It is still an open road after the patrol team clears the field, and passers-by will consciously stay away, or be driven away by the patrol team that is quickly in place......

But when Tails rode through the streets of Dragon City again, he had a different feeling, not only because it was not the same path as he usually went to play chess, but also because the Meteorite was following closely behind.

After all, this might be the last time he walked in Longxiao City in his six-year hostage career.

Probably Nicollet knew this, too.

So when, contrary to Tails, instead of pulling the reins and galloping at high speed (which used to make the Grand Duke's guards complain when he used to play chess), he let the veteran Jenard, who was the only one other than Jenny the violent dark horse who was not so repulsive, take the reins and walk slowly to the Axe District, the Meteorite just grunted in dissatisfaction, but said nothing.

"Jenard," Tails looked intently at the buildings that were receding backwards on either side, "you've been in the Mission for more than six years, starting with the birch forests of the North. ”

Jenard glanced back at the prince: "Yes, Your Highness." ”

Tails sighed, "I've been trapped in Longxiao City for so long......"

"It's nowhere near as exciting as when you charged under Duke John, and probably not as comfortable as a city defense team in Yongxing City. ”

"It must be boring. ”

Listening to Tails' words, Jenard's gaze looked into the distance.

This veteran of the Starlight Legion, who served under the Starlight God of War and the Flower of the Fortress, and experienced the disaster of eighteen years ago, has become a little more energetic after six years in the Northland, sweeping away the numbness and lifelessness of the City Defense Squad era.

Although he had always felt guilty that he had become a tool of the Duke of Iris in the birch grove of the stars, and had attracted the Bloods to interfere with the prince's mission.

"It's nothing compared to the hardships you've endured," Jenard sighed, "and it's nothing compared to the bloody wars of the Scarlet Years." ”

Tails didn't speak.

His brow furrowed unconsciously.

The Year of Blood.

Bloody war.

The procession moved slowly, and although it may be the last one, the patrol of the Northlanders and the Grand Duke's personal guards were still dutifully clearing the field and guarding the perimeter.

"Thank you, Jenard," the second prince turned his head and looked at Jenard, a veteran who had followed him all the way from Eternal Star City, with a deep expression, "Your six years of service have far exceeded the kindness you owe Duke John. ”

"No, Your Highness," Jenard nodded respectfully, "it is I who should thank you." ”

"As for the kindness I owe to Lord John...... his expression sank, and the pain that could not be dissolved between his eyebrows rose, and he subconsciously turned his face:

"No, that's something I can't pay back for the rest of my life. ”

Tails looked fixedly at the back of the veteran leading the horse in front of him.

The prince took a deep breath and remembered the small stone urn he had seen in the Tomb of the Bright Stars: "John Bright Star, Duke of Star Lake, I heard you say something about him...... Humorous and approachable?"

Hearing the familiar name, Jenard couldn't help but shake slightly.

"Yes, Your Highness, but the Duke's approachability is not quite the same as you......"

It seemed that at the mention of that one, Jenard's look and spirit came alive: "I still remember the day of the draft...... Although the duke is middle-aged, he does not have any excessive majesty and arrogance......"

"He is very bad at martial arts, but he has good eyesight, but he has a better singing voice and can play the lute...... Whether it was a nobleman, a peasant, a merchant, a craftsman, a soldier, even a prostitute and a prisoner of war, he could always mingle with all kinds of people: it was easy to find John in the barracks, for wherever the laughter was loudest, the Duke must have been there. ”

Immersed in the memories of the past, Jenard couldn't help but laugh: "I even think he's a little ...... a lot Silly and silly. ”

Silly and silly?

Tails cast a puzzled look.

"It's not disrespectful, it's just," Jenard frowned, "I don't know how to express it...... Anyway, those of us in the Guards talked and laughed with him, and subconsciously regarded him as one of our own, not an authoritarian commander, or the noble brother of the Star King, the Duke of Star Lake. ”

The more he spoke, the more energetic he became: "Eighteen years ago, at the military meetings of the Starlight Legion, the Duke was always in a daze, or snoring or even drooling when he fell asleep, and the nobles present were very embarrassed...... For this, Captain Sonia apologized pitifully, gritted his teeth and slammed the duke's head in public until he woke him from his sleep - or knocked him unconscious, and Vice-Captain Kenya once had a record of waking him up from his lazy sleep with ice water. ”

The veteran laughed: "Although the duke looks aggrieved every time, he pityfully justifies: he is not sleeping, but thinking about countermeasures in his dreams." ”

What the?

Sleeping at a military meeting?

That's what it is...... Quelling the rebellion - Starlight God of War?

Tails was stunned when he heard this, and couldn't help but scratch his head: "Sounds really ...... Uh, special?"

"Of course, it just sounds ridiculous, after all, if he really is a fool," Jenard glanced at Tails meaningfully and sighed, "There will be no 'Starlight God of War'." ”

Tails frowned slightly.

"What about you, Willow?"

Walking behind his horse, the soldier Vero, who was walking behind his horse with two guns, one long and one short, tied to his back, was taken aback when his name was called:

"Huh, me?"

In the past six years, this recruit who was rescued from the gallows by Tails in the Broken Dragon Fortress has probably washed away his childishness after experiencing the experience of leading from the Black Sand to Longxiao City, although the veterans in the team still like to joke about him.

"How do you feel in the past six years in Longxiao City?"

"To be honest, when I came out of the fortress six years ago, I didn't expect to stay in the enemy country for so long," reminded the veteran Jenard, Willow quickly adjusted his expression: "But ......"

"Uncle Jenard said," he frowned, "and it is because you are here that the people of the North are at peace. ”

"So, it's probably worth it. ”

Tails was slightly stunned.

Wei Luo raised his head, his expression a little bitter:

"It's ......"

"You know, I sometimes think," Willow sighed, "if you had been there eighteen years ago, like this, taking yourself as a hostage and going to Exter......"

"Maybe the war wouldn't have happened, and my sister wouldn't have died of illness. ”

Tails lowered his head, lost in thought.

"Yes. He said lightly, as if talking to himself.

The team moved forward again, passing through a fork in the area that separated the spear and axe fields.

"Wya," the prince on his horse raised his hand, and over the heavy guards on either side, pointed to the three-story building with a terrace not far away:

"That house is the chess and card room we go to once a month, isn't it?"

"Yes, Your Highness. The attendant took a closer look and replied cautiously.

Tails looked at the familiar outline of the building and sighed with some inexplicable emotion:

"We've always gone straight to the spear area before, and we've never seen it from this angle. ”

He looked meaningfully at the specially decorated chess and card room, and remembered the few "class" experiences he had with Ashida: "I guess, I will miss the time I spent playing chess in it." ”

"It's not too far away, if you want," Wya's estimate of the distance to the house, "Why don't you go and have a look?"

"No need," Tails shook his head, gesturing at Nicolai next to him, sighing, "Look at his face......"

"He's probably hoping for an assassin to pop up somewhere, and kill me before we get to the Black Sands. ”

These words made Huaiya frown deeply, and subconsciously glanced around.

Rolf made a mocking look at him, which unsurprisingly drew the squire's angry eyes.

Nicolas turned his head, snorted disdainfully, and hurried forward.

"Where's your lieutenant?" the Meteorite asked coldly, "Why didn't you see the cunning Lord Putirai Niemann coming with you to the Black Sand Territory?"

Tails' face sank, and he shook his head: "We haven't seen each other for six years, to be exact, Putile is no longer in my mission." ”

"I haven't seen you for six years, and as soon as you appear, you will accompany the stars to send troops to the Free Alliance?" Nicolai stiffened his face and said stiffly:

"Maybe I should have arrested him sooner rather than later—that man wasn't easy, maybe he was the middleman between Xingchen and Rumba. ”

Tails raised an eyebrow.

"According to Putirai, he has been watched by you in Dragon Sky City," Tails sighed, "Shouldn't you know his every move better than I do?"

Nicolai grinded his teeth and glanced at him warningly.

"Speaking of which, you know," the Starfall said coldly, "I've confirmed, the person who leaked that incident - the person who leaked the secret of the Grand Duchess to the Dark Room was not Lisbane. ”

Tails was slightly stunned at first.

The prince, who remembered something for a second, curled the corners of his mouth and secretly exhaled.

Do you still need to confirm?

But Nicolai's expression immediately turned terrified.

"But you brought it in. ”

"So, if it's not Lisbane, is that you, little prince?"

The Meteorite's expression was gloomy, and he looked like he was about to hit him at any moment: "You took the initiative to leak the biggest secret of Longxiao City to the Black Sand Collar and the Dark Room, so the king will grab our handle and come here to join forces with you?"

Nani?

It took Tails two seconds to figure out what Nikolai meant.

The next moment, the prince's eyes widened, and his voice suddenly raised: "What?"

Nicolai ignored his astonishment and continued to say coldly, "Answer me—are you the one who gave this handle to the Lombard?"

Tails stared at the Meteorite in amazement, remembering the lie he had casually made up not long ago in order to test the other party.

The Starfall was still staring at him.

Seeing that the Meteorite didn't want to joke at all, Tails, who couldn't cry or laugh, felt a lot of headaches.

This guy is really ......

Seriously.

The next second, Tails took a deep breath and let the air stay in his lungs for a few moments before exhaling weakly.

"It's the same old saying, Nicolai," he said, shaking his head helplessly, "I'll ...... you in some things."

Tails looked into the eyes of the Meteorite and said with great sincerity:

"It's really not a level. ”

With that, Tails ignored Nicolai's ugly expression, motioned for Jenard to push his horse, and passed him.

Behind Tails, the light-moving elven guard quickly followed, half of his face under the cloak sticking out his tongue at the iron-faced Meteorite.

Right now.

Sou!

A piercing sound came suddenly from afar!

It was as if an invisible hand was holding down the team, and life stopped.

Many people's faces changed suddenly!

Tails' face turned pale, as if he had been awakened to a scene in his memory.

The moment he recognized the sound, he shouted hurriedly:

"It's a crossbow bolt!"

The outer patrols quickly formed formation, the Grand Duke's guards consciously surrounded the inside, and the stars reacted with the prince as the center.

Eda slid past Jenny's horse's hooves in two steps and leapt to Tails, Genard habitually standing in the way of the black horse, and Willow gritted his teeth and drew his guns.

Wya's subconscious intention was to pull Tails down on the horse, but he was held down by Nicolai on the side!

"Everyone, calm down!"

The star-grime-looking Meteorite pushed Huaiya away and reprimanded the attendant impatiently: "This is just a signal crossbow arrow from Longxiao City!

Nikolai, who looked nervous, nodded to the people around him: the team that formed a protective formation of the Northlanders immediately dispersed in good training, with a clear division of labor, and was ready for battle.

In the patrol team that opened the road ahead, several soldiers neatly climbed on their horses and set off towards different streets to find information.

Only then did Wyaa come to her senses and looked at Tails, who was also pale.

"It's ...... What's wrong?"

[Listen to the voice, front.] This is Rolf's sign language.

"It's the patrol's arrows," said Nicolai, staring at the empty street ahead:

"They need reinforcements. ”

Tails frowned slightly.

Need reinforcements?

"Boss!"

Lord Justin looked into the distance with a serious expression, and his tone was nervous: "The direction of the arrow...... It's the front, it's the destination we're going to, the embassy post house in the axe district!"

The Northland ranks, especially the poorly trained patrols, were in an uproar.

The procession, which had been accustomed to guarding the surrounding area, immediately turned their eyes and looked at the street in front of them.

Nicolai snorted, his face calm, staring in the direction from which the sound came.

"What?"

Tails was taken aback: "Isn't that a rumba ......?"

"Enough!"

Nicolas burst out loud, interrupting everyone's uncertain speculation:

"The patrol is under the jurisdiction of the General Order Office of the Garrison of Reston and reinforcements from the other districts will be in place soon. ”

He spoke coldly, with the prestige of a commander in his words: "And that's none of our business! What we have to do now is to stand by and wait for the ...... ahead."

The next moment.

Whoosh——!

Another rush interrupted Nicolais's words!

"Chief, second shot!"

Justin spoke in a voice at Nicola's side, but he couldn't suppress the anxiety in his tone: "It seems that the situation is urgent!"

The breath of the Northlanders and the Stars began to speed up in unison.

Tails stared at the street ahead, feeling the tension in the air growing.

Nicolai frowned fiercely and gritted his teeth: "What about the scout, what about the reward ahead?"

"If something really big happens up front," Tails pursed his lips, "probably tripped." ”

The prince ignored the face of the Falling Star, he turned his head, and said to a short man under the cloak in a hurry:

"Ada!"

"I know, you can see it!"

Eda pouted, snorted dissatisfiedly, and said something Tails didn't understand.

But her movements did not drag on at all: I saw the elven guards rushing to the side of the street, scooping up a pane, and jumping to the top of the three-story house on the one side in three or two steps.

In everyone's sight, she was as swift as a gecko, attracting amazed glances.

On the roof, Eda gently raised her right hand and stopped in front of her cloaked forehead.

At that moment, the elf seemed to be very comfortable, as if feeling the breeze blowing.

But the ranks on the street were all staring nervously at her.

The Starfall snorted dissatisfiedly and muttered to Justin, "So the people we're watching can't keep up with her......"

After a few seconds, Eda turned her head and her expression sank.

"I can't see the exact situation, but I can see the fleeing crowd," Eda groaned in the face of everyone's nervous and expectant gazes, and reported back from the vision that ordinary people can't see: "Oh, there are still sounds of fighting hands in the air, at least a dozen pairs of ......"

Tails narrowed his eyes: the fleeing crowd?

But the elf soon didn't have to say any more.

"Lord Nicolais!"

As the sound of horses' hooves sounded, one of the horsemen of the previous patrol hurried back, and in his voice of rapid gasping, there was a bit of anger and decay:

"Front...... The station of the Black Sand Collar ...... Rumba...... King's Inn...... Attacked!"

Everyone was taken aback!

The King's Inn?

Raid?

The anxious words of the cavalry continued: "The guards of the inn ...... Seems bad...... Patrol of the Axe District...... Caught off guard, two order officers, three squads were fighting, and I saw several corpses......"

A lot of people frowned.

"Stop!"

Nicolai spoke categorically, interrupting his incoherent response: "Just two things: the enemy's situation?"

The cavalry was stunned for a moment, and then regained his spirit a little in the panting.

"It's chaotic!"

The cavalry sentry who inquired about the news shook his head: "The other party has launched a surprise attack from more than one place, the number is unknown, it looks like a northerner, not only with swords, but also with bows and crossbows......"

"As for us, the Black Sand Collar and the patrols are fighting, and the order officers on the periphery are blocking and fortifying, but there are scattered civilians everywhere, and there are people who are even hot-headed and ready to take up arms......

Hearing this, Justin's face tightened, and he leaned into Nicolai's ear: "Today is the day of listening to politics, there are too many nobles in the axe area, and their private soldiers and guards are all troublesome......"

Tails' brow furrowed even deeper.

Nicola's expression seemed to have just frosted, and he nodded: "Continue to investigate, send people to report to the palace and the Regent of Lisbane." ”

The Meteorite turned his head and first glanced at the Grand Duke's guards, seeing that most of them were showing stability, and then nodded with satisfaction:

"Hmph, you dare to listen to the political day, and still do it in an aristocratic area like the axe area......"

Nikolai looked at the sky in front of him and snorted softly, with a slight schadenfreude in his words:

"Whoever the enemy is, they must hate the king to death......"

He turned his head and whispered to the prince with a sad face, "It seems that the journey to the Axe District to join the rumba is going to be postponed, little prince. ”

Before Tails could reply, Nicolai ordered in a loud voice:

"Everyone!"

"The patrol that opened the way, when the next wave of sentries returned, immediately stopped advancing, pulled up the defensive line, blocked the flow of people from the axe area, and forbade anyone to pass through - whether it was their own or anyone else!"

The patrol team that heard the order immediately went into action - since the accident six years ago, the patrol of the First City Gate has been like the palace guards, and from then on directly under the command of the Grand Duke or the Grand Duke's personal guards.

Nicola's voice was decisive: "As for the Grand Duke's personal guard...... The crossbowmen spread out on the spot, filling in the defenses, clearing the vantage points on both sides of the street, ensuring their visibility, and taking out any unidentified targets moving at high speed in this direction!"

"As for us, change direction and return to Valhalla...... Justin, you lead the fourth team to set up an interception formation, take care of the break, and be alert to any threat from that direction!"

The Archduke's personal guards moved more quickly and neatly than the patrols: they immediately changed their ranks from the rear to the front, and turned to retreat, and Lord Justin's team almost formed a human wall, blocking the road leading to the chaotic area, and many crossbowmen climbed the houses on either side one after another, drew their long arrows, and aimed vigilantly in that direction.

Listening to the other party's orders to blockade and retreat, Tails sighed: he knew the attitude of the Meteorite.

"Hey," Tails said, turning, reminding the Meteorite angrily, "I know you'd love to see him die, but if Rumba dies here today......

"Are you sure this is a good thing for Long Xiao City?"

Nicolai shook his head disdainfully, "My responsibility now is to transport you back to Valhalla in all its entirety, and nothing else." ”

Tails took a deep breath.

"Well," the prince spread his hands, "think about it, King Chaman died inexplicably in Longxiao City under the rule of the Grand Duke......"

"If I were Qiyuan City or Guarding City, it would definitely be to criticize Longxiao City, which was poorly protected and even suspicious, and then ...... in the dirty transaction of the King Election Society."

The Meteorite paused slightly.

He turned his head to look at Tails, his face cold.

Tails shrugged helplessly: "For Longxiao City?"

At this moment, the sound of a third arrow was heard in the distance.

The atmosphere was even more tense.

After a few seconds, Nicollet snorted angrily and turned around scoldingly:

"Son of a bitch......"

He shouted angrily in dissatisfaction, "Gail, you take the fifth and sixth teams to the post house to reinforce the patrols over there—we've practiced this situation in six years, you know what to do!"

An old Grand Duke and Guard nodded, smiled with pity on his face, and went to reinforcements with half of the Grand Duke's guards.

Nicolas was obviously in a bad mood: "Others, retreat according to the original plan!"

In the bad atmosphere, the group turned in a complicated mood and returned in the direction they came.

They hurriedly retreated for a few minutes, until they returned to the junction of the axe area and the spear area, and saw the familiar chess and card room, and the tension in the team slowly subsided.

"Damn," Wya's expression tightened, "why do we always have this kind of thing happening?"

"Calm down, Waiya," Tails said with a gloomy face, "remember my words: don't panic. ”

But Tails himself was adjusting his breathing on horseback, thinking about what had just happened.

On today's day, in the axe district where the aristocracy gathers......

The attack, no, was the assassination of Charman Rumba?

Who is it?

And......

What if Rumba dies here......

Thinking of this, Tails clenched his fists and clasped the saddle tightly.

He stayed in the middle of the retreating ranks, his face solemn.

"Hey, the little prince. ”

"You know," the Starfall said coldly as he rode to Tails' side, "if we had kept pace and made it to the Axe Sector earlier, we might have been able to catch that attack head-on." ”

Tails frowned, "What do you mean?"

Nicolai shook his head, "I mean...... Your head may not be cheaper than the life of a rumba. ”

Tails remembered something, and his scalp tightened:

"You say, that group of people might be trying to intercept me?"

Nicolai snorted disdainfully.

The second prince subconsciously looked around: the streets were calm, Eda was vigilantly running on the rooftops, condescendingly observing his surroundings, and the Northlanders' ranks were all right.

Tails then turned around and said with a skeptical face:

"I ......"

"I'm not that unlucky, am I?"

As soon as the words fell, an accident happened.

(End of chapter)