Chapter 2: Midsummer's Black Lead City
Domon was at the front, followed by Dierlando and Fayer. It was all miscellaneous trees and shrubs, and it was not easy for the horses to run, but it took at most five minutes to reach the campsite. But when they got to the clearing, they didn't see anything, as if no one had screamed at all.
Diarrando looked up at the group of crows that had not yet flown away in confusion, he had just explored the nearby creatures not long ago, except for these crows, there was no one more advanced than the bugs, so what was the scream coming from?
"Something is wrong...... Dearlando drew his sword and went on guard. "I didn't see anyone around. ”
"Yes, Xiexie informed. I've got eyes!" Domon responded angrily to Dearlando's nonsense. Turning over and jumping off the horse, he continued to check the traces near the body to see if he could find more clues about the attacker.
Only Fair understood what Diarrando meant, no matter what the scream was just now, it was definitely not a human, and possibly not even a living being. The mage pulled out his bronze bone staff, silently recited a wind barrier in his heart, and placed an air-formed shield around him.
"You! come down and help. Domon squatted in front of the corpse and looked at the wound, and saw that Deirlando was pretending to hold a sword, as if he didn't want to touch the stench of the corpse, so he simply ordered Deirlando to fish up the corpse in the water.
Domon is the third leader in the circus under Zoya and Lan Li, almost half of the head of the troupe, and he is also very prestigious among the members. On the surface, the mercenary Diarlando also had to give him face, so he had to put away his sword and dismount to carry the body.
The water in the three ponds is not very deep, about three or four feet, and they are all ten feet square, connected to each other by ditches. The bodies lay in the middle and in a pond to the south.
The corpse in the middle, with relatively few wounds, was half of the neck gnawed off by something. Because the face down has been soaked in water for a long time, it has already been washed and lost its blood color, and the pale bones and muscular blood vessels can be clearly seen in the wound.
The wound left by the attacker was messy, and it appeared to be a section cut out by very blunt teeth with a very great force. The deceased looked to be about forty or fifty years old, and his bubbles were a little swollen. The gold chain around his neck was still hanging on his chest, and at the end was a gold coin engraved with the goat's logo.
The other corpse looked much more hideous, as if it was facing the attackers and had tried to resist. There are wounds on the arms, faces, and necks, and a large piece of skin and flesh has been lost, and Sensen's white bones are exposed in many places.
The corpse was lying on its back in the pool, and only with its two feet hanging from the edge of the pool did not slide into the water entirely. This one looks like he is in his early thirties, tall and strong, with a wallet on his upper body, and two dark scimitars sinking to the bottom of the water, which is estimated to be the weapon of this person's life.
Diarrando pulled the corpse's feet and dragged it up from the water. Because they had been soaked in the water, the smell of the two corpses was not so strong.
But as the corpse's swollen abdomen shook, a stream of water poured out of the ruptured throat. Immediately, a pungent fishy smell overflowed the audience.
"Ahem......" Rao is Dierlandor was also choked by the smoke, and quickly covered his nose and jumped back two steps to prevent the gas from being poisonous.
There were also some white filaments gushing out with the water, tangled together like a mass of white hair. Diarlando looked for a twig and was about to get closer to see what the white mass was, when he suddenly heard a dozen fast horses coming on the road north of the campsite.
Domon also heard the sound of horses' hooves, stood up, and drew his weapon to take precautions.
In the blink of an eye, the sound of horses' hooves was in front of them, and a group of soldiers wearing red-hearted shirts on a gray background appeared on the road.
The first one was a young man of about twenty, with a square face, very neatly trimmed short black hair, and brown eyes. On such a hot day, he also wore a neat light armor, but unfortunately a few bright red pimples on his forehead challenged the very serious aura that he tried to reveal all over his body.
The young man did not seem surprised to see the situation in the camp, and with a wave of his hand, his soldiers immediately dispersed and surrounded Diarlando, Fayir, and Domont.
"Who are you?" the young man reined in his horse, drew his sword, looked the three men in front of him up and down, and threw out questions.
Fayer and Diarlando glanced at each other, and Zuihou both focused on Domon. Sure enough, Domon stepped forward, bowed, and spoke: "Master Knight, we are from the circus. Walking in front to find a campsite, I found that a lot of people had died here. ”
"Circus ......" The young knight looked at Domon, although he said politely, but no matter how you look at it, there is a military smell of it.
I looked at Il again, the iconic robe and alienated temperament, gray hair and eyes, no matter how you look at it, he is a mage.
Look at Dierlando, although he wears an eye patch and wears ordinary clothes, his fine skin and tender flesh don't look like he is running around outside all year round to make a living.
"It's all suspicious! Arrest them all and bring them back for interrogation!" the young man pondered for a moment and made a decision.
"We're really a circus, and the big army is about two miles behind, so I don't believe you'll send someone to take a look. Domon was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly explained.
"I haven't seen any circuses in Black Lead City for more than ten years, and there have been so many business road robberies recently, so your circus has appeared, how do I know that you are not a gang of bandits disguised as a circus. The young man raised his hand and set off a firework, as if to bring more people over.
"You take the initiative to confess and the gang, no matter how good it is, no matter how many people you have, I will wipe you out!"
Fayle glanced at Deirlando, asking if he wanted to kill them all. Diarlando shook his head slightly, the situation is unknown at the moment, it is better to keep a low profile.
"What's the matter with your eyes?" Unexpectedly, the young man did not let him go because of Diarlandor's low profile, but drove forward and pointed his long sword at Dearlandor's nose and began to question.
"Ah, this knight master, in fact, I just block it......" Before the words fell, the young man actually used the tip of his sword to break Dearlandor's blindfold. The blindfold fell, and the eyes of two different colors were complete.
"Hmph...... Demon Eye! Sure enough, you are the most suspicious! Tie them all up, press them back into the city, and hand them over to my father. The young man continued to point his sword at Dearrando, waving his hand for his men to hurry up and tie them up.
"Yes, Master Home. Immediately five or six soldiers jumped from their horses, took away the weapons of Dirlando and Domon, and then took out ropes and tied their hands behind their backs. Domon was a little reluctant, and was immediately nudged a few times rudely.
Fayle wisely handed over his bronze cane, and obediently stretched out his arm for others to tie up. Seeing that he was pale, with a bamboo pole-like stature, and without a staff, Holm allowed him not to dismount.
Zuihou Holm distributed his men, leaving six soldiers to press the three prisoners back to the city, while the remaining seven or eight followed him further south in search of the circus that Domon had spoken of.
"They don't care about the corpses...... "Deirlandor muttered to Fayle as he glanced worriedly at the suspicious white threads on the ground before being pushed away. "There is something wrong with the corpse. ”
"Don't speak!" Diarlandor staggered forward as he was immediately poked in the back by the hilt of a soldier's spear.
Six soldiers, two in front of the way, two in the middle caught Domont, Dierlando, and Fayer on horseback, and two of Zuihou's soldiers were in charge of breaking the rear. Domon and Diarlando's horses were also tethered together, and they slowly followed the escort procession.
At noon, it was so hot that after walking far, everyone was sweating profusely, but the soldiers did not dare to rest.
At this moment, another horse team came to the front, this time with more people, about thirty people. The leader was a knight of about forty years old with a beard.
When he saw the team escorting the prisoners, he asked a question, and when he heard the origin of the prisoners, he shook his head helplessly.
He pointed to Domon and Diarrando and said, "Let the two of them get on their horses, when will you go back to the city after you have swallowed so slowly." Young Master Holm has always acted recklessly, if these people are really prisoners, how can they be captured? And if you really want to resist, you few soldiers can beat it?"
"Thank you!" Domon thanked gratefully. The bearded knight waved his hand: "Don't thank me, there must be a misunderstanding here, I can only wronged you to go back to the city like this first." The lord of the castle is fair and strict, and he will definitely find out the truth and let you go. ”
The soldiers received new orders and had to find a way to get the two prisoners on their horses. They did not untie the ropes from their hands, but let them continue to ride with their hands tied behind their backs. Fortunately, Dormon and Dierlando's riding skills are very good, and they can sit firmly on the back of the horse without using both hands.
In this way, the speed on the road was much faster, and it took about an hour to travel. The procession turns right from a wide, tree-lined trade road, and a unique city comes into view.
At the end of the wide, flat road in front of you was a tall fence of gray rocks that stretched out into the nearby mountains.
Looking through the top of the wall, one of the highest peaks here can be seen being dug in half, creating a huge semicircular cavity. And some sharp buildings and fortresses were built in the hollows that were carved out.
Unlike the lush and lush scenery along the way, there is very little vegetation in the city, and in such hot weather, the whole city seems to be shrouded in churning and twisting water vapor.
The city is famous for its minerals, and because of its geographical location by the sea, caravans from various countries that need the mine will choose to trade directly here, so it is also a small commercial city. Most of the people in the city were engaged in mining or trading.
The lord of the city, Count Gundasai Grude, and his family have ruled the city for generations.