My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 106 The Silent March
As planned, Roland and Cellina did not rush to investigate the truth of those three places.

After buying some food at a shop that was still open, the two headed back towards the treehouse.

Although the two of them now have the means to break in thanks to Flash and Cherlinina's sensory interference.

Most importantly, apart from releasing a wave of familiars to attack Roland, the other side has not made any other moves so far.

First, they didn't know the strength and ability of the opposing leader; second, they didn't know how many people were on the other side; and third, they didn't know if there were any ambushes waiting for Roland and Cellina to willingly walk into them.

Just to be on the safe side, it would be better to go back and bring that silly cat with you.

After all, judging from the fact that it recognized Cherinina's demonic identity, the other party's perception of demons is quite strong.

Ordinary methods of concealment cannot hide its intuition and senses.

After infiltrating Roland, he planned to do it on his own. After asking Cellina about some key points, he was unable to master the fusion technique.

However, he has mastered both Flam's invisibility and Cellina's sensory interference.

They can't be combined into one skill for now, but using two together is okay, though it consumes more mana.

Roland and the cat can first investigate suspicious locations. Logically speaking, the more important the location, the more demons should be present there.

After so many years of lurking, it's impossible that only the Viscount and the Governor are demons, right?
Cellina and Kalia can simply hide in suitable positions to provide support for Roland.

This is a provisional plan that Cellina and Roland came up with together.

The two had only been out of the city for a short while, braving the wind and snow, when Cellina suddenly stopped and turned to look into the depths of the dense forest.

"What's wrong?" Roland turned to look at Cellina.

"There's a bloody smell... a strong smell of blood that even this much snow can't mask."

As she spoke, Cellina removed the hood from her head, then closed her eyes, sniffed carefully, and nodded.

"Yes, it definitely smells of blood. A very strong smell of blood."

Seeing that the other person's expression was starting to get serious, Roland tried to smell it too... but he couldn't smell anything.

Roland soon realized that his actions were somewhat foolish.

After all, although Cellina never said what race of demon she was, judging from her ears and tail, she was probably from the canine group.

"Go over and have a look."

After saying that, Cellina walked into the depths of the forest.

Roland had no choice but to follow.

The presence of a strong smell of blood at this time and in this weather is indeed unusual.

Although he didn't smell anything, Roland's strength was that he never questioned the strengths of others.

Cellina walked a little too fast and didn't wait for Roland at all.

After walking for ten minutes, Roland finally smelled the blood, a smell so strong it was suffocating him.

Moreover, the surrounding environment began to become strange.

Despite the heavy snowfall, there isn't a single snowflake accumulated here.

All the vegetation had withered, the earth was a blank expanse, and only the strong, lingering smell of blood remained.

Cellina, who was walking ahead of Roland, suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Roland couldn't see clearly from Cellinina's perspective, but judging from Cellinina's slightly trembling body, something incredible seemed to be happening ahead.

This even stunned her, a demon who was used to seeing all kinds of storms.

Roland took a deep breath and, after a brief mental preparation, walked to Cellina's side.

Then he too was stunned.

Although he wasn't trembling, he was truly dumbfounded.

Blood, blood everywhere.

It wasn't an adjective; what appeared before the two was a pool of blood, with countless corpses and scattered pieces of black armor submerged within it.

Roland quickly looked around and finally spotted a human-shaped object covered in snow near a broken tree in the distance.

Roland ignored Cherlinina and instead used Flash to cross the huge pool of blood in front of him, arriving next to the humanoid object.

Roland moved aside the fallen half of the tree and used the Moon Spirit Essence to gently brush away the snow covering it.

It was a face that was still withered and shriveled, and the once magnificent cloak was now tattered and torn.

Even the short white hair on her head had lost its former smoothness and become dry and prickly.

Roland quickly recognized the other party's identity—Viscount Paxson.

Although the other person was no longer recognizable as human, Roland could at least recognize his identity from his clothes and accessories.

It's not that there's a name written on it, but there aren't many people who can wear Blackthorn Collar like that.

There are even fewer people dressed like that with short white hair.

At that moment, the viscount, who was practically a corpse, suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Roland, who was fiddling with the gemstone ring on his hand.

"It's...it's you...I...you...must be..."

Roland stared at the "corpse," his eyes filled with a mixture of horror and helplessness.

But this was just a final burst of energy before it died down.

The other party only had time to utter a few words before turning into ashes and vanishing completely.

"So they really are demons..."

Roland was speechless as he watched the way the demons died, which was exactly the same as in the legends.

The textbooks really do teach knowledge, and thankfully I brushed up on some common sense that I might need while I was in college.

Just as the Viscount turned to ash, that damned "ding" sounded again.

Surely this place can't also be where Kalia's memories are sealed away, right?
That's outrageous.

[Ding, the series of quests - Silent March has begun] [Detected that the series of quests - The Fall of the Eternal Capital has not yet been fully completed.]

[If the host completes a stage of this series of tasks ahead of schedule, the reward for this stage will be distributed after the rewards for the previous series of tasks have been fully distributed.]

[Ding, a special side quest—Echoes of the Past—has been detected. The Silent March quest is temporarily suspended.]

"???"

Roland knew that if Brother Tong suddenly gave you a nudge at a time like this, it was never a good thing.

But should we start this task today or not?

Besides, I haven't even finished the previous series of tasks yet, is it really appropriate for me to start another one?

Are you really not giving us any rest time at all?

Since being bound to your system, Roland has been constantly busy for almost a month.

But Roland wasn't in the mood to think about that right now.

The situation here is extremely strange.

Moreover... Celinina seems to have been completely silent since the very beginning.

If the other person hadn't been standing perfectly fine on the other side, panting, Roland would have thought she had run away.

Roland teleported back to Cellina's side and asked, "What's wrong? You look terrible."

"No, nothing..."

"Let's go first." Roland shook his head, first pulling Cherlinina behind him, and then leading her away from there.

Although he really wanted to destroy the scene.

Unfortunately, he simply didn't have any proactive, large-scale attack methods.

His little fireball was good enough to destroy corpses and cover up the evidence, but trying to eliminate a blood pool with a diameter of more than ten meters would be too much of a challenge for him.

After the two left the blood pool area, Cellina's complexion improved.

The lingering fear on his face was still there.

"What did you see that made you so scared?"

"It can't be that blood pool, can it?"

"The scene was a bit scary, but it shouldn't have scared you this much, right?"

"Could it be that the viscount, who is now confirmed to be a demon, died mysteriously, which is why you're so surprised?"

As Roland spoke, he took a piece of chocolate out of his pocket and handed it to Cellina.

Upon seeing the chocolate, Cellina immediately perked up, rolled her eyes at Roland, and then pushed the chocolate back into Roland's hand.

"I don't eat chocolate. Besides... what I care about isn't the blood pool, but what's in the blood pool."

"The corpses in the blood pool?"

"Yes... those armors, you must have seen them too, those black armors scattered in the blood pool?"

Roland nodded, and Cellina continued to explain: "The blood pool was created by the bloodline magic of the Blood Demon... and it was a life-or-death spell of the Blood Demon."

“Those corpses should belong to that viscount’s men. I just examined them and they are all demons.”

"Under the influence of the blood pool, their corpses will not dissipate, but will instead become nutrients that sustain the blood pool."

"All of this... is to temporarily seal those armors."

Upon hearing this, Roland, for some reason, suddenly shivered.

He had a bad feeling.

Cellina then took off her snow hood again, letting the snowflakes fall on her head, seemingly trying to use the coolness to clear her head.

"Those armors, although it's the first time I've seen them in person... I think every demon would tremble involuntarily when they see them."

"That is...that is the creation of that demon king."

"It was one of the key assets that enabled the Demon King's army to sweep across the continent."

"Although it is still a type of familiar in essence, but... this thing is different from the stone golem that you could easily deal with the other day."

"They are alive..."

"Damn it, why is something like this here..."

Seeing that Cellina was getting more and more agitated as she spoke, Roland patted her on the shoulder: "Let's talk about it slowly when we get back."

"You're being a little too nervous."

"Take it easy."

"But according to you, this thing killed the demon disguised as a viscount?"

Cellina shook her head: "To be able to release a blood pool of this size, this blood demon's strength is around the seventh ring."

"Moreover, the Blood Demon is known for his troublesome vitality, and he has brought so many subordinates with him."

"If he wanted to run, there was no way he couldn't escape."

"He left it there on purpose, or rather... he abandoned his original plan to target you after he discovered the armor was wandering around."

Cellina continued, "He must have died after we entered the city."

"When you were talking to that chairman."

"His original plan was to ambush you outside the city."

"I found a familiar used for eavesdropping on the wall of the Adventurers' Guild, which means they haven't given up on targeting you."

"But we never encountered an attack after we left the city."

"This can only mean that the attackers encountered an accident and changed their original plan."

(End of this chapter)