Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 458 Rosario's Twelve Trials ([-])
"...Ryan Grant was beloved by the Holy Spirit, who lived with courage and piety, and returned with joy and honor to the land of high heaven. Today a pious man leaves us for a while, and one day day, his spirit will return to our country in pure light, bringing with us the salvation we pray for..."

The Patriarch of the Central Patriarchate, who was sent by the Supreme Church to preside over the funeral ceremony, stood beside the oak coffin of Lord Lane Grant, chanting.

His dry and numb prayer voice echoed empty between the walls of the church in Jiaoshi Town.

Xia Houyan stood bored in the auditorium of the church, looked around, was so bored, he reached out and pulled out the peony flower from the pocket of his black dress, put it in his mouth and chewed it.

It is twelve o'clock noon on March [-], ninety-nine ninety-six in the imperial calendar.

The funeral ceremony for the Marquis of Lane Grant started at [-]:[-] in the morning, and it has been going on for a full five hours, and there is still no sign of it coming to an end.

During the whole process, Xiahou, who was forced to wear a formal dress by Isa Sandria, just watched helplessly one after another nobles who ran out from that corner of the empire and walked up to the minaret. While wiping the crocodile's tears, he sobbed and told about the trivial past between himself and the Marquis of Lane Grant.

After the group of relatives and friends finished their testimonials, it was the turn of a group of religious figures in fine costumes to make their debut:
Amidst the smoke of frankincense and myrrh, the group of high-ranking church leaders wearing white crowns performed a series of religious rituals that smelled of feudal dregs on the embalmed corpse of Marquis Grant.

This is boring, isn't it? It perfectly fits Xia Houyan's imagination of the Supreme Church.

His Majesty Anya, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Xia Houyan, was obviously not too impressed with the fancy rituals of the Imperial Church of Humanity:

Every few minutes, Her Majesty the Elf Queen, who came all the way from the Stardust Protectorate, would secretly raise her little finger to scratch the palm of the official Xiahou while the other nobles who participated in the ceremony were not paying attention, and made him feel nervous. Itchy.

Standing on the other side of Xia Houyan, Chief of General Staff Quentin, who had come all the way from the emperor to attend the funeral, did not notice the petty movements of the couple.

Chief of Staff Quentin was not tall, and his vision was completely blocked by a row of candles in front of the funeral auditorium, so he couldn't see the ceremony created by the imperial bishops pretending to be ghosts beside the coffin;
Because of this, he seemed to be a little more impatient than the high official Xiahou.

"His grandma, when will these idiots of the Supreme Church finish their work..." Quentin's chief of staff squeezed out a rather irreverent complaint to Xia Houyan from the corner of his mouth.

"You ask me, who the hell am I asking?" Xia Houyan also responded in a low voice.

The last time he met the leader of the Imperial Army was in the back garden of the Igor family’s mansion in the imperial capital—it’s been more than a year since he saw him. Quentin’s chief of staff was probably tired by the tense war situation , the demeanor of the whole person looked old and tired a lot.

"Your human etiquette is really vulgar and vulgar..." Queen Anya also curled her lips quietly.

Her Majesty the Elf Queen, like her distant cousin Vilf, is the number one chauvinist of the Great Elf nation at heart, and has never paid attention to the upstart civilizations such as humans and orcs that rose later.

In order to condemn this vile act of racial discrimination, Xia Houyan squeezed her buttocks hard.

Unfortunately, almost at the same time, he seemed to feel a bit chilly on the back of his head: Isa Sandria was arranged at the back of the funeral auditorium due to her low title - Jahouyan was almost certain Well, my fiancée must be in a dark corner of the church, watching my every move with murderous eyes.

Quentin's chief of staff naturally couldn't predict what kind of torture the young lord beside him would endure tonight.

He looked at the cardinal patriarch who had anointed the body of Marquis Grant, and sighed:
"Who would have imagined that, but Ryan Grant! I never expected that the majestic 'Lionheart' would leave this world at such a time..."

Xia Houyan said in his heart that in fact, I had long wanted to take advantage of people's unpreparedness to kill her, but I didn't expect the green-skinned orcs to attack faster than I did.

On the minaret, the Patriarch of the Church solemnly announced that the ordination ceremony before the burial of the Marquess of Grant had been completed.He stretched out his arms and chanted an ancient Aeolian rune in a loud voice. Immediately, a round of holy light spread from his side, brightly illuminating the entire church.

Similar pastor chants are often used by the priests in the church to coax the vulgar and ignorant villagers and little boys, but the funerals in the church are all well-informed high-ranking nobles of the empire, and they are not interested in it.

Seeing the poor response from the crowd, the Patriarch Cardinal had no choice but to walk down the viewing platform in dismay, commanding several guards of honor of the Central Army to lift up the coffin of Marquis Lane Grant.

Since the Marquis Grant died too suddenly and failed to leave any will, the nobles of the empire debated for a while on the matter of "where to bury him", and finally the Grand Duke Rosario made the decision During the war, everything was kept simple, and the Marquess Grant was buried in the nearby Jiaoshi Town Cemetery first, and then reburied after the war was over.

So, two rows of ten guards of honor in total carried the huge and heavy oak coffin through the crowd of funeral guests and walked towards the cemetery outside the church.

In the church, the nobles who finally waited for the end of this lengthy ceremony immediately seemed to relax a lot.

Xia Houyan was about to run away with Queen Anya, but was stopped by Quentin's chief of staff.

The head of the Imperial Army looked at the elf queen beside Xia Houyan, smacked his lips, and hesitated to speak.

How could Queen Anya not know that Quentin's chief of staff had a confidential matter to discuss with the Duke of Shuangfengling? She stood on tiptoe, lightly pecked the lord's mouth with a sweet smile, and then turned towards Yi in a demonstrative manner. Sha Sandria raised her face in the direction where she was, and then walked out of the church with a long skirt.

Xia Houyan took a handkerchief from the hand of Knight Commander Cousins, and wiped his cold sweat wildly.

"Master Igor." Chief of Staff Quentin watched as Commander Cousins ​​went all the way, and whispered to Mr. Xiahou, "To tell you the truth, before I came to Jiaoshi Town to attend the funeral, First, I took a few staff officers to the civil fort."

Xia Houyan pricked up his ears.

After decades of ups and downs in the military, the famous Quentin de Amavis is definitely not an idler who likes to hang around with nothing to do - it must be something special for this guy to go to a ruined civil fortress justified.

"The post-war report of the Civil Fort Battle has been sent to every staff officer in the military headquarters. I believe you must have read it..." Chief of General Staff Quentin led Xia Houyan to an empty small room in the church. In the corner, he took out two cigars from the cigar box, and distributed one to the Duke of Frost Maple Ridge, "... I don't know if you have noticed, but from the beginning to the end, there is a huge mystery about the occurrence of this battle."

Xia Houyan lit the cigar with the flame from his fingertips, and narrowed his eyes:
"You mean, those chariots of 'Blood and Blood' that suddenly appeared under the castle?"

"Yes, but to be more precise, it's not just about the siege vehicles, it's about the entire battle!" Quentin took a sip of his cigar and lowered his voice, "Master Igor, This battle really started too suddenly! At 20:[-] am on March [-]th, not a single imperial sentinel on the watchtower issued an early warning, nor did a single Griffin air cavalry issue a warning—then More than [-] chariots of 'Flesh and Flesh', as well as tens of thousands of orc wolf cavalry and infantry, appeared under the castle of Tumu in an instant, as if they were divine soldiers descended from heaven!"

Xia Houyan nodded slowly with his cigar in his mouth.

On March [-]th, he rode Sindragosa to the Tumu Castle after the orcs' attack had begun, so he did not witness the beginning of this epic battle;
However, at that time, he was equally puzzled as to why the imperial defenders in the earthen fortress allowed the firing line of the "Flesh and Flesh" to advance all the way to the earthen fortress—objectively speaking, without the support of these heavy firepower weapons, It is impossible for the federal orcs to break through the rock-solid outer wall of the civil fort anyway.

According to the after-sales report, these "flesh and blood disasters" didn't even drive over from the other side of the canyon-they appeared in the most ideal attack position in an instant like ghosts appearing!
"I brought professionals to the ruins of the civil castle just to solve this mystery." Quentin's chief of staff leaned a little tiredly against the stone wall of the church, gloomyly looking at the colorful windows of the church, "Master Igor, Don't tell me, we really found a clue..."

"What's the clue?" Xia Houyan asked.

"On the east side of the civil fortress, we found this special...fabric on the remains of the destroyed wreckage of the 'Flesh and Flesh' chariot." Chief of General Staff Quentin groped in his arms , took out a rag the size of a fingernail, and handed it to the Duke of Shuangfengling.

Xia Houyan took the rag and looked at the light.

At first, the rag gave him a smooth touch, just like the most common silk fabric.

However, as long as you look closely, you can find its extraordinary features:
This piece of cloth seems to be completely colorless - when Jahouyan bends it under the light, its surface will show changing blurred colors, which looks like a psychedelic dream.

Xia Houyan pondered for a moment, squeezed the piece of cloth harder with his hands, and immediately felt a faint elemental fluctuation through his fingertips.

"Magic props?" He returned the piece of cloth to Quentin's chief of staff and asked.

"To be precise, it is invisible cloth." Quentin's chief of staff sighed, "According to the analysis of the Molten Valley craftsman I brought, this cloth has been processed by a special magic process, and it can be illuminated by natural light. Hiding the things hidden behind it - this is not relying on optics, but the confusion of the senses of all observers by magic. Lord Igor, the 'Flesh and Flesh' cannon and those orc vanguards, I am afraid it is the With this kind of magic cloth, we crossed the canyon to hide from the sky, and only then did we complete the surprise attack on the civil castle."

"Good stuff, invisible cloth!" Xia Houyan didn't expect the rough orcs of the Glorious Federation to be able to play such tactical tricks, and couldn't help admiring, "However, when we cleaned up the battlefield, why didn't we collect the cloth they brought over?" An invisible cloth?"

"Because the duration of this cloth is limited, once the magic power contained in it is exhausted, it will instantly dissipate into ashes in the air." Chief of General Staff Quentin sighed, "The reason why we can find the remaining The rag, purely by luck, it happened to be sandwiched between the bearings of the wrecked chariot, and did not come into contact with the air, so the craftsmen of Molten Valley could solidify it urgently."

"I don't know where the federal orcs got such high-quality goods..." Xia Houyan watched Quentin's chief of staff put this piece of invisible cloth sample into his arms, and sighed enviously, "I thought this gang The big boss who can only sing war songs, doesn't have any technology to make magic materials at all..."

"They really don't have any." Quentin's chief of staff looked very upset, "If I'm right, this invisible cloth should be made by the southern demons, and the Glorious Federation paid a lot of money to buy it from the demons— —This kind of manufacturing process involving magic and illusion is the specialty of the gang of demons. Damn, these sons of bitches not only sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, but also take the opportunity to make a lot of war money..."

Upon hearing the name "Demon Race", Xia Houyan's eyeballs immediately rolled.

Chief of Staff Quentin didn't notice the Duke of Shuangfengling who was making small calculations, and sighed to himself:
"However, even if this invisible cloth is discovered, the behavior of the federal troops on March [-]th is still very suspicious! According to the builder in charge of building the civil fort, the location where the orcs first broke through the wall of the civil fort happened to be March [-]nd At night, there were cracks on the wall, where it was being urgently repaired at that time—in other words, the Federation orcs went to the weak link of the city wall as soon as they came up!"

"What do you mean?" Xia Houyan asked tentatively.

"In the garrison of the Tumu Fort at that time, there must have been an insider secretly passing information to the Glorious Federation!" Quentin's chief of staff spat bitterly, "Every move of ours may be written as a secret letter like bare buttocks. On the desks of Omar Setting Sun and William Hyde! Master Igor, do you still remember the failed push on October 31 last year? The orcs that we thought had been severely injured by the 'Hercules' were unaware They rushed out of the camp unscathed! I now suspect that even the "Hercules" air raid, the orcs had already prepared in advance because of the tip-off..."

Quentin's chief of staff's analysis was well-founded, and Xia Houyan nodded in agreement.

According to his knowledge of the blood and moral qualities of the men of the empire, it would be really strange if there were not a few traitors and scum who surrendered to the enemy in the army these days.

"Next month, we will dispatch another batch of reserve troops to the Burning Crystal Canyon to supplement the losses of the central and eastern armies and prepare for the next military plan." Chief of General Staff Quentin took off his mouth The cigar in his pocket, staring at the Duke of Frost Maple Ridge beside him, "But before that, Grimm and I want to make sure that the rest of the people are clean. The senior officers of the Eastern Army of the Central Army, besides Grimm, I I can’t believe it, but your Frost Maple Ridge is different——Master Igor, are you interested in doing me and Grim Rosario a favor, and let the Frost Maple Ridge Workers’ Art Troupe temporarily take over the dirty work of suppressing counter-revolutionaries? ?”

Xia Houyan thought for a moment, then muttered in embarrassment:
"Chief of General Staff Quentin, you have to understand that things like eradicating traitors and counter-revolutionaries have always offended people. If some unjust, false or wrongly decided cases are unlucky, I will have to bear the infamy for the rest of my life..."

"The military department will give you more money." Quentin's chief of staff said dryly.

"It's a deal!" Xia Houyan laughed, stretched out his palm and slapped Quentin's chief of staff hard.

(End of this chapter)