I, the Lord of the End

Chapter 62, Cogne Castle Investigation

Cogne Castle is a fortress built in a very hidden location in the Gray Rock Mountains. The roads of this fortress are intentionally hidden from discovery. As the secret stronghold of the Holy Empire in the Gray Rock Mountains, its tough and complex lines The magical appearance of the hotel and the surrounding greenery complement each other.

Normally, this fortress only has about 30-50 people stationed to ensure that it can be hidden in the Gray Rock Mountains with the lowest supply consumption and maximum concealment, so that it can be activated in special periods.

Looking at Cogne Castle from a distance, Celeste introduced to Sid: "This is a castle designed to withstand a long siege, with thick walls, moats and drawbridges, the outer walls, and the deputy castle owner. The horn-like structure of the fortress, as well as its independent water well, the city has large demon-breaking ballistas, trebuchets, a small number of dwarven imported artillery and hot oil crucibles, even if there are only more than 30 people, it can defend the attack of 500 people."

As Sid looked around, Cogne Castle towered over the mountains, clinging to the peaks of the Gray Rock Mountains in the alpine forest, towering high in the clouds.

And below is a valley with mist floating, and several small streams converge in the lake.

There is no one in the field of vision, and the only things you can see are birds flying in the forest and grizzly bears and wolves wandering in the mountains.

"30 people can hold off an attack of 500 people, and there were 1000 people in the castle at that time." Sid shook his head and said mockingly: "Although these 1000 people are not a field army, they may not be considered elite in the local army, but It’s really unreasonable to disappear without even a word of news, right?”

"More than that, part of the military pay for this war totaled more than 253000 gold crowns, more than 3200 tons of barley, wheat and rye, and countless military supplies all disappeared." The imperial princess stretched herself like a swan neck, looking at the mountain road: "It's really strange."

The queen's team gradually approached Cogne Castle, the gate of the castle was closed and the drawbridge was closed, and the flag of the Wolf Principality was hung on the tower.

The defenders found the approaching team, and a guard officer immediately flashed on the city wall: "Central Army? Which part are you from?"

"The Black Vulture Guards of the Holy Empire, open the door immediately! Your Royal Highness is coming!" The Black Vulture Guards came to the bottom of the castle and shouted loudly: "Don't open the door yet!"

"Ah? Obedient." The chief guard's face changed drastically when he heard the name of the black eagle guard, and he quickly stretched out his hand to signal: "open the gate!"

"open the gate!"

The heavy sound of the machine amplifier sounded, and the suspension bridge of the castle was lowered while the winch was turning, and the heavy gate needed the joint efforts of several people to be pulled up.

Seeing the city gate being opened like this, Sid and Celeste looked at each other thoughtfully.

The door of the carriage opened, and Sid, who was wearing a full body of chain armor and a hood on his head, jumped out of the carriage first, and then the queen's personal attendant immediately opened the steps from under the carriage, and bowed to welcome Her Royal Highness to get off the carriage.

A pair of black vibrating gold military boots stepped on the steps. His skin was creamy and his eyebrows were like a crescent moon. He was wearing a full-body vibrating gold enchanted plate armor of the Black Eagle Royal Family, and a large golden one-handed ax hung on his waist. The princess of the empire walked down the steps slowly, her brows were full of heroism, her iceberg-like face exuded an aura of incomparable aloofness, her perfect waistline and slender figure were covered by armor skirt and black red royal hood. The robe was covered under the cloth and armor, and the cloak fluttering with the mountain wind behind her, together with Celesty's purple pupils full of scrutiny, constituted an iron-blooded picture scroll depicting the frozen glaciers in the mountain stream.

"I don't know that Her Royal Highness is here, and I didn't open the door to welcome you. Please forgive me!" The chief guard led the guards in the castle to greet him out of Cogne Castle, and knelt down on one knee.

Celeste nodded indifferently, she didn't even look at the chief guard, facing the hand extended by Sid, she directly pushed it away with her little hand wrapped in golden vibrating gold gloves, expressing that she didn't need his help: "Get up. "

"Yes, Your Highness." The guards got up from the ground and stood in three rows in front of the princess.

"Whose subordinates are you?" The imperial princess flicked her cloak lightly. She looked around the surrounding environment. There were obvious signs of damage to the walls and towers of Cogne Castle, and it seemed that a giant had left a hideous scar on the surface of the city wall with its claws. trace.

"We are soldiers under the command of Earl Charles Zeringen." The chief guard first bowed, and then saluted: "My name is Horn. After the defeat, I came to Cogne Castle to survey and take over the guard work on the orders of General Charlie. .”

Hearing that it was someone sent by Charlie, Celestia frowned subconsciously, then immediately relaxed and pretended not to care: "Did you find anything?"

"When we came here, the whole castle seemed to be soaked in blood. Corpses filled every place we could see. Even the moat was blocked by corpses. There are corpses in the vice castle and the main castle, and some corpses have been frozen hard. General Charlie really couldn't bear to see the corpses of Paoze left in the wild like this, so he found a place nearby and cremated them collectively." Chief Guard When Horn said it, he couldn't bear it: "Even so, the castle is still a mess. It took us three weeks to clean up the interior."

"Have you cleaned up everything here?" Sid asked immediately, and he scolded directly: "Who told you to do this? You directly destroyed the scene!"

"I... No one asked us to do this, sir." Horn said cautiously: "But, we will be on duty here in the future. If we don't dispose of the corpses and clean up the scene, how can we live in it? This will spread the plague."

"Take us in and have a look." Celiste's frozen face showed no expression.

"Yes, Your Highness, this way please." Horn carefully watched the princess's state, and saw that she hadn't said anything but kept a smile on her face. When Celesty's eyes turned, he quickly looked away and reached out hint.

Obviously, because there has been no war for a long time and the wolf's financial problems, the residents don't pay much attention to the maintenance and repair of the castle. Weeds grow wildly everywhere in the courtyard and in the cracks of the walls, and there are even tall old trees growing in the castle.

Pass through the city gate and step into the inner courtyard protected by the outer city wall. There are stables, armory, prayer room, grain depot, training ground and other configurations that a castle should have, but most of them are badly damaged. The crucibles and barrels on the ground The boxes, boxes and gravel piles were left to be thrown on the ground, and the bed crossbow used to defend against foreign enemies had been destroyed.

Celeste searched for any clues in the empty courtyard as much as she could, but she found nothing until the courtyard in the castle appeared in front of her, and the Imperial Princess immediately signaled Horn to come over: "This well?"

"Oh, this is the water storage well of the castle. Your Highness, the defenders usually store water here." Horn immediately introduced: "Is there any problem?"

"Since the water is usually stored here, why is it sealed off?" Celeste pointed to the well that was blocked by wooden boards and stones.

"Your Highness, it is like this, because when we came here, we found that the well was full of corpses, and the water originally stored in it had turned into corpse water. It smelled of rot and blood, and it was really undrinkable. That's why it's closed."

"That's it." Celeste nodded slightly: "Take us to the main castle."

"Yes."

The secondary fort has completely collapsed, and the only thing left to see is the main fort.

The first floor of the main castle has a hall, dining room, and kitchen, and the second floor is a prayer room, library, soldiers' quarters and a small armory.

The third floor is the room of the chief guard and the infirmary, and the fourth floor is the watchtower.

Sid followed Celesty up, and he found that there were murals on many walls in the castle, but mildew, smoke and humidity made it difficult to preserve the murals, and there was a rotten smell in the air, and a faint smell bloody smell.

Even after opening the Falcon's Eye, Sid didn't find much. There didn't seem to be too many traces of the battle in the main castle. Although many furniture had visible damage to the naked eye, the debris and daily necessities remained after cleaning. But Falcon's Eye kept telling Sid that there was no very fierce resistance here.

"That's all?" Celeste then asked, "Where's the basement?"

"Here, Your Highness, the basement is damp and cold. A dozen or so unlucky ones made their last resistance there. People still tell me that they heard strange noises at night."

"lead the way."

"Your Highness?"

"Lead~ the way!"

"Yes."

Going down the spiral staircase to the basement, an extremely strong rotten smell hits the face, like rotten milk and rotten eggs that have been left for many days, it is disgusting. The basement of the main castle is a storage warehouse. It is very dark here, and the guards lit it torches.

"Zhi~zhizhizhi~" The appearance of someone disturbed the aborigines here, and a few little mice ran around on the ground with big round eyes.

"!" Celesty's face turned pale when she saw these furry and dirty little things, her noble purple eyes were full of panic, she covered her mouth with her hands and subconsciously took two steps back, stepping directly on Sid's feet superior.

"What's the matter, Your Highness?" Sid hurriedly supported the princess.

"No...it's nothing, it's a little dark ahead, you go ahead." Celeste stepped behind Sid, straightened her collar unnaturally, then reached out and pinched the back of his burqa: "Be careful point."

"Okay...wow, what a cute Shushu." Seeing a gray mouse bigger than his fist, Sid's eyes lit up: "yes~yes, Shushu, Shushu, come to me quickly .”

"Squeak~squeak~squeak." When Sid stretched out his hand, the fat mouse was frightened. It squeaked and scurried all over the ground. Driven by it, the basement moved from the box, from the bag, from the Small sounds continued to emerge from the garbage dump, and the dense squeaks echoed one after another, playing a song of rats and rats in the closed environment of the basement.

"Hey!" Sid only felt the tightness of the burqa, and he turned around quickly.

I saw Celeste's legs trembling under her armored skirt, her pale face flustered, her cherry red lips trembling, and the cold and arrogant imperial princess curled up like a kitten with a hairy head, her eyes glistening with tears. Yingying forced herself to maintain her composure: "Qi... the smell is so bad..."

Sid, think of a way!The princess looked for help, and she simply put her hands on Sid's back and leaned against him.

Why is this princess afraid of mice?Sid slandered inwardly, Shushu is so cute, you can kill one of them with an axe, so what's there to be afraid of?

I don't care, hurry up, I can't move!Celeste also begged with "a fierce look in her eyes".

"There are a lot of rats here." The princess's bodyguard still helped her out, and signaled Horn and the black eagle guards to drive away the rats: "Why don't you clean it up?"

"No way, the old castle has been in disrepair for a long time, lacks budget, and it is often used to store food, so there are naturally many rats." Horn explained with an awkward smile, and the guards drove the rats away with torches.

The basement is not very big, but there are many traces of battle here. Under the dim light, Sid opened the Falcon Eye and continued to observe. It seems that the original defenders of Cogne Castle regarded this place as the last stronghold of resistance. Barrels and grain bags blocked an inner room, trying to defend it.

However, something terrifying used a huge force to break through not only the barrier, but even the walls made of thick stones.

"This is the innermost room. The basement is only this big." Captain Horn pointed to the badly damaged inner room: "This is often used as a temporary prison cell. Because it is very cold, no one usually lives there. of."

"Well, I see." Although Sid could see through the eyes of the falcon that an extremely fierce battle took place in the inner room, it was also cleaned up very cleanly, without leaving too many traces...Huh?

In the room, something is flashing?
Sid stepped forward quickly and rushed towards the pile of garbage piled up in the corner of the room. Under the suspicious eyes of everyone, Sid suddenly put his hand into the garbage pile.

Sid took out a shimmering pendant.

This is a pendant made of unknown material. It is neither gold nor iron, nor stone nor wood. The surface of the pendant is engraved with a half-scraped name "Wolf Bruvik-????-??" Behind it is a "∞" symbol that symbolizes infinity.

"This is?!" The princess stepped forward immediately. She took the pendant from Sid's hand and looked at it for a while before her face changed slightly.

"What is this? Your Highness?" The captain of the guard subconsciously asked after seeing the pendant's expression change drastically.

"This is the Void Realm mark, the identity symbol of the high-ranking members of the Vaixu Sect." Sid stretched out his hand and squeezed his chin and muttered to himself: "Every member of the inner circle of the Vaixu Cult will get a unique identity when they are accepted by the inner circle. His own mark, which represents who he is."

"Yes, I heard it from my instructor in Holy White City." Celeste nodded, and she said to Sid: "The instructor said that this mark symbolizes the person's 'Void Realm Name', damn it, his name Erased, otherwise we could go to the wizard and use magic backtracking by real name to find out what happened."

"So, Your Highness, the tragedy here is caused by the Blessing Sect? Serapis, curse these damned Blessing Sect demons!" Captain Horn looked very angry in the dim light of the torch: "This A bloody case, they must take full responsibility!"

"Where are there traces of battle?" Celeste didn't respond, and the princess took the opportunity to put the pendant away.

"There is no place left, Your Highness, you have inspected all places except the collapsed vice castle."

"Well, it's getting late, Your Highness, let's go back." Sid suggested, "It's not safe here."

"Ok."

The group returned to the gate of the castle the same way, and Sid waited on Celeste to board the carriage. Before leaving, he said politely to the captain of the guard: "Then we will not bother you, thank you for your cooperation."

"No, it's our mistake. Please forgive me, Your Royal Highness." The captain of the guard hurriedly saluted.

Sid didn't say any more, he followed into the carriage, and the Imperial Princess and her party slowly left along the way they came.

The captain of the guard, Horn, watched the princess and her party disappear at the end of his sight.

"Quick, hurry up and inform General Charlie that Her Royal Highness has come to Cogne Castle and has found something!"

"Yes!"

The orderly mounted his horse and galloped along another road.

"Be careful, there's no telling when the next patrol will come, pack up quickly, we'll leave immediately!"

"Don't worry, captain, everything is ready."

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(End of this chapter)