After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

Gregory gritted his teeth and finally said the most fatal thing.

"About a month ago, the Lord Regent approached us and said he had a huge commission for us to take on. If we finished, he would guarantee us a lifetime of food and clothing. At the time, we agreed without much thought. After all... the Lord Regent was already a long-time client of ours."

"Who would have thought that a few days later, he...he gave us several cans of red liquid and asked us to send people to various residential areas to inject the contents into the bodies of homeless people...preferably half-bloods."

Heidi's complexion became gray and colorless, like a broken computer monitor.

But he still tried to maintain his composure, forced open his trembling lips, and asked:

"...The red liquid is the blood plague?"

Gregory nodded repeatedly:

"Yeah, we didn't know what was going on at the time, but a few days after we did as we were told, the blood plague broke out. That's when we realized we had caused a disaster. But since we were on this pirate ship, it was impossible to leave—"

“You’re lying!!!!”

Heidi broke away from Aize, rushed forward, grabbed the other's neck, and roared almost hysterically.

"Arthur is the regent, a loyal regent! Why would he do this? You are framing him! It's a frame-up! You are blaming him for something you did yourself!"

It's not surprising that Heidi reacted this way.

Although the assassination of Aize made her extremely angry, it was ultimately just a routine operation of an old antique with aristocratic consciousness.

It was similar to what happened before when I sent people to kidnap Vivian... Villian.

Although Heidi was angry at his behavior, she had no right to blame him.

But the blood plague is a completely different matter.

Over the years, he has been loyal and tirelessly assisting his uncle, his last elder. How could he do such a heinous act?

This was something Heidi was unwilling to believe and unable to believe no matter what.

This kind of stress response is normal.

Being treated like this by the angry hero, Gregory's face instantly turned purple, and his throat made a strange crackling sound, as if he would die at any moment.

"Stop! Don't strangle me to death before I finish asking the question!"

Aize quickly held her hand.

The familiar voice brought Heidi's consciousness back a little from the chaos.

She let go of her hand and let the other person fall to the ground, gasping for breath.

And he turned to Aize.

He raised his head, looked directly into Aize's eyes with tearful eyes, and asked:

"Aize, tell me...is what he said true? Is Arthur...really the mastermind behind the blood plague incident?"

The tone was almost pleading.

She expected Aize to give her the answer she wanted.

That is, Regent Arthur, the princess's uncle and the only surviving elder, was wrongly accused.

However, Aize could not respond to this expectation.

In such a situation, any lie will only make the situation worse when compared with the facts.

So, since Heidi chose to face reality, Aize could only help her carry out this choice to the end.

So, he sighed softly and shook his head:

"Although I'm not 100% sure, all the evidence I have right now points to Regent Arthur. What he said should be true. I'm sorry."

Before questioning Gregory, Aize had spoken with Boris.

It was learned that at Arthur's request, he had used his own financial resources and the caravan under his command to bypass the Magic and Scholars Guild and smuggle many materials for magic research for Arthur into the royal capital.

Boris himself was not clear about the use of these materials.

But this fact is completely consistent with the research surrounding the new blood epidemic.

This proves that Arthur was not only the one who spread the blood plague, but was also likely the one who presided over the development of a new blood plague.

Aize's reply completely confirmed Arthur's identity as a traitor.

It also meant that as a member of the royal family, he was responsible for the tragic deaths of tens of thousands of residents in the royal capital.

But why?

Why would Arthur, who has always been loyal and has always regarded royal affairs as his own responsibility, do such a thing?

Heidi was puzzled.

Fortunately, this painful thinking did not last.

The pressure and negative emotions accumulated over the past few days burst out at this moment like a torrential flood.

In less than two seconds, she completely fell into a state of freezing.

His hands hung limply, his eyes were dull and lifeless, completely unfocused.

His body completely lost its strength and he fell forward without any hindrance, falling softly into Aize's arms.

As expected, it turned out like this, Aize sighed.

"Call the doctor and Captain Elena over! Also, find a stretcher and carry her to the bedroom, quickly!"

While giving orders to his subordinates, Aize also supported the other person's body and slowly squatted down to allow Heidi to lie as steadily as possible on the carpet in the study.

After a quick check of the situation, the situation was not optimistic.

His breath was weak and extremely unstable, his forehead was burning hot but his hands were so cold that they looked like a corpse with no temperature at all.

His breath was extremely weak and even intermittent, and his consciousness was on the verge of disappearing.

Even so, she still whispered:

"Why...why on earth...it shouldn't be like this...why..."

For Heidi, if she really fainted completely at this time, it might be a relief.

Unfortunately it can't.

She was trapped between consciousness and coma, constantly suffering from torture like in a nightmare.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Aize, I'm... sorry, I'm... sorry..."

For some reason, she suddenly started apologizing to Aize, and this process did not last long.

As the sound became weaker and weaker, Heidi's body, like a broken string, finally stopped all observable activities at a certain moment.

The brave warrior who had managed to stand firm in the face of the onslaught of an entire demon army had fallen completely.

Chapter 85 Family misfortune

Soon, Heidi, who had completely lost consciousness, was carried back to her bedroom, and the palace's healer and pharmacist also rushed there as soon as possible.

After unfolding the magic circle and conducting a brief inspection, the magician wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded:

"I didn't find anything serious. It's probably just overwork and a strong mental shock. I'll rest well for a while and I should be able to recover soon."

"That's good..."

At least nothing irreversible happened.

This made Elena, who had put down her official duties and hurried over, and was now sitting by the bed with a worried look on her face, breathe a sigh of relief.

Then, he turned to Aize and asked in a slightly blaming tone:

"What on earth has happened to make Her Highness the Princess become like this!?"

"Well..."

Aize briefly recounted what happened.

After hearing that the assassination of Aize and even the entire tragedy in the royal capital might have been orchestrated by Arthur, the Knight Commander's face suddenly became extremely ugly.

Then he shook his head helplessly:

"When Her Royal Highness was most helpless, Lord Arthur was the only one who could help her as a relative. If there was anyone else, it would be Duke Brian.

"Now that Duke Brian's identity as a traitor has been confirmed, Lord Arthur is acting like this again... Alas, it's no wonder His Highness is so agitated. But, does this kind of thing really have to be said so directly?"

Aize shrugged:

"What are we going to do if we don't just tell it directly? Can we keep such a big thing secret? If we can't, we'll have to lie. If we lie now and get caught later, won't that be even more serious?"

Anyone who spreads the blood plague, regardless of their identity or reason, is doomed to suffer both physical and political death the moment they are exposed.

You can't just kill Arthur secretly and then lie to Heidi and say that he died in the line of duty, right?

Let’s not talk about whether this abstract lie will be exposed on the spot.

The content itself, describing the culprit as a hero, is extremely disgusting to the innocent residents of the capital who suffered.

Aize would never accept it.

After thinking about it for a moment, Elena nodded in agreement.

Then he realized that his attitude was bad and apologized quickly:

"I'm sorry, I was too impatient just now. This is not Lord Aize's fault. I shouldn't have spoken like that."

"fine."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Heidi was lying on the luxurious bed, with her eyes closed, but her expression was still distorted by pain from time to time.

Occasionally, he would even shake his head and twitch violently, his pale lips would tremble constantly, and from time to time he would mutter some unclear and ambiguous sentences.

It seems that even if she lost consciousness, the reality that drives people crazy still did not let her go.

They said that I just need to rest for a while, but if I continue in this state, it doesn’t look like I can get a good rest.

This situation made Elena, her subordinate and emotional sister, extremely angry and distressed.

After scratching his head for a while, the Knight Commander stood up suddenly.

"Anyway, as long as we catch Arthur, everything will be over. The Knights are searching for that bastard in the safe zone. I'm going to see what the situation is!"

After saying that, he clenched his fists and left the bedroom with gritted teeth.

Looking at the other person's back, Aize sighed softly and sat down in the seat she had just been in.

The doctor and surgeon who were in charge of the examination had also left, leaving the room with only the two of them, and it was unusually quiet.

Apart from Heidi's heavy breathing, there was hardly any other sound.

Taking this opportunity, Aize began to think about the whole incident again.

It took only one day and one night to counter the assassination, dismantle the power of the Adventurer's Guild, and even easily identify Arthur, the mastermind.

Generally speaking, this is a very big progress.

But is this really the case?

Arthur's escape, as the blood plague at the core of this incident, is still shrouded in mystery. The reason why he did this makes Aize puzzled.

It can be said that despite the seemingly huge progress, almost no questions have been substantively answered.

There is no clue at all about the adventurer who was transformed into a half-vampire by the blood plague.

The core of this incident has not yet been touched.

Even after the guild reached the end of this clue, Aize was at a loss.

I can't just sit there and wait for Villian's analysis of the blood plague.

After some fruitless thought, Aize shook his head.

Staying here is just a waste of time. It would be better to go to Villian's place again. Maybe we can get something from her.

So he stood up.

Then--

"Um?"

The hem of the coat was being pulled by some external force.