Sword of Dawn

Most potions will also grow in winter. Although their roots and plants appear dry and dead, spellcasters all know that their "spiritual plants" are still nourished by the magic environment and will grow in the next day. The Moon of Resurrection is back to life, and how much they can grow in winter depends in part on the last rain before the frost and snow.

Gawain had breakfast with Viscount Victor Kant in the dining room of the castle. Since the Viscountess was sick and unable to see the guests, and the only son of the Viscount was not in the territory, they were the only two dining at the huge dining table, even though the tableware was gorgeous , the food was delicious, and the atmosphere of having breakfast made Gao Wen quite uncomfortable.

He prefers the atmosphere of a large group of people sitting around the table lively, rather than like now, he and an old nobleman are facing each other across a long table, and they can't wait for a delay when talking to each other posture.

"I hope you are resting well in this old house," Victor Kant said while cutting the bread in front of him, "This castle is too old, and I plan to renovate it again in my lifetime."

"It's very comfortable here, more comfortable than I imagined," Gao Wen praised somewhat insincerely, "an ancient castle gives people a sense of security."

Victor smiled and looked beside Gao Wen: "It seems that your two followers left early in the morning?"

"They are not used to confinement. I let them go to the town to relax. They are more comfortable in the messy tavern."

"It's understandable. In fact, when I was young, I preferred taverns to this quiet castle," the old Viscount raised his glass of wine. "Of course, I'm just a junior in front of you."

Gao Wen raised his glass to respond, and said casually: "The health of the Viscountess is very worrying. What exactly is she suffering from?"

Victor paused imperceptibly, and then a smile appeared on his face: "Have you seen her?"

According to that Lilith Kant, the old Viscount should have arranged for her to say hello to Gao Wen, but at this time Victor acted as if he knew about it for the first time!

Gao Wen concealed his psychological changes and maintained a faint smile: "After yesterday's dinner, she came to say hello to me, but her complexion was very bad."

"My poor Lilith," Viscount Victor sighed, "her physical condition has not been very good, she can't see the sun, and can't bear the noise, so she can only live in the North Tower for a long time, and she can only come out at night. activities. But she is a very kind person, and my tolerant attitude towards the people is largely influenced by her—she always advises me to think more about those who can’t live in a good house or eat meat feelings, but her own body was getting worse."

Viscount Kant's kindness and tolerance to the common people in his territory, this point Gawain had heard yesterday when he heard some servants chatting in the castle, and this was also one of the things that surprised him: he had already made a preconceived judgment Victor Kant is very likely to be a cult member of the Eternal Sleep Cult, or at least he has been controlled and bewitched by the cult members, so he did the thing of arresting refugees for evil rituals, but he never expected that he would All the speeches heard after entering Kant's territory were praising the old lord!

He couldn't judge the authenticity of the gossip he heard from the servants of the castle, so he could only follow the trend and say: "It is the duty of every lord to treat the people well. We opened up this kingdom in the first place to protect the people." rather than riding on their heads and domineering."

"Yes, it's a pity that few people still remember this now," Victor sighed as if from the bottom of his heart, "more and more nobles forget why their ancestors took up swords for the first time , We were originally a barrier to protect the common people, a reliance for them to live with peace of mind, and a guide to lead them to prosperity and warmth, but most of the nobles today grew up in castles and manors, and they put others' service Taking it as a matter of course with offerings, and completely forgetting that I should have some responsibilities...cough cough..."

Victor seemed to be a little excited when he said it, and couldn't help coughing. After finally calming down, he let out a long breath: "I spend a lot of time every year inspecting every farm and medicine field on the territory to know exactly The harvest of the year, to prevent excessive tax pressure from starving the citizens, and to spend a lot of energy dealing with merchants to ensure that the surplus medicinal materials and food in the territory can find buyers, so that my citizens You can have enough money to repair the house and buy fuel for the winter, but because of this, you miss many so-called 'high-class parties', so that you are regarded as a reclusive weirdo by those vulgar southern nobles, a mediocre person with no taste... well."

Viscount Victor said a lot in one breath, and after he finished speaking, he smiled embarrassingly: "Sorry, I have a habit of talking too much when I get older, but I think you should understand me—because I heard Said that you are also very kind to the people."

"Of course," Gao Wen raised his glass with a smile, "this is the duty of every lord."

……

At the same time, in the town outside the castle, Amber was holding a glass of frothy ale, listening to those idle farmers and craftsmen boasting about their poor and boring daily life, with an expression of interest on her face. He looked like this, but he was planning how many glasses of wine he would need in order to get what he wanted to hear.

The farming work is over, and the weather is not suitable for any outing work, so the rich peasants and craftsmen who still have some spare money will spend their worthless time in the town's taverns. One of the wealthy territories, the commoners living here will naturally visit places such as taverns and casinos more frequently, and for these people, only a few glasses of ale and a few compliments are needed, and Amber can reveal all their secrets .

For Amber, who has been on such occasions since she was a child, this is a very pleasant process.

Especially when you don't have to pay for the wine yourself, this feeling is even more pleasant.

She put on an outfit that fit her identity: black leather armor and a slightly worn cloak, plus a dagger that would stick out from her waist from time to time, and a "lucky stone" tied to her wrist, the appearance of a wandering warrior. The image will be complete, and the common people will be in awe and curiosity of this kind of person, and it will become easy to cliché.

After drinking for three rounds and talking enough about the farmland and the ghost stories in the old house, Amber felt that it was time to talk about the lord, so she looked at the blacksmith sitting at the table on the territory with a curious expression: "I heard that you Your lord is a person who is very good at managing the territory, is it true?"

"I don't know what it's like to govern a territory," the blacksmith said with a mouth full of alcohol and eyes blurred, "but Master Victor is indeed a very nice guy... Hiccup, with him around, everyone will be happy." I can eat my stomach full, even in winter, I can eat half full, and the territory has not starved to death for more than ten years!"

Further south, there is another place where civilians not only survive starvation, but occasionally have meat to eat.

Amber muttered in her heart, but her face showed admiration: "That's not easy!"

"No, Mr. Victor is really the most charitable lord I have ever met," another elderly drinker took up the conversation, "but I heard from those who sent vegetables and milk to the castle that the castle is quite beautiful. It's gloomy, and there's always a feeling that something is leaking..."

A slightly fat tavern maid put the wooden cup in front of the drinker with a bang: "Don't talk nonsense! The castle is not your broken thatched house, and the old George who delivered the food was probably drunk and blown himself in the mud puddle." The cold wind is like being in a castle!"

The fat maid told a joke that wasn't funny, but it elicited a roar of laughter.

"It seems that Victor is really a good lord," Amber said shaking her head, "I just don't know how the Viscountess—"

As soon as these words were said, the scene was strangely quiet for a moment.

Some people were looking at each other, some were drinking with their heads down, and the elderly people frowned, as if thinking of something bad. Seeing this, Amber immediately realized that there was something inside, and asked curiously: "What's the matter?" ? Why do you react like this?"

"You're a foreigner, so it's normal if you don't know," said an old man who seemed to be the oldest. He should be a wealthy landowner or a retired craftsman. Among the poor, there are very few people who are not this age. An old man who died of an injury, and such a person not only understands the life of the common people, but also hears about the lord's affairs, "The Viscountess... Maybe it has been decades, right? When she died... "

"The Viscountess died? She died decades ago?!" Amber was shocked, "How did she die?"

"That's a poor woman. The whole thing is very miserable. That kind of thing shouldn't happen to a good person." The old man frowned. He seemed unwilling to say more, but the alcohol made it difficult for him to control his words, and beside him Some young people who don't know much about the past are also urging him to speak: "Mr. Sandro, tell me, I have heard people talk about this since I was a child, but I have never heard it all-you are old, you should Know what happened back then."

Amber glanced admiringly at the young man who urged him, and decided to buy him another drink with the money Gao Wen gave her.

The old man who seemed to have experienced the events of the year sighed, took a sip of wine and said slowly: "It was thirty... about 30 years ago, or maybe a little longer, that year was also this month, and it also rained , but the rain was extraordinarily heavy, and it rained for several days...

"Mr. Victor was young then, and he was then as just and benevolent a good lord as he is now, when he returned from inspecting the barns in the next town, and the Viscountess was with him, and their only son, Belle Master Mu. They drove back from the west road in the wagon, and they got on the road in spite of the heavy rain... They should have stayed in the next town for an extra day, alas.

"If I don't tell you, you can guess that there is such a heavy rain and it is so slippery. There must be an accident—the carriage had an accident on the old hillside. The car overturned and slipped from the highest place on the old hillside. Entering the mountain stream, the whole car fell to pieces... The whole night passed, and no one knew that something happened to the lord's family outside. It wasn't until the sun came out the next day and the rain stopped that the Viscountess was covered in tears. It was blood that appeared in the town... She almost crawled into the town, covered in bruises, and almost died from crying. She said that she watched the master and the young master being thrown out of the carriage in front of her, and fell into an unknown place. Where, let us hurry to save them."

When the old man said this, he couldn't help sighing for a while, and took another sip of wine before continuing: "We escorted the lady back to the castle, and then immediately sent people to the old hillside to find the carriage and the whereabouts of the master and the young master, but after three days Today, apart from some blood and wagon debris, we only found the bodies of two horses.

"The madam sheds tears every day in the castle. Alas, she is a kind and good person. She has always taken care of the poor in the territory. Since the day she married in this place, she has given firewood to the poor every winter. and black bread, but this happened to her. For three days, her husband and son were not found, so she finally went crazy. According to the servant who was working in the castle at that time when she came out, she put herself Shut in the room yelling, and then ran to the dark corners of the castle, talking to her imaginary husband and son, and finally locked herself in the cellar of the north tower of the castle, where she drank Poison, end your own suffering.

"On the fourth day, Master Victor and Master Belm returned to the castle alive, they did not die."

Chapter 0176

Knight Philip was walking in the fields, and the muddy road soaked by rain was difficult to navigate. However, with the help of the strong physical fitness and coordination ability of a super professional, he has been active in this area for a long time.

This is the land around the castle, legally, they belong directly to the lord himself, and all the serfs belonging to the Kant family cultivated here, but now, because the harvest has been completed and the straw has been burned, the land has been There are no more toiling serfs.

This land is fertile and contains incredible magic.

Knight Philip was not from a peasant family, but a noble knight with young roots, but this does not mean that he does not understand the land: low-level nobles like knights often have to deal with the land, and he has to manage his own land. Farm, personally overseeing the harvesting and sowing of crops (although they have all disappeared with a fire in Old Cecil Territory), so he is very good at distinguishing the quality of the soil, and whether the soil contains enough to make the potion The power to grow.

He squatted down next to a farmland, and put his hand over the muddy land, a thin light floated out from the soil, and scattered between his palm and the soil, the young knight followed suit. Zhi frowned slightly.

As guessed, these magic powers are not contained in the land itself, but come from the outside world. Some external factors are affecting the balance of magic power in this area, resulting in this kind of magic power enrichment phenomenon that goes against nature.

Philip stood up and looked at the ancient castle on the hillside not far away. He had checked the farmland in many places, and found that the closer the field to the castle, the more obvious the phenomenon of mana enrichment. The few pieces of land in the garden are where the potion grows.

Without druids casting spells to catalyze it, it is not easy to grow potions naturally on ordinary land—the more thoroughly human beings develop the area, the more the magic power contained in the land will decline. If it takes two years of cultivation and one year of fallow, then a piece of land that can grow potions will take at least three times the time of fallow to recover. However, in Kant, the production of potions has been steadily increasing, and exports have never stopped.

Obviously, the castle is releasing energy fluctuations enough to enrich the magic power. However, Philip had already sensed it carefully when he lived in the castle last night. There was no abnormal magic power reaction in the castle, nor did he feel any abnormal magic power. The evil breath of a cultist.

……

In Kant Castle, Gao Wen visited this 300-year-old building under the personal guidance of Viscount Victor and the old housekeeper Carter. They had just left a showroom with rich collections and were walking to the library. Along the way, Viscount Victor was proudly introducing the history of this building to Gao Wen, and how his family rose up 300 years ago and has continued to this day.

But Viscount Victor is already old after all. He is much older than Butler Carter, and he suffered from a musculoskeletal problem due to an accident in his early years. up.

The old Viscount had to apologize to Gawain, expressing that he would go back to his room to rest, but Gawain would not pursue this of course - he can still visit here under the guidance of Butler Carter.

The wide and long corridor suddenly became only Gawain and an elderly butler. The two walked in the corridor decorated with tapestries and wall lamps, while the latter dutifully continued to introduce the work of the castle.

Gao Wen suddenly interrupted him: "Mr. Carter, how many years have you served the Kant family?"

"Almost 50 years, Your Excellency the Duke," said the old butler proudly, "I have been taking care of this family since I was a page boy."

Gao Wen nodded approvingly: "An excellent servant, then you must know this place and the Viscount's family very well."

The old butler nodded reservedly: "Yes, I understand all of this, just as I understand my own hands and feet."

"Last night, in my room, I saw a tall tower on the opposite side. The tower was set off by several smaller towers, and it looked very magnificent in the rainy night," Gawain said, "What is that tower for?" ?”

The reserved and proud expression on the old housekeeper's face froze for a moment, then he frowned slightly: "Your Excellency, that is the North Tower, please forgive me for being rude, but it is a place that cannot be visited by you."

"North Tower?" Gawain raised his eyebrows slightly, "ah, I heard that the Viscountess seems to live in the North Tower when I was chatting with your master... I was reckless. But the Viscountess lives there all year round. Tower? Doesn't she live in the castle?"

"Well, the hostess has been living there since her health deteriorated," the old housekeeper shook his head. "She can't see the light, and she can't bear the noise. The North Tower is the cleanest place in the castle."

"I shouldn't inquire about other people's family affairs, but I am really curious about this matter," Gao Wen continued. People may be embarrassed to inquire about private matters in this regard, but he is a living martyr resurrected from 700 years ago. Sorry, "Your Viscountess seems to be much younger than the Viscount."

"The Viscountess just married ten years ago." The old butler was taken aback before responding to Gao Wen's words, "Before that..."

As he spoke, the old butler showed a look of reminiscence: "The original Viscountess died in an accident, and the Viscount has been celibate for many years. We are happy to see him come out of that terrible tragedy."

Gao Wen showed a curious look: "Accident? What kind of accident?"

"I'm sorry, my lord, I can't continue to discuss this matter with you," the old butler finally refused to continue answering, "This is not my duty."

Gao Wen smiled nonchalantly: "It's okay, I asked too much. Let's continue to visit - I'm most interested in places like libraries."

In the evening, Amber and Byron, who had gone out to search for news all day, returned to Gawain.

"My lord, there is indeed an abnormal phenomenon of mana enrichment in the land," Philip Knight first reported, "The center of the phenomenon is this castle, but the strange thing is that apart from the mana enrichment itself, I didn't experience it in the castle. I can't feel any abnormal fluctuations in magic power, and I can't feel the evil aura emanating from heretics."

"The news I found out is much more frightening than yours." Amber glanced at Philip quite complacently, then deliberately lowered her voice and reported to Gawain in a sinister tone, "The people outside said, that Viscountess..."

Gao Wen didn't wait for the other party to finish speaking, and took the initiative to speak: "He should have died long ago, right?"

Amber froze in the middle of her babble, then stared at Gao Wen: "Are you following me?!"

"Guess," Gao Wen smiled, "This kind of story usually unfolds like this. Well, I won't interrupt you, you can continue."

Amber curled her lips, feeling that the atmosphere that had been brewing with great difficulty had been disturbed, but she honestly told what she had heard: "It's really embarrassing to say, decades ago... ..."

After Amber told everything she knew, Knight Philip couldn't help pressing his chest: "It's a poor man... There are too many unfair things in fate."

"If that Viscountess had died decades ago, the one you saw last night was most likely a ghost! Or was somehow 'resurrected' by that kind-looking Viscount Victor." 'The 'people' who came here," Amber said in a sinister tone, making goosebumps all over her body as she spoke, "it must be that Viscount Victor couldn't bear the shock of his wife's death, so he was bewitched by the cultists and used Sorcery is used to resurrect the dead or call back the souls of the dead, and he should arrest the refugees to maintain the ritual... That's what the story says! Hey——scared me to death!"

"Tell yourself a ghost story and scare yourself half to death. If you are timid, don't lower your voice like others." Gawain glanced at the elf's shame, then shook his head, "That Lilith Kant should not be an undead."

Amber and Philip said in unison: "Why?"

"The undead does not have such a high spiritual intelligence, and she does not have any aura similar to the undead, and most importantly, the undead cannot say her own name—that Lilith Kant clearly said her name At the same time, I have also confirmed that this name is real," Gao Wen said slowly, "All signs show that Lilith Kant is not an undead."

Amber looked Gao Wen up and down: "Your words are not convincing, whoever said that the resurrected people must be undead, aren't you just a special case who can say your name while alive and kicking? What if that Vic Duo Viscount also found a shadow master who is as powerful as me to pry his wife's coffin..."

Gawain raised his hand to interrupt this elf's shame from running the train, and said unhurriedly: "Don't rush to talk about your conclusions - I also discovered something here."

"You found it?" Amber was taken aback, "What did you find?"

"Today I talked about the Viscountess with the butler in the castle, and he responded to the topic without hesitation, and said that the current Viscountess was married by Victor Kant ten years ago, while the previous Viscountess was He died on the spot in an accident," Gao Wen said unhurriedly, "At the same time, I also paid attention to the conversations of the servants in the castle, and I also got in touch with a few of them in private, and found that they all had the same perception."

Philip's expression suddenly became serious: "Yesterday, no one in the castle talked about 'Viscountess'!"

"Yes, someone talked about it today, and not only did they talk about it, they also had a whole set of cognitions about this 'Viscountess', which deviated greatly from what Amber heard outside the castle!"

"How could this happen?!" Amber was at a loss, "Who gave them spiritual hints?"

"Maybe it's something like a spiritual hint..." Gao Wen said slowly, "But according to the ability of the Eternal Sleeping Order, I prefer to call it...supplementary settings.

"This castle may be shrouded in a huge illusion as a whole, and our arrival and activities have destroyed the integrity of this illusion. In order for everything here to continue to operate normally, the person who created the illusion had to start adding settings to it. Already!"

Chapter 0177 Light Sleep

The "supplementary setting" that Gao Wen mentioned was a very new word to Amber and Philip Knight, but explaining its meaning was not complicated. Gao Wen only said a few words, and the two understood the meaning of this word.

"In other words, what is going on in this castle is like a stage play, and everyone in the castle is an 'actor' who is in it but doesn't know it?" Philip Knight said his own understanding, " Usually they live here as if they were hypnotized. Because of the long-term mental interference, they are not aware of the violations in daily life, but outsiders like us have broken the "logic" of the stage play. The discrepancy of the facts made the play impossible, so the mastermind who created and maintained the stage had to patch their own 'script'?"

Amber glanced up and down at Knight Philip for several times, and said, "Hey, what you said made me get goosebumps even more!"

"My lord, I think we should stop this evil ritual immediately!" Philip ignored Amber, but said with a serious face, "I'm afraid that the Kant leader's arrest of refugees is not new. Their evil deed even It may have been going on in secrecy for decades! During this time, innocent people who entered the land and their whereabouts were unknown should all be sacrificed to maintain the illusion-it is necessary to bring the entire castle under the influence of this magic. The price is huge!"

"Yes," Amber rarely showed a positive attitude, "Every minute and every second counts!"

Gao Wen frowned, looked at the two in front of him: "How do you think we should start?"

"If you can't do it, just have a showdown with that old man. When you confront him, if he admits you, cut him off. If he doesn't admit it, you can try to get him to admit it and then kill him," Hu Po said vigorously, "There should be no People can beat you, when the time comes, you go first."

Not only Gao Wen, but even Philip has long been accustomed to Amber's style of "whoever goes up first anyway, anyway, I won't go up". He just gave the half-elf a disdainful look, and then nodded slowly: "My lord, there is no Undoubtedly, Viscount Victor Kant is the mastermind of all this—he is the only one in Kant who has the motivation and ability to carry out this evil act..."

"Is Victor Kant the black hand..." Gao Wen did not directly respond to the proposal of the two, but expressed his own doubts, "Actually, there is one thing I can't figure out: even if the Kant collar doesn't communicate with the outside world much, There should always be two or three of the most basic visitors every year. Could it be that we are the only ones who caused a loophole in the 'Large Illusion' in the castle? People who came here before have never discovered it? That Mrs. Lilith Kant Come out of the North Tower at night, walk around the castle, and no other servants have ever seen her? If any other servants have seen her, then those servants have never talked to other servants on the territory when they left the castle to run errands. Someone mentioned 'there's a living viscountess in the castle'?"

Amber frowned when she heard the words: "It's easy to explain that there are no other visitors. The normal visitors should not be like us from the beginning to ask for information from the beginning, and as for the people in the castle People... have been hypnotized, maybe as soon as they leave this castle, their cognition and memory will completely change?"

Seeing that Gao Wen was still thinking, Amber finally couldn't help but mutter: "If I were you, I wouldn't hesitate, that old man is obviously not right, if you catch him and beat him up, everything will be clear What!"

Although Knight Philip usually looks staid, he has a better mind than Amber at this time: "You are worried that if your judgment is wrong, our actions here will stimulate the aristocratic system in the entire southern region, causing them to treat Cecil Is the pioneering collar vigilant?"

"Actually, I'm not worried about them. The big and small lords in the southern region don't have much presence here." Gawain shook his head, "I just always feel that we have overlooked something. Although all the blame for this matter is directed at Victor Kant, but...is it that simple?"

A cultist, or a nobleman who is bewitched and controlled by a cultist, must be extremely vigilant and cunning, especially when he is performing a shameful evil ceremony, his vigilance will be so great that even if an outsider just stands by It would be regarded as pins and needles there, but that Victor Kant's performance from beginning to end was too relaxed and too defenseless.

Is this pure acting skills?Still have full support, so you are not afraid of being ripped apart at all?Or... the person who really controls all this is not Viscount Kant himself?

Crack - bang!

A series of huge thunderclaps suddenly sounded high in the sky, and the outside of the window was instantly illuminated as bright as day. After a few seconds, the bean-sized raindrops came crackling, splashing on the stone outer walls and crystal walls of the castle. A dense stream of noise sprinkled the windows.

As night fell, a new torrential rain fell on the land.

The flash of lightning passed through the narrow high window, lighting up the study suddenly. Viscount Victor Kant, who was sitting behind the desk, suddenly raised his head with a blank expression on his face, while the flash of lightning flashed from behind him, Turn him into a black shadow in the backlight, let his figure be projected on the opposite side of the desk, and projected on the old housekeeper Carter not far away.

After the flash of lightning faded, dim lighting was restored in the study, and the brilliance of the magic spar lamp became strange and obscure again in this room, covering everything with a shadowy texture.

Viscount Victor Kant suddenly said for no reason: "Carter, you have served the Kant family for many years."

The old butler suddenly stepped towards the desk in front of him—or towards the old master behind the desk. He was expressionless and whispered vague words: "The intruder has detected the second level of consciousness, and the subconscious shielding area has loosened. "