It didn't take long for a single piece of news to detonate the entire Skyrim Province.

Legend has it that Sommer's castle, the North Tower fortress used to hold rebels and prisoners, was burned down overnight, and when the soldiers arrived, all they saw were the remains of the castle that had been completely engulfed in flames, and the corpses of Sommer soldiers standing in the snow with spears piercing the perimeter of the castle.

As for the prisoners, they were completely missing.

Naturally, this caused a strong shock in the Empire, and soon, the soldiers were sent out to search, and some of the prisoners who had been locked up in the North Tower fortress were re-arrested, and then tortured and interrogated, however, their confessions surprised everyone——— according to these prisoners, they had no idea what was going on, they just slept, and when they woke up, they found that they were no longer in the icy underground prison of the North Tower Fortress, but in the sun-drenched grassland.

Because of this, these prisoners insisted that it was Talos who had apparitions and saved them, which made the Imperial soldiers also suspicious, and some did not know what to do. After all, this continent is indeed protected by gods, although the apparition of Talos may sound like a bit of gibberish, but ......... It doesn't seem to be incomprehensible.

After all, the facts were there, and there was indeed no trace of prisoners escaping around the North Tower fort at that time, and they were as if they had evaporated out of thin air. After that, these prisoners reappeared in the center of Skyrim Province, and unless these prisoners had wings and could fly, only miracles could explain it.

Not only that, after that, the fortresses of the Sommer elves in various places in the Skyrim Province were attacked, no one knows who attacked these places, but every Somer fortress was completely destroyed, and the corpses of those Somer elf soldiers were also pierced by spears and stuck in the ground, just like that.

This immediately made the people of Skyrim Province excited, and in fact, even within the empire, there was a certain ambivalent attitude towards this matter. On the one hand, they naturally didn't like Somer's swaggering appearance of the damn bean sprouts, but on the other hand, they were also worried that it would attract Somer's dissatisfaction.

In fact, Ambassador Sommer has summoned the king and demanded a thorough investigation into the matter, otherwise, the Sommer Elves will send a large army to completely destroy the empire!

"Are we really going to keep waiting? Mr. Knight?"

Sitting in the tavern, Gracea fiddled with the wine glass in front of her uneasily, while Duanmu Huai nodded.

"That's right, destroying all of Somer's strongholds, killing Somer's elves, all to encourage Somer to start a war. Once they have assembled a large army, then I can destroy it completely, and a few fortresses of Sommer are not our goal at all, they are just bait laid for them to destroy Somer."

"But the Empire......... Are we really not going to talk to them?"

"It's a matter of the Inquisition and the Aliens, not the Empire."

Duanmu Huai shook his head.

"I don't let the Empire mistake me for believing that I'm on its side, that the Inquisition is guarding humanity, not a regime. Basically, we don't get involved in local political disputes. It would be great if the empire could take the opportunity to stabilize its position, but if the empire was incapable of being overthrown, we didn't care......... Do you understand?"

「…………… Yes, I see."

Gu Leiya is not stupid, as a princess, of course she understands the meaning of Duanmu Huai. If Duanmu Huai is in contact with the Empire, then no matter what, the impression of his cooperation with the Empire will be formed. And the empire is likely to rely on its own inquisition to be powerful, and the inquisition will have to bear the blame for the empire's atrocities.

That's why Duanmu Huai completely divided it, the so-called you do yours, I beat mine. As Duanmu Huai said, the Inquisition guards the human race, not the Empire, and the continued existence of the Imperial Power seems to be indifferent. If there is a better regime for humanity than the Empire, then the Inquisition will not oppose them to overthrow the Empire.

Of course, the premise is not to collude with the Chaos Demons.

"Wow———!"

At this moment, the crisp sound of the piano sounded, and Duanmu Huai turned his head and saw only a groan

The wandering poet was standing by the campfire, playing and singing.

"The next song is dedicated to the fearless warriors!"

As he spoke, the bard began to play and sing.

"In the snow-white wilderness of the sky, there is a wave of freedom.

People gulped ale, praising blood and glory.

However, the jackal came and tried to spoil the lively feast.

The guests screamed and fled.

The jackal got carried away and was in high spirits.

But the great god saw the wolves.

His warriors descended from the sky in pitch-black steel chariots.

They wield their weapons, skinned and deboned jackals, and carried them out.

The emaciated jackals ran away with their tails between their legs, not even daring to look back.

Because they know that behind them is the butcher's knife wielded by the gods!"

Soon, the song ended, and at the same time, the guests in the tavern raised their glasses and cheered.

Duanmu Huai sat on the chair and nodded with satisfaction.

"Well, that's a good song."

In fact, this bard was circulated after the destruction of Somer's fortress, and the jackals in the song allude to Somer's uninvited, annoying High Elves. It is rumored that after learning about this poem, Ambassador Somer smashed the cup in anger.

In normal times, those Somo elves have already used various reasons to arrest the humans who dare to sing this song. But now that Somer's fortress has been destroyed, this group of arrogant and arrogant high elves only dare to huddle in the embassy tremblingly, and do not even dare to take a step, for fear that they will be the next one to be pierced by spears and stuck in the snow.

This naturally made the people of Skyrim Province applaud, and it could be regarded as a vicious breath.

In the midst of the cheers of the drinkers, Duanmu Huai saw the tavern owner coming over with a serious face, he came to Duanmu Huai's side and said in a low voice.

"Sorry to disturb you, this warrior, the lord has something to look for you.........

"Oh?"

Hearing the tavernkeeper's words, Duanmu Huai was stunned for a moment, although there are adventurers on this continent, there is no such organization as the Adventurers' Association. Generally speaking, adventurers who want to find a commission or a job will go to the tavern owner, and these bosses will usually get some wanted or bounty from the lord's men.

Duanmu Huai's current location of Phocles is one of the nine territories of Skyrim Province, which is located in the deep mountains and old forests, although the transportation is inconvenient, but it is very suitable for recuperation, so Duanmu Huai has been staying in Phocles during the period of waiting for Somo to start the war, of course, occasionally he will also take some commissions, go outside to kill some robbers, or eliminate some beasts that the locals can't deal with, etc., it can be regarded as more or less famous here.

Merely......... What is the matter with the lord coming to him?

Could it be that he was going to investigate the murderers of the Somer elves, hahahaha............ No way?

"I see, I'll go over and take a look."

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai also stood up, walked out of the tavern with Gu Leiya, and walked towards the lord's hall.

After staying in Skyrim Province for so long, Duanmu Huai already has a preliminary understanding of this land, which can be described in one sentence as ——— vast and sparsely populated.

Take Skyrim Province as an example, Skyrim Province is divided into nine territories and is ruled by nine lords, and these nine lords are responsible to the Supreme King of Skyrim——— this name sounds atmospheric, to put it bluntly, it is a ***. And nine lords are equal to the mayors of nine cities.

Basically, a lord is responsible for an area with only two or three villages in addition to a central city. There are less than one or two hundred people in each village, and the population of the city is slightly larger, but it is also about 1,000 people at most.

It is conceivable that with such a small population, there are naturally not many soldiers, and there are only a few hundred soldiers directly under the lord, and there are only dozens of people killed by the security guards in each village.

In contrast, the Holy City area, where Lorena is located, has a population of as many as 50,000 in the central city alone, and there are also three or four thousand people in the villages and towns that radiate in all directions.

The combined population of the two central cities of Manalia is at least 100,000, not to mention the population of the surrounding villages and towns is at least about 1,000 or 2,000.

Although it cannot be compared with the modern metropolis with millions of people at every turn, it can be seen that at least in terms of the current level of civilization, Manalia and the Holy City are crushing the Skyrim Province ——— even the Empire in terms of both population and quality.

To put it simply, the current empire is a large territory, and in fact, because of the continuous wars, there are not many soldiers.

The same is true of Phocles, the total population of the entire city of Phocles is less than 3,000, and it is not even as large as the population of a school in the Duanmu Huai era.

Soon, the two of them arrived at the Hall of Lords and met Sidgail, the lord of Phocles.

Compared to the lords in other places, Sidgail is relatively young, looking like he is only about twenty or thirty years old, and the lord of Phocles was originally taken care of by his uncle, but because his uncle is old, Sidgail has become the new lord.

Well, none of that matters.

"You're the rumored Iron Warrior?"

Seeing Duanmu Huai, the young lord was also taken aback, his eyes widened in surprise, he looked Duanmu Huai up and down, and then nodded again.

"I've heard a lot of rumors about you, and I thought the rumors would be exaggerated, but now it doesn't seem to be that exaggerated."

In the face of the lord's speech, Duanmu Huai had no words——— this is the advantage of the long murderer, saying that he had killed the dragon and others believed it.

Although he did kill.

"Let's get down to business, then."

Saying this, Sidgail restrained his expression, stared at Duanmu Huai seriously, and explained his commission.

In simple terms, it was a commission about a small town he ruled——— the town of Locks.

According to Sidgayle, since a few months ago, there has been a strange situation in the town of Rocks, first of all, the corpses in the cemetery have disappeared, their graves have been dug up, and all the bodies inside have disappeared. And when the angry townspeople try to find the priest guarding the cemetery and ask for an explanation, they find that the priest is also missing.

After that, in order to find out the situation, the townspeople also spontaneously formed patrols and patrolled late at night, but ......... Others disappeared with them.

So now, the whole town is almost in a state of panic. Every night the doors were closed, and they sent people to ask for help from Sidgail several times in a row.

"Although I have sent soldiers to check on it several times, and I wonder if it is the necromancer's ghost, nothing has been found, and not only that............... Even my uncle was killed!"

Saying this, Sidgeil clenched his fists angrily, and slammed the armrest of the chair——— during the last patrol search, Sidgail's uncle personally led the team as a military guard to investigate. However, the day after he arrived in the village, he was found quietly dead in his bed by the guards.

"This is a provocation to Lord Sifrick! We will not tolerate such behavior!"

In this case, of course, Sidgail would not choose to back down, and it just so happened that he heard about the deeds of Duanmu Huai, the "Iron Warrior", so he called him.

"My request is simple, investigate this thoroughly and find out who is doing it! The murderer of my uncle has to be arrested and returned! As long as you can complete this quest, I'll give you a piece of land in the West Frik Territory! and appoint you a baron!"

Look, it's good to have a wide land and sparsely populated land, and the land is given casually.

It's not worth much anyway, is it?

"I see, I'll check the situation."

Although he didn't care much about the reward, Duanmu Huai was quite interested in this commission, after all, compared to dealing with robbers or beasts, such a thing

Isn't that an interesting story?

"Mr. Knight, are we really going?"

Walking out of the lord's hall, Gruya's face was a little pale, and I have to say that the story that Sidgail told just now really frightened her.

"Sure, don't you think it's funny? And being idle is also idle, isn't it just right to have such an interesting commission to pass the time? At least it's better than dealing with bandits."

「…………… That's true."

Duanmu Huai did not tell Gu Leiya that the reason why he took this commission was not only because the story itself was interesting, but also because it triggered the system's quest prompt.

[Activate the hidden quest "Dark Haze"]

[Objective: Investigate the secrets hidden in the small town of Locks]

[When you embark on a journey, you will not think that this time you are facing an ordinary adventure]

No, didn't you say it all?

Looking at the system prompt in front of him, Duanmu Huai also complained silently.

But in any case, it's clear that that's what happened in the small town of Rocks, and it's obviously not that simple.