Swords, magic, and martial arts

Following Weber's directions, the group arrived near a stone bridge. From there, Rhodes could see a small town on the other side of the bridge, with snow covering the bridge and rooftops.

The river beneath the stone bridge was covered with a thick layer of ice. Rod thought the ice should be able to support his weight, but he didn't dare to be reckless and try it.

It should be mealtime now, but no smoke is rising from any of the houses in town, which makes Rod feel a little strange.

It wasn't far from the town, and there was no sound of people coming from the town; it was surprisingly quiet.

"I have a feeling something's not right here," Weber, who was good at reconnaissance, said.

"Something's not right?" Hammer asked curiously, looking around but still finding nothing unusual.

"It's so quiet here. Have you ever seen a town this quiet?" Baron noticed this as well.

"I have a bad feeling," Weber said with a grave expression.

"We're already at the town gate. If something has happened inside, we can't just ignore it," Baron said. "Let's go in together and check the situation."

After saying this, he took the axe from his back and led the way forward.

The others followed Baron, and after reaching the other side of the river, Rhodes felt uneasy, unsure whether he had a real premonition or was influenced by Webber and the others.

The town was surrounded by a wooden fence, and the wooden gate leading into the town was open, but there was no guard standing by the gate.

Although the guards of Icestone City felt it was too cold and didn't patrol the streets much, there were still people taking turns guarding the city gates.

As he entered the town, Rod looked up and saw that there wasn't a single guard in the watchtower near the town gate.

Standing on the street, he could see that the doors of every house in the town were tightly closed. Baron walked up and knocked on one of the doors, but there was no response for a long time.

He turned sideways and rammed the door with his shoulder, breaking the wooden bolt behind the door and opening it.

The group cautiously entered the room, which was small and contained only a bed, a dining table, and a few stools.

There was no one in the room. On the dining table were a half-eaten loaf of dark bread and some solidified vegetable soup.

"What happened? Did they eat someone and then they died halfway through a meal?" Hammer asked.

"Shh!" Weber gestured for silence and listened carefully to the sounds coming from outside.

Rod also heard a strange sound, which seemed to be the sound of horses' hooves, and it was getting closer and closer.

"Let's leave this house first. If a conflict breaks out, this crowded environment will be detrimental to our fighting," Baron said.

The others nodded and left the small house with Baron.

After leaving the room, the group, armed with weapons, remained vigilant, watching the direction from which the sound of horses' hooves came.

The sound of hooves grew closer, and finally three richly equipped knights appeared before the crowd.

They wore full-body plate armor of milky white, with a golden cross painted in the center of their chests. In their hands they held a silver spindle-shaped shield with a golden cross painted on it and a lance that reflected a faint golden light.

The cavalry beneath them, clad in cloaks, revealed only their eyes, and their heads were adorned with a golden cross, giving them a sacred feel under the winter sun.

I don't know which family's emblem this golden cross belongs to.

The knights stopped ten meters away from Rhodes and his companions. The knight on the far left spoke up and asked:

Who are you?

His tone was extremely arrogant, the visor of his knight's helmet remained closed, and the lance in his hand was pointed at Rhodes and his companions.

Judging from his voice, he should be a young man no more than thirty years old.

"We are adventurers passing through here, and we wanted to rest in this town for a few days, but when we came in, we found that there was no one in the town at all," Baron replied.

The knight before them should be a nobleman. However, the nobles of the Kingdom of Nord are not as different from the nobles of the Kingdom of Fish and the Kingdom of Roman in terms of status. Generally, unless it is a formal occasion, commoners do not need to use honorifics when addressing nobles. They can just communicate as they would among commoners.

In the Kingdom of Nord, you can even see noble dukes and ordinary adventurers sitting together in taverns, drinking and boasting.

The knight on the far left was displeased with Baron's answer and said in an almost commanding tone, "This area is dangerous and not a place for you. You should leave immediately."

"What happened here? I think even if we encounter danger, we can handle it," Hammer said from the side.

"Do you have the right to ask a question to a nobleman, you commoner?" the knight on the left said impatiently, his attitude making Rhodes somewhat displeased.

"This isn't a place for you guys either. What are you doing in the Kingdom of Nord by the Radiant Knights of the Roman Empire?" Weber, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.

Upon hearing this, the knight on the left raised his lance, but the knight in the middle pressed it down with his hand.

The knight in the middle lowered his mask. He was a middle-aged man with deep blue eyes and a neatly trimmed beard above his chin and lips.

"We are indeed members of the Radiant Cross Knights, but our order does not belong to the Roman Empire, and we remain neutral in the wars on the continent."

Our entry into the Kingdom of Nord was a legal act permitted by the Kingdom of Nord. We are here to hunt down several cultists of the Death Cult.

"I think they're the ones who caused what's happening in this town. It seems we're a step too late," the middle-aged knight explained.

"I think you might wonder why this kind of thing isn't resolved by the local lord. When we first arrived here, preparing to find the lord to negotiate a solution, we discovered that the lord's family had already been attacked by the Death Cult."

His younger brother, who had been adventuring abroad, returned to succeed him as lord of the land, but his lack of experience had already overwhelmed him with the affairs of the territory.

So he commissioned us to find the cult of death, and once we found their hideout, he would personally lead troops to wipe them out and avenge his brother's family," he added.

The Death Cult is a cult in the South whose followers kill to please their god, or rather, to satisfy their bloodlust in the name of the god. In short, the cult is full of mentally unstable lunatics.

"You've told us so much, aren't you afraid we might be members of the Cult of Death?" Rhodes asked.

"A newbie like you? You look like you can't even beat an old lady." The young knight on the left glanced at Rhodes with disdain.

"Has the town been wiped out by them?" Weber asked.

"Perhaps, we'll only know after we thoroughly investigate this town," the middle-aged knight sighed.

Upon hearing this, Webber clenched his fists tightly, his eyes filled with rage. Baron patted him on the shoulder and said to the knight, "We can help you; you don't need to pay us anything."

The middle-aged knight nodded. "I am very grateful for your help, but this matter is very dangerous. If you encounter any danger, you would be better off turning around and running away."

"Who are you looking down on?" Hammer said, displeased.

"Unlike us, you don't wear armor that can resist magic, so you might be powerless against some of their evil magic," the middle-aged knight explained, not angered by Hammer's words.

"Thank you for reminding us, we'll be careful," Baron said.

The group then split into two groups and began searching the town.

……