The Book of Hibernation

Just that night, several mages from the Arcane Federation rushed to Harbor City.

Harbor City has recently imposed a ban on entry and exit. Normally, these people should be prohibited from entering the city, so as not to affect the investigation.But this time the situation is special, involving the northern Frost Plains, so the participation of the Austrian Law Federation is essential.

Also, the countries along the Khiva River have been quite tense recently, and everyone needs the assistance of neutral mages. The relationship between the Kingdom of Shandonia and the Austrian Federation has never been closer, and even the king's capital is very polite to the mages in the association.If not for these people, who would they rely on to distinguish those blasphemous arts.

Therefore, Harbor City also had to show respect to the Austrian and French Federation, and they must be allowed to enter the city in the name of participating in the investigation.

There are suddenly a large number of mages among the investigators, which has advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage is that they have rich knowledge and can identify things related to Necromancy School more clearly; the disadvantage is that they always have their own ideas, they are not residents of Harbor City, nor are they subjects of the Kingdom of Sandonia, and most of them are withdrawn and arrogant by nature , neither the local town hall nor the Ten Sails Street Chamber of Commerce.

After arriving in Harbor City, the most respected scholar among the group of mages went to meet the courtiers of the royal capital.

The courtier was over seventy years old, and the old scholars who knew him also had silver hair.Judging from the degree of familiarity between their conversations, the two had known each other for a long time, probably old friends who hadn't seen each other for many years.

After hearing the news of the meeting between the two, Kanai lay on the hospital bed and smiled for the first time in a few days.

Thanks to Simon, Simon inadvertently revealed which courtier would be visiting Harbor City. Kanai remembered the name, and then quietly notified his teacher.

Although the teacher is a scholar who has nothing to do with the world, but he has lived such an old age, he is also well-informed, can see the world clearly, and knows what he can do.

He spread the news to the Five Towers Peninsula, and the old friend of the courtier heard about it, so he took the initiative to join the special envoy team to Harbor City, so as to get together with the old friend by the way.

Kanai does not expect the old people to bend the law for personal gain, on the contrary, the greatest advantage of these old pedants is that they are rigorous in doing things, and this is exactly what Kanai wants.

His goal is simple: to allow mages to move freely, to do things without hindrance, and to have their opinions respected.

Since the courtier of the royal capital is an old friend of one of them, this goal should not be difficult to achieve.

This group of mages really lived up to his expectations.

Not long after dawn, the mages rushed to the almshouse and counted all the contraband found in the market, and even re-examined the corpse of the dead old woman.

Then the mages raised a question: The old woman died of poisoning. Since this incident triggered a follow-up investigation, is her death also related to the contraband?

No one asked this kind of question before... because everyone can see that the death of the old woman is just an introduction. By investigating this matter, people can justifiably search the almshouse and find the underground market and contraband .By now, the point was not the death of the old woman.

But the mages pointed out that according to the testimonies, the old woman was demented before her death, and she was inconvenient in limbs, bedridden for a long time and unable to take care of herself. It is impossible for her to get the poison and kill herself.

Therefore, either someone had a grudge against such a demented old man and specifically poisoned her, or someone used her for toxicology experiments, or there were other more incomprehensible purposes.

The mages discussed it and agreed that since the underground market is full of various taboo materials, maybe someone really used the widowed old man for poison experiments.

Such despicable behavior is as profane as necromancy.The murderer must be found, let the murderer confess the purpose of the murder, and by the way, find out what kind of poison research the murderer is doing.

Just as the city hall personnel were talking with the mages, two guards came in a hurry and said that there was something important to report.

The faces of the two were pale, and there was nothing good at first glance.Upon questioning, it turned out that something had happened in the underground prison.

All the guards on duty last night died, and three mercenaries in the cell also died.

The guards were either lying on the beds in the duty room or lying on the table, looking like they were collectively drunk.The guards who came to change the guard during the day saw the wine barrels and tried to wake them up by cursing a few words. After touching their skin, they realized that these people were completely cold.

The guards went down to the dungeon, and the mercenaries started yelling together, shouting that someone was poisoned yesterday.

The guard wanted to drag the three mercenary corpses out, but the other mercenaries were too excited, and there were not enough people on the guard's side. For safety reasons, they did not open the cell door and temporarily left the corpses below.

Now such a serious incident happened suddenly, which disrupted all the established plans.Compared with checking contraband, investigating poisoning has become the first priority.

The poorhouse crone has been dead for too long to detect the poison.But last night, thanks to the winter thistle, he had preserved a sample of the poisoned ale, and the water and wooden cups discolored by the venom.

Soon, the mages got these things.Without entering the laboratory, they can tell what the poison is at a glance.Out of caution, a mage took some time to extract the poison.It was indeed purple sage juice.

==============

Another day passed.The mercenaries and Winter Thistle have been left in the dungeon.

Towards evening, soldiers finally came down.The mercenaries started yelling again, they were still in the same room with the corpse, they must be very angry.But the guards ignored them and only took Dong Ji out of the cell.

As they walked up the steps, Winter Thistle looked back at them.The mercenaries suddenly fell silent.

They could all see that the sorcerer looked haggard, his eyes were red and swollen, and he obviously hadn't had a good rest all night and day.Not only that, he was shaking now.

After only looking back, Dongji turned around and followed the guards up quietly.

The mercenaries in the cell looked at each other, and couldn't help but think of what Winter Ji had said last night.

Winter Thistle was led all the way into the Inquisition.

The Tribunal has a different structure than the Tribunal.The area of ​​the review room is larger, with a circular stepped seat, which can seat hundreds of people, while the area of ​​the trial room is relatively small. There are three seats at the end of the room. There are two rows of long tables that can seat a dozen people.There is an iron chair in the center of the room, which is used to confine prisoners, and there are two ordinary wooden chairs on the left and right sides of the iron chair, which are the executioner's seats.

In Sandonia's trial court, everyone present can question the prisoner, but must obey the judge's presidency.In the end, the Inquisitor will make a judgment together with the most powerful person present.

When entering the trial court, Dong Ji was slightly taken aback.

On the seats on the left and right sides, Bellos and Aldin stood out.

They were both from the chamber of commerce, so they sat next to each other.Winter Thistle looked at them, but they didn't say anything.

Winter Thistle also glanced at the other people present.He had seen the patriarch and the captain of the knight detachment of the temple, he had seen the consul of the harbor city, and he judged from the clothes that several people on the scene were mages, and there were no other familiar people.

Winter Thistle was held down by the soldiers and sat in the iron chair, with her hands handcuffed to the armrests.After sitting down, he turned his head, the back of the chair was high, blocking his view.In this position, he cannot see Aldin.

After Dong Ji sat down, the consul didn't talk nonsense, and immediately started asking questions.He didn't mention the market first, but asked what happened last night.

Winter Thistle responded cooperatively.His voice was so dry and hoarse that it was difficult to understand what he said.

After making the sound, Winter Thistle also felt something was wrong, but continued on.

The king's courtier couldn't listen anymore, and raised his hand to signal him to stop.The courtier said to the consul, "Bring him a glass of water, I can't hear what he is saying."

The executioner brought a glass of water.Because Winter Ji's hands were handcuffed, the executioner put water to his mouth.

Another tin cup.

Winter Ji stared blankly at the cup, and didn't drink it for a long time.

He's not afraid of being toxic.He knew who the poisoner was, so she shouldn't want to kill him.

He was in a daze because the tin cup reminded him of the tragedy of last night and the old woman in the poorhouse whom he had never met.

These people died.A winter thistle is not sad, but at least it feels pity and fear.

Necromancers like March definitely don't care about this.Not only her... Dong Ji couldn't help but think that probably everyone present didn't care much.

The executioner didn't have the patience to coax him, so he pressed the cup to his mouth and told him to drink quickly.In order to be able to speak clearly, Winter Ji tried hard to concentrate and swallowed a few sips of water, but most of the water still flowed on his face and body.

The hoarse voice eased somewhat.Dongji didn't need to be urged by others, and continued on her own initiative.

He briefly described what happened yesterday, and then explained what purple sage juice is.The consul didn't have the patience to listen to his analysis of the poison, so he interrupted him: "Do you know who injected the poison?"

Winter Ji hesitated for a moment, then replied, "I know."

He couldn't see it from the angle, and Bellos Jr. frowned slightly behind him, while Aldin paid attention to Bellos Jr.'s expression.

"You know? Who is it?"

Winter Thistle sighed.

In the dungeon, he said to the mercenaries: You don't need to think about how to deal with it in the trial court, just tell the truth.

So does he himself.

Winter Thistle replied, "Her name is Irene Tull, as far as I know."

"Where is this person now? What is her identity?"

"I don't know where she is. She claims to be an emissary from Lord Bellos."

As soon as he finished speaking, commotion broke out in the courtroom.Most people don't know who Irene is, but everyone knows Bellows.

The Inquisitor and the Archon exchanged glances.The courtiers of the royal capital raised their eyes in surprise, looked at Winter Thistle in the middle of the hall, and then at Bellos behind Winter Thistle.

Bellows had a puzzled look on his face, as if surprised by the confession.

Next to Bellos and Aldin, there was another in charge, Maida.

Maida frowned and asked, "Half-elf, what does this Irene you're talking about look like? Describe it to us."

Bayrows glanced at Maida.Maida stared at the iron chair that Winter Thistle was sitting on, pretending not to notice Bellos' gaze.

So Winter Thistle described March.Height, hair color, approximate age by eye, etc.After he described it like this, sure enough, more people found that they had indeed seen this woman.

Her whereabouts are not secretive, and she has also appeared outside the court, and everyone thinks that she is Bellos' valet, and her identity is similar to that of Simon.

Listening to Winter Thistle's statement, Aldin touched his chin.In fact, he had never seen the so-called "Irene", but from the features described by Winter Thistle, he had already recognized this person.Apparently she was March.

The Consul asked: "Mr. Bellows, do you know this woman?"

Bellows had no choice but to say: "I do have such a person under my command." He didn't have to deny it.Even if he denies it, sooner or later someone else will point to her.

"Where is she now?" said the Consul. "We need her here at once."

Bellows said: "Excuse me, Your Excellency. She may have left Harbor City."

At this time Aldin spoke: "Aren't you staying at the 'Bird of Return' post? I saw her yesterday."

Of course, he didn't see her yesterday.

Hearing Aldin's voice, Winter Thistle's heart palpitated a little.But he just sat quietly and said nothing.

Bellos said: "Unfortunately, I just sent her out of the city today to deal with some things and gave her a pass badge. She should have left Harbor City by now." He looked at the consul, "I'm very sorry, after all I couldn't have predicted that she would also need to be part of the inquiry."

"That's easy," Aldin said. "If you just sent her out of the city today, she shouldn't have gone far by now, and she might even be packing her luggage in the inn. My lord consul, you can send two groups of city guards to look for her separately. For her, one group will go to the post station, and the other group will leave directly from the barracks outside the city, just follow the official road to find them."

The consul nodded slowly, whispered a few words to the judge next to him and courtiers of the royal capital, and the judge got up to talk to the guards again.

Bellos' complexion became more and more gloomy, and he didn't say anything to stop him.Having said that, it would be wrong for him to object.

Bellos turned to ask Winter Thistle: "Refiner Winter Thistle, why did you frame an innocent woman like this? If you have any personal grievances with my subordinates, you can talk to me first."

This sentence sounded too humane, and Winter Thistle almost wanted to laugh.

Winter Thistle said: "I have no personal grievances with her. I have to say this because the situation last night was too horrible. If I didn't find out in time... those mercenaries might all die."

Bellos stood up, walked out of the seat slowly, and walked to Winter Thistle.

"According to what you said, you are the only one who doesn't have any poison in your cup," Bellos said. "The guards outside are all dead, and the mercenaries are also the targets of murder...but you are the only one who is not the target. In my opinion, It's more like someone is going to kill everyone but you and rescue you from the dungeon."

Winter Thistle shook her head.

Mai Da, who was in charge at the back, rushed to say, "Is this reasonable? Save him as long as you save him, those mercenaries are not in the way."

Bellos smiled and said: "Mai Da is in charge, you think too simply. You can kill the mercenary with poison, so that no one will know who is going to rescue the refiner. Of course, only three mercenaries died in the end. , most people are fine, so the rescue operation of the person behind the scenes was also suspended."

After speaking, he looked at Winter Thistle again: "Am I right? You told about the poison and prevented more deaths, which shows that you have a kind heart. Although you have nothing to do with poisoning, but Obviously the person who poisoned him did it for you. If you don't approve of this cruelty, you should speak out about the real murderer, instead of following the murderer's instructions to frame irrelevant people."