"Mr. Earl, I finally saw you. I...I came here at a great risk." Marelis said: "I have no other meaning. I am willing to serve the devout king. This is also the will of the goddess. It is indeed a bit uneasy to leave the sect. Personally, I really want to listen to the teachings of the goddess for the rest of my life and never leave the sacred temple."
The man's face was full of wrinkles. Although his teeth were severely lacking and there were loopholes everywhere, he could still make a flattering smile. The old man looked at the count with expectation, but he was a little dodged, no different from those who tried to get close to but were afraid of majesty. He shook his sleeves and used all his strength to wipe the only wooden chair in the guard post, and then asked the count to sit down. The count shook his head: "You are older, you should sit down."
"Ah, thank you Count, thank you Count, I will follow your instructions." Marelis said: "Sir, do you want some pears? This is the fragrant pear on the mountain behind the Sanctuary Castle. It is soaked with the potion to eliminate diseases for seven days. Then I heated up the sticky honey and syrup and wrapped it in it to form a crispy hard shell, which is in the box. Although the temperature is lower than before, it is easy to make people sick. My health is not good, and my waist hurts when it comes to this season, so I made this kind of pear."
"I've eaten before I come." Earl Hall had never seen such a nagging "spy". He thought he should get to the point as soon as possible, otherwise he would start to discuss autumn food supplements. The Earl took out a piece of paper and a sharpened charcoal pen from his arms and handed it to Marelis: "Come on, I'll tell you to write."
"This is to..." Marelis was stunned for a moment, but he still took the paper and pen, put the box containing the pear on his knees as a cushion, and tried hard to bend down and bow his head: "Sir, you said, I'll write it."
"My name is - write your full name here and follow your position in the tutor."
"Uh..." Marelis looked nervous, and his hand holding the charcoal pen kept trembling: "Sir Earl, do you want me to write a letter of reporting? Sir Earl, after this time, Sir Methers promised me that I could be the Baron of Black Water Manor with peace of mind."
"If you want to be a baron with peace of mind, you must first let me be a baron with peace of mind." Earl Hall said: "If you don't want to write, then I'll leave now. The Templar can write letters and reports directly to the Sacred Heart Cult. You should know this, right?"
"Ah! Lord Earl, I don't mean not to write, I just confirm what I want to write." Marelis licked his dry lips, then wiped off the fine sweat beads on his forehead, and began to write with his slightly trembling hands: "I am Horazio Marelis, the Red-clad Priest of the Holy Words, responsible for the classification and meeting minutes of the documents. I bought the village in Feinberg under the name of Miles Hei Shui..."
"Okay, no thanks." Earl Hall pulled the paper over and placed it in front of him to check it carefully. He asked intelligence consultant Mathers to send a part of the original message sent by this secret thread, and then remembered the handwriting on it with his extraordinary brainpower. Now, compared with the "self-introduction" of Horazio Marelis in front of him, the handwriting matched, and he believed that this was the secret thread for a long time.
"You will explain what you know clearly and say in detail. Don't miss it. Then you can enjoy your old age in Black Water or White Water Manor." Earl Hall tore the note in his hand and threw it away, gently patted Marelis's shoulder, and said warmly: "Time is limited, you can start talking."
Marelis swallowed and nodded. "Sir, I was in the tutor before, but I couldn't stop the stupid Archbishop Donde Mipp from coming to power. This is my mistake. He overestimated himself and wanted to fight against the United Kingdom of the Hoya nobles who unified Feinberg and against the powerful Hall family. Isn't this seeking death?"
The Count frowned, waved his hand and said, "Tell me the key point."
"Later, I heard that the king sent an army, and suddenly I felt it was dawn. I thought that this time Tang De finally encountered a hard nail and should wake up!" Marelis nagged while wiping his saliva, and looked at the count's expression from time to time with his pale and wet eyes. From his chest, a sound of breathing out from the hole was accompanied by every word that was emitted. "I am full of joy, and I hope that Tang De will not cause trouble anymore. I will also retreat from my physical injury and go to retire with peace of mind. But I never thought that he was not of an old man at all, so he still asked me to work..."
Earl Hall's fingers gently lit his thighs, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he said nothing. Marelis said a few more words, and just as he said, "The news that the King's Army was led by the Earl reached the Holy See, and all the bishops and above gathered for a meeting", he suddenly coughed gently. He spread his hands and made a helpless sad posture: "Sir Earl, I was injured on a blood-colored meteor night. It's not good now, so I need some medicine..."
"As long as you don't delay your continued speaking, you can do it yourself." The count said with anger.
Marelis slowly and solemnly opened the box on his knees and took out the pears that were in the honey candy shell. It was a green pear that was half smaller than his fist. It looked very delicious and seductive. Marelis swallowed and put it to his mouth to eat it, but Earl Hall suddenly said, "If you chew and talk, you probably won't be able to say anything until dawn. I think you have no serious injuries, so let's talk quickly."
"Sir, you have to believe me. I was injured by the smoke from the monster... But, however," Marelis saw that the count's face was getting worse and worse, so he quickly put down the pear and said, "There are other ways, I can not eat it."
Sure enough, he put down the pear, and at the same time took out a thick cigar roll from the corner of the box, bit off a piece of it with his teeth, and then rubbed his thumb hard on the index finger, using spells to form a high heat, and bake the exposed eggplant feet. "At the meeting, Archbishop Donde Mipp was very convinced that the King's Army was carrying out a deterrent mission on the border, and it was impossible to really fight, and he was determined to use a way to expose the disguise of the King's Army. Oh, Lord Earl, this is the idea of ​​that guy Tangde, not mine... I was just a small character responsible for recording at the meeting."
The cigar was evenly baked and ignited, and smoke with a strong smell slowly emerged from Marelis's mouth and nostrils. After he coughed twice, his voice became much better. "The Thunder Army will use the help of the magical technique to launch a raid on the Moonless Night a few days later. They will all gain the ability to see objects in the dark and can raid for more than two hundred miles overnight. Therefore, this raid will attack the weak areas behind the King's Army camp."
Is there a weak area behind the camp? Earl Hall thinks that Donde Mipp is too presumptuous. Where is the weak on the front line? This is a conclusion that can only be drawn after on-site investigation and thinking, and continuous temptation. There is absolutely no theorem of "weak behind it" or "the flanks are loopholes". Not to mention the Archbishop who has never fought at all, even Kante Hall himself would have to send his own son Feiqi to the front line to personally go there. After temptation, he dared to guess the weakness of the Thunder Army.
"Attacking the strong camp at night? Where is the purpose of Archbishop Donde Mipp? What instructions does he have for this battle?"
Marelis sniffed a cigar, held it for a moment, and then slowly spit it out as he spoke: "He said this was an opportunity to show his strength. Only when he could gain an advantage on the battlefield can he stand up straight in negotiations. The goddess will bless us with this victory. We should clearly realize that the nobles of the United Kingdom are also believers of the goddess. When we see that both sides are equal in strength and trigger a war may turn into a tug-of-war, and like the Principal of Aria to Feinberg, the devout nobles will stop the young king's unrealistic fantasy and greed!"
The smoke sucked a lot. Marelis tried a lot of effort when he said this, so he stopped for a long time, his eyelids drooped, and he looked tired of falling asleep. However, Earl Hall noticed that the old man was not really asleep, he just used his eyelids to cover the cunning look in his eyes.
"What information do you know is the most important, say it!" Earl Hall waved his hand to disperse the smoke around him: "At the meeting, many people know what Donde Mipp said. But you think that what you know has extremely high value and is difficult for others to know, otherwise you would not think that you can become the Baron of Blackwater from now on. If you don't think about yourself, you should also think of your mistress in the manor, your son and daughter who are hiding in Tawugang City?"
"Sir, I'm really aware of it, and I see thousands of miles!" Marelis' sleepy eyes suddenly widened, and he moved his body uneasyly on the chair, and the long ashes of the cigar were scattered onto his robe. He quickly covered his embarrassment with a word of praise, stabilized his emotions before saying: "The meeting decided to send the Thunder Army. Then I used the excuse to sort out the documents and overheard the conversation between him and the Thunder Army commander Bloomfield outside the archbishop's door."
"Only victory in battle cannot be achieved, the level of war cannot be increased - this is what Donde Mipp said. He told Bloomfield to try not to cause any death, especially the real nobles, so as not to cause unnecessary hatred. Show strength to the nobles of the United Kingdom and deter them, but not to cause any hatred. The newly established kingdom is actually the same as the kingdom at sunset, and the nobles cannot be in the same heart as the people on the throne."
Earl Hall pondered and twisted his beard, saying without hesitation: "I have heard this statement, and it seems that the same story has also reached the ears of the Archbishop. So what are the night attacks of the Thunder Army? What are they going to achieve?"
"Catch the lords and nobles in their sleep, invite them to the sanctuary, and then reach an agreement with the families of these lords, and then release them." Marelis rubbed his hands and said, "He said clearly that he could not kill people. Use the defense formed by divine art to resist the possible attack of swords and arrows. If he caught the nobles, he would evacuate quickly - without destroying, killing, setting fire, and staying. If he could take the opportunity to catch Earl Hall - Lord, this is what the old golden retriever of Tangde said - then he could directly achieve his goal. Also, he said that the same thing was to catch Fitch. I think he would definitely use the purpose of asking for ransom, increase expenses, and force the withdrawal of troops."
No, Archbishop Tangde would not do this, Count Hall thought. If he seized himself or Fitch - of course this was absolutely impossible - then he could indeed force Andrew to retreat, leading to the end of the war. If he captured other nobles, he would never ask for a bounty, but would only ask that noble family to make a promise in front of the goddess: go back and persuade Andrew to retreat. Then, the captured nobles will definitely be released intact, and perhaps the priest will also use some blessing magic to make them come back decently.
These "decent" nobles will try to make Andrew become indecent, and use various pressures to cause retreat. Earl Hall looked at Marelis and asked, "This news about you is indeed very important. You were not discovered at that time, were you?"
"No, no, of course not!" The old man seemed to suddenly be full of youth and a proud expression, and said, "I hid it immediately when I heard the news. No one saw it, nor would anyone doubt it. I have never told anyone about this news, and I will never say it in the future. In fact, I have a poor memory, and if I turn my head, I will forget about it."
"The United Kingdom will not forget this, nor will the Hall family." The Count patted the dust that did not exist on his body and said, "In the future, whether you are in the sect or in the Blackwater Manor, we must remember that we will not forget it. All that is left is to enjoy your life with peace of mind. Do you have anything else to say?"
"It's gone, but I may still have a chance to go back. After the King's Army wins, I will hear what the Archbishop has to say. I really hope to see that incompetent guy fall a big fall." Marelis smiled unconcealedly. "I'm always waiting for good news, just like every noble in the United Kingdom."
"You're right, everyone is waiting for the good news." Earl Hall nodded, then turned around and walked out. When he reached the door, he suddenly turned around and asked, "Where is the stable in Blackwater Manor?"
"Do you ask the guest stables in the south or the stables in the west where I keep racing horses?"
"I'll give you a racing horse in the back." The Count left without looking back.
Marelis stayed in the room without leaving. He sat on the chair, his eyes kept looking at the entrance and exit of the broken guard post. After a while, the cigar was about to burn out. He pressed the remaining eggplant hat and the ashes directly into the box, then took out the pear from it and placed it beside his mouth.
Sharp teeth grew out of the broken gums, biting the sugar shell with honey like a knife cutting into tofu. The sugar and honey melted quickly, but were greedily sucked back into his mouth before it dripped. A dull red light came out of his throat, like the suppressed magma in the crater.
"It's a pity that I didn't eat my fruit. But after smoking a while, I heard it for a while, it should be enough." Marelis's voice circulated in his throat, accompanied by white smoke, like smoke from a cigar. He ate the pears, and there was no left of the pear core and stem. He chewed them all into pieces and turned into residue, swallowing his stomach that was emitting high temperatures. Then, he made a vomiting sound like a cat expelling hair, and spit out some white and black viscous liquid on the ground.
"Marelis's brain and soul are really useless. It's so soon there's no smell, but fortunately he tricked the count over. Looking at my handwriting, I asked me where the stable was, and I thought I could get the test. You're just a self-righteous human fool." He laughed twice, stretched out his feet to clean up the residue on the ground. "The only question is how can Earl Hall smell like a devil? Could it be that the guy from hell also interfere in this matter? But there are no devils around him? Maybe you can inquire through the mage friend of his good daughter Benny. There are still powerful mages in this world, which must be wary."
"When the Count is swallowed by the vortex of the destruction of the abyss, his mage son will definitely become panicked. That is when I should appear. Friends who are helping in time are always unique!" Marelis retracted his teeth, bent down again, and walked out slowly with an empty box under his arm. If there was an earl's eyeliner outside, he would only see an old man without any threat (and flaws), but he would definitely not hear his inner monologue.
Chapter completed!