Some time ago, in the royal domain, in the palace of Agnes.

Lucius doesn't know how many times he has accepted the gift of the princess, although the identity is different, but he almost grew up with the princess, if he behaves a little politely, it is disrespectful to the princess, so he resisted from the beginning, and finally accepted it with peace of mind, but all the time, he couldn't understand the meaning of Agnes.

At this time, he was about to take a bite of the apple without hesitation, but suddenly the tiger's body was shocked, and he couldn't help but be furious, he suddenly understood something, and quickly turned around and called Agnes.

"Wait, Your Highness, there's something wrong with this apple!"

Although as a knight, he has no magical talents, so naturally he can't use magic perception, but his parents were once great magicians in the empire, perhaps because of this, he was born with the ability to perceive deadly threats, so he can detect problems in time.

"What, what's wrong?" Agnes was about to feast, but was stopped at a moment's notice, not understanding what Lucius meant.

At this time, Herbert, who was walking in front, also heard his words, and immediately broke out in a cold sweat, but then acted as if nothing happened.

"What? You, you mean, I want to murder Her Highness Agnes. Herbert asked loudly.

Then, Agnes put the apple back in the basket and walked slowly to the two of them.

She was naturally convinced of her knights, so she was shocked by Herbert's ill intentions at this time, but she did not blame Herbert.

"Lucius, what the hell do you mean? It's really disrespectful, Mr. Herbert is the person who grew up with me, and treats me more like a child of his own, although you are for my safety, but your words are too hurtful, apologize to Mr. Herbert immediately! ”

"What! Me, I apologize to this old guy? He wants to murder Your Highness. Lucius refused to compromise either.

"Tsk, Lucius, you're fat now, aren't you? Dare to disobey my orders? Be careful, I'll fire you right now. ”

Agnes crossed her waist, but her eyes kept winking at each other, but Lucius didn't notice her small movements.

Seeing the two quarrel, Herbert fell silent, although his status was low, but his brain was enough, so he knew very well that Agnes absolutely believed in his knight, and the reason why the other party still defended him until now was obviously to take into account his feelings.

At the thought of this, Herbert showed a look of despair, and finally sat down on the ground.

"Huh? Mr. Herbert, what's wrong with you? Where is it uncomfortable? Agnes hurriedly rushed over, crouched down and asked with concern.

"Your Highness, you saw it just now, I didn't touch him, hey, old guy, you want to touch porcelain, right?" Lucius stood aside and said leisurely.

In fact, as an exemplary knight, he has always strictly adhered to the etiquette and principles of knighthood, but he just can't tolerate those who are not good for his master.

"Alas, it's okay, I'm just feeling bad." Herbert sighed, and did look uncomfortable.

"Then tell me something, by the way, shouldn't Lucius have slandered you just now?"

"......," Herbert looked at Agnes helplessly, and then said, "Alas, it's me who is confused, I have lived in the royal domain for so many years, and I have done so many things for the previous king, but in the end I can't even tell who is qualified to be the king, I have lived for so many years in vain." ”

"Hmph, then who are you poisoning my master for?" Lucius crossed his arms and asked angrily.

"Yes......"

However, Herbert was about to say the name when there was a sound of breaking wind from a long distance away from the palace, extremely sharp, and it was obvious that something was flying towards him, and one could imagine how much power it contained.

It was only after flying close that Lucius could see the true face of the thing, which was a black arrow with a cold glow at the tip.

Lucius acted very quickly, immediately rushed to Agnes, and then drew the long sword, strangely, the body of the sword was actually red, as if it had been soaked in blood for a long time, and when the long sword was unsheathed, a dark red mist wrapped around the blade.

In the next moment, the arrow flew in front of everyone, but it was bounced off after touching the mist, and flew straight to Herbert next to him, and finally penetrated the old man's throat with unmistakable accuracy.

Herbert was speechless, and a tiny explosion after the arrow was fired, which also broke his carotid artery, and red blood gushed out, so that he fell to the ground and died on the spot.

"What!"

Lucius was shocked, he secretly admired the murderer who released the cold arrow, it turned out that the opponent's target was Herbert from the beginning, but he chose to use his sword, and finally he could accurately hit the target, what a powerful control ability.

"Herbert!" Agnes exclaimed in surprise and ran over to hold his head.

But he was already dead, but his hands were still scratching at him, and his lips were constantly opening and closing, as if he wanted to say something, but Agnes could never hear it.

Lucius did not dare to chase the murderer, because he was afraid that this would be a ploy to divert the tiger from the mountain, so he had to stand aside and protect Agnes, who was in grief.

After a while, Herbert's body temperature gradually became cold, and Agnes stopped crying, her eyes suddenly became fierce, and she said coldly to Lucius.

"If I had known who had picked up Mr. Herbert and then turned his tongue on him, I wouldn't have let it go, do you hear me? Lucius. ”

"Yes, Your Highness Agnes, I'll look into it for you."

Then Agnes stood up, dusted herself off, and returned to the palace, where she did not forget to add a final word.

"Find someone to bury Mr. Herbert, and bury it in the royal cemetery."

"Understood."

Lucius nodded respectfully, then gave the matter to the other servants while he continued to guard Agnes.

……

A few minutes later, a dark shadow walked through the narrow and dimly lit alley, and after countless turns, the shadow came to a secluded place and knocked lightly on the door next to it.

The door soon opened, and the shadow rushed in, and then the door closed as if nothing had happened.

The black shadow knelt on one knee in front of a gorgeously dressed young man, and the whole room was also very dim, and the black shadow couldn't see the other party's face clearly, and he didn't dare to look at it.

"Mission accomplished?" Byron turned his back to him and said lightly.

"Yes, the old guy's affair has been revealed, and I am afraid that he will confess to you, so I will kill him immediately."

“…… Is it? Sure enough, it's still unreliable," Byron seemed to have expected it a long time ago, and was not too surprised, "You did a good job, I will reward you." ”

"Thank you, master." The black shadow suddenly let go.

He didn't expect that he would successfully complete the task of receiving the master's task for the first time, and he was also rewarded.

However, when he tried to step back, Byron stopped him again.

"Wait, were you seen by the knights of the princess when you killed you?"

"This ...... To tell you the truth, I did it in front of the knight. ”

"That's right, okay, you go down." Byron said, beckoning to the dark corner.

So, when the black shadow wanted to open the door and go out, two more black shadows appeared from the darkness, and then one of them stabbed a dagger into the man's heart and throat respectively.

"Hmph, I can't stay in this place anymore, let's move the position."

"Understood." Two dark shadows immediately responded.

"By the way, how many candidates for the throne did that old guy kill?" Byron asked suddenly.

"None of them, his first target was Agnes, and he failed."

"Oh, waste, I wasted so many tongues, I might as well have sent you if I knew so."

"So what's next for you?"

"Even if you kill the other candidates who are not a threat first, you still have to face Agnes in the end, do you think you have a chance of winning?"

The two dark figures looked at each other, then shook their heads.

"That's fine, so leave it alone for now, let's go meet up with Cornes first."

"Yes."

After a while, the shadows had disposed of the bodies and vanished, and Byron stepped out of the room, and there was an alley that could only be walked through by one person.

As a result, as soon as I went out, I saw Cohen leaning against the door frame, clasping his hands and closing his eyes slightly.

"Hmph, wouldn't you have let me go earlier?"

“…… Aren't you still going to compete in knighthood? Your task is to get first place, and you don't have to do anything else. ”

"If I hadn't beaten that Lucius, how could I have won first place." Cohen spread his hands.

"Hehe, think too much, Lucius won't appear, he still has to protect his princess." Byron couldn't help but tease.

"Well, that's not fun."

"Oh? Are you going to give up your promise with me? Byron stared at him.

Cohen also looked at Byron, and the two looked at each other for a moment of silence before Cohen laughed.

"Don't worry, no matter how bad I am, I'm still a knight, so naturally I mean what I say."

"Hmph, don't be funny with me," Byron was a little unhappy, "Think about it, even if you win the first place in the knightly competition and become the strongest paladin, you can still only be subservient to those big nobles, and even in the eyes of the high-level of the knight world, it is nothing, and if I ascend to the throne, I can directly make you a big noble, one person under ten thousand people, is there anything wrong with this?" ”

"Oh, didn't I say it bad? Why don't you trust me? Cohen looked helpless.

"Of course I don't distrust, just a reminder."

“…… Well, thank you for the reminder, it's best to whisper it in my ear once a day so that I don't get forgetful. Cohen said in a playful tone.

Then he saw that Byron's face was still cold, and he felt bored with himself, and went straight away.

"Tsk, it's really a worry-free guy, I just hope there won't be a mess in the future."

Byron looked at Cohen's departing back and said worriedly.

After a while, he suddenly felt a gust of cold wind behind him, so he subconsciously turned his head to look, but he didn't expect that it was his partner who came.

"Hehe, I heard you're looking for me?" Cornes smiled sadly.

"yes, I guess, you haven't found another key yet, have you?"

"Well, it's true, I searched Agnes's palace and didn't find it, and sure enough, Leonard was useless at all, so I disposed of it, but, listening to your tone, could it be that you have a clue?"

When Byron heard of his brother's death, his heart did not waver.

"I don't have any clues, but my men suddenly reported to me that the door had been opened."

"Oh? Who found the other key...... No, this key is still on me, so how the hell is it opened? ”

"Hmm...... It is said that judging from the traces at the scene, it is obvious that it was knocked open. ”

"Huh?"

Corneston was dumbfounded, he didn't expect that he had been looking for the key everywhere in the past few days, and he had been chased by the elf, but he could open it with brute force.