Star Forge Titan

As the game was about to end, the score gap between the two sides remained at zero!

In other words, only if either side scores another goal can the real champion be decided!

"Sometimes, I can't help but wonder, are we absorbing the monsters' abilities, or are we becoming new monsters?" Looking at this scene and the cheering audience around her, Afrediya suddenly sighed.

"You think too much." Alvin had a different opinion.

"From the moment humans first learned to use fire, we have become different from ordinary creatures that passively accept the influence of the environment. We have begun to change the world around us with our own initiative."

"Changing your body in the material sense is essentially just a choice. I think as long as you are willing to abide by the principles of being a human being, even if your appearance changes to a certain extent, as long as you still maintain your original beliefs in your heart, you are still a human being." Alvin said with a smile.

"Of course, corresponding rules must also be established, at least to prevent people from suffering unnecessary disasters due to the bad behavior of a few individuals." Recalling the scene he saw on the way back to Avonmore, Alvin's smile gradually disappeared.

If the players on the field change their appearance for glory and ideals, the farmer who gives up his human form for his family ends up dying like a real animal.

That is absolutely not true!

"Don't frown, it will make you look old." The red-haired girl pulled Ivan's face and said with a smile.

This time it was Afrediya who came to comfort him.

"That's why we need to change this country to avoid that kind of thing."

"Indeed." Holding the girl's hand naturally, Ivan's frown slowly relaxed.

At this moment, cheers broke out in the stadium.

Bulls captain Jordan burst out with great strength in the midfield, dragging three or four Hurricanes players towards the scoring area. As long as he arrived with the ball, he would get six points!

One step, two steps, three steps... Ten steps! Three Centaurs, weighing over a ton including their armor, were hanging on him, yet this bull-headed man was forcibly dragging them forward.

Thick blue veins bulged on his neck, and the skin on his thighs had been torn by the overloaded muscles. Blood dripped onto the grass through the gaps in his armor, leaving a bloody path behind the captain.

However, the captain did not stop, he did not stop moving forward!

Even though the Hurricane captain Madrid accelerated his run and launched a cavalry charge, he was unable to stop Jordan's pace. Instead, he was lifted high up by Jordan's breastplate with his horns and smashed to the ground!

Inspired by this, the rest of the Maze team, although exhausted by the continuous passing tactics, still mustered all their remaining strength to entangle the Hurricane team players.

"Moo! This is the final -- touchdown!!!"

Jordan's roar resounded throughout the stadium. He lifted the six-kilogram lead-filled football high in the air and pressed the ball with all his strength as if hitting the ground.

"No!" Madrid turned over and got up, rushing towards his opponent with bleeding wounds, trying to use his hands to stop the football from falling.

Although the horse's hooves rose and fell quickly, turning up pieces of grass, his speed was still not enough.

Before the final whistle, the Maze team scored another touchdown!

All the audience stood up and cheered and applauded, giving the warmest applause to this wonderful game.

At that moment, a member of the Reformist faction pushed through the crowd and approached Afrediya's audience seat, his face brimming with panic. Stopped by the Silver Knight, he anxiously waved to the princess.

"Something happened!" Afrediya quickly realized something.

"Let him in."

After hearing the princess's order, the guards stopped trying to stop them.

"Your Highness!" Before the visitor could say anything, tears welled up in his eyes.

"Caesar is dead!"

Chapter 39 The conspiracy begins

Julius Caesar.

A young sheriff, a young reformer, and a good man.

At least, within the jurisdiction he governed, almost everyone had a favorable impression of this helpful young man. Even within the reformists, Julius was well-liked for his generosity and his frequent assistance to colleagues in trouble.

Even Afrediya had heard of his good reputation many times.

However, such an outstanding young man within the reformist faction died inexplicably in an unknown abandoned house in the downtown area on a cold winter night.

A dagger pierced through Julius Caesar's chest, splitting his young and passionate heart in two. The blood stained the ground red, and also left behind a line of dirty footprints of the murderer!

"A stalker." Alvin looked at the footprints and nodded and shook his head.

He did not know the deceased, so he did not completely believe the person described by the informant, who was also a good friend of the deceased, and even doubted how true the story was.

"Six old feet, which is about 1.8 meters tall."

"There is also a string of bloody words of unknown origin."

Watching the two-meter-tall man carefully exploring the crime scene, and thinking back to the identity of the northern ice barbarian he had initially told her, a sense of absurdity surged into Afrediya's heart, but she quickly suppressed this inappropriate thought.

Anyway, as a player, a player who has played all kinds of games, a player whose sOeam inventory is equivalent to half of his net worth.

It's quite normal for Alvin to have some knowledge of detective work... probably.

Of course, in reality, he relies more on the keen insight brought by his high attributes and the various tiny clues obtained through his excellent senses. There is no need to emphasize this point.

After learning that someone from the reformist faction had died mysteriously, he went to the crime scene with Afrediya and the Silver Knight who was guarding him.

Of course, the accompanying guards were actually quite opposed to this matter, but as the leader of the reformists, the eldest princess had to make due statement on this matter.

At the same time, sheriffs from the downtown area also arrived. They properly secured the scene and did not allow any unauthorized persons to enter.

However, just as vultures may discover a body earlier than other animals, the chaotic situation in the downtown area led some people to discover the crime scene earlier than the sheriff and commit some reckless and illegal acts.

At this point, much of the deceased's belongings and clothing had been stolen, and the body showed signs of having been moved. The scene was in a very poor state. Even the bloody footprints had been blurred.

When the princess and the Silver Knight appeared together, they were still worried about how to investigate the crime scene.

"Calculating height by stride length?" Afrediya immediately guessed the other party's method.

Although she had never played detective games, her experience of reading a lot of books in the City of Thousand Towers had given the princess a wealth of knowledge.

"Well, the height of the bloody words from the ground is also a factor to consider, but we can't rule out the possibility that the murderer deliberately changed his stride to leave misleading information."

"There are also shoe prints like this, with fine but smooth lines. They are obviously soft boots made of lambskin. They can effectively reduce the wearer's footsteps and have anti-slip function. They are the favorite boots of those stalkers." Alvin looked at the footprints carefully to make a judgment.

The keen insight gained from the Space Marine transformation ritual allows him to detect many subtle clues. Even if the footprints of a later person overlap the footprints of the murderer, he can still distinguish them by distinguishing the tiny differences.

The [Detection Perception] talent enables him to track and analyze the enemy's residual scent in the air and blood.

However, the murderer was clearly a very experienced murderer. After excluding the scent left by the later murderers, the room was almost entirely filled with the scent of the deceased. Moreover, from the stunned expression on the deceased's face, it was clear that he had not had time to offer any resistance until he was killed, so the murderer did not leave any bloodstains.

So, after failing miserably in his attempt to imitate Sherlock Holmes, Irving had no choice but to come to the meaningless line of bloody words on the wall.

"Justice in ancient Saga? What does the murderer want to express?" Afrediya muttered to herself in confusion as she looked at the bloody words.

"Is he the enforcer of justice? But wasn't the deceased a good man?" Ivan raised his hand and rubbed his chin. "Or is it that he wasn't actually a good man?"

"I won't allow you to doubt a noble man like this! Especially when he is dead!" A voice with suppressed anger came from the side.

Alvin turned around and saw that the person who spoke was another member of the reformist faction who had just come to report the news.

The young man named Brutus still had tears on his face, but he looked at Ivan angrily.

"Sir, if you don't take back what you said just now, I will challenge you to a duel!" Brutus took off his gloves and crumpled them into a ball, ready to throw them at Ivan at any time.

"Brutus!" Afrediya called out the young man's name in a stern tone.

At this moment, her authority as the eldest princess was fully demonstrated.

But when facing the leader of his faction, Brutus still showed an attitude of arguing with reason, and it was obvious that he had a very deep relationship with Julius.

Ivan raised his hand to stop Afrediya from speaking, then stood up and walked to Brutus, looking down at him.

He actually didn't have much ill will towards the young man; instead, he had a slight liking for his upright behavior in protecting his friend's reputation. However, the truth of the matter wouldn't change because of personal feelings.

"Why would such a noble person come to the lower city alone in the middle of the night to secretly meet someone? Moreover, he died without offering any resistance. Isn't this too strange for a second-level swordsman? Judging from the traces left at the scene, the murderer doesn't seem to be a high-level transcendent, right?"

"..." Brutus' expression froze.

His feelings for his friend made him completely ignore the biggest doubt in this matter.

"The simplest method is to summon the deceased's spirit to inquire about the truth. However, that goes against Madam Tranquility's doctrine that 'the dead should rest in peace.'" Seeing that the other party had regained his ability to think rationally, Ivan slowed down his tone and continued:

"On the other hand, too much time has passed since Julius Caesar's death, and he was just an ordinary second-level transcendent who had not embarked on the path of the Fire Sword. If he had not transformed into an evil spirit, he would most likely have dissipated long ago."

Lady Serenity is one of the nicknames of Hela, the goddess of death. As the guardian of the underworld, she does not support the desecration of the souls of the dead, although she has not yet reached the point of hostility.

But out of respect for a righteous god, even in Elrond, where the law allows the study of necromancy, people will not easily summon the souls of the dead.

However, murder cases involving political factional struggles are generally handled specially.

But after hearing what Alvin said, he saw helpless expressions on the faces of the sheriffs. Without asking, he guessed that they had probably tried this method before, and the result was futile as he expected.

"By the way, I'll give you a suggestion." Alvin leaned over and looked at Brutus. The primitive magic power surging with his emotions made him emit an invisible magical pressure.

A magic power of up to 1200 points is an impossible number for a first-level transcendent.

At this stage, even pure spellcasting professions usually only have around 500-650 magic points, and combat professionals only have around 150-350 magic reserves.

Brutus' forehead was instantly covered with cold sweat. After all, he was a first-level transcendent, but in the face of the pressure exuded by this person, he felt his hands and feet go numb. He felt as if he had fallen into the deep sea, with huge pressure coming from all directions.

The surrounding sheriffs couldn't help but take a few steps back and distance themselves from Ivan. They were originally surprised that a young man appeared by the side of the eldest princess who had always remained single, but looking at this situation, they realized that geniuses really do attract birds of a feather.

"Don't mention the word 'duel' so casually." Ivan smiled and patted Brutus' shoulder. He swore that he didn't use much force, but the latter showed an expression of unbearable pain as if a bone was broken.

"Brutus, prepare Julius's funeral first. His family is not in Avonmore, so you, as a friend, will have to take charge of this matter for the time being." Afrediya said with a strange expression.

"I understand, Your Highness." Brutus bit his lip, bowed, and quickly retreated.

When he left, he was still holding his shoulders, looking like he was doubting his life because of the cold wind of truth.

Afterwards, Afrediya and Ivan did not stay any longer and quickly left the crime scene due to the lack of strong evidence.

"I didn't expect you to be so... petty?" Afrediya glanced at Ivan.

"Really? I just feel that dueling is really troublesome. If I need actual combat, I might as well go to the training ground to find those Silver Knights. At least they can hold on for a while longer." Alvin shrugged and didn't really take it to heart.

He had originally planned to spend all his free time on the training ground, quickly digesting his combat memories through close-to-real-combat confrontations. He hadn't expected to encounter such an unexpected situation.

"Although Julius was born into a minor noble family, as a nobleman he would not casually run to the lower city. This is really strange." Sitting in the carriage, the eldest princess was still thinking about the doubts in this matter.

"Ivan, is this what you think?" After thinking for a long time, she looked at Ivan with a headache.

"Avoiding any abnormalities in the deceased himself, since we can't find any valid evidence, we might as well infer from the perspective of interests." Alvin made a suggestion.

"Benefits...? Julius was preparing to participate in the election of tribunes before his death. Well, they are court officials who serve as elected officials and speak for the citizens of the area they represent. If conditions permit, they can even veto orders issued by the lord." Afrediya explained.

It sounds like a prototype of a parliament.

Ivan raised his eyebrows and said in surprise.

It turned out that the Gusmith royal family had already had this idea in mind and had even put it into action. No wonder when he proposed the parliamentary system before, the Demon King Gustav seemed a little surprised, but he was only surprised to some extent, and was not shocked by this method that could drastically change the old feudal system.

"Serving as a tribune is the only way for many people to become high-ranking officials, and it is also the fastest way. It doesn't seem strange if someone attempts to murder him because of this." Afrediya continued.

"Although the traditionalists stubbornly believed that this system would only interfere with the lord's rule, under my father's insistence, they had no choice but to respond by having their own people serve as tribunes."

"Therefore, Julius' competitors are mostly traditional nobles and their trusted subordinates." The eldest princess's reasoning was about to come to a conclusion, but her frown remained unchanged.

"That's the information on the surface, but I always feel like something is wrong with the whole thing."

After a moment of silence, Alvin suddenly let out a breath and looked enlightened.

"Because there are more than just two forces in Elrond."

Hearing his words, Afrediya suddenly realized.

"After this incident, it's bound to cause a conflict between conservatives and reformists. From a purely utilitarian perspective, until the murderer is caught, all the reformists will think the other side is a traditionalist."

"On the other hand, a young man who is quite popular in the faction suddenly went to the downtown area alone in the middle of the night. This means that he must have some secrets that must be kept strictly confidential."

"What kind of secret could that be? It must be the kind of secret that could endanger life if leaked." A sneer appeared on Ivan's lips.

"As a rising star of the reformists, he's unlikely to have any connection with the traditionalists. Otherwise, the traditionalists wouldn't have to push another person to compete with him. In this way..."

"Wait, you suspect Julius is an insider of the Undead faction?" Afrediya reacted.

"If that's the case, then it makes sense." Alvin nodded.

"Because he was an insider for the School of the Necromancer, he went to the Lower City alone. Because he was an insider for the School of the Necromancer, he was completely unprepared for the murderer, his contact, and was swiftly killed without putting up a fight."

"Wait, if Julius is really the culprit behind the School of Necromancer, then why did they choose to kill him to provoke a conflict between us and the traditionalists?" Afrediya was keenly aware of a suspicious point.

"Because the School of Undead no longer trusts him." Alvin pointed at the eldest princess and then at himself.

"After we return safely, the School of Undead will obviously become suspicious of the insider who seemed to be late in reporting the news."

"An untrustworthy insider should be treated as a consumable to cause disputes between other factions." As he said this, the figure of another guy emerged in his mind.