In a small forest to the north of the church, several transparent human figures suddenly formed between the rain curtains passing through the gloomy trees. The rain separated from it, and seven or eight assassins walked out. The leader turned around, counted the number of people, and found that there were fewer.
More than half.
"How many people were lost?" he asked.
"Boss, there are nine people who haven't come back," someone immediately answered, "I checked with crystals, and two brothers met people patrolling the cavalry camp, and they are still behind." He paused, "...No.
There has been no news from all the people who were looking for the elementalist in the past, and they have probably been summoned by the Shadow Lady."
"Then there's no need to wait for them," the leader said, "Let the Mane Rat and Tolbert go to the Shadow Temple to meet us separately. We will take the target to meet with the people from the Foundation," he said while looking towards
People on the sidelines, "How's the target?"
"We succeeded," the man patted the sack. There was obviously a person in the sack, but there was no sound at the moment. He boasted: "Fortunately, we lured away the guard in advance. I heard that the lady is a powerful person.
I heard from the Viper family that it is much more powerful than the elementalist."
Not only is it much more powerful.
In fact, the people from the old Viper family told them much more than that. Their opponents were teammates of the recently famous Dragon Alchemist. I heard that these people had also taken action during the riots in Ayin Bullock, beating the patrolling cavalry chief.
The people in charge threw off their armor.
Of course, it's no big deal to beat the patrol cavalry until they lose their armor.
The Ayinbrok Inspection Cavalry Headquarters is full of those dandy boys. There are few capable people and many are straw embroidered pillows. They can still do it. But in that commotion, the Imperial Knights suffered a fate.
Even using several war weapons is unusual——
This matter has already spread throughout the city of Ayinbrok. Not to mention that the people of the Carley-Drakka family know about it, there has actually been rumors within the Brotherhood of Shadows for a long time.
After the rain, the figures dispersed.
But soon, another figure appeared on the spot again, silently looking at the traces left by the Brotherhood's killers on the scene.
Miss Naturalist was wearing a robe, holding a huge book in her hands and standing in the rain. The robe was already soaked, and water droplets hung on the lenses of her glasses. The rain knocked on the copper shell of the magic furnace behind her, making a crisp sound, but she seemed completely unaware.
Unconsciously, he pressed his hand on the page of the book and silently looked at a few shallow marks in the puddles.
The raindrops automatically separated invisibly when they approached the giant book, as if there was a layer of mysterious protection on it.
In Aitaria, names such as the Brotherhood of Shadows, Brotherhood of Daggers or Gray Daggers do not actually refer to a specific organization, but are nicknames for the local Nightingale Gathering, which is also called the Thieves Guild.
In some places, nightingales are under the jurisdiction of the Adventurer's Guild, but in most places they walk in gray areas. Thieves, pickpockets and night thieves in the city can all be called nightingales. Of course, the nightingale profession does not exist because of the opening of the star gate.
Yes, they themselves are one of the oldest professions in the world.
Most of the nightingale professions of the selectors come from this.
Jita listened to the conversation of those people, and heard them mention the rainy night three days later, the Eisengreen family of the Golden Goat, and also heard them mention Kalleye Draka, the name of the viper, and the seven wizards.
With words such as scholar family gatherings and large tombs, the origins of these brotherhood killers have been roughly determined in their minds.
As expected by Luo Yu, those people were still behind the other party.
The names of the Seven Mage Family, the Golden Goat Isengrim, and the Viper's Fang Kallaye had made her ears tingle recently. However, the Hawk family had just suffered a blow, and anyone with a discerning eye could see the conspiracy behind it.
How could the Sorcerer family dare to act so arrogantly?
Miss Scholar frowned her delicate eyebrows.
Duke Hawke's ship was attacked and his whereabouts are still unknown. The Empire has been very slow in advancing the investigation, which is enough to arouse suspicion.
In fact, there have been various rumors outside, and some people even speculated whether the powerful Duke has lost power?
In other words, the cunning lord of the empire was not favored by the magic emperor. His open confrontation with that emperor had already happened a long time ago, and that emperor was gradually becoming the most powerful and ambitious person in his life.
Kings of this stage and age naturally have means to eliminate dissidents.
Otherwise it would be difficult to explain the progress of Appenand's investigation.
Those at the top have no intention of advancing, and those below will naturally cope with the problem.
In fact, there are various rumors on the market, and some say that His Majesty the Emperor intends to launch a war against the Great Council in the southern rainforest, and the main war faction is actually the Imperial Workshop. This is easy to understand, as war can better catalyze alchemy.
The achievements since the revolution and converted them into visible benefits for the imperial alchemists.
The Craftsmen Association is the leader of the reform and the biggest beneficiary.
Although Duke Hawke is not a dove, he has little interest in advancing the war. After all, in the eyes of the magicians, regaining the leadership is more important.
In other words, he is the leader of the opposition. Although the method of attacking the ship is a bit radical and breaks the political tacit understanding - but the empire has never had much tacit understanding, just like Kaolin-Yin Xiulian,
Political means are often 'varied'.
And since the Supreme One has acquiesced, then a lot of things have been explained behind it.
Naturally, Jita would not completely believe these unfounded rumors, but Ms. Scholar could see clearly in private that the arbitration they participated in regarding Ai Yin Bullock's inspection of the cavalry camp was actually a sign of the changing direction of the wind.
.
Someone is using them as pawns.
In fact, Sylvester also told her about such things in private——
Their captain is not sensitive to politics, but their ship officer is not.
In other words, such speculation exists. Under such circumstances, the Seven Magicians family still dares to go against the trend. Either they are extremely daring, or there is a deeper reason behind it. Based on Jita's carefulness and
If you are cautious, you will naturally be more inclined to the latter possibility.
So what is the other reason?
Although the magicians of the seven families defeated the Horfen School twenty years ago with the same hatred, it does not mean that there is only one voice among the magicians of the empire. In fact, on the contrary, the magicians of the seven families and the magicians outside
Even among the seven families, there are clear camps.
Kalleyer the Viper, Isengrim the Golden Goat, and House Hawke the Wise Owl.
During the Ayinbrok incident, the Golden Goat Eisengrim seemed to have temporarily formed an alliance with the Cunning Owl, but Kalleyer continued to be a loner as always. The old vipers were not concerned about the politics of the empire, but
The heir to their ownerless grimoire.
She also heard the assassins from the Brotherhood mention the meeting of the magicians of the Seven Families.
Jita knew something about this so-called gathering.
The Seven Magi families of the Oshur people have actually had a tradition of gatherings since history. They call it the Council of the Seven Sages. Although the Tower of Stars and Moons also has a council, the Star and Moon Council of the Empire controls the Austrians.
Although the magicians of Shuren are still above them, the Council of the Eqi Family still has to override them.
It was a council above the council. It was through this secret council that the magicians of the seven families controlled the puppet they had set in the Tower of Stars and Moon.
That is, the traitor of the Horfen School twenty years ago, the Grand Chancellor named Wallen Fuller. They had met once before.
As far as Miss Scholar knows, the gathering place of the seven families of magicians is in the sewers of Ayinbrok - there is a public cemetery there, which outsiders call the Great Tomb.
This sounds a bit weird, but it actually comes from ancient traditions. Because it was originally a public cemetery under the Cathedral of Light. During the Giant War, this was where the priests of Ori, the God of Light, treated the wounded.
A place where corpses are temporarily stored.
The magicians lived next door to the priests of Mirala at that time. The first generation of magicians used the Ayinbrok underground as a base to train the magicians of the Oshur people and form a magic corps. There were even Numei at the time
The wizards of the forest elves are stationed here.
Later, that place became the secret gathering place of the Imperial Mage. After the rise of the Seven Mage Family, this place has always been the location of their Grand Council.
As soon as Jita heard the other party mention the great crypt and the gathering, she knew that the other party was talking about the secret gathering of the Seven Mage Family. Calculating the time, it was almost this time of the year. It seemed that they planned to use the help of
This secret gathering operates, but to what purpose?
Is it just because I'm here, Britta?
Because of the resurgence of a school they had defeated twenty years ago?
For the Seven Sorcerers family, are they making a fuss out of a molehill? What's more, now that they have a bright light on their backs, and the Craftsmen Association behind them, and His Majesty the Emperor is watching, shouldn't they focus on their own life and death first?
But Jita shook her head gently and put her thoughts aside. Since she couldn't think clearly, she didn't intend to study it in detail.
Didn't she come here just to know the answer?
"Three days later, secret meeting..."
"People must be sent to the big tomb before the night of heavy rain..."
Miss Scholar repeated it softly.
She stretched out her hand and pointed to a few footprints in the puddle. Suddenly, a thin white mist rose from the rain and spread into the distance.
Jita recited softly: "...the ghost that King Angeles saw in the rain curtain, after silently listening to the knights' request, nodded to them and floated towards the forest..."
That was a passage in "History of the Northern War". Later, wizards used that story to modify a spell to interrogate souls, and she just borrowed that method.
Although there is no soul here, the naturalist's method is to create non-existent things from stories. This is also one of their most incredible abilities, making it difficult for others to detect. Jita is used to this and looks calm.
She watched the white mist drift away, and her figure naturally disappeared into the rain curtain, like a phantom.
Even those few footprints disappeared in the rain.
It's as if everything that happened before here never existed.
…
It was raining heavily outside, so the fire in the entire church was not serious. The fire only extended along an inner corridor to the second floor, affecting two or three rooms, and was quickly extinguished by the clergy of Mirala who came after hearing the news.
When Hain and Luo Yu squeezed into the panicked crowd, no open flames could be seen in the side hall where the fire occurred, and only a few buildings were charred. Fortunately, the church was mostly made of stone, so it did not cause much damage.
However, the patrolling cavalry checked and found no trace of Britta, and no body was found in the fire scene. The attacker seemed to have taken the person away.
Hai En's expression changed after hearing this, and he turned back to look at Luo Yu: "Mr. Luo Yu, Britta..."
Luo Yu shook his head at him and did not answer. He only asked the priest of the temple and the guards outside the temple to understand the situation.
The center of the fire was not in the room where Britta was, but in a nearby room, which was guarded by several patrolling cavalry. After Luo Yu's inspection, he found several signs of fighting. The opponent's tactics were exactly the same as the attack on him.
He also found dried blood stains on the wall. The high temperature caused the blood to solidify on the wall to form dark patches. Soon, news came from the Resurrection Icon, confirming the attack on the guard.
Warren, the Speaker of the Parliament of Stars and Moon, who came after hearing the news, looked in disbelief and asked the people next to him what happened. "How dare they do this?" He wiped the sweat from his shiny bald forehead,
He asked in an unbelievable tone: "How could there be such a madman to attack the temple? If Ms. Mirala had cast a glance..."
"Ms. Mirala is not here, it is your people who are responsible for guarding this place." Hain said angrily.
Luo Yu pulled him aside. Luo Yu could probably guess the young man's feelings for Britta, but he didn't express any opinion on it. He was still silent as usual and just looked at her silently.
Take a look at the Speaker.
In the past few days, of course he had learned about this person's identity. He had a special status, but he didn't seem to care about it. He only looked a little stuffy. He also pulled the button on the collar and fanned himself.
Luo Yu was worried that leaving Hai En behind would cause a conflict with the young man, so after checking the scene, he also took him away. After leaving the side hall, he asked: "Do you know that Mr. Speaker?"
"Him?" Hain looked annoyed. "That guy is just a traitor. He agreed to transfer Britta. I thought he had a conscience, but I didn't expect it to be bullshit. What kind of speaker is he? He is a human being.
Everyone knows that he only dares to be submissive in front of the Seven Families, so this matter may have something to do with him."
Luo Yu was noncommittal and just asked: "Does he know Laila's identity?"
"I know," Hain said, "but that's all I know. Many people in the Astrology Academy know Laila's identity, but Sir Ash is gone, and not many people are willing to pursue the past. After all, it's twenty
It happened years ago, and not everyone is a magician from the Seven Families. If not, Britta and we wouldn't be able to form this society."
Luo Yu nodded.
Hain looked at him uneasily, "Mr. Luo Yu, Britta..."
Luo Yu glanced at the other party, thought for a moment and still didn't tell the truth. He just shook his head and said, "Don't worry."
This answer naturally did not satisfy Hain, but he could not come up with a better solution - after all, the most reliable people on their side at the moment may be Luo Yu and Jita, who are students at the astrology academy.
Of course, we also understand that magicians are not omnipotent.
He thought for a while and could only weakly mention that he could summon other people to see if they could find any clues. But they were just students from the Astrology Academy, and these people even dared to attack Mirala's
The Holy Church took action, and its cruelty and madness had long gone beyond the cognitive scope of these college students.
Hai En actually didn't quite understand something in his heart.
It's just an old thing from 20 years ago. Can it be done like this?
Although Britta kept claiming that the magicians were blind and made mistakes regarding Ash-Lynn, most of them did not actually think that it was a big deal.
The world of tutoring is nothing at all.
The birth of new schools of thought and the oblivion of old schools of thought is something that happens all the time in the history of the empire and even Aitaria. Twenty years ago, a school of thought passed away, and twenty years later, a group of young people took over again.
It's completely normal to pick it up.
Even if the Council really made some mistakes on Ash Lynn, who wouldn't make mistakes? Nowadays, there are many geniuses in the empire, and several great wizards have been born in the past twenty years. What will happen even if Ash Lynn is reincarnated?
Woolen cloth?
In the final analysis, everything in the past was just a result of the decline of the empire's magician community and its inability to compete with the magicians outside the empire, rather than the opportunities brought about by the rise of a certain school. Now, even if the time is turned back twenty years,
Do everything over again.
It is not harmful to the current world of imperial mages.
He didn't believe that the Seven Magicians family couldn't understand things that even a young man could understand.
So what are they worried about?
Hain is not even sure whether the Seven Sorcerers family is planning everything behind this. Although the Hawke family has always been arrogant and domineering under the leadership of the Imperial Owl Eagle, the Grand Duke has disappeared long ago.
What?
And this was exactly what Luo Yu was wondering about. What did the magicians of the Seven Families want to cover up, even at the expense of it? He had noticed a clue before the great arbitration, and the reaction of the Grand Duke Owl Eagle seemed to be a bit excessive.
.
Or is it possible that there are more than just seven families behind it?
He thought about it all in silence, trying to investigate the truth behind it, as well as the star device left by Ash Lynn, the sunken ship, and who the 'Pirate King' claimed he was.
Enemies of the Empire.
Who is that enemy?
What does it have to do with all this?
With such thoughts in mind, the young mage walked forward silently, but he did not go in the direction of his room, but went straight out of the temple to the other side - there were several 'ice sculptures' in his room.
', there should be a lot of patrolling cavalry here trying to take them away.
But he didn't have much hope that the other party could find out anything from those people.
After all, this is a world with stars.
He walked out of the church, crossed a street, came to a private house there, knocked on the door, and then opened the door.
Before he could enter, a timid voice came from inside the house: "Mr. Luo Yu..."
Luo Yu saw Lai La in the room. Britta, who had been declared 'missing' by the patrolling cavalry, was also lying on the bed. However, there was no magic lamp lit in the room, only a candle, which was a little dim.
Seeing this scene, Luo Yu was not surprised. He only raised his head and looked at the window. Seeing that the magic alarms he had set were still intact, he nodded.
Laila hurriedly explained to him: "There was too much chaos outside just now. The patrol cavalry was going door to door asking questions. I was worried that the attackers would come back, so I turned off all the lights."
Luo Yu nodded. He claimed to the outside world that Britta's starlight had not completely passed away and there was still a possibility of waking up. This was half true and half false. It was really the first half, but the second half was before the starlight was recovered.
It's almost impossible to happen.
His original purpose from the beginning was to attract the attention of those people. If, as Jita said, those who attacked Britta were trying to cover up something, then they would definitely come back. Place Britta in the church
, just to better detect the other party’s actions.
What's more, the Holy Church is in a remote corner outside the Astrology Academy, making it more suitable for the opponent to take action.
To put it bluntly, this is a fishing plan. Since it is fishing, there is no need to use real bait.
Britta in the church was an illusion arranged by Miss Scholar from the beginning, but saying it is an illusion is not enough to describe the spell. It is actually the naturalist's best method, which is a described 'form'
.
Everything about it is close to the real Britta, like an existence narrated in a text. When others enter the story, everything is like reading 'reality' - everything in the story is real.
of.
This is also one of the most powerful abilities of the 'reader', creating an immersive illusion. The intruders were unable to realize from the beginning to the end that they were actually carrying a bag of air. They were just in that 'story'
'I dreamed of everything.
Although that story can only last a few hours, it should be enough.
Besides, Jita should be there too.
"It's better to be cautious," Luo Yu said. "Until Jita comes back, you can leave Britta here and take care of her personally. During the day, I will ask the familiar to deliver meals to you." He raised his arm.
, letting a mechanical creature stop there and look at the two people with a red vision crystal.
The thing in his hand was actually a golem. It was not uncommon for magicians to use constructs as familiars in Aitaria. After all, there were many magicians who were good at soul science. Luo Yu tapped lightly.
He shook the little guy's head and said to Laila: "The captain should have returned. With the captain and the ship officer here, it should be safe here for the time being."
"I will also live next door these days. If anything happens, you will call my name loudly."
He paused, "Also, about the college competition——"
Laila glanced at her unconscious friend on the bed and said, "Mr. Luo Yu, I want to attend instead of Britta..."
Luo Yu shook his head and said: "But I don't really recommend that you risk yourself. Judging from the fact that the other party has spent so much time, those people must be planning some conspiracy. If it is just because of the old things twenty years ago, there should be more than
At this point, they are probably coming for you, or for Sir Ash's legacy."
Laila was silent for a moment before raising her head.
"Actually, that's why I wanted to participate in that game."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Luo Yu, there are some things I didn't tell you the truth..."