A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

It was already late at night, and the moon was hidden in the thick clouds tonight, only the starlight fell on the earth.

In the dark night, the starlight passed through the wooden fence and fell on the side cheek of the blond child who had lightly slept.

The child tilted his head, half of his immature face was hidden in the shadows, and half was illuminated by the blond hair reflecting the starlight.He closed his eyes, put one hand on his stomach, and let the other drop to the ground, breathing evenly. His long eyelashes like butterfly wings cast light shadows on his milky white cheeks.

Suddenly, his hand that was hanging on the ground twitched.

It didn't look like the child moved it by itself, it was more like an external force was shaking it.It's just that the hand happened to hang down in the shadow, making it hard to see.

The hand moved slightly again, and the abnormality in his body finally woke up Garlan who was in a light sleep. He opened his eyes, felt something shaking his hand, subconsciously raised that hand, and lowered his head. look.

As soon as he raised his hand, the thing hidden in the shadow chased out of the shadow.

The starlight shone on the little thing. The little thing stood upright on the ground, with its two little paws tucked into its chest, and squeaked towards Garlan.

It seemed to recognize Garlan's hand, and it kept squeaking towards that hand.

Little black mouse?

It was a black mouse that was slightly smaller than ordinary mice, and its hair was like jet-black satin. At first glance, it was obvious that it was not a wild mouse but was raised by humans.

Garlan looked at the little black mouse that was squeaking at his hand wearing the black cloth wristband, and looked it over carefully, and immediately found a metal streak flashing under the starlight on the fur of the little black mouse's neck. luster.

He stretched out his hand to grab the little black mouse, and saw an extremely thin copper pipe tied around the little black mouse's neck.When he grabbed the little black mouse, the little black mouse seemed to be struggling, but after sniffing at the black cloth wristband on his wrist, it calmed down and obediently let him take off the small brass on its neck. tube.

Looking at the thin silk script hidden in the small copper tube, Garlan was overwhelmed with surprise.

This is the code he agreed with Brother Wang!

Brother Kamos and the others followed the little black beads he left behind. Looking at the little black mouse, Garlan suddenly understood that this little black mouse was probably trained to sniff the little black beads. The smell came here.

There is no paper and pen at hand now, and there is no way to reply to the letter.

Garlan thought for a while, shook his fingers, put two or three small black beads sewn into the cloth wristband into the small brass tube, and then re-tied the brass tube in its original place.

Then, he fed the little black mouse a little of the food left over from the night, and sent it outside the cell door, pointing to it outside.

This little black mouse is very clever, and when Garlan pointed to the distance, it ran away in a flash.

Watching it disappear into the depths of the night, Garlan breathed a sigh of relief.Now he can finally relax a little bit, sleep peacefully, and wait for Brother Kamos and the others to find him.

He thought that if Brother Kamos brought the cavalry, he would be able to arrive here before midnight tomorrow at the latest, so that no more child would be sacrificed.

Thinking of this, Garlan couldn't help thinking about what happened this evening.

When he was brought back, the guards went back and grabbed another one, just in time for the malevolent-eyed boy who had pushed Kerri out.

Although it was a bit relieved to watch it at the time, but recalling the boy's numb eyes and desperate expression later, Garlan still felt a little uncomfortable.

That selfish boy was wrong, but the worst sin is this wicked church.

It was the horror and gore of it that completely twisted that kid.

But that's about it for this wicked church.

Waiting for tomorrow, Brother Kamos will make this sinful place that swallowed the blood of countless children completely disappear!

…………

..............................

In the middle of the night, there is no moonlight, and the faint starlight cannot penetrate the dense canopy of the forest, so the forest is dark at the moment, and it is also quiet, only the night wind occasionally passes over the canopy in the sky, shaking the branches and leaves making rustling sounds .

A few people squatted low in the bushes, lurking quietly, without making a sound, as if they were waiting for something.

The shortest figure among them squatted halfway in the shadows. In the darkness, he couldn't see the boy's face, nor could he see the look in his eyes at the moment, but the faint starlight passing through the gaps between the branches and leaves fell on the back of the boy's hand holding the dagger at his waist. , you can see the fingers that clenched the hilt of the sword so hard that the knuckles are slightly white.

The degree to which the fingers tightened showed the extremely nervous and urgent state of mind of its owner at the moment.

squeak.

In the silent night, there was a thin cry suddenly, a little black mouse came out of the dense bushes, ran up to a tall man who was squatting, stood upright, and squeaked at its tame master up.

The boy's breath suddenly stopped, and he turned his head to look.The man quickly grabbed the little black mouse and tore off the copper pipe around its neck.

As soon as he opened it, the man's face was filled with joy.

He saw that the thin cloth inside was gone, and a few small black beads were twirling in his palm.

But he didn't come to a conclusion right away, but first carefully lowered his head and sniffed it, and then he confirmed that the little black bead was indeed specially made by him, with a smell that only the gifted him and the little black mice he trained could smell. special smell.

"how?"

A low voice sounded in the night.

The boy's voice sounded calm, but the fingers of the hand illuminated by the starlight clenched even harder.

"Prince Heymos, confirmed, it is indeed His Highness Garlan, he used this to tell us that he is inside."

The man answered in a low voice.

"The camp we saw from a distance should be where the children were detained."

"........."

There was a few seconds of silence, as if the silence stopped breathing.

Then, Heymos spoke.

"……Walk."

He said, simply and neatly.

"Let's go back."

After speaking, he immediately got up, took the lead, and walked out quickly.

Several cavalrymen nearby glanced at each other, and immediately got up and followed.

In the dark night, Heymos ran out quickly.

Although when he heard the rat-taming cavalryman say that Garlan was inside, he really wanted to sneak in now and bring that daring and self-righteous child back immediately.

However, once this is done, whether it succeeds or not, it will scare the snake away.They are just a few people sneaking in here now, and the number of enemies is far above them. It is impossible for them to rescue all the children safely.

Once they startled the snake, no matter whether those 'thieves' wanted to transfer the children, or simply killed the children, then their actions would be considered a complete failure.

...He must not waste the opportunity Garlan bought with his life.

Now, the only thing he can do is to rush back to find King Kamos as soon as possible, and then lead the army to completely wipe out this deep valley camp, and rescue that child who is always worrying too much!

…………

........................

This time, he finally didn't have to wait in fear anymore. He wanted to sleep but didn't dare to sleep. Garlan slept until dawn.

By the time he opened his eyes, most of the morning had passed, and the sun shone brightly on his face.

Garlan got up in a jerk, probably because his heart, which had been hanging all this time, finally fell to the ground. He felt that his whole body was much lighter, and his mood even improved.

After getting up, he saw a plate placed by the cell door, with rich food in it.Apparently the person who brought him the food left him by the door without waking him who was asleep.

Although he didn't quite understand why he was suddenly treated so specially, Garlan was very happy to be able to improve the food.You know, before meeting that fat man, the food given to him was really unbearable.

He took the plate through the gap in the cell door, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to eat big mouthfuls.

Well, now he doesn't have to do anything, he just needs to obediently wait for others to save him.

Ah, it feels so good to be able to eat when you wake up without thinking or doing anything, and to continue to sleep after eating.

Maybe after eating and going back to sleep, brother Wang will call when he wakes up.

Garlan, who didn't realize that he was talking about the life of a pig, continued to eat happily while feeling so emotional.

At this time, a gust of wind blew, and the sound of the conversation not far away was transmitted.

Garlan's current small prison is probably specially used to detain special people. It is very close to the guard point, but it is far away from the large prisons.

Therefore, the conversation between the puffy man and several guards at the guard point was blown by the wind, and it was transmitted to him intermittently.

"What? Tonight?"

"This...wouldn't be too many, fifty people, there are more than 100 people here, and half of them will go at once."

"The... lord priest... said that today is... the mother god of all things... a special festival, and so many sacrifices are necessary."

"Is that so..."

"So, you can see that there are not many people today, because...the believers are busy preparing...a large ceremony."

"But fifty... Now those people are very vigilant. They keep a close watch on the children, and it will be very difficult to catch them again."

"It's okay, when the time comes...the lord...will create the illusion that a bandit is attacking the city of Vinal, and let us go into the city to catch it."

"Alright."

"Get ready... the time for tonight's sacrifice...in advance..."

In the prison hole, the mouth of the blond child stopped chewing food.

He clenched the white bread in his hand, stared straight ahead, and was speechless for a long time.

After a long time, Garlan raised his eyes and glanced at the large prison holes in the distance.

From a distance, countless children could be seen there. Those young children were moving and talking, and they were there alive.Little did they know that on this night nearly half of them would bleed dry on that sinful altar.

Throat wriggled, swallowing the food in his mouth.Garlan continued to silently swallow the white bread in his hand, without saying or doing anything.

He bowed his head, his soft blond hair falling in front of his eyes.

However, even the thick hair can't cover up the flashing light in the child's golden eyes at this moment.

…………

The other companions were busy preparing for the important ceremony tonight, and even the dozen or so guards who usually guarded outside also left, leaving only the puffy man and another guard.

Anyway, those weak children are all locked in the prison, and they don't worry about what those little devils can do at all. It's almost enough to leave two people here to watch.

The chubby man looked at the sky, the sun had almost completely sunk into the horizon, and the sky had completely darkened.He estimated that in about an hour, someone would come and escort fifty children to the altar to make sacrifices.

He was sitting there drinking Kofi in a bored manner, when the equally bored guard next to him spoke to him.

"I heard that you are having a child. What do you want the child for? Why are you locked up separately?"

The fat man glanced at the guard and got up.

"Come on, brother, I'll show you."

The small cage where Garlan was kept was very close to the guard point, just around the corner. The fat man pointed at Garlan who was sitting at the entrance of the cell, and said, "Look, how is it?"

"This..." The guard looked at it and smacked his lips. "It looks pretty good, like a porcelain doll, but so what? Isn't it all for sacrifices?"

The fat man clicked his tongue.

"That's why you don't understand. This kind of beautiful child is loved by some nobles. It can be sold for a lot of money to those people. If you sell this child, you can use the money to buy a large number of slave children. Wouldn't it be more cost-effective? "

The five-year-old and three-thick guard scratched his head. He didn't understand these twists and turns, so he subconsciously asked the most intuitive question.

"How much money can be sold?"

"At least this number! Gold coins!"

The fat man held out five fingers.

The guard was taken aback.

"Five Aaron gold coins?! So much?"

Aaron Landis gold coins, referred to as Aaron gold coins, although each country has its own currency, but because Aaron Landis is a country with a long history and is the trade center of the continent, Aaron gold coins are popular on this continent generic.

One Aaron gold coin is enough to cover the living expenses of an ordinary civilian family for one year.

The fat man snorted.

"Five? Don't be kidding, at least five hundred!"

The guard took a breath, and immediately looked at the child as if he were looking at a golden doll.

Coincidentally, the blond kid also looked at him, blinked his big eyes, stood up, and stared at them while holding onto the wooden bars of the cell door.

The guard followed the child's gaze and found that the child was staring at his hand.

He was holding a cup of Kefei in his hand, and he was drinking it when he was talking to the man beside him and brought it over.

It was a pitch-black drink with an extremely strong aroma, which made people want to stop after smelling it. It was very bitter at first, but after drinking it, the aftertaste was endless, and it was like magic that made people want to drink again.

It is made of some black powder, something unique to the sect of all things. According to the upper priest, it is bestowed by the mother god, which can elevate the soul of a person.

After drinking this thing, there is indeed a refreshing and sober feeling, so many believers believe that this is indeed a fetish given to them by the mother god.

Seeing the child staring longingly at the Kefei in his hand, as if he was so seduced by the scent that he was so greedy, the guard walked to the door.

The child held on to the wooden railing and looked up at him. On his milky white face, big beautiful eyes like golden jewels stared at him. Those eyes were soft, making people feel soft.

"Do you want to drink?"

He couldn't help but want to tease the kid.

The child nodded quickly, stretched out his little hand from the crack of the door, and looked at him expectantly.

The cute little appearance made the guard laugh and pass the cup over.

The greedy child took a sip from the cup, but as soon as he took a sip, he spit it out, choking and coughing non-stop, apparently choking a little liquid into it.

"bitter!"

I thought it was delicious, but was coughed violently by the suffering child, and a layer of mist appeared in the big eyes.

The guard couldn't help laughing at that appearance, and the fat man next to him also laughed out loud.

He smiled and said, "Little guy, don't worry, after a while, someone will give you whatever delicious food you want."

That's right, when it's sold, those nobles will definitely 'love' this child well, and naturally they will give them anything delicious.

They were amused by the child's deflated appearance, but they didn't notice. The coughing child shook his fingers holding the cup, and a few small black beads rolled into the black liquid in the cup and melted in it instantly.

With a look of being deceived and unhappy, the child handed the cup back, as if angry, and ignored them.

The guard took back the cup, and happily returned to the guard point with the fat man. While drinking Kefei together, they chatted excitedly about the huge sum of five hundred Aaron gold coins, while eating sauced meat.

Suddenly, the fat man glanced out of the corner of his eye, and his face changed suddenly.

He saw that in the small cage not far away, the child was kneeling at the door of the prison with a face of pain, clutching the wooden railing, his body twitched a few times, and then fell headlong.

My five hundred Aaron gold pieces!

With a groan in his heart, the fat man jumped up and ran over there.

When the guard saw it, he was startled and ran over.

When they arrived at the door of the cell, seeing the child twitching continuously while hugging his body on the ground, they were immediately in a hurry. The guard hurriedly found the key here from a large bunch of keys on his body, and opened the door.

"Why did you give him Kefei! Don't you know that someone is allergic to this stuff!"

"I, I don't know! Didn't you stop it then!"

"Look at the situation first! This is five hundred Aaron gold coins—"

The guard knelt down in a panic, reached out and picked up the twitching child, wanting to see the child's condition.But suddenly, his eyes darkened, his face froze, he closed his eyes and fell to the ground without moving.

The fat man next to him who was in a hurry was startled by him, not knowing what happened, so he quickly knelt down and stretched out his hand to push him.

"Hey, what's the matter with you—hey—"

He paid attention to the fainted guard, not noticing that the child who had been twitching in pain got up silently.

In the next second, a stone hit the back of his neck—the most vulnerable cervical spine in the human body, and knocked him unconscious.The fat man closed his eyes and fell beside the unconscious guard.

Garlan grabbed the stone, panting violently, then threw the stone, knelt on the ground and tore off the large bunch of keys from the guard's waist.

He raised his head and looked at the prison holes in the distance.

He just pretended to be sick and twitched and rolled on the ground, so now he is covered in dust and dirty.

But at this moment, on that dusty little face, the faint fire light from the stone wall fell into his golden eyes, making his eyes brighter than the sun at this moment.