Our family is in decline

Thinking of this, he quickly walked into the castle, but at this time the housekeeper walked up and blocked him.

"Master Alvin, Madam asked the young master to meet him first when he comes back."

"Where is father? I want to see father!" He was like a child who was bullied outside and wanted to complain when he came home.

"I'm sorry, Master Alvin, the Earl is still busy."

Whoever believes this is an idiot. No matter how stupid Alvin is, there is no way he doesn’t know what Francis is doing there.

A father actually chooses to see his own son even when his subordinates are unwilling to see him?

Alvin was a bit mentally distorted when he was frustrated. When he was rejected at this time, he seemed to feel that everything around him, even the hanging portrait, was laughing at him.

Not to mention the smile on the butler's face at all times, which was even more ironic.

I was bullied outside and still bullied when I came back. Didn’t I come back in vain?

I can't beat Hamlet, but I can't beat you?

"You are just our dog!"

Alvin was completely controlled by his emotions, his eyes were red, he raised his fist and hit the housekeeper.

Although he was imprisoned for a while, Lance did not torture him and kept him well until he returned to cause trouble.

It can be said that he has the physique of a knight and can easily beat someone to a bloody head with one punch.

But the fist he swung out suddenly stopped in the air, and his body still maintained that movement.

It wasn't because of his conscience, but because the arm was grabbed by another big and generous hand.

It's not the butler, but Bruce, who has just stepped out, Bastia's true heir.

If Alvin is afraid of anything, besides his father, it is this eldest brother. Because he is too strong, he feels afraid of pressure as if he is out of control in front of him, as if no matter what he does, it is just a small fuss in front of his eldest brother.

"Let me go!" Alvin wanted to take his hand back, but the power gap was disappointing, and it was difficult for him to shake Bruce with both hands.

"Have you had enough trouble?" Bruce saw that the younger brother didn't have much expression on his face and continued to gesture, "Apologise to Mr. Butler."

Alvin couldn't bear it even with a little force, but the atmosphere was heightened to this point, and his pride didn't allow him to give in. Alvin choked his neck and refused to apologize.

Hamlet's sword could not make me retreat, nor the imprisonment and torture could make me bow.

Regardless of whether it is true or not, this is what he thinks.

Fortunately, the butler didn't really ask Alvin to apologize, but instead helped him explain.

"It's normal for Master Alvin to feel a little uncomfortable when he comes back. He just needs to take a rest."

Bruce saw the butler begging for mercy and then let go. However, Alvin was hit one after another and couldn't bear it at all, so he turned around and ran out.

Bruce didn't react at all when he saw his brother like this, as if he really treated Alvin as a child.

Instead, he turned to the housekeeper and apologized, "I'm sorry, Alvin never grows up."

"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, Master." The butler didn't pay attention to this. The smile on his face and his attitude became much more enthusiastic. "Bastia is really lucky to have Master Bruce."

It doesn’t matter if the trumpet becomes useless after practicing, it’s just for playing anyway, so it’s okay to play the big trumpet.

As someone who has watched the count's children grow up, the butler is very satisfied with Bruce as the heir.

If Alvin knew that both of them treated him as a child, he would probably be even more hurt.

In the past, it would have been a disaster for him to walk on the streets of Bastia with a little resentment. His anger would spread to anyone, even a wild dog on the roadside would be kicked.

But at this time, he was dodging those people and walked into the dark streets with no people, for fear of being recognized, just like the rats in the sewer.

Until suddenly a man stopped him on the street.

"Young man, do you long for power?"

Alvin looked up and saw a very strange man wrapped in a hooded black robe.

"Longing for your mother!"

I was full of resentment at first, but I didn't care about being stopped. I just punched him.

But the man didn't dodge and let the fist hit him.

This punch seemed to arouse Alvin's anger, and he suddenly lost his mind and attacked like crazy. He didn't have the skills to practice hard to learn combat skills, and he was completely like a beast.

But the strange thing was that the man allowed his fists and kicks to be used without making a whimper, like a target standing on the spot without any resistance at all.

The punches hit the flesh, but Alvin was just a flesh and blood body in the end. In his crazy state, his hands and feet were stained with blood, and he stopped breathing heavily until he was exhausted.

And when he looked at the person in front of him, he didn't react at all, and he didn't even move a step.

In the past, Alvin might have been able to realize that something was wrong, but now that he was being humiliated one after another, and faced with the huge power gap between him and Bruce just now, those words were infinitely tempting to him.

He urgently needs more powerful power to take back everything that belongs to him.

Alvin was silent for a moment and then spoke with his bleeding fist lowered.

"Who are you?"

"You can call me Preacher."

The strange thing is that after saying this, Alvin's injured fist recovered in just an instant.

…………

"No problem?"

"No, it went very smoothly. I didn't even see the lord. It was all handled by the people below. I followed the normal process of paying the money and then redeeming it. I didn't encounter any trouble on the way.

As for the equipment, I have checked it and there is nothing wrong with it. However, the damage left from the last battle has not been repaired. It will probably take time to repair it if you want to use it. "

The earl couldn't help but fall into thinking after hearing this. He originally thought that the other party would be entangled with this issue, but he didn't expect that it would end like this.

Could it be that I really thought wrong? So the lord is not as powerful as he thought?

Or is there a bigger conspiracy?

Francis knew that the count was suspicious, so he would say nothing if you didn't ask me.

To be honest, as a loyal minister of the Lord of Reims, Francis knew that there was destined to be a war between Hamlet and Bastia.

If one wants to revive Hamlet, one must spit out the territory that the earl has swallowed.

If one wants to strengthen Bastia, it must annex Hamlet's last territory.

He could feel that both the earl and the lord had irreconcilable conflicts, that is, they both coveted the other's territory.

However, he had already revealed Bastia's current deficit to Lord Reims. With an army that could organize the captured knights, it might not be impossible to capture Bastia, which was stuck in the quagmire.

It's just that Lord Lance didn't seem to care about this, but still allowed him to redeem the knights' complete equipment as agreed.

Although most of them were damaged due to battle, compared with the efficiency of playing a set for half a year, they can still be used after repairs, which can be regarded as easing Bastia's problem.

Francis doesn’t know this either, he just needs to do his own thing anyway and that’s it…

Even when he had not become Hamlet's spy, Francis was a little resistant to such reports, because the old guy, the Count, really put a kind of inexplicable pressure on people. If he was not careful, this old guy would find a group of eagles to assassinate him.

And if you often make big promises but don't keep them, no one can force you anyway.

In other words, there is no need to honor the dead.

To a certain extent, this high-pressure rule is also the reason why Francis turned his allegiance to Lance. He has to be afraid of having no future with you.

But at this time, he has collected some key information from the report just now, and is waiting for the liaison officer to find...

The carriage on his side had just driven out of the castle when he heard the sound of hawking halfway through.

"Silver scale breastplate, one piece of hardware."

Looking out the window, I saw a man hawking on the street, but what he had in front of him was a tattered, rusted, and almost scrapped breastplate.

Nowadays, most of Bastia's craftsmen have been dragged by the count to blacksmith to fill the equipment vacancies, and the prices of private equipment have also increased, but no one cares about this stuff.

It was said that the garbage was lifted up, and no one even picked it up when it was thrown on the ground, not to mention the price of the hardware, so no one paid attention to him at all.

Only Francis understood something when he heard this. It was a secret code for connection.

But he had only been back for half a day, and the other party actually knew that Lord Lance had a terrifying control over Bastia!

After returning, Francis also quickly prepared and headed to the agreed place, a place that would not attract attention.

As a pyromancer, he couldn't be unprepared under the high pressure of the church, a place where his identity was stripped away.

"What's the price of the shirt?"

"Nine pounds fifteen pence."

The two parties did not meet each other, and negotiations began after the code was exchanged.

"The war between Bastia and Gunshan has stopped. There must be some problem within the barbarians.

However, the earl had no intention of marching into the mountains, because Bruce, who was the commander on the front line, returned.

I guess it's still a matter of equipment and logistics, especially the autumn harvest, which is also related to Bastia's survival. "

"Hmm~" There was just a low moan in the dim environment, indicating that he was listening.

Francis didn't pay attention to this, but continued to talk quickly about what he knew.

…………

A team shrouded in despair and fear in the bleak autumn wind walked through the wilderness and dense forest.

They are basically dressed as barbarians, but most of them are women and children, because the old and the weak have long since returned to the mountains.

There are only some young men dressed as mercenaries and barbarians guarding the outside. What makes people feel even more depressed is that even these young men holding weapons have confusion and uneasiness on their faces.

Like a cub separated from its mother and wandering blindly, everything around it seems to be full of danger.

It can be seen that the mixed decorations indicate that these are not members of the same tribe.

Yes, these are the teams composed of the escaped members of those tribes that were attacked by the Wolf Fang Tribe led by War Wolf.

As for why it was certain, it was because the man leading the team was carrying a large snake-patterned bow, and it was Boslake.

Previously, they wanted to spend this difficult winter under the protection of those big tribes. For this reason, these mercenaries who returned to the mountains worked hard for those big tribes and wanted to give their tribesmen a chance to survive.

But it is a pity that it has become what it is now due to various abstract encounters.

Even he didn't want to think too much about the attack on the Wolf Fang Tribe. The fear was filled with fear. That kind of thing was really terrifying.

Not many of the team could escape. If he hadn't fallen far behind, he probably wouldn't have been able to escape.

It was precisely in response to that situation that the barbarian coalition forces were forced to withdraw from Bastia.

For those tribes, the mountains are their roots, and the supplies are all here. It is not their turn to escape, so they can only stay.

But for Boslake, the mountains are no longer enough, and he has to escape if he wants to survive.

There was no doubt that those presences cast a terrifying shadow on him.

"Ahem! Ahem!"

A teenager in the crowd suddenly started coughing. It could be seen that he didn't have the muscular body of a barbarian at all. He was thin and pale. He coughed several times after walking for a few steps, for fear of dying on the way.

Boslake couldn't help but feel a little heartbroken when he saw it, because that was his son. Because the ritual failed, although he saved one life, it also caused the root of the disease.

"It's okay, kid. I'll carry you on my back."

"I'm fine." The young man didn't complain about being tired. He still insisted on walking by himself. He just couldn't help but ask, "Father, will Hamlet really accept us?"

"Yes, Hamlet and Bastia are different."

To be honest, Boslake didn't know, but he understood that the team must have a goal as a spiritual pillar, otherwise they would collapse instantly if the goal was missing.

But luckily for them, the barbarian coalition retreated, and Bastia's army did not block it immediately due to internal matters, so the road from the mountains to Hamlet was smooth all the way without encountering any military obstruction.

Otherwise, out of the hundred or so people here, not ten would be able to escape.

But fortunately, with the protection of the mountains, they had passed through the most dangerous control area and were now in Hamlet.

And entering the dense forest, their ability to survive will be greatly enhanced.

However, at this moment, a shocking cry suddenly came from the dense forest.

The hoarse voice seemed like flesh and blood were being torn apart, bones were broken, and it was also like the wailing of countless wronged souls, directly stopping the hundred-man team in place.

Because an even more terrifying scene appeared, a huge figure appeared in the sky, its wings spread out as if overwhelming, and the suffocating pressure instantly swallowed up everyone's last sanity.

"Ah! So powerful...no one can stop them..."

"The elders never warned me of something so...evil."

"What warrior - male or female - can face such a terrifying thing...?"

Fear and despair spread further among the crowd, and that emotion seemed to attract the attention of the black figure, who pressed directly over him.

Some people collapsed and knelt on the ground to pray.

Or just stand there numbly waiting to die.

There are also mothers who just hug their children. No matter how scared they are, it is difficult for her to give up her instinctive protection.

But not everyone gives in to fear.

Boslake pulled the snake bow in his hand and roared at everyone.

"Look at me! You're all going to get through this - all of you!" (End of Chapter)