The vigorous purge campaign earned the royal guards a high reputation, and after half a year, the residents of Monroe were finally able to sleep peacefully at night.

The magicians are dead, and the mercenaries who would attack them have been reduced to corpses all over the ground or fled from Monroe in disarray. It was as if the stubborn illness that had been haunting them had been removed, and the civilians of Monroe, who felt relaxed, had a sincere smile on their faces for the first time in a long time.

Compared to the venting carnival laughter before, this smile is from the bottom of my heart.

Although the mysterious and terrifying murderous "magician" also causes great psychological stress, for most of the residents who have only heard of them and have never met them, it is the foreign mercenaries who really interfere with their peaceful lives every day and night.

Four or five days passed, and no one was disturbed or tortured by the mercenaries. The cold-blooded policy of not leaving a living mouth has worked, and even some of the local bullies and ruffians have learned to be human with their tails between their legs.

The royal guards walked along the avenue with their heads held high, and the people's respect for the king rose because of the outstanding performance of these soldiers who represented the royal family of Crane. In contrast, Monroe's Duke's family was as if the vocal cords had been interfered with collectively by a wizard, and until late February, there was still no movement.

The matter is not over yet, and Herman knows who is behind all the events. The strong-armed Grand Master worked day and night trying to find a clue, and the clock ticked by nervously, but let's turn our attention a little bit.

Ferry disappeared again at such a critical juncture, but there were few people in the vast city-state who really cared about him. After his mother died a year ago, a neighborhood leader took care of him. Half a year ago, the foreign mercenaries began to make trouble, and after that, these people also left. Only Sheriff Vega is still there and cares about him, but this gray-haired middle-aged man is now too decadent himself.

Naturally, the only ones left were our Henry and Mira.

But like we've mentioned quite a few times before. In a place like Monroe, which is paved with hard masonry, look for someone who doesn't want to be found. Apparently a fantasy.

It took four or five days for the sage and the white-haired Luo'an girl to visit many nearby areas where they could hide, and the royal guards not only cleaned up the mercenaries, but also drove many homeless people out of the city, and even the slums were cleared, and the two took this opportunity to search every inch of land.

They even extended to several other areas, but the more concise artisan and market areas were not suitable places to hide, and the rest were properties belonging to the Duke of Monroe, where could ordinary people get permission to enter.

In addition to the vast Duke's Mansion itself, there are many magnificent buildings in Monroe, which are also owned by the Duke's family, which are used for the Duke's important guests, such as nobles from other regions of Crant, and even envoys from other countries. Seventy years ago, when Archduke Aubrey was in the prime of his reign, the scenes of these annexes with well-dressed and high-class people entering and exiting have been forgotten by time, and they still retain the prohibition of entering without permission. But it's already a ghost town with no one in the world.

Most of Monroe was searched, but Ferry's trace was still nowhere to be found.

Mira was skeptical that he had already run outside the city, but all but the artificial city-state was surrounded by vast tropical rainforests. Poisonous insects and beasts are everywhere, and even if Ferry is a native of this area, it is difficult for him to survive outside.

Everywhere they could think of was carefully searched, but to no avail, the two had to return to the dilapidated and cramped security post again.

It was just after lunch, the guard at the gate and the clerk Franco were not there, and Vega was the only one in the deserted security post who fell asleep on the table again.

Terracotta bottles and corks are everywhere. The remaining liquid in the bottle, which had begun to stink a little, attracted some flies to buzz and whirl.

Mira frowned and looked at the sheriff, while Henry took a decisive step forward and shook him awake.

"Uh...... Huh?" looked up the sleepy-eyed Vega, who seemed to have not taken a shower in a long time. Dirty hair in a mess. Seeing that it was Henry and Mira, he had the intention of lying back again, but the sage's calm words forced the sheriff to regain his spirits.

"Ferry has been missing for almost a week, and we can't find him anywhere in the city. Do you know where he might go?"

"......" Vega stopped his attempts to lie down again, although he had been drinking alcohol lately, he was not ignorant of everything.

"Alas......" stretched out his big rough hand and rubbed his hair like a bird's nest. Wei Jia thought for a while, then nodded: "Go to the outskirts of Nancheng District to have a look." ”

He put it this way: "His mother's grave is there. Ferry was a dutiful child, and would visit her even if he avoided the others. ”

"The leftmost of the row with wooden piers on the right is the fence that was originally made to prevent the dragon lizards from coming and digging out the corpses, but then a fence was built so there was no need. ”

"Let's try our luck there. Vega said this, and Henry and Mira nodded at him, and turned to walk out, and the sheriff pondered for a moment, picking up another bottle of cider from the table and taking a sip.

“...... It stinks. He spat the liquid in his mouth on the ground, and stared silently at the crowded street outside.

......

The southern part of the city is mostly home to artisan workshops, and the houses here are much lower than those in the north city, but the area occupied is correspondingly much higher.

Looking down on Monroe from above, the whole looks a bit like a slanted mango. Its walls were not boxy, regular shapes, and as the city-state expanded, new walls were built to include more land and protect more residents. The artisan district of the southern city is sloping like the lower end of a mango because of its need for water, and is close to the Widen Hill River, a branch of the southern watershed of the Garriel River.

Since the Rideira region has gone underground, this huge river has begun to appear again in this section, and although it is only one of the tributaries in the territory of Krant, it is enough to give birth to civilization on both sides.

The name Rakuanhir is a Sivalier-esque title like Rideira. Its original meaning in the Sivalyya language is "complex labyrinth". Apparently the West Valiers, who had come to the south, saw that this was not the same as the endless stretch of the Garlil River on the other side of the Acasta Plains, but was hidden among the bushes and the trees with their teeth and claws. If you are not careful, you can be swept into the water by a tree branch, and the river has a complicated fork, which is very impressive.

Many times have passed since it was named. In order to establish the city-state, the natives cut down all the nearby trees. The water-powered mill was turning leisurely, the smoke of the masons firing bricks and tiles rose into the sky, the tinkling sound came from the blacksmith's shop, and the carrion that had been cleaned up during the smoking of the fur was thrown directly into the river, and the small fish of the river, who had long been accustomed to this, instantly gathered and began to scramble frantically.

Because of the long distance to be traveled, Henry and Mira mounted their horses.

The sound of the hundreds of kilograms of war horses galloping on the wide brick road was quite loud, and the two slowed down when they encountered a resident passing by. Despite this, many people ducked to the sides in panic and cursed loudly behind them as they passed.

The two of them ignored the grievances of these people, and the guards in the southern city were just ordinary soldiers compared to the northern city. There were many more people than in the northern city, and they wore irregular chain mail and leather armor, and some even held shields and spears directly.

Seeing the two blue-card mercenaries on their horses, these people naturally let them pass without even checking them, and after leaving the city gate, they walked a long distance along the wet dirt road, and only a small thatched hut as the tomb keeper's residence came into view of Monroe Cemetery.

The wall that Vega spoke of was only a low wall of dirt, and it only roughly covered the side near the forest, so the two men from the city side drove straight in.

The traces of the newly turned dirt were still there, and Henry and Mira frowned at the sight of the dense footprints on the ground here.

The leaves are hidden in the forest, and in the natural environment, the traces of outsiders such as humans are very easy to trace, because they are out of place. But when the target to be tracked is in a place where there are many traces of human activity, this becomes extremely difficult.

The purge of the royal family's guards resulted in a large number of corpses. The carriages carrying the bodies and the workers who buried them were in a constant stream these days, and the ground was densely littered with footprints of various sizes, and it was hard to tell whether Ferry had ever been here or not.

"Fresh. Mira pointed to the tombstone that according to Vega was supposed to belong to Ferry's mother. There were some wildflowers with water vapor on it.

Wildflowers of the same shape grow in the corners of the low walls, swaying gently in the spring breeze. The sage nodded, they could judge the fact that the young mercenaries had been here. But looking around, there was no trace of it.

"Let's go back first......" After four or five days of busyness, he still didn't find anything. Although I knew that Ferry had been here, it was like that. Without any more clues, the two set off and began to walk back. When they reached the southern gate, they came across another group on horseback.

Duke Monroe's house has not moved recently, and at this time, the only people who can meet in the city on horseback are naturally the knights of the royal capital.

"What a coincidence, Count Hermann has two of you. The nobleman, who was not too hot in plate armor, said in a condescending tone that was very similar to that of Duke Monroe's wife, and Henry and Mira looked at each other before nodding.

......

"Twelve days ago, the infamous 'magician' in Monroe was summarily executed......" The tavern below the caravan inn was transformed into a huge conference hall, Herman stood in the middle and said, turning his head to look at Henry and Mira, who had just entered the back row.

"But we all know it's not that simple. "There were less than twenty people in total, including the two of them, and the rest were all the elites of the royal capital's personal guards, except for the two of them. The perimeter is also guarded by heavily armed elite soldiers to prevent anyone from trying to find out the news.

"According to the investigation, the man who was considered to be the 'magician' was Lawrence Chamber, a soldier under the command of the Duke, who was forty-one years old at the time. They have a wife and a daughter, but their whereabouts are unknown. ”

"The biggest suspicion in this matter is that there is no magician blood. Nor had he ever shown anything before before that of Lawrence, who had any knowledge of magic beyond the ordinary, suddenly mastered a crucial interference spell. ”

"After all, a person who knows magic can find a better job than being an elite soldier, and it is unbelievable that he has lurked in the Duke's Mansion for so many years and suddenly revealed his identity. Herman continued: "Plus all our suspicions about the Duke's Palace. Lawrence is not really a 'magician', but a substitute for the dead, and the thing is more and more like the real truth. ”

And the interference spell he used was most likely from the magic guide he held at the time, rather than his own mage qualifications. The Earl looked at Henry: "So when the black ring was destroyed, Lawrence's spell came to an abrupt end, and as the mercenary Mel of the party, can you prove it to be true?"

"......" Everyone turned to look at him, and the sage nodded.

"A magic guide that can make ordinary people without any magical qualifications cast simple spells is a rather terrifying weapon, and there are many lords or kings in many places who want to make magic guides in batches to equip their armies because of the powerful lethality of magic. But because of the high cost of construction, few people actually realize it. And ......" Herman paused: "Letting ordinary people without magic power use magic guides, even if the spells activated are the lowest and simplest, it is also a kind of oppressive behavior that is tantamount to killing chickens and eggs." ”

"Your Excellency, please explain for us in detail. Herman stepped out of the way, and a mage about forty years old in the cuffs of his dark blue robes approached, and Henry noticed that he also wore a golden ribbon on his chest, apparently belonging to the King of Crane.

"Ahem...... mage with deep nasolabial folds on his face cleared his throat and said, "The principle of a mage's spell casting is to use his own magic power as a medium to attract local resources to cast spells. In the case of elemental magic, for example, different kinds of elements consume different kinds of resources. But either one, it is inevitable that it will have an impact on the environment. ”

"The result of using a lot of earth magic somewhere is that the soil becomes barren and lifeless, such a ......" "Lord Letheman!" Herman interrupted with some embarrassment, "Just get to the point. ”

He nodded, and the thin mid-level mage frowned. After a sigh, he continued, "In short, magic is a system that consumes one's own power to mobilize the power of the surrounding environment. And the more powerful oneself is, the more power one can wield, and vice versa - if one's magical talent is pitifully low. Just like everyone here, it's just an ordinary person's level. ”

"I have to force the use of magic, and it's still the interference spell of the highest wizard who has the most load on his body. So the result...... Well, to put it in a way that everyone in this room can understand. It's like setting yourself on fire and rushing over to fight the enemy. ”

The thin, wrinkled mid-level mage continued, "The person who uses that magic guide will only live for less than an hour at most, even if he is not injured, and the result of being forced to absorb the thin magic power in his body to launch an attack is that the blood vessels in his body have burst in large numbers due to the pressure. That's why something like a magic guide can't be a utility, and it's meant to be ...... in the first place." "Lord Letheman!" Herman rubbed his temples and had to interrupt him again. "......" The mid-level mage glanced at the Count silently, then stepped back.

The two of them have used lingua franca so far, and Henry and Mira are one of the reasons, but to be honest, they are not that important. The main reason for this is that there are not so many technical magical terms in the dialect of Krant, and even the local magicians learn in a much older language.

"Hmm...... What His Excellency Lethemann is illustrating is the basis for our complete conviction that it was not the 'magician' himself who was killed, and that he could not have been our murderer if he had died if he had used it once. ”

So the answer became clear, apparently the man behind the scene gave him the ring and asked him to act as a substitute. Starting with the Ring, the court mages of Xilin used alchemy to dismantle it in order to study its ingredients - and finally made a breakthrough today. Herman nodded, then continued, "The main material of the ring is lead, followed by a small amount of copper and silver for magic channeling, and finally lapis lazuli for storing spells. ”

"Lead is everywhere as a common material, so it's not easy to track it down – if not in large quantities. Herman's resolute face was full of light.

"In Monroe's territory, to the southeast, in the middle of the forest, there is a lead mine, which has not attracted much attention before because of its small production. After discovering this, we searched through the Ministry of Finance of the royal capital and found that the output of lead ore produced in the ducal domain had shrunk by at least 50% since three years ago. ”

"In addition to this, the Duke's family also has a habit of buying lapis lazuli as a rare gem on a regular basis, and the carriage for the carriage arrives at the end of each month, and we do not inquire further into the exact amount so as not to surprise the snake. And the next transport caravan will come tonight. Herman frowned and continued, "The caravan did not come directly to Monroe City, but to the lead mine, and then it was transferred several times before reaching the Duke's Palace. ”

"We set out tonight, in ambush near the lead mines, and the Duke of Monroe's family must have sent someone they can trust to buy this important commodity, and we will have crucial evidence by holding him as a tongue. ”

The Count slapped his hands on the table: "Everyone travel lightly, do not ride horses, do not attract the attention of the Duke's Palace." ”

"Disband!" (To be continued.) )