The Law of the Silent Gentleman

"And the bandits who have suddenly taken over the hill recently... must have been the Viscount de Ranchocourt himself and his subordinates in disguise."

Giuliano and Antoine were surprised from ear to ear. How could the Viscount become a robber? It's a fantasy! The bard did not show any surprise at all, and watched the three of them with a smile on the corner of his mouth. I don't know if he had already guessed the whereabouts of the Viscount like Enzo, or he was hiding his inner turmoil with his superb acting skills.

"Why did the viscount do this?" Antoine grabbed Enzo's sleeve and shook it vigorously, "You tell me the reason! I don't believe it...the viscount is wrong for a good nobleman, how could he fall into the grass and become a bandit?"

Enzo pulled his sleeves out of the young swordsman's hands calmly, and folded his hands on his chest: "I was just guessing. I didn't know for sure until I heard that there were indeed fortresses or ruins on that mountain."

"Is there anything special about the ruins on the mountain? Isn't it just... a ruin?"

"Those are not ordinary ruins, but the fortress guarding the 'Gate of the Underground'. It must have been very grand and prosperous in ancient times. Later, the world changed and only the ruins remained. But even the ruins must be stronger than ordinary fortresses built by humans." If it is stronger, it will be overkill for a bandit camp."

The bard's eyes lit up: "Ah, you mean to say that under the ruins is an ancient underground city, and the viscount covets the treasures that have not been taken away from the city?"

Antoine looked at the poet, then at Enzo, and finally exchanged a sympathetic look with Giuliano. "What are you talking about, why can't I understand a word?"

The poet explained: "In ancient times—before Emperor Omaran drew his sword and rose up, even earlier than the 'Dragon God Comes', at that time, human beings were still a barbarian tribe on a small southern island, and it was the people who ruled the world. The ancient gods, that is, the many opposing twin gods we worship today. Their families multiplied and multiplied on the earth: the elves ruled the upper world, and the dwarves ruled the underground world. They each built many magnificent cities and temples to worship Gods. Later, the Dragon God came and set off a protracted war, which almost destroyed the civilized world at that time, so the ancient gods sent many ships capable of flying, named "Black Crane Boat", to pick up their families and take them After going to the kingdom among the stars, only some people who did not have time to take the spaceship stayed on the ground and fell into a long sleep. It is said that the ancient dwarves loved to hoard treasures, but those gold and silver jewels could not be brought to the "Black Crane". Therefore, they were left in the underground city. In the future, there will always be ambitious adventurers dreaming of getting rich overnight, hoping to find the gate leading to the underground and enter the abandoned ancient city to search for treasure... If The ruins on that mountain are really a fortress that guarded the gate in ancient times, so the robbers occupying the fortress are very suspicious, perhaps they robbed houses just to deceive people, and their real purpose is probably to hoard treasures underground."

Giuliano quickly understood the poet's explanation. That mountain was in the territory of the Baron de Navigne, so in order not to startle the enemy, he had to occupy this territory first. In this way, the former Baron de Navigne's cause of death became suspicious. Antoine said that he "died suddenly". How can there be such a coincidence in the world? Nine times out of ten, it was the Vicomte de Ranchocourt who was behind the murderous hand. Is the mysterious client's desire to take the life of the viscount also related to this? What did he say? "...He can be regarded as a relative of my master, but some recent misbehaviors have greatly angered the master and made him very troubled." Could it be that the viscount's plan has been leaked and aroused the dissatisfaction of a certain big man, so he wants to kill the viscount to silence ? Or, the behind-the-scenes employer also coveted the wealth at the foot of the mountain, so he wanted to get rid of the stumbling block of the Viscount?

"I didn't expect the Viscount to take risks in order to seize those treasures..." Giuliano murmured.

"Is that an ordinary 'treasure'?" Enzo said, "Let's not talk about the commission of a mere mercenary regiment, those treasures are probably enough to hire ten regiments, conquer the entire Lorjan for the viscount, and help him become king and emperor .The viscount's calculation is really good."

"We have to stop him!" Antoine jumped up excitedly, "We can't let the Viscount do such evil again! But..." He looked around, "We are locked up now..." He surrendered his gaze to Enzo with hope, "Yes! You can pick locks! You can get us out!"

Seeing his joyful appearance, Giuliano felt a sullen feeling in his heart again, just like the damp and gloomy breath before the summer rainstorm in Lorjan all stagnated in his chest cavity. "Anyway, you have to go out sooner or later, why did you take the extra effort to get arrested?"

Enzo played with the wire: "I can't just quarrel with the guards in the tavern. Besides, I still have some information to confirm with Antoine, so I followed along."

Hearing the word "Antoine", Giuliano felt even more tight in his chest. He asked angrily, "Can we go now?"

As soon as Enzo stopped playing with the wire, he suddenly fell on the ground with his ears pressed against the ground, listening to the various tiny and delicate sounds from the earth. Those voices will gradually weaken in the air, but will be faithfully conveyed to the listener's ears by the earth.

"Two...no, three people," Enzo recognized the footsteps coming from the ground, "there is a **** among them, probably the jailer who imprisoned us just now. They are... throwing dice? Well, they must be gambling."

He straightened his body and wiped the dust off his hands: "We don't have weapons, we can't force them, we have to lure them over, and we need everyone's cooperation." He turned to the bard Leixi, "Can you please help me put on a play? ?”

"That's what I do for a living," replied the poet.

"The Lame" Ma En threw the dice in his hand, and three small white ivory cubes fell on the table, making a crisp and pleasant sound. His companions stared at the dice with wide, cloudy eyes, as if they could force the dice to turn what they wanted by their eyes alone. In the end, two dice rolled five and four respectively, and one rolled off the edge of the table. Marne cursed, and ducked under the table to find the ivory cube. Jean and Henry on the opposite side also bent down, for fear that he would cheat when they were looking for dice.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" A miserable scream came from the depths of the cell.

The three looked at each other under the table. Let the brain turn the fastest, but stutter when speaking, so it is easy to keep silent. He pointed to the direction where the screams came from, and then pointed to the three of them, which meant that everyone went to investigate together. Ma En pouted, thinking that such a trivial matter would require three people? The group of prisoners had been searched when they came. Weapons and belongings were piled up in the guard's duty room and locked behind the railing. What tricks could they do? But there was another scream, mixed with the begging of "Don't kill me! Spare me!", and he couldn't help feeling a little terrified.

"Let's go," he said.

The three got out of the table, Henry took the lead, and Marne had poor legs and feet, so he was at the back. The four prisoners are locked in the deepest cell, and to get there you need to go through a "Z" shaped corridor. There are cells on both sides of the corridor, but they are all empty now. They turned the first corner of the corridor and saw a person crouching at the end of the straight passage. Judging from his frost-white hair, it should be the bard. He was face down and motionless, with a pool of blood pouring out from under his head.

The three cursed the gods at the same time in their hearts. How did the bard escape from prison? Henry pulled out his sword, spat on the ground, and timidly approached the people on the ground, and the other two followed him side by side. They only focused on the poets on the ground, and they didn't realize that the cells on both sides of the corridor were not empty, and the cell door was opened at some point, and there were two pairs of shining eyes hidden under the moldy straw.

The bard lay motionless in a pool of blood. Henry cautiously touched the poet's back with the blunt side of the blade, but there was no response.

"He... he seems to be dead!"

Suddenly, something flew from the passage on his left, like a sharp needle, piercing the wrist of his sword-holding hand. He let out a cry of pain, let go of his hand, and the saber fell to the ground. He grabbed his wrist and screamed again and again. Only then did he see clearly that what pierced his wrist was a wire.

A figure rushed from the darkness, rolled on the spot, and grabbed the saber on the ground. Henry backed away instinctively, but unexpectedly his ankle was grasped by a cold hand. He lost his balance and sat down on the ground, only to realize that the one holding his ankle was a prostrate bard pretending to be dead.

The figure in the darkness stepped on the wall and rushed towards Henry with his strength. The long sword in his hand broke through the wind, like a hissing poisonous snake. The long sword cut his leg, and blood spattered everywhere. Henry rolled on the ground in pain, his crotch was clammy and cold.

"Forgive me! Forgive me! I'm just an ordinary jailer, and I have to support my family. Please don't kill me!"

At the same time, the cell doors on both sides of the corridor slammed open, and a figure jumped out from the left and right, strangling Rang and Marne's necks respectively. The two guards couldn't even utter a cry for help, they kicked their feet on the ground, and they suffocated and passed out after a while. The two let go of the jailer and let them fall to the ground.

The two are Giuliano and Antoine. Giuliano had been trained by Enzo to know how hard to strangle a person's neck to kill him, and how hard to strangle him only to make him unconscious. The jailer was just a soldier who obeyed orders, and he didn't do anything bad. He didn't want to add more crimes, so he just strangled the jailer unconscious. He looked at Antoine and found that the soldier restrained by the young swordsman was just unconscious. Could it be that Antoine is also familiar with the technique of sneak attack? Where was he trained, how could he be better than himself?

Giuliano turned his head angrily, not wanting to look at Antoine again.

The jailer who was hit in both legs by Enzo was still screaming. Enzo didn't intend to take his life and knocked him out. Leixi got up, tore off a piece of cloth from the jailer's clothes, and wiped the blood stained on his face. It wasn't his blood. To make the scene look realistic, Giuliano and Antoine each donated some blood. When doing this, Giuliano was particularly active, not wanting to fall behind the young swordsman.

The four found several bundles of ropes from the jailer's duty room, **** the unconscious jailer, and locked them in three cells respectively to prevent them from helping each other and getting out of trouble early after waking up. When they were imprisoned, all their belongings were confiscated and piled up in a box in a corner of the duty room. The poet is alone, his luggage and piano are left in the hotel, and he doesn't even have a coin on him. The other three recovered their weapons and personal belongings.

Enzo took back two sabers and carry-on luggage, opened them, rummaged through them for a long time, and then checked in the box, but found nothing except a pile of unclaimed worn-out clothes. He put his swords back on his waist, put on his cloak, and returned to the cell in the deepest part of the corridor with a grim face, opened the cell door, lifted the collar of the unconscious jailer (the one who was hit by him on the wrist and legs), and raised his hand He gave two slaps.

The jailer woke up leisurely, and when he saw Enzo's face, he began to scream.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Don't kill me! Spare me!"

"Shut up." Enzo dropped him, drew his sword and pointed it at his neck, "Where's my gemstone?"

"What gem? I don't know..."

Without saying a word, Enzo stepped on the jailer's injured leg and stepped hard. The jailer screamed like a pig being slaughtered. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I say! I say! That gem! That gem was taken away by the captain! It was dedicated to the steward! That's all I know!"