Knight and Wand

Chapter 79 New and old grudges
Martial law, blockade, closed city gates, teams of cavalry were ordered to rush through the various passes in the western port, and all the ships that were about to set sail or had just set sail at the dock were stopped.

The wanted poster describing the facial features of the "Sons of Dodson" and his gang was sent to nearby counties by cavalrymen at full speed.

The castle on the cliff was also in chaos.

Countless Kantadar dignitaries were now rudely ordered to stay in their rooms and were not allowed to leave.

The wedding just ended.

The bride disappeared mysteriously.

This was a loud slap in the face of the Falcon family.

But at this moment, at the steps of the hall, the angry accusations of the married Sallain family were not the most troublesome problem for Count Fercon on the throne.

Doom!

The tightly closed door was suddenly opened by a huge force.

The two caped knights who were originally guarding the door flew in backwards.

The tall body covered in armor fell to the ground with a clang and rolled over. They then climbed up again, holding their swords angrily.

A black-robed wizard with an angry face walked into the hall, leaning on his wand. Behind him, black-armored soldiers followed in aggressively and stood guard beside the wizard.

The people of Atias did not take this territory, which symbolized the lord's authority, seriously at all.

The guard beside the throne held the hilt of his sword, the blade already protruding a little, and stared at the ignorant foreign wizards and soldiers below the stairs with murderous eyes.

Count Falcon raised his hand and waved to the captain of the guard beside him.

Although he was dissatisfied with these arrogant Attias people trampling on his authority, the count also knew that he was in the wrong towards his financiers.

After all, Master Piriano did die in his own castle, and his death was so miserable.

"What? With all this commotion, are you planning to go to war with Westport?"

Count Falcon held his chin and glanced at the wizards below: "Master Eamon, I usually give you too much respect that you dare to be so presumptuous in front of me now?"

"Your Excellency, I need an explanation."

Eamon grabbed his wand and gritted his teeth as he said angrily, "The guards said that the last person to enter the embassy yesterday was a young Kantadar nobleman with his entourage. I want to thoroughly investigate the guests you invited."

Count Falcon's headache got even worse after hearing this.

What the other party said was true. The biggest suspect might indeed be the noble who visited the castle.

He had already sealed off the castle and checked all visitors. As a result, the Earl naturally knew who had disappeared in this sudden chaos.

“Don’t bother my other guests. The people that Master Pilieno contacted during his lifetime and their followers have long since disappeared.

Not only may they be the murderers of your mentor, but they also shamelessly stole my son's bride." Count Falcon's eyes were filled with anger as he recalled the son of Dossen, whom he had met once.

Of course, it now seems that there is a question mark as to whether the young man is the son of Baron Redingburg.

Earl Falcon finally sent away the furious Mage Atias, promising to issue wanted orders to the lords of the nearby counties and immediately dispatch troops to check the important roads along the way.
Amon returned to the empty embassy with an expressionless face.

After calming down, he went to his tutor's room again.

The tragically dead body of a loved one has been collected.

Amon suppressed his grief and observed the clues around him.

The door panel was shredded, and there was a hole that went through the stone wall opposite.

Although the signs of destruction were shocking to ordinary people, Amon knew that under normal circumstances, the mentor could still cope with this level of attack.

This was obviously a surprise attack when the mentor removed the protective spell.

And judging from the fact that the wand in the corpse's hand didn't even have time to activate the preset spell, the murderer must have known the teacher's preferences and relaxation habits as well as himself.

Even though all the slaves were missing, it was impossible for the slave girls to understand the magic of their mentor.

Nor would he dare to attack his mentor and risk triggering the blood oath.

There is only one slave who knows how to break this spell.

"Corvis, I knew it would be you." He spat out the name with resentment in his tone.

Eamon knew that even if that damn little Fanu was not the one who did it, he must be an accomplice!

No.

No matter whether he is an accomplice or not, he must die now.

The black-robed wizard closed his eyes, held his staff in front of him, and silently chanted the tracking spell.

The spell summoned up the backup plan he had prepared many years ago.

After a long time, Amon opened his eyes again.

He quickly walked to the window, took out his whistle, and blew it sharply.

The eagle in the courtyard heard its master's call and immediately flapped its wings and flew into the air.

Leaping directly from the window onto the back of the Hippogriff, Amon rode his mount above the heads of the legionnaires.

"Go tell Count Falcon to have his men pursue the enemy along the northern route!"

After giving the order, Amon urged the Hippogriff to rise higher and soar in the direction guided by the magic.

Along the wilderness path heading north, the three leading noble war horses slowly stopped their hooves by the stream.

Although their abundant physical strength is still far from being completely exhausted at this moment.

But the tired Leon and others had to temporarily slow down their escape.

There is no other reason.

The other two horses carrying Corvis and Elena were almost unable to hold on.

The two horses they were riding were both bought by Lohak at a high price in Western Port yesterday afternoon.

But the good horse Uriah found temporarily in the market could not keep up with the extraordinary pace of the three noble war horses.

As for the ordinary packhorse that was the first to carry the luggage, it collapsed halfway due to exhaustion not long after starting the escape.

Leon and his companions had no choice but to pick up the important items and abandon most of the travel equipment and the packhorse that was almost dying of exhaustion.

Taking advantage of the short break, Corvis and Azerien finally had the chance to dismount and take off the indescribable dancer's veil on their bodies.

Leon also put on his witcher-style mixed armor again.

And because Lohak was reluctant to throw away Leon's noble snake helmet armor yesterday, and in order to be prepared for any battle, he simply put it on himself before meeting him last night.

This now frees up a set of armor for Corviso.

Even though because of the difference in their body shapes, Lohak's leather and chain composite armor was a little too loose on the blond boy, but some protection was always better than none.

".You are not from Atias?" Leon adjusted his armor and asked the blond boy by the river in surprise.

"Before I was ten, I could still be called a Veranian. Of course, that kingdom had long been completely conquered by Atias, so the name no longer made sense."

As Corvis answered, he led the tired horse to a shallow stream and let it lie down and wet its limbs.

An empire on the rise?
Leon also let the horses wade into the shallow stream to cool down and rest. He continued to ask Corvis: "Is the Atias Empire very powerful?"

The blond boy turned his head and looked over.

His eyes flickered, as if he had a thousand words to say, but in the end he could only move his lips slightly: ". Very strong, so strong that it makes people despair." Corvis lowered his head and squatted, scooping water from the stream to wipe the horse's body: "My hometown, Vilania, is not much smaller than the Kingdom of Kantadar, but the empire only used one legion to conquer it.

And the Empire has ten more legions like that."

Leon was surprised when he heard this: "Then how big is each of these so-called legions?"

He listened and it seemed that Atias had a complete and mature standing army.

"I can only speculate that a legion may have about 20,000 soldiers. I don't know the exact number. After all, as a slave, no one will allow me to inquire about the composition of their army."

Corvis thought and recalled: "In my impression, the soldiers of the empire are always a mass of black, seemingly endless."

"So, there are at least 200,000 standing troops." Leon felt a headache.

He was not completely ignorant of the cost of maintaining an army. If this number was accurate, it meant that the national strength of the Atias was even more amazing than he expected.

Seeing the worry on Leon's face, Corvis couldn't help but smile: "Don't worry, even the Empire will not risk overthrowing, crossing the dangerous and vast ocean, and wasting resources to send the entire army to this land.

You are very lucky that you are not adjacent to Atias. There are thousands of mountains and rivers between this land and the empire. At least you will not have to worry about facing the army of black robes in your lifetime."

"That's good. However, Atias is indeed located in the far east of the continent. Is this world really round?" After hearing this, Leon asked Corvis for confirmation.

Now this friend has actually come here across the ocean on the Atias ship.

"Hmm? You're pretty quick-witted. Normally, when you hear this, shouldn't you think they're sailing along the edge of the continent?

You know, the Kantardars never believe that the ground beneath their feet is a ball." Corvis raised his eyebrows and smiled.

The blond boy was about to continue speaking, but suddenly his expression changed and he stopped talking.

He stood up with a surprised expression and tried to reach his back.

"what happened?"

Seeing him like this, Leon thought there was a bug in the boy's armor, so he stood up and walked up to him and asked, "Did something crawl into your back?"

Corvis undid the buckle and tried to take off the armor he had just put on: "Please help me check my back."

Seeing the young man's anxious look, Leon quickly lent a hand to help him take off his armor.

The people who were feeding the horses and resting nearby also looked over.

After taking off the boy's large armor belonging to Lohak, Leon immediately frowned.

On Corvis' back, there was a character that looked like a branding mark, glowing faintly.

"Did you see anything? Tell me quickly." Since Corvis couldn't see what was behind him, he had to ask anxiously.

"It looks like a glowing rune?" Leon drew the glowing character on the other's back on the ground.

"."

The blond boy stared at the words Leon had copied on the mud and fell silent.

"What's happening here?"

Leon asked worriedly, "Are you okay? Could it be that Pilieno can speak death language? Did he leave other curses on you?"

"No, um, it's okay. It's just a spell mark from the past. It's just a false alarm."

Corvis looked at the worry on the other person's face and could only smile and shake his head: "Let's get on the road as soon as possible."

Leon felt relieved when he saw that the boy's expression had returned to calm.

After helping Corvis put on his armor again, everyone waited for the two tired horses to lower their body temperature, eat and drink their fill, and then headed northeast again.

This time everyone just urged the horses to trot, not running at full speed like they did last night.

One reason is that Corvis and Elena's horses are not strong enough.

Secondly, after running at full speed last night, they were already quite far away from Western Port, and it was impossible for Falcon's people to catch up and find them in a short time.
However, just as they reached a fork in the road, Corvis stopped his horse and fell behind the team.

Leon and others looked back in confusion.

"Everyone, thank you for helping me regain my freedom, but I have urgent matters to deal with right now, so we have to go our separate ways." Without waiting for a reply, the blond boy pulled the reins and drove his horse to the other side of the road heading west.

"Ah? Aren't you going to Orland with us?" Lohak looked at Corvis, feeling regretful. He wanted to thank this brother who had been taking care of his sister in the embassy after he returned.

Corvis raised his hand and waved to everyone as a farewell: "If I have the opportunity to go to the Northern Kingdom in the future, I will definitely visit you in Kossos County. So, goodbye."

After saying this, the young man squeezed the horse's belly and urged the horse to speed up.

Leon looked at his departing back, feeling somewhat regretful.

After a brief contact and understanding, I found that this young man from the East Continent was gentle, knowledgeable, skilled in magic, and knew a lot about the East Continent and the Atias people.

If we could chat for a while longer, I would gain more.

Unfortunately, everyone has their own path to follow.

"Let's go and hurry up." Leon quickened the pace of his horse.

Everyone continued to move forward with their heads down.

But as they walked, Leon sat on horseback and thought about everything, and gradually came to his senses.

Not right.

Before they set out, they had already told Corvis and his men where their destination was.

He also invited him to settle in Selva.

At that time, the young man readily agreed.

I didn't see him at that time. He said he had something to deal with on the way.

Moreover, he was a slave who had previously been imprisoned by Pilieno.

Even if they have a little freedom of movement, they can't usually go to a place so far away from Western Port.

Now that he has regained his freedom, what else could be so urgent as to flee Kantadar, a place that has close ties with the Atiyas people?

The glowing rune I just saw flashed through my mind.

Leon's imagination could not be stopped, and he could not help but connect the character with Corvis' sudden change of attitude.

That's what he carried on his back.
This kid.
It can't be true.?

Corvis swung the reins, urging the tired horse under his crotch to run faster and faster.

His eyes kept scanning the surrounding environment, selecting suitable terrain for use as a position.

After crossing the rugged hills, a dense forest appeared in front of us.

The young man slowly stopped his mount, dismounted, grabbed the bag on the horse's back, and ran quickly into the forest.

"Explosion. Explosion shock." Thinking about how to set the trap, Corvis quickly rummaged through a pile of crystals and bottles and jars in the bag.

After selecting the materials, the boy took out the shovel from the bag and began to dig a hole under the roots of the tree.

As a result, before he had dug a few shovels, he heard the terrifying sound of horse hooves hitting the ground outside the forest.

"You're here so soon!?"

The boy looked back with a puzzled expression.

(End of this chapter)