After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

The leader of the Black Hounds, dressed in standard Black Hound attire, leaped down from the structure and landed in front of Auchinleck in a twisted, all-fours position.

This former chief assassin, who had served him for many years, has now become a blood slave.

Relying on his nimble skills that had allowed him to slaughter countless targets in the past, he took advantage of the chaos and darkness to bypass all defenses and arrived here.

Then, in Auchinleck's desperate eyes, he pounced on his former master.

Chapter 122 "Loyalty", "Morality" and "Order"

As the final resting place of the most senior members of the royal family, this royal mausoleum is not only guarded by permanent guards and knights, but also has various mechanisms and defense facilities inside to guard against any uninvited guests who try to rob the rich and help the poor.

However, these traps had almost no effect on Heidi, who prioritized defense over everything else.

So, after taking some time to figure out the way, Heidi reached the part of it that was on the ground with almost no effective hindrance.

This is a palace-level ancestral hall used for daily sacrifices.

Heidi comes here to host events during every festival, so she is very familiar with the place.

However, the situation here is quite messy now.

Not only did half of the building collapse due to the battle that had just taken place underground, but there were even a lot of fresh bloodstains at the entrance.

"What... is going on?"

Heidi's question was soon answered.

"Roar!!!"

Accompanied by a shrill and strange roar, two twisted figures suddenly attacked Heidi from above the building.

Of course, the latter, who had already noticed it, easily dodged it.

"Is this... the Black Hound? Has it become a blood slave?"

Heidi had a very deep impression of the Black Hound's iconic black coat, and the assassination and persuasion that happened in Tafia were still vivid in her mind.

At this moment, these once elite assassins have lost all their rationality and turned into twisted monsters crawling on all fours, becoming part of the twisted new system that her father expected.

"Tsk, what a hassle—"

Heidi had no weapons at hand.

After looking around, he found the body of an untransformed Black Hound member lying in the ruins nearby, with his sword lying beside him.

It seemed that before transforming into a monster, he used up the last of his sanity to end his life.

Just right.

With a side kick, he sent the monster that was trying to attack again flying away. He rushed forward as fast as he could to pick up his weapon, turned around and chopped down the two monsters with two swords, easily knocking them to the ground.

The crisis is temporarily over.

Compared to the monster itself, Heidi was more curious about why the members of the Black Hound became blood slaves here... Could it be related to the blood mist that her father had just spread?

With such doubts, Heidi went out to see the royal tomb.

Then, the scene before her made her eyes widen.

Not far from the royal tomb is a large area of garrisons where Auchinleck's army is stationed.

As the most serious competitor for the throne in the Duke's Alliance, in addition to his own army, he also gradually requested a lot of power from various nobles of his faction, big and small.

As a result, the army he brought to the capital reached as many as 50,000 people, almost equal to the total number of the other two armies combined.

At this moment, the continuous military camp was ablaze with flames, accompanied by visible chaos, and there seemed to be the sound of fighting going on.

"Just like Aize said, it's really a mess. In this case, we can take advantage of now to bypass it."

Heidi did not hesitate and immediately followed the message Aize gave her and took action.

However, as she got closer to the camp and was able to observe the situation inside more and more carefully, Heidi frowned in confusion.

Because this is too messy.

The sudden arrival of eternal night and the spread of high-concentration blood plague will inevitably throw Auchinleck's army stationed near the royal tomb into chaos.

But as one of the four former dukes, Auchinleck is by no means an ordinary person. This kind of chaos should have been suppressed quickly.

But now it is completely different.

A large number of troops were in a panic, some even fled in an organized manner in the direction away from the royal capital, and among them were even knights who were supposed to be loyal.

In the camp, flames shot up into the sky.

Amidst the crackling sounds, there were endless anti-war shouts, wails, and screams.

And the roars of blood slaves one after another.

"This, can't be..."

Heidi thought of a possibility.

So she gave up her original plan, turned around, and walked towards the camp openly, going against the fleeing guards.

It's funny to say that.

But a few days ago, Heidi spent a huge amount of time and energy to pass through this camp, and she almost died here.

Now, he came in so casually.

None of the soldiers passing by paid any attention to the little man who shouldn't be there.

"Hold on! Brothers, hold on!"

Not long after walking, he saw a senior officer under Auchinleck, staring with bloodshot eyes, waving his sword and roaring at his guards.

These guards were holding spears and forming a battle formation to fight against a group of ferocious blood slaves.

Suddenly, at the front of the battle line, a blood slave wearing exquisite silver enchanted armor suddenly leaped up with an extraordinary leaping ability and pounced on the commanding officer.

"Oops-"

"Back off!!!"

Heidi took two steps at a time and rushed to the officer. After resisting a claw attack with her body, she swung her knife and counterattacked, accurately bypassing the armor and cutting the opponent's throat.

The monster died instantly on the ground, losing its life.

Enchanted armor, this thing is not something that ordinary guards can use.

Considering his incredible skills just now, could it be possible that this guy was a Duke's guard before being transformed?

If even the Duke's guards have been transformed, then this chaos really means...

"Y-You're caught!!!"

"Um?"

While he was thinking, the officer who was rescued behind him suddenly screamed, his face turned pale and he quickly retreated, putting some distance between himself and Heidi.

"You're infected! Hurry up and put down your weapons. Let me kill you quickly. Don't make things difficult for our brothers!"

"Calm down, this kind of attack has no effect on me, you see."

Heidi raised her wrist that had received the attack, and sure enough, there was no wound at all.

As the two faced each other, the officer was stunned for a moment, and finally recognized Heidi's identity:

"You... no, you, you are the princess!? Princess Heidiart!?"

His face instantly turned pale in another sense, and the weapon in his hand fell to the ground.

Heidi nodded calmly - after all, she had no intention of hiding her identity since she entered the military camp.

"Yes, that's me."

"Your Highness, why are you here?"

"Tsk, who are you to question a princess like me like that? Not to mention I just saved your life, why don't you kneel down now!?"

Heidi scolded harshly.

Deep down, she no longer regarded the so-called royal family as supreme as she did before.

But in actual practice, she doesn't mind bringing this up to scare people in order to achieve her goal.

By the way, this was also a test conducted by Heidi to verify her guess.

Sure enough, after hesitating for two seconds, the officer in front of him lowered his body and knelt on one knee:

"I'm... I'm so sorry, Princess! I... no, I was rude..."

"I'm asking you, what happened here? Why is it so chaotic?"

"Uh, this..."

The officer's eyes rolled restlessly, as if he was trying to get away with something.

However, before he could come up with an excuse, Heidi sneered and spoke first:

"Is the Duke of Auchinleck dead?"

When Heidi saw the unusually chaotic situation in the camp, she had already guessed this possibility, so she went in and took the risk.

And indeed it is.

You know, when she tried to escape from the royal capital to seek help, Auchinleck was seriously planning to kill her and even mobilized the army for this purpose.

Judging from his attire, the officer in front of him was of high rank, possibly even a general. He must have known his master's intentions and plans and had provided assistance.

But in the end, the moment he confirmed Heidi's identity, he neither showed any killing intent nor called on others to deal with Heidi. Instead, he subconsciously fell into panic.

This means that Auchinleck has most likely already sent it, and he has therefore lost his reason to be hostile to the princess.

After all, he is just a senior worker.

"This……"

Heidi's accusation caught him off guard.

"How did you know that?"

"answer the questions!"

"Yes... yes... yes, the Duke is dead..."

The officer, sweating profusely, began to briefly explain the whole story.

First, the spread of the blood mist transformed the guards assigned to stand guard, turning them into mutant blood slaves with super-doubled infection abilities, causing a major riot.

In order to suppress it, Auchinleck sent a large number of his elite troops.

As a result, almost at the same time, the two guards who had previously entered the ruins to rob people were also transformed after a short incubation period, causing the security forces around them to fall into chaos.

In addition, many magicians were withdrawn, which resulted in huge loopholes in the defensive spells.

The transformed Black Hound leader took advantage of this opportunity to bypass the supposedly impenetrable defense line and suddenly appeared in front of Auchinleck.

By the time others arrived, it was too late.

An elite assassin who has killed countless enemies, his last target is the master himself.

It's also a bit of black humor.

"...Princess, please look over there."

The senior officer said this and raised his hand.

In the direction he pointed, among the group of blood slaves, there seemed to be an individual dressed in gorgeous aristocratic clothes, mixed in with the roaring and howling.

There is not much difference worth mentioning from other monsters.

"That is... His Excellency the Duke."

Under the blood plague infection, no distinction is made between identities.

Even a duke would have ended up in such a ridiculous and miserable end.

No, if we must put it in a more complicated way, the current blood plague is the embodiment of the consciousness of the previous king.

Considering his anger and resentment towards these traitors, the Blood Plague and the Blood Slaves might even take special care of Auchinleck when facing him.

Just like the black hounds that tore apart the capital.

Even the transformed Black Hound's infiltration was probably influenced by this factor.