The wind howled from the top of the hill and carried the smell of food still from the camp through the woods and mountain streams to another hillside far away, attracting a nocturnal scavenging beetle to poke out of the dirt to determine where the rich dinner was.

But the next moment, a foot in a long leather boot fell from the sky, crushing it into the black dirt, and blending into it without distinguishing from each other.

The owner of this foot was a tall man in a black trench coat, who was holding a telescope and looking into the distance, and the direction it was aimed at was the students' camp, and the light that Dior had inadvertently felt was the reflection of the telescope's lens.

Bang bang.

Suddenly, there was the sound of grass and trees being trampled, mixed with hurried footsteps, and then I saw a man in black trotting to the top of the slope and coming behind the tall man.

At this time, I found that there were five people standing silently behind the tall man, all dressed in black trench coats like him, and they knew that they were a group at a glance.

"My lord, the news we spread has worked, and as we expected, the men of the Thorn Barrier have set out, and I am sure they have dispatched at least eighty percent of the combatants in this area. The man in black who rushed over had a crisp and pleasant voice, and it was a woman.

"Well done, number 57. The tall man put down his binoculars and complimented, then looked at the one on the left of the man in black standing behind him, "Number 41, how is your mission?"

Number 41's voice is rather rude male. "Rest assured, my lord, every position has been arranged by my own hands, and it is absolutely foolproof. ”

"Good. The tall man nodded with satisfaction, "This time, we must uproot the power of the Thorn Barrier in our city!"

"My lord......" The woman named No. 57 hesitated, as if she had something to say.

"Hmm, what do you think?" the tall man frowned and looked at her.

"My lord, I wonder if we attack the Thorn Barrier too hard, will we attract their strength in the other provinces, after all, our strength is still not comparable to theirs in general. ”

"You're wrong, this time we have to hit hard and cut off their outstretched hand, otherwise the next thing to reach out is the other hand, both feet, and then the whole thing will come, and then we will really have no way out. Now only by beating them up will they have scruples about us and dare not act recklessly. Have you forgotten the 22nd and 73rd? The two of them disappeared during their mission in this area, and we have only found some traces of fighting and beast dragging, which proves that the two of them have most likely been killed. And now the biggest contradiction with us is the thorn barrier, and only they have the strength to confront us, plus the recent skirmishes between us and them have not stopped, it is likely that they are the ones who do it, and the purpose is to test us.

Also, if it weren't for the strong official response to the terrorist attack on Elm Street, which prevented them from coming in, otherwise we might still be struggling to cope with their increasing pressure, and there may not be a way to set a trap on them like today. So we can't let go of this opportunity, we have to hit them hard before their follow-up manpower comes in, this will give us the first opportunity, and it can also send a positive signal to our allies, when the thorny barrier has to deal with the attack of the opponent in many aspects, and if they want to come to our home stadium to challenge us, it will be worth the loss for them, so that our company can be truly safe. ”

"Yes, I see, sir. He replied respectfully, but No. 57 didn't move.

"What else?!" the tall man's tone was a little impatient.

"My lord, what about the students who happened to come to camp? No. 57 said with some trepidation: "Do you want to drive them away first?"

"Run away? Are you trying to alarm the enemy who has been caught so hard? If it does, it's their bad luck. The tall man stared at No. 57 with fierce eyes, and his tone was stern: "You remember, you are a member of the Remy Henton company, you need to consider the interests of the company first, because the interests of the company are equal to your interests, don't forget why you and your parents and brother can have such good living conditions now? I don't mind if you show your cheap sympathy when you are fine, but now is the time of the mission, you forget all the things that should not be considered, otherwise ......"

There was a muffled bang.

No. 57 took a few steps back, looking at a knife cut on her chest with trepidation, her clothes neatly sliced open, almost hurting her skin.

"If there's a next time, I'll cut off your head!"

"Yes. No. 57 bowed his head in response.

"Now you go to Surveillance Point 4, if there is a situation, you will send a signal according to the prior agreement, remember, if the problem is yours, you will wait for your whole family to bury you!"

No. 57 bit his lip, his face was pale, and he didn't say a word more, and silently retreated.

As her figure vanished into the darkness, silence returned to the top of the hillside.

The night was late and the wind was stronger.

......

"Do you know that the owners of this land, the Mannheim family, is a big family that has lasted for hundreds of years, and it is said that the Mannheim family existed when we were three dynasties further through Baisos, and even the royal family needed to see their faces when they were the strongest......"

A group of students marched on the way to the main tower of the castle, and Montolo, the leader, led the way while introducing the original owner family to the people around him.

"Then why has such a powerful family become like this now?" asked one of the boys.

"I don't know. Montolo shook his head, and was greeted with a boo.

"I can answer that. It was Borromo who spoke, and with a noble smile he said, "I heard my father say that my family was once married to the Mannheim family. About seventy years ago, in the time of my great-grandfather, there was an extremely rare acute plague in and around the Mannheim Mountains, and most of the Mannheim people who lived in the Mannheim Hill Manor at that time died in the plague, and those who survived scattered and fled again, never to go any closer to the Mannheim Mountains, and the whole family began to decline and eventually became what it is now. ”

"Plague, will we have a problem doing this?" Hearing the plague, some students began to feel uneasy.

But immediately the other students retorted disdainfully: "You stupid, if there was a plague, we would have gotten it a long time ago, and our city is on the side of the mountain, if the plague broke out, do you think the city would not have been spread?

This remark was immediately recognized by most of the students.

At this time, Boromo spoke again: "This classmate is right, the plague here has been confirmed to have disappeared decades ago, and now the contents of this castle have long been emptied, and there is only this building that cannot be moved, except for some travelers passing by or hunters who have not had time to descend the mountain, no one will come here." ”

"Boromo, you know so much!"

"He is a direct descendant of the Ada family, and he is really knowledgeable. ”

......

For a while, the students praised Boromo, and several girls who had long been interested in him also took the opportunity to surround him, and Fergi, who was originally following Boromo, was also squeezed away.

But it seems that neither of them cares much about this, one proudly enjoys the feeling of the stars holding the moon, and the other walks silently behind.

"They're a little weird, aren't they?"

Seeing this, Lilia, who was walking at the back of the team, stopped and said thoughtfully.

Lilia was flanked by her two best friends on the left and right, while Dio dragged behind them, thoughtful.

He knows more and more about the story of the Mannheim family than Boromo, the plague is only the origin of the weakening of this once glorious family, but in the month before the outbreak of the plague, it is said that there were more than a dozen headless murders in the castle, but the plague behind is too famous, so these murders are also counted as deaths caused by the plague, but some archaeological experts have proposed that this conclusion is a reversal of cause and effect, and it is likely that those murders caused the plague, but in the absence of strong evidence, this conjecture has not been recognized on a large scale。 As for the real weakness of the Mannheim family, it is largely due to the fact that it was suppressed by many family forces under the condition that the plague caused a great loss of vitality, which led to the complete sinking of the Mannheim family.

However, the rise and development of this family has always been a very mysterious place, in the city of Santa Loita and even in the province of Black Satsuma are the treasures that archaeologists want to dig deeper, and they are very famous archaeological research objects throughout the country, but because the ownership of this manor has always been in the hands of a mysterious person, it is okay to play for a short time like students or travel overnight, but if you want to carry out large-scale excavation research, it will definitely not work.

As soon as he thought about it, Dio didn't pay attention to the road ahead, but continued to follow it instinctively, but he didn't expect to suddenly bump into something, which made him come back to his senses.

"What are you doing?" The thing that was hit was none other than Lilia, and she had just stopped to speak, but she didn't expect Dio behind her to bump into her directly, knocking her to a stumbling surface.

"What's wrong?" asked Anatis and Melissa, turning.

"He hit me. Lilia blushed and pointed at Dior, just now it happened to hit her buttocks, and now there are outsiders next to her, she is embarrassed to say it, so she can only quietly turn her back behind her with one hand, covering the position where she was hit, and she was embarrassed for a while.

"I'm sorry, I just got caught up in something. Dio calmly apologized.

"You just did it on purpose. ”

Lilia bit her lip, and in her eyes Dior was full of hypocrisy. First of all, the position of the collision was so embarrassing, and secondly, it was at such a sensitive point in time - she was just talking about Boromo and Ferge, and then she was hit, how could it be so coincidental, it was definitely on his purpose.

"Alright, alright, Brother Dio definitely didn't mean to. Anatidis hurried to play the round.

"yes, it must have been a misunderstanding, Lilia, don't worry about it. Melissa followed.

"You ......" Seeing that her two friends did not support her, Lilia stomped her foot angrily, turned around and walked quickly.

Anatis and Melissa hurriedly followed.

Dio shook his head speechlessly, and continued to move forward.