Imperial Crown

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…

On the second day after the locusts appeared in Hampshire, Baron Florence woke up from a peaceful sleep and yawned.

His territory is located in the eastern part of Irene County, close to Feldoro County, which was once ruled by the Fox family.

So in the past hundred years, his family has always been dependent on the Fox family.

A dignified baron, but he has to put on a gentle and obedient posture and figure in front of the Fox family, playing the role of a lackey around the evil young man in the knight's story.

Once at Raven's press conference, Florence also pimped for Guldan.

Now that the Fox family has been destroyed, he must work hard to become the pawn of the new governor.

He stood in front of the Angel's Glory in a daze. The mirror area was not large, and it could only reflect his slightly thin face with a goatee, but this was enough.

Trying to open his eyes, Florence smiled at the mirror, and tried to adjust his posture, so that his exposed eight teeth would be reduced to six - the nobles from the capital didn't seem to like straightforward flattery.

Although he didn't have a hat, Florence still took off his hat, with a look of astonishment, three parts of surprise, three parts of admiration, and four parts of joy in his eyes:

"Governor, why are you in such a remote place?"

He had received news that Marquis Anthony would go to a town not far away for inspection today, and he had to create an "encounter".

So, his image must be taken care of.

Putting away his smile, Florence picked up an ivory comb and groomed his beard:

"Come on, change clothes."

The well-trained maid came in and put on a decent outfit for Florence, but he was not satisfied, and changed several pieces back and forth before he decided on his own outfit.

On his head was a tweed hat that had been stored in the bottom of the box, which was gray and looked a bit old; on his upper body was a black high-necked tailcoat made of cotton and silk, with the wrists polished twice with a file, as if he had been worn for many years; on his lower body was a pair of brown leather pants that didn't match well, and on his feet were leather shoes that were intact but still had three rivets.

"Sir, I have to say that this outfit doesn't match your noble status." Florence's wife frowned.

Florence shook her head and said, "You don't understand. Marquis Anthony called for strict frugality. If we don't dress like this, how can we reflect our intentions?"

Every noble has his own way of survival. Florence's way of survival is to cling to the thighs of the strong - no matter who the strong is.

Some people may think this is currying favor with the powerful, but Florence prefers to call it "human relations and worldly wisdom."

After kissing his wife goodbye, Florence deliberately chose an old spring outing horse, and headed east under the escort of the knights who were only wearing leather armor.

On the way, he began to rehearse the scene of the meeting.

If they met by the river, he would pretend not to see the governor and drink water from the river.

If they met in the town, he would bargain loudly with the roadside vendors.

If they met in the village, if they met in the village...

Florence's thoughts were a little bit stuck, because he heard a dense buzzing sound.

These knights should be properly controlled. They whispered so blatantly, as if I didn't exist?

"Stop arguing." Florence waved his hand impatiently: "I'm thinking!"

"Sir, it's not us!" The knight next to him said aggrievedly.

"If it's not you, it can be——" Florence turned around and was about to continue scolding, but the second half of the sentence was stuck in his throat and he couldn't say it anyway.

He saw a cloud, a dark cloud, a dark cloud that was raining down torrential rain.

It swept in from the west, covering the sky and the sun, and there was hardly any sunlight.

Dense raindrops kept falling from the sky, covering the fields, and dyeing the fields black.

The buzzing sound was getting closer and closer with the arrival of this dark cloud!

Moreover, there was not only a buzzing vibration, but also a dense sound like the friction of gravel.

Florence's eyes were wide open and his mouth was wide open:

"What... is that!?"

With a whoosh, a black shadow suddenly rushed over and was intercepted by the knight next to him. He opened his palm and handed it to Florence.

This was a bug. Perhaps because of the backlash of the collision force, thick green liquid gushed out of its pincer-like mouthparts, with a grassy smell that almost made people want to vomit.

But it was not dead yet. Its six limbs, four short and two long, were struggling, and its mouthparts were constantly moving. It tore off a strip from the knight's leather glove and began to eat.

"Locusts!!!?"

This endless cloud was actually made up of locusts! ?

Florence felt her mind go blank. She slammed the insect out of the knight's hand, tightened the reins, and squeezed the horse's belly with her legs:

"——Run!!!"

With her head lowered, Florence ran for her life, squeezing the horse's horsepower at all costs, just like dodging arrows on the battlefield.

But the buzzing sound was getting closer and louder, and gradually

It was like thunder!

The knights' horses were similar to Florence's, or even worse, and because they were wearing leather armor and carrying various weapons, they were heavier, so they inevitably fell behind Florence.

A horse neighed, and Florence couldn't help but look back, her scalp suddenly exploded.

I saw that on the last horse running, half of the body was covered with locusts the size of a fist. Half of the back butt and the entire right leg were dripping with blood, and no trace of the skin could be seen.

"Get away, you damn bugs!" The fallen knight stood up, drew out the sword from his waist, wrapped it in blue fighting spirit, and slashed with the sword!

There was a popping sound, and several locusts had their bellies chopped into pieces and disintegrated in mid-air. However, before they landed, they were swarmed by a group of similar locusts and ate them up in mid-air, leaving only a few pieces. Fine pieces of wing membrane fell to the ground.

One, two, ten or eight locusts are nothing, but here, there are locusts all over the mountains and plains!

The knight waved his sword, but he could not stop more and more locusts from crawling on him. They were densely packed, like a colorful armor made of locusts. The sharp mouthparts tore open his leather armor and Cotton lining, drill deeper inside.

"Ah——" A heart-rending scream sounded, carrying a sense of extreme panic.

No one wants to be eaten alive by bugs.

"Help me, Lord Baron!!"

Faced with this cry for help, Florence gritted her teeth, turned her head away, and swung the whip hard to slap the horse's buttocks.

The screams grew distant and faded away, unable to be heard by the ears, but echoing in Florence's mind.

As he ran away, he heard more falling sounds and screams. He knew that another knight had fallen off his horse and was in a certain death situation.

"Ah!!! Get away, you damn bugs!!"

"Save me——"

"I curse you, Florence—"

But he didn't dare to look back or stop. He could only run forward with the wails and curses of these people.

He felt that his body was getting heavier and the spring horse beneath him was getting slower and slower.

When there was severe pain in her ears and blood flowed down her face, Florence realized that she had been overtaken by the swarm of insects.

Florence silently drew out her self-defense dagger and secretly made up her mind that if she fell from the horse, she would give herself a happy life!

The spring outing horse turned the corner, and Florence's eyes lit up because he saw a flag not far away.

The flag is blue, with a green clover and a golden cross inlaid around it.

That's the Edwards family flag!

Under the flag, there was a group of people standing there, headed by Marquis Anthony!

Florence, who had already fallen into despair, had the brilliance of life blooming in her eyes: "My Lord Governor, I am..."

Before he finished speaking, the war horse under his crotch whined and fell to the ground.

Florence also rolled to the ground, and there were a few popping sounds. It was because he crushed a few locusts that had no time to escape. The sticky liquid and dust stuck to his body, but Florence didn't care. Disgusted, he spread his legs and rushed towards Anthony.

50 meters…

No, with only 30 meters, he could run to Anthony's team and escape!

Maybe he was too excited, or maybe it was the interference of the locusts, but he suddenly stumbled on the ground. When he got up again, what he saw was the backs of Anthony and his party, and the square flag floating farther and farther away.

"No, wait for me, save me! I am Baron Florence!"

A feeling of weakness came from his heels, and Florence fell to the ground again before she could stand upright.

For many years, his energy has been focused on flattering the camp, and the second-level fighting spirit has long been unable to exert its due power. In a hurry, even the fighting spirit armor cannot be condensed.

He looked back and saw that his pants were torn to pieces, and the skin on his back heel seemed to have been rubbed with a file. A swarm of locusts landed on it, and they used their sharp mouthparts to tear at his pale yellow Achilles tendon. .

It was only because of his excitement that his body consciously blocked the pain, so he didn't notice it.

With meaningless groans coming from her mouth, Florence stopped looking and used her hands and feet to chase Anthony's flag, but she could only watch it getting further and further away...

The insect swarm obscured his vision, and he was still crawling forward until he touched a U-shaped shallow pit.

Florence knew that she had been completely abandoned.

The locusts covered Florence like a blanket. At first, she felt hot, then weak, and then, the severe pain came up like a tide.

He buried his head in the ground, tears pouring down his eyes. He wanted to give himself a break, but his consciousness clearly ordered him to move his arm. Although his arm was still in severe pain, there was no reaction at all.

Florence didn't know what was happening, but her increasingly cold body told him that he was going to die.

"Anthony..." Florence gritted her teeth:

"I curse you!!!!"

The next moment, he felt a bit itchy in his throat, and then a locust covered in mucus and blood came out of his mouth.

This was the last scene Florence saw.

His body was covered by swarms of insects, and a long trail of blood was drawn behind him. Locusts crowded on top of it, gnawing at the soil mixed with blood.

I don’t know how long it took, but the locusts went looking for food elsewhere, leaving only broken bones on the ground.

Florence's bones can be seen scattered on the road, starting with the horse's bones, from ankle to calf, and from calf to thigh.

At his morgue, only a head, a right arm separated from the body, and most of his ribs were left.

If you raise your vision further, you can see that there are only swarms of insects between heaven and earth!

…

Anthony barely slept a wink and returned to Hovey City in two days.

But he did not rest, but immediately came to the conference room and unfolded a newly drawn map of the Nord province.

"This locust plague is more serious than we expected." Anthony did not avoid his mistakes: "Relying solely on traditional response methods is useless. We must deal with it seriously."

"Treat this locust plague like a war!"

Including Akori, Anthony's personal guards all nodded. The overwhelming swarm of insects and the tragic death of Florence really impressed them deeply.

"I have never seen such a big locust." Akori was also frightened: "What on earth is going on?"

"Perhaps there are rich magical elements in their growth environment, or they may be ancient species that suddenly revived, and the Church of Light will say that this is a divine punishment sent by the Lord of Light." Anthony's personal alchemist and adviser Peng Si said: "But these It doesn’t matter, what matters is how we deal with this locust plague.”

Anthony, who was staring at the map, suddenly said: "Do you have any ideas?"

Pence is a well-groomed middle-aged man with a fair face and no beard. Hearing Anthony's question, he thought for a while and said: "Such an extraordinary size and physique can be called a monster. Judging from their size, they must be There will be at least one insect king commanding and dispatching."

Anthony raised his head and asked: "You mean, kill the insect king?"

"This..." Pence looked embarrassed: "I'm afraid it's difficult. Just how to locate it in the insect swarm is a problem, and killing the insect king will only make them fall into short-term chaos. If you can't target the insect swarm, If it causes mass destruction, a new insect king will be born soon.”

After saying this, the conference room fell into silence again. This method is no different from no method.

After a long time, Anthony sighed: "Acori, record."

"Yes, Lord Governor!" Akori immediately picked up the pen and paper.

After clearing his throat, Anthony said: "Now, in the name of the Governor, I order to use the 'warning area' as a unit to fight against this rare locust plague."

"The four southern counties of Seaside, Bell, Irene, and Ferdoro, as well as the three eastern counties of Arag, Bili, and Cambri, serve as the No. 1 alert area and are under my personal control."

"The three central counties of Hodges, Mansa, and Wilt, as well as the two northern counties of Derby and Lanshire, serve as the No. 2 alert area and are managed by the Earl of Tyrone."

"The five northwest counties of Xuefeng, Savery, Hippog, Essex, and Hampshire serve as alert area 3 and are presided over by Baron Raven."

"On the day when the order arrives, a responding noble must obey all requests of the person in charge of the security area to which he belongs, automatically hand over military command authority, and is obliged to keep communication channels with the person in charge open."

"Any noble who disobeys the order will be punished for treason!"

Akori wrote it down one by one. It was nothing at first, but by the end, his brows could not help but frown.

Pence also noticed something was wrong: "Your Majesty, Governor, is it really okay to hand over such great power to a baron like Raven?"

Anthony smiled bitterly: "If there were other candidates, I wouldn't choose him."

Seeing that Anthony had not yet raised his head, Pence followed his gaze and looked at the map, gradually understanding Anthony's handling method.

The reason why the five northwest counties were handed over to Raven was probably because he did not want the Slater family to take this opportunity to expand their influence.

After all, power is easy to give out but difficult to take back.

And currently, Anthony holds 7 counties, Tyrone has 5 counties, and Raven also has 5 counties. This undoubtedly reflects Anthony's responsibility, and no one can find problems.

"Okay, that's the decision." Anthony patted the table: "Acori, copy and publish this order immediately, and take the air route."

"No matter what, I want it to be delivered to every corner of Nord province before the locust plague covers the entire territory!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a snap, and a lost locust hit the window. Perhaps because of the force, it exploded into a ball of black-green paste and slowly slid down the window.

It's like the death knell ringing by the god of death.

…