Arcane splendor begins with the throne

Chapter 40 Thorn Castle

A grim castle inlaid on the mountainside appeared in Brian's sight. The domed hall, closed bridges, barracks and thick parapets were all made of dark black stones.

On the highest tower of Thorn Castle, the golden griffin banner of the West royal family and the silver griffin of the Swift family fluttered in the wind.

Brian rode a light horse on the main road with a wide view, looking around, and couldn't help but marvel at the location of the castle.

Thornkeep sits at the junction of the Grimre River, the Griffon Mountains, and Blackman.

It is surrounded by steep, treacherous hills and jagged snow-capped peaks on the distant horizon.

Once, the only shortcut to the hinterland of the Griffin Mountains and Blackman was directly blocked in the middle of the road by Thorn Castle like a huge rock.

This also means that whether it is the humanoid race of the Griffin Mountains or the elves of Blackman, if they want to invade the Kingdom of West on a large scale, they must first pass through Thorn Fort.

If one wanted to cross Thorn Fort from other dangerous terrains on a small scale, it would be difficult to hide from the watchtower erected high on the fort.

When they were about to reach Thorn Castle, Brian and Artes and his party dismounted one after another, leading the horses and walking inward.

Brian's destination was to go to Blackettman. After sleeping in the open for more than a week, he planned to have a good night's rest here and continue his journey early the next morning.

Guarding the gate of the fortress were three soldiers and a toll collector. At the top of the straight watchtower, two soldiers were standing guard, always holding loaded crossbows in their hands.

Near the open gate of the fortress, Brian found a group of people pointing and talking under a thick oak tree.

Obviously, not only troops stationed in this small fortress, but also many civilians, grooms, merchants, bards and adventurers like Mario.

However, when Brian walked into the crowd of onlookers, his calm face suddenly turned extremely gloomy.

The pecking crows flew into the air, croaking, and the sound of flapping their wings was louder than the crowd. Some of them flew towards the mountains in the north, and the rest of the crows settled on the high branches of the oak tree and combed their feathers.

Brian saw five corpses hanging on the tall oak tree. The first half-elf corpse had a wooden sign on its chest that said 'collaborator', and the second one was a human with the word 'collaborator' on its chest. 'Traitor', the third was an elf with "Elf Bandit" written on it, and the fourth human body had 'Deserter' written on it.

The fifth is an elven woman in a tattered, bloodstained petticoat, with the words 'Elf Bitch' on a wooden sign.

Her lips, eyes, and most of her face were pecked clean by the crow, and she froze with a terrifying and ferocious expression.

"What's going on here?" Artes who came over was the first to ask.

The object of questioning was a soldier standing near the oak tree. He was wearing a set of standard mail armor, but his head was wrapped with a bandage, and he had a cold and gloomy expression on his face.

"Master Artes, just last night, this fortress was attacked." The soldier first glanced at Brian vigilantly, and then said in a respectful tone.

"What's the specific situation?" Arthur continued to ask.

"Last night, two elf killers hidden in the private house cooperated with the half-elves and humans in the Duke's mansion to assassinate Duke Swift. Thanks to the protection of the gods, their plan failed. But they killed five Brave guards, six of them were wounded, and one of them had an arrowhead broken in his stomach, so I'm afraid he won't survive tonight." The soldier glanced at the corpses of 'traitor' and 'collaborator' written on the wooden sign , truthfully.

Artes sighed softly, then frowned and looked at the dead body hanging on the oak branch and a few greedy crows on the branch, and said:

"Put down these corpses and burn them. Violence will only make hatred deeply rooted in people's hearts, and it will not solve the essential problem at all. The consequence of this is that when you are captured by elves, they will also show you more cruel torture means."

"But..." the soldier hesitated, "This is an order from His Excellency the Duke himself."

"I'll explain it to him." Artes hesitated, and finally said.

After finishing speaking, he turned his head to look at Brian, only to find that he was staring intently at the hanging corpse, his face was gloomy and scary.

Artes hesitated, but chose to give up the idea of ​​inviting Brian, and walked towards the gate of the castle without looking back, followed by two knights and several adventurers.

"Bryan, should we go in together?" Mario shook Brian's sleeves, looked at the backs of Artes and his group, and whispered.

"Didn't Artes say that he would help you get the pan flute from Duke Swift, you can follow them in, and I won't go there."

Brian looked away from the corpse. For some reason, seeing the corpse hanging from the tree reminded him of the scene of the ruins of the temple, so that he felt a little uncomfortable.

He sighed, and said to the poet beside him: "Now that Fort Thorn has arrived, don't you still want to write songs for the ranger troops here, and I will not disturb your creation."

After finishing speaking, Brian subconsciously glanced at the soldiers who were walking under the oak tree under the command of Artes, and then took the reins of their mounts and walked into the castle.

He needed to enter the fortress to find a tavern to settle down, and by the way, inquire about the details of the Elf's assassination of Duke Swift last night.

Because his next destination is Blackman, the holy land of elves, if the conflict between the two parties has deteriorated to the point that it can only be resolved with a sword.

Then, the moment Bryan stepped into Blackman's territory, it was very likely that what greeted him was the rain of arrows galloping in the forest, rather than the elves guiding him the way.

Seeing Brian leave, Mario immediately tugged on his mount, trotted to follow, and said with a playful smile: "Oh, I was just joking with you, what praise do these rangers who work for money have? .”

"But I've taken it seriously." Brian snorted coldly, and then said with a serious face: "Singer, I have my own things to do, so please stop following me."

After speaking, his pace involuntarily quickened a bit.

However, just as he passed by the toll collector at the gate, a familiar figure appeared in his sight, followed by the irritable voice unique to the dwarf race.

"Go to hell!" A dwarf punched a table next to the toll collector that was about to fall apart, pointed a horsewhip in his hand at the toll collector's nose, and shouted: "Your immortal duke is assassinated!" It's none of my business, why don't we let our caravan go!"

Behind the dwarf, there were six empty carriages, and a group of horses hung their heads ruthlessly, looking at the mud and dung on the ground.

"I said, no!" The toll collector also yelled at the dwarf:
"My lord duke has ordered that until the patrol team returns, all non-human races are not allowed to leave the fortress without authorization, because each of you is a hidden assassin accomplice, if you are let go, my head will be cut off, no matter how dare you If you make trouble, people will drive you in with sticks."

"Come on anyway! Whoever doesn't come up is a grandson!" The dwarf sneered, his eyes widened, he bent his elbow, and made an insulting gesture popular among dwarves to the toll collector.

The toll collector's face was livid with anger, but he was helpless.

Because the short and strong bearded man in front of him had an ax and a flying hammer hanging on his belt, and his shots were as fast as lightning.

He dared to bet with his right hand that the flyweight would be the first to call out to his forehead before he called out.

(End of this chapter)