Not a Witch

"But you have to get used to this kind of thing sooner or later. The master is someone I specially chose, and he is destined to be extraordinary." Kornos, the witch, naturally called the young man her master, her moving voice, Let the people around you involuntarily turn around and take a few more glances.

She is really a beautiful and lovely maid, although she has the potential to be a bit poisonous.There are a lot of nobles in the imperial capital, and everyone has long seen such a combination of master and servant, but it is a little surprising that it appears in such a relatively deserted street.

"Yeah, I know." Elio nodded, as if he didn't care about that statement.

"We should still be busy today." He finally thought of how to interrupt the maid's complaints.

"Yes, but the young master doesn't want to escape from this. As your maid, I have the obligation to train a qualified master."

"Really, I feel a lot of pressure." Elio rubbed his forehead and looked at Anna who was a little helpless.

The slightly plump maid smiled and said nothing, watching the two quarreling, and then kept moving forward.

They crossed a few deserted streets and boarded a carriage that had been prepared in a deserted place, and then the driver sitting in the carriage began to let the horses go forward.During this period, the coachman didn't ask any questions, and didn't need to give instructions. All actions were done in such a tacit agreement, as if they had been planned long ago.

The brown-gray carriage, simple and ordinary, quietly passed through the ancient streets, and slowly approached the north side of the city, where there was a camp of the garrison army.

The flame in the copper basin was burning, and the bright flame illuminated the road and the gate. The guards guarding the gate stood quietly, not saying a word in the night.

As the night deepened, a carriage slowly approached from the intersection, and the rustling sound of the wheels was particularly eye-catching in the cold environment.

When they approached, the guards stopped him, and then the driver gave documents and secret orders, and soon these people respectfully gave way.

In the city fortress in summer night, you can see the lights everywhere, as well as the moths that revolve around the lights.

The carriage stopped at a corner of the fortress, and then an officer in black escorted these people to a strong tower, where the guards were tight, there were several layers of walls, and there were many soldiers patrolling and watching.

A few people in black hooded windbreakers walked under the tower, and then gradually descended to the depths of the bottom under the drive of some kind of hanging basket-like stone ladder.

Walking out of the closed and narrow 'stone staircase room', several people followed the soldiers into the cold and damp underground passage.

The sun is not visible here, and the surroundings are pitch black. Occasionally, the sound of water droplets can be heard, which is particularly clear on the stones on the ground.

One empty prison cell after another was revealed on both sides of the passage, most of them were empty, while some held indistinct figures. Although they couldn't see clearly, the smell of blood and rancidity in the air was enough for people to recognize The brutality and despair of this place.

One of them seemed very uncomfortable, covering his mouth and nose, feeling the urge to gag, but was quickly patted on the shoulder by a petite figure behind him, and then calmed down.

The soldiers leading the way looked back, waited indifferently for a while, and continued to lead the way when they saw that the three were stable again.

No one spoke on the road, only those figures in the cell heard the sound of walking, some woke up startled, dragged their chains, and made hoarse shouts, but unfortunately, they couldn't speak, probably because their tongues had been pulled out.

Finally, the leading soldier in front stopped. He inspected the prison cell next to the aisle, hung the lantern on it, took out a square box, and placed it on the ground. Then he made a simple gesture to the three behind him. gesture, and then stood more than ten meters away and waited.

Seeing this, the three nodded, then came to the cell, pressed the box, and a dark blue sound-proof barrier spread, covering the cell and the three of them.

The petite figure stepped forward and knocked on the secret lock of the prison door, making a crisp sound, waking up the figure sitting on the ground inside.

Like a pair of cheetah's pupils lit up in the dark night, this figure looked at the three people who appeared in front of the cell, and after a few seconds, struggled to sit up.

"You come to me, what do you want me to do." His voice was hoarse, and although it sounded dry, he could still speak.

"A very smart man, as expected of my chosen pawn." The petite figure nodded, and then took off the hood, revealing silver-purple hair, and a pair of magnificent silver pupils blooming in the dark night.

"You need a new master." The maid lifted her skirt, bent down, and looked down at the man who was rotting like a corpse. The moving voice was so natural, as if it should be so.

"Heh." The figure in the cell sneered, then fell silent.

"I'm already a useless person, and my reputation has been ruined. Who else can I work for?"

"That's right, you are already disabled. But, I can repair it a little bit, so that you can continue to use your residual energy and make it a useful tool." The maid's voice was so proud.

"What can you give me, or why should I trust you?"

"Your wife and child are still alive." That was all the maid said, and the nearly rotten body began to struggle, crawling forward like a mass of rotten meat on the ground.

"Really, really? You didn't lie to me."

"No, it's just a simple matter for us." After finishing speaking, the maid stood up, and another mature maid beside her nervously took out a hidden gem from her waist pocket.

She spread out the gems and put them in the palm of her hand, and then a moving image emerged.

In the picture, a woman is wearing a headscarf, holding a child, and facing the front of the picture a little nervously, seeing where they are standing, it seems to be a village near the forest, and there are a few houses built of earth bricks around.

There is no sound in the picture, but the woman in it seems to have opened her mouth to say something, and it can be roughly guessed that it is some words of comfort based on the shape of her mouth. 'Don't worry, I'm fine with the baby...'

Looking at the figure in the picture, the black figure in the cell seemed to be crying and laughing, with a strange voice and tears in his eyes.

"Aha, ha... woo...uh... woo." He panted heavily, and another slight smell of blood overflowed from his body.

"Okay, you should be satisfied now." The silver-purple-haired maid asked her companion to put the gem away.

"En." The figure lowered his head again, his breath gradually calmed down, as if he was thinking about how to make his wish come true as much as possible.

"There's one more question you didn't answer me." His mood gradually stabilized, and he raised his head again, staring at the petite maid in white silk with piercing eyes.

"It's really troublesome, but you are lucky today, I still have a lot of patience, after all, I have to share my worries with my lovely master." The maid lifted up her skirt and took off a special badge pinned from the side of her thigh .

The sharp crescent moon is as sharp as a hook, one corner is bright red, and the other corner is faintly emerging in the veins of clouds and mist.This is the symbol of the Dark Moon Clan, representing this special organization that has served the royal family for nearly a thousand years.

Staring fixedly at the badge, feeling the icy aura on it intentionally or unintentionally, suddenly, the man laughed.

"Haha, ha, haha, in the end, it's still like this...it's still like this...his voice was bitter, and he nodded helplessly at the end."

"Yes, I understand." The tone was full of emotion and sigh, as if accepting fate.

"Very well, that's it. Then, now, pledge your allegiance to your new master." After speaking, the maid finally gave way and took a few steps back, allowing the figure of the boy to step forward.

"You don't need to know his name for the time being, you just need to swear." After finishing speaking, the maid put her hand on the boy's shoulder to let him step forward with peace of mind until her toes touched the fence of the cell.

The man raised his head and glanced briefly, then stopped paying attention, and slowly lowered that unruly head until it finally touched the cold and hard stone surface.

Moisture came from his forehead, he looked at the leather toes vaguely in the darkness, slowly stepped forward, touched them, and then whispered in his mouth.

"I swear allegiance to you, to be your faithful servant and fang, to the end of the world."

While listening to the man swear, the maid whispered on the boy's shoulder to remind him, her warm words seemed to be licking his ears.

"I forgive your sins and allow you to mount your horse with your sword again." He repeated the words taught by the maid beside him.

"Fight for me again, Darcy, the general of the empire."

------

The wind blows through the high sky, through the snow-covered mountains and forests, through the emerald green land and the bustling city, and after meeting the humid water vapor in the south, it finally turns into a thunderstorm, and the continuous drizzle begins to fall .

After entering the summer, Lorraine Hill's time to go out has been greatly reduced. Now she is sorting out the materials of Longjiao Province in her room, and a banquet is being held in the hall next door. All the famous nobles of Longjiao Province are present.

"I would like to invite our hostess of Viscount Winrani, the beautiful Ms. Gravell~" Amidst the host's introduction and applause, a beautiful noble girl walked down the stairs slowly with a dress in her hand.

"Oh, what a beautiful girl."

"As expected of a descendant of the Wenlanizi family."

"It's so rare to see her, I'm really honored." Many nobles praised the girl's face.

"I'm very glad that you all came to my mansion. Because of the previous war, I'm afraid the reception was not good enough. Please forgive me." Geweier said the words prepared in advance, and greeted me softly and naturally.

"How could it be so rich."

"Yes."

"Indeed." The nobles present naturally knew what happened to Viscount Winlani at the end of last year, so they were not surprised. On the contrary, they were even more surprised that the family could recover so quickly.

After a lively exchange of pleasantries, the topic finally shifted to the main topic of the banquet.

"Actually, I invite everyone here this time because I have an idea and a proposal that I want to discuss with you." After Geweier drank several times of wine, a slight blush appeared on his face, and his charming face firmly attracted the attention of everyone present. Even some noble ladies have to admit that this girl has a temperament that I still feel pity for.

"Oh, what is it?" Everyone replied casually, thinking that the girl wanted to ask for help. After all, they heard that a lot of wealth of the Wenlani family was destroyed in the war.

"I just hope that everyone in Longjiao Province can build a loose alliance to resist possible crises."

Geweier uttered surprising words, and the banquet fell into a dead silence for a while.

"Miss Geweier is joking." The ears of several nobles were dripping with sweat, such remarks were tantamount to conspiracy.

"I know what everyone is afraid of, but now it has reached the point where it has to be." Geweier shook his head.

"I think everyone should know the fate of the Baskar family, and how many famous families in the southern border have been passed down for hundreds of years, how many are left now." She said the fact that everyone was faintly worried and anxious.

"Those legions directly under the royal family will not let us go."

"The regent not only wants the Baskar family to disappear, but he also wants the nobles in the entire southern border to disappear. In this way, the entire southern border can be turned into a royal territory, although it is nominally a bureaucratic institution belonging to the empire. Jurisdiction, but what is the difference between that and actually being controlled by them." This alluring and beautiful girl made a clear analysis, her snow-white skin radiated a moving color against the background of the crow-blue dress and the firelight.

"Just like His Majesty the Emperor in the past, His Highness the Regent's appetite will only be big or small, because they are twin sons with common ideals and desires."

"This..." The nobles present looked at each other, still not daring to answer casually.

"In the hearts of these two cruel majesties, nobles are probably just superfluous things. All he needs is a servant who absolutely obeys him. Everything belongs to him, and he will be the master of everything."

"Such will and ideas can be seen repeatedly from the policies and actions of these years. If this continues, the empire will no longer be a free place, it will become a prison, and everyone will become slaves in the prison."

"And even you and I are not immune." Geweier said this fact in a low voice.

"Sorry, may I interrupt the beautiful Miss Gravell?" A bearded nobleman stepped out from the crowd and came to the center of the dance floor. He was wearing a light green and gold-rimmed dress, and he seemed to be a Viscount.

"What you said, everyone present may not have thought about it. But why everyone is indifferent, have you thought about it?"

"How about knowing these truths, even if he is the truth, we are still powerless."

"Do you know how powerful the empire is? It's easy to mobilize an army of millions, and it's easy to suppress us. How can you question and oppose at will."

"Of course I know the strength of the empire, but you don't necessarily need to fight against millions of troops." As Geweier began to recall the words that Miss Jialan reminded her to remember before the banquet.

"First of all, in the northern part of the empire, the cold disaster is not over, and it is difficult to protect itself. It is impossible to go south and let a group of extremely hungry people pass through the fertile central part of the empire. Everyone should be able to guess what will happen."

"Well." Thinking of the rumors of eating tree bark and even corpses during the famine, the nobles present shuddered and shook their heads. It is indeed impossible to mobilize the army in the north.

"Now the Lord of the Western Territory is the elderly Duke of Griffin. He can almost be said to be the elder of the current King Regent. He has a tough and stubborn personality. He cannot easily accept the dispatch of the King Regent. Moreover, they have to be distracted to guard the border to prevent Clancia from invading. Repeatedly, it is impossible to send effective army support."

"It seems to make sense." The nobles began to waver slightly.

"As for the Landsworth family in the east, that's even better."

"Miss Frocia, the former crown princess, disappeared during that wedding, which caused the Landsworth family to be worried about it all the time. Now the upper echelon of the empire began to reject the elves, but the Landsworth family has always been friendly with the elves. And of elven blood."

"Many nobles in the eastern region are more or less mixed elves and humans. They do not agree with the new policy of the empire. Even when the emperor went west, the Duke of Unicorn voted against it. Naturally, it is impossible to help the regent send troops. "

"In the end, we are not plotting rebellion or setting off a rebellion, but we choose not to accept certain unreasonable orders, and at the same time, everyone keeps the same pace and supports each other."

"If it weren't for the current dangerous situation, I don't think everyone would want to go this far, but the fact is, if we don't unite, it will be dangerous whether you can be nobles in the future."

"Look at those lords who have been expelled by the investigators in various names. Do you really have to wait until the day they put a knife on their necks before resisting?"

"That would make no sense at all."

"Today, there are only 20 to 30 imperial legions stationed in the southern border, and they are still distributed in various provinces. As long as we don't face up to resist, they will not be able to mobilize all of them. This is tantamount to abandoning the forest just to cut down a tree."

"We only need to face an imperial army of 2 people at most, and as long as we can hold on."