It felt so good to be close to the witch!

Because of the presence of large iron ore veins, the mining and foundry industries in Iron Mountain Territory are quite prosperous. Most of the weapons produced are supplied to the legions of the border dukes in exchange for a large amount of wealth and resources.

The lord's mansion in Tieshan Territory was built differently from ordinary mansions on flat land. It had four towers and a wall that was twenty meters high, making it heavily fortified. It would not be surprising to call it a "fortress".

In fact, even the residents of Iron Mountain Territory refer to this place as "Iron Mountain Fortress" rather than the lord's residence.

The architectural style of the lord's mansion reveals that Lord Denham, the lord of Iron Mountain, is by no means a man content with the status quo.

At this moment, in the room at the top of the tower at the center of Iron Mountain Fortress, Lord Denham, dressed in black armor with silver tinges and a long sword at his waist, stood by the stone window, gazing into the deep night.

The kerosene lamp lit by the wall illuminated his profile, which was as hard and indifferent as granite.

Lord Denham is not very old, only thirty-five years old this year. As a nobleman, this is the best age—he has the ability, ample experience, and is in his prime. He only needs an opportunity to advance further in his current position.

But in reality, this opportunity is the hardest thing to get.

Imperial titles, from highest to lowest, are: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron, and Honored Scholar.

Although the title of Lord is listed as one of the imperial titles, in the eyes of true nobles, the Lord is not actually a true noble. Its purpose was more to reward knights who made outstanding contributions in war.

Lord Denham, born a commoner, knew very well that, barring unforeseen circumstances, the highest position he could reach in his life was the title of Lord. To climb to a higher level, unless there were outstanding talents among his descendants, and the accumulation of talent generation after generation, there was only a slight possibility, but that was a view he could not see.

But now, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rise to the top is right in front of him.

Lord Denham turned back to his desk in the room, opened a drawer, and looked at an envelope with gilded edges and a violet emblem.

Upon seeing the letter, he felt much more at ease and more confident about his next move.

"Dong dong..."

A soft knock sounded, and Lord Denham closed the drawer before saying, "Come in."

"Squeak..."

The person who pushed open the door was a middle-aged knight wearing armor and holding a helmet.

This man was Lord Denham's squire and confidant, named Jax.

Jax, whose beard was turning gray, bowed respectfully to Lord Denham before speaking, "My lord, the intelligence has been compiled."

"According to reports from scout knights in various places, the Shadow Witch attacked the temple's prison wagon at noon today and was repelled by 'Golden Lion' Rami. She then disappeared without a trace. After a short rest, the temple's prison wagon convoy set off again and is now fifty kilometers north of Blackrock Territory."

"Inside the Blackrock Lord's mansion, chaos ensued after Roy Tulumbel was captured. Although Red managed to maintain relative stability, there were signs of unrest among the people. It was foreseeable that if no changes occurred later, separation and collapse would be inevitable."

"In addition, the delegation from the capital that came to appoint lords is currently staying at the lord's mansion in Greenfield after hearing about the Blackstone Territory incident, seemingly to observe the situation."

"As for the border duke, he dispatched an elite squad of knights this evening, who are rushing here. However, judging from their speed, by the time they arrive, Roy Tulumbel will have already been taken to the Divine Punishment Prison of the Cathedral Temple."

After reporting the intelligence, Jax bowed his head respectfully, awaiting Lord Denham's instructions.

Sitting behind his desk, Lord Denham pondered for a moment. After a while, he handed Jax a token and a letter that had been prepared on the table, and said in a deep voice, "You take the lord's token and go there yourself to deliver this letter to Duke Soros. Remember, you must hand it to the Duke personally."

"I will definitely complete the mission," Jax replied firmly.

“Very good, depart immediately. I await your news.” Lord Denham nodded in satisfaction.

Standing by the stone window, watching Jax ride away on horseback in the dead of night, torch in hand, Lord Denham turned around, unable to suppress his smile any longer.

The plan is about to be completed.

With a cheerful mood, Lord Denham descended the stairs alone, eventually reaching the deepest part of the fortress, the door to a closed basement.

The two knights guarding the gate bowed respectfully upon seeing Lord Denham, and then skillfully opened the iron gate made of thick metal behind them.

"bang bang..."

Behind the iron gate was a small room of about twenty square meters, where the dim candlelight in the corner was the only source of light.

In the center of the room was a metal cage. Iron chains, thicker than a normal person's forearm, extended from the four walls and reached into the cage, locking a girl's limbs.

The girl was wearing loose gray and white clothes, with a metal collar tightly wrapped around her neck. She closed her eyes, curled up, and trembled from time to time, as if she were trapped in a deep nightmare.

Looking at the witch before him, Lord Denham grinned silently.

"Don't worry, you'll be 'free' soon..."

……

Blackstone Territory, the lord's mansion, the secret place inside the treasure chamber.

Under the gaze of the Shadow Witch Lilia Qiji, Roy turned around and left the strange space with the Ice Witch Ais.

As for the Shadow Witch Lilia?

Ais had just told him that she had used magic to seal the "witch's heart" of the shadow witch Lilia. Unless she unlocked the seal, Lilia, who could not use magic, would never be able to break free from the restraints of the ice crystal torture device.

As for the injuries of the Shadow Witch Lilia?

Given a witch's constitution, such injuries won't kill her; there's no need to worry about them.

At the entrance to the treasure room, Red, who had been anxiously waiting for a long time, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Roy emerge unharmed.

He glanced warily at the Ice Witch following behind Roy, his right hand gripping the knight's sword at his waist without relaxing for a moment.

Ais completely ignored this.

She could take the life of a mere Bronze Knight in an instant if she so desired.

Compared to her, the Bronze Knight was nothing more than a slightly stronger "ordinary person".

Ais's cold, frosty gaze swept over Roy: "The first task is complete. I'm leaving."

After saying that, without waiting for Roy's reply, her body blurred and disappeared into the moonlight.

Chapter 24 See you soon!

Looking at the spot where the Ice Witch Ais had disappeared, Red's body tensed up instinctively.

Even though the Ice Witch disappeared right before his eyes, he couldn't observe how she left.

The disparity is so great that it inspires despair.

There is an innate and irreconcilable gap between witches and knights.

But soon, Red composed himself, only feeling an even greater urgency to master the breathing technique.

He didn't ask to fight the witch; he only hoped that if a conflict were to break out with her, he could buy even just one more second for young master Roy.

Roy, of course, had no idea what Red was thinking.

After returning to his room, he practiced breathing techniques while silently contemplating.

Through interrogating the Shadow Witch, he obtained crucial information—the true identity of the person behind it all was Lord Denham, Lord of Iron Mountain.

The identity of the service witch is not a secret. It is easy to find out if you want to. He already knew about Vivian, the light witch, the service witch of Iron Mountain Territory, when he asked Red about the territory.

It is said that Vivian, the Witch of Light, can create blinding light sources and manipulate light to form weapons, making her one of the most powerful witches in the service.

Unlike the healing witch Shanica, the light witch Vivian was not highly corrupted when she was sent to Iron Mountain Territory, but now she is on the verge of spiraling out of control.

This shows the extent to which Lord Denham has "exploited" her over the years.

In reality, lords at the rank of nobility do not necessarily have witches serving in their territories. As far as Roy knows, of the four territories surrounding Blackrock Territory, only Blackrock Territory and Iron Mountain Territory have witches serving in their territories.

Now that we know the identity of the person behind it all, the next question is what to do.

Please ask the Ice Witch to eliminate "Lord Denham, Lord of Iron Mountain"?

Without a doubt, this is not a difficult task.

But what happens after you remove it?

Lord Denham, the Lord of Iron Mountain, was a nobleman recognized by the Empire. His death at the hands of a witch would be a completely different matter.

Previously, the Ice Witch Ais was only being hunted down by the temple, and the empire neither supported nor opposed it, maintaining a rather ambiguous attitude. However, if the Ice Witch really killed "Lord Denham, the Iron Mountain Lord," then the empire would have no choice but to take action.

Admittedly, the Ice Witch Ais is very powerful, but the temple and the empire are not truly without powerful beings above the Silver rank. The reason they did not send them out before was simply because these powerful individuals had other important matters to attend to, and they had not anticipated the Ice Witch's true strength.

Following the Ice Witch's "battle that made her famous" more than two months ago, the Empire and the Temple have once again taken action, which is by no means a small-scale skirmish.

There will definitely be powerful knights of the Gold rank who will make a move! In fact, to be on the safe side, there might be more than one!

In this way, the Ice Witch Ais and the Fox-Eared Witch Elena will be in great danger.

This is definitely not the situation Roy wanted to see.

He wanted to eliminate the mastermind behind it all, Lord Denham the Iron Mountain Lord, rather than risk a mutually destructive conflict that would cripple him.

Therefore, having the Ice Witch Ais take action is a very poor strategy.

Blackrock Territory has only two combatants who can openly fight: the Bronze Knight Red and the Healing Witch Shanika.

However, the former was not strong enough. Although the Bronze Two-Star Knight was not weak, it was simply a pipe dream for him to go deep into Iron Mountain Territory and eliminate "Lord Denham, Lord of Iron Mountain".

While Shanika's magic is not weak, her ability is healing, which is a support talent and does not possess strong direct combat capabilities.

Therefore, neither of them is suitable for an assassination mission.

Therefore, if we want to eliminate "Lord Denham, Lord of the Iron Mountain", we must find another way.

Roy had two thoughts on this.

The first method is to lure Lord Denham, the Iron Mountain Lord, out of the territory using some kind of "pretext." As long as Lord Denham is killed in a secluded corner where no one knows about him, even if the temple and the empire possess the means to distinguish whether the murderer is a witch, they will be unable to do so.

The second option is for him to take action himself. With the help of his talent [Infinite Desire], his strength has progressed beyond everyone's imagination. Given enough time, he will possess strength far surpassing Lord Denham.

Of the two methods, Roy prefers the former.

The latter may take an uncertain amount of time. Moreover, besides physical strength, to possess sufficient combat power, he also needs to train in weaponry, which will take even longer. And the person behind the scenes may not give him that much time.

As for the first method...

A sudden idea flashed in Roy's mind.

He quickly got up and went back to the secret place of the treasure room.

After he took all the treasures, this secret place was perfect as a hiding place for witches, whether it was to be used as the residence of the Ice Witch Ais and the Fox-Eared Witch Elena in the future, or as the prison cell of the Shadow Witch Lilia now.

The semi-illusory door reappeared and solidified. Seeing Roy enter, the shadow witch Lilia's eyes, which had dimmed, brightened again: "Young Master Roy, would you be willing to give me a high-purity magic crystal? I..."

Before Lilia could finish her slightly hurried words, Roy raised his hand to interrupt her. He looked at Lilia with a faint smile on his face: "Miss Lilia, would you like to make a deal with me?"

……

The night passed by in a hurry.

The next day at 10 a.m., Red, who was practicing his breathing technique in the training ground, received an urgent message from his knights.