horseback, and hurriedly said, "Your Highness, I found a village not far ahead......

Prince Theo glanced coldly at Captain Matthew, and said sarcastically, "There's no place to rest?" and as he said that, he stood up and said to the nobleman, "Well done, Purzy, inform everyone, go to that village and rest for the night!"

Frowning, Matthew hesitated and said, "Your Highness......"

Glancing back at Matthew, Prince Theo said in a deep voice, "Do you want to disobey my orders?

“...... Yes!"

After about twenty minutes, the group came to the village.

The villagers seemed a little uneasy after seeing the procession of 100 people, but after Prince Theo's explanation, the villagers warmly welcomed them to rest in the village.

Matthew was silent, because he could see that Prince Theo was already very dissatisfied with him.

Suddenly, the muttering of a soldier caught his attention.

"What did you just say?"

"Strange ......," said the soldier, who had come back to his senses, looked at the buildings in the village in amazement, and hesitated, "I have patrolled in this direction for an hour, but I have not found this village—am I mistaken?"

"Didn't you do it an hour ago?" Matthew was stunned, frowned, and said, "Are you sure?"

"This ......" the soldier named Luo looked at Matthew in embarrassment and whispered, "Maybe I didn't pay attention at the time, I'm very sorry, Captain Matthew!"

After taking a deep look at Law, Matthew walked to the corner of a house without saying a word, squatted down to look at it, and then picked up a piece of mud in the corner and pinched it.

"What's the problem, Master Non-Commissioned Officer!" Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.

Matthew hurriedly turned his head and saw a young man looking at him with a smile, and slowly shook his head, "No! there is no problem!" Saying this, he was shocked in his heart: An ordinary civilian could walk behind him without being noticed by himself?

"By the way," Matthew stood up and asked in a deep voice, holding back the suspicion in his heart, "how long have you lived here?"

"Hmm," the young man hesitated, and said uncertainly, "I don't know, I've been here since I was born anyway, what's the problem?"

"No!" Matthew shook his head, and walked straight towards Prince Theo, who was now considering which house to requisition for his evening.

"Your Highness!"

"Huh?" Turning his head to see that it was Matthew, Prince Theo said impatiently, "What's the matter?"

I saw that Matthew looked left and right, and saw that the villagers seemed to be far away from the ground, and whispered, "Your Highness, there is something wrong with this village!"

"Question?" Prince Theo was stunned, then looked at the dirt in Matthew's hand and said inexplicably, "What does this mean?"

I saw Matthew break open the small piece of dirt with his hand, pointed to the dark and hard part of it, and whispered, "Your Highness, this is what I found in the corner of the wall over there—such a lump of mud could never have appeared in a village that has existed for a long time, it is more like a ...... that has been buried in the ground and has not been exposed to the sun."

As he was talking, an old voice suddenly came from the side.

"Ah, that, it was dug up from the ground two days ago, and there are more and more young people in the village, and the original houses are no longer enough......"

"Huh?" Matthew was taken aback, and subconsciously turned his head, only to see an old man on crutches appear behind him at some point.

"I am the head of this village, are you Prince Theo, we are really honored to have such a big man as you come to our village......" As he spoke, the old man pointed behind him with his cane and said to Prince Theo, "Although there is no crop to be proud of in the village, the food is relatively abundant, please, Your Royal Highness the Prince!"

"Thank you very much!" Prince Theo saluted politely, even to a commoner, this is the proper gesture of a superior person.

But just as he was about to follow the old man forward, he was grabbed by Matthew's sleeve.

"Your Highness, something is wrong with this village!"

Breaking away from Matthew's hand, Prince Theo held back his anger and said in a deep voice, "I think something is wrong with you! Rest in this village today, this is the order, Captain Matthew!"

"......" Matthew opened his mouth and pressed his sword to the nearby soldier.

"Your Highness?" the old man turned and looked at Prince Theo with a smile, but if he looked closely, he could see that the old man was actually looking at Matthew, who was ordering the soldiers to patrol at night.

There is definitely something wrong with this village!

Matthew didn't accept the villagers' dinner, and as a professional soldier, he was extremely wary of the seemingly ordinary civilians.

From the color of the dirt that made up the houses, Matthew concluded that this was not definitely a long-standing village, and that the color of the dirt was more like it had been dug out of the ground not long ago...... Late at night, Matthew stood guard outside the house where Prince Theo was resting, holding his sword, recalling what the soldier Rowe had said.

The village was not discovered an hour ago...... If what he said was true, then the village ...... The only way to build such a village in just an hour is ...... Just thinking about it, a warning suddenly surged out of Matthew's subconscious, he subconsciously drew his long sword, pointed to the dark corner not far away, and said in a deep voice, "Who?

"That's remarkable......" an uncomfortable voice floated from afar, "I thought they were all stupid guys, Diell Matthew!" said the owner of the voice, who came out of the darkness in the corner, covered in a gray cloak, unable to see his face clearly, revealing only a pair of cold eyes.

The other party, a total of three people!

"You...... You ......" Matthew couldn't help but take a step back, holding his long sword and said fiercely, "what the hell do you want to do?"

The other party did not answer Matthew's question, but said to himself, "I didn't expect it to be so easy, I should have done it earlier, wasting so much of our time......"

"Attacking Prince Theo, this is a crime of treason! Who are you?"

"We—we're just some people buried in history...... "The leader reached out from his cloak and pointed at Matthew, "You know? This used to be a cemetery!"

"Hmm?" Matthew didn't understand what the other party meant for a moment, when suddenly, he heard a strange sound that was stinging Suosuo, and he subconsciously lowered his head, but saw that something seemed to be trying to get out of the dirt under his feet.

Skull ...... Skeleton?

The pale skeleton, half of its body still in the dirt, grabbed Matthew's right foot, and the dark green soul fire burned in the seeping eye sockets, and the jaws were closed together, as if laughing.

"Click, click!" More and more skeletons emerged from the village floor.

Matthew looked at all of this in amazement and muttered, "You guys...... Necromancer?!"

At the same time, Prince Theo was lying on the bed in the rest room, his hands on his hands looking at the ceiling.

Going to Lorne Fortress was offered by Theo.

It must be said that the young prince was the best of the three sons of the king, and had few shortcomings except for being too conceited.

But most people only noticed the noble status of this prince, and this is where Theo felt distressed.

After graduating with honors from the Royal Knight Academy, Theo had planned to preside over the war in the west, but because of his status, he could not bear to continue to let those stupid orcs encroach on the territory of the empire and kill the inhabitants of the empire, but even in Lorne, he still could not escape the aura of being the first prince of the empire.

Others may not understand that Prince Theo's definition of himself is first and foremost a brave warrior, and secondly as a prince, who is bent on surpassing the great achievements of his ancestor King Sassen, and cannot bear to be treated as a prince who can only play tricks.

I'm a warrior first and foremost! He's going to prove it!

But this is not an easy thing, as the future heir of the Empire, who will involve this prince in a real battle? Those people, don't dare, not even the same young commander of Lorne Fortress!

"Tsk!" Turning over on the bed, Prince Theo sighed secretly, muttering to himself with a bit of mockery, "Damn it, do I still need you to protect me......?"

A cold wind blew in through the window, calming Prince Theo's irritable mood a little.

Suddenly, his expression changed.

Why is there no sound?

Even in the wild, he could see the trees in the distance swaying from side to side in the cold wind, but why was there no sound?

Whether it's the sound of leaves, or the sound of the wind...... It's so quiet...... Why can't I hear the outside sound?

The Puzi guys didn't come over either...... Even if Diel Matthew is outside, he can't stop those guys, right?

It's so quiet...... Quietly something isn't quite right...... Prince Theo subconsciously picked up the long sword leaning against the bed, walked to the door with bated breath, and whispered, "Diel Matthew?"

No way, he's a soldier!

Prince Theo slowly opened the door, and he was immediately shocked by the sight outside the door, three strange creatures in gray cloaks, and a horde of skeletons, actually leaking the house to the ground, and outside the door, Matthew held a long sword, covered in blood and leaned against the wooden wall panting.

Matthew ...... Captain?" called Prince Theo, stunned.

Matthew seemed to hear it, and turned his head to Prince Theo and opened his mouth as if to say something, but his voice did not reach the room.

Enchantment!

A word popped into Prince Theo's mind, and he stepped out of the room carefully, and sure enough, the voices outside reached his ears again, including Matthew's voice.

"Temple...... Your Highness, they are...... It's a necromancer......"

Looking at the scars on Matthew's body, Prince Theo felt so stupid for the first time, nodded, and said in a deep voice, "I know, you did a good job, Captain Matthew!"

"Guaranteed...... It is my duty to protect Your Highness...... It's an order......" As he spoke, Matthew slowly sat down on the ground against the wall, his sword in hand, panting and saying, "Quick...... Hurry up, Your Highness, they're here to kill you......"

"I see, you save some strength," patting Matthew on the shoulder, Prince Theo turned around, looked at the necromancers, and said in a deep voice with the tone of a superior person, "Say, who told you to attack us?"

"Are you ordering me, Your Royal Highness, Honorable Prince?" said a necromancer, "I think you should understand your current situation, don't you?" I suggest you change the ......tone of voice that we can accept," he said, paused, shook his head, and said with a pretended regret, "Why do you want to come out? Wouldn't it be nice to stay in there honestly? and then die quietly without disturbing anyone......

Looking at each other coldly, Prince Theo looked around and said in a deep voice, "What about the others?"

The necromancer smiled, shook his head, and said, "Are you talking about the soldiers, or your companions?" but it's all the same, they're gone...... Your companions, we are merciful enough to let them sleep and accept death without any pain, while the soldiers on patrol are not very lucky......" he said, glancing at the skeletons nearby, some of which still had fresh blood left on them.

"Damn!" Prince Theo couldn't help but feel a wave of anger from the bright red of those skeletons, he slowly drew the knight's sword in his hand, gritted his teeth and said, "Stupid guys!

"Yeh?" the necromancer was stunned, then waved his hand and said lightly, "Kill him!"

As soon as the words fell, hordes of skeletons rushed frantically towards Prince Theo.

"Damn the crumbs!" roared, Prince Theo's body burst into a circle of pale red qi, and with a wave of the long sword in his hand, a slash like a wind blade actually split a row of skeletons in half, and then, I saw his left hand slap the ground, only to hear a bang, and the skeletons closer to him were all shattered leg bones.

In just a few minutes, Prince Theo's feet were already full of skeleton wreckage, and he pointed his sword at the necromancers, and said word by word, "Now it's your turn!"

After a brief silence, the necromancer who was standing at the front clapped his hands lightly and said approvingly, "Warrior who wields the wrath, tsk, this is too surprising to me, Your Royal Highness the Prince, it seems that we really shouldn't treat you like an ordinary fellow!"

As soon as the words fell, the shattered skeletons reshaped their bodies again.

Although these skeletons are very weak, they are simply vulnerable, but because of the presence of necromancers, they cannot be completely shattered, and this number, gradually, Prince Theo's movements have become sluggish.

Looking at all this, the necromancer sneered, "Anger, that's just boring stuff, how can it compare to magic?"

"Really?" roared, Prince Theo jumped up from the skull encirclement, clenched the sword in his hand with both hands, and slashed at the necromancer, the strong force brought gusts of wind, and actually blew off the cloak on the necromancer's head, a young man who looked to be only in his twenties.

"Die, miscellaneous!"

Looking at the angry prince who jumped over, the young necromancer raised his hand, and then, something strange happened, Prince Theo's long sword actually stopped only half a yard away from the target, no matter how hard Prince Theo tried, he couldn't break this distance, if you look closely, you can faintly see that what blocked Prince Theo's long sword was a cloud of dark purple energy.

"Bang!" I saw the necromancer wave his right hand, and Prince Theo was knocked away like a rag, slamming into the wall of the house behind him, holding back the horror in his heart, and looking at the necromancer in front of him in disbelief.

"It's too weak, Your Royal Highness the Prince!" sneering at Prince Theo, the young necromancer smiled slightly, "The elders are too cautious, to deal with you, I alone is enough!" As he spoke, he slowly walked towards Prince Theo, ready to deliver the final blow to the other party.

"Wait, Liro, it might be useful to keep them!" An old voice spoke, and one of the other two necromancers spoke.

"Hmm?" said the young necromancer named Rillo with a slight smile and mocking, "Hmph, that's right, it's a prince after all!, but the other guy doesn't need it!" As he spoke, a miserable white beam of light shot out of his hand, piercing Matthew's heart in an instant.

"Matthew!" Prince Theo struggled to his feet, looking at Rillo and yelling angrily, "You damn fellow!" but before he could finish speaking, he was grabbed by the throat by a tremendous force and slammed against the wall again.

Holding Prince Theo's throat with his left hand, Liro slapped him in the face with his right hand, and with a strong threat, jokingly said, "Be honest, Your Royal Highness!

"You...... Bastard!"

"Tsk!" Pouting, Liro slapped Prince Theo's forehead with his right hand, knocking him unconscious, and then, he let go of his hand, let Prince Theo fall to the ground weakly, wiped his hands and said lightly, "Don't let me be responsible for such boring errands in the future...... Well, I haven't seen Poole in a while, so that guy should be back in Sasson, right? Argus...... What kind of guy is that? Hey!"

"Argus is a dangerous man!Take him, Liro, and we're going to get to Sassen before anyone else finds out!—check again, I'm going to make sure no one survives!"

Scratching his head, Rillo said helplessly, "Yes, Elder!—I can guarantee that there is no living person except this fellow!"

"Check it again!--if it weren't for your carelessness, let that non-commissioned officer see it, things would have been much easier!"

"Yes Yes ......"

Ten minutes later, the three necromancers left with the unconscious Prince Theo, and as they left, they removed the illusion that had covered the entire village, and as Rillo had said, it was an abandoned cemetery, only with a few new guests.

And about two days later, Soss and his party returned to Vando.

"Is this Reox?" said Ulrique, who was driving the carriage, "The city of magicians, this is wonderful......"

"Hey, Ulrique," Alan corrected with a wry smile as he looked at Ulrik helplessly, "This is Vando!—we're not here yet!"

"Oooh!—but even that would have surprised me!" said Ulrik, looking at the city in surprise.

Indeed, as a city of magicians, Vandor is a very beautiful city, with wide, well-groomed streets, tall and elegant wooden buildings, and especially a huge magic fountain at the end of the street, which surprised Ulrique.

"What a beautiful city!—but why aren't there so many people?"

In fact, there is no need for Ulrike to say, other people also feel that there is something wrong with the atmosphere of Van Do, usually at this time, the central street of Van Doh is the most lively place, vendors, nobles, magician apprentices, etc., all kinds of people gather here, but now, this street is deserted and there are few people, even the large and small shops on the street are closed, in the past, you can see many senior students of Reoks Academy who are "working".

"What's going on?" Alan asked, looking at the eerie street, surprised.

Shaking his head for some reason, Soth's eyes looked at the corner of the street, where two strange guys in gray cloaks were looking at Reochs in the distance, and when they spotted Soth's group, they pulled their cloaks and hurried away, and their movements were very suspicious.

"What are those two guys doing?" asked Allen, confused.

Before Soth could speak, Ulrik next to him seemed to sense something, and whispered, "I smell a thick dark aura from those two people!-be careful!"

"Are those two magicians?" Alan looked around in amazement, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Don't make a fuss, many of the Empire's magicians use dark powers!"

"Is that so?" asked Soth, surprised.

"Hmm!" Thos nodded absentmindedly, staring at his white-gloved left hand, probably still thinking about Sloth.

A few minutes later, they finally arrived at the gate of the Reochs Academy, jumped out of the carriage, and Alan slapped his hand towards the ancient iron gate, shouting loudly, "Hey, anyone......

Suddenly, his words came to an abrupt halt, and as soon as his right hand touched the huge iron door, it was bounced open by several arcs of lightning that flashed with ghostly light.

Holding his stinging right hand, Alan was stunned and said, "What's going on?

In the meantime, the girls also got out of the carriage, and it was a little inexplicable to see this, although they all knew that Reochs Academy had a giant enchantment, but they had never seen it open.

Just when the children were having a headache about how to enter, a white circle of light suddenly appeared on the ground of the iron gate, and only to hear a whoosh, the figure of the old dean appeared in front of the children, looked at the children and said in surprise, "Why did you come back too?

"Wow!" Alan couldn't help but exclaim, then looked at the old dean and said with a smile, "You know, it's really ...... to stay in Galik Hey, Dean, you look good today!"

"Heh!" the old dean nodded with a smile, and pointed his right hand towards the iron door, only to see a creak, the iron door opened, and the enchantment with a faint blue arc also opened an invisible passage.

"Come in, boys!"

"Thank you, Dean!" said Lavia politely, then turning back to Ulrique, who was sitting in the carriage, "Hey, let the carriage in!—our luggage is still on board!" she said, her eyes slightly stunned, as if she saw two suspicious fellows in the street and alley opposite.

Alan apparently noticed it too, and pushed Soth beside him, and whispered, "Look there!—those two guys were watching us just now!"

Soth looked up into the distance, only to see that the other party had already disappeared into the deep alley.

Frowning, Lavia asked uneasily, "What's going on, Dean, what's going on?"

The old dean shook his head and sighed slightly, "I really hope you stay in Garik and don't come back, but ...... Come in, it's dangerous outside! I'm going to open the shield!"

"Oh!" the children walked through the door, as if they didn't understand, and Ulrique drove in the carriage.

"Who is this?" as if noticing Ulrike as he disembarked from the carriage, the old dean glancing at him with piercing eyes.

As if sensing the vigilance in the old dean's eyes, Ulrique, who was busy looking at the castle in the distance, hurriedly bent down, put his right hand on his left chest and performed an ancient etiquette, and said politely, "My name is Ulrique, and I am honored to meet you!"

"Me too," the old dean nodded with a smile and then said in a deep voice, "but I'm curious why a vampire would be with my students, can you explain?"

"Dean," Dia, who was standing beside Thos, interjected, "Ulrik is a friend that Thus and I met in Garrick, and he won't hurt anyone!"

The old dean glanced at Soth, saw him nod, the wariness in his eyes quietly disappeared, and said apologetically to Ulric, "I'm very sorry, it seems that you and my students are getting along well, young man!—although it's not a good time, you're still welcome to Reox!"

"You're so polite!" Ulrik bent slightly.

"Dean, what's going on?" Lisa whispered, "Why are all the people in the city leaving, why is it dangerous outside?"

The old dean glanced at the children, and saw that they were all waiting for his reply, shook his head, sighed, and said, "It's none of your business, what you have to do is to have a good rest!--you're tired all the way, aren't you?Go back to your room and take a rest, I'll arrange for a few professors to send you out tomorrow!" As he spoke, he glanced at the puppets who were following the children, and said with a smile, "It's worthy of the masterpiece of Fandel's professors," It's a surprising 'product of black matter', a puppet with wisdom and life......"

But unfortunately, the old dean's words did not serve the intended purpose, and the attentive Lavia asked in a low voice, "Dean, who are those two people just now, and why are they spying on Reox?"

"Spying on Reox?" Alan and Soth couldn't help but feel a little surprised, but again, there really was no reason why they would be targeted.

"Did you find it......" The old dean sighed slightly and muttered, "They're necromancers!"

"Necromancer?"

(To be continued)