......

Satisfied, Solly Dahl stepped through the shattered castle gates and into the castle of Coldwind. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Aside from the two days spent on the road, he broke through the town's walls in only half an hour - of course, whether the one-man mud fence was a city wall or not was a question. There were also very few guards standing guard, and after the Inquisitors cut down two of them, they scattered in a hurry, with little formal resistance.

This is the town that guards the frontier?

The Greykeep Kingdom is nothing more than that.

The only thing that displeased him was that while the Church army was still halfway up the mountain, smoke rose from the beacon tower beneath his feet, as if he had expected them to attack the town.

Although it was only a matter of time before the other northern realms were alerted, this lack of reverence still made him a little angry—the fact that the Holy City's troops were enemies in advance was a sign that they had already committed blasphemy. He had sent a small group of Inquisitors to the Beacon Tower, ready to arrest them for questioning before sending them to the gallows.

"Please go this way, my lord," said the knight who led the way. When the sword rested around the necks of the group, the knights did not show the righteousness of sacrificing to protect the lord, but immediately knelt down in surrender and declared their allegiance to the church.

This is the ugliness of a person without faith, cowardly, helpless, nothing compared to the judgment warrior who fights for the gods.

After killing several of the guards along the way, the Inquisitors broke into the lord's study and blocked any windows that could have escaped, though Solley didn't feel the courage to jump out of the window. He slowly stepped into the room, looking at the pale Lord of the Cold Wind Ridge slumped into his chair a little.

"Good afternoon, Master Kevon Marton. ”

"You—How dare you trespass on Cold Wind Ridge...... The Holy City is difficult, do you want to openly make enemies of the Grey Keep?"

He's finished, Soli thought, fear completely robbing him of his mind. After decades of fending off evil beasts on the Hermes Line, the archbishop has honed a unique ability to taste fear. Some can turn fear into a desire to survive, while others are simply consumed by fear, the former is a necessary quality for a samurai to advance to the rank of Divine Punishment, and the latter is eliminated by endless bloody battles.

Kaivon is clearly the latter.

"yes, didn't you already know that?"

"What? no! I don't understand what you mean—"

"It's too late to regret it, my lord," Solly interrupted, "to buy grain at a high price, to forbid merchants to the Holy City, and don't tell me you did it only on a whim...... The King of Greykeep wants to turn Coldwind Ridge into an outpost for attacking the Holy City, so naturally we can't blame us for launching a counterattack in advance. ”

"You are making unwarranted accusations!" Kevon shook his head repeatedly, "I didn't do these things at all, and the king has never sent an envoy to Coldwind Ridge, let alone take the initiative to attack Hermes!"

"It's okay not to admit it, His Holiness naturally has a way of knowing to find out what he wants from your head, but it won't do you any good when it comes to that point, so it's better for you to explain everything you know now. ”

"I—I really haven't done this, you can't wronged me!" his fat body shrank back again, "I'm the lord of the Cold Wind Ridge, the earl of the Grey Keep Kingdom!

"Enough, you brought it on yourself. ”

With a flick of his hand in disgust, the Judgment Warrior immediately dragged him out of his study.

After the archbishop sat down in the lord's seat, he vaguely felt that something was wrong. Why did the lord bite his tongue and not let go, even though he had been crushed by fear, and would rather be taken to the Holy City for interrogation than to have the king's plan unfolded?

Just then, a presiding judge walked into the room, "Lord Bishop, Pisos has sealed off the granary, it's just ......"

"Just what?"

"There is not much food in it, it is estimated that it is only enough to feed the townspeople for a month or two, and it is impossible to support a large army. ”

"Are you sure?" said Soley, who frowned.

Pissos rummaged through the granaries and asked the keepers, who said that there had been no large quantities of grain coming in lately, and that the wheat in the warehouses was still the previous year's stock. The presiding judge reported 1510.

"What's the deal with the news of the high price of grain in that town?" he pondered for a moment, "you go to the merchants and ask about the situation. ”

"Yes. "In addition, we have searched all the garrison camps west of the city, most of which are empty - according to the surrendered knights, the border army has not been effectively replenished since the total annihilation of the army at Hermes. ”

In other words, Coldwind Ridge was not prepared for war at all? This is also a little different from the information provided by Jieluo. The furrow between the archbishop's eyebrows deepened, and after a long silence he ordered, "There must be believers of the church in this town, gather them together and inquire in detail about the changes in the Cold Wind Ridge in the last two months. And those who volunteered to join the church, as well as the local rats, also questioned them, and I want to find out what the hell is going on at once!"

The presiding judge clenched his fists in his chest, "I'll do it." ”

Soli leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh. The attack on the Grey Fort was a pre-decided plan, and the process and capture didn't matter, but he didn't like the feeling of surprise at all.

What went wrong?

The next day, the presiding judge handed over the gathered information to the archbishop's desk.

Soli flipped the first page and quickly scanned the confessions of the crowd, "It was two local merchants who bought grain on a large scale, and they hoarded a thousand tons of wheat?"

"That's what the merchants say," said the presiding judge, "and I immediately searched the house of these two men upon learning of this, and it was indeed a lot of grain in it, but that was only for individuals—the total amount of the piles in the basement was not more than twenty hundreds. And there was no one in the house, so he probably fled shortly after lighting the beacon fire. ”

"You mean...... Collusion?" the bishop quickly understood what the other party meant.

"Yes, my lord, such an illusion can only be created by colluding with foreign traders and pretending to buy and sell, from the left hand to the right hand, and from the right hand back to the left hand. ”

"Where did the merchants come from?"

"The towns of the Northlands, Glen, Night, Crosswind...... The high-priced acquisition started a month ago, and at first not much people cared about it, until the number became larger and larger, and it attracted the attention of businessmen. We've locked up all the merchants in town, but we haven't found the guys who were transporting the grain. ”

If it is really collusion between the two sides, then the chances of catching them are slim. It's just that...... What is the purpose of the other party's this? just to attract the attention of the Holy City and let His Majesty the Pope launch an invasion as soon as possible?

Puzzled, Solley flipped to the back pages of the report, and another piece of news caught his eye.

"The patrol officer in charge of the beacon...... Dead?"