Hao Ren led a group of his friends out of the reception room of Gelton. Two monks took them to the resting place, while the four of them, Big Beard, stayed behind. It seemed that the rector and the female marshal took over.
What came down to discuss should involve the church's secrets. After arriving at the guest room where they were temporarily staying, Betsy suddenly remembered something: "Hey! By the way! I haven't asked about the reward yet... I mean they won't
Have you forgotten about this?"
Hao Ren looked sideways at Betsy: "Can't you be a bit promising? How can such a big country still swallow up your small reward?"
Betsy puffed up her cheeks: "My time is precious, isn't it? I can only stay for fifteen days at most. If someone comes to me later and tells me that I need to report to the capital at this time, and I will approve it and reply after a month, then wouldn't I be stupid?
"
Hao Ren covered his face: "This is indeed a problem for you... But let's take it one step at a time. Why do we see Gelton and Ofra quarreling every time we see them? Between the King and the Church Army
Is there any conflict between them?"
Betsy waved her hands vigorously: "There is no conflict, you are overthinking it. Horleta's politics and religion have complemented each other for so many years, and there has never been any conflict. It's just that the two groups often have some friction because of their standards of conduct. It's true, as is the church.
She tends to be conservative, while the king is pragmatic, and Lord Ofra is a figure who has been in charge of the army for hundreds of years, so she may be a bit stubborn. But let’s not get involved in this kind of thing, there will be no good in it.”
Hao Ren said oh, of course he was not interested in getting involved in this kind of trouble that would be a big headache at first glance. He was only concerned about the secrets hidden under this land. Lily, on the other hand, seemed very interested: "Hey, what do you think they are going to do to solve it?
Those stone giants? Those things fell from the Dragon's Back Mountains. The entire mountain range is as big as them. There's no way they can kill them all. Do they plan to continue this stalemate? The Horleta royal family didn't even make a statement?"
"I just noticed some notices on the road," Betsy arranged her equipment. She replied casually, "The royal capital has dispatched two groups of troops to help. The knights of the nearby parish have also been there in a few days.
We rushed here before, and now the military strength of Beinz Parish has increased nearly three times compared to the last time we came here. But you are right, even the royal family seems to have no good solution: we can't move the entire mountain range.
"As long as we can't figure out where the stone giant came from, we will have to remain in this stalemate." When Betsy said this, there was a worried look on her face: "I hope the situation will not get worse..."
This is her hometown after all. Faced with the situation where such weird monsters keep popping up, Betsy can't help but feel worried, but this is obviously not something that a little person like her can solve.
At the same time, the atmosphere in Gelton's reception room was turning into an increasingly depressive state.
"You said a heretical sect appeared here?" The bearded man put his hands on Gelton's desk with a solemn look on his face, "What is the specific situation?"
"We still don't know the ins and outs of this sect for the time being," Galton waved his hand to the bearded man, asking him to calm down. "It wasn't until half a month ago that they surfaced, and they haven't arrested anyone yet. We just found
There are some traces of evil rituals. There have been some strange things happening in this area recently, and they should be related to this evil sect."
"Weird thing? What weird thing?" The bearded man frowned. This kind of news related to heresy was the only thing that could make the ascetic monk look nervous.
Ofra snorted and said in a cold voice: "The bodies of many of our fallen soldiers are missing - according to reports from the front line, those missing bodies were temporarily parked on the ground for some reason. The guards next to them disappeared after a period of time when their eyes were turned away.
, and has not appeared since."
"And it's not just the fallen soldiers," Galton said in a low voice. "It also includes civilians, as long as they are those who died recently. The bodies may disappear mysteriously, leaving only a little blood stain at the scene. Sometimes there is not even a blood stain.
Stay. The most typical recent example is an outpost on the edge of the Holy Lake. The outpost was attacked by a stone giant and fell. The soldiers who escaped from the outpost led reinforcements back to investigate the situation the next day.
Only to find that the bodies of the fallen who had been left on the battlefield the night before were all gone.”
The four bearded men immediately looked at each other. They immediately thought of where the outpost mentioned by the other party was: that was where they came from, and they also discovered a mysterious tunnel under the outpost! But nothing was found in that tunnel either.
Things, which made Big Beard a little unsure whether the tunnel was related to this matter. He decided to mention the tunnel situation later, but asked another question: "Do the missing bodies have anything in common?"
Ofra thought for a while: "The recent death and disappearance occurred within the west side of the Dragon's Back Mountains - the dividing line is based on the central axis of the mountain range. The soldiers who died on the east side did not encounter such strange things. Another point is that there are no witnesses.
It is recorded that the corpse disappeared without anyone watching. I once sent someone to keep an eye on this matter. There was no problem for three days and three nights when someone was watching. However, the corpse disappeared after the guard was distracted for a moment.
It flew away."
Ofra couldn't help but clenched her fists at the end. It was obvious that she had confidently wanted to find out the truth of the matter, but in the end she suffered an almost mocking failure, which made this heroine who rarely failed was very angry.
The young ascetic monk remembered something after being silent for a while: "Have you ever checked the cemetery?"
Galton nodded: "I also thought about it. It was after checking the cemetery that we confirmed that only those who died recently would be missing. The old graves in the cemetery are all fine, but the recently buried remains are also missing."
"Need a 'fresh' corpse?" the young nun among the ascetics spoke hoarsely, with some surprise in her voice, "Is it a necromancer?"
"I don't think it's possible," Ofra crossed her arms, with a hint of contempt in her voice, "Although necromancers are not welcome, they are legal anyway, as long as normal procedures are followed and the regulations of the Mage Association are complied with.
, they can do the experiments they want to do - no matter how stupid the wizard is, he will not risk the chaos to come to the Holy Land to do such a thing. Moreover, the earliest disappearance of corpses was about half a month ago, almost the same time as the sudden proliferation of stone giants.
In no particular order, I would rather believe that this is a group of cultists who are pursuing ancient power. Don’t let me catch them..."
"In fact, we may have some clues." Big Beard felt it was time to mention the information he had at this time. He stood up, "We happened to pass by the outpost you just mentioned when we came here. I wonder if you have any.
Checked the situation underground..."
At that moment, the bearded man told about the weird tunnel and the suspicious bloody smell in the tunnel. After hearing this, Ofra and Gelton looked at each other. Ofra looked at Gelton: "The church knights are in charge of that area. You
Did you find anything underground?"
"There really hasn't been any inspection at the outpost," Galton shook his head, "but you also know that there are no such tunnels in other places where corpses have disappeared."
The bearded man was a little surprised: "Other places? In other words, you have already checked the underground? No tunnels were found in other places where corpses disappeared?"
Ofra shook her head: "No. After the bodies disappeared initially, we made great efforts to search for them, including underground, of course, but we never found any tunnels. Later, if the bodies disappeared, we would no longer search for them.
We have found clues underground. It seems that we must pay attention to this issue again... Maybe there is really something underground. Your Excellency, what do you think - Your Excellency, Rector?"
Galton seemed to suddenly be immersed in a certain problem and began to think deeply. Ofra called out a few times before he realized: "Oh, of course, I will send someone to the outpost to verify the facts. But I just suddenly thought of another thing.
Something..."
"Another thing?" Ofra frowned.
Galton spread his hands: "The energy of the cultists seems to be beyond imagination, and it is obviously related to the vision in the Dragon's Back Mountains. I even suspect that a group of evil descendants of the ancient magic empire have infiltrated into this holy land. Let's put all our energy into it."
Putting it on those stone monsters may have played into the hands of those villains. Your Excellency, Marshal, I cannot leave the parish, so I hope you can go to the royal capital in person and report this matter to His Majesty the Pope and His Majesty the King. I am afraid this has already happened.
This is not just a regional crisis, we need support from the Supreme Holy See."
Ofra laughed when she heard this: "Hey, you finally have a sense of urgency." (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!