Knight and Wand

Chapter 353 Stealing corpses
Southern border of Kantadar, Roslava Territory, Morag County.

The sun shines on the streets and stone buildings in the city of Kiathus. The residents are busy as usual, pedestrians are coming and going on the streets, and the market is bustling with people.

Exquisite silks hang on shop shelves, abundant fruits and grains fill the stalls, and tempting aromas waft from the bakery. Everything looks so peaceful and prosperous.

However, a subtle silence and tacit understanding always permeate the air, as if an invisible curtain shrouded the hearts of every resident.

When people talk to each other, they are always careful with their words and their eyes are evasive, as if they are afraid of touching some taboo.

No one dared to mention the truth openly, and the residents tacitly focused on the life in front of them, just like the countless years their ancestors spent in Kiathus.

The days pass slowly day by day.

Night fell like a black curtain, enveloping the entire city once again.

Residents hid in their homes early, closed doors and windows, suppressed their anxiety and fell asleep. It seemed that only in dreams could they temporarily forget the haze that shrouded the city.

Under the moonlight that occasionally appeared in the haze, there were some figures moving slowly on the wide city square.

They wore hooded cloaks, lowered their heads, walked heavily yet with a sense of helplessness and fear, and lined up silently like lambs to be slaughtered.

Soon, the team moved forward, heading towards the huge castle that once belonged to the lord. Everyone's figure looked very helpless in the night, and only the occasional suppressed sobs broke the deathly silence.

On the second floor of a house not far from the square, a boy was lying in front of the window, looking through the narrow gap in the wooden window with frightened eyes at the crowd walking up the city hills in the night.

He saw those people in cloaks marching as if to the execution ground, and his young heart was filled with fear.

Suddenly, a big hand roughly pulled him back from the window.

It's his father.

The man's face was filled with fear and anger. He whispered, "Don't peek, don't think too much, and don't talk too much. Just go to bed!"

The boy's body was shaking, tears welled up in his eyes. He couldn't help but ask fearfully, "Father, why don't we run away? It will be our turn soon. Will my sister and I be eaten by them?"

My father's expression twisted instantly, his eyes full of hesitation and confusion.

He was silent for a long time, shook his head helplessly, slowly sat down beside his son, and stroked his head gently.

"Don't talk nonsense. Your uncle Hank and his family have been there, and they are alive and well now, aren't they? And if they are lucky, I heard that some people who have been there once will not be allowed to go a second time in the future."

"But I'm still afraid. Maybe sooner or later they will kill us, just like they did when they came here." The boy trembled, still remembering the horrific scene more than a year ago when those terrible monsters tore the city soldiers and nobles into pieces.

The screams and howls of pain of thousands of people being torn apart still lingered in his ears.

The man looked at his son's fear and sighed helplessly: "Son, we can only accept it. The merchants who escaped outside said that there is an even more terrible hell outside of Roslava, full of undead monsters."

He paused, looking out the window at the darkness, his voice getting deeper and deeper: "Besides, since they came, all the gangsters and criminals in the city have disappeared. There is no more extortion, robbery or theft, and we no longer have to pay taxes to anyone. In just over a year, our family has saved up more money and food than we could have saved in the past many years. The food in the market is cheap and plentiful, and we have never had such a peaceful life before."

As for the price
Regularly provide "blood tax" to those terrible beings that suck blood. It seems that if this continues, it is not unacceptable?

Escape? Every time the man thought of this question, he could not hide his confusion.

Where to escape to? Escape back to the lands of the kingdom's lords, and become a serf with nothing?

Thinking about his past life and then thinking back to the past year or so, he shuddered.

At this moment, the man felt that the nobles who had stepped on his head in the past were more terrifying than the blood-sucking monsters that now ruled the city of Chiatus.
On the sky above Usato Territory, two shadows, one large and one small, quickly passed through the clouds.

The Griffin Deathclaw carried Leon and Olivia, and Corvis followed on the Hippogriff.

Olivia, sitting on Leon's saddle, looked far away at the city on the Usato plain below.

A few days ago, after leaving Baldim County, Leon temporarily changed his original plan to go to Nanshan Territory.

He asked Azerien and Lohak to lead the Knights of Avalon to continue their march to the Usato Pass to apply for a border crossing.

He took Olivia and Corvis with him and headed to the Royal City of Kantadar via the air at the fastest speed.

The news of General Trosa's death made him feel a little emotional, but even more strange. However, this was not the reason why Leon rushed to Avim.

He was more concerned about the vampire assassin mentioned in Sir David's letter. Now any clues about the vampire were related to the whereabouts of Earl Earl Elliver.

The griffin soared down from the sky, but did not enter the city of Avim, which the letter said had been blocked by Orland's army. Instead, it followed the location given in the letter and landed in front of the old camp where the Thorn Flower Army had been stationed on the north bank of the river.

Hearing the noise of the Deathclaw and the Hippogriff landing, David led several Farolis Knights and Ranger Knights to meet them.

Seeing the second son of Count Elliver whom they had not seen for a long time, Leon and others followed him into the military tent to sit down and rest, and asked what happened in the city of Avim.

But after some communication, I found that David didn't know much.

They had just finished their investigation of the area south of Usato Territory and were returning to Avim City to rest and resupply, but they ran into the Orland army that had blocked the royal city and were unable to enter.

David inquired at the barracks outside the city in the name of the Thorn Flower Family, only to learn that General Trosa, who had just arrived in Usato from the north to command the army, had been killed in the city.

I heard that his body was so dry that there was not a trace of blood, just like the death of the victims attacked by the blood-sucking monster in the legend.

The king of Orland died suddenly and inexplicably. Such a major event obviously caused great turmoil in the region, so David hurriedly wrote a letter to send the news back to the Jihad Alliance.

After listening to David's story, Leon frowned.

Rumors of vampires have appeared frequently in the counties of "Bokuya" and "Rifen" in the southern part of the Usato Kingdom, and David has been investigating them for a long time.

But this is undoubtedly the first time that traces of vampires have appeared in the Royal City of Kantadar.

And the person to be killed was the commander of the Orland army who controlled the Kantadar royal court.

Could it be that the Undead Army intends to march north to attack Usato Territory? So they want to remove the military commander of the Northern Kingdom first?

But. Was this really done by a vampire?

Leon stood up and paced back and forth thoughtfully, feeling that it was not that simple.

"This is so weird. King Ledwin was assassinated just now, and General Trosa was killed right after that."

Although no body was found, it is arbitrary to speculate on the murderer based solely on the cause of death.

In his mind, the people of the Kantadar royal court and the Atiyas were all suspicious.

Both of them have motives to murder Trosa, especially the latter who is lingering and omnipresent.

"What? His Majesty Redwin was also killed!?"

David was shocked.

Leon looked up and nodded to him, and briefly told him about the turmoil in the capital and the upheaval in the court during the Orlandon Knight Tournament.

These days, news travels very slowly. David has been hunting vampires in the south of Kantardar for some time, and the news of the assassination of Ledwin III has not yet reached this place. "Send someone into the city in my name to contact Baron Cailan. Corvis and I may be able to use magic to help the Bucks find some clues about the real murderer." Leon said to David.

Unexpectedly, David said helplessly: "Lord Leon, Baron Kailan is not in Usato County."

"What? Didn't Kailan come to the south with General Trosa?" Leon was surprised.

David nodded and said, “Lord Kailan did not travel with the general, otherwise I would not be unable to enter the city gate now.

The person leading the army now is an Orlanton nobleman I have rarely heard of. He is not accommodating to us at all. Even though I proposed to the garrison to use our knowledge of vampires to assist in investigating the assassin, my application to enter the city has not received any response so far."

After hearing this, Leon became even more suspicious.

The great knight Kailan was called "Deer Horn" because he was not only the most powerful knight of the Stag family, but also the most trusted guard of the Earl of Stag. Over the years, except for the war period, he had never been heard of being separated from Trosa.

Especially since Trosa was sent to take charge of such a sensitive area as the Southern Royal Court, how could Baron Kailan not be with him? And the assassination happened just when the Grand Knight was not with him?
"Can we contact other members of the Bucks Family?" Leon asked.

David shook his head and spread his hands in helplessness. They were not allowed to pass, and he didn't even know whether the message that he had previously entrusted to the garrison had reached the ears of the general who replaced General Trosa.

Leon pondered, sat back on the wooden stool, and touched his waist bag to think.

As an orthodox wizard, he doesn't need to play the detective game to solve the case. Just like what he did with Canis, the most direct way to solve the case is to "pull" General Trosa out of the cemetery and personally ask the deceased at whose hands he died.

Is it the blood-sucking undead who are planning to come back for revenge? Or is it the Kantadar royal court who refuses to surrender? Or is it another conspiracy of the Atias people?
There are still three empty Neti cards in his pocket, and with General Trosa's reputation as the King, summoning him would be much easier than resurrecting Canis. The murdered Trosa would most likely not refuse his spiritual communication.

The problem is that he can't expose his miraculous resurrection ability to others, so he can only do it secretly.
Fortunately, with the griffin and the hippogriff by his side, the soldiers on the ground and the city walls could not stop him from sneaking into the city at night.

"Since we can't enter Avim City, there's no need for us to get involved." Leon did not explain his plan to David.

He used the same words he had used to scare Lady Adelina, telling her that he had used some kind of divination magic to confirm that Count Elliver was indeed still alive.

When David heard Leon's confirmation that his father was not dead, he stood up in ecstasy and almost overturned the wooden stool behind him.

Leon raised his hand to comfort him and said, "Let's rest here for a while, and wait for my knights to successfully enter the Usato Territory and join us, and then we will go south together to search for Lord Elliver's whereabouts."

David nodded rapidly, pounded his breastplate hard, and bowed to Leon with great gratitude.

After learning about David's gains during this period and finishing the discussion, Leon left the tent, let Deathclaw and Xiao An go out to forage for food freely, and asked the griffin and the hippogriff to come back after nightfall.

He randomly found two tents on the outskirts of the old camp to rest, and told Olivia and Corvis about his plan to sneak into the royal city and steal Trosa's body.

This time he asked Olivia to stay and wait, otherwise the disturbing magic field on his wife's body would make it difficult for Corvis' invisibility spell to work.

Time comes to night.

Leon took Corvis and quietly sneaked out of the camp. He rode on his long-awaited war beast companion and rose into the night sky, flying quickly towards the city of Avim.

If it was the Royal City of Kantadar a few years ago, he would never dare to be so reckless and fly directly into the airspace of Avim.

But after the War of the East, the Battle of Usato, and the War of the Undead, Kantadar no longer had any organized Lion Scorpion Knights capable of patrolling the skies of Avim City at night.

The beast in the sky rose into the cold sky, then quickly spread its wings and swooped down over the garrison barracks near the Kantadar Palace.

While still at a considerable height above the ground, Leon and Corvis untied the belts of the saddles and jumped down into the air in the night.

Lion swung down Gungnir and weaved magic patterns. The air pressure in front of him was like a big net, which suddenly buffered the speed and force of the fall.

Leon penetrated the buffering air layer and did a somersault, landing on the grass unscathed without making much noise.

Since the end of the Undead War, he can finally act like a real wizard and it is difficult for him to be killed by free fall.

Corvis used the same magic technique to land behind Leon. He stood up, drew out the Sword of Friendship, drew a seal with his fingers and stroked the blade with lit runes. The next moment, two shadows like cloaks wrapped around the two of them, hiding the light and shadow reflected by their bodies.

After hiding their bodies, they used hearing and magical perception to identify each other's positions, and Leon called him to start moving.

He speculated that Count Trosa's body should be kept in the military camp of the Stag Family, but Leon felt that the location of the body should not be a secret. Perhaps scaring the King's servants could give him the answer.

Thanks to the Atiyas people's collusion with the sorcerer society, it was very easy to sneak into the military camp where there was no sorcerer advisor.

Just by paying a little attention to avoid those knights of honor with keen intuition and perception, Leon and Corvis sneaked into the military camp like non-existent ghosts in front of ordinary soldiers.

Soon, using magic tricks to sneak into the door and pick the lock, the two found a servant's room.

Leon tapped the tail blade of his wand and cast a soundproofing spell to block out the sound waves.

Corvis stepped forward and pressed the rune sword against the servant's neck. At the same time, he woke him up and whispered in his ear in a mysterious way, threatening him like a ghost.

The sleeping servant was suddenly awakened.

He blinked and looked at the empty room blankly. He heard a sinister question in his ears and was immediately frightened and screamed out.

However, the room was sealed by the air flow and no screams or shouts were leaked out.

The pain in his neck and the strange situation that shouting could not attract any patrolling soldiers made the servant feel cold all over.

"I am the underworld messenger of Vinolis. Today I will take away only one person's soul and tell me where the remains of the stag are."

Leon tried hard to hold back his laughter as he listened to Corvis acting like he was in an opera, using the traditional beliefs of the Feru people to scare people in a mysterious way.

But the servant who was in this nightmarish situation could not laugh.

Feeling the pressure of the Grim Reaper's scythe on his neck, the servant begged for mercy in fear with tears in his eyes.

"It's none of my business! Lord Underworld Messenger, I'm just a humble servant. I just said that what they did was unconventional and they will definitely be punished!
Lord Trosa's body has been burned to ashes by Count Angor, who said he was afraid that it would be contaminated by the curse of a vampire and turn into a ghost. The coffin containing the urn is in the Count's former residence. Lord Hades, they are the ones who are guilty. Don't take me away, my wife hasn't given birth yet."

Ignoring the other person's crying, Leon was stunned.

What a coincidence? Trosa's body was burned like this?
Corvis pointed his finger at the servant's forehead, sending out a weak magical shock that instantly knocked him unconscious.

He raised his hand and simply healed the shallow bloodstain on his neck, making it difficult for him to tell whether it was a nightmare or a real experience when he woke up. He turned and returned to Leon.

"What should we do? My Lord, should we continue to steal the ashes?"

Listening to Akau's whispered question, Leon thought for a moment and said helplessly, "Let's go and have a look. The ashes are useless, but maybe we can find some other relics of Trosa to replace them, such as a sword. If we can't find any, let's retreat."

In Gulorelit magic, in the magical principles involving necromancy, ashes and remains are different concepts.

The corpse purified by the flames of this world is like undergoing a natural ritual. The symbolism of ashes in this world is no different from the dust that can be found everywhere in the mortal world. It is truly dust to dust, earth to earth, and it has completely gotten rid of any connection with the deceased before his death.

This was also the reason why, during the Undead War, he had suggested that we follow the Holy Sun Church's tradition of cremation as much as possible to prevent the bodies from being used by undead magic.

However, now he has shot himself in the foot.

(End of this chapter)